so are you saying that both the commander/warrior heroes are useless?

The combination is less popular is what he is saying.... at least that's what I assume (english is not his first?).

Example Commander has just reached level 10 and must now decide his future;
1. Scout: very popular choice because he can now use a bow to help his troops out without risking much and no longer has to stand up the back line looking useless to his army.
2. Warrior: again allows him to help out but far less popular because it's high risk, for low reward… even if he wins the battle without dying the simple fact of entering melee will incur a higher repair bill because unlike the troops, his armour does not regenerate for free between battles.
3. Mage: extra spells,
4. Commander: better troops.

I personally like having a Warrior that takes Commander as his level 10 pick because that allows him to put a couple points into [+ ranged attack] then full the 1st row with cheap bowmen and probably a t2 healer… now my Warrior can charge across the battle while his army deals with those annoying enemy bowmen/ healers.

Much of the heroic nature will come down to a players personal choice but some things are always true eg. A Warrior is fun to charge the enemy with but pitting him against Trolls will result in a dead Warrior… so be smart, pass them by and let your Archer deal with it.


Important point; not every hero is going to be used for combat… in a typical large campaign battle only the 1st and 2nd heroes get enough time/ experience to become epic fighters and the 3rd/ 4th tend to become coffee boys, ferreting armies around the map or popping back to that spell shop to grab a scroll your Mage had to pass up on earlier in the game because you couldn't afford it back then.

Warrior/commander at level 20 gets reincarnation. His health pool becomes bigger than one of the Hydra. This is really strong choice.

commander/warrior at level 20 gets +1 teamwide health regen during battle. Yes, this is somewhat useful on gargoyles, golems, mechanisms and undead:
golems - hard to replenish quantity. Minotaurs in T3 better than golems - faster, round attack, berserk.
gargoyles - Nothing spectacular on their own. Harpy, at least, can get agility.
Mechanisms - slow you down, +4 to ranged attack from Strategist much better for them + Scout's skill for Strategist gives teamwide mobility too. You can't resurrect them. Basically, horse archer is much better choice for ranged damage.
undead - regen would kick in on ghosts only. T 1, 2 units can easily die and you can't restore them without contacting your wizard.

Other choices for commander:
Strategist - WAAAGH aura, fresh units have more dakka than seasoned veterans in other armies. Best initiative in the game. Amazing mobility and pathfinding. His bonuses work on own bow/crossbow. Third strongest archer in the game.
Commander/mage - T3 and T4 spells. He gets more exp than any other commander multiclass (leadership+wisdom), have more spells than other commanders, and some combinations are really-really game changing. Teleport and hydra/spider, stop time (mass astral energy), resurrection (can save veterans), dragon form (really easy to make veterans from something squishy, like slingers), to name a few.

Like TV AD, "look at ^, now look at +1 regen"

Hmm I usually delete that starting magic arrow and go for fatigue, think it is more useful and saves crystals. But I agree, more choice options for skills would be a good thing.

Initiative. Win it against opponent, cast armageddon, watch how he loses half of his veterans.

It's just to much of a waste of skill points.

Armageddon spell has a base Damage of 15 + 1 point per spell power. It also is reduced by 2 damage for every point of resistance they have. Therefore with 3 levels in both Spell Power and Thaumaturgy you can do 18 points to everyone with upto 3 resistance. (info obtained from the russian online guide eadorpydia via google translate)

Now this may kill of some tier 1 guys but good luck with anything else. Sure it can soften them up but mehh not worth it imho.

Keep in mind that for the Dark/Death Knight those low level guys are worth some HP back if you kill them via melee which is often important in longer fights. I also think Mass Disease, Mass Slow and Cloud of Terror are all better choices as it weakens them up to be dealt with.

Using the spells I mentioned would also let you focus on getting Concentration which would help your BUFF spells last 3 turns longer along with making your DEBUFF spells last 3 turns longer. Thaumaturgy would still be maxed so that your "curses" could effect them longer and get through their resistance.

So Initiative is not as important.

It is also interesting to note that your strategy, and mine, may work best with the Battle Mage and War Wizard (think they took this from Terry Goodkind's Richard Rahl and the Sword of Truth series) as they get an automatic extra resistance piercing of 2/4 for total of 5/7 resist negation.

I think my optimum and ultimate DK would have the following skills:

Weapon Mastery 3 *
Armor Mastery 3 *
Constitution 3 * (Regen + Stamina ;) )
Atheltics 3 *
Combat 3

Concentration 3 *
Thaumaturgy 3 *
Wisdom 3 *
Summoning 3

The Combat Skill (Combat is not really useful if you are not going to be able to get lvl 5's Round Attack) and Summonning would be things I would learn last with Summoning perhaps being worth more to me. Imagine being able to summon perhaps a Gargoyle or Golem or even a Pheonix with an automatic 6 levels. Although really these would probably be only for fight vs say a lone Dragon, Phoenix or Hydra really.

I would pick Wand mastery over summoning - there are many spells, which are much more useful than summons with DC's scarce amount of spell slots.

I meant armageddon as "spheric counter in vacuum", which would let DC soften veteran army in pvp.
Like, there is nothing DC can do against Sniper other than killing healers/monks with T4 spell and die.
There are much more useful spells, with more damage and tighter aoe, but let it be homage to HoMM "armageddon&run away" tactic.