As far as I know, it's almost uncontested that Conflux is ridiculously overpowered, and while Necro is sometimes banned, it is very rare to see an online community that doesn't ban Conflux.

Which is a bit of a shame, because it is kind of a cool town.

So in your opinion, what would need to happen to it to make it a bit more reasonable?

I know that for me, the main issue would be cutting down the growth of Sprites and Pheonixes, but the grail building would need some touching up as well.

Conflux is just so boooring, so that is balance it itself as far as I am concerned. But then I don't play multi-player, anway...

To balance Conflux:
1. Sprites (tier 1) should be removed completely with appropriate building.
2. Phoenixes (tier 7) should be removed completely with appropriate building.
3. Magic University should be removed.
4. Aurora Borealis should be banned.

• Reduce Sprite growth per week. Between speed, flying, and no retaliation they're already good units, but the high growth rate just makes them a bit too much.

• Reduce HP and damage of Storm Elementals. These things are seriously overpowered for a tier 2 unit; dropping their stats a bit to be more in line with other tier 2 units should help fix this up.

• Swap out the magic immunity on Magic Elementals for either high magic resistance (~50%) or magic mirror (similar to fairy dragons). Between good stats, area attack, and no retaliation these things are already excellent tier 6 units, but the magic immunity on top of that makes it unfairly difficult for enemy heroes to try to deal with them (such as neutralizing them for a few turns with Blind or just slowing them).

• Reduce Phoenix growth to the same as other tier 7 units. Their damage is already comparable and their lower HP is offset by their resurrection ability. Reduce their speed to the same as Archangels, and increase their cost from 2000 to 3000 gold.

• Increase cost for Magic University to 5000, and make it a one-shot deal for each hero. Still quite good as it allows the player to grab their favorite magic school for their hero, but no longer allows loading up heroes with as many magic schools as desired for just a pittance.

I agree that Conflux is overpowered, but I play with random castles, so when I get Conflux, I just think goodie. I don't have much to offer, as I don't think it is as overpowered as the multi-player crowd does (I never played MP).

One easy thing though is that the grail, although overpowered still, you should have to build the level up to get all the spells in that level. What is totally ridiculous is that you have a level two mage guild, and get the grail and get ALL the spells. One should AT LEAST be expected to build up the guild to level 5 if they want level 5 spells, and so on.

I also agree with what someone else said, that the magic university should be a one-shot deal per hero. It would still be huge.

Phoenixes should take at least 15000 to build their home, and yeah they should probably have their spawn number cut in half.

I haven't played that town in years, but a better question would be "What wouldn't balance out conflux?". Pretty much all of their units, with the exception of Energy and Magma Elementals, are among the best for their given level. They have some of the fastest units in the game, meaning they'll be able to act first in almost every combat. They have an incredibly useful unique building (Magic University) and the most powerful Grail Structure (Aurora Borealis). Really, the only thing they don't have is especially good hero specialties and also they're sort of expensive. Hit pretty much anything with the nerf bat and it's probably warranted.

Of course, any sort of balance wouldn't fix the part where Conflux is a really boring town.

Even with the heroes, they're the only ones in the game who start off with magic schools, and their skill sets in general are pretty good. Level 4 and 5 are the only areas where this town has a weakness - and even then, level 5, while terrible on their own, can make Phoenixes immune to Implosion.


I blame you, anti-Forge people.

Yep, though you have to remember that Conflux was planned as the town for the second expansion and would thus probably still exist in that alternate universe where New World Computing didn't capitulate when people complained about goblins with laser guns. Would it be as broken as the current, clearly rushed version ended up being? Probably not. But it's not so much an either/or situation as I was originally led to believe.

Oh well, apparently Forge is going to be the next town whenever Horn of the Abyss 2.0 comes out. So in two years, you can finally play a fan-approximated vision of that town and everything will be in russian.

Conflux is not that ridiculously overpowered if you ask me, but a -1 to Phoenix growth rate would'n hurt.
The dwelling (Pyre) should provide 1 Phoenix/week, with Citadel 2/week and with Castle 3/week.

Sprites are good and with that huge growth are very good, but once somebody hits them they go down like flies :). Not as good as Centaurs or Halberdiers.

Storm Elementals are indeed seriously overpowered but they have a lower growth than others 2 tier creatures. They still are overpowered.

Ice Elementals are good units but not overpowered. They are comparable with other 3 tier units like: Royal Griffins, Cerberus, Grand Elves.

Energy Elemental is weak. I think only Horned demon is worse than that.

Earth Elemental is the worst 5 tier unit.

Magic Elemental is good, but not the best. I like more the Dread Night and the Naga.

Until now, nothing spectacular. Like Necropolis, Conflux has some very good units and some very weak.

Phoenix is not the weakest 7 tier creature so why should have that 100% growth bonus? It is just too much.
A maximum of 3 Phoenixes/week (with Castle built) should be enough.

Everyone seems to miss that the 4 elements [fire/water/air/earth] are not tier 2, 3 4 or 5. They are more or less the same tier, say 3.5. That's why the storm elemental are so overpowered when compared to other tier 2, ice elemental more powerful than average tier 3, fire a bit below average tier 4 and earth way below average tier 5.

They are all the same "intermediate" tier.

The only tricky unit is the Phoenix, though I seem to remember the price to build their home was over the top [but I may be wrong] In high difficulty, it makes a difference. In low difficulty - little.

Also, upgrade magic elemental is for me the best Tier 6 around due to its anti-magic, but it has its weaknesses.

Conflux is a strong side, overall, but it's not overpowered. The only side that really can be way too much is necropolis, if you can do things to get too many skeletons. The conflux is an integral part of the game in my opinion. I see it as a third neutral side, along with fortress and stronghold; castle, rampart, and tower as the three good sides, and dungeon, inferno, and necropolis as the three evil sides.

The phoenix is definitely the weakest class 7 upgrade, and the rebirth ability hardly makes a difference. The only "dominant" advantage is the phoenix's speed, which at 21, is three steps beyond the closest competitor.

I also disagree about the grail structure in a Conflux being the most powerful. I think it's very boring, and this is one of the issues many also have with conflux. You get all spells is nothing new, or unique, and the magic university isn't sufficiently a conflux building in my opinion. I mean, for flavor purposes, it would go nicer in the tower side, by far,

One other problem is defining much more "who are the conflux guys"? We can relate to elves of the rampart, undead of the necropolis, and goblins of the stronghold much easier, but the conflux guys are "new fantasy" creatures who need development in place of traditional knowledge.

The use of sprites, in hand, might not compliment the conflux well at all, as it makes them "faerie beings, with elves among the heroes, too". That is a very different tone, which many would find so much less "lame", I think.

The conflux town could have a feel of violent clashes between the elemental forces, like something from another plane instead of a conventional looking town with sprites in the gardens, and gentle, "rainbow" music and themes.

Nothing spectacular? You could creep almost the entire map with Sprites and Storms alone. No Retal on a unit that fast is just absurd, especially when it's level 1. The only thing that can hit it are ranged units and fast level 7s.

I can't even imagine that. The only situation in which a week's worth of CCs or Halberds would be better than a week's worth of Sprites is if you're fighting ranged units. One week of Sprites can take out an unlimited amount of almost any non-ranged unit from the first three levels, and many from higher levels if you're patient.

You can achieve a similar effect to "No retaliation" by spliting the troops like this: 28 Centaurs >> 1 and 27 or 1, 1 and 26 and so on.
One troops is sacrificed so the main troop wouldn't be rataliated against. I do this all the time until I have the 7 tier units and I have no empty slots for army.
Weekly growth of Halberdiers and Centaurs Captains is 14 x 2 (because of Castle) = 28
Weekly growth of Sprites is 20 x 2 (because of Castle) = 40

28 CC are better than 40 Sprites in almost all battles. If we consider the weekly growth of Sprites to be 50 (40+ 10 bonus from a building) then 28 CC are similar to 50 Sprites. CC are better against ranged units and similar or a little weaker than Sprites vs melee units. But if you construct the +10 Sprites bonus building than you lose 1 turn in the race for building dwellings as fast as possible. The enemy could build the Elf dwelling or other dwelling that could give him an advantge over the 10 Sprites.

It's true but some conditions must be met:
- enemy must have slow speed (3-4) or the spell SLOW must be available or
- the terrain must have obstacles or
- the enemy troops shouldn't be splited