Malleus The Magician is probably the best Hero in this game, NOT INCLUDING CHAMPIONS of course so don't get ahead of yourself. I will always get him during ANY game, I really don't think there are any circumstances I would not get him.

For those not familiar with him he is a Spell Caster Hero that only requires 5 fame and 150 Gold to get with an upkeep of 3 Gold.

He has Spell Casting ability starting at 10 spell points that goes upto 90.

He has Arcane Power boosting an already strong Magical Ranged Attack that starts at 8 and goes to 25.

He comes with the Chaos spells Firebolt, Fireball, Fire Elemental and FLAME STRIKE.

He has Missile Immunity which raises his Defense score to 50 when attacked by Arcehrs or Slingers. Basically blocks at least 15 damage which is more than enough to survive the majority of ranged attacks. (Warrax actually lacks Missile Immunity for some reason)

Last but certainly not least he also has 1 random mage pick, but really this can only make him better and nothing would make me NOT hire him. Even Charmed, the worst possible imho, would be ok.

The fact that he has the Chaos spells makes him better in some cases then even Warrax. Even with Warrax being able to double as a Melee Fighter, having Constitution and 3 Random Fighter or Mage Picks and ofc ARMOR PIERCING attacks. Despite all of that Warrax does not come with any extra spells and also by the time you get him Malleus is probably already at a high level.

I equip Malleus with a Flaming (+3 Atk, requires 2 chaos books), +6 Attack, +3 Hit and +3 Defense Staff. This instantly gives him a total of 17 Strength Ranged Attack with a 60% to hit ratio, so an avg 10 damage atk before defenses. And that's at level 1.

Added to this I usually give him Flying, usually via an artifact as it cannot be dispelled then.

It's really sad actually how much better Spell Casting Heroes are over Archers. This is because every Archer Hero has only a max ammo of 8 while a Hero like Malleus has between 3 at start to 30 at the end and this is without any equips.

The worst is when you get an archer hero with Arcane Power. Still worse when it's expert Arcane Power.

STOP TAUNTING ME GAME!

Easy way to fix this problem at least is to make Arcane Power buff both Magical and Bow Ranged Attacks. Also give Archer Heroes more ammo they need it bad. Even a simple spell could solve this say one that gives 4 ammo back.

The only real use I have for Bow Heroes are the ones with Pathfinding to explore and ferry troops/settlers to get them in place faster. For exploring especially Shuri is good as she can make 4 moves a turn! god is she good for exploring and if your lucky and get her early with Noble you can sit back and rake in the $$$ as she pays for herself in 10 turns and then it's pure profit.


Oh in regards to ferrying troops around. The BEST way to do this is either by using the "Wind Walking" spell on a Hero, or Jaer The Wind Mage who has this ability inherent, and giving him lots of + Movement Enchants or Artifacts. This lets the whole stack fly at the Heroes Movement rate.

For solo or group Heroes Pathfinding Spell/ability plus Water Walk, with Movement bonus Spells or Artifacts work as well but group speed is limited by slowest unit and all would need either flying or waterwalk to go across water, is the best.

Malleus is nifty, but I notice you don't take style into consideration. No hero can rule without style. I don't use Roland and Torin. Not enough style.

Really I mean he has Flaming red hair, glowing red eyes and he's the only Hero I think who rides a dark horse. Those are major style points that make him unique lol.

Hey, absolutely! My first forum avatar was Malleus, but I decided he was a bit too crazed.

Fang the Draconian is my personal Champion.

Flying, fire breath... /heart. If he comes with constitution, game is over, I WIN!

Get him a few +movespeed items and he is the ultimate warder.

Fire Breathing is just a bit to overrated for a Hero. Thrown is infinitely better as there are many many more things that will boost it's damage. While inherent Flight is SUPER it can be gotten quite a few other ways. I will usually only take Fang if he comes with Agility and perhaps Blademaster/Lucky or Constitution.

The fact is that his inborn Flying is really useful only very early and the fact that he needs 10 Fame to get. By that time you will most likely have a way to give flying.

I would rather have Bhagtru with Agility/Might as his random or even Gunther. Or even better would be Shalla with Agility or Luck in my books.

Check out the Hero Compendium below.
http://masterofmagic.org/Document/hero0030.php

I have to say when I first started playing upto only a while ago I never really saw the usefulness of "Thrown" and therefore the 3 Heroes who have it, Gunther/ Bhagtru/Shalla, and so never ever hired them. Back then I actually used Fang as well. Now since seeing how much better Thrown is over Breath it's just completely flipped.

One of my other reasons for my switch is that Gunther and Bhagtru can both be gotten with 0 fame very very early. Fang takes 10 Fame and Shalla 20.

You can increase Thrown Attack with an Axe weapon but it is NOT possible to increase Breath Attacks this way.
Most buffs like Righteousness, Flame Blade and Giant Strength to name a few, will increase Thrown but not Breath.
Fire Breath also can be negated 2 ways Fire Immunity, ala Fire Elemental, and Magic Immunity.
Thrown on the other hand is not known to trigger any Immunities, although in the case of Barbarians without magical weapons it MAY trigger Weapon Immunity but it's not known for sure.
And since a unit cannot have both, as Fire Breath will replace Thrown, clearly the superior one to have is Thrown in pretty much every situation.

When using say Barbarians those spells increase their Thrown abilities as well as Normal attacks so they get a double bonus as well, unlike Draconians ;)

Also Adamantium and Mithril add 1&2 not only to normal melee atk/def but to Thrown attack as well just like it's added to "Bow" attacks (slingers included) and Rock type attacks like Catapults.

Hope these points maybe help you see why I like Thrown.

I really would have liked each Magic School to have it's own Incarnation like Torrin as well as more Hero/Champions needing you to have a specific school of magic.

EDIT lol so much for my I <3 Malleus thread haha.

ooo that incarnation for each school is a really good idea. Let's hope they implement it in Worlds of Magic.

OMG thanks for letting me know about WoM because I had not heard of it before this. I am really not sure why there is not a thread already pinned and devoted to this here lol.

As for the Incarnations in MoM well I thought it was a good idea as there are already Champions for Life/Death only so why not the other 3? as for implementation in WoM I am not so sure as there are to many damn circles as it is from what I see so far. It's actually kind of confusing.

Also let me know what are your top 5 favorite heroes and perhaps why.

My top 5 Heroes are

#1 - Malleus - So many reasons listed above.
#2 - Zaldron the Sage - Even though he's a defensive Hero he is still usually worth keeping. Sage/Counter is reason.
#3 - Elana the Priestess - "Holy Crap" is what any Death or Fantastic units will be saying.
#4 - Mortu the Black Knight* - He is better than Roland as he gets Blade Master and Constitution guaranteed.
#5 - Shalla the Amazon - Thrown + Blademaster + Might = MASSIVE DAMAGE POTENTIAL. Sadly their is a glitch because other to hit bonus's do not work on thrown, for example weapon and misc artifacts, otherwise this spot would be filled by Gunthar because you can get him so early.

Sadly to many of the other heroes rely on their Random Picks to see if they will be of use or not. These 5 are ones that I would use every game reliably without fail if I got the chance to get them. I would have loved to add Yramrag the WarLock to the list but because he does not come with Arcane Power he sadly does not make the cut, although if he had say a 5 fame req he would be closer for me.

* = I usually have to make do with Roland however as I really don't play death which is required for Mortu. Roland suffers in comparison sadly.

I can't believe you don't have Warrax in top 5!

I agree that Warrax is quite good. And yes he is a Hero I would certainly always use due to his Ranged Attack with Arcane Power and Armor Piercing attacks.

However except against very very heavily armored enemies, especially magic Immune such as Sky Drakes, the Armor Piercing is not as needed for me, since I give my guys % to hit on artifacts.

The final 2 reasons are his 3 Random Fighter OR Mage Picks, and the fact that he doesn't come with any spells to add to your own. For the picks you would ideally want Agility, Might and Blade Master. Otherwise you get him too late and Malleus would already be well Level'd up.

Elana is on the list because she can take out whole Armies of Undead guys in 1 cast or with -# spell save gear she can even reliably take out entire Fantastic Creature armies. HOLY WORD FTW !!!


List your top 5 with brief reasons everyone so we can compare. I factor many things including how soon you get them or if you have to use Summon Hero/Champion to get them. This is why Zaldron is their because as long as it's not close to the end of the game I will ALWAYS hire him.

My favorite build is to use warlord/slingers, so my ideal early heroes are casters. Zaldron and Valana are the heroes I am super exicted to see. Zalrdon for the reasons you mentioned, Valana because she eventually add +1 to ranged attack.

Mid game, Malleus, Yaemrag, Morgana and Jaer are my favorites. Malleus for the reasons you mentioned, Yaemraeg for Doom Bolt, Morgana for her immensely high mana pool, and Jaer for windwalking (moving slinger armies around is annoying). Reywind is a distant second to all these heroes, but he's decent because he comes with Flame Blade (+2 to ranged atk). Shuri is also nice, as she will double the movespeed of my slow slingers with pathfinding.

I don't generally get to ultra late game, as slinger armies are incredibly efficient and allow me to sweep both planes. However, the Champions I love are Warrax (for arcane power + constitution) and Dethstryke OR Sir Harold (for leadership + constitution), but all the champions are immensely powerful.

If I feel like playing Myrran, I choose dwarf with the and decimate my enemies with hammerhands.

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If I am playing that Artificer / Runemaster build we've been discussing, caster and archers heroes are ideal, since melee combat is still dangerous in the early game (and generally mana inefficient in the long run).