Not including nine, what do you think the best and worst might & magic of the main series is. In my opinion, 6 is the worst and 4-5 are the best. What do you guys think?

From the first generation I liked 3 the best and 4-5 the worst (WoX was great, but towards the end a bit too boring).

From second generation I preferred 6 over 7.

Overall I'd say my answer is the exactly opposite from OP's. 6 best. 4-5 worst.

That said all games are amazing. So far. Only played up to 7.

Interesting. It's always good to see people with different opinions. Could you try to convince me to like 6 more? I'd really like to play it...

I think that 4-5 is the best because of the world to explore. 3 was pretty great, too.

I hoenstly can't say why I liked it. When I try to think of a particular reason I can't find any... No super story. No great dialogue options. Most quests are "visit location x in dungeon y then come back to me". Nothing innovative about combat system.

I think it might have something to do with the fact that I'm a huge HoMM fan and MM6 bridged the story nicely. Plus it was like visiting the places that in HoMM you only saw from a strategic perspective.

Yeah, that makes sense. I love HoMM as well. I'm playing 5 right now. :)

Overall: MM 6 is best, MM 2 is worst (I can't stand level scaling).

If to split into generations, it is very hard to choose between MM 3 and MM 4+5.... I am left in indecision here, sorry.

Hey, nice avatar change. BG1 is my favourite game of all time, and I loved 2 too.

Didn't MM1 also have level scaling? I did actually prefer MM1 to MM2 also though. MM2 was good, but I had more fun with 1. I think I'm in a minority in liking the overworld design of MM1 better than MM2. MM2 was just open areas. MM1 actually had mountain passes, dense forests, etc. that made navigation much more interesting.

I haven't played MM3 or MM7-8, so my knowledge is incomplete. But of the ones I've played I liked MM6 the least. Too much of it felt like a slow slog through huge armies of enemies. I missed the exploration style and environmental puzzles of the earlier games. I'm tempted to say my favorite is MM4-5, but I played that a long time ago whereas the others I played more recently, so I'm not sure if I'd feel the same upon replaying it.

Actually you are right about MM1. I didn't play either of first 2 games seriously (I played MM2 with cheats and regretted dearly when saw 255 monsters in each encounter and as my luck would have it, I found Orc God shortly after I cheated up my party).
MM3 and MM7 have special story link between them (so it is strongly advised to play MM 3 first). MM 7 and 8 don't have as big hordes of monsters as in MM6, but they are more restrictive in terms of character progression and have smaller and more linear dungeons. I agree with MM 6 hordes of monsters, who, in some cases, literally stand on top of each other, but it allows to test the limits of your characters:)

For me the biggest issue in MM7 was actually the "hunt for skill trainers". The auto-notes don't help that much, and with 4 skill levels instead of 3, it can be a real pain sometimes to remember who teaches what where.

Oh, and Arcomage rocks. At times I'd just fire up the game and go from tavern to tavern to play it. Too bad the AI isn't the best.

I think MM1 and MM2 are worth a "serious" play. I liked them a lot, and the level scaling isn't as annoying when you've actually built up your party and can blast through hordes of enemies more easily. But you have to enjoy the navigational challenges. In MM1 you have to make your own maps, which I thought was fun (exploring became a big part of the challenge) but others may find annoying. And actually I still made my own maps in MM2 even though there is a rudimentary automap feature.

EDIT: The mapping part does mean that a repeated play would be less fun, since you'd already have all the maps.

I have only played 2 through 5, and I think I like 2 the most. The nice thing about 2 is that every event can be repeated as much as you want. If you feel like fighting dragons to get some Gold equipment and a Photon Blade with 200 charges, you can do that, even if you haven't already. Got a new character but already got the huge HP bonus with your other characters? You can still get it for your new character (provided you can kill the Ancient Dragon again).

The main problem with 3 through 5 is that areas become empty when cleared. There are no more enemies and no more treasures. This means that once you've done everything once, there's nothing else to do. There's no way to play around with the game and try different things to see what happens.

Another problem with 3 and 5 (especially 5) is that Holy Bonus makes physical attacks much stronger than spells at higher levels, which eliminates a lot of the possible strategies.

One thing I like about these games is that the games give you the tools to deal with high level enemies at low natural levels. Try killing the Cuisinarts in MM2 with a starting party (see my other topic for a screenshot). MM3 has a code that gives you lots of money early and a place where you can trade money for 50 temporary levels (and can be stacked 5 times per character). In World of Xeen, this has been toned down, but it is still fun making your way to Dragon Tower early and getting the 20 million XP when it still matters. (Also, that +50 temporary levels fountain.)

By the way, the only thing that scales with your level in MM2 is the *number* of enemies, not their strength. Orc Gods aren't too much trouble if there aren't too many of them; just use Mass Distortion to take away their massive HP. If the extra enemies are Orc Gods, however, *then* you need to either escape or be prepared for a long battle (I suggest Frenzy + Finger of Death).

You need Mountaineering and Forestry to navigate mountains and forests, though.
MM1 felt a bit weird, since a mountain was not a mountain square, but the line between squares.

Actually it's a mix of area scaling and level scaling.
Most areas have caps on the levels of the monsters you can face at your current level. When exploring some dungeons and you leave to train, you'll notice suddenly facing higher level enemies when returning.
The number of enemies will increase when your own levels exceed the max area level.
The final area is totally unscaled, and you can meet anything from one Neophyte Wizard to 15 Orc Gods.