Talk:Heroes/@comment-86.147.202.242-20140626142036/@comment-5395153-20140626172129

It's mostly that. There are a couple of classes which have niche powers but many tend to be poor with nearly all races. It's probably easier to look at all the hero classes when split into something like Metagame, Moderate and Never Used groups. I'll give it a go anyway (using 1.03.24):

Metagame

Assassin - Goes without saying really. Probably one of the best heroes at dominating the map in the game. Doesn't even really need to be paired with the right race to work pretty well. It even has support options available in Wealth, which many races will like quite a lot.

Dragonslayer - Metagame material only to a single extremely niche race selection: Ssrathi. That's basically the Ssrathi's best hero choice.

Merchant - Out of every class I've ever played, I've never felt as powerful as when I used a Merchant. The resource values for having a Merchant keep on going up and up. There's only a few races in the game where the Merchant doesn't work well. If a combo choice is picked though such as the Fey Merchant, you may as well have pressed an 'I win' button.

Monk - There's a couple of decent choices for this class, but the most obvious one should be with the Minotaurs. A Minotaur Monk is probably one of the strongest melee heroes in the game.

Necromancer - Not quite the best of the best, but if played well it gets pretty darn close. The obvious power pairing here is with the Undead. May have some issues with the economy though, which is why an Undead Alchemist can work nicely instead (though not without powering the Necromancy down).

Pyromancer - Just managed to get into the Metagame section due to its weird and powerful combo with the Minotaurs. Although the Mniotaurs may not really need that much Fire, their units benefit the most from spells like Firebreath. Normally, Firebreath cuts a unit's damage down. Firebreath doesn't cut down research benefits however, so Minotaurs will be running around with Fire projectiles which can do 30 damage

Summoner - Alongside the Merchant, Summoners basically define the metagame itself. There are multiple good race choices, but the best are probably Daemon and Dark Elf. The former is simply crazy powerful since all the research buffs carry onto the summoned units whilst the latter really loves the new arsenal. The Dark Elves may not get the research buffs but they make up for that with synergistic Summoning skills and incredibly easy to access Summon Mana research which can go all the way to level 3.

Tinker - Similar to the Merchant but deals in different resources. The Tinker usually has better skills than the Merchant, but the higher level requirements can hurt. Still, Tinkers are incredible when used with the right race, such as the Dark Dwarves.

Moderate

Alchemist - sees a bit of play with races such as the Undead. Power is debatable in comparison to a Necromancer though.

Bard - The Bard squeezes into Moderate because of a couple of features it can wield. With Diplomacy, the Bard can act as a temporary map block which successfully counters Assassins, fighter mages and non-super Warriors. Its other abilities are the reasonably decent Divination spell sphere and great side support in Wealth. There should be a couple of races which really like the Bard. The best one I can think of to abuse Diplomacy with is probably the Dark Dwarves. There's something terribly wrong with having an army of Flame Cannons at the start of the game. The only good counters are super warriors and flier spams (like Imp spamming from the Summoner).

Chieftain - Not the powerhouse it used to be in 1.03. If you're playing 1.03 though, this is one of the top Metagame picks for the Barbarians. As it is now though, it's a reasonably decent Warrior mixed in with some charismatic abilities. It still is one of the best Barbarian picks though. Riding is useful both for the Barbarians and the Knights, though the Knights may prefer using a Paladin to get access to Healing Magic (Knight Protector acts the same as Riding for them).

Deathknight - One of the better slayer skill sufferers. A lot can be done with access to Ferocity and Necromancy. The Undead can use a Deathknight as a tough Necromancer which is quite nice for them. Chaos Magic isn't usually so great though. The best abuse I can think of for that is with the Plaguelords, as it bears one of the only spells which benefits their race significantly: Chaos Plague. There are also some other good spells in there when levelled up, but they tend to require mana acceleration.

Defiler - Not a particularly top tier wizard. There are some usable things a Defiler can do with the Swarm, mostly revolving around Poison Cloud. Melkor's Curse doubles the speed of poison, so Poison Cloud can become quite powerful if used with hit and run tactics. The Defiler becomes better in 1.03.25 due to the power increase of Wasps and in 1.03.26 all the Generals will receive a massive buff which should throw the Defiler right back into the higher tiers of the game. A Defiler can also be used with the Plaguelords, but only for the XP buffing skills rather than anything else.

Paladin - There's a lot of hidden power in the Paladin. The Knights and Dwarves like the Paladin, but strangely enough the Plaguelords like it even better. Leech + Healing Magic on a tough hero body becomes immensely abusable. Essentially what this does is make the Plaguelord Paladin immune to lesser units. Advanced ones may still cause a bit of trouble but the Plaguelord Paladin can still fight back nicely. The only real downside to a Plaguelord Paladin is that Leech doesn't start coming in until level 30. Still, it's usually well worth the wait because the Plaguelords get mana acceleration research and Hydras become insane with Invigorate chucked onto them. That said though the Plaguelord race only becomes greater with 1.03.25. In 1.03.24 the race is somewhat underwhelming most of the time.

Priest - A decent alternative class for the elven races and possibly the Dwarves and Knights. Essentially a bit like a Sage but with Healing Magic mixed in.

Sage - A reasonable class if mixed with the right race. It becomes quite underwhelming if used with the wrong race though. The Knights and Fey like the Sage (and possibly the elves), though there are probably better options for the Fey anyway really. The Sage will be given a very usable summoning spell in Call Sage with 1.03.26 since all the generals are getting a nice buff to bring them all up to the levels of the Giant and Dwarf Lord etc.

Warrior - A classic. Probably the best and easiest hero to start out with. The Warrior can be paired with almost any race, though some will gain more benefits than others. The Swarm, Minotaurs, Daemons and maybe even the Knights can get some decent synergies. The best pair with the Warrior is probably the Swarm though, since it gets some really nice, usable synergies like Ignore Armor and plays alongside the normally weak swarm playstyle of the race well too.

Never Used

Archmage - It can be great and has a lot of potential, but it's usually really difficult to pull off. There's definitely some play with the Archmage for some of the Elven races though. Makes for a good comparison to the Priest if used for Divination purposes.

Daemonslayer - One of the greater sufferers of the useless slaying skill. Unfortunately for the Daemonslayer, there are very few viable race choices. It can act as a tough Summoner if wanted, which can be abused with races like the Plaguelords via Leech but a Paladin is normally considerably better to use for them. Even the Dark Elves which get a synergy in Summoning may opt for the Summoner anyway simply to get as much Summoning power as possible. The only synergy which can work well is with the Dark Elves really. Most of the other Daemonslayer skills are somewhat mismatched.

Druid - The summoning spells are inferior to the other spell schools other than maybe the Defiler. The Druid has some decent flexibility, but lacks any good race partner. Nothing the Druid does can be abused in any way by any race at all.

Elementalist - What I love about the Elementalist is that it doesn't get access to Elemental Lore or the Elementalism spell. The spell schools it has clash, and in the end Pyromancy is the winner. There are very few good choices for an Elementalist. The only reason I can think of for picking one is if Dig and Earthpower are wanted. The best pick for an Elementalist is usually the Dwarves since Pyromancy can make all those drunk Dwarves berserk as well.

Healer - In theory the Healer should be a reasonably powerful spellcaster. It does what it does very well, but the problem with it is that it offers no real support to the race outside of Healing Magic. It has no summoning spells and no ability to help with the economy at all. Don't get me wrong, Healing Magic is good, but it's only really good when accompanied either by physical prowess or another spell sphere. This means that Paladins and Priests usually get picked over Healers most of the time sadly.

Ice Mage - A horribly inferior wizard. It's not the worst spellcaster ever, and at least it does have Gemcutting so the Fey could like it. The Ice Magic spells are either poor or outclassed by Pyromancy most of the time. Ice Storm and Ice Floe are the only exceptions, and Freeze Magic is dangerously suicidal. The Barbarians can be a good pick simple because they have mana acceleration, synergy in Ice Magic and no spellcasters.

Illusionist - In the same bin as the Healer unfortunately. It has some epic spells such as Awe, but they can be difficult to pull off because they require a massive Command Radius. Otherwise, Illusion can't really be relied on by itself and wants to be combined with another spell sphere (it can't be combined with physical toughness because there are no hybrid classes which have access to Illusion Magic). The Archmage may be best for this, but it will need to have good investment in Charisma.

Lichelord - The biggest slayer skill sufferer. The Lichelord may as well only have a couple of skills: Necromancy, Poison Magic and Shadow Strength. The biggest problem with the Lichelord is that Poison Magic and Necromancy simply don't mix well at all. One sphere likes instantly killing enemies, whilst the other likes debuffing them. There are multiple incompatiblilities (such as Strip Flesh) and because Shadow Strength was nerfed, it is now inferior to Ferocity. All of this makes the Lichelord poor character class. Not that Shadow Strength would've made the Lichelord viable at all anyway.

Ranger - Better than the Druid most of the time, but there are multiple problems with it. Rangers require a higher level in order to do anything with it. They can do almost anything they want, from mine stealing, casting spells or fighting. That in itself is an advantage, but the Ranger desperately lacks potency. It is probably one of the better Never Used classes though. Powerups in Griffonmaster and Taming can occasionally be very good.

Runemaster - Amongst the worst spellcasters in the game, alongside the Shaman. Heck, I'm very willing to say that it is the worst. At least the Shaman can actually use some powerful spells later on. Many of the Runemaster's spells are decent, but all of them are vastly overcosted except Dig and Earthpower.

Shaman - A difficult and problematic spellcaster to use. Morph spells are just as likely to end your game as win it, so those should only really be used on units which are already fodder. Usually they tend to balance out and waste your hero's mana though. Outside the morph spells are thankfully some useful spells. Morph Resources is an overcosted Transmute, but still potentially good. Wildfire can actually become dangerous at higher levels. Chaos Plague is a reasonable spell, but costs a lot to use. The Plaguelords gain the maximum benefit from Chaos Plague though, which can make it into an area of effect instant death spell. Still, the spellcaster will likely require a good Command Radius to do it and plenty of mana acceleration reseach which thankfully the Plaguelords have. Still, a Plaguelord Shaman can be pretty underwhelming until the research kicks in at HQ level 4.

Thief - If I had to vote for the worst character class in the game, I'd put my vote on the Thief. There is only a single function for the Thief, and that is to provide a slightly tougher Illusionist for the Fey. The Fey have better options than to concentrate on Illusion Magic and the increased physical resilience from the Thief isn't even up to Ranger levels let alone Paladin or Warrior. I imagine there were two reasons to pick a Thief. One was to make a mine Thief, and one was to abuse Thievery. Unfortunately, there are better class choices for both of those functions. Heck, the aforementioned Ranger can steal mines as good as any Thief and any Merchant, Tinker, Bard or even Assassin worth their weight can produce more resources than the Thief can even dream of. It's hard to think that there are actually two ways in which the Thief is possibly even worse. The first is that conversion speed is increased upon level up, making any hero able to play the role of a mine Thief and secondly, the Thief isn't even tough enough to abuse the Thievery skill in the first place. Thievery doesn't even work on animals, mines, lairs, temples or shops and the chance to gain resources per hit can't go past 20%. Even if the Thief does steal resources from your opponent (which I'm not even sure it does), the amount stolen on a successful hit is a pitiful 1-10.

This is just my take on the game's heroes.