Bard

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Description
The Bard is a similar class to the Merchant. A few things do stand out that make the Bard that bit different however. Access to both Leadership and Diplomacy means that the Bard may find it easier to play as multiple different races and start off battles with more units.

Stats and Skills
The attribute changes you get by choosing this class:

The abilities you get by choosing this class:

Overall
The Bard is a fairly powerful hero class given the right conditions. Although the Bard can do little for his/her own side other than Wealth and Divination, the power of the Bard may usually be at the start of the match thanks to Diplomacy. This skill alone allows the Bard to act as a sort of map control device that will see off and effectively counter classes such as the Assassin. Otherwise, the Wealth and/or Leadership capabilities are somewhat similar to the Merchant.

Races
Naturally, if Wealth is all you're interested in, the Empire should be a good pick to abuse that little bit of extra compatibility and morale over the Merchant. With 45 points invested in Wealth (hero level 50), you will be gaining 11.25 gold per second. This means gold is never, ever going to be a problem and Fame research discounted Mercenaries will be rolling out of the Quartermaster at light speed (even more so with all stat points invested in Charisma).

Alternatively, an excessively powerful if not slightly cheaty (especially in 1v1) combo can be found with the Dark Dwarves. with all 50 points invested in Diplomacy, the Dark Dwarven starting forces will be capable of easily felling the opponent's base before the match has even started thanks to access to Flame Cannons and Catapults in the Dark Dwarven Army Setup list (Flame Cannons only cost 5 points as well as of 1.03.24, which is quite insane considering). The only counters that could be placed against this strategy is if the enemy's hero is practically god-like and fast enough to get through the melee wall and attack the Flame Cannons.

A very efficient choice is the Knight race, if you wish a tougher support hero. The Wealth ability is extremely good along the Divination sphere who has a plenitude of useful spells like Comprehension atop of that the Knights also get decent a synergy bonus with Leadership, higher morale means higher attack rates so which makes your already strong knights even better.

Counters

 * The way the Bard works makes it hard to guess what the enemy is doing with it. Access to instant buffs like Diplomacy and everlasting support options like Wealth make it difficult to effectively counter a Bard. That said, if you're fighting a Diplomacy Bard, surviving any rush is pretty much all that is required to beat them. Certain classes can counter this such as an aforementioned super warrior, or a Summoner (Imps would prove to be pretty useful against those Flame Cannons).
 * If the Bard is a Wealth (or even Leadership) Bard, then he/she has the same weakness as the Merchant. Taking the frail Bard out early could easily mean the game for them.