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Started by diesbudt, August 25, 2009, 03:57:12 PM MT

diesbudt

First here are a few tips to remember

1. You can only sprint every other turn, and the amount you sprint is random (don't try to rely on sprinting). And you cannot attack and sprint!
2. You can however (unlike attacking) can use offensive, as well as defensive abilities and sprint the same turn.
3. Keeping your hero out of the line of fire or primary line of fire, while still doing damage will keep you alive longer, if they can kill your hero, and theirs is still strong; you have a huge uphill battle on your hands.
4. Don't rush out using everything you have, try to wait for your opponent to get closer before you spring everything.
5. And remember no matter how good someone is, luck determines the winner, I have seen people get all 16+s and I have personally have had a game or 2 where i couldn't roll higher than a 10
6. Remember, if you are stunned, and you do not have a paladin who can remove it with his "bless" ability, you can opt to attack your own character to wake them up (beware though, you might kill your own character in the process). This is esspecially good if you hero was stunned and your opponent is breathing down your neck in range to destroy him.

Ok, in a 1v1 situation
-The Fighter Mage is the preferable choice (Not saying the {summoner/sorc./Wiz.} wont win), its just that the FM can take a bigger punch than the others, cannot be stunned, and he can be a strong force (4 strength).
--- If you do use a different hero than the Fighter Mage, remember to keep them hidden and attacking from a distance with spells/abilities/summons. And you need to earn valor as soon as possible to unlock their abilities.

Good combination of guardians
Psionist + Strong unit
Bard + strong Unit
Rogue + defensive unit
**(Strong unit = Barbarian, Samurai, and Soul reaver; Defensive unit = Warrior, Paladin, Soul Reaver.)

-If you run a hero that isn't a fighter mage, the paladin could come in handy with stun removal and little heals that might be required in the fight.

Unneeded Combinations
If you run the Fighter Mage, you shouldn't run the Paladin too. (you can if you want to) But because the Paladin really shines when you have a hero that can be stunned (its best ability; the other ability 1 health for 1 card isnt great... its good but not great).

2v2 aka (teams)

-Key thing to remember, is that your beneficial spells work on your partners units just as they would on yours (buffs, heals and shield). So if your partner needs help give it to him.
-Press "t" to talk in team chat to stratagize
-The faster you and your partner can kill one of the other hero's, without losing yours. the better

Good Combinations for 2v2

*Look above at 1v1 but make sure 1 partner runs an offensive guardian set with a FM, and a defensive guardian set with a summoner/sorc/wizard. This will increase your chances of survival and cover all types of play (defense, offense, melee oriented hero and caster hero).

Free-For-All (FFA)
-For this game, it is best to sit back, and just shoot spells/arrows at the teams fighting and wait it out until they are both weak. If you do pop your head out to shoot some things, always make sure you do damage to the player in that scuffle that is winning, so to even the odds so they have a better chance taking each other out.

Group Combinations
Any combination will work in FFA, but the sorc/summoner/wizard really shine with valor on these types of fights. Just remember LoS, LoS, LoS.



*****Unless you like not taking damage, but also not doing much damage, the comp of  {Paladin, Warrior, Fighter Mage} should not be used. Its just too defenseful and you would have to use your cards and hero to kill an opponent before he can heal/save them.

Baker

Some other things that dies touched on but I wanted to say some more:

Line of sight

LOS is the most important part of this game, on opponents turns you should always be using the LOS tool (the eye button on the bottom of the screen) to figure out possible ways to attack your opponent's weak spots.

Movement

This goes along with line of sight as well, barring some defensive buffs, warrior protect/shield, you should have a very good reason for putting your mage within 5 movement spaces of multiple  enemy characters. This is more true in FFA games, where multiple people have turns to gang up on your mage.

Also, be aware of spells such as blizzard, meteor swarm, and especially fireball. It's generally a good idea to not put all of your characters next to each other, or if possible, not all in a position to get wrecked by aoe spells or ever lightning bolts.

Sprinting

You can always rely on sprinting giving you 1 space minimum, so try to use that to your advantage, either by keeping your mage out of enemy LOS, or closing that last 1 square to get in range for a devestating spell like touch of death or disentegrate.

Attacking With Your Mage

Never forget that you can add 2 extra dice from your mage's physical attack if you don't need to sprint away. This also goes along with the, attack before you move if possible with any character. Lots of people make this mistake, and you want to maximize the possibility of inflicting damage. Even if your opponent is shielded, if you don't need to sprint, attack anyways before moving.

Opening Hands

If you have a crummy opening hand, always remember you can discard cards and you will draw cards up to your remaining mana at the end of the turn. Forgo any casting of spells, discard 3 cards that you don't want and you'll look at 3 more cards at the end of the turn. I actually prefer this to casting a random summon/augmentation even with ok hands on the first turn.

Card Combos

Figure most of them out for yourself, but here are some of the best (i'm leaving out any combos that have to do with Mana Surge/Meditate as there are pretty ridiculous things you can do with that):

Teleport + demonic lash/ice shards/imprison/sleep: basically allows for a quick opposing mage kill or two turns of beating down on their mage out of nowhere. Particularily good with Fighter Mage.

Multiple 1 cost destruction spells: nuff' said

Gateway +fireball: Lots of maps will be vulnerable to this combination, potentially wrecking a whole team on the first turn

Iron golem +reposition: There's nothing like being able to unload your entire team's attacks on an enemy character while simultaneously positioning your summon to wreak havoc. It also doesn't put one of your characters in terrible danger.

Iron golem/Skeleton + Fireball: connect the dots with your own summon to extend the damage fireball will inflict.

diesbudt

Thanks for emphasizing and adding to the post baker.

[Teleport + demonic lash/ice shards/imprison/sleep: basically allows for a quick opposing mage kill or two turns of beating down on their mage out of nowhere. Particularily good with Fighter Mage.]   

^
My favorite Combo.

andodel

If only I had looked here when I first started, This would have helped a lot. Still, after the first 3 games I basically fully understood all the controls.

Warmage

I have seen an influx of new players which is really exciting, and many are already pretty good at the game.

A couple things taht have been said above but i wish to stress more.

1- keep your mage OUT of harms way, it is by far your most important weapon. I like aggression and usually play that way just be ready for a mage to teleport behind you and unleash bombs , summons and so forth, so when exposed try to limit the amount of enemy units that can reach you.

2 - keep 6 spaces away - a unit can move 5 spaces (normally) so always keep that number in your head and be ready for - summons from caster which can appear one space away from caster and can move 5 after. Barbarian moving an extra 4 spaces for a total of nine and attacking. soul reaver moving 5 then sprinting then using taunt to force an attack. psion using mind control to pull you forward is extra nasty, and a fighter mage using flash ability ( that one i see underestimated the most probably).

3 - remember cards you are holding other players cant have, so i find it almost more useful to know what an opponent doesnt have rather than what i do. Often i will hold onto spells such as teleport or revive just to make sure other players dont get them.

4 - focus fire - dont spread your attacks around (usually) between a bunch of units, one group heal and its all wasted. Try to kill one of there champs in one turn if possible to limit the number of attack dice against you next turn.

5 - watch the timer - nothing sucks worse than having the perfect move but you let time run out.

6 - experiment and break all these rules listed above - the more you try things the more you will get the feel for the game and pull off moves you may have not thought of trying before.

7 - enjoy and be civil and helpfull - this is one of the more friendly games i have ever been around, where its not about bickering or talking trash and trolling, and i personaliy would like to see it stay that way and im sure most of the other players feel the same. lets keep heromages troll free.


Warmage

#5
if youre new also be aware of ranked or unranked games, some people will try to switch the game type with you unaware to try and steal some rank off you while you are just getting used to playing, so always look at if its ranked or not before you click you checkmark for ready.

Ross Przybylski

I highly encourage new and veteran players alike to play ranked games.  The purpose of the ranking system is to measure your playing skill relative to other players so you can find other players that would be an even match of skill level for you.

Also note- players with high rating will not take away many points from lower ranked players, but lower ranked players will take away more rating from a higher rated player.

Also, losing points is never bad- it just means you'll gain more points back the next time you win- it's all about measuring your true skill playing level- the game will accurately place your playing ability after 5 or so games (and if you get better, you can easily accumulate a higher score by consistently winning ranked games against players).

Finally, you only get placed on the leaderboard for playing ranked games (and you must play at least 1 ranked game every two weeks to remain on the board).

So, it's almost always to your advantage to play ranked games.  The unranked option is mostly there for experimentation- when you want to test out a new combination of heroes/settings/idea/or map design that you're still working to balance.
Manager of D20Studios, LLC

amorphis

Quote from: Warmage on July 17, 2010, 03:53:47 PM MT
3 - remember cards you are holding other players cant have, so i find it almost more useful to know what an opponent doesnt have rather than what i do. Often i will hold onto spells such as teleport or revive just to make sure other players dont get them.

well i didnt know that thx for this first.

but i am a little confused. as i know we have 40 different types of cards and total of 50 cards in a game.

the additional 10 cards are distributed randomly ? if so, can someone have the same card i have at the same time ?

and this rule ( or whatever you say  ::) ) applies with the all game sizes ? i mean 1v1s , 4v4s or FFAs.

diesbudt

Amor.  When you play a game of  4 or less people,  1 deck is used (shared by all 4 players).  If it is 5 or more players, they share 2 decks pu together.

Each deck consists of 50 cards, 40 Unique, and 10 dulicates  (1 extra - iron golem, skeletons, healing touch, dispell, shield, sunder armor, teleport, fireball, sleep, Ice shards) in each deck.

So each deck has 50 cards broken up in this way:

10 in restoration (8 unique, 2 duplicates)
10 in Manipulation (8 unique, 2 duplicates)
10 in Augumentation (8 unique, 2 duplicates)
10 in Destruction (8 unique, 2 duplicates)
10 in restoration (8 unique, 2 duplicates)


Also  when a summon card is in play, that card is not in the deck or anyones hand, and will only return to the deck after it is killed.

All other cards after used return to the deck.

Ross Przybylski

amorphis-

Thanks for the post!

The exact cards in the deck are listed here: https://www.heromages.com/gameInfo/magicalSpells.html

On this page, you will see that certain cards are indicated as "x2 in Deck" and that is how we get from 40 to 50.

In games with 5 or more people, two decks are shuffled together so you get 100 cards with double of each card from the original deck.
Manager of D20Studios, LLC

amorphis

thanks guys.that solves eveything in my mind.

Zelanius Forcys

#11
I should have came here when I first started playing.

But after about 2 weeks or so of playing, I would like to add my 2 cents worth, hopefully preventing new players from making the same mistakes I did.

1) Mana regenerates every round, effectively providing unlimited mana. For most people transitioning from turn-based RPG strategy games, this can be quite a shock. This is not a game where magic can run out, which leads me to my next point...

2) Blizzard is powerful, but is terrible against Fighter Mage, especially when teamed up with a Paladin. Imagine casting a Blizzard - even the maximum damage you can do is 5 damage per unit with a Sorceress at 15 Valor. This is just enough to kill Paladins, Samurais, and Soul Reavers, all of which have high defense. You might be able to use Lightning Bolt and Fireball later, but remember, these Valor abilities are not affected by Destructive Aura or Nature's Wrath. You are also left with no Mana to draw any spells. On to the next point...

3) Even if you hit all 3 units of your opponent with a Blizzard, you are left with no Mana to follow up with other spells, and will have to rely on guardians or Valor abilities. This is especially dangerous against a Fighter Mage, when paired with a Paladin. Firstly, the Fighter Mage can use Dispel Magic to wake the Paladin, who will do Bless and Combat Healing. If the Fighter Mage is lucky enough, Group Heal and Healing Touch can be followed up to bring the team to tip top condition. Remember, 3 mana is generated each round, and having these 3 cards is usually enough to recover everything.

4) Wizards are more powerful than they look. Assuming the above scenario, where Blizzard hits each target to the brink of death but not quite, Meditate can boost you up to allow an extra Meteor Shower or Fireball, if you have them in your arsenal. Suddenly, the Wizard has more dice rolls than the Sorceress in the same situation. Even if you expand all your cards in the scenario above, the likelihood of a kill suddenly increases, especially against the enemy mage.

5) Teleport, Touch of Death and Imprison are all Manipulation spells that usually takes up 2 Mana. In the hands of a Wizard, he can cast them in succession each round, and still Meditate for 2 extra mana to cast another spell, like 2 of Demonic Lash, Ice Shard or Seeker Missile, or even a Fireball. Do this in the round you can Sprint, and if you kill the enemy mage, do a summon to protect yourself. Keep a couple of Sleep to supplement your spells, especially if you are going into territory with surrounding enemy guardians.

6) Fireball is more powerful than Blizzard in the right situation. A Blizzard has the potential to hit more targets, but only if everyone is in LoS. This means that your mage is potentially vulnerable to counter attacks from any enemy that was not hit by Blizzard, or is a Fighter Mage or has a Paladin that dodged the attack. Fireball can hit enemies out of LoS, simply by having 1 surrounding unit within LoS. Send a summon in, cast Shield, and then Fireball and watch the mayhem. Particularly fun with Sorceress.

7) Do not be afraid to discard any cards. Every card is useful in the right situation, but is it useful in your situation? Sleep is useless against Fighter Mages, and Paladins can easily Bless a friendly mage out of stun at the cost of 1 card and 0 mana. Mages can attack their own units easily to break stun, since all except Fighter Mage has only 2 dice rolls. Ice Shard makes more sense, but when your goal is to do damage, 3 attack dice that may or may not hit is terrible compared to 4 attack dice (Seeker Missile), or an almost guaranteed 2 damage (Demonic Lash). This is especially true when your goal is exactly 2 damage, and Demonic Lash suddenly becomes a much more attractive alternative when you are left with only 1 mana.

8) Unsummon is way more powerful than you think. A Flesh Golem with 3 life? Unsummon. A Iron Golem with 17 defense? Unsummon. A mage with 1 life left but protected by a Flesh Golem or other summons? You get the picture.

9) Crystal Golem is fully worth the 3 mana. It leaves you with no mana, but in a desperate situation, it might be the only thing to save your hide. Ran out of options, but an enemy is putting pressure on you? Crystal Golem has 4 dice roll attacks, and causes Imobilize. It might seem like an inferior and more expensive cousin of Iron Golem, with less defense and a worse special ability, but Crystal Golem has 1 more life, which is sometimes crucial enough to make the difference, unless Unsummon or Touch of Death comes into play; it has 4 attacks compared to 1, which is only matched by 3 other units, making it the most offensively powerful summon; it is not limited by Short Attack; Stun might be better than Imobilize, but in the face of a Fighter Mage, it is far superior, and when there is a Paladin, there is literally n diference in both of them, unless the enemy has no cards to utilize Bless; 16 defense is not exactly shabby, and the best any unit can do naturally is 17, namely by Iron Golem and Warrior. With all these in mind, Crystal Golems are still not necessarily game changes, so do not treat them like one, unless your strategies could be augmented greatly by their presence.

10) Summoners are a little weak due to mostly superior Valor abilities or stats of other mages, but in a prolonged game or maps with lots of cover, she alone can truly build an army. Unlike most mages or tactics you might employ using other mages, Destruction spells are generally secondary. Summon fast and summon a lot. Every deck has 10 summon magic, and your 5 Valor gives an extra one. Having lots of summons also means that Sacrifice is not as painful to use, as when you have only 1 or 2. Summoners are about playing defensively, so Paladins and Warriors are great, unless you plan to do long range damage using Psionists and Rogues.

11) Cards are about 75% of everything in this game, which is where a Wizard truly shine. Transmute, a 5 Valor ability, changes out a card you do not need, effectively allowing you to draw 1 extra card. Meditate, at 5 Valor, provides 2 additional mana to draw cards. Never hesitate to use them. This is a very good reason why Wizard have weaker defense than other mages, due to the sheer amount of card control they can employ.

12) Guardians are the other 25%. Unless you are playing random, select the guardians to augment and complement your mage and strategy, unless you are looking for a challenge. Have a Summoner and need some defense to build an army? Warriors and Paladins, possibly swapping one out for Bard. Have an agressive style in range attack using Sorceress? Psionists and Rogues will fit in nicely. Want a rushdown team giving no-holds-barred beating using Fighter Mage? Add in the Barbarian, and either match it with the Minotaur due to Bull Charge, Bard for buffs, or Psionist to help move your intended target closer to home. Need lots of field and card controls using the Wizard? Paladins will do nicely, but so will Psionist to push enemies away or Soul Reaver with Taunt to make enemies attack on your terms and Minotaur with Roar to prevent any attacks at all. No matter the style, but you want to make sure you get in those few last crucial hits to make the kill? Rogues with Finishing Shot and Samurais with Eviscerate will be just what you need. All guardians can help to fit one tactic or the other, and use them accordingly. ****Unfortunately, I do not have the Minotaur, so these comments on Minotaur from fighting bots using Minotaurs, and how, surprisingly, they can be effective once a Minotaur is thrown in.

13) Almost all non-passive abilities have to rely on card usage (the sole exception being Sorceress's Lightning Bolt). Watch out for the number of cards your opponent has before even trying to enact any strategy, no matter how foolproof, as all it takes is bad dice rolls to ruin everything.

Hope these help new comers when trying to understand some of the details that one tends to miss when they first started.

Zela Forcys

Ross Przybylski

Wow, great write up, Zelanius! Clearly you've mastered a deep understanding of the game's mechanics and developed quite an appreciation for one of the most powerful yet minunderstood characters, the Wizard.

Regarding the Minotaur, there may still be some free promotional codes left on Android Gamer: https://www.droidgamers.com/index.php/game-news/android-game-news/2573-cross-platform-multiplayer-tactics-style-strategy-game-hero-mages-now-available-plus-a-giveaway

If not, check back on the home page, Facebook, Twitter, or in-game news announcements for opportunities to unlock this special character.
Manager of D20Studios, LLC

ZaWolf

#13
I emailed to get a code a couple days ago, and didn't get a response. :-\

..sigh.. although mino sucks, I've been trying to get it forever. xD  Just so my random hero games offer more variation.

Advanced tip:

I'd like to add something that many people don't seem to catch on to for a while, even though it's easy and can help them straight from the start..
 
--Wizard eventually gets -1 mana off manipulation cards and +1 card for using a manipulation card.  So when you're in a pinch, and you got a "sleep" card, use it on some random hero even if it won't help-- because it's basically a free transmute.  And a card change at the right moment can often be life or death.  Other than that, in any given fight, run away as long as you can and gather card combos.

--Sorc + 15 valor don't feel the need to charge in to battle.  Unless your opponent is a Wiz with 15 valor, feel free to sit back and discard 3 cards and hope for destruction spells next turn.  A sorc with 3 mana worth of destruction cards + fireball + lightning bolt can easily destroy a full health unit by itself, or even 2 or 3 units.  Run away from FMs and Summoners.  Charge Wizards, don't wait for valor.

--FM, charge all other hero mages, as low valor fights are where you shine.

Rugman

Great thread title!!! Thx from a noob