Areas of mountain magic 2 was first released in 1996 before online competitive multiplayer was common and it was a time when balancing factions perfectly wasn’t necessarily a priority for game designers that made the balancing decisions in the game quite interesting and for many people a big Part of its unique charm in this video I’ll go into more detail on that and outline key pros and cons of each faction before giving them a ranking our first faction is the Barbarian one of only two mic based factions in the game along the night barbarians are well Suited to fast-paced Maps goblins are fairly weak starting units but they have high growth potential and they’re actually quite efficient for their price Barbarian Heroes have the highest chance of attack increases on level up which does make up for their low damage range in addition their Heroes naturally start With the pathfinding skill which can be incredibly important for making the most of those early turns Heroes 2 isn’t a game where sticking as close as possible to the roads is typically key to Victory so being able to go off course without wasting movement points is a huge factor In building momentum moving on to the other units Orcs are painfully slow and fairly weak so upgrading them to orc Chieftains is very important unfortunately the orc Chief dwelling upgrade does require the Adobe which although available right after the stick Hut is a little expensive in the first Few turns as a result being a tier 4 dwelling the upgrade increases their damage from two to three to three to four raises their speed from very slow to slow which also improves the movement points of your Heroes and increases their hit points per unit by 50 it’s a Massive Improvement at a very small cost increasing their price per unit from 140 to 175. all Chieftains and goblins then are a solid combination to get the ball rolling in the early game wolves are okay units able to attack twice in a row but they’re also frail and vulnerable to attrition counter-intuitively the Biggest problem with Wolves is probably the fact they’re the fastest units Barbarian has remember that the weight function from Heroes of Might and Magic 3 doesn’t exist here so faster units will always have to attack first before enemy units have used up their retaliation as as a result wolves almost Always have to take retaliation before they get to use their second attack almost inevitably they will take regular losses ogres however are where things get really interesting for this faction unupgraded they are awfully slow but the upgrade to overlords literally doubles their speed increases their hit points By 50 to 60 in total and improves their damage output the ogre Lord is really the backbone of this faction still a little on the slow side but great performance in battle with good stats across the board trolls and more trolls have fewer hit points per unit at 40 Each they do regenerate them every turn barbarians aren’t great spellcasters but War trials combined with a spell like steel skin are excellent at absorbing damage in smaller fights combined with orc Chieftains they ensure this town is one of the better ones at attacking from range which is incredibly important for Clearing the map with minimal attrition all of the creatures I’ve mentioned so far come from dwellings which only require gold wooden ore so barbarians are excellent at adapting to maps with low resource variety ironically that also makes it easier for them to save up the resources needed for mage guilds Though barbarians as a hero class are less likely to get wisdom than any other class that by the way can be a big problem in general as wisdom is a requirement for most of the game’s best spells the Barbarian unique building the Coliseum also only costs wood golden ore But its effect of providing plus two morale to Siege Defenders is mediocre and it’s best to save those resources for creature production the one creature dwelling that does require special resources is the pyramid which costs 20 Crystal it produces Cyclops which are solid units at first able to attack over Two hexes and sometimes paralyze enemies and with the help of the well you can get up to four of those per week which is one more than most other tier 6 units but this is where the cracks start to show for this faction while Cyclops are decent units in general they’re much Weaker than some other factions top tier units in particular the black dragon and Titan on smaller maps you can capitalize on an initial power Spike when you first recruit them but in longer games Barbarian as a faction just can’t keep up with other Town’s Army output Cyclops And overlords alone won’t be enough to dominate those bigger Maps so you’ll need to find a way to access those stronger tier 6 units to a degree Barbarian units can appear deceptively strong for their stats thanks to barbarian’s naturally High chance of gaining attack skill on level up but That obviously comes at the cost of missing out on improved spell casting with that said barbarians can be surprisingly effective at using spells which are low cost but high impact such as blind for example ultimately though four Cyclops per week just can’t compete with three black dragons Titans or even Bone dragons which means this might Focus Town doesn’t actually always produce the my potential it needs that reason I’m gonna put Barbarian in the beat here Knights are the other of the two might Focus factions and frankly have very similar weaknesses to barbarians while peasants try to make up For their terrible stats with a high growth rate in practice it’s way too difficult to build up their numbers to actually make them a threat their slowness reduces your hero’s movement points along with their ability to affect the outcome of battles with that said if you do manage to mask them up Successfully it is surprising how hard they can hit sometimes the sad truth is that peasants biggest influence on the game is probably the fact that they’re the perfect prey for necromancers the Knight does at least get immediate access to range units in the form of arches but archers are both extremely Slow and weak until upgraded to ranges which are twice as fast and Fire 2 shots per round if you get ranges early Knights do have strong early game momentum potential as Rangers have unusually high damage output for low tier units however they’re extremely vulnerable to enemy range units but your Peasants won’t be fast enough to shut them down even worse though the upgraded archery range is only available after you build an Armory in blacksmith the Armory itself requires a Tavern which wastes an extra day of construction without being a particularly useful building Pikeman and swordsman are also Basic Walker units and neither a particularly fast which again means battles against range units can be extremely costly for this town all of these units are reasonably priced and smaller maps with scarce resources can actually suit nights better than almost any other town but if gold isn’t a big Problem the Knight is held back by its complete lack of flying units and over dependence on ranges for attacks from distance Cavalry and champions are similar in that they’re relatively low cost units with relatively low stats for their tier but unlike most other Knight units they are incredibly fast champions Of the joint fastest units in the game alongside Phoenix’s which does provide the Knight with unbeatable spell casting momentum a spell like Mass haste can enable the nice units to close down enemies before they can respond and protect their vulnerable ranges in the process also similar to barbarians their Tier 6 dwelling the cathedral requires 20 Crystal and is the first of their dwellings to require anything other than gold wood and ore again there’s the irony that this might base town is actually better place to allocate its rarer resources to the Mage Guild than pretty much any other town paladins like Cyclops will grow by four per week and provide the Knight with a useful power Spike when first available with their ability to attack twice in one turn and at a cost of 600 gold each they’re extremely efficient for their price without the lowest overall stats of all Tier 6 units as you can tell that’s kind of the theme of the Town unlike wolves though paladins and Crusaders aren’t your fastest unit and can attack a stack after Champions have already drawn out the retaliation in order to be able to hit twice without being hit back however They’re better at taking retaliations than champ bins anyway so that’s not always that useful the upgraded Cathedral is expensive and Crusaders aren’t quite as good value at a thousand gold each but that isn’t really a big deal in such an otherwise gold efficient town on top of attacking twice Crusaders Are immune to curse and deal double damage against the undead and frankly along with rushing them early on that’s kind of your only hope against necromancers but even Crusaders only have 65 hit points each putting gold efficiency aside the knights units are just simply weaker than other factions On longer Maps Crusaders can’t keep up with other tier 6 units and few of your other units can out muscle their equal tiered Rivals either Knight heroes are actually quite well balanced in their learn sets and usefully do come with a leadership skill by default but the town Is ultimately badly limited by its lack of Flyers which makes Siege attacks difficult and by its lack of raw power and for that reason I’m gonna have to put the knight in seat here next up the Necromancer is probably the most unique faction in the game it’s defining Feature that necromancy skill is an incredibly fun mechanic that can lead to Unstoppable skeletons snowballing in the late game it effectively flips the game on its head often making battles against large groups of enemy units more of a reward than whatever objects they’re guarding it’s important to acknowledge Though that the Necromancer does have some unfortunate flaws the early game in particular can be rough with your first three creatures being basic Walkers zombies are incredibly slow and weak not only ineffective in battle but also dragging down the movement points of any hero carrying them at the start of a Turn mutant zombies are much faster but still have a disappointing damage range of two to three it’s the type of unit that could work well as a bulky meat shield for your range units but the Necromancer doesn’t actually get any range units until they reach lich’s at Tier 5. on top of that unlike in Heroes 3 glitches in Heroes 2 will deal friendly fire damage against your own Undead units so placing zombies in front of them as meat Shields still doesn’t really work mummies when upgraded to Royal mummies are deceptively fast and have decent stats along with their Cursibility but the three walking units in a row makes it very difficult to avoid attrition in the early game and that’s a real problem because while you can build a skeleton power stack it’s very momentum based and difficult to do before you have expert necromancy another slightly nitpicky negative of Necromancer’s excuse the alliteration is that their unique building the storm is also disappointing and only provides plus two spell power for defenders in a Siege it’s very situational and low impact for its price but if you can get past that patchy early game The Necromancer arguably has the best late Game of any faction the skeleton snowball I’ve already mentioned is a huge Factor but Necromancer has some other massive advantages too vampire Lords in particular are borderline broken with their life train ability especially if you stick them in the corner of the enemy’s side of the field Where only two Miller units can reach them at once unlike in Heroes 3 life drain is incredibly versatile and still enables vampire Lords to resurrect themselves against the likes of Undead and so-called unliving units like iron golems that actually compounds with the necromancy skill by allowing you to take Fights with minimal losses while simultaneously protecting and maximizing your skeleton power stack necromancer’s tier 6 units bone dragons are also very good although they are significantly weaker than black dragons and Titans despite the same growth rate tree ghost dragons will still outperform four Cyclops or four Crusaders on average While conveniently only costing 1 500 gold each technically Crusaders will deal double damage against burn dragons in a one versus one matchup but that’s not actually enough to make up for their overall weaker stats and lack of Versatility bone dragons and vampire Lords make a great combination in a kind Of hammer and Anvil maneuver able to attack enemies anywhere on the field and despite bone dragons having 150 hit points each they’re actually best used as the hammer in these situations because vampire Lords are so much tankier thanks to their life drain the upgraded Mansion for vampire lord access Can be expensive on smaller Maps requiring 10 Crystal 10 gems and 3000 gold but like most things Necromancer it becomes less of a limitation in those longer games finally The Necromancer is a hero class is relatively well balanced with good access to secondary skills and a relatively balanced distribution Between the different primary skills while I do think that early game limitations are often overlooked Heroes of Might and Magic 2 was the game that introduced The Necromancer the necromancer’s status as a late game skeleton masking Powerhouse is probably one of the most famous features of the entire Heroes series The Necromancer is Iconic and for that incredible snowballing potential I think they definitely belong in the S tier the Sorceress is not one of the game’s more popular factions but does have some interesting advantages the starting unit Sprites and dwarfs make for a bit of a weird combination as they’re both melee Attackers on opposite ends of the maneuverability Spectrum like zombies dwarfs have a negative effect on your Heroes movement points and feel lackluster in battle with no range stack to protect however once upgraded battle dwarfs are twice as fast and actually pretty useful as early game tanks as Well as having a 25 chance to resist enemy spells they combine well with your next two units elves and Druids which are both high damage but low hit point range units this is the stage of the game where the Sorceress starts to come into its own with battle duel is Providing a protective blocker for your range units against enemy Walkers while even a stack of one Sprite can block enemy range units for a turn without being a meaningful loss Sprites can attack without retaliation but you need to use them carefully because they’re painfully frail and easy targets it’s Often best to hold them back until later in a battle so you can throw them in to finish off isolated enemy units the problem of course is that at the start of the game you kind of need to make use of them as it takes a little bit longer To get your other units going that means the Sorceress is really more comfortable in the mid game the Grand Elf and greater Druid upgrades are mostly useful for the higher speed but otherwise don’t make too much difference the tier 5 unit is the Unicorn which is an okay all Rounder partly thanks to its ability to cast blind when it attacks sometimes but at 40 hit points each they’re not anywhere near as tanky as they are in Heroes 3. and that’s one of the big problems with this town it can dish out damage fairly well but it provides a Much lower amount of hit points per week than other towns and only really battle dwarves and to some extent phoenixes are actually comfortable taking hits Phoenix’s have a hundred hit points each significantly less than the tier 6 creatures of the wizard Warlock and Necromancer but are similarly limited to Growth of three per week if you have a well Phoenix’s do have some other abilities that can help make up for that they’re The Joint fastest units in the game along with Champions and as Flyers they can shut down enemy range units instantly as well as giving you the Ability to cast your first spell instantly like dragons they can attack over two hexes and they’re also immune to Elemental spells in particular you can give a hero just phoenixes and nothing else and they can cast Elemental storm as much as they like there’s no fear of damaging their own units that Combination can be used in very cheesy ways if you like to play like that for example if you have enough gold and a good spell cast then you’re a threat in town you can attack an Invader with a single Phoenix plus Elemental storm and then immediately surrender you should Get your moving points back in this game so you can repeat the process until you’re all out of gold or out of spell points I personally try not to play like that but to each their own sorceress Heroes start with a navigation skill which is of course extremely powerful on Water Maps but completely useless on land Maps being forced to have that skill regardless of map type is definitely unfortunate the unique building the rainbow is also underwhelming providing plus two luck to defending Heroes which is highly situational overall the Sorceress is in a bit of a weird spot the only Combination of Sprites and dwarves isn’t great for building momentum in the late game their low total HP output and Phoenix’s lack of raw power relative to dragons and Titans means they struggle to keep up there as well but they do have decent options available to them Throughout most maps and can be the best option on some maps particularly medium length ones or Maps which include lots of water I’d say this is definitely a b tier town and the stronger faction between sorceress and Barbarian is heavily map dependent but for scaling better into the late game I would rank The sorcerer marginally higher moving on our next faction is the Warlock and let’s start with the early game although both limited by a middling damage range Centos and gagus are an instantly strong combination gagus are exceptionally fast early game Flyers well suited to splitting into one stacks and closing The gap on enemy range units before they can harm your centaurs as well as forming a meat Shield or working his bait against Miller units they aren’t the bulkiest tier 2 units but they aren’t that frail either also as fast units they’re excellent choices to leave with your scout Heroes and maximize your Movement points in the next turn although centers are fairly Speedy as well careful use of gargoyles can make it easy to hold on to a strong stack of centaurs which should be your go-to choice for a power stack to efficiently take early battles Griffins can’t match gargoyles for Speed but with unlimited Retaliations and 25 hit points which is above average among tier 3 units they’re arguably even more effective at shutting down groups of enemy range units and they’re also a great choice to send over enemy wolves during Siege battles unusually minotaurs and Minotaur kings are first basic walking meta units but They have very good combat stats and enough speed when upgraded they fit into the rapid and aggressive theme of the Town hydras are a less natural fit as they are terrible speeds that will significantly reduce your carrying Hero’s movement points and make it harder to involve them in battle some Players would argue their best left as Town Defenders and it is true they’re incredibly effective at holding out defensively with their multi-attacks and their massive 75 hit points each Which is higher than Crusaders and comparable to Cyclops despite being a tier below them however I do personally think they Can be worth keeping around for tougher fights on the adventure map especially against rival Heroes they’re excellent at Defending Your Centos in particular although of course you can only bring five of your six unit types into any battle and they are a simple choice to leave behind if you do bring them just Make sure you leave them on less important Heroes at the end of the turn as doing so is incredibly important to preserve your main Heroes movement points finally and most famously you have green red and black dragons and the only creature dwelling in the game you can upgrade twice they are very Expensive but that’s understandable for the strongest units in the game and that also brings me onto their unique building the dungeon which provides you 500 gold per day it’s not cheap at 3 000 gold 5 wood and tenor but it’s hard to overstate what a massive difference it Can make bear in mind that in Heroes 2 a basic town will provide 500 gold per turn while a town with a castle provides a thousand and on the 250 gold from the statue and you can expect a typical town to provide 1250 gold per turn so it goes without Saying that a warlock town with a dungeon enjoys a massive increase in its gold income in percentage terms nearly 50 bringing them up to 1750 per turn so while dragons are expensive warlock in general is far better equipped to sustain an expensive Army than any other faction so they have No major weaknesses in the unit lineup and they’re also unmatched in their economy you have to get a bit nitpicky to find fault with this faction but we can try the Warlock hero class isn’t particularly great starting with scouting isn’t ideal for a main hero for example and their bias towards spell Power on leveling up which also isn’t always ideal interestingly the Warlock can learn necromancy as a skill which I personally think is a fun option but it is very situational of course Nothing is Stopping You from recruiting a hero of another class and using that as your Main if you have the gold overall the Warlock faction is borderline Flawless and one of the main reasons people say the game isn’t balanced they won’t always be the best option in particular The Necromancer can build momentum faster than them on some maps but I would say this is the most reliably good Faction I’m going to place it right at the top of s tier last but not least we have the wizard Wizards have two very unique and satisfying advantages firstly the library grants them access to one extra spell per level of Mage Guild which among other things potentially doubles their chances of getting the Best level 5 spells and secondly they’re the only faction in the game with built-in access to three different range units unlike in Heroes 3 ranged penalties don’t apply when shooting across a normal Battlefield which makes the wizard uniquely good at clearing the map of slow-moving metal units which is The most common class of enemy units there is it was a decent or rounder units fast enough to rapidly close the gap on enemy range units but also tanky enough to serve as meat Shields around your halfling power stack meanwhile although Iron Golems are too slow to recommend bringing on your main hero Golems in general being slow tanky units are an obvious choice to protect your various range units in a final battle scenario their resistance to Magic damage can also provide added insurance against Mages with spells like chain lightning or Armageddon your tier 4 units rocks are solid flying units that Are tanky enough in the early game to be excellent counters to enemy range units stacks of individual rocks have 40 hit points each and can fly anywhere on the field from the first round as a result they can easily fly over to weaker range units like Orcs or Rangers and protect Your halflings so they can safely attack from distance Mages are also solid all around range units but while their lack of melee penalty helps patch up the Wizard’s obvious weaknesses in close combat the 30 hit points each they are vulnerable to enemy retaliations and still Best Kept at distance upgraded Arch Magi are the same although they do have five extra hit points but they also come with better stats a 20 chance to remove beneficial spell effects from enemy units and are recruited from the upgraded Ivory Tower Which is far cheaper than the original dwelling finally it Titans are easily the Strongest range units in the game immune to mind spells like blind and thanks to no melee penalty almost just as effective up close black dragons will beat them one versus one despite costing a thousand gold less per unit but unlike black dragons Titans can be resurrected and aren’t locked behind a double Dwelling upgrade all of this is to say the visit his tools to perform well at all stages of the game so you might be wondering what the catch is unfortunately this town does have some major drawbacks firstly the cost of the Ivory Tower dwelling for Mages is brutal The five of each precious resource is the exact same cost as the library thus an additional 2500 gold for a total of four thousand the Ivory Tower Library and Mage Guild are all extremely useful to wizards but also all competing for the exact same resources on top of that The Ivory Tower is required for the cloud castle meaning you’ll often have to prioritize buying it even if it means you end up playing a wizard who avoids constructing a Mage Guild speaking of the cloud castle with a base dwelling and its upgrade costing 12 500 gold and 20 gems each you’ll need to find even more riches to make the best of this town and you will want the upgraded version not just because giants can’t attack from range in Titan’s can but also because on many Maps it’s better to avoid recruiting Giants altogether Giants can be a good option on smaller Maps when you don’t need Titans because they only cost 1 500 gold and one gem each meaning their stats and costs are similar to Bone dragons and Phoenix’s but Heroes 2 is not Heroes 3 and in this game upgrading a unit costs double the Cost difference between the unit and its upgrade Titans cost 5 000 gold and two gems a huge increase to the point where upgrading a giant to a Titan at that double cost requires 6 000 gold and 2 gems that means it’s more expensive than buying an extra Titan outright especially on Impossible difficulty Where precious resources are scarce finding the resources you need to reach your potential as this town is incredibly challenging finally despite being the faction with the most ranged units Wizards unfortunately have one of the lowest chances of being offered the archery skill on a rich map where you Have the resources you need to properly reach your potential the wizard can actually compete with warlocks and necromancers at any stage of the game but with expensive dwellings no equivalent to the dungeon to patch up your gold income and that expensive upgrade from Giants to Titans it’s frustratingly easy to hit a bottleneck As this town and for that reason I just don’t think they’re as reliable as the stf factions even though they are probably my favorite late game town that reason I’m gonna slot them in at a tier overall this game is definitely very imbalanced but even here the tier Rankings do feel like a bit of a crude measure as every town can excel in different situations and yes that is my way of telling you you’re missing all the Nuance if you skip to the end if you don’t own Heroes 2 and you’d like to try It I will leave my Gog affiliate Link in the description where you can buy the game and support the channel at the same time I’m mostly using the F Heroes 2 version in this video and I have a separate video with more info on that if you’re interested for example it adds Widescreen resolution options and other quality of life features finally I am planning to make more Heroes 2 videos so do subscribe if that’s your thing as always thanks for watching and I’ll see you next time Video Information
This video, titled ‘Ranking the Best Heroes of Might and Magic 2 Towns! Faction TIER LIST’, was uploaded by Norovo on 2023-06-04 11:37:03. It has garnered 43544 views and 942 likes. The duration of the video is 00:23:35 or 1415 seconds.
Heroes of Might and Magic II (HoMM2) town rankings. This is my beginner friendly guide to the pros and cons of each faction, their best creatures, hero primary and secondary skill progression, and so on.
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Timestamps / Chapters 00:00 Intro 00:23 Barbarian 04:43 Knight 08:16 Necromancer 11:46 Sorceress 15:15 Warlock 18:46 Wizard
⭐ Fheroes2 Project homepage: https://github.com/ihhub/fheroes2
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⭐ Fheroes2 Installation guide (Windows, Android, etc.): https://github.com/ihhub/fheroes2/blob/master/docs/INSTALL.md
⭐ The Clearing (map playthrough): https://youtu.be/NP-4OfScXqA
Please note I can’t help with individual technical problems – sorry. I suggest asking for help on the official Discord or other community pages if needed.
Music by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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