r/heroes3 • u/Irelia4Life • Dec 11 '24
Question Ignoring necromancy, how strong do you consider Necropolis as a standalone town?
Skeleton Warriors are actually quite solid tier 1 units. Highest attack and defense in the game for a lv1 unit, good hp, only lacking stat is speed.
They shall not be named.
Wraiths have niche use cases, but they are still the worst lv3 units in the game.
Vampire lords don't need a description.
Power Liches are good shoorts with a devastating aoe effect.
Dread Knights don't need an introduction
Ghost dragons are also weak af
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u/nubeaunufumez Dec 11 '24
Speaking if crap tier 2 unita ... Is anyone else sacrificing their necro tier 2 units into skeletons or is it just me?
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u/Flying-Camel OHS Hazard Dec 12 '24
I keep them unpurchased for defence purpose, these are decent meat shield.
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u/thekingsman123 Dec 11 '24
40+ vampire lords under Thant with expert earth magic and you win.
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u/jo-erlend Dec 12 '24
The game I'm currently playing, I started with Septienna and got Cyra in the guild on day 1. I discovered two lots of Vampire Lords close to town and was able to recruit some spies that told me they were both growing and both willing to join. By the time I even saw an enemy, they were growing by 20 per week. Cyra very quickly became my main hero. :)
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u/MonkeyBoyWonder22 Dec 12 '24
What of earth magic is so good a combo? (asking as a noob)
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u/thekingsman123 Dec 12 '24
Thant's specialty is Animate Dead (School of Earth) so he can reanimate more vampire lords than normal. Pair this spell with Expert Stone Skin, Slow and Implosion and your Hero can take down stacks on their own while the vampire lords kill and regenerate.
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u/JJOne101 Dec 11 '24
You forgot another two advantages: immune to mind spells, and Animate Dead is permanent from the beginning and cheaper than Resurrection.
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u/jo-erlend Dec 12 '24
Ghost Dragons are not weak because of the very high probability of getting Animate Dead (41% +Thant), which does not require a school of magic in order to be permanent, unlike Resurrection, which most good Dragons are immune to without Orb of Vulnerability. Also Animate Dead is very cheap. As others have pointed out, you can also use other dragons to create Ghost Dragons.
All in all, I think Ghost Dragons are underestimated.
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u/trifile Dec 11 '24
I think they overall style is 10/10.
Otherwise it’s a good faction for medium sized maps. Not that expensive and low ceiling as you mentioned with Dragons.
Hard to decorrelate their utility with necromancy which is a fantastic tool when fighting mobs.
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u/tonnambh Dec 12 '24
The zombies are good in town defense imo. Many times ive repel and attack with just 200 zombies lol.
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u/edmlover22 Dec 11 '24
The bad creatures on level 2 and 3 i can deal with it, but the worst level 7 and no necromancy... makes me wanna choose any other faction, even inferno who atleast has good level 7 and 6 creatures
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u/sxyWatermelon Dec 12 '24
Split ghost dragons into 1 stacks and roll the dice. Aging is still extremely useful
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u/ProfSaintBernard Dec 11 '24
Early game will be tough--no ranged units until level 5 and vampire lords need 10 gem 10 crystal.
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u/jo-erlend Dec 12 '24
Yes, but in return, you can have Septienna, who can give Death Ripple to any hero on day 1. If you're lucky, you start with Sephinroth and Saurug in guild. :)
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u/imnotsospecial Dec 11 '24
If you still have vampires to clear most fights and zone guards, still have animate dead without needing earth magic, still have skeleton transformers to convert all your trash units, got the best T6 unit in the game, and your heroes happen to roll the best skills then you still got a lot going for you. Definitely better than inferno, fortress, and rampart. Probably as good or better than stronghold as well
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u/jpg06051992 Dec 12 '24
Without necromancy they would get bodied hard by the more OP factions like Conflux, Castle and Dungeon. Their horrible tier 2 and 3 units make for inferior break times and farming capabilities compared to the big 3. Pikeman with Marksmen, Infernal Trogs with Hags > Skeletons and Zombies and Wraiths easily.
But Necromancy combined with Vampire Lords is a total game changer, being able to take next to zero losses while stacking more and more skeletons is just so strong. Admittedly Necromancy took a pretty heavy nerf in HOTA but it still feels strong.
Thant into vampire lords with liberal usage of animate dead is pretty broken.
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u/DoJebait02 Dec 12 '24
Good enough but weakest in general if you don't consider necromancy. Focus on Vampire, Lich and DK, they're probably top 1 of their tier. They're immune to a lot of OP spell (berserk, blind, forgetfulness,... but you can't be blessed), morale (useful in some cases) and animate dead is better than resurrection (one lower spell tier, easier to get, doesn't need advanced earth to resurrect permanently).
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u/Laanner Dec 12 '24
Vampire lords are carry whole factions. Dread nights are very expensive and unreliable. A lot of their cost is from unique abilities, that have low chance to proc. Power Liches also good and also very expensive. Skeletons warriors have a major flaw- their number aren't high enough for their stats. Without necromancy it makes them very mediocre. Zombies missed 1 max damage.
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u/Lettow82 Dec 12 '24
Skeleton transformer besides dragon creation needs a shout out.
If you play a (larger) map with for instance peasant, hobbit, pixies or other high number dwellings you flag on HOTA, you basically can get hundreds of skeletons every week after not too long if lucky. Last map I played, can't remember the name, I was necro and found two hovels and a thatched hut close by my castle fairly early. That's 65 "recruits". Picked them up, threw them in the meat grinder, voila: Nice stack of skellies early on.
(Ofc later on I found even more high number dwellings and the number of skeletons got pretty absurde pretty fast)
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u/Unfair_Criticism4918 Dec 12 '24
Just like you said, it is carried by 3 or 4 units (Spectral Dragons are super-weak for their level, but might still come in handy tbh). It's not TOTALLY terrible, but even though I still play them for nostalgia's sake (they were my first faction when I was like 6), I feel more comfortable playing most other factions
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u/PkerBadRs3Good Dec 12 '24 edited Dec 12 '24
having a few broken units and a few bad units is better than having all mid units. factions aren't played at a high level by using every single unit from one faction and nothing else like casuals do...
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u/JediFed Dec 12 '24
Necro without necromancy is extremely powerful once you get to Vampire Lords and get a stack large enough to carry the game all by themselves.
The bonus of being immune to blind is also quite nice. Until they get to Vampire Lords, they really struggle early game. They have nothing except skeleton stacks that they need to use to clear mines.
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u/Sungr0ve Dec 12 '24
I have more fun not using the necromancy gimmick. I tried it (albeit only on a small map) and it didn’t take me far. Honestly I like taking over necro towns but I hate having them as my main/starting town
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u/ResearcherLocal4473 Dec 12 '24
Still better than inferno
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u/Sungr0ve Dec 12 '24
Well yea. Starting with inferno is always rough compared to others especially if you get screwed over with starting heroes/spells
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u/guest_273 Thunderbirds Dec 19 '24
I feel like they'd still be an at least mediocre town, definitely not bottom 3 without Necromancy.
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u/Titowam Dec 11 '24
Pretty much gonna repeat what you said. Vampire Lords, Power Liches and Dread Knights carry Necropolis to extreme heights. Skeleton Warriors are pretty good, only lacking stat is speed, just like you said. Ghost dragons have their uses - the passive is good but are overall weak. Without the passive they'd be absolute garbage.
The tier 2 creature doesn't even deserve to be mentioned by name, Wraiths are... okay I guess, but very underwhelming. Could be useful to block enemy shooters from using their ranged attack, and to chip away on creatures behind castle walls.
Overall, a pretty good town even when you remove Necromancy. Some positives, some negatives.