Haven't played for a long time, now back. Some proposals and feedback.
Elemental Forums
Dear dev team and forum members. I haven't played for a long time, and now I'm back to the game. I would have to admit I really like the way the game is been developed, and I like new patches also. But on the other hand I see that some things remained untouched (where I would like to see more changes) and some new things came to my mind.
I clearly understand that among these things some are 100% my personal preference others might be more "objective" issues, and they all together are described below.
Heroes vs trained units
Personally I'd vote for some buff of warrior/defender/assassin heroes and nerf of trained armies. Currently armies are much more powerful in close combat and only high-end heroes with end-game gear can match them. It is even more clear when you face expert AI which has a lot of insane buffs on his armies.
This CAN be mitigated by exploiting mechanics, but I would love to see more close combat heroes in action.
Personally I think that this matter requires VERY careful implementation, and testing is required to find the right balance. What comes to my mind in terms of change is restrictions of magic weapons and armor for heroes only (henchmen and Sions might be an exception).
Better amulets / rings / misc items for w/d/a heroes might help as well. You can for example slightly buff (+2 items) to (+3 & some effect which scales with level).
Weapons
Some weapon classes unfortunately have less uses / just suck to the swords. Rather than nerf swords I would suggest to buff other types and combine it with buff of classes, which do not have attack bonuses at all - let a/d/c have a class skills or class bonus which scales with level.
For example:
Mace - Defender (initiative, attack)
Dagger - Assassin (attack)
Axe - Warrior (attack, initiative)
Sword - Commander (attack)
Spears from my perspective should be special case. They are ALL 2-handed and prevent you from using shield. Thus I think ALL magical spears should be rare and really powerful (especially in right hands, as proposed below).
All these skills/bonuses might be tied to existing skills in a warrior skill tree (or they might complement them).
Please do not assume, that I want to restrict assassin from using swords (Assassin's Blade ftw), but there should be a choice, which might make daggers useful even in late game.
Legendary Heroes
The same problem which makes close combat useless is twice as bad for Legendary Heroes.
Besides special defense skill (which AFAIK exists only for Troll Hero) I would also boost an attack.E.g. make special skill (e.g. Heavy Weapons Mastery) for non-human heroes, who can be classified as Giants (Troll, Ogre, Brood) which gives bonus to damage and initiative while handling spears, axes, and maces.
This will make them somewhat better in dealing damage, yet they still won't be able to use armor, mounts and some other items.
Darkling mage now is also underpowered and can be buffed. Since she already can summon darklings, I would turn her into summoner - so summoning bonus + demon summon spell from the start will be nice. This will give her significant buff (but not overpowered - one of the Wraith heroes have the same spell) and own niche as well.