Warlords of Battlecry is a largely melee focused real time strategy game. When playing the game you will need to manage your army, fight for control over resource sites and manage the most critical unit your hero. The hero grows as you play the game collecting items and experience with almost no limitations on how powerful they can become. Races are not balanced with some having large advantages over one another however with a good strategy almost any battle is winnable.

Heroes do not have to be the same race as they are commanding even in the campaign as others become unlocked while you play so the only restriction to your strategies based on how you make your hero. This guide will cover the heroes race, spells and classes with only examples given to how you can use the builds in strategies. Keep in mind no hero can do everything so in order to get 100% completion in the campaign you will need at least 2 heroes or playthoughs. There are 4 main types of hero to make

• Melee
  
• Hybrid (Melee and Magic)
  
• Mages
  
• Leader

If unfamiliar with the game I would strongly recommend you read the explainations included in the guide for hero game mechanics that you are interested in.

For Troubleshooting or Patches they are near the end of the guide.

When reading this guide you will often see a number in brackets.
Like this
(00) Name - description
Skills use this to show what level they are gained at .
Spells use this to show their mana cost.

Paragraphs to summerise what they are about start with a key word in most cases and if this doesn't interest you skip over it. I don't want to swamp players with a whole book worth of information they don't want so skills that are specialised to individual races, units or armies are excluded from this guide.

This guide is built for heroes up to level 50 as heroes beyond this point can become unstoppable. Specific racial army tactics will not be included in this guide and nor will specific items to hunt for. If you have questions just about content excluded ask in the comments below.

Heroes are almost never alone having both an army and a few elite units to cover their weaknesses. These elite units are called your Retinue and can be selected before combat instead of normal troops for the army you are leading. To get units available for your Retinue you will either have to purchase them in the campaign or level the units you want in a map to put into the retinue after the map is finished. Some general type units may also join you at level 1 after a battle. Retinue troops are taken for 4 main reasons.

• Healers including units like a White Mage or Unicorn that have a group heal and cure spells
  
• Bodyguards for some of the toughest units in the game to stop rush tactics.
  
• Extra mages for spells the hero may be missing like damage spells to deal with swarms
  
• Units with convert, small generation of resources from the units themselves or able to summon troops

Melee and Hybrid hero classes will often lack some form of healing.
Mages and Leaders are weak until they build up their base so may need a bodyguard.

Without assistance in these areas Heroes can easily be beaten after the first time they engage in battle. The standard selection for the retinue in a map is 1 bodyguard, 2 healers and any others for resources or summoning. When engaging in quick full sized battles retinue troops are generally not needed.

Items come in four main types

• Combat enhancements
  
• Casting enhancements
  
• Spell trigger items
  
• Leader items

Standard equipment is used to raise a heroes values to the point where they are equal to a general level unit. This is mainly combat enhancements from armor and a weapon for damage. More versitile equipment can be gotten but it is often rare and takes time to find. Arena style battles for heroes are often the fastest way of gaining new items.

Combat Enhancements are the major contributor to damage and protection of the hero. This is used not only by melee or hybrid heroes but even mages to assist in combat. Some equipment in this catergory may also decrease spellcasting chance and player may wish to offset this with casting enhancement items.

Casting Enhancements have a few possible benefits including mana generation rate, casting success or improvements to a spell skill. Almost any character has some use for these effects at high level if or when they want to use magic. It however is not worth trying to get all your gear of this type you still need some combat enhancements for survival.

Spell trigger items give a small chance of a spell effect occuring without mana cost in combat. While this may be weak for most characters some spells can still be used to great effect for certain characters with other spells.

Leader items usually consist of nothing more than a small income from an item. Bonuses to Morale or other army benefits are often small and it is difficult to determine the overall effectiveness of the item. While underated they can still be useful at times.

Statistics for your character are the Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence and Charisma of a Hero which cannot be redistributed once spent.

• Strength is used to determine hit chances, health regeneration and damage per strike.
  
• Dexterity is used to determine damage reduction, consversion speed, movement speed and attack speed.
  
• Intelligence is used to determine what level of magic you can effectively use
  
• Charisma is used for spell range, army power and number of retinue troops.

Out of these everyone will need 20 intelligence for good magic and level 3 starting troops. 8 Charisma will allow 3 retinue troops and decent command radius. Most points remaining will be placed into dexterity for speed and damage resistance. Strength is generally considered a dump statistic.

Melee characters have most of their statistics being spent in improving Strength and Dexterity. This is due to the standard rush tactics used by melee heroes in order to easily win most maps. Should the character choose to dump almost all magic offered they can become unparrelled melee fighters. Magic is usually only developed after level 20 when there are no new useful abilities without at least a few skill points in them.
Example for level 50
STR 9, DEX 33, INT 20, CHA 8

Mage characters will increase mainly Intelligence for high level spell casting. They need dexterity to run away if low on mana and needs some charisma so their spells have a decent range. This means a mage needs to develop their charisma before focusing on their intelligence. Due to how the game was made it is possible to also divert some intelligence to dexterity for better fighting power but don't neglect intelligence too much you will need it.
Example for level 50
STR 9, DEX 13, INT 40, CHA 8

Hybrid characters will get a mix of the statistics allowing them to preform well in any stage of the game. They are weaker than Melee heroes early game and weaker than Specialist Mages late game. Every hybrid character type is difficult to kill thanks to their magic sets available and good combat skill. They are built similar to the mage or a melee build depending on racial skills available.
Examples for level 50
STR 9, DEX 23, INT 30, CHA 8

Leaders usually avoid all combat and focus on Charisma with Intelligence for magic to aid them. Charisma is focused in to get them a bigger retinue and discount rate on buildings, upgrades or troops. When players feel that they are no longer able to use all their retinue the remaining points are placed into dexterity or intelligence. They are not as powerful as other classes and need to use their retinue with army tactics to stand a chance in combat.
Example for level 50
STR 9, DEX 17, INT 20, CHA 24

Useful skills are listed here according to the role they are used to help the hero. There are around 60 skills I consider to be useless and not included in this guide as they are too specialized to a race, unit or damage type. If you want an advantage over a team, unit or tactic it is better to find an item for that rather than use overspecialized skills. Damage threshold is how many points of damage are negated on each attack dealt to the hero.

Survival Skills
Constitution - Increases life points by a significant amount
Elemental Resistance - Slighty improves damage threshold for elemental damage
Ferocity - Improve combat that determines hit and miss chances.
Invulnerability - Slighty improves damage threshold for physical attacks
Magic Resistance - Slighty improves damage threshold for magic damage
Regeneration - Provides a percentage improvement to health regeneration
Running - Increases movement speed by 1 per rank
Shadow Strength - Improves combat that determines hit and miss chances only at night
*Vampirism - Drain life from enemies when you hit them in combat

Damage Skills
Assassin - Every hit has a chance to kill instantly
Ignore Armor - Negate a few points of armor with melee attacks
Mighty Blow - bonus melee damage every strike per level
Smite Evil - Adds to heroes damage against units considered Evil
Smite Good - Adds to heroes damage against units considered Good
Weaponmaster - Additional chance for critical hits

Magic Skills
Alchemy - Magic spell set
Arcane Magic - Magic spell set
Chaos Magic - Magic spell set
Divination Magic - Magic spell set
Elcor's Aura - Adds additional health restored to all healing magic
Energy - Slightly faster regeneration of mana
Healing Magic - Magic spell set
Ice Magic - Magic spell set
Illusion Magic - Magic spell set
Leech - Gain additional mana when hero kills an enemy
Lore - Increase maximum mana
Nature Magic - Magic spell set
Necromancy - Magic spell set
Poison Magic - Magic spell set
Potionmaster - Gives 1 additional mana potion for use
Pyromancy - Magic spell set
Ritual - Small casting success chance increase
Rune Magic - Magic spell set
Summoning Magic - Magic spell set

Leader Skills
Engineer - +20% to maximum building health per level
Gemcutting - 1 crystal per 4 seconds each level
Leadership - Improves Morale giving larger armies and faster attack speed for troops when hero is near
Merchant - Can afford roughly 1% more additively per level
Quarrying - 1 stone per 4 seconds each level
Smelting - 1 metal per 4 seconds each level
Warding - Add to resistance for all your troops
Wealth - 1 gold per 4 seconds each level

* Vampirism may be broken and patching is required to fix this

When building a character particularly one not focused as a mage it becomes important to realize that most skills give a decreasing benefit. This is often easier to see with melee builds than mages. Here are some examples:

• Regneration provides and extra 20% natural healing rate increase. With 10 skill we would have 300% natural healing rate and another skill point would give only a 6.67% boost to the total recovery rate.
  
  
• Ignore armor works to increase the damage you deal in combat by ignoring part of the enemy armor. If for any reason we ignore more armor than the target has additional damage will not be dealt. This means high levels of this skill are useless on many units.
  

Generally it is worth putting at least 5 points and around 15 at most in any useful skill you have for heroes that focus on melee combat even in magic skills. This will allow you to grab the majority of bonuses it provides but still have enough skill points left for other things. Mages that specialize in a secondary magic may grab a racial skill around level 10 to assist them until their other magic opens up.

This is only a general guide to which hero type should lead each army.

Races work best with certain types of heroes. Mages want mana regeneration, Warriors want some form of healing and Leaders tend to grab the rest. Hybrid classes are versatile and may fulfill more than one role although usually not as well as some other classes and this is usually determined by racial skills. Keep in mind it is possible to unlock other races armies in the campaign through certain missions or just working for that race enough.

Racial teams what hero should normaly lead them
For Melee
Empire - Has a healer
Fey - Has a healer
High Elf - Has a healer, and up to 3x health regeneration rate
Wood Elf - Has a healer, and up to 3x health regeneration rate

Mage
Barbarians - up to 3x mana generation rate
Daemons - up to 1.5x mana generation rate and enhances experience of summoned units
Dark Elf - up to 3x mana generation rate
Fey - up to 2x mana generation rate
Minotaur - up to 3x mana generation rate
Undead - up to 3x mana generation rate

Leader
Dark Dwarf - Repair spell on builders and siege masters
Dark Elf - Can generate resources from units and/or buildings created
Dwarf - Better tower garrison units and defensive masters
Fey - Can generate resources from units and/or buildings created
High Elf - Can generate resources from units and/or buildings created
Knights - Faster experiance gain on troops
Orc - Great swarm capabilities
Plague Lord - Disease easy to use and weaken powerful units.
Swarm - Drains resources and enhances build speeds.
Ssrathi - Poison on normal troops and hard hitting dinosaurs for hero slaying
Wood Elf - Can generate resources from units and/or buildings created

Both Fey and Elves can produce resources with troops or buildings. This is enough to make them great races for leaders as well as another hero type. Fey is particularly hard for a new hero even though it can fill every role to some extent.

All status effects have a check against a units resistance to determine if they work. These effects can easily turn the tide of battle. For Psychological effects the units apply their effects when almost in melee range and almost all other effects are caused by an attack.

Psychological effects
Undead, High Elf and mechanical units are Immune
Awe – Half speed and loss of ranged attacks
Fear – Half damage and -4 to speed
Terror – Uncontrollably run away from enemies and -2 speed
Chaos - Negates all bonuses on troops and negates all damage reduction

Health effects
Undead and mechanical units are Immune
Posion – Reverses health regeneration rate to 1/8th minimum health
Disease – Decreases combat, decreases speed, stops regeneration and stacks on itself

Critical effects
All critical hits also deal extra damage.
Slashing damage - hits all surrounding targets
Piercing damage - ignores armor value
Lightning damage - Destroys mana of target
Ice Damage - Attack and move speed halved
Fire damage - slowly loses health and cannot stay still
Blunt damage - Combat and speed is reduced to 1
Magical damage - (uncertain never seen it happen)

Other
Rain- reduces fire damage and more?
Night - Gives some evil creatures combat bonuses and undead heal

Heroes will always have at least 1 magic type available due to Racial skills and not getting at least a few points of skill in this magic is a waste. Around when racial magic opens up (level 20) it is worth grabbing some magic and intelligence for any character. Some heroes can add Life Ward or another great spell to a melee build in order to become almost invincible.

Mages are never extremely powerful but they have a little more variety to their play style. Early on they have very little variety in spells they can use and usually employ a powerful unit to act as a bodyguard. Mages would also sometimes hide in a tower if they fear being targeted and instead just create waves of summoned units so they had some extra protection. Once a mage had built up enough mana and levels they can kill entire armies single handedly.

Flaws exist in all magic sets so players that want to use a mage should consider getting a second magic from racial choice. The other option is to grab a class with a large selection of magic types and miss out on Arcane which will make you considerably weaker. With some races namely Orc, Daemon and Minotaur the mages can also double as Hybrid class to some extent. When creating your first hero I would strongly recommend grabbing a hero largely focused in melee first then magic second.

Each magic has a flaw and here is a basic list of what to expect from each spell set

• Arcane Magic is only there to enhance other spells,
  
• Chaos Magic requires a lot of skill to become powerful
  
• Divination lacks offensive spells
  
• Healing usually has no offensive capabilities in most situations
  
• Ice Magic lacks healing needed for frontline combat
  
• Illusion has no tangible benefit at high levels
  
• Nature Magic has a lot of summons but poor scaling on some of it's magic
  
• Necromancy lacks in uses apart from summoning troops
  
• Poison Magic is mainly only used to cause or cure poison
  
• Pyromancy is too expensive to use in frontline combat without taking breaks
  
• Rune Magic greatly enhances defenses but useless without other skills or a base
  
• Summoning provides very little scaling benefit for any of it's spells.

Time magic isn't included here yet as I am trying to finish the official game content first.

Magic you use is not created equal and there are only some worth investing a lot into. These for ease of understanding their roles are split into 2 catergories Primary Magic and Secondary Magic.

• Primary spell sets are not often worth investing less than around 20 in the spell skill for high character levels and not much more than 30.
  
• Secondary spell sets do not provide a large benefit past around 10 skill however they can be raised to around 20 if you don't mind spliting power between 2 magic types

I strongly recommend grabbing one primary spell type and one secondary spell type for dedicated mages (not counting Arcane Magic).

Primary spell skills are

• Alchemy - Equipment Master and resource support
  
• Chaos Magic - Covers armies weaknesses and powerful area effect magic
  
• Ice Magic - Ranged damage and Antimagic
  
• Pyromancy - Focused Damage and army support
  
• Nature - Summons and a variety of weak spells

Secondary spell skills are

• Arcane Magic - Used to enhance other spells
  
• Divination - Superior troop experience and basic hero protection
  
• Healing - Recovery from damage and spells useful against evil races
  
• Illusion - Invisability, distractions and mental weaken spells
  
• Necromancy - Instant hordes and accelerated startup
  
• Poison Magic - Weak swarm units and physical Weakening effects
  
• Rune Magic - Protection spells and building enhancements
  
• Summoning - Escape route and summoned flyers

Arcane Magic is a spell enhancement skill that classifies a hero as a mage and doesn't really fit into primary or secondary magic roles. This has been included in secondary magic as it isn't available until level 25 and placing most of your magic skills in it is also a bad idea.

Keep in mind the following are just some examples of good spell combinations and others not mentioned can also be used to great effect.

• Pyromancy and Summoning - Levels the multiple summon spells with soul flame as well as providing a powerful bonus with berserker to give them some much needed speed or accuracy. Can also teleport back to start location and heal with cauterise. Pyromancy alsoprovides much needed fire powerespecially when it comes to destroying buildings.
  
  
• Chaos magic and Healing - No summons but a spell for almost every role as well as disabling mages magic while using your own to fuel your survival. Can be used to pay for death ward to give a second chance or giving you a serious advantage with armies. Chaos magic can make even weak units strong and healing magic used to give further bonuses to the troops or heal them.
  
  
• Ice Magic and Divination - The hero can stand back using ice floe while the retinue engages in melee as well as possibly disabling mana regeneration to stop mages killing with spells. Should the hero be threatened they can unleash a powerful area effect magic and may have several mage generals providing support. It is also possible to raise the starting level of all troops by 1.
  
  
• Alchemy and Illusion - Appear anywhere with a powerful hero ready to kill when enhanced with spellforge and possibly escape afterwards. They can also amass a large amount of healing potions for use before hand and use illusion to deal with most low level swarm units. Your army can also be used with the hero and powerful psychological effects used to overcome most opponents.
  
  
• Nature and Rune - Summoned units to support your army and enhanced building speed with repair. When base reaches a comparable level to summons few can match the armies size or power. Other magic from nature is mainly used to support the army where needed giving healing, slowing the enemy or just outright killing them.

Necromancy has it's uses in not requiring much investment to get a good benefit, Poison, Rune and Summoning are much the same way. Almost every spell combo with primary and secondary magic can provide a strong strategy as I have outlined. There are more but this should give an idea of how to use mages effectively and beat powerful melee builds with high assassinate, damage per strike or critical chances.

Primary magic types are spell sets worth putting a large amount of skill points into because they provide great benefits at higher levels. Keep in mind any + values to the spells means additional levels past 1.

Alchemy
Alchemy has the power to control items in a map either disabling others or enhancing your own.
This is also one of the better magics for supporting your army giving discounts, summons and quick conversions. Finding useful items is also much easier with this magic and healing potions can be created at any time to be stockpiled for the hero's use later. This magic lacks in any damage spells and makes the character often more of a warrior in battle. Think of them like Sauron from The Lord of the Rings movie going into melee combat rather than throwing spells.

(12) Create Item - Creates a random item drop and higher levels improves chance of rare items.
(15) Transmute - Trade 1 resource for another at 50% exchange rate +10% per level
(6) Charm - 1 minute duration 2 to merchant skill (roughly a 2% discount) per spell level
(14) Stone Golem - Creates a stone golem a slow but tough unit more levels = more starting experience
(24) Brew Potion - Creates a healing potions for later use 1 per spell level
(22) Acquire - Instant conversion of building +50% area per spell level
(24) Summon Guardian - Summons a tower that shoots lightning higher levels = stronger tower
(40) Disjuction - Renders all items you are not using useless for half a minute per spell level
(60) Bronze Golem - A General class unit tough but slow higher spell level = more experiance
(70) Spellforge - Double all equiped items effects for 1 minute per level

Chaos Magic
Chaos magic is used to enhance weak statistics on a unit such as speed to cover a weakness. Morph spells cannot decrease any value below 1 so you have a good chance of altering low values in your favor. At high levels you have 3 powerful area effect spells mana drain that effectively disables all enemy mages, Wildfire lots of fire damage or Chaos plague take out half their health and disease enemies. The other two powers this magic has are exchanging resources and randomly learning basic magic from other spell sets.

(6) Morph combat - Modify combat by up to 3 per level (useful for ranged troops)
(8) Morph speed - Modify speed by up to 3 per level (useful for slow troops)
(5) Morph health - Modify health by up to 30 per level (useful for cheap swarm units)
(7) Morph damage - Modify damage by up to 3 per level
(12) Morph tower - Modify a random stat by up to 3 per level (30 for health)
(24) Drain Mana - Drains 50 mana from all enemies nearby +25 mana and +50% area effect per level
(30) Morph resources - Trade one resource for another at roughly 50% rate +10% per level
(55) Increase casting - Gives +1 spell skill for duration of map +1 skill per 2 levels
(32) Wildfire - 50 fire damage per level in command radius
(70) Chaos Plague - Does 50% of enemies health in damage and causes disease


Ice Magic
Ice magic apart from direct damage has a few interesting spells to enhance the hero. Ice Armor enhances physical defense and the spell Ice Floe can be used to attack from a distance where necessary even if it does less damage than a normal attack. The anti magical effects of Freeze magic to disable mana regeneration and calm to dispel things like arcane magic allow you to kill mages with ease. Unlike Pyromancy this magic focuses on making the hero the most powerful unit rather than supporting an army.

(10) Hand of Ice - 20 ice damage to all enemies in command radius +10 per level
(8) Storm - (still trying to find all effects but weakens fire magic for a set duration)
(14) Armor - +5 armor a level for 1minute per level
(10) Calm - Removes all magical effects and psychological in command radius
(30) Ring of Ice - 50 ice damage +25 a level in a smal radius around the caster
(25) Freeze - Lower speed by 2 +1 per level and attack speed by 20% +10% per level for 30 seconds
(8) Wall of Ice - Creates a piece of wall for 10 minutes duration per level
(30) Ice Floe - Changes attacks to ranged doing 20 damage + 15 per level for 30 seconds per level
(40) Freeze Magic - Stops all mana regeneration on map
(65) Ice Storm - Does 100 ice damage +50 per level in command radius.


Pyromancy
Pyromancy has the largest amount of damage options for a spell set with most of these options providing greater damage at the cost of smaller area of effect. Other spells are there to support your troops however they usually have severe limitations. Fire has the highest general damage however is the most common form of elemental attack and resistance so isn't always effective. While this is one of the largest forms of damage it is better at destroying buildings then beating armies.

(10) Hand of Flame - 20 fire damage to all enemies in command radius +10 per level
(6) Soul Flame - Gives +5 experience a level to a limit of 10 per level
(8) Cauterise - Heals 25 health per level in command radius
(7) Resist Fire - 25 fire resistance to all within command radius for 1 minute per level
(30) Ring of Fire - 40 fire damage +20 a level in a smal radius around the caster
(30) Firebreath - gives friendly units in command radius a fire attack doing 10 damage +5 per level
(15) Berserker - +5 combat +1 per level and +5 speed +2 per level to friendly troops in command radius however does damage over time to the units. (caster not effected)
(40) Pillar of Flame - 100 fire damage to all within melee range +40 damage per level
(40) Fire Elemental - Summons a fire elemental +50 exp per level
(75) Armageddon - 100 fire damage +50 per level to all in command radius.


Nature
Nature has the greatest variety of summon spells in the game. In addition to this it also has basic healing, a damage spell, a self combat enhancement and a speed decreasing effect for enemies. This the most diverse selection of magic available to any magic type having most if not everything you need in a good mage. Unlike other major forms of summoning type magic it doesn't have a spell to enhance summons easily but has a wider variety to choose from.

(10) Summon Sprite - summons a sprite +20 exp per level
(12) Gemberry - heals 25 health per level to all friendly units in command radius
(8) Entangle - reduces enemy speed by 4 +2 per level for 30 seconds per level
(8) Shillelagh - +5 combat for caster per level
(20) Summon Unicorn - summons a unicorn +20 exp per level
(8) Wall of Thorns - Summons a piece of wall for 10 minutes per level
(35) Call Lightning -Does 60 lightning damage to all in command radius +20 damage per level
(40) Summon Treant - Summons a treant +20 exp per level
(25) Change Weather - Can start or stop rain and change to day or night.
(50) Elementalism - Summons an elemental +50 exp per level

Arcane Magic
This magic set is only available to specialist mages and is used to enhance high level hero's magical power to extreme levels. With most effects giving a greater bonus than a third spell level for mages there is no excuse not to get at least some skill here. Get skill 13 here at most for enervate 2 as more gives only small benefits to a character under level 50.

(8) Concentration - Increases spell casting chances by 20% +5% per level for 2 minutes +1 minute per level
(12) Command - Increases area effect of spells by 25% per level for 2 minutes +1 minute per level
(20) Enervate - Increases mana regeneration by 50% per level for 2 minutes +1 minute per level
(22) Extend - Doubles duration of all spells cast while effect lasts (duration 2 minutes +1 minute per level)
(24) Mana Flow - Spells cost 25% less for the hero to cast for 2 minutes +1 minute per level
(28) Corruption - While spell lasts all new units summoned have a chance of joining your side (duration 2 minutes +1 minute per level)
(32) Dispel - Removes all active spell effects nearby cast by enemies +50% area per level
(40) Mana Leech - Drains 5 mana from every unit you kill while effect is active
(60) Empower - Most non range spell values of the hero are increased by 50% +25% level (duration 2 minutes +1 minute per level)
(100) Destruction - Causes casters health -1 in damage to everything including allies in spell radius. Higher levels increase area of effect.

Divination
Divination is an army support magic set that also provides your hero with some basic protection. The 2 main reasons this magic is taken are Mind Leech and Telepathy to rapidly raise the levels of your troops. Cheap protection spells are also found here to enhance the heroes survival and Mind Blast to disable an enemy army while your troops pick them off. Divination however lacks in scaling so it isn't worth investing huge amounts here usually just enough to get 40exp on new troops with your intelligence bonus. Mages created by this magic are weaker than other troops produced and generally used in place of the hero for reasons of safety.

(6) Elemental Lore - +10 resistance for caster for 1 minute per level
(6) Defense Lore - +10 armor for caster for 1 minute per level
(5) See invisable - Caster can see all invisable units in sight range for 2 minutes per level
(10) Telepathy - +10 XP per level for newly created units for 1 minute per level
(30) Banish - Destroys Daemon/Archon/Elemental enemy units teir 1-2 higher levels effect 2 more tiers of troops
(35) Comprehension - 25% discount for upgrades +5% per level for 1 minute per level
(60) Call Sage - Creates a mage general +20 exp per level
(50) Mind Leech - Nearby melee units steal experiance on kill for 1 minute per level
(60) True Sight - Increases the sight radius of all units on casters side by 1 per level
(70) Psyhic Blast - Enemies are stunned for 5 seconds a level

Healing Magic
Healing is fairly self explainatory used for recovery after battle and healing your troops. For a mage it can be used to ressurrect a dead bodyguard or used for Life Ward to keep yourself from dying easily. Troop enhancements from this magic are fairly small and limited however it also has purify an often overlooked spell useful against evil races as they have almost no resistance. After 11 skill levels for self healing 2 very little benefit is gained from further investment. Gaining further levels will grant better healing per cast but most units don't have enough health to benefit from this.

(8) Heal Self - Heals 50 health of the caster per level
(8) Cure - Heals 20 health +10 per level in a area curing disease and poison at the same time
(8) Blessing - +2 morale per level
(6) White Ward - Increases all nearby friendly units resistance by 5 per level for 1 minute per level
(15) Heal Group - Heals 50 health to nearby friendly units per level
(16) Invigorate - +2 speed to hero and nearby friendly units +1 speed per level for 1 minute per level.
(20) Purify - Evil races suffer 50 magical damage +20 per level
(40) Major Healing - Map wide 100 points of healing per level
(40) Death Ward - Resurrects hero if killed in duration once per casting lasts for 2 minutes per level
(60) Resurection - Raises dead units from your side greater raidus per level (3rd level also effects hostiles)

Illusion
Illusion has a lot of powerful weakening spells able to turn the tide of most battles and the invaluable invisibility spell however most spells do not scale in anything but duration. There doesn't seem to be a point to getting anything beyond Summon Shadow in Illusion for unit with experience drain. Get up to skill level 11 skill if you want to turn low level units into critters then leave alone. Transform is like playing a slot machine with your troops sometimes you win but largely you waste mana. Getting more skill here will expand the range of status effects, make mutate stronger, transform more likely to work in your favor and not much else.

(8) Shadow form - +1 speed, +5 armor and +5 resistance per level
(6) Scare - Cause Fear +50% area effect per level
(5) Light/Darkness - Change the time to day or night
(8) Awe - Causes awe +50% area effect per level
(14) Spectral warriors - creates 6 illusionary units based of the army you are leading +2 more per level and lasts for 2 minutes per level.
(20) Dragon Fear - Creates an illusionary dragon to cause terror for 2 minutes per level
(30) Invisability - Makes hero invisable until they attack, cast a spell or start converting for 1 minute per level
(30) Call Shadow - Creates a Shadow that can drain experiance +20 experience per level.
(50) Mutate - Transforms hostile teir 1 to 2 units into critters +1 teir per level
(70) Transform - Changes 3 friendly units a level randomly into another creature. Higher Keep means better chances and higher skill unlocks better possible results

Necromancy
Necromancy is used to summon either a horde of weak units or a few undead champions. The other spells here are generally of little use to you except Black Portal to enhance spell levels and Dark Storm. Get up to 12 skill here for extra skeletons or zombies with the undead champions then leave it alone. Getting more skill gives a more powerful strip flesh and better mana cost per summon for skeletons or zombies but it isn't much use directly against other heroes. This magic is mainly used to save key resources for keep upgrades.

(8) Raise Skeleton - Creates a 2 Skeletons +1 per level and +5 exp per level
(8) Raise Zombie - Creates a Zombie 1 per level and +5 exp per level
(8) Black Portal - Raises the power of spells that summon undead by 1 level
(15) Raise Wight - Creates a Wight +20 exp per level
(30) Vampirism - Drain 2 health per strike +1 per level for nearby melee troops duration 1 minute per level.
(16) Dark Storm - Changes time to night and causes rain (enhances lightning damage)
(35) Strip Flesh - Kills and converts teir 1 to 2 troops into skeletons +1 teir per level
(30) Call of the Dead - Turns any bones left by decaying bodies nearby into skeletons
(35) Ring of Ice - 50 ice damage in a small radius around hero +25 damage per level
(65) Raise Champion - Creates your choice between a Shadow, Doom Knight, Lich or Vampire +50 exp per level

Poison Magic
Poison Magic as the name suggests tries to inflict poison in any way possible. The summons here are not worth investing a lot of points into and the rest of the spells just deliver poison in a different manner. Immunity or curing of Poison and Disease are the only other reasons to get this magic. Get no more than 13 here if you want to suprise your opponent with weak swarm troops.

(6) Immunity - Hero is immune to disease and poison for 2 minutes
(6) Poison Cloud - Poisons enemies +50% area effect per level
(5) Summon Wasp - Create 1 wasp per level
(10) Antidote - Cures disease and poison +50% area effect per level
(15) Venom Touch - Gives nearby melee units poison on attacks
(24) Poison Gate - All summoned units will be poisoned
(30) Spray Poison - 40 Piercing damage with poison +10 damage per level
(45) Guardian Naga - Creates a Naga general +20 experience per level
(45) Rot - Inflicts poison and disease with maximum penalty to teir 1 to 2 units +1 per level
(50) Call of Kargoth - Creates 8 spiders and 8 spider queens +20 exp per level

Rune Magic
Rune magic has a few valuable protection spells against ranged or magical attacks. Particularly useful when tied either with a low intelligence character to ensure the next spell cast works or a high magic character to give some protection. Construction and repair spells are the other reasons to use this magic so you can quickly construct and maintain a base. Get 5 here as all the other spells are not useful most of the time. Should you invest extra skill points here you will find the benefits are small at best.

(12) Stoneskin - adds +10 armor for 1 minute per level
(4) Gem of Wisdom - +20% casting chance for next spell
(8) Dig - Decrease build times for structures by 20% +10% per level for 2 minutes per level
(12) Earthpower - Repairs 200 health worth of damage to buildings
(25) Resist Magic - +25 resist magic damage per level for minute per level
(16) Doomstones - 30 crushing damage +20 per level
(24) Summon Guardian - Summons a tower that shoots lightning higher levels = stronger tower
(35) Resist Missile - Renders caster has a 50% resistance to all ranged piercing attacks for 1 minute per level
(40) Rune Item - Create a Rune item of your choice higher levels give a better item
(50) Stonecall - Creates an Earth Elemental +50 experience per level

Summoning
Summoning is the magic to use if you need to create flying units. There are 3 types to choose from the Imps for destroying buildings, melee succubi for recovering mana on daemon spell casters and slow Daemons able to summon Imps regularly, cause chaos and take a lot of damage. The other uses for summoning is the home portal spell used to teleport back to start location and a summon worker spell (Quasits). All summons but the Daemon Gate spell here are vulnerable to the basic banishment spell. Once gotten to 11 for an extra Quasit benefits are minimal and is best paired with the Daemon race hero as they can use succubi to restore the heroes mana and the Daemon army are the only choice that can protect from banishment.

(10) Summon Quasit - Creates 1 Quasit per spell level at experience level 1
(4) Circle of Power - Raises level of any spell that creates demons cast nearby by 1
(5) Phantom Steed - +2 speed +1 per level, 5 armor per level and 5 resistance per level (duration 1 minute per level) only effects calvary.
(3) Blink - Teleports hero randomly a short distance away
(14) Summon Imp - Creates 1 Imp +20 exp every every level
(12) Eye of Oros - Creates 2 eye scouts +1 eye scout and +20 experience a level (short duration)
(20) Home Portal - Teleports hero back to start location
(35) Soul Harvest - Creates 1 succubus per spell level at experience level 1
(30) Banish - Banishes teir 1 to 2 Daemons/Archons/Elementals +2 unit teirs per level
(55) Daemon Gate - Creates a demon +50 exp per level

Pure melee characters only have racial magic but generally have a high combat skill and means to enhance their damage. They can be built into units able to rush in and slaughter entire armies however are usually quite limited on how they are used. Those that lack recovery skills need to use items or other units to help them and all melee role heroes can be identified by having either Ferocity or shadow strength but lacking any additonal types of magic.

Assassin
The assassin has a small chance of instantly killing anything every hit and has high combat at night time thanks to Shadow Strength skill. This class has a few weaknesses like a lack of healing and is only useful in combat at night time. Players may need to use Necromancy, Illusion or Nature magic to change the time to night in order to use the benefit from shadow strength. Since this unit has wealth they can to some extent double as a leader for your army while not in use and only a fool rushes an Assassin.
Recommended races - Barbarian, Dark Dwarf, Empire, Orc, Ssrathi
Useful skills
(1) Assassin - Every hit has a chance to kill instantly
(5) Shadow Strength - Improves combat that determines hit and miss chances but only at night 
(15) Wealth - 1 gold per 4 seconds each level 
(25) Ignore Armor - Negate a few points of armor per skill level with melee attacks 


Chieftain
Leader and melee hero which has mighty blow allowing you to deal a lot of damage per strike. They lack any form of healing and are useful to have if you want a large army following your hero around thanks to the leadership skill. Racial skills can make them almost on par with the warrior in terms of power. Retinue troops are expected to be used in order to aid health recovery.
Recommended races - Daemon, Empire, High Elf, Knight, Wood Elf
Useful skills
(1) Ferocity - Improve combat that determines hit and miss chances.
(5) Leadership - Improves Morale giving larger armies and faster attack speed for troops when hero is near
(25) Mighty Blow - bonus melee damage every strike per level 

Dragon Slayer
Ok this is one hero I cannot find a positive for as dragons are rare and they lack any useful skill. They have no means of healing themself either so are complete trash. Don't make them or use them as almost anything else is better in comparison.
Recommended races - None
Useful skills
(1) Ferocity - Improve combat that determines hit and miss chances.
(25) Wealth - 1 gold per 4 seconds each level 

Warrior
The pure melee class that everyone wants to go for as it has all the best combat skills. They will also have racial benefits to help them get some basic magic but this isn't needed most of the time. Often chosen as it is one of the easiest classes to play and using high critical hit chances to fight against other heroes magic.
Recommended races - Empire, High Elf, Minotaur, Ssrathi, Undead, Wood Elf
Useful skills
(1) Ferocity - Improve combat that determines hit and miss chances.
(1) Constitution - Increases life points by a significant amount
(5) Regeneration - Provides a percentage improvement to health regeneration
(15) Weapon Master - Additional chance for critical hits
(25) Ignore Armor - Negate a few points of armor with melee attacks

Hybrid classes have multiple types of magic available however instead of Arcane magic they have Ferocity. Magic is usually not available immediately on hero creation and player will have to wait a bit. The Hybrids classes are rather versatile builds able to be built into a number of roles however often weaker in any one role than other hero types. Whatever race chosen will likely determine what type of hero they become so pick racial skills that benefit you.

Daemonslayer
Summoning magic for this character is kind of ironic but it gives them a means to escape combat by teleporting back to base. They will need some form of healing to recover and can use their excess mana to summon daemons. Racial magic will likely be used more often as they don't often need to use the Summoning magic in combat. Since they have the rare skill smelting they can double to some extent as a leader allowing them to get more raw melee troops that require this resource.
Recommended races - Empire, Daemon or Barbarian
Useful Skills
(1) Ferocity - Improve combat that determines hit and miss chances.
(5) Warding - Add to resistance for all your troops
(15) Smelting - 1 metal per 4 seconds each level 
(25) Summoning - Magic spell set

Death Knight
The Death Knight has 2 spell sets available Chaos and Necromancy. Both of these work well together already and you still have the racial spell set to grab. This makes them a sort of battlemage class just lacking some form of healing. As Necromancy is limited in scaling at higher levels Chaos magic magic will be focused in and/or racial skills.
Recommended races - Daemon, Empire, High Elf, Knight, Minotaur
Useful Skills
(1) Ferocity - Improve combat that determines hit and miss chances.
(5) Chaos Magic - Magic spell set
(15) Necromancy - Magic spell set
(25) Smite Good - Adds to heroes damage against units considered Good


Paladin
Healing with combat allows fast recovery from most battles and this is one of the few classes that works well for most races. Beginners to this game should consider getting this class over all others until they are comfortable with combat or using the spellbook. Players later may want a more versitile class as they lack a skill that works well offensively well at high levels without a racial bonus.
Recommended races - Dark Elf, Knight, Minotaur, Swarm
Useful Skills
(1) Ferocity - Improve combat that determines hit and miss chances.
(5) Healing - Magic spell set
(25) Smite Evil - Adds to heroes damage against units considered Evil

The specialist mages generally focus on 1 magic and their racial bonus. Racial magic is very important here as most magic doesn't scale well or may have a serious flaw. All Magical specialists can be identified by the Arcane Magic skill. If starting from a secondary magic type it may be worth grabbing a non magic skill until racial magic is available.

Alchemist
Alchemy gives you the advantage of items in combat however a mage that specialises in this can also gain faster regeneration for mana and additional mana potions at the start of combat. This can be used to accelerate Arcane magic setup or use powerful magic early in the game. Think of them like a powerful warrior as long as their magic lasts. Often they need to worn down before they can be killed.
Recommended races - Dark Dwarf, Dwarf, Fey, Knight, Minotaur, Plague Lord, Swarm
Useful skills
(1) Alchemy - Magic spell set
(1) Ritual - Small casting success chance increase
(5) Energy - Slightly faster regeneration of mana
(15) Potion master - Gives 1 additional mana potion for use
(25) Arcane Magic - Magic spell set

Defiler
This class of mage has a very limited skill set however allows you to mix poison with a racial magic type. Why you would want to do this I don't know as poison is only useful if you have some sort of retreat option available or need immunity to it. They are useful for supporting your troops but the poison effect takes time to work.
Recommended races - Daemon, Minotaur, Wood Elf
Useful skills
(1) Poison magic - Magic spell set
(1) Ritual - Small casting success chance increase
(25) Arcane Magic - Magic spell set

Druid
Summoning is the druids main power but also has a small selection of other spells. This class is useful to help cover a secondary magic's short comings as it already has a spell for most situations. Most spells here lack power in comparison to other magic types so this can be considered a Jack/Jill of all trades mage.
Recommended races - Daemon, Dwarf, Knight, Minotaur, Ssrathi
Useful skills
(1) Nature Magic - Magic spell set
(1) Ritual - Small casting success chance increase
(25) Arcane Magic - Magic spell set

Ice Mage
Ice magic is a fairly low cost offensive magic that is hard to use effectively. Since ice is a combat magic missing any form of healing it is usually best paired with another magic that can help in this area. With Gemcutting some armies spells and some magical units can be made allowing this mage double to some extent as a leader.
Recommended races - Dark Elf, Empire, Fey, High Elf, Knight, Plague Lord, Ssrathi
Useful skills
(1) Ice Magic - Magic spell set
(1) Ritual - Small casting success chance increase
(15) Gemcutting - 1 crystal per 4 seconds each level
(25) Arcane Magic - Magic spell set

Illusionist
Natural leaders of a sort able to use magics to turn the tide of battle or alternatively sneak around either capturing mines or picking off enemies. This is a fantastic spell set to suprise for the enemy with powerful area effect spells or escape a tricky situation. The magic is of limited use without an army so you may need to develop skills to support that.
Recommended races - Barbarian, Daemon, Empire, Knight
Useful skills
(1) Illusion - Magic spell set
(1) Ritual - Small casting success chance increase
(5) Leadership - Improves Morale giving larger armies and faster attack speed for troops when hero is near
(15) Magic Resistance - Slighty improves damage threshold for magic damage
(25) Arcane Magic - Magic spell set

Necromancer
This can be used to either scavange a battlefield or create your own summons. As basic spells are almost always more efficient in comparison to Necromancy's other methods of raising skeletons so high skill levels are not worth much. Racial magic needs to be gotten as soon as possible to make a good character at higher levels. This is usually gotten as either an alternative to fill out the army with weak units or to allow the player to focus on upgrading the keep straight away.
Recommended races - Daemon, Dark Dwarf, High Elf, Orc, Wood Elf
Useful skills
(1) Necromancy - Magic spell set
(1) Ritual - Small casting success chance increase
(25) Arcane Magic - Magic spell set

Pyromancer
The favorite magic for most mage players so they can deal some damage. Most spells here are expensive so either an escape option from racial bonuses or another method to conserve power may be needed. They are particularly good at destroying building with the aid of their magic.
Recommended races - Dark Elf, Minotaur, Plague Lord, Ssrathi, Wood Elf
Useful skills
(1) Pyromancy - Magic spell set
(1) Ritual - Small casting success chance increase
(25) Arcane Magic - Magic spell set

Runemaster
Rune magic is all about defense in one way or another. While you can build your base quicker with this magic it is not useful in battle without some other means to enhance your combat capabilities or battle magic. This still makes for an interesting leader mage with the quarrying skill but the resource is not enough by itself to make all but a few things.
Recommended races - Dark Dwarf, Empire, Knight, Orc, Wood Elf
Useful skills
(1) Rune Magic - Magic spell set
(1) Ritual - Small casting success chance increase
(15) Quarrying - 1 stone per 4 seconds each level
(25) Arcane Magic - Magic spell set

Sage
Divination is a support magic only and doesn't scale well however it can be used with just about any racial magic with ease. Leveling up your army is the major power here and the skills make an interesting mage when paired with another magic. Troops may be more powerful however the player still needs to be careful as the magic is dependant on keeping your troops alive.
Recommended races - Barbarian, Empire, Fey, Wood Elf
Useful skills
(1) Divination - Magic spell set
(1) Ritual - Small casting success chance increase
(15) Energy - Slightly faster regeneration of mana
(25) Arcane Magic - Magic spell set

Shaman
Chaos magic is interesting however very random at times and is a powerful damage magic in it's own right. This is best tied with a secondary magic as Chaos magic starts quite weak not becoming powerful until a lot of points are invested. Most high level spells are devetating area effects more focused to weakening than killing outright.
Recommended races - Fey, High Elf, Swarm, Undead
Useful skills
(1) Chaos Magic - Magic spell set
(1) Ritual - Small casting success chance increase
(5) Warding - Add to resistance for all your troops
(15) Magic resistance - Slighty improves damage threshold for magic damage
(25) Arcane Magic - Magic spell set

Summoner
There are 2 tricks to this character the first being powerful flying summons and the second being an escape method. Any hero would find this useful however you may need some healing methods as well to rejoin the battle afterwards if injured. Racial magic in a primary type is recommended due to lack of scaling with summoning magic.
Recommended races - Daemon
Useful skills
(1) Summoning - Magic spell set
(1) Ritual - Small casting success chance increase
(25) Arcane Magic - Magic spell set

Leaders are a hero type that don't want to rely on a super unit strategy and are the prefered choice of players wanting a more standard real time strategy experience. Since the heroes are almost useless in combat they are used for their passive benefits to an army. Like a mage they employ a powerful bodyguard and additional support troops from high charisma used to protect your base and help counter melee rushes. They will get limited magic from either their race or class but this isn't as strong as other mages and usually used to support the army in areas they may be lacking.

Bard
Bigger armies and divination which could summon mages or get the best bodyguards easily. They are nearly unbeatable at the start with their retinue of heroic level units. They are not there to fight the enemy directly but instead support others as they do the hero's role for them.
Recommended races - Barbarian, Daemon, Empire, Fey, Ssrathi, Undead
Useful Skills
(1) Leadership - Improves Morale giving larger armies and faster attack speed for troops when hero is near
(5) Wealth - 1 gold per 4 seconds each level 
(15) Divination - Magic spell set

Merchant
Discounts on everything in the game are nice and to a degree will make up for lack of combat skills. This hero will likely be hidden in a tower most of the time and is a good pick if you would rather use army strategy over a super unit. They need to have a means of trading resources for others the hero does not naturally produce and can use many armies special abilities easily.
Recommended races - Dark Dwarf, Empire, Orc, Swarm, Undead
Useful Skills
(1) Merchant - Can afford roughly 1% more additively per level
(5) Wealth - 1 gold per 4 seconds each level 
(25) Gemcutting - 1 crystal per 4 seconds each level 

Ranger
This is one of the few classes in the game with the skill Running allowing them to avoid most combat. When used with nature magic and another racial type they can be used as a coward to turn the tide of most battles with ease. They are very difficult to play effectively and not reccomended for new players.
Recommended races - Daemon, Empire, Knight, Minotaur
Useful Skills
(1) Running - Increases movement speed by 1 per rank
(5) Nature Magic - Magic spell set

Thief
The thief is more of an annoyance than an actual threat as they will use their speed from Running skill with illusion magic to avoid getting killed and reach anywhere in the map. When it came to combat they were however weak and often useless by themself. Warding was used to give their troops resistance to low level elemental attacks and Illusion used to weaken the enemy for easy killing.
Recommended races - Empire, Orc, Ssrathi
Useful Skills
(1) Running - Increases movement speed by 1 per rank
(5) Warding - Add to resistance for all your troops 
(25) Illusion - Magic spell set

Tinker
They are almost useless in battle however have all their skills tied to support their army. They can generate stone and metal while also increasing maximum building health. Alchemy is used to convert resources to another that they are lacking in and summon golems for defense. Base creeping is a favorite tactic here as the towers are extremely difficult to destroy.
Recommended races - Barbarian, Dwarf, Empire, Knight, Swarm
Useful Skills
(1) Engineer - +20% to maximum building health per level
(5) Alchemy - Magic spell set
(15) Smelting - 1 metal per 4 seconds each level 
(25) Quarrying - 1 stone per 4 seconds each level

Heroes that do not fall into another catergory are classified as Other. Items need to be hunted down to give them a chance against most other classes. These classes are especially difficult to play or even build correctly so players should choose another class to start out playing the game with. They are not weaker heroes as such and people will struggle unless experienced at playing the game.

Archmage
The archmage is the magical leader jack of all trades hero in the game starting with Summoning and Alchemy then learning more spell skills as they level up. Divination, Illusion and a racial spell skill are learned in addition to the starting magic. Since they have up to 5 types of magic available focus in most have to be dropped at some point. Mana was the other big limiting factor so while they can fufill almost any role the cost in mana is too much to sustain any for long. This is a weird class and very hard to build well but can fufill almost any hero role. I have even had them beat a warrior in a fair fight and easily kill pure mages. Grab the magic from each spell set until you are around level 20 then go into racial magic or other skills if you don't want to focus in the existing magic.
Recommended races - Any
Useful Skills
(1) Summoning - Magic spell set
(1) Alchemy - Magic spell set
(5) Divination - Magic spell set
(15) Illusion - Magic spell set
(25) Magic Resistance - Slighty improves damage threshold for magic damage

Elementalist
Fire, ice and rune magic thrown together with one of the few classes that could raise their maximum mana. This class allowed some of the biggest rampages thanks to a huge mana pool from lore and could possibly have a fourth spell set from racial bonuses. They however took a long time to charge up mana and were overall weaker than a specialist mage due to lack of Arcane magic with the spellcasting benefits it provides. They are not a junk class as they can be built into a powerful character however you need to decide what spells are beneficial to you and not just do the most damage.
Recommended races - Barbarian, Daemon, High Elf, Minotaur
Useful Skills
(1) Pyromancy - Magic spell set
(1) Ice Magic - Magic spell set
(5) Rune Magic - Magic spell set
(15) Lore - Increase maximum mana 
(25) Elemental Resistance - Slighty improves damage threshold for elemental damage

Healer
This is as the name suggests is the best healer in the game as the skill Elcor's Aura enhances all healing amounts. They were considered too powerful and had their arcane magic removed from the game. Still they make a good hero able to fully recover all their health at a moments notice but need racial skills to be useful.
Recommended races - Knight, Minotaur, Swarm
Useful skills
(1) Healing - Magic spell set
(1) Ritual - Small casting success chance increase
(5) Elcor's Aura - Adds additional health restored to all healing magic
(15) Warding - Add to resistance for all your troops
(25) Regeneration-

Priest
This was another class that had it's arcane magic removed from the game. They have healing and Divination to make them more of a leader unit being able to enhance unit levels or heal. The character will likely have statistics like a mage but play like a leader.
Recommended races - Knight, Minotaur, Swarm
Useful skills
(1) Healing - Magic spell set
(1) Ritual - Small casting success chance increase
(5) Divination - Magic spell set
(15) Lore - Increase maximum mana
(25) Magic Resistance -

Lichelord
This mage starts out with one magic good at killing swarms and another for weakening strong units. They were designed as a sort of Unholy monster focused on killing Humans or Elves however they are seriously lacking when not facing those races. Racial bonuses are therefore a must to give this class some diversity. They already have some basic survival from shadow strength but need another magic or damage skill to be useful.
Recommended races - Daemon, Knight, Minotaur
Useful Skills
(1) Necromancy - Magic spell set
(1) Poison Magic - Magic spell set
(15) Shadow Strength - Improves combat that determines hit and miss chances only at night 

Barbarian
The Barbarian race makes a hit and run hero. Ice magic has the spell Ice floe which can turn the hero into effectively a siege weapon. Running means few units are able to keep up with them so they can harass with relative safety.
(10) Running - Increases movement speed by 1 per skill rank
(20) Ice magic - Magic Spell set
(30) Quarrying - 1 stone per 4 seconds each level

Daemon
Daemons are tough having 3 abilities to enhance their physical power. While by no means the strongest race weak units would have a hard time killing them. Pyromancy their racial spell skill is usually used in quick bursts to kill units that actually pose a threat.
(1) Ferocity - Improve combat that determines hit and miss chances.
(10) Regeneration - Provides a percentage improvement to health regeneration
(20) Pyromancy - Magic Spell set
(30) Invulnerability - Slighty improves damage threshold for physical attacks

Dark Dwarf
Dark Dwarves have constitution making them extremely hardy when it comes to surviving magic. Chaos magic is a fantastic support magic when they have reached a high level able to disable mages.
(1) Constitution - Increases life points by a significant amount 
(10) Engineer - +20% to maximum building health per level
(20) Chaos magic - Magic Spell set

Dark Elf
Dark Elves always know how to escape battle and possibly assassinate someone at high levels. They make interesting mages with more mana than normal and possibly better other classes when it comes to killing things.
(1) Lore - Increase maximum mana
(20) Summoning - Magic Spell set
(30) Assassin - Every hit has a chance to kill instantly

Dwarf
Dwarves have constitution making them extremely hardy when it comes to surviving magic. Rune magic is a limited spell set used to enhance base building to extreme levels. While lacking in battle this magical building support should not be underestimated.
(1) Constitution - Increases life points by a significant amount 
(20) Rune magic - Magic Spell set

Empire
Empire doubles as a leader with wealth generating gold and alchemy used to exchange it for other resources. Heroes will accumulate healing potions and may use Alchemy's other spells to help stand a chance against other powerful heroes.
(20) Alchemy - Magic Spell set
(30) Wealth - 1 gold per 4 seconds each level 

Fey
Fey are not about direct combat but instead will hide until they are ready to blow you away with magic. Illusion makes them very difficult to find and Energy is used to help accelerate mana generation. This is not a race for melee builds at all but rather a revenge of the mage you just destroyed the base of.
(1) Warding - Add to resistance for all your troops 
(10) Illusion - Magic Spell set
(20) Energy - Slightly faster regeneration of mana
(30) Magic resistance - Slighty improves damage threshold for magic damage

High Elf
High Elves are considered immortal for good reason having healing, lore and energy available to any of the classes you choose to play. They can use their magic to keep up lifeward to revive them in the event they would be killed and have a huge mana store to recast this a few times. Energy assisting in mana generation made it difficult for them to stay dead.
(1) Lore - Increase maximum mana 
(20) Healing - Magic Spell set
(30) Energy - Slightly faster regeneration of mana

Knight
Knights potentially the broke the game having a high critical hit chance and divination magic. Divination magic allows rapid gain of experience on troops. Critical hits most of the time allowed them to chew through armies or heroes at an insane rates.
(1) Leadership - Improves Morale giving larger armies and faster attack speed for troops when hero is near
(10) Weapon Master - Additional chance for critical hits
(20) Divination - Magic Spell set

Minotaur
Minotaurs were powerful melee units however got their magic later than other races and their racial skills interfered with other useful abilities that could be purchased around the same time. They make fantastic heroes at times however they can be considered similar to the chieftain class.
(1) Ferocity - Improve combat that determines hit and miss chances
(20) Mighty blow - Bonus melee damage every strike per level
(30) Pyromancy - Magic Spell set

Orc
Orcs have ferocity enhancing the heroes effectiveness in combat and Chaos magic. Chaos magic is a fantastic support magic when they have reached a high level able to disable mages. This race allowed heroes to be somewhat useful in general combat thanks to Ferocity.
(10) Ferocity - Improve combat that determines hit and miss chances
(20) Chaos magic - Magic Spell set

Plague Lord
Plague Lords leech mana from every kill at high levels however are lacking in a useful skills to help them make said kills. They were best tied with another class already having some better magic for actual combat and then could rampage though almost any army.
(20) Summoning - Magic Spell set
(30) Leech - Gain additional mana when hero kills an enemy

Ssrathi
Ssrathi seem to have their heroes built to show of a newer kind of magic Poison. They already are hard to catch with the skill running and the magic doesn't require much of an investment. Any heroes needing a speed boost should go for this or barbarian to get running skill and this is usually the better option.
(1) Running - Increases movement speed by 1 per rank
(20) Poison Magic - Magic Spell set

Swarm
Swarm heroes have constitution making them extremely hardy when it comes to surviving magic. They have the spell set Necromancy which lacks scaling and doesn't take away much from other skills the class wants to get.
(1) Constitution - Increases life points by a significant amount 
(20) Nercomancy -Magic Spell set
(30) Ignore Armor - Negate a few points of armor with melee attacks 

Undead
Undead force you to get some method of changing the time to night so they can heal. Their advantage however is vampirism allowing healing on strike. Racial benefits also include immunity to poison, Immunity to disease and double health regeneration rate at night.
(1) Warding - Add to resistance for all your troops 
(10) Nercomancy - Magic Spell set
(30) *Vampirism - Drain life on hit is an extremely powerful ability particularly for melee builds.

Wood Elf
Wood Elves have nature magic that has a little of everything you need from damage to healing and more. Lore is used to help offset the weak period after summoning a creature and they make a good jack of all trades race.
(1) Lore - More mana pool useful as it allows more spells to be cast before retreating to heal
(20) Nature magic - Magic Spell set


* Vampirism may be broken on certain versions

(This part of the guide is not yet complete and will be finished at a later date)

There are some hidden bonuses in the game for many of the races

High Elf
- No resistance to poison or disease (it works every time)
- Immune to psychological effects

Daemons
- Can consume souls made by Succubi killing an enemy giving 25 mana each

Minotaurs
- Can eat Critters to heal 20 health and cure negative status effects

Undead
- Only heals at night but at 2x the normal rate (may need necromancy 6 on hero)
- Immune to Disease and Poison
- Immune to psychological effects

(work in progress)
Your Role
Think of heroes of having 4 main roles the melee role, crowd control, army support and siege. Melee wins in a stright up fight, Crowd control counters armies, army support (like a summoner) enhances your own and siege role keeps the enemies tech level down. If a player knows what they are doing they can fufill 3 of these roles with 1 hero. Nercomancy for example can do all this apart from a melee role.

Mage Er... Danger
All characters come with a base amount of 4 mana potions per combat. People often do not realise it but when combined with a level 5 keep this is roughly 2 Armeggedon spells without any spell cost reductions. Level 3 keeps may have research to at least double mana regeneration as well. Rush the mages, kill the mages or harrass the mages so they never get a chance to use these potions at full power. When possible smash their keep to prevent them reaching higher tech levels and never give them a chance to rest. Other hero types are generally better than a mage early on so use this to your advantage. Should you leave them too long even a low level mage can and will destroy everything in sight.

Scorched Earth
This tactic involves destroying the maps resources in order to prevent your enemy from making a large army. Most commonly used by Melee or Hybrid characters it limits the opponents income. This is a declaration that you are unable to hold the resource site and often a terrible idea. Mages and Leaders are expected to have means of enhancing their income, trading resources or summoning units to support their army. When this is taken into account a human player can adapt and often lose less than you would however the AI isn't that smart.

Base Creeping
Towers are tough buildings able to kill most units with ease and are meant to support small groups in protecting your base. Cheap buildings will raise the army limit and by slowly moving forward as each one is completed makes it dangerous for any army to get near you. Heroes with high charisma can stand behind this line safely converting any buildings they reach within their command radius.

Cannon Fodder
When all strategy to take out a tower fails it is time to send in a swarm or horde if you prefer that term. This comprises of cheap units to act as a distraction for towers while mages or siege equipment do the actual damage. Unfortunately this can wind up in a sort of stalemate if not careful with the opponent hanging just out of range occasionally moving to threaten the siege equipment. Hit a few different places with small attacks to pull their forces out of position so you can move in for the kill in the location you want. This may also be needed to counter massed siege weapons hitting your troops and need to be attacked from multiple directions if possible.

Trading
You may notice as you play there are some resources that are critical for your race and you cannot produce enough of. Some races will be able to trade these resources for a more suitable one but need to pay a lot first and others need to rely on magic. Only Alchemy and Chaos magics provide a means of exchanging the resources and at times may be needed in a leader. Using the same method you can stockpile resources for the racial spells from buildings these can range from Armageddon spells to Healing or changing the time of day. Every race has it's quirk or special power find it then abuse them.

Summoning
Grabbing summons are a good way of covering the weaknesses of a race. Your hero cannot be everywhere at once and while summons are more expensive if kept alive they will pay off in the long run. Every hero can get at least some summoning ability from items even if it is just skeletons to fill their towers or workers for their mines. When a hero is almost full mana it can be worth using the surplus mana to create a few troops to fill out the army. All summoned troops will normally be weaker than the rest of your army unless heavily investing in that magic area. Powerful high cost summons take a lot of mana and leave the caster vulnerable afterwards so make do with the weaker creatures where possible.

Tower hopping
Towers are a great place to put the hero while they recover from battle or summoning. Placing them at most mine sites is recommended to protect your income and quickly get your hero back into battle. Opponents cannot see what is inside a tower at any point in time so if they loose track of your location they could be in for a nasty surprise. This coupled with a few units to act as distractions is all that is normally needed to hold a location. Mages find this particularly useful as it helps them maintain a high amount of mana to blow away an otherwise overwhelming force.

Retreat
Your hero cannot handle everything by themselves so put them on fallback 25% role if you don't want them to die or cowardly if you don't want them in melee. This is particularly useful when waiting for spell cooldowns as your hero will be much less likely to die and the morale benefit they provide will stay for at least a few seconds. Should the enemy be too powerful head back to towers to help thin out the enemy forces.

Taking cover
Most ranged attacks travel in a straight line to their target hitting any buildings that are not on their side in their way. Archers and other ranged units can make use of this by using any building like a wall to catch enemy fire. When combined with towers it is possible to shield key points in your base unless facing an overwhelming force. Walls can also be made and used providing a cheap building repair option. The AI is too stupid to walk around until they get a clear shot and human players may choose to hold back instead of risking their troops.

From the manual
Press r on the keyboard to see your heroes command radius used for morale, converting and most spells range.

To set up Quick Spellcasting keys, open the Spellbook, and when the cursor is over the desired spell, press F1 - F8. That spell can now be cast without opening the book

Summoning timers are the main reason to revert back to the official version however the unofficial version has enforced limitations on some skills which can make a character overpowered in an attempt to balance high level hero multiplayer. The timers cause summoners to stay locked away in a tower to maintain an army that is useful in combat so are often better off joining the battle themselves.

Time magic has also been added to the game with larger bonuses than any other magic provides. The effect is so great that it outclasses leader builds and since the retinue has been fully opened up by default there is no reason to invest much in charisma. While the new features still allow single player gameplay they do not work well for multiplayer.

Many of the armies units have had major differances made to their combat and cost values since the last official patch was made. Spells also have changed too empowering some while weakening others. These changes are a matter of opinion to whether they are beneficial to the gameplay and some older players do not like these changes.

The difference can be considered a jump from number 3 in the Warlords Battlecry series to number 4 (which is unlikely to ever happen). Looking at the forums you can also see people asking for the second in the series which they prefered over later versions.

Here is the links for the Official version
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PyMyIjkhS-xGu6QV5CnlAAojIcNjh8No/view?usp=drive_link

• Place the data files over the steam library files (no renaming needed just extract and place)
  
• Right click on the file "Battlecry IIIb.exe" and go into properties
  
• Go to the compadibility tab and make sure it is on Windows XP (either service pack)
  
• Start the game from "Battlecry IIIb.exe" (may want to create a shortcut)

You should be able to play the last official patch now. If you still have problems running the game check here http://www.infinite-interactive.com/forum/showthread.php?522-How-to-run-WBC-series-stably-on-modern-setups (link no longer available)

Thanks to
Ahatch on the Infinite interactive forums and Intikhab on the steam forums for helping the Steam players.

Should you want a modded version here is Intikhabs post. This contains trouble shooting and mods for the game.

http://steamproxy.com/app/433280/discussions/0/451851477887530144/

This stuff may be done later when I have time

• Hidden Racial modifiers
  
• More Strategies and Tips on hero use
  
• Figuring out how rain or storms work

If people have trouble with a race just ask in the comments below.