Tier-Ranking every Spell in HOMM2 | Heroes of Might and Magic II

From Dimension Door to View Heroes, we go through every spell in the game and assign them to tiers.
Heroes of Might and Magic II: The Succession Wars is a 1996 release by developers New World Computing and John Van Caneghem. It is a turn-based, fantasy-style strategy game in which players develop settlements, build armies, and rely on the skills of their Heroes to battle other Heroes.
Developers: New World Computing, John Van Caneghem
Original Release Year: 1996 (Heroes II), 2000 (Price of Loyalty)
All music composed by: Paul Anthony Romero, Rob King, and Steve Baca
Broadcaster: Ross Liberti
Director: Ross Liberti
Editor: Ross Liberti
Producer: Ross Liberti
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#khelben #homm2 #tierlist

[@Kumquats83]

Idk why HoMM2 is recommended suddenly, but it's one of my all time favorite childhood games and now I want to play it again. KZbin knows me.

[@KhelbensCoinTV]

Ha, probably more than you'd like! HOMM2 is in my top three, for sure. Thank you for watching and enjoy your time back in Enroth!

[@pierreo33]

This is so wierd, I just reinstalled the game three days ago. Still got the disc lol

[@KhelbensCoinTV]

@@pierreo33 Nice! Welcome back to Enroth, baby.

[@marcusaurelius5149]

You phone listens in to your conversations and Google (KZbin) will adjust your searches and recommendations based on your conversations. I was talking about HOMM a few days ago and here I am.

[@kosmo6831]

@@marcusaurelius5149 you can turn it off though

[@Walkerman379]

I'd put hypnotize at F. The HP threshold of a stack to be immune to it is just too low that it becomes basically unusable. Berzerk on the other hand can be amazing and I'd up to A-tier.

[@hunam3876]

Definitely. 15 spell power won't even let you hypnotize a single Titan. That is if you could of course....

[@Tibor0803]

You need serious Spell Power object visits, Spell Power serving artifacts and Warlock with great Spell Power leveling to make that useful a bit. I've seen better plays of Hypnotize spell in Heroes 3. Even in that game, the spell itself is situational and rarely turn the tide in the battle for us. We just cast something else.

[@Tibor0803]

@@hunam3876 Titans are mind spell immune units. Hypnotize is a mind spell.

[@thedarkness4052]

Hypnotize is complete garbage. I only casted it once just to hear what sound it made because neither I nor the AI have ever used it.

[@alexandrebravo4472]

totally agree with those changes ! 😁

[@leosiqueira6560]

"If I offended you, I'm not sorry" LOL

[@KhelbensCoinTV]

Tee hee. Thanks for watching!

[@EternaltheGrey]

I like seeing opponents put elementals guarding mines, especially in slower campaign stuff- it's just free XP for taking it back and lets me level my secondaries or mules if need be.

[@PlanetZoidstar]

I heard/read somewhere that Shield/Mass Shield is bugged for sieges, so you actually take MORE damage from turrets when you cast it. Cure/Mass Cure also doesn't dispel buffs on your units. Dispel/Mass Dispel does. I would rank Armageddon S-Tier since it doesn't affect units with Anti-Magic, or Black Dragons. Play Warlock. Spam Black Dragons. Spam Armageddon. Win.

[@KhelbensCoinTV]

:o I really hope the Shield isn't bugged!

[@jannekaikkonen9707]

I'd say Town Gate is S tier as well. It can be easily abused to function as a Town Portal since you can just block towns you dont want to teleport to with heroes. Also what comes to Haunt it can function as a infinite source of XP so I'd place it higher than F. :D

[@NATIK001]

Quite a few spells here have advanced uses this guy is missing. I think he undervalues information and shenanigans which doesn't win you single battles, but wins you the entire game.

[@KhelbensCoinTV]

@@NATIK001 The problem with tier lists is that something has to be S-Tier and something has to be F-Tier. What information do you think I'm lacking that might make the difference between victory and defeat? Caveat 1: I'm genuinely interested in the spells you feel are vital because I'd love to get better at this game. Caveat 2: I don't actually feel like any spell in HOMM2 straight-up sucks, even if I said it in the video (re: something has to be S-Tier, something has to be F-Tier). I've just never had success casting spells like Visions, though I do cast View All, View Heroes, and View Towns often in my games.

[@user-xz9wy2sn6z]

Town Gate is definitely not S-tier, since it FAILS if the nearest town is occupied (unless that mechanic was somehow changed in the latest mods).

[@1993Redemption]

Maybe it's S tier, maybe not, but why would someone who knows how to abuse town gate leave heroes in their target town? And on the flip side, you can block towns like the comment above pointed out to filter your hero into the town you want, and if you happen to have one town for a bit, you automatically zip back to that one.@@user-xz9wy2sn6z

[@user-xz9wy2sn6z]

@@1993Redemption I last played H2 some years ago, but I most definitely remember the dreaded "Nearest town occupied, spell failed." message. Has that changed in recent updates? I would be VERY surprised.

[@vruatsa]

In my opinion, Animate Dead is S tier. It's a spell you can only get as a Necromancer, so you are not at risk of getting it as another class and waste a spell spot. Also, you can get it from Level 3 and not level 5. Having a Resurrect true for Necromancer so early in the game is so good, and the best part is that because it is Level 3, you have 3 chances of getting it, compared to Resurrect true.

[@xxlCortez]

It's only S if you're a necromancer but overall, the rest of the faction have almost no benefit from it, which makes it drop out of S. Powerful and handy but limited.

[@KhelbensCoinTV]

Yup, I wasn't 100% certain if Animate Dead permanently resurrects undead units at the time of recording. I could see an argument for S-Tier, for sure. I'll stand by my rankings for now, but perhaps we'll revisit this in the future.

[@MyHydralisk]

It's a staple for necros. Basically there are three reasons you play necros in HOMM2 - vampires, skeletons and animate dead Because of that Animate is S tier without doubt Seeing it in B offended me on so many levels :D

[@1993Redemption]

@@xxlCortezit's not limited because it only occurs in necro towns, like the comment above mentioned. When you are limited by something it has to cost you something, such as another spell you would like to have. So in essence it has to be possible for it to limit you in the first place. This spell only occurs in necropolis, so if you are any other faction it cannot limit you because it cannot occur in your mage guild. Meanwhile it is a must for necro so it cannot limit you there.

[@hunam3876]

HOMM2 has such a perfect gameplay mechanics imbalance that it makes it so much fun to play!

[@Triclone8706]

Berserk has won me many battles. Perfect for say the enemy has a stack of trolls and you berserk them. They just pummel the ogre lords right next to them and dont even attack you... its like a double edged sword... amazing IMO... S teir for me.

[@KhelbensCoinTV]

Hey, thanks for watching! Yes, it seems like the community agrees that I ranked it too low. Awesome to hear it's won battles for you!

[@globaltrance092]

Berserk, a 4th level spell, is definitely better than Hypnotize (5th level spell!), which only works if the stack's HP are less than 25x Spell Power. Hypnotize is probably the most disappointing of 5th level spells.

[@ivantumanov1015]

The big thing about berserk isn't that enemy units infight, it's that it skips the affected units turn. Berserk a stack of 1000 archers behind castle walls, and that's one turn of them not shooting any of your units.

[@KhelbensCoinTV]

@@ivantumanov1015 Yeah, but there are cheaper spells that will skip turns like Blind and Paralyze, and those last for multiple rounds.

[@hunam3876]

S maybe a bit too high, 'cause it's a situational spell. "A" at the least for sure.

[@bunkermanbunkerman9724]

imo cure is underated here vs dispel as it not only heals the unit which is marginal but it also keeps its buffs which can be extremely useful if you gave buffs up, would deifnitely put them at least in the same tier as dispel magic

[@Tibor0803]

Even more reason to put Cure the same tier as Dispel, because unlike Cure, Dispel still differs from Cure the way it allows you to remove beneficial spells from enemy units.

[@bunkermanbunkerman9724]

@@Tibor0803 no, in practicality what cure offers is much more versatile and useful in more situations, especially considering most buffs alone arent even really worth dispelling

[@fyrestorme]

bless are a lot more useful for certain units which have high damage ranges like 3-6 or 50-100 because you can almost think about it like doubling your units damage in some cases. dwarves, phoenix, steel golems and others really really benefit from bless

[@KhelbensCoinTV]

For sure! I surprised myself at the time of recording by rating Bless as high as I did because I usually only cast Bless spells at early levels. Considering your point, I think I tiered them fairly. Would you have rated Bless and Mass Bless higher?

[@Tibor0803]

@@KhelbensCoinTV Mass Bless is actually S tier bro, because there are multiple circumstances you can overdamage an enemy army which outnumbers your army: - Luck bonus grants all the Blessed units to deal double damage on the maximum and Morale bonus allows all units to deal maximum damage twice - The amount of creatures in the game which are immune to Bless are barely noticable - Counters Mass Curse, what you just put to C tier, whilst this spell can also be countered by Mass Curse, what would minimize your army damage at all times during battle - You did put Curse and Mass Curse in the same tier, Mass Curse break your entire army's damage quality and Bless is a worse spell than Mass Curse because of it, so Mass Bless must be above A tier at this point - Any high Attack skill hero with this spell cause your units to deal inhuman damage - Crusaders gets a new meaning to spend money for them, because even if they have the same damage range as Paladins, the Necromancers gonna fear them even more, you can make all Vampire Lord purchases from the enemy Necromancers to be undone with this simple spell - Cyclopses has tedious damage range and if you Bless them the retaliation will be nothing compare to how big stack they were attacking a second ago - The Titans has some chance against Black Dragons with this spell - Multiple blessed damage power stacks allows you to take down an army faster than how they can bring themselves back from the dead

[@alstorp1008]

Great video, I like the effort put into the style of the list

[@KhelbensCoinTV]

Wow, thank you for watching and for saying so! I put a lot of work into these, and they're still not always perfect.

[@hunam3876]

Perfect call on Mass Slow. What a GigaChad spell!

[@Antagonopolis]

It seems like this tier list based exclusively on vs AI effectiveness, otherwise spells like Anti-Magic and View-All would be much higher.

[@Doomxeen]

Actually very solid list! I'd put Berserk and elemental storm up one tier! Berserk on raw power and Storm because sometimes you don't get Armageddon right when you want it and it can still hose with proper immunities/give the enemy a nasty sendoff on a losing battle.

[@fyrestorme]

if I had to redesign one spell from homm2 it would be cure. I would make it overcap the unit's hp by any amount of healing over it needed. that would actually make it a bit more useful

[@milanpospisil8024]

This is how resurrection spell works.

[@LordRegalNogal]

Good video, i like ur tierlists.

[@victorjuacaba7196]

Town portal is the best spell. When you get it you know you r gonna win the game.

[@globaltrance092]

Bloodlust should be C Tier at least. Whereas Bless is great to use on creatures with a wider range of damage, Bloodlust can be useful on low to mid level creatures in high numbers such as hoards of Goblins, Orcs, Skeletons, Vampire Lords (!!), etc. A lot of times one doesn't have access to Bless, which is better all-around (unless you're the Necromancer), but Bloodlust can be good early to mid game until one is probably casting other spells.

[@KhelbensCoinTV]

Thanks for watching! It's true, Bloodlust can be used on Undead instead of Bless. I think dealing max damage is better than raising an Attack Skill, but you can fact-check me on that math if you'd like. I *think* max damage in the early game will take more HP from the enemy than a temporarily raised Attack Skill, but I'm not 100% certain.

[@globaltrance092]

@@KhelbensCoinTV You are right. Bless is typically a better spell if you have it.

[@kosztaz87]

@@KhelbensCoinTV I think Bloodlust increases the creature's attack skill by 3. And also its duration is independent from your spell power: this would need further investigation, but I have definitely observed that if I cast it with a Barbarian hero (that let's say has 1 spell power) the Bloodlust magic stays on the creature for like three rounds.

[@OlavDenDeilige]

Spells like "Bless", "Mass Bless", "Curse", "Mass Curse", "Disrupting Ray", "Bloodlust", "Stoneskin", "Steelskin" etc. are underrated by most people, who tend to prefer damage-dealing spells. On large maps, however, when armies get huge, the stat-altering buffs can be more effective. Say that your hero casts "Lightning Bolt" with 10 Spell Power, it does 250 dmg. That is the same as blessing 25 Phoenixes, but the buff is still there when the next round comes, when you can cast a different spell. This is the advantage with all these buffs, and if they have the mass effect, they can be super powerful. The only downside, of course, is that they can be dispelled, but you can use this to your advantage to avoid powerful enemy heroes from casting other scary spells.

[@justinliberti5917]

My favorites for offense are lightning bolt, blind and mass slow. Give me those three and I feel like I can win any fight with a decent army. Add dimesion door to my Hero and I am ready to go. My tactics are usually blind their fastest unit, or mass slow their army and pick off who I need to. Anything left over once my units strike I usually wipe out with lightning bolt. I'm all about limiting how many times my opponent has a turn and when they do, siphoning them into my strengths and pulling out a bolt when needed. I agree with your assessment almost completely. The only thing I'll say is berserker can save your ass in a pinch, especially when you're fighting a large number of Crusaders. Granted, the enemy hero usually anti-magics the unit, but if they don't, they can decimate their own team when you need it the most. I'd bump it up to B but that's just me.

[@KhelbensCoinTV]

Thanks for watching! Yeah, I see what you mean about Berserker but I kind of like it where I had it. I'd be quicker to Slow or Blind that stack instead of Berserk it to try and gain control of the battle more easily.

[@apanapane]

Thank you for your HoMM2 videos. I have enjoyed them. :) I am new to the game and am struggling even in the basic campaign. If you are looking for suggestions for future videos, a tips and tricks videos for new players would be much appreciated. Keep up the good work! :)

[@Kingdemonpigfromhell]

View Mines, View Towns and View Heroes are fine spells. View Artifacts and View Resources can be useful, but requires more specific map knowledge. I mainly play the standard homm2 maps(not expansion maps), on impossible, and the information on what the AI is up to can be great to close out games faster to get a good score. For example on Seven Lakes there are two corners with neutral towns, in rough terrain(swamp+desert), getting View Towns to see if the AI is around there to know if I need to send something over there to win or not can be up to a week in time difference. Knowing that there are mines, resources and artifacts in those areas, can also give me enough information with those view spells, if Purple has a Mine there, he likely took the town too. View Heroes is also great to see where the AI heroes are in the fog of war, to see if they're pushing in an unprotected flank, or if they're hiding. and yeah summon boat is so map dependant. Seven Lakes it's an S tier spell, since you can reach 5 gold mines without fighting anything, land maps F, and it can range from anywhere inbetween. I love Teleport, but I never get it when I really want it lol, too often I have a chonky stack of something like Ogre Lords that never get a chance to truly fight, and if only I had Teleport I could just use only those on that one hero and leave have a secondary army with the rest of my troops. Cure I'd move up at least one. Yeah like you say, "I cast cure when I don't have dispel map", but it or dispel can be crucial, so I think any of them must be above D, there are games where I rush an enemy, where the only chance for failure is if they have blind, and I don't have dispel/cure, so when I see cure in that level 1 mage guild I am super relieved, even if dispel magic would be slightly better. I'd probably move up Elemental Storm, and maybe Meteor Shower. Elemental storm because it's like a budget version of armageddon squad, but it also works for phoenixes so it can be very powerful. Meteor Shower since it's a strong damage spell that you can target phoenixes with, phoenixes being immune to lightning bolt makes that spell pretty nice.

[@KhelbensCoinTV]

Yeah, you make really good points with the View spells. I probably should have ranked them higher. Meteor Storm, for certain, got done dirty in this. I honestly didn't put together that it does the same amount of damage as a single Lightning Bolt except it can target multiple units. Cure is at least marginally better than Dispel Magic since it targets only negative spell effects but ignores good ones (if a unit, for example, is Blessed and Blinded, Cure only removes Blind while Dispel Magic would remove everything). Cure also costs only 1 Spell Point more than Dispel Magic. So, yup, I think I agree with you on all points. Thanks for watching!

[@NATIK001]

Berserk is 100% better than Hypnotise. Berserk should go up 1 to 2 tiers, and Hypnotise should go down. If you can Hypnotise your enemies stacks, you have so much more powerful a hero than their army that you should be winning regardless. Berserk however can actually help turn fights around under normal conditions. Town Gate is just as busted as Town Portal if you use it right. In many situations it is just a cheaper town portal, unless we are talking late game where you might have way too many towns to manipulate it. Honestly I often use it over Portal even if I have Portal, saving those spellpoints can matter a lot. Haunt can be used to farm, it's situational but it isn't irrelevant. View All can win games by showing you weaknesses or precisely where things you need are. It is especially good if you don't like replaying and memorizing maps, but like to try and play new maps as much as possible. It's mainly let down by being so high level that it's hard to get, and can block other spells you might want.

[@guigomez3441]

hypnotise is basically useless, never used it. Berserk is great, often usefull in late game

[@fyrestorme]

one thing you forgot to mention about curse spells is that they are situational sometimes. they don't work against any undead unit type

[@KhelbensCoinTV]

Yes, that's very true. Undead units cannot be Cursed (or Blessed). Thanks for mentioning (and for watching)!

[@eXtreamAngel]

The problem with Curse spell is that it's defensive. The main goal is to deal damage in first round. That helps with Bless, but with Curse, it means that you will take damage, and it's helpful in much less situations than Bless. Like, if you play Knights and see that there is no ability to attack first, and enemy have Archers or Flying units, then it's obviously, then you should go in defence and use Curse. So I think that because of this ligic, Bless will help you a little more than Curse.

[@eXtreamAngel]

With "Haunt" spell is difficult. Yeah, you can't control the mine, but at the same time, you can exchange your mana on Exp. If I'm not wrong, then 1 SP = 5 Ghosts, meaning 2 SP = 10 Ghosts = 200 Exp. If you have a small army or spell, that can defeat them, you can just use Haunt on your own map, and defeat the ghosts with secondary low lvl heroes to improve their skills. The problem is that Ghosts are very dangerous units to fight with.. But even with this, I think yes, I would put it into the bottom of the Tier.

[@user-xz9wy2sn6z]

This is a downright treacherous way to do it, and it's probably not worth the time spent doing it (not sure if they brought the spacebar dynamic for revisiting in H2, but if they didn't, it will cost you 2 straight lines of movement points to do one battle).

[@mrbabbles5989]

You need to make a tier-list of HoMM 2 map objects (like windmills, fountains, spell shrines, etc...)

[@vincentvandergoes444]

In my opinion you're underrating the view spells. View mines on turn 1 is great info on a map you didn't play before. View heroes is so good to know exactly what the enemy is doing. And you don't have to cast these with your main. If you're playing for score against the ai these spells can easily save you time.

[@KhelbensCoinTV]

Hey, thanks for watching! Yes, I can see that reasoning, I'm just always much more excited for other spells in the Mage Guild.

[@vincentvandergoes444]

@@KhelbensCoinTV I understand. By the way, you CAN get Town Portal as your level 5 mage guild spell, it's just very very rare. I rate a lot of spells differently than you do, but that's because I always play might heroes rather than magic heroes. Attack and defense are easy to underestimate. A few points of attack have the same effect as Mass Bless without having to cast it. ;) My S tier spells are haste, slow and blind. I rarely build mage guilds above level 1 or maybe 2, because they're so expensive.. I do agree that Shield is situationally great (although it doesn't work against tower arrows). In any case, nice to see someone else who still loves this game. :) Did you try FHeroes2, by the way? It's a freeware UI improvement made by fans in recent years.

[@KhelbensCoinTV]

For sure! I'd do the same thing when playing as the Knight or Barbarian, but my favorite alignments to play have always been Wizard and Warlock. Slow, Haste, Blind--must have spells in that case, but this was a tier list for all spells, not just levels 1-2. fHeroes is on my list to try in the near future, stay tuned!

[@globaltrance092]

About damage spells: I agree with the rankings of Lightning, Cold Ray, Armageddon, and Chain Lightning - all good spells, but I want to say some things about the others. Cold Ring should at least be on the same tier as Fireball. They are basically a multitarget Magic Arrow, dealing as much damage at a cost of 5 more spell points. Both affect all surrounding hexes, but Cold Ring doesn't affect the target hex, presumably useful to cast on a hex occupied by a friendly unit who is surrounded. There is usually a better spell to cast, and I'd agree that Magic Arrow is generally more useful, but sometimes there's nothing else you can or need to cast. In these cases if one has decent spell power and wants to hit multiple targets it can be good option, especially if one has the Icicle or Lava Rock artifacts. C Tier. Fireblast actually seems worse than Fireball and Cold Ring. It deals the same damage, but over a larger number of hexes, which is practically never necessary, and costs 15 spell points. Not a great 4th level spell. D Tier. Meteor Shower is a multitarget Lightning, affecting target and adjacent hexes! It's more expensive, but it's a great damage spell. It should be A Tier along with Lightning, or B Tier at least. Elemental Storm is more niche as one has to have an army made up of Dragons, Phoenixes, or a stack one has cast Anti-Magic on prior. It's basically a Lightning spell over the whole battlefield, or a mini Armageddon if you will. There is a whole strategy behind using Elemental Storm or Armageddon with a powerful spellcaster, running, and going back to repeat. Elemental Storm should at least be B Tier, possibly A Tier along with Armageddon.

[@KhelbensCoinTV]

Thanks for watching! Fireblast I think is 9 Spell Points, but I 100% agree. I don't think I use Cold Ring as successfully as other players, so thank you for examples on how you use it! Yes, someone else mentioned Meteor Storm does the same damage as Lightning Bolt. I actually didn't know that. Probably should have been ranked higher, but I'm still comfortable where I have it since I use it rarely. I've seen that Elemental Storm strategy. Seems too guerrilla for me, but I can see how it's a devastating use of the spell, for sure. Thanks for the insight!

[@globaltrance092]

@@KhelbensCoinTV It's fair to rank Cold Ring and Fireball in a lower tier since they hardly get any use. For clarification Fireball is 9 Spell Points to cast and Fireblast is 15. I've only used Fireball on a couple occasions, but I've never used Fireblast. It really is a disappointing 4th level spell.

[@KhelbensCoinTV]

Yup, you're right! Fireball is 9 and Fireblast is 15. Yes, I agree, not a great 4th Level Spell. Not to say it can't be used effectively! I just haven't discovered how yet.

[@daneng3641]

I've been playing this game since it was released. I don't think I've ever cast cold ring without accidentally hitting my own unit. 🙄

[@The_Desert_Tiger]

Personally i think armageddon is an S tier spell but only if you have black dragons since you can open with it have your army untouched and do a huge amount of damage to whoever you are vsing as long as they also don't just have black dragons.

[@alex_b.]

Disrupting Ray is A -Tier: It's permanent for the battle and can't be dispelled. Very useful if you have ranged troops

[@MilenkoSmoje]

Absolutely. Blind stack of mighty creatures that have high defense, apply D-ray several times to reduce their defense to 0, and smash them.

[@roylangston4305]

D-ray only lasts as many combat rounds as your spell power, but it does stack, and thus can be very useful to weaken high-hitpoint units.

[@randomyoshi]

Here are my opinions: Berserker- A tier. Very helpful at removing opponent's creatures if they are close to each other. It's a spell I love using and I hate seeing my own armies get affected by, because the AI likes to use them on my fastest creatures. Hypnosis- F tier. You need an astronomical amount of spell points in order for you to use it on a decent army stack. Berserker is waaaaaaaaaaay better than Hypnosis. Dispel Magic- A tier. Very handy in removing spells that immobilize your troops (Blind, Paralyze, etc.), and removing spells on opposing armies that have one or two good spells on them. Animated Dead- S tier. It's Resurrect True for undead troops. Very highly recommended that you get one if you are a necromancer. Town Gate- A tier. Although you can't control which town or castle you can warp to, you can use it to get out of bad situations. Plus, it's cheaper than Town Gate and is a lv. 4 spell instead of a lv. 5 spell. Bless- A tier. Very good early game spell. I like using it on my own armies that have high attack variance. Both this and Mass Bless are very good if your hero has the Snake Ring artifact. Haste- A tier. Don't forget that increasing an army's speed allows them to attack sooner in battle. This means that you can use it to boost your slowest troop's speed so that they can rush in and kill your opponent's army before they have a chance to move. Slow- A tier. Reducing the opposing army's speed means that they can't attack until later. Plus, flying troops can't fly all the way to the other side of the battlefield to reach your troops. Fireball- D tier. I don't really use the spell a lot. It's just Cold Ring, except it can hit the hex in the center. Fireblast- D tier. The damage for the spell is underwhelming. 10 * caster's spell power for a level 4 spell is an insult. I'd rather use Meteor Shower. Anti-Magic - A tier. Your opponent keeps casting immobilization spells on your army? Use Anti-Magic to get rid of it! It also prevents opposing troops from casting bad spells on your army as well (such as unicorn's blind and cyclopes' paralyze). Bloodlust- C tier. It's actually useful on making low-level creatures more useful in battles. Disrupting Ray- The -3 DEF stat debuff is permanent until the end of battle, so it's highly recommended that you use it against strong troops. I was able to win some of the tough battles like the final battle in "Wizard's Isle" map 2 with the spell.

[@wjockusch]

Dimension door is by far the best spell. If you get it, you can probably win the game within a few days, ten days at the outside. Even if your army is badly worse than the opposing army, you can just go past them and take their weakly defended castles. By contrast, slow and mass slow are battle spells only. Door can let you win even if you are way behind. Mass slow can't. For example, it's useless against dragons. So door is by far better than mass slow. Also, I don't agree with you about identify hero. When you first meet the enemy, you don't know if their hero is good or not. It can help you decide whether or not to fight. That's useful.

[@KhelbensCoinTV]

Thanks for watching. Yes, Dimension Door is amazing, which is why I put it in S-Tier. I still hold the belief that Mass Slow is the best spell in the game, and certainly it's the best combat spell, because of how influential it is on a battlefield. Fighting 5 stacks of Dragons is a very unique circumstance that doesn't negate the value of a spell that commands so much power on the battlefield. Would you say Dimension Door is more powerful than Town Portal? I'm curious to hear your take.

[@wjockusch]

@@KhelbensCoinTV Absolutely, Door crushes town portal. For example, Door can quickly get you from a single castle to a winning position. First you grab some mines and some hero buffs (artifacts, experience, stats). Before long you will find yourself in a position to door to and take a new castle every turn, and it snowballs from there. Town portal is obviously strong, but it doesn't let you jump around grabbing artifacts, mines, and castles anywhere near as quickly.

[@Brunriddare3000]

Strongly agree. Moving around the map is what wins you games. There is alot of ways of winning battles but very few that makes you able to travel faster than the enemy. It usually is GG when you get DD on a hero with high spell points. It gives you the momentum to control the whole map in just a couple of days. There is a reason why it was badly nerfed in H3.

[@bingobongo1615]

Berzerk imo is the best combat spell in the game… It doesnt work on dragons but anything else can be affected and its terrifying - ever berzerked a stack of 90 crusaders and see it cutting down 400 archers next to it?

[@DrElementary]

I like cold ring at the start of a fight, casting it between two stacks of units that are weak but maybe have a lot in them. Helps to cut down hoards

[@fyrestorme]

no better teleport target than hydras

[@KhelbensCoinTV]

Hell yeah! I've really only used Hydras for castle defense since they kill hero movement, but I've lately been playing with them in my army, and I kinda dig it. I LOVE Teleport for huge stacks of Skeletons, Unicorns, Minotaur Kings, Battle Dwarves, Crusaders, and Ogre Lords/Cyclopes. Strange enough, I don't usually Teleport Boars, Peasants, or Goblins because I usually replace them in my armies. Perhaps I should try recruiting them when I get a Teleport spell to see what happens?

[@guigomez3441]

teleport is S for me its hugely strong for huge mass slow units

[@globaltrance092]

I would agree that Dispel is generally more useful than Cure since it can also be cast on an enemy stack, but sometimes Dispel isn't available and Cure makes a decent alternative to dispel your stack. It should be noted that Cure not only dispels negative spells, but preserves beneficial spells that may have been cast, and for only 1 more spell point. It's still not as versatile as Dispel, but I would probably put Cure in C Tier, and perhaps leave Mass Cure in D Tier. I can't remember ever casting Mass Cure, maybe once as a sort of Mass Dispel, but certainly not for its restorative effects.

[@lordflashheart3741]

Mass cure is actually pretty decent in some scenarios, like if both armies have debuffed each other, or like you said, your army have both a buff and a debuff applied simultaneously. Mass cure will only affect your army, where mass dispel is everything. For that niche alone, I would rank mass cure the same as mass dispel. But single target Dispel is definitely better than Cure.

[@globaltrance092]

@@lordflashheart3741 I see what you're saying. I actually did my own ranking and I put Dispel as a B Tier (good) and Mass Dispel and Mass Cure as C Tier (generally good, but more situational).

[@felaci]

Armageddon to S (I love to play late-game warlock with this spell, so satisfying to wreck opponents with 1 spell while keeping your dragons alive) Mirror Image to C (too expensive, and normally only lasts 1 round) Town Gate to C (does not move you very far) Mass Dispel to C (not nice to use if you buffed your own units) Death Wave & Holy Shout to C (too situational) Fireblast to C (I'd rather cast something else) Disrupting Wave to C (kinda meh, but can be nice) Hypnotize to F (you only get control of the shittiest units) Death Ripple & Holy Word to D (see above) View All to B (cheap and gives a lot of info) Meteor Shower to A (good damage, especially if they're defending a range stack) Fireball to D (kinda like Cold Ring) Cure & Mass Cure to C (Cure is excellent to keep high HP units alive early on, Mass Cure is great to remove the debuffs on your buffed units) Earthquake to F (costly and usually ineffective) View Heroes to D (useful to keep track of enemy movement, also very cheap)

[@JLillo]

It's been a long time since I've played (loving these videos!), but the bit about Mass Slow has me wondering: if I recall correctly, don't fliers lose their flying capabilities when their speed is Slow or slower?

[@KhelbensCoinTV]

Thanks for watching! No, they don't lose their flying capabilities, but they are still reduced in speed and they are unable to fly anywhere on the map as they usually would. It drastically reduced the distance they can travel on a battlefield, making Mass Slow the ultimate control-the-battlefield spell, which is why I claim it to be the best spell in the game. I mean... Obviously Town Portal and Dimension Door break the game, but I will die on the hill that argues Mass Slow is S-Tier alongside them because of its impact in battle.

[@JLillo]

Thank you for responding! I did not express myself properly in my initial question, and meant to ask if Slow (or slower) fliers lost the ability to fly anywhere on the map (not the flying animations themselves), basically reducing them to ground troops, but you’ve confirmed that for me, so thank you for that as well.

[@samuellevin2305]

​@Joseph Lillo it doesn't QUITE turn them into ground troops because they can still fly over castle walls which has value

[@JLillo]

@@samuellevin2305 That makes a lot of sense. Thanks for adding to this!

[@kosztaz87]

@@samuellevin2305 Are you sure about that? Whenever I slow a Bone dragon stack, that's defending a town, they are never able to fly over the walls, they always head towards the town gate, or sit idle until there is a hole on the wall, where they can come out.

[@TheStisen]

Bold of you to make a tier list for such a complex matter as the spells of might and magic ;-) But... I have suggestions... Instead of arguing with you about my own amazing opinions, I simply suggest that you cut a tier list like this up in smaller chunks. Most spells are highly situational, as you said yourself. So why not make the tier list into categories of damage spells, buff spells, debuff spells and adventure map spells? You could also make a seperate tier list for each tier level of spells. :-) Also... What are you gonna do, when haste and slow doesn't show up to save the day? Are you gonna should yourself with a lightning bolt or a berzerk? 🤔😂

[@KhelbensCoinTV]

Thanks for watching, and those are good suggestions! I'll definitely think about making sectional tier lists, for sure. Seems like a great idea. I usually play spellcasting alignments, so my 2nd-level Lightning Bolt ends up doing tons of damage. So, yeah, if I don't have Mass Slow or Mass Haste, I'll gladly drop stacks with a Lightning Bolt at the outset of a battle. I'll lose more in casualties, but I'll still win. :)

[@TheStisen]

@@KhelbensCoinTV Oh! I just got an even better idea for a spell tier list! Make one for heroes with high spell power, one for heroes with high knowledge and one for heroes with either high attack or defense ;-) The damage spells is USELESS for a hero with no spell power! Mass curse and mass shield is AMAZING for heroes with high defense. Come up with more examples yourself 😀

[@ABlackHorse]

DD is god tier. View towns/heroes/mines are very good control spells not sure why F. If you don't cast them you are missing opportunities to track enemy progress/positioning (less importance vs AI, more vs human). Generally I agree with most of the spell, maybe meteor shower little more in ranks.

[@user-xz9wy2sn6z]

Probably only playing single.

[@ivantumanov1015]

I never counted things like mana cost or dps or damage, but chain lightning was always the dopest spell because it hits several dudes.

[@KhelbensCoinTV]

Best way to end fights quickly, especially if you have high Spell Power! It's one of those spells that really makes you feel like a badass spellcaster.

[@pupper5580]

Watching this video to get ideas for breaking my world record. I already broke it (Broken Alliance in 15 days, old record was 16 days) but I'm now looking to break it even more lol. Edit: This video was very helpful, thank you!

[@eXtreamAngel]

I think that "Bloodlust" should be in C tier. Why? Cuz it increases attack by 3 for any unit, what means, your haflings, Centaurs and Skeletons will deal increased damage from the start of the game. It's impact may be not that much, but much higher, than Stoneskin or cure cuz it can give you a tempo for gathering rss or capturing mines to build structures earlier.

[@steveo252]

Armageddon + Black Dragons or Anti-magic + Armageddon + Titans = Game Breaking.

[@djordjerankovic7156]

Been waitting for 18 minutes for VISIONS to be explaind.. And then😂😂

[@KhelbensCoinTV]

Yeah, when I recorded this, I greatly undervalued this spell. It's better than I thought. When you cast it, all wandering creature armies reveal their number to you and it tells you if they'll flee when you attack or if they'll stay and fight. It will also tell you if they'll join you for free. It's pretty useful for its mana cost (6).

[@Tzimisce25]

5:15 Cold Ring. Situational. But when your largest troop is attacked from 3-4 sides, it can do an insane amount of damage. Not an A tier spell though. I would put it in C. 8:14 Shield. Totally agree, I rarely cast it, as I don't like defensive spells, but when the enemy has a ton of ranged attackers, especially in siege situations, I love to cast it. B tier for me. Mass Shield is a waste of mana for the same effect. 17:45 Meteor Shower. Technically it is a mass Cold ray. It hits at least 2 troops. It is my favourite damage dealer spell if I don't have access to other AOE effects. It is at least a B tier spell, maybe even low A tier. 20:00 Fire Spells. I dislike them. They are fine, when necessary. Cold ring is better, and Meteor Shower is king in these type of situations.

[@kylethomas9130]

Doesn't Summon Boat steal a random unoccupied boat? I remember using it when i had landlocked castles, and eas being raided viking style by my opponent. It allowed me to trap one of his heroes on an island they stopped on to get resources and an obelisk.

[@cl3arsky745]

Please make a rating about Factions/Towns next, they are so unbalanced but i like it xD Also Berserker can be OP af and kill really strong armys/stack even if your magic isn't that high, should be A or at least B Tier (cause its a bit situational and some units are immune to it).

[@KhelbensCoinTV]

Yes, for sure, it IS situational, and I can see how others might value Berserker higher. I just prefer to use other spells like Mass Slow, Blind/Paralyze, Chain Lightning, or a straight super-powerful Lightning Bolt. Doing an Alignment Tier List would be mighty controversial, I'll definitely consider it! You gave me an idea for another, too; doing a, "unique buildings," tier list. Stay tuned, and thanks for watching!

[@milanpospisil8024]

@@KhelbensCoinTV It is situationals, but it is the only spell that allows you to defeat much stronger opponent if played wisely.

[@xxlCortez]

I'm abhorred that you put cure and mass cure to D tier. Mass dispel removes EVERY spell, including your curses on the enemy and buffs on your unit. Meanwhile cure heals you and removes from you the negative effects, leaving positives on. Mass dispel should be C while cure and mass cure at least B. Holy word and shout are only effective against undead who are a minority in the game, therefore it should be under death ripple. Btw, mass slow, while I overuse it in heroes 3, is not very useful against phoenixes. Phoenixes always come first, so unless you also have a phoenix in your army, they'll reach your troops and after that, using it on them gives very little advantage. I agree with most of the other rankings.

[@heorhii_veinapok]

Fireblast B tier, Berserk C tier :D Made my evening

[@KhelbensCoinTV]

Yeah... I don't think Berserk is as useful as other spells, but I see how it can be used more effectively. How do you use Fireblast? I just prefer Lightning Bolt to a single target than something that does less damage to 2-3 targets.

[@heorhii_veinapok]

@@KhelbensCoinTV @KhelbensCoin fireblast is useless and overpriced It can be used only when you don't have any other damaging spells And, hopefully, have the arti, that increase fire damage by 50% (And fight against water elementals, who have vulnerability to fire) The only strong spell in this category is meteor shower (it has same damage with lightning bolt) Berserk can turn a fight against barbarian or knight to a cakewalk Enemy cyclops or paladins would just destroy the whole army of opponent And you can even use it in a cheesy way by sending 1st level wizards with 1 boar against the main enemy army

[@KhelbensCoinTV]

The community is reinforcing your comment! I rated Fire spells too high, they say, and Berserker far too low. I'll stand by my tier list, though, because that's where I had things.

[@pupper5580]

Berserk is a good spell: for example enemy has titans and boars. Berserk the boars to make them hit the titans. Now the boars are dead and the titan doesnt have retaliation attack. Fantastic trade. Although manacost of 12 points is a bit high.

[@gosufana]

How can u rate Meteor Shower as C that spell have the same damage as lighting bolt but with multiple target and without backfire (except the mana) since u can put it wherever you want.

[@KhelbensCoinTV]

I actually had forgotten it does the same damage as Lightning Bolt and I would rank it higher today. Thanks for watching.

[@milanpospisil8024]

Town portal is S+ tier, definetly better than mass slow. Mass slow allows you to control only battlefield, Town portal allows you to control whole game.

[@JM-vk8sz]

Dragon slayer is a good extra for powerful unit against Dragons.

[@ArtoMcBaddass]

I suppose I'll go in order of what i think is most wildly incorrect, however, these are my personal opinions on how effective these spells are for me. Animate dead is S++ tier for necro. It makes your vampire lords virtually unkillable, and more notably it's the best way to keep your skelly numbers up. It's also a tier 3 spell that only costs 10 mana. If you're playing necro, easily the second best spell in the game behind mass slow. Holy word/shout simply cannot share the same rank as death ripple/wave just because they're similar spells. I think one of the biggest drawbacks of the knight faction is the possibility of this ending up in your t4 mage guild instead of resurrect true and there's not even an undead player/AI on the map. Alternatively Death ripple/wave pretty much always finds use if you want it to. We're comparing a spell that's useful against 5 out of 6 factions to a spell that's useful against 1 out of 6 factions... Let's be practical here. Steelskin is absolutely bonkers for steel golems and battle dwarves early. You can easily take clear out those pesky ranged groups guarding mines this way, with units who I used to not even buy until it's time to defend against a siege. tbh i wouldn't bump it up, it's still c tier but i did just wanna say for sorc and wiz specifically it's probably a tier. I think view heroes is a great spell if you're lock, wiz or sorc. Those heroes see mysticism come up just about every other level up and if you take mysticism on even 1 of your heroes you can spam this every turn to track enemy movement. You'll never succumb to a surprise attack ever again, and more importantly, if you lose an enemy scout in fog you know exactly where to find him. If you take a castle you can see where they're retreating to and bunkering down. If you barely won a siege you can see if they're coming to try to take it back. If they are coming back that's a good time to use haunt on all the mines you can. It's insanely useful, it's 2 mana. I suppose view all is technically better but I prefer the lack of clutter I get with view heroes. Paralyze is SIGNIFICANTLY better than blind. As you said it affects undead but also, units hit out of paralysis don't even retaliate. a paralyze loop is infinitely worse than a blind loop. Hypno is F tier. By the time you're able to hypno something the battle is pretty much over. Also it shares the same ratio as lightning bolt. At this point I only click on hypno to make sure my lightning bolt will kill the entire stack, then cancel out and cast lightning bolt. (note: this trick doesn't work for golems) It feels absolutely awful to see this pop up in your t5 spell slot. Teleport should be a tier higher than haste. if you haste your unit it they can slow it the next turn and you'll lose the ground you've gained. Also teleport can land you behind castle walls. For a hydra specifically this is amazing, being as there's not much room for them to try to avoid getting multi-hit. When they stack up to avoid you this is where fireball or meteor storm can do some damage. Again just my personal opinions on it all. I feel like your list was great. Sorry for the novel.

[@wjockusch]

Also resurrect true is nice, but if I build a level 5 tower, it's because I'm gunning for door, not because I'm gunning for resurrect true. No way it should be S tier. If I get it at level 5, I'm disappointed. So resurrect true should not be S tier.

[@pipilu3055]

Resurrect true on a spellcaster with decent spell power basically means 0 casualties. Reviving a titan saves you lots of time & resources. I have to agree door is better, but resurrect true is a pretty good spell.

[@wjockusch]

@@pipilu3055 It means 0 casualties if you are winning the battle. But it won't turn a hopeless loss into a win the way door will.

[@KhelbensCoinTV]

Thanks for watching! I delayed replying because other community members were engaging and I wanted to give space. I rated these spells based on their power or influence, not on how you feel when you build a Level 5 Mage Guild. Just a friendly pointer that sharing examples is very powerful here in getting me to move on how I tier-rank things. What (besides Dimension Door) are the 5th-level spells that excite you, and why? Which spells do you value over Resurrect True, and what are a few examples of how you have used those spells most effectively? I'm eager to hear because I'm trying to get better at this game even though I've been playing it for most of my life.

[@Malisa1990]

Great list, the only thing I disagree is that I would put Meteor Shower in A, maybe even S, and View Heroes in D. Meteor Shower deals great dmg 25 x SP and has good spread range, its super useful in sieges and against shooters plus adjacent units that are guarding them, especially because AI loves to put guardians close to them, and View Heroes can sometimes be useful unlike other the View spells except View All.

[@KhelbensCoinTV]

Thanks for watching! For sure. Meteor Shower is like dealing multiple full-on Lightning Bolts, which is something that was pointed out to me after I published this video. It very well could have been A-Tier, certainly. I think I value the View spells more now than I did at the time of recording, so I can definitely see your reasoning.

[@Malisa1990]

@@KhelbensCoinTV The biggest problem with the view spells is that there is so much of them and they can block you from getting much more important ones. It's not that all of them are completely bad, but they are certainly super situational.

[@KhelbensCoinTV]

Right, exactly! You have to remember that this is a tier list and that something has to be F and something has to be S. Of course I don't think View spells are bad, I just prefer the spells I ranked ahead of them. I'd like to think that I explained my reasons in the video itself, but I'm 100% down to continue the discussion in KZbin comments or in our Discord server. I LOVE hearing the insights of other lovers of this game, even if I ultimately disagree because more often than not, I can buy someone else's reasoning provided they support it with evidence.

[@dustinherk8124]

do you have a video about the spell maths? like how magic arrow is 10xSP, cold ray is 20xSP, lighting bolt 25xSP, animate dead 50xSP in undead hitpoints, summon elemental 3xSP etc In regards to cold ring, i like using it when attacking towns with vampire lords, but before i have bone dragons. vampires stay relatively alive flying over the wall, but end up surrounded, which is perfect for cold ring. and situational for any other small creature being surrounded, if it happens. if the spell can hit 3 hexes worth of creatures or more, it deals more damage than lighting bolt. (if the spell is hitting 2 hexes of a large creature, it will only count as one hex)

[@KhelbensCoinTV]

I do not have a video on that specific subject yet, but you can check out spell breakdowns at the Heroes Wiki here: mightandmagic.fandom.com/wiki/Magic_(H2)

[@jamesmarlow5517]

Great list. Though I think Armaggedon just sneaks into S tier, basically I wouldnt use it until you get some Dragons, then just take Dragons and Armaggeddon every turn with no draw back! Black Dragons, Dimension Door and Armaggedon on a Powerful Spell caster totally trivialises the game plus has makes and awesome image of your hero riding a wave of dragon fire and destruction across the map. Though if you are trying to rush maps to get a good score you never get any of those spells and often using Combat heros, who start with Logistics or Pathfinding is quicker. Then with such rubbish spell points n knowledge I find slow/haste/blind/dispel to be the top spells, followed by curse/bless/Steelskin

[@Hektols]

Teleport should be higher, I use it with Hydras and teleport them at the side of a ranged enemy unit.

[@MilenkoSmoje]

Steelskin is very useful spell when your hero has low defense (e.g. mage, warlock). For me, easily B tier. Put a steelskin on your tank or your archers and you will save much more units. ;)

[@FinalManaTrigger]

I would switch Fireball and Fireblast. Fireblast, while doing more damage, also has a grater area of effect, and after the 1st round of combat that's bad because your own units will invariably be in the way. Fireball also has an area effect that can be a double edged-sword, but it's much smaller so it's useful in more situations. Otherwise they are on the right tiers because they just aren't as good as Lightning Bolt or Cold Ray. Just flip 'em! Fireball's a B, Fireblast is a C.

[@adamv2296]

Look at me, fucking look at me... MASS SLOW!

[@ParleLeVu]

I'd bump chain lightning down to A-tier, because of accessibility. Lightning up to S-tier as it is THE go-to damage spell in all aspects of the game. It's significance cannot be overstated. Animate dead possibly S-tier for Undead. Dimension Door better than mass slow, imo, but agreed that they are #1 and #2. Anti-magic is A. Once it is on, it can only expire, it cannot be dispelled. Elemental storm A only because of cheese tactics, but still A. Armageddon S as it is simply twice as powerful. Meteor shower B. Hypnotize F. Worst spell in the game imo. Takes up a tier 5 in a mage guild for nothing. Haunt is C. Cure and mass cure are as good as dispel. They heal + keep buffs. Fireball D. Fireblast F. Holy word and holy shout C and D.

[@alantran5134]

You are obviously biased towards offensive spells, despite offensive spells being mostly becoming less and less effective even in late campaign battles; at that point your support spell casting will sway battles in your favor more often than relying on Armageddon/E.Rain Identify Hero has certain strategic uses, as does View Hero, if View All is not available, especially on larger maps. Town Portal can be obtained from Guilds, though rare, and is one of two (the other being Dimension Door) endgame spells that are above S Tier. Berserker can be highly useful against certain unit types, but is situational enough to warrant A tier. Summon Boat is vital in certain maps and is often very handy in the Grand strategy at times. Agree on the overpowering utility of Mass Slow. The other speed buff/debuffs are agreeable on ranking. Mirror Image is easily S Tier, it will also act as a decoy which saves an attack on your real unit(s). Summon Elemental spells can be super useful if proper artifacts are found that enhance them. Otherwise, decent rankings

[@elirantuil5003]

Anti magic is s tier

[@KhelbensCoinTV]

Thanks for watching! One of my favorite spells, I just couldn't put it on the same tier as what I had for A- and S-Tier. That said, I probably shouldn't have had it on the same tier as the Dispel Magic spells; Anti-Magic is a superior spell to any Dispel.

[@Trias805]

16:17 Phoenixes are gonna move before you can cast mass slow on them.

[@kosztaz87]

Not if you have a Champion.

[@mowsefmow8177]

haunt mine is hilarious though

[@xlnt2new]

all view spells are top tier, especially in 1vs1 (; cold ring is useful vs some shooters, cure is a dispel for poor so much more useful, magic arrow has a very low multiplier and is not a high tier, Berzerker is great, should be A tier

[@user-kk4sj4ih3e]

I myself would have put mass cure into F. Never used it, probably won't. I mean spending this amount of mana so that your units will die next turn anyway, especially when only a couple of them boast a decent HP anyway? It's not like I'm going around with an army of titans.

[@roylangston4305]

Corrections: Town Portal can appear in mage guilds, but has a very low probability, maybe 2%. It is clearly and by far the most useful spell in the game, as you can use it to prevent your towns from ever being taken by the enemy, bring forces to the front lines without the bucket brigade, etc. Blind lasts as many combat rounds as your spell power. Bless and Mass Bless are not very useful, as many units do not have a large difference between maximum and minimum damage. Blessing halflings is almost the only time it is useful. Mass Slow is fantastic for shutting down flyers other than dragons (perfect for clearing haunted mines!), but is clearly inferior to Town Portal and Dimension Door in terms of getting to an early win. Dragon Slayer is clearly more useful than Blood Lust, as dragons cannot be harmed by magic, and must be defeated by your units. Fireball and Fireblast are rarely useful. Undead units cannot be Paralyzed. Hypnotize is almost completely useless, because by the time you get it, the stacks are usually too big to be hypnotized.

[@kacprzakandrzej2826]

You should make a tiktok or whatever sm short out of the Mass Slow sequence. ;) Love it, love the cotent, made me get addicted to HOMM once again. Thanks for that.. :/ Lame, not kewl but stilll, great content ;)

[@BEM684]

Mass slow is my favorite spell because my last name is Maslow.

[@KhelbensCoinTV]

Amazing. Thanks for watching!

[@Malikor]

Let me tell you why cold ring or fireball is A tier. The combat is all about who gets to move their units first. If most of your army is shooters or flying, you can cold ring two units at the start and basically never let the opponent have a move if you can take out their units in one go and in the right order (fastest to slowest)

[@Malikor]

If they can't have a turn they can't flee and you get to keep any artifacts they had. Not to mention you don't take damage

[@KhelbensCoinTV]

Not allowing the opponent a turn is great, yes, but isn't that better achieved using Chain Lightning, Mass Slow/Haste, etc than Cold Ring or Fireball? I think I'd prefer using a more powerful regular Lightning spell to drop their fastest stack.

[@Malikor]

@@KhelbensCoinTV CL is less reliable for consecutive jumps (unless you're a walking calculator) and slow would allow them to have a turn, which opens the opportunity for them to flee with all their artefacts and experience points. Also, I'm not booing CL. I think the S tier is well deserved here.

[@KhelbensCoinTV]

Right on. By Slow I meant Mass Slow; it should buy time for ranged and flying units to take out fast enemy stacks to prevent an opponent from getting a turn. What I'm saying is Mass Slow is my go-to way to make sure an opponent never gets a turn.

[@user-xz9wy2sn6z]

Those spells do low damage. How exactly do you take out enemy units in one go with them, unless it's starting armies or something?

[@tony_potsandpans]

Shield is OP.

[@pupper5580]

Chain lightning S-tier but Armageddon A-tier? That makes no sense to me.

[@pupper5580]

On later notice, I don't have a problem with that evaluation. Edit: just to supplement what Khelben said. I always use the combo Red Dragon + Armageddon - this way I kill everything but take no losses. Very OP combo. If you have a game where you have Dimension Door, Armageddon, and Red Dragons - the game is completely over.

[@Jasiuuu]

Bersekr/hypno underrated - its B at least / View all - at least B

[@Jasiuuu]

Dimension door and Town portal are S+ it can't be in the same bracket as chain lightnin'

[@djenei2564]

15:38 XDDDD

[@MarkusRamikin]

Why are you stretched horizontally

[@user-xz9wy2sn6z]

You've put some effort into this classification, but I suppose it reflects your (likely) limited experience. First of all, your F-tier spying spells are critical in multiplayer (assuming you play it), where your opponent is evenly matched and you need any edge over them you can get - B-C multiplayer, F otherwise. Cure is way too low, since, as opposed to Dispel, Cure ACTUALLY LEAVES POSITIVE EFFECTS ON YOUR UNIT (and the restored health is a bonus). I'd put Cure at C and Mass Cure at B. Mass Shield is quite underrated, but I guess you've not felt the Archery Barbarian's wrath yet - B tier. Berserk is a solid B at least, but you got to time it well (cast when the target is about to act, so you don't give the opponent time to react) - not for everyone. Hypnotise is F-bound flaming trash, unless you have the two enhancement artifacts, in which case it deserves the C tiering (50 vs 25 and 7 vs 15 mana is a world of a difference). View All is critical in multiplayer (might not make much difference in single player, since the AI is trash), would put it up at A in multiplayer, D otherwise. Death Ripple and Death Wave are quite overrated due to low damage throughput (Ripple is a joke), as a Necromancer you'll deal much more damage by enhancing your numerous troops with buffs or cursing your enemies - I'd place Wave at D and Ripple at F. Summon Boat is highly situational, but it has the critical disadvantage (compared to Heroes III) that the boat needs to exist (and this is a big problem, unless you or your enemies have a shipyard) - D at most. Curse is mediocre unless you're facing Air Elementals, so I'd downgrade the single version to D. Meteor Shower does decent damage and has good coverage, so I'd move it to B. Set * Guardian are only good for a D, as the throughput is rather on the low side and the summoned elementals are XP fodder for any moderately muscular enemy hero. Magic Arrow is too high over there, I'd place it between C and D because of the low damage. Teleport is almost useless unless you have Hydras or your single absurdly unbalanced stack of shooters needs to get away from the enemy's Hydras - C. Anti-Magic is a curious case, because the combination between it and Armageddon (and to an extent Elemental Storm) is a great way (S-tier) to decimate wandering monsters, but the spell is otherwise mediocre - I won't give it a definite spot. Dispel is too high at B, Mass Dispel is thereabout. Resurrect is C at most, since the effect is not permanent, unless you get an Ankh, in which case it can tip the scales of a battle a lot (in which case it's B). Town Gate should be A - it can be a bit of a Town Portal if you can be arsed to move half of the way to the target town or something, and will otherwise let you rest at the end of the day in Whateverville, and can also provide a quick getaway or a return to the action when necessary. Disrupting Ray has limited usability, because the defense penalty is low and single-creature, but there are clear cases where it's superior (like prolonged sieges defending against heroes with no flyers and weak or no shooters, or weakening slowed wandering crawlers like golems and hydras when battling them by the hordes or more) - C. The two L2 damage spells have NO BUSINESS at the A tier, since they don't really scale towards the middle and end of the game (bonuses for attack and defense are much better in Heroes II than in III, and troops definitely grow faster than spell power from all sources) - B-C, depending on whether you get the damage artifacts for them. What the hell were you thinking? Blind is, along with Paralyse, S-tier, and, if you ask me, both should be L4 spells. Just ask any seasoned player. Animate Dead is S-tier if you're Undead (permanent effect, massive hit points restored), F otherwise. There's just no way to average that, and I seriously disagree with its placing by the developers at L3 - it really deserves L5 (and chance to get only in Necromancer towns). Mirror Image costs way too much in general (with no way to reduce that cost), and it requires expert timing and favourable conditions to yield serious advantages - B. Armageddon is suicide if you don't have protection (Dragons or Anti-Magic), so it's S if yes, and C-D if no (you CAN use it as a suicide tactic while preserving your main army, but you might not get that chance too often). Summons are S-tier with the enhancement artifacts (way better than in Heroes III, for sure - the elementals are fatter, Heroes II troops are generally weaker, you summon 50% more of them - 6xSP - for 25% lower costs, 15 vs. 20). B-C otherwise. Chain lightning would be S-tier with the Lighting Rod, otherwise down to A, and only early and mid-game (depending on the map). Slowly becomes irrelevant towards the endgame, like pretty much all damage spells. Any spells not mentioned explicitly are there or thereabout.

[@KhelbensCoinTV]

Hey, thanks for watching! I don't disagree with you, but I should clarify that I was ranking these spells on their own merit and without the aid of artifacts or consideration of your army makeup. Also, this is a HOMM2 list, so any mention of HOMM3 doesn't give counter-argument any weight (HOMM3 is coming to the channel soon, so stay tuned). In any event, I'm glad you watched this video and I'm SUPER excited to had so much to share in your comment. Thanks for watching!

[@user-xz9wy2sn6z]

For whatever's worth, I did (mostly) give separate ratings depending on the presence or absence of the enhancers. As for considering the context when rating spells, well, that's kinda what the game is all about, no? It's not like you cast spherical spells in a vacuum. The comparisons with Heroes III were made because that game is better known and has some serious balance and playability improvements - I expect anyone who can be bothered to read my wall of text will be familiar with it.

[@KhelbensCoinTV]

That's the thing, though. HOMM3 is a different game. I don't care how spells behave in that game, this is a HOMM2 tier list. Also, how can a tier list consider every context? I was considering the impact of the spell on its own merits for this tier list. In fairness, my perspective on some of these spells has changed since I posted this video, but I'll stand by most of these decisions given my criteria.

[@user-xz9wy2sn6z]

The H3 references are sparse and very specific (and in brackets, so you can gloss right over if you don't know the game), and I put them there for just that, reference purposes, i.e. perhaps using H3 knowledge to better understand how things stand in H2. You don't care, others might (I do). You hit the nail on the head with this one - a single-digit or -letter tier system is scalar (1-dimensional), and a spell is a game mechanic which receives multidimensional input and produces non-linear results, and you lose multiple axes of depth when trying to project it to 1-D space. There's usually no "its own merits", unless you can compare apples to apples, and even then it gets hairy really quickly (think Cold Ray vs. Lightning Bolt, then factor mana cost, then add Meteor Shower to the mix, etc. - it quickly gets out of hand when you need to consider the battlefield scenarios you use those spells in - maximum number of targets hit, potential to hit your own, complex deployment shape, like Cold Ring, immunities, resistance, enhancement artifacts, and all that shite - and this is just direct damage spells, which are arguably the most straightforward class of the bunch). How exactly do you decide what those "own merits" are?

[@Igorsov]

0:15 Who doesn’t?

[@pipilu3055]

I agree with most of this, but really? Disrupting ray in B? Above Berzerker? Keep in mind disrupting ray has the same cost as lightning bolt, and one more spell point than cold ray. There is no reason to use this. Heck, two magic arrows would be better. AI LOVES to use disrupting ray on my titans, even on small armies like grand elves & rangers. Overall, I just don’t see a major difference. Even if it does, I think a strike of lightning would do more than disrupting ray could ever do. all troop rankings when?

[@KhelbensCoinTV]

I was as surprised as anyone that I ranked Disrupting Ray at B, but if you listen to what I said and watch our Archibald playthrough, you'll know that it won me the final battle to win the campaign. I had to pay it forward. Also, a few other people said they liked Berserker better than I did; I've never had great success using the spell, when are the best times you've found to cast it? I usually prefer Blinding or Paralyzing big stacks rather than make them go ape on an ally.

[@pipilu3055]

@@KhelbensCoinTV On THUNK, I used Berzerker on THUNK’s minions to make the fight easier, while also being reusable with fleeing (obviously not using Corribus). What remained of THUNK after 5 Berzerkers was an army I feel relatively comfortable dealing with. On Ludicrosity, even though it was completely unnecessary, I weakened the 4000 hydra army by Berzerker bombing, to obtain ghosts. Truth be told, Berzerker is a very specific spell that I don’t really use often(pretty useful for enemy armies with at least 2 powerful stacks of troops). but IMO I found more success with it than with disrupting ray. Also, just curious, how do you know disrupting ray was the carry? It doesn’t show in numbers. In a way, it’s bloodlust but instead with defense.

[@KhelbensCoinTV]

Nice! That's super cool that Berzerker was able to make the difference; I had to use other methods but it might have been easier for me to have leveraged the spell more deftly. As for Ray, I was trying my usual Blind, Chain Lightning, or Teleport shenanigans and was losing on stream. Twitch chat suggested using Disrupting Ray, which was a spell I had never, ever used before, on Roland's Titans. It was a great way to grind them down, and it led to a victory. Now, I will admit that I was trying to capture every castle in that playthrough, so he had way more Titans than he should have had if I'd just rushed him, but I beat him at his best and I had Disrupting Ray to thank. THAT's why it was B-Tier for me, though that one circumstance really should have been just enough for me to rank it above F-Tier rather than list it at B. Anyway, I think you've convinced me that I was wrong, so cheers!

[@guigomez3441]

berserk is usefull but disrupting ray also super strong : its often usefull for really picky fights when you need to crash the ennemy before he can attack you back (put him to 0 defense) both deserve A tier

[@F_youtube_rassist_cencure]

hypnotize -f tier. worst spell.

[@KhelbensCoinTV]

It's difficult to use effectively, for sure. Thanks for watching!

[@xelsor]

this language man... "anti-magic" sounds like "hentai-magic"

[@iapetusmccool]

Use it to counter "anime dead".