|
|
When you have souls to spare and momentum on your side, things are good. But there come times, especially at the beginning of single-player missions, when the enemy controls the majority of the available units, and you need to dig in. When you order a unit to be a guardian for one of your structures, that unit loses its special ability (if it had one at all) but gains so much more in higher strength, attack, and healing. A guardianed unit will easily defeat two or three identical units that are attacking it. Thus, if you are beleaguered, guardian your units to your manaliths and hope that if you repel an enemy attack, you can collect some enemy souls and turn the tide. Since enemy souls appear blue to your opponents, enemy wizards can easily scoop them up from a battlefield and return a bit later, as fully strong as before. Thus, if you have any hopes of gathering enemy souls, you will have to remove the enemy wizard from the scene. Some devastating high-level spells can accomplish this all by themselves, but if that option isn't available to you, you must do it with your creatures. Certain creatures suck mana from their targets, while others stun, freeze, or slow them down. When you are organizing your army for a fight, you may want to designate a special antiwizard group for that specific duty. Wait for a battle to be joined in earnest before targeting the enemy wizard with this special group. Include units with the unique abilities mentioned above and include at least one melee unit to take down the wizard's health. Spellcasting Three very important ways to spell-cast effectively: use hotkeys, assign control groups, and use the unit selection pane on the left-hand side of the screen. A player who assigns creatures to groups, cycles through the groups with the appropriate numbers, and casts spells on those creatures with hotkeys will excel. In fact, you should rarely need to hover your mouse over a creature when you want to gain information about its health. A far better method is to observe the state of the creature's health and mana in the unit- selection pane and cast spells by clicking on the icon shown. If, in the heat of battle, you simply cannot organize your troops, remember that you can drag a box around the battlefield on the minimap and get information about 12 of your creatures, at most, in the unit-selection pane. When in doubt, drag such a box and cast spells accordingly. If a weak creature is dying quickly, it is a waste of mana to cast a healing spell upon him. You will begin to cast the spell even if the creature dies shortly thereafter, and the mana involved will be lost. An audio clue indicates when a recently cast spell can be cast again. In general, if you want to recast a spell, you will need to wait for the other spells to become available. After these become available, the spell you want to cast will be available. Thus, you need to wait until you hear the second audio signal before casting the spell. For high-level spells, the wait can be quite long, even if your mana is completely full.
|
|
