We are the Empire!
There are a lot of different video reviews of Norvezskaya Semga’s mod. But for fans of the reading, we have specially prepared a series of articles, which will include an analysis of all five factions plus a separate chapter devoted to neutrals.
Let us start with the representatives of the human race and their characteristics!
Valiant Warriors
In addition to the fact that most of the old units have been completely redesigned, the warrior tree itself has received a new branch.
On the example of Squire, you can see the general trend of changes in the original fighters, namely: an increase in the experience threshold for upgrading, a small vitality boost, and, accordingly, an increase in experience for a kill.
The situation is similar with the Knight, except that his stamina is increased by converting part of his health into armor.
On the Empire Knight, the experience bar for the transition to T4 is leveled to the original, however, there is a dynamic increase of 75 points for the stopped one.
The Angel has undergone some pretty serious changes. The most important of these is changing the attack type from "Weapon" to "Mind". In this regard, the damage indicator has decreased, but the initiative has slightly increased. The difference in 5 health does not really affect anything, unlike immunities to weakening and slowing, as well as protection to decreasing the level. Of the pleasant features that can motivate the player to enter this unit, it is also worth noting a decrease in the cost of construction, as well as the threshold of experience required to obtain overlevels.
The Defender of the Faith has changed minimally, but for the better. The cost of building the Obelisk has been reduced, and the unit itself has received resistance to death magic.
The Blade Master underwent much more significant metamorphoses. In addition to the fact that his attack has become much more accurate, it has received an additional property - the destruction of armor. The damage increase has almost doubled! Considering that the mechanics of the game add the value of damage growth to the base indicator of armor breakage (and for this unit it is equal to 20), the Blade Master with his double attack will literally strip all armored opponents who are not immune to the effect of destruction. Added anti-deceleration protection to the death resist. The construction of the building is also cheaper compared to the original.
Only at first glance, the Paladin is almost indistinguishable from his original from the vanilla version of the game. In fact, the damage gain has been slightly increased for him and the armor gain has been significantly increased (four times more). The already high bar of experience has risen by 100 points, but this is an insignificant change in the context of the gains received. Protection from death magic remains from the previous tier, and the building also costs less.
The significant difference between the branch of the Inquisition is the loss of immunity from the magic of the mind in all clerics. However, it is compensated by wards from vampirism and thaumaturgy. The changes that affected the Witch Hunter are like those described earlier - the bar of experience has been increased, and the survivability has been increased too.
The Inquisitor in the mod is aligned according to the characteristics of the original. The only differences are in immunities and wards. The Semga’s churchman is immune only to paralysis and fear. All other types of attacks based on mind magic will be reflected only once.
The characteristics of the Grand Inquisitor have been changed by analogy with his previous level of upgrading. Additionally, he gains a ward from fire and immunity to transform. The overlevel bar is raised quite significantly. But the cost of constructing has been reduced.
The new Armiger branch is more about survivability than damage. The units of this one receives more health, their attack and initiative are reduced (although the initiative of the same Guardian of Holiness increases, and ideally, if you stop progress, you can get an even more persistent and fast fighter than other analogues of his tier). Starting from T4, warriors receive resists from the destruction of armor and mind, but in general, this category of fighters has no more interesting features.
Well-aimed archers
The shooter’s tree has also been supplemented with a new branch and one more chain in the old one.
To understand how radically the archers have been redesigned, you do not need to look far for an example. The Ranger, being only a T2 unit, receives an increase in damage, which is twice the same increase for the Knight, T2 unit from the warrior tree. Also, shooters have twice the accuracy received per level. And the base level of experience is even less than that of the already mentioned Knight, although dynamic, but still ...
The Assassin already behaves a little more modestly, but still surpasses the original brother, whose high damage increases only last up to level 10. The tiny difference in base health does not play a significant role, and protection from poison already looks like a rather attractive innovation.
The cross-class branch allows you to make a high-initiative melee from the Ranger with additional poison damage. If the Shadowblade, a unit of the third tier, still looks like a rather dubious alternative to an ordinary warrior, then its improved version, the Emperor's Smite, may well compete with regular frontline fighters. The sky-high initiative and protection from the first attack with a weapon allow not only to effectively inflict damage, but also to defend in a timely manner. And the growths of health and damage (to direct attack and poison) can give light to the additions of a simple soldier.
The new branch of magic shooters is shocking with its potential.
The Jaeger has an obscenely large increase in damage for a T2 unit, which exceeds even the increase received by the Ranger, and this even though the former is an elemental shooter! The difference in experience between them is only 50 points, the same value is a dynamic increase for both archers.
Borealis adds critical damage to its main attack. This is quite a powerful option, considering that thanks to the latest development of the craftsmen and the creation of plug-in libraries, there is a custom crit option damage.
Recent PvP games have shown that the power of the shooters overshadows the capabilities of other units, which is why most of the players prefer the matchup from the masses of Borealis.
Wise wizards
The following changes have taken place in the tree of magicians: the branch of the elementalists has lengthened and a chain of the water magicians has appeared.
The attempt to improve the Wizards when playing for the Empire resulted in a decrease in the experience bar.
Already on the Mage, the differences in the experience are aligning. At the same time, there are no other differences, except for the addition of a negligible amount of health.
And only the White Mage has a unique enhancement in the form of a suddenly high armor value (and its subsequent increase), as well as increased base damage (and its subsequent increase with level). Also, as a bonus, the elder receives a resistance to his element and to armor crushing. The building for upgrading according to all MNS laws is discounted.
The MNS Elementalist has matured considerably. His initiative has straightened to the level of a melee fighter and grows by as much as 5 units per level! He also received a double call, instead of a single one, which increases the survivability of the summons, and strengthens the first line if the defensive call tactics are used. He also receives protection from all elements, and not only from air.
The Air Elementals themselves have changed nominally. The only thing worth mentioning is the increase in their initiative to the level of ordinary shooters.
The next level of the Elementalist - the Master Elementalist - is already something fundamentally new. His basic initiative (which will grow by level 5) allows him to walk at the same time as the archers (and sometimes even earlier). Double summoning is able to transfer one of four elemental entities, represented by unique units, to the battlefield! All this coupled with a truly heroic reserve of health for a magician (and its gains), we make from the Master of Elements an excellent chief of the detachment.
The Demiurge is the quintessence of all the possible advantages that the Summoner class in Disciples 2 can give. He gets a high initiative that allows him to outrun most of the regular archers (but, alas, unlike his predecessor colleagues, her growth is not provided). His double summoning invokes powerful entities on the battlefield that attack with life, not elements. His health increased, armor and its growth appeared.
We can say that the role of summoners, compared to the vanilla version of the game, has increased significantly. Now they can fully take part in battles and compete with other units for a place in the squad.
An alternative branch of water mages through the Caster, which differs from the fellow mage by a slightly reduced damage, and by about the same increased health, allows you to go to Cryomancer.
He, in turn, differs from the White magician by the presence of additional attack - frostbite. But he has no armor, which makes him relatively vulnerable. It is also protected from native elements and periodic cold damage.
Compassionate healers
The support tree has got only one additional branch, but all healers have undergone changes in one way or another.
All single target healers are now effectively healers with double act. Despite the total healing power of the Priest was reduced, the Semga's heal gain increased. But at the same time, the bar for the required experience has increased, and a dynamic increase has also appeared. Health amount increased slightly.
The Chaplain can already to some extent be called a nerfed unit, because he has already naturally lost in effective treatment, and also, despite the base bar of experience reduced by a ridiculous 25, received a high dynamic increase. Health, in comparison with the original, has grown quite significantly, but more, perhaps, there is nothing to say.
At first glance, it seems that the Patriarch also loses significantly to his original version, but here his unique opportunity - Resurrection - makes a step forward. Thanks to double healing, the Patriarch is able to resurrect two units in one turn. For the rest of the characteristics, he backed up even stronger than the previous stage of upgrading. The experience bar has increased by as much as 400! Health has increased by only 15 units, but effective healing has decreased by 10. The cost of the structure has been reduced.
A new branch of the "single" heal, instead of the ability to resurrect the fallen, gives a property that mass healers from an adjacent branch have, namely, removing debuffs.
The Hierophant loses a little to the Priest, because on T3 the closest competitor does not have any talent that complements his healing.
But already the Bishop receives his additional 10 units of healing and goes to the usual level of the original Patriarch.
I have witnessed situations when people wondered why Semga added this alternative at all, because in fact, players who are eager to find removing debuffs in addition to healing, go to the Augurs. Quite a strange statement, given that the Augurs in the mod firstly received their portion of the nerf, and secondly, they are still massive, and do not solve the problem of controlling healing in battles when a target heal is required for a unit tanking in the front row.
The Vestal's level-up bar has risen significantly. A dynamic part was added to the base value when progress was stopped at this stage. The healing power remains the same, but the healing growth has increased. The rest of the unit remains the same.
The Abbess's healing power has decreased by only 5 points compared to the original. The increase in treatment has also increased. But at the same time, the tendency to increase the bar of experience and add even more dynamic value continued.
If the Abbess has not gone so far from her copy from the vanilla version, then the Augur has become a much more modest assistant. The healing power fell by as much as 20 units (this is the value by which the same Vestal healed the fighters). A lot of health has been added, but the bar of experience has also been raised. And according to the good old tradition, the building has become cheaper.
I would like to say that the nerf of healers, especially the massive ones, was necessary. How much you are satisfied with the innovations is a question that each player will have to answer personally. Myself, I was more than satisfied with the edits of the Semga!
Civil uprising
The last thing left for us to consider is a new so-called hidden branch. In previous versions of the mod, it was also present. But only with 1.43X it became possible to recruit special units in the Capital.
The new unit at the start is an extremely slow fighter with standard damage and slightly increased health. Otherwise, he practically does not stand out against the background of the same Squire.
There are three ways of development:
A branch that transforms a clumsy Militia Fighter into an agile Agent that uses poisons in battle. And then into the Persecutor of the Heresy, who prefers to slow down his enemies.
A branch of Righteous Warriors, whose feature is to inflict additional damage with a small chance, which exceeds even the main one.
On the T5, however, there will be an opportunity to change anger to mercy, or rather to breaking enemy armor.
An interesting branch, the units of which have low initiative, but are quite tenacious and are not deprived of armor.
Cross-class shooter tree with additional fire damage. The Initiative of these archers is below standard, but they have a high health pool.
A fresh idea to supplement the usual paths of unit development with the parallel upgrading of new soldiers (and the Militia fighters are swinging in the buildings of the warrior branch) significantly revives the gameplay and expands the possibilities of compiling game builds.
Afterword
The Empire has always been a faction whose strength is reflected in its healers. It was the support of them on the battlefield that allowed, when playing for people, to choose, for example, a lord mage or a guild master, without worrying that the troops would not have enough regen. Not to say that the mod significantly changes the situation. The Empire, by its very nature, will probably always rely on healers. However, thanks to new units and changes to old soldiers, you will be able to create some unexpected new combinations. And who knows, you might want to play as people without healers for once. MNS's rich capabilities give you this option and many others. Experiment for your own pleasure.
