I feared for my post to be too long for other threads so here it is
In this suggestion, i will often say "I recommand this" or "I recommand that" even if I'm not an expert but this will make my sentences more fluent.
That being said, I will suggest here some modifications concerning Ring Heroes, and quite a lot of them. I think balance and fun could be evenly achieved with them and this is really not the case for the time being in my opinion, here are the 3 reasons I think that way :
-Some of the best Ring Heroes are currently the most accessible (Sauron and in a smaller extent Boromir)
-Some leaderships of Ring heroes are crazy and quite a bit unfair because some factions can completely counter that even have a lot of way to counter that, and other factions just can't do anything about it apart from killing the Ring Hero.
Even for leaderships of attributes that cannot be countered, that's too easy I think to hide a Ring Hero inside a fully buffed army without having to manage well his abilities
-I feel there is sort of a gap of generation between let's say traditionnal Ring Heroes (Gandalf, Saruman, Sauron) whose strengh rely on harsh, brutal power and incredible leaderships and recently made Ring Heroes where balance, originality and micromanagement are far more polished.
To further balance the system, there are my suggestions :
BOROMIR :
Let's say it right away, Boromir should be nerfed in my opinion. He really needs it. There are 3 reasons to that :
-He is quite accessible compared to other Ring Heroes, 2400 is not a high price for a Ring hero.
-He has what I sayid above about incredible leaderships, double armor and damage is just insanely good
-Last but not least, He can act as a transitionner hero before getting gandalf the Challenge master. Indeed, it can be a very good strategy to give Borormir the Ring and wait till he dies to give the Ring to gandalf afterwards who cost more and who requires a spellbook power to reach his full potential. That capacity to act as a transitionner hero is an advantage in itself which count in the balancing of the system.
Yes, when he dies he have negative effects, but the player can take so much advantage before it that it isn't such a big deal.
Here are 2 nerfs I recommand :
-His leadership to be reduced to 40 % damage, 40 % armor (which is still good)
-only newly recruited units equips forged blades and heavy armors and not the ones who were already in the battlefield
GANDALF THE CORRUPTED
He is perfect
GANDALF THE CHALLENGE MASTER
Gandalf has what I call a leadership of attributes that cannot be cancelled. That is very nice, but it is so strong and it restrain too much the good micro management that Gandalf requires.
Gandalf is the favourite hero of a lot of player (he is my favourite hero for the time being). But it's sad that one of the funniest hero fo the game can buff his allies so much he doesn't need to be well played and can stay in the centre of his army well protected. I would prefer him to heal even better than to make units invulnerable.
Here are my suggestions :
-Reduce the strenght of his leadership of attributes by at least 50 %
-Increase slightly his healing rate for units around him
-reduce the recharge time of all his abilities by 100 % (ncluding his active and passive bubble shield (that doesn't work for the time being, Wizard blast recharge time is 33 seconds for gandalf the White and the same for gandalf the Challenge master, I tested it)
I would prefer Gandalf to have a very fast recharge time and his abilities to deal less damage (in his attempt to master the dark power of the ring) that a long recharge time and just more damage. His abilities knocckback ennemies, there are always useful, what would be fun is to be able to do it very often.
THEODEN :
He is an exception to what I said about traditional Ring heroes. Theoden is perfectly balanced. Yes, he is very accessible but still needs a power from the spellbook to reach his real power and even if this one is also quite accessible, Theoden is not immensely powerful with the Ring. All his powers with the Ring have a price and they are not overpowered. His leadership for example, even if it can apply to all the map is of 25 % damage and 25 % armor and can be countered.
ELROND :
Elrond his perfect. The Fellowship of the Ring is a very powerful reward to a very difficult hero to have.
GALADRIEL :
She is very nice as she is. I would simply recommand that when she takes either form with the Ring, to decrease the recharge time of the 2 powers that are dedicated to her in the spellbook by 20 % (stacks with Perfect knowledge). to get Vigilot and tornadoes more often. It would make up for the fact she can more or less achieve her Ring form via the spellbook.
THORIN AND DURIN :
They are very good. Congratulation for the Durin system by the way !
DAIN IRONFOOT :
Dáin is one of those recently made heroes where a lot of balance has been made, but i would say slightly too much. He has good abilities and he is constantly in his maximum battle rage but the fact he can't heal outside of combat is almost a challenge, and he has not even a leadership ! Not even 25 % damage and armor for allied units. he is not to be compared to the likes of Boromir, Gandalf or Saruman.
However, for Dain Ironfoot, I would just simply recommand to improve his level 10. His ability vendetta is a real risk for a very small reward. really, a level 10 ability from a Ring hero which generates a risk to loose this Ring hero even if it's makes him more powerful for a time has for unique reward to heal himself and friendly nerby heroes ?
I would recommand to add the following effect on that ability to deepen its logic of risk but to add a real reward at the end :
"if the ability has been activated for 45 seconds and the target is finally destroyed, all heroes and units in a large radius are healed and get definitively extremeley good attributes"
There the change of attributes with double armor and double damage for units and heroes would be very much welcome after so much effort with a quite hard ring Hero to master !
SARUMAN THE BLESSED :
Saruman the Blessed has one of those enormous leaderships. However, as a range hero, this leadership is harder to master well he will often tend to be away from his melee troops. however, double armor, double damage and twice the experience is so powerful that I can't say this is balanced.
If Saruman just makes the effort to stay around his troops, he is almost impossible to kill.
Rather than nerfing the value of the leadership, I would suggest a way for factions that can't cancel leaderships to negate it nonetheless. All attacks on Saruman the Blessed would deactivate his leadership for 3 seconds, even archer attack. That way, Saruman should be played in a intelligent manner to protect him from damage and using well his devastating leadership and base attack !
SARUMAN THE CURSED :
He is very good
SAURON :
Sauron his I think the main problem of all when we talk about balance with Ring Heroes. I've already mentionned it in my last suggestion concerning the Ring system, but reallly for the time being he is the most accessible Ring Hero except maybe Theoden and he is the best of all ! This unbalance is deepened by the Ring system where having your Ring hero on the battlefiled as soon as possible is very important.
That's why I recommand to make the Necromancer being able to take on the Ring only from level 6 on and not before. In that way, he would be one of the most difficult Ring Hero to get, and there would be no problem then that the event of Sauron taking the Ring get to be the one event in Edain that almost guarantee by itself the victory.
If a restriction is indeed put on Sauron's accessibility on the Ring, I would then recommand to add an atmospheric buff. There is already the darkness that buff all troops mapwide when Sauron get the Ring, but it can be countered and it fade after a certain time. I would recommand to launch a new darkness every 2 minutes to increase the feel of power and the atmosphere of chaos the event of the Master recovering his ring implies.
SMAUG :
Smaug need first of all for his system at level 5 to work correctly; When he will be able to get 100 % damage and armor, he will be far better than he is now. However, his inner flame ability as level 1 can damage allies as well as ennemies but it is not perilous 50/50.
In fact, as the fire extends behind Smaug, he is far more a danger for his own troops than for the ennemies.
I would not recommand to change this but rather to add a new effect that would apply this time in front of him where ennemies are more likely to be, a shokwave of his claws that knockack foes and allies alike in front of him every 5 seconds. Maybe it's impossible to make an animation of Smaug tapping the earth in front of him but at least having all units in a wide radius to be knockbacked for them to be easier preys to Smaug's fire would be very cool.
I would also recommand at level 8 to increase his attack speed by 20 % passively to have a feel of power and dynamism that would be very pleasing I guess.
THE WITCH KING OF ANGMAR :
The Witch King is another recently made Hero. I will say that his level 3 and his level 10 are very good indeed. However, the links with the factions he favours is not in my opinion very much strenghtened.
The ability to build Ore mines on settlements is not that good. Yes, the link with sorcerers and vassals are quite well improved but for Carn Dûm and for monsters, they lack power.
I say that also because the Witch King even he is central to his faction is nonetheless maybe the hardest Ring Hero to get because he cost 4000 and the economy of Angmar is not that impressive especially if the player is forced to a defensive position.
And especially, the Ring could dwell on that : on the weaknesses of Angmar if they are forced to a defensive position whereas the Witch King without the Ring must have map control to really reach his full potential.
That is why for Carn Dûm and for monsters I recommand to replicates all the buffs they get near settlements to all buildings of Angmar.
When the Witch King get the ring with a Carn Dûm favour, all building of Angmar upon construction would replenish fallen soliders of Carn Dûm and not just settlements, and if monsters are favoured, the Werewolves would get 50 % damage and armor inside their base also.
Here are all my balance suggestions for Ring Heroes. Hoping you like it. Good end of week