The majority of Hero Abilities come in two different versions: a "Basic" version and a "Super" version. Whatever bonuses are given by the "Basic" version, the "Super" version will give the same kind of bonuses - but exactly 50% better.
For example, "Basic" Might gives the Hero a +1 Melee Attack Strength bonus for each of the Hero's Experience Levels. "Super" Might gives the same bonus, but exactly 50% better: +1.5 Melee Attack Strength per level.
There are several Heroes that start the game with one or more Super Abilities already present, by default. Other Heroes may occasionally upgrade an existing ability to its "Super" version thanks to Random Ability picks. Occasionally, a Hero may spend two Random Ability picks to get a Super Ability that he does not possess at all by default.
Not every Hero Ability has two levels. Charmed, Lucky and Noble have only a "Basic" level. The Caster ability has no levels, and works differently from all other abilities to boot.
In a Hero's details panel, Super Abilities are denoted by an asterisk (*).
Concept[]
Heroes usually possess a varied array of skills, with each Hero having different skills to compliment his/her attributes and strategic/tactical role. It is of course inevitable that some Heroes should be even more skilled than others.
A Super Ability denotes a skill, technique or magical property where the Hero excels far beyond his peers. One Hero may be stronger than normal, whereas another Hero is exceptionally strong. The extra advantage is denoted by the presence of the "Super" version of the skill, instead of the "Basic" version.
All Super Abilities are identical to their "Basic" versions in terms of the type of bonuses they bestow. The only difference is that the Super Ability gives 50% more of the same bonus, per each of the Hero's Experience Levels.
Abilities with "Super" Versions[]
10 of the available Hero Abilities have both a "Basic" and a "Super" version available. This includes:
Agility
Arcane Power
Armsmaster
Blademaster
Constitution
Leadership
Legendary
Might
Prayermaster
Sage
Other abilities, including Charmed, Lucky and Noble have no "Super" version at all. Also, the Caster ability, while it can be upgraded, is not considered to have neither a "Basic" nor "Super" version, since it has no fewer than 7 different levels available.
Comparison[]
The following table gives a comparison between the "Basic" and "Super" versions of each ability. Each value indicates the total bonus received per each of the Hero's Experience Levels.
Icon | Ability | Basic | Super |
---|---|---|---|
Agility | +1 | +1.5 | |
Arcane Power | +1 | +1.5 | |
Armsmaster | 2 | 3 | |
Blademaster | +5% | +7.5% | |
Constitution | +1 | +1.5 | |
Leadership | +1/3 | +0.5 | |
Legendary | 3 | 4.5 | |
Might | +1 | +1.5 | |
Prayermaster | +1 | +1.5 | |
Sage | +3 | +4.5 |
Note: This table only shows a very basic numeric comparison. Several of these abilities are somewhat more complex than the values above would indicate.
This table clearly shows how the Super bonus is always 50% better than the Basic bonus.
Rounding Down[]
For the majority of "Super" abilities (and some "Basic" abilities as shown above), the bonuses include fractions - most often 0.5 fractions. However, as evident in the game, all unit properties adjusted by these abilities work on entirely whole numbers (1, 2, 3, etc.).
This requires the game to "round down" the final bonus. This is done in two steps: First, the total bonus from the ability is calculated, by multiplying the original bonus (see table above) by the Hero's current Experience Level. Then, the total bonus is rounded down to the nearest whole number.
For example, imagine a Hero with Super Might, who is currently at Experience Level 3 ("Captain"). The original bonus from Super Might is +1.5 per level. We multiply this by the Hero's level (3) to get +1.5 * 3 = +4.5. This is rounded down, giving a bonus of only +4.
The same thing applies to the Blademaster ability, because To Hit is only measured in increments of 10%. Once the total bonus from Blademaster or Super Blademaster is calculated, it is rounded down to the nearest multiple of 10. Therefore, a final +35% bonus, for example, would be rounded down to only +30%.
This explains why both the Blademaster and Leadership abilities have no effect until the Hero acquires at least one additional Experience Level (3 for Leadership, 2 for Super Leadership): the bonus is just too small, being rounded down to 0.
Default Super Abilities[]
Only a few Heroes possess a specific Super Ability in each and every game you play. They are usually highly-valued, since a Super Ability means that one or more of their combat properties will always soar very quickly as they gain Experience.
The table below shows each Hero in the game that has one or more Super Abilities by default:
Portrait | Name | Default Super Abilities |
---|---|---|
Elana the Priestess | Super Prayermaster | |
Roland the Paladin | Super Might | |
Sir Harold the Knight | Super Leadership Super Legendary | |
Spyder the Rogue | Super Legendary | |
Taki the War Monk | Super Agility | |
Torin the Chosen | Super Leadership Super Might |
You'll note that most of these are Champions, and rightly so.
Acquiring a Super Ability[]
The majority of Heroes in the game can use one or more of their Random Ability picks to acquire one or more Super Abilities. Heroes can both upgrade an existing "Basic" ability to its "Super" version, and/or acquire a completely new ability at "Super" level.
To be able to either upgrade to or acquire a Super Ability at all, the Hero must have at least 1 Random Ability. The more Random Abilities the Hero possesses, the better chance he/she has of doing so.
To acquire a new Super Ability, the Hero must do one of the following:
- Spend one Random Ability pick on an ability which the Hero already possesses at its "Basic" level.
- Spend two picks on an ability which the Hero does not already possess.
The random nature of picking Random Abilities means that there's only a certain chance for a Hero to upgrade to and/or acquire any Super Ability. This chance increases for Heroes picking from the "Mage" ability category (since there are fewer choices there), or if the Hero possesses many "Basic"-level abilities (increasing the chance of one of them being upgraded for the cost of only 1 pick).
The following table lists all Heroes in the game, and the number of "picks" they'd have to spend in order to reach any given Super Ability. The value "0" in the table below signifies that the Hero already possesses the "Super" version of the ability by default (refer to the table above). The value "--" indicates that this hero many not obtain this Super Ability at all, usually due to a lack of a sufficient number of picks.
Portrait | Name | # of Random Abilities |
# Picks required to purchase a "Super" ability | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Agi | Arc | Arm | Bld | Con | Ldr | Lgn | Mgt | Pry | Sge | |||
Aerie the Illusionist | 2 | -- | 2 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | 2 | 2 | |
Alorra the Elven Archer | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | |
Aureus the Golden One | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | |
B'Shan the Dervish | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | |
Bahgtru the Orc Warrior | 1 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | |
Brax the Dwarf | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | |
Deth Stryke | 1 | -- | -- | 1 | -- | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | -- | -- | |
Elana the Priestess | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | 0 | -- | |
Fang the Draconian | 2 | 2 | -- | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | -- | -- | |
Greyfairer the Druid | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | |
Gunther the Barbarian | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | |
Jaer the Wind Mage | 1 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | |
Malleus the Magician | 1 | -- | 1 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | |
Marcus the Ranger | 1 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | |
Morgana the Witch | 2 | -- | 2 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | 2 | 2 | |
Mortu the Black Knight | 1 | -- | -- | -- | 1 | 1 | -- | 1 | 1 | -- | -- | |
Mystic X the Unknown | 5 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | |
Rakir the Beastmaster | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | |
Ravashack the Necromancer | 2 | -- | 1 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | 2 | 2 | |
Reywind the Warrior Mage | 1 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | |
Roland the Paladin | 1 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | 1 | 0 | -- | -- | |
Serena the Healer | 1 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | |
Shalla the Amazon | 1 | -- | -- | -- | 1 | -- | -- | -- | 1 | -- | -- | |
Shin Bo the Ninja | 2 | 2 | -- | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | -- | -- | |
Shuri the Huntress | 1 | -- | -- | -- | 1 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | |
Sir Harold the Knight | 1 | -- | -- | -- | -- | 1 | 0 | 0 | -- | -- | -- | |
Spyder the Rogue | 1 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | 1 | 0 | -- | -- | -- | |
Taki the War Monk | 1 | 0 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | |
Theria the Thief | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | |
Torin the Chosen | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2 | |
Tumu the Assassin | 1 | -- | -- | -- | 1 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | |
Valana the Bard | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | |
Warrax the Chaos Warrior | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | |
Yramrag the Warlock | 1 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | |
Zaldron the Sage | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
Better Abilities vs. More Abilities[]
It may seem as though spending Random Ability picks to upgrade an existing ability into a Super Ability is the best outcome for a Hero. However, particularly in cases regarding a Hero's Damage output, it seems that picking a wider variety of abilities is often the better outcome.
The best case for this is seen with Heroes possessing the Basic Might ability or Basic Blademaster ability, with one Random Ability to spend. Damage output for such a Hero will increase by a respectable amount if either of these abilities was upgraded to its Super version, but would be significantly higher if the Hero picked the ability he didn't have.
Furthermore, it is often better to have a Hero with as few weaknesses as possible, rather than a Hero with an overwhelming advantage in one field. For example, a Hero with an extremely powerful attack may be a dangerous opponent, but can be taken out fairly easily with enemy Ranged Attacks or spells. If that same Hero invested less in his/her attack strength, and more in other abilities that strengthen his/her defensive properties, he/she may be able to survive for longer during combat, and thus deal much more damage overall.
Therefore, when evaluating whether a Hero is worth hiring, it's often best to look for a wider variety of abilities. Of course, the best way is to learn what each and every ability does, and make an informed decision based on this.