This map ended up being a lot easier than the heroic mode, but it took me a long time to get there. As I've talked about in the past, I start with Faustus and work backwards. My initial build strategy was highly RNG dependent, just like heroic mode - getting Blood Gnolls at the wrong time pretty much guaranteed a loss. Despite that, I made it all the way through the heroes until Reg'son, at which point it just fell apart. Reg'son is an awesome hero, but Vindicator just can't contribute to dealing with the horde of gnolls midway through the map and I was getting overrun. It was at that point I tweaked my strategy, found the build I demonstrate in the videos, and got much cleaner runs. Of course I like to demonstrate the same build for all heroes, so I ended up going back and redoing all heroes prior to Reg'son. Thankfully this is a short map.
Impressions
The net result of all this is that we have an easy mixture of 'A's and 'B's, unlike my first time through where I was starting to hand out 'D's. It's things like this that make me nervous, because I know the next map is a doozy, and if I can't pull a hero through it, is it because I just don't have a good enough build? You can never know if there is a better build you might have tried.
For this map though, there aren't really any surprises. I did have to give Reg'son and Xin 'B's because this map just hit their weaknesses especially hard, but they still do alright.
Final Grades
- Eridan - B
- Arivan - B
- Catha - B
- Reg'son - B
- Prince Denas - A
- Razz and Rags - B
- Bravebark - A
- Vez'nan - A
- Xin - B
- Phoenix - A
- Durax - A
- Lynn - A
- Bruce - B
- Lilith - A
- Wilbur - A
- Faustus - A
Best Choice
Whereas this map highlighted the weaknesses of otherwise good heroes like Reg'son and Xin, it resulted in some outstanding performances for some of our other heroes, such that I'm declaring this one a four-way tie.
First up, Bravebark demonstrates his great flexibility in handling both hordes and larger enemies - Oakseeds and Rootspikes to deal with the hordes of gnolls, and Branchball to get the pesky Ogre Magi out.
Next, Durax's clones plus his extremely high movement speed means he always has blockers where you need them. Plus, when there are only a handful of tough enemies on maps like this one, Sapphire Fangs does tremendous work on a solitary opponent.
Finally, Phoenix and Wilbur are just Phoenix and Wilbur. Long time readers will have no problem understanding why they take the top spot.
I'm really worried about the next map - Beheader's Seat. I remember it being a beast on campaign mode, to say nothing of heroic and iron. This is one of the three major tests remaining to us, so join me to see if our heroes are up for it.
