The artefacts can be found on the adventure map and can greatly improve the heroes’ performances during the battles or on the adventure map.
Each hero has a limited amount of slots (9 slots, amongst them, the head, the armour, the legs or the neck) but an unlimited back bag. For example, you can find on the adventure map a sword, an axe and a staff but you won’t be able to equip a hero with all of them at the same time and thus, you will have to choose which one is in the right hand of the hero and which ones remain in the bag. You can always rearrange your artefacts before you engage in a combat though.
Artefacts are really essential because they help you overcoming critical situations and may give access to capabilities heroes have not learnt yet.
Here are a few artefacts you may find during your adventures. Of course the final combination and power of artefacts you will have in the game is still being fine-tuned based on beta test feedbacks, but the sample below will give you a fairly good idea of what artefacts can do, and how you can use them.
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- Turban of Enlightenment
The Turban of Enlightenment increases your experience by 20%. This is a very precious artefact to unexperienced heroes, as it allows them to level up much faster.
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- Necklace of Victory
The Necklace of Power adds +2 to you spellpower and attack skills. This necklace is perfectly suited to a Sylvan hero who wishes to balance his natural skills (Defence and Knowledge), or to a Dungeon hero who wants to improve in areas where he is already strong.
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- Trident of the Titans
The Titan's Trident boosts the damages dealt by lightning-based spells that your hero casts by 50%. This artefact is pretty useful to any magic-oriented hero that wishes to increase his power on the battlefield.
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- Wand
Wands are charged with the energy of a specific spell, allowing you to cast them once or several times even if you haven't learnt them. During a quest it is sometimes useful to find that kind of artefacts, especially if you are a might-oriented hero. Being able to cast just one specific spell can really change the outcome of a battle.
The magic in Heroes of Might & Magic V is currently divided in 4 schools: light, dark, summoning and destructive. This may still evolve until the end of the project, but we can already give a big picture of what magic will look like in the game.
School of Light
The light magic is mainly aimed at protecting or supporting the hero’s own troops. Few spells in this school are aimed at dealing damages or causing destruction, with the notable exception of the Word of Light, which is the most powerful of them and will deal severe damages to all evil-oriented creatures (meaning belonging to the Necropolis, Dungeon or Inferno) factions.
Amongst light magic spells you will find the Teleportation spell that allows your hero to instantly move a single creature anywhere on the battlefield. This spell is very useful to armies that include slow but powerful creatures in their ranks, such as Treants for instance. It is also a spell that will come in handy against shooters, as bringing one creature in contact with an archer for instance will oblige him to switch to melee combat, where he is less efficient.
The School of Light spells include:
- Blessing of Strength
- Blessing of Speed
- Blessing of Endurance
- Blessing of Cleansing
- Blessing of Might
- Blessing of Evasion
- Magical Immunity
- Teleportation
- Word of Light
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School of Darkness
The Dark Magic is favoured by the Necromancers and the Dark Elf Warlocks. Most of the spells of this school are aimed at lowering opposing creatures’ capacities or taking control of them.
The most powerful spell is of course Curse of the Netherworld since it causes magical damage to all creatures on the battlefield except Undead and Demonic creatures.
Amongst the school of Darkness spells, you will find the Curse of Rage spell. It makes the affected stack disobey to its hero. The stack will automatically try to attack the closest creature with remote or melee attack causing heavier than normal damage. This spell is very useful when you want to distract or inflict damages to opposing casters, it is also a powerful tool to spread confusion within the enemy’s ranks when his stacks are packed…
The list of School of Darkness spells include:
- Curse of Rage
- Curse of Blindness
- Curse of Weakness
- Curse of Vulnerability
- Curse of Confusion
- Curse of Enslavement
- Curse of Weariness
- Curse of the Netherworld
School of Summoning
The school of Summoning is mainly focusing on increasing the number of stacks on the battlefield, by duplicating, summoning or resurrecting troops. Few spells are dedicated to dealing damage or lowering abilities
Amongst the School of Summoning spells, we have the Phantom Forces spell, allowing a hero to create a Phantom, an illusory copy of the target stack which looks and acts as a mirror image. The Phantom will disappear once the battle is over, or if it is attacked once by an enemy stack, regardless of the damages inflicted. Of course, this spell can be cast only on a friendly stack.
This spell is very efficient when you have an army made of casters or shooters braving stacks of melee units because it multiplies your range attacks.
The list of School of Summoning spells include:
- Vessel of Shalassa
- Fist of Wrath
- Wasp Swarm
- Phantom Forces
- Earthquake
- Summon Elementals
- Instant Travel
- Town Portal
School of Destruction
The School of destruction manifests as blasts of pure destruction. Most of the spells aim at dealing damages or causing destruction, at an high extent. These spells are based on Ice or Fire components.
Amongst those spells, you will find chain lighting spell. It causes magical elemental damage by lightning to four units, starting with the targeted stack then spreading to the nearest ones on the battlefield, including friendly troops. The farther the unit is positioned on the Initiative Bar, the less damage it suffers.
This spell is great when you have enemies you cannot reach or when you have creatures with low initiative that stand far away on the Initiative Bar(Golem or Treants for instance).
The list of School of Destruction spells include:
- Eldritch Arrow
- Lightning Bolt
- Ice Bolt
- Fireball
- Circle of Winter
- Chain Lightning
- Earthshock
- Armageddon