What's your favourite heroic ability?

[magnate]

I tend to play SC strategies a lot, so I really like to make use of heroic abilities. I reckon there are three distinct classes of heroic ability - here are my thoughts (sorry if this has been done before but I can't find it):

Premier League
1. Quickness - the ultimate, because it stacks with the boots, the jade armour or the spell
2. Toughness - turns any hero from a 10hp weakling to an SC tougher than a dragon, because it's not proportional to starting hp er, except maybe it is, come to think of it
3. Awesome Presence - scales up incredibly quickly and by the time it reaches +10 or more hardly anything can hit you
4. Strength - like toughness, it's not based on original strength so any unit can become a killer without needing AP weapons (so you can still use a lifedrain weapon)

First Division
5. Tough Skin - more prot is always good but it scales up very slowly and doesn't stack arithmetically with armour
6. Iron Will - more MR is always good, especially late game
7. Lightning Reflexes - also scales up really slowly, and defence is not as good as prot for an SC because they get surrounded
8. Battle Prowess - more att is always good
9. Battle Bellow - Fear is good, but not nearly as good as Awe
10. Endurance - although many SCs have 0 enc this is still really good for recovering fatigue after buffs etc., but not really important if you have lifedrain weapons

Vauxhall Conference
11. Valour - scales up nicely but most SCs have high leadership anyway, and don't usually lead armies
12. Undead General - like Valour but without the standard and, er, only useful for undead
13. Precision - occasionally handy on priests when fighting Ermor but otherwise useless
14. Research - how many researchers do you get in the HoF? Handy only if you get it on a mage early on and retire that commander.

Hmmm, I'm sure there are something like 19 heroic abilities, so I've forgotten loads of them. Remind me and I will edit my league.

So, now tell me why you disagree!

CC

[archaeolept]

the worst is getting undead general on a unit which can't lead troops...

[GriffinOfBuerrig]

I excpecially lige Strengh, because this skill reaches REALLY epic dimensions(Wraith lord with strenght 50 - Jaaaaaaa!)

[Wish]

I like extra HPs, magic resistance, or defence on my assassins/succubi

quickness is by far my favorite over all, but i never get it on a unit who can make it worthwhile

[Ed Kolis]

Hmm, tossup between Heroic Toughness (I currently have that on a Tomb Priest who had 40 HP to begin with! ) and Battle Bellow (I once had that get up to +15 fear - on Angelique d'Armant! Kinda comical actually! )

[Ygorl]

I always somehow wind up with battle prowess on my artillery mages and super-good researcher on my fightin' dudes. I did once get awesome presence on an air queen, and it was... awesome. Nobody with a morale less than 14 or so could even think of hitting her, and it was early enough in the game that this was still a big deal.

[Molog]

magnate said:

2. Toughness - turns any hero from a 10hp weakling to an SC tougher than a dragon, because it's not proportional to starting hp

Pretty sure, it's a +percentage of starting hp bonus.

[Edi]

Toughness and awe, hands down. Awe takes a long time to scale up, but the hit points ramp up very quickly. The opening post is also wrong about that ability. Heroic Toughness does scale up based on initial hitpoints, much the same as quickness. I once had an Arco Mystic with toughness and he was even with 25 or 27 hit points quite the wimp combat wise. Then he got killed and Rebirthed him. The resultant mummy has base hit points of 35, and my formerly glass-jawed mystic suddenly had 100+ hit points plus the undead immunities and all his magic. A couple of turns forging later, I had a fully equipped SC that took on whole armies by himself...

Awe is my second favorite, they just can't touch him and when you also put a horror helmet on one of these guys, they really ruin the enemy's day...

Edi

[shovah]

does the shield of gleaming golds awe stack with awesom presence? if so with helmet he is mega untouchable

[Shmonk]

Hmmm... I'd have to say Awe, then Quickness, then Toughness. Though I enjoy when I get Precision on a mage or Priest, that's a better bang for my buck (over quickness or toughness), at least for me.