Rating TS Heroes by Tiers
A trick from D&D, tiers fits certain classes into tiers to help gauge their power and put everything into perspective. And contrary to popular belief, the heroes are not balanced in the slightest. Just because a specific build can be countered or beaten by another does not make that build or hero balanced.
Tier 1: Tier 1 heroes are those who can perform well in almost all situations, and nearly invulnerable to all other builds. In addition, the various builds available to these heroes enable them a wide range of versatility and flexibility, and grants them an option in nearly every situation.
Mech
Tier 2: Tier 2 heroes can perform well in most situations with excellent versatility. They have powerful attacks and spells with only minor setbacks.
Archer
Tier 3: At tier 3, heroes can be useful in most situations. They have good versatility and can shine in a few areas. They can easily be beaten or out-shined by tier 1, however, and are vulnerable to number of strategies or attacks.
Special Ops
Volt
Warrior
Light Mage
Assassin
Mutant
Tier 4: Anything here is vulnerable to most attacks, and only shine in a very limited capacity. They may be able to contribute a thing or two to a team, but can have a lot of difficulty taking on tier 1 or 2 units.
Alchemist
Assault
Summoner
Dark Mage
Tier 5: These are one-trick ponies. Any other abilities they have are done better or more effectively by higher tiers. They are weak and can only perform one or two tasks well. This leaves them in a dreaded support capacity, unable to do much of anything on their own.
Medic
Magician
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Mage needs a new l1. A permanent observer would be excellent.
1) Special Ops l2 is a permanent detector.
2) Mage is too vulnerable to too many types of things (fast units, cloaked units, large units).
3) Mage l1 is underpowered.
4) Mage l1 is less effective than Mutant l1.
In all above cases a permanent observer would fix the problem.
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Mage l3, despite its uses, is more fitting of an illusionist's l1. Furthermore, summoner l1 is more powerful and far cheaper than Mage's l3. Putting this into the perspective of other l3s, it is far more than simply underpowered, it's actually at the bottom rung in terms of useful l3s in the entire game. He needs more spells that can combo better. His l2 is nice, but does not play the role of magician well. When one thinks of magician one thinks of dozens of magical tricks and abilities, some powerful, some flexible.
But imo, all heroes need to be reworked.
None.