A new update is now live in Age of Wonders 4. There's a lot of interesting changes that have been made. One such rework has been on Hero Skills. The update completely redistributes the hero skills.
What happens now is that heroes begin with a Class that's chosen alongside the starting loadout during Faction Creation. This class determines the weapons which a hero can equip along with the unique set of skills they can pick upon level up. When the heroes reach 4th level, they can then dedicate themselves to one of their empire’s affinities. The Affinity Dedications have replaced Signature skills and unlocks a variety of new skills to pick from related to the affinity.
There are five hero classes and their specializations are:
- Defender - Specializes in defending its allies, survivability and retaliation.
- Warrior - Specializes in Charge Attacks, dealing damage and gaining strength through fighting.
- Mage - Specializes in Magic damage, area of effect attacks and inflicting debilitating status effects.
- Ritualist - Specializes in support through healing, buffs and Combat Summons
- Ranger - Specializes in ranged damage, skirmishing and disrupting enemies.
Allowed Weapons
As mentioned, the class chosen determines the type of weapons that a hero is able to equip. For example, the Ranger class can be equipped with Ranged Weapons and Skirmisher Weapons. The Defender class meanwhile has One Handed Weapons, Polearm Weapons, Fist Weapons, and Shields. The Warrior class can equip the weapons allowed for the Defender class with the addition of Great Weapons.
Finally, both Mage and Ritualist can equip the same weapons which are Magic Orb Weapons, Magic Staff Weapons, and Eldritch Relic Weapons.
Hero Quests
Speaking of heroes, a new selection of Hero Quests has been added which can occur during a game. There's a total of 11 Quests spread across various objectives that's sure to bring that fresh feeling to the early game. These are:
- 6 Build Improvement Quests
- 2 Destroy Infestation Quests
- 1 Kill Unit Quest
- 1 Stack Encounter Quest
- 1 Gather Material Quest
See all the changes that are introduced with the Tiger Update here. You can also read about the Ways of War DLC here and Hero Ambitions here.
Age of Wonders 4 extends the time-honored blend of 4X strategy and tactical turn-based combat with players getting to guide a faction as it grows and transforms with the expansion of their empire. Get the game on Steam now.
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