Editing Artillery

{{Secondary skills}}
{{Secondary skill
 | B_effect = gives control of the ballista to the hero, allowing one shot with a 50% chance to inflict double damage.
 | A_effect = gives control of the ballista to the hero, allowing two shots with a 75% chance to inflict double damage.
 | E_effect = gives control of the ballista to the hero, allowing two shots which inflict double damage.
}}

'''Artillery''' is a [[secondary skill]] that gives the hero manual control over the [[Ballista]]. Basic Artillery provides a 50% chance that attacks from a ballista deal double damage. For advanced Artillery this is a 75% chance and for expert Artillery a 100% chance. Advanced and expert Artillery also allow the ballista to [[double attack|shoot twice]] per round, instead of once. When a hero with Artillery defends during a siege, the player gains manual control over the [[arrow towers]].

'''Heroes that specialize in Ballistas:'''
* [[Christian]] the [[Knight]]
* [[Torosar]] the [[Alchemist]]
* [[Pyre (Hero)|Pyre]] the [[Demoniac]]
* [[Arlach]] the [[Overlord]]
* [[Gurnisson]] the [[Barbarian]]

== Comments & debate ==
Though not the worst skill, Artillery is of limited use. Whereas it may be useful early on in the game, at least on resource-poor maps of impossible difficulty, later on it usually provides considerably less bonus [[damage]] to a hero's army than do [[secondary skill]]s such as [[Offense]] or [[Archery]] (see Figure 1). Moreover, given that a [[ballista]] has only 250 [[health]] and acts last during the combat round, it may be destroyed in battles even before it can inflict any significant damage. Another disadvantage of Artillery is that the ballista is not deployed when attacking [[creature bank]]s or defending against a siege. However, the control that Artillery provides over [[arrow towers]] in sieges can be quite valuable, also because it enables the defending hero to cast the first or last [[spell]] in each round.


'''Figure 1''': ''Required Number of Ranged Units for Archery to Deal More Damage than Artillery Does as a Function of Hero’s Attack and Skill Level''.
[[File: ArcheryVSArtillery.png|thumb|670px|'''Explanation''': Imagine that on Week 1 Day 2 you have a [[ballista]] and 12 [[Grand Elf|Grand Elves]] (7 from your town and 5 from your heroes). If your hero has 5 [[attack]], would his army deal more damage with Advanced Artillery (e.g., a level 2 [[Gurnisson]]) or with Advanced [[Archery]] (e.g., a level 2 [[Jabarkas]])? Figure 1 shows that in this case you need at least 17 [[Grand Elf|Grand Elves]] for Advanced [[Archery]] to do more damage than Advanced Artillery on [[grass]] (see I). With only 12 [[Grand Elf|Grand Elves]] and a [[ballista]], Advanced Artillery may in this stage therefore help you most to advance your hero and kingdom. However, imagine that on Week 2 Day 1, you buy 19 extra [[Grand Elf|Grand Elves]] (14 from your town and 5 from a tavern hero) and that your hero, after gaining some levels, now has an [[attack]] of 9. Would this hero with an army of 31 [[Grand Elf|Grand Elves]] and a [[ballista]] benefit more from Expert Artillery or Expert [[Archery]]? Figure 1 shows that because this hero has more than 16 [[Grand Elf|Grand Elves]], Expert [[Archery]] is the better choice here (see II). This demonstrates that later on in most games Artillery rapidly becomes less useful than [[Archery]] (or [[Offense]]), An exception may be maps of impossible difficulty with insufficient money to recruit extra troops, which allows heroes with Artillery to gain and possibly maintain a notable advantage.

'''Note''': The Figure is also valid for armies with other ranged units than Grand Elves (e.g., 7 [[Grand Elf|Grand Elves]] on [[grass]] equal 8 [[Medusa]]s on [[subterranean]]). Special circumstances such as [[morale]], [[hero specialty|hero specialties]], archery artifacts, [[spell]]s and ranged units getting killed or blocked during battle are not factored in.]]

[[Category: Secondary skills]]
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 {{Secondary skills}}
 {{Secondary skill
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+  | B_effect = gives control of the ballista to the hero, allowing one shot with a 50% chance to inflict double damage.
-  | B_effect = gives control of the ballista and defense towers to the hero. The ballista has 50% chance to inflict double damage.<br />{{wh}}{{-}}[[HotA]]: + control of the cannon, which inflicts additional damage to fortifications.
+  | A_effect = gives control of the ballista to the hero, allowing two shots with a 75% chance to inflict double damage.
-  | A_effect = gives control of the ballista and defense towers to the hero. The ballista has shoots twice with a 75% chance to inflict double damage.<br />{{wh}}{{-}}[[HotA]]: + control of the cannon, which inflicts double damage and additional damage to fortifications.
+  | E_effect = gives control of the ballista to the hero, allowing two shots which inflict double damage.
-  | E_effect = gives control of the ballista and defense towers to the hero. The ballista inflicts double damage and shoots twice.<br />{{wh}}{{-}}[[HotA]]: + control of the cannon, which inflicts triple damage and maximum damage to fortifications.
 }}
-'''Artillery''' is a [[secondary skill]] that gives the hero manual control over [[war machine]] [[Ballista]] (or [[Cannon]]{{-wh}}) during [[combat]] and control over the [[arrow towers]] when defending a town during [[siege]]. Artillery provides control over the arrow towers also in the original game, even though it is not mentioned in the in-game description of the skill. It is interesting that [[Ballista]] is controlled by Artillery secondary skill rather than [[Ballistics]], which is responsible for [[Catapult]].
+'''Artillery''' is a [[secondary skill]] that gives the hero manual control over the [[Ballista]]. Basic Artillery provides a 50% chance that attacks from a ballista deal double damage. For advanced Artillery this is a 75% chance and for expert Artillery a 100% chance. Advanced and expert Artillery also allow the ballista to [[double attack|shoot twice]] per round, instead of once. When a hero with Artillery defends during a siege, the player gains manual control over the [[arrow towers]].
-"Double damage" in the skill description does not mean that the final damage is necessarily duplicated, as it might also be increased by other factors, such as high [[Primary skill#Attack skill|Attack skill]] - compare [[Damage#Damage calculation of creature stacks|damage formula]].
+'''Heroes that specialize in Ballistas:'''
+* [[Christian]] the [[Knight]]
+* [[Torosar]] the [[Alchemist]]
+* [[Pyre (Hero)|Pyre]] the [[Demoniac]]
+* [[Arlach]] the [[Overlord]]
+* [[Gurnisson]] the [[Barbarian]]
-'''Heroes with Basic Artillery as a starting skill:'''
+== Comments & debate ==
-* {{H2|Ignissa|Planeswalker}}
+Though not the worst skill, Artillery is of limited use. Whereas it may be useful early on in the game, at least on resource-poor maps of impossible difficulty, later on it usually provides considerably less bonus [[damage]] to a hero's army than do [[secondary skill]]s such as [[Offense]] or [[Archery]] (see Figure 1). Moreover, given that a [[ballista]] has only 250 [[health]] and acts last during the combat round, it may be destroyed in battles even before it can inflict any significant damage. Another disadvantage of Artillery is that the ballista is not deployed when attacking [[creature bank]]s or defending against a siege. However, the control that Artillery provides over [[arrow towers]] in sieges can be quite valuable, also because it enables the defending hero to cast the first or last [[spell]] in each round.
-* {{H2|Pasis|Planeswalker}}
-* {{H2|Vokial|Death Knight}}
-* {{H2|Zubin|Battle Mage}}
-'''Heroes with Ballista as a specialty:'''
-* {{H2|Torosar|Alchemist}}
-'''Heroes with Ballista as a specialty and {{PAGENAME}} as a starting skill:'''
+'''Figure 1''': ''Required Number of Ranged Units for Archery to Deal More Damage than Artillery Does as a Function of Hero’s Attack and Skill Level''.
-* {{H2|Arlach|Overlord}}
+[[File: ArcheryVSArtillery.png|thumb|670px|'''Explanation''': Imagine that on Week 1 Day 2 you have a [[ballista]] and 12 [[Grand Elf|Grand Elves]] (7 from your town and 5 from your heroes). If your hero has 5 [[attack]], would his army deal more damage with Advanced Artillery (e.g., a level 2 [[Gurnisson]]) or with Advanced [[Archery]] (e.g., a level 2 [[Jabarkas]])? Figure 1 shows that in this case you need at least 17 [[Grand Elf|Grand Elves]] for Advanced [[Archery]] to do more damage than Advanced Artillery on [[grass]] (see I). With only 12 [[Grand Elf|Grand Elves]] and a [[ballista]], Advanced Artillery may in this stage therefore help you most to advance your hero and kingdom. However, imagine that on Week 2 Day 1, you buy 19 extra [[Grand Elf|Grand Elves]] (14 from your town and 5 from a tavern hero) and that your hero, after gaining some levels, now has an [[attack]] of 9. Would this hero with an army of 31 [[Grand Elf|Grand Elves]] and a [[ballista]] benefit more from Expert Artillery or Expert [[Archery]]? Figure 1 shows that because this hero has more than 16 [[Grand Elf|Grand Elves]], Expert [[Archery]] is the better choice here (see II). This demonstrates that later on in most games Artillery rapidly becomes less useful than [[Archery]] (or [[Offense]]), An exception may be maps of impossible difficulty with insufficient money to recruit extra troops, which allows heroes with Artillery to gain and possibly maintain a notable advantage.
-* {{H2|Christian|Knight}}
-* {{H2|Gerwulf|Beastmaster}}
-* {{H2|Gurnisson|Barbarian}}
-* {{H2|Pyre|Demoniac}}
-* {{H2|Ranloo|Death Knight}}{{-wh}}
-* {{H2|Morton|Mercenary}}{{-wh}}
-'''Heroes with Cannon as a specialty and {{PAGENAME}} as a starting skill:'''
+'''Note''': The Figure is also valid for armies with other ranged units than Grand Elves (e.g., 7 [[Grand Elf|Grand Elves]] on [[grass]] equal 8 [[Medusa]]s on [[subterranean]]). Special circumstances such as [[morale]], [[hero specialty|hero specialties]], archery artifacts, [[spell]]s and ranged units getting killed or blocked during battle are not factored in.]]
-* {{H2|Jeremy|Captain}}{{-wh}}
-=={{hota}}==
-''' Effects on cannon:'''
-With Basic Artillery or Advanced Artillery the cannon does randomly 1 or 2 points of damage to [[fortifications]]. With Expert Artillery the cannon always does 2 points of damage to fortifications. With Advanced Artillery the cannon does double damage and with Expert Artillery triple damage to enemies. As opposed to ballistas, cannons always shoot once.
-==Chance to get==
-{{Secondary skill chance explanation}}
-{{ZET SEC SKILL CHANCE TABLE| 5| 2| 6| 1 (lowest)| 4| 1 (lowest)| 5| 4| 5| 3| 8 (highest)| 1 (lowest)| 8 (highest)| 4| 8 (highest)| 1 (lowest)| 8 (highest)| 1 (lowest)| 5| 1 (lowest)| 6| 6}}
-{{fanopinion|
-Artillery is useful if you have access to [[Ballista]], and even better choice would be selecting a hero with this speciality as your "number one", especially on small maps. If the [[Blacksmith]] of your home town doesn't produce Ballistas, but you have an opportunity to get it (by capturing a town with Ballista, on the map, or building a [[Ballista Yard]] in a [[Stronghold]]), Artillery is a good choice. Moreover, it allows you to fully control the town's defense (as sometimes [[arrow tower]]s kill enemy's least valuable troops, i.e. neither ranged nor flying). High price of a Ballista is "the other side of the medal". A secondary hero may learn Artillery so as to shoot wandering creatures and weak enemy troops, avoiding melee attack and thus decreasing losses. Always learn Artillery if you rely much on [[Blind]] spell, as otherwise Ballista may shoot blinded creatures, making them able to fight.
-The only redeeming feature of Artillery skill is that while defending a siege, it gives the defending hero control over the [[arrow tower]](s). Sometimes more valuable than the damage of the towers is the chance of defending hero to cast the first spell in each round. Additionally, heroes with Artillery specialty start with a ballista, which can be useful in the combat as the AI sometimes attacks it wasting an otherwise possibly harmful attack on the "free" ballista. However, purchasing a ballista for this purpose is typically purposeless unless the kingdom has plenty of gold to spare.
-The problem with Artillery skill is the ballista, which is not only ineffective but also expensive, weak and possible risk factor during combat. An example of the ineffectiveness is that even if the hero has Expert Artillery, Expert Archery, Attack skill value of 20 and the target is within range, the ballista only deals approximately 200 damage against a neutral stack of Archangel. Moreover, the ballista has only 250 [[health]] and acts last during the combat round, which means it  may be destroyed in battles even before it can inflict any damage at all. Another major disadvantage of ballista is, that in a combat it may provide creatures with [[breath attack]] an opportunity to attack troops behind ballista without fear of [[retaliation]]. Not to mention the fact, that ballista is not deployed when attacking [[creature bank]]s or defending against a siege.
-When playing on 200% difficulty (eg., the setting usually reserved for competitive games), players start with minimal resources. In this instance, heroes that start with Artillery can be a godsend, especially if your town lacks ranged units by default and you cannot afford to upgrade units during the first few turns. Because of their large pool of hitpoints, you can kite a single flying stack around, out of danger, while the artillery softens the enemy stacks to the point where your stack can one-shot them.
-Also, Ballista/Cannon specialty can be very strong on campaign heroes as they start with a ballista and good stats on subsequent scenarios and can usually start clearing the map with no additional troops
-}}<!-- end of fan opinion -->
-{{secondary skill 'see also'}}
 [[Category: Secondary skills]]
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