Marius

Inferno
Demoniacs
Fiona
Rashka
Marius
Ignatius
Octavia
Calh
Pyre
Nymus
Xeron
Heretics
Ayden
Xyron
Axsis
Olema
Calid
Ash
Zydar
Xarfax
Towns

Marius the Demoniac
Basic information:
	Class:	Demoniac
	Gender:	Female
	Race:	Demon
Marius was the mate of Calh for several years, finally splitting up when it became clear that Calh did not agree with her 'master plan' to rid the world of those disgusting, do-good woodland creatures.
Specialty: Demons
Increases the attack and defense skills of any demons or horned demons for each level attained after 4th level.
Starting Level:
Level
Starting primary skills:
2 2 1 1
Starting secondary skill:
Advanced Armorer
[[File:{{{skill_2}}} _small.png			link=]] {{{skill_2}}} [[]]
[[File:{{{skill_3}}} _small.png			link=]] {{{skill_3}}} [[]]
[[File:{{{skill_4}}} _small.png			link=]] {{{skill_4}}} [[]]
[[File:{{{skill_5}}} _small.png			link=]] {{{skill_5}}} [[]]
[[File:{{{skill_6}}} _small.png			link=]] {{{skill_6}}} [[]]
[[File:{{{skill_7}}} _small.png			link=]] {{{skill_7}}} [[]]
[[File:{{{skill_8}}} _small.png			link=]] {{{skill_8}}} [[]]
Starting troops:
Imp 15–25 Always  Gog 4–7 88%  Hell Hound 3–4 25% [[File: Creature portrait {{{troop_4}}} small.gif|{{{troop_4}}}|link={{{troop_4}}}]] [[{{{troop_4}}}|{{{troop_4}}}]] Always [[File: Creature portrait {{{troop_5}}} small.gif|{{{troop_5}}}|link={{{troop_5}}}]] [[{{{troop_5}}}|{{{troop_5}}}]] Always [[File: Creature portrait {{{troop_6}}} small.gif|{{{troop_6}}}|link={{{troop_6}}}]] [[{{{troop_6}}}|{{{troop_6}}}]] Always [[File: Creature portrait {{{troop_7}}} small.gif|{{{troop_7}}}|link={{{troop_7}}}]] [[{{{troop_7}}}|{{{troop_7}}}]] Always
Starting troops :
Imp 20-30 Always  Gog 4–7 Always  Hell Hound 3–4 Always
Starting movement points:
Minimum Maximum HotA 1560 1630 1560

Marius the Demoniac is an Inferno hero.

Specialty

Besides the ability mentioned in her description, Marius also gives +1 speed to Demons and Horned Demons. The in-game description "{{{herospec}}}" is erroneous in "each level attained" moment, and lacks the speed bonus information. (Description is fixed in HotA ).

Unlike the native terrain speed bonus, the creature specialty speed bonus can affect the hero's movement points in case the creature is the slowest one in the army.

Level	10	10	10	10
4	+1	+1	+1	+1
12	+2	+2	+2	+2
20	+3	+3	+3	+3
24	+4	+4	+4	+4
36	+5	+5	+5	+5
44	+6	+6	+6	+6
48	+7	+7	+7	+7
56	+8	+8	+8	+8
68	+9	+9	+9	+9
75/88	+11	+11	+11	+11

How Useful is this Ability?

Marius gives Demons +1 Speed from the beginning and also +1 Attack/Defense each when reaching levels 4, 12, 20, 24, 36, 44 etc. Horned Demons have +5 HP and +1 Speed compared with the unupgraded Demons. Thus, with Marius, your Demons can get as good or even superior to Horned Demons at some point. This is important because, when playing Inferno, Demon Farming is a very viable strategy which makes you accumulate huge amounts of unupgraded Demons.

Speed Difference

Marius' unupgraded Demons already match the speed of Horned Demons.

HP Difference

Now let's look at the HP increase: +5HP are about a 14% increase. Marius increases the defense of your Demons with translates to less damage taken from non-spell damage. There are two scenarios to consider:

• Scenario 1: If a creature attacks the Demons and has a higher Attack than their Defense, they will do 5% more damage for every point their Attack is higher than the Demons' Defense. That means when Marius reaches level 20, the Demons have 3 more Defense and would in that case take 15% less damage. In this scenario Marius' unupgraded Demons are strictly better than Horned Demons.
• Scenario 2: If your demons have more Defense than the attacking units Attack, each additional point in Defense translates to 2.5% less damage. That means that from level 44 onwards Marius' Demons will be strictly better than Horned Demons for this scenario.

Note that defense does not help against spell damage.

Conclusion

Remember, that the Attack and Defense both increase at the mentioned levels. That means the Demons will from level 4 onwards do more damage than any Horned Demon and be strictly more resilient than Horned demons from level 44 onwards assuming no damage from spells. Usually greater losses are taken from higher level units which usually have a higher attack anyways. This means scenario 1 is more important for you and Marius' Demons will already perform superior to Horned Demons much earlier than level 44. This does not mean at all you should not try to upgrade your Demons to Horned Demons, but illustrate that Marius' ability is at least somewhat useful when using the Demon Hording Strategy where you will have very many of them. None of the other Inferno Heroes gives you a direct advantage for this strategy. All the boni also apply to Horned Demons so upgrading is always a good idea. Since you will get rid of Imps/Familiars and Gogs/Magogs to raise them as Demons, you should also have enough space in your army to have both, the big stack of Horned Demons which accumulated from previous battles, as well as the smaller stack of freshly raised Demons from recent battles. Another point to consider: The speed bonus increases your hero' movement points. If you sacrifice your Gogs/Magogs to raise them as Demons, you get rid of a speed 6 unit. The next slowest unit in your army will probably be the Demons with speed 5 (or 6 for Horned Demons) since all other (upgraded) Inferno units are faster than Speed 6. A hero's base movement points will be 1700/1760/1830 when the speed of the slowest unit is 5/6/7. Thus, with the +1 Speed bonus from Marius you will increase your daily movement points by 60 (when having Demons) or 70 (when having upgraded the Demons to Horned Demons) compared with another hero that does not give your Demons a speed increase. How significant is this? Logistics is widely regarded as one of the best skills in the game. On Expert level in hota you get a 20% increase to your daily movement points. Nothing prevents Marius from obtaining this skill. A hero with specialty in logistics receives a 5% bonus to this percentage per level.

See also:

• List of heroes
• Hero class
• Hero biographies
• Hero specialty
• List of hero specialties