Comparison of Armorer, Offense and Archery

Facts (valid for Horn of the Abyss)

• At Basic, Advanced or Expert Level, Armorer reduces all damage inflicted by 5%, 10% or 15%.
• At Basic, Advanced or Expert Level, Offense increases hand-to-hand damage by 10%, 20% or 30%.
• At Basic, Advanced or Expert Level, Archery increases ranged damage by 10%, 25% or 50%.
• 9 heroes (+ 1 campaign hero Roland) start with Armorer as a secondary skill and 3 specialize in it Mephala, Neela and Tazar.
• 23 heroes (+ 4 campaign heroes Kilgor, Catherine, Bidley and Tark) start with Offense as a secondary skill and 3 specialize in it Crag Hack, Gundula and Corkes.
• 9 heroes (+ 1 campaign hero Gelu) start with Archery as a secondary skill and 1 specialize in it Orrin.

Notes

• Armorer will benefit all your troops while Offense will benefit shooters less (only when they attack in melee).
• Archery has the biggest bonus, but only works for shooters.
• Inferno, Necropolis and Fortress have 1 shooter, Tower has 3 and all other towns have 2 shooters. Probably, because Archery applies to fewer stacks in your army, the bonus is bigger to balance the skill.
• Beastmasters from Fortress are most likely to learn Armorer (10% chance), followed by Alchemists from Tower (8% chance).
• Barbarians from Stronghold are most likely to learn Offense (10% chance), followed by Captains from Cove (9% chance).
• Captains from Cove are most likely to learn Archery (9% chance), followed by Rangers from Rampart and Planeswalkers from Conflux (8% chance).

Table of specialties percentages

Assuming Expert Level in the secondary skill, the bonus will increase to the following values at certain levels: (Level 74 is the maximal level in Horn of the Abyss).

Bonus Percentages from Specialty
	Armorer	Offense	Archery
Base %	15%	30%	50%
Level
0	15%	30%	50%
1	16%	32%	53%
2	17%	33%	55%
3	17%	35%	58%
4	18%	36%	60%
5	19%	38%	63%
10	23%	45%	75%
15	26%	53%	88%
20	30%	60%	100%
25	34%	68%	113%
30	38%	75%	125%
40	45%	90%	150%
46	50%	99%	165%
47	50%	101%	168%
50	53%	105%	175%
60	60%	120%	200%
70	68%	135%	225%
73	70%	140%	233%
74	71%	141%	235%

Discussion

Note that all three skills' percentages increase linearly when their respective specialty heroes reach higher levels.

Now, for Offense and Archery the resulting advantage also increases linearly:

• Twice the damage: The hero would have a 100% bonus damage at level 46Template:Overline for Offense and 20 for Archery.
• Three times the damage: The hero would have a 200% bonus damage at level 113Template:Overline for Offense and 60 for Archery.
• Four times the damage: The hero would have a 300% bonus damage at level 180 for Offense and 100 for Archery.
• Five times the damage: The hero would have a 300% bonus damage at level 180 for Offense and 100 for Archery.

Thus: Offense specialty adds a 100% (linear) bonus every 66{overline|6} levels after level 46.Template:Overline. Thus: Archery specialty adds a 100% (linear) bonus every 40 levels after level 20.

Armorer behaves non-linear. This is because the change from 15% reduced damage to 20% reduced damage is less of a difference than 90% reduced damage to 95% reduced damage. From 15% to 20% the change is only a 5.9% improvement, but 90% to 95% halves the damage taken!

• To receive only half the damage: Need 50% Armorer percentage. This is reached at level 46Template:Overline.
• To receive only a third the damage: Need 75% Armorer percentage.
• To receive only a fourth the damage: Need 75% Armorer percentage.
• To receive only one eight the damage: Need 87.5% Armorer percentage.
• To receive only one sixteenth the damage: Need 93.75% Armorer percentage.