Ballistics
| Ballistics | ||
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Basic Ballistics: gives control of the catapult to the hero, allowing aimed shots with increased damage. | |
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Advanced Ballistics: gives control of the catapult to the hero, allowing two aimed shots with increased damage. | |
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Expert Ballistics: gives control of the catapult to the hero, allowing two aimed shots at maximum damage. | |
Ballistics is a secondary skill, that gives the player manual control over the catapult in a siege, increases the chances of hitting an intended wall and increases the chance of doing double damage. The castle walls as well as Drawbridge, Keep and Arrow Towers have 2 hitpoints (upon building castle standard walls are upgraded to fortified walls, which have 3 hitpoints). Additionally, at advanced and expert level of Ballistics catapults fire twice instead of just once.
It's interesting that Ballistics secondary skill doesn't buff Ballista. The latter works better via Artillery.
| Level | None | Basic | Adv. | Expert |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shots | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| Chance to hit Keep (before all walls destroyed) | 5% | 7% | 7% | 10% |
| Chance to hit Arrow Towers (before all walls destroyed) | 10% | 15% | 15% | 20% |
| Chance to hit Drawbridge (before all walls destroyed) | 25% | 30% | 30% | 40% |
| Chance to hit intended wall | 50% | 60% | 60% | 75% |
| Chance for no damage | 10% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Chance for 1 damage | 60% | 50% | 50% | 0% |
| Chance for 2 damage | 30% | 50% | 50% | 100% |
Heroes with Ballistics as a starting skill:
Olema the Heretic (basic)
Theodorus the Wizard (basic)
Uland the Druid (basic)
Yog the Barbarian (basic)
Chance to get
Out of total 112 for Shadow of Death, and of (112 + Interference chance) for Horn of the Abyss 
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Banned skills change the probability.
| Town | Class | Chance to learn |
|---|---|---|
 Castle |
Knight | 8 (highest) |
| Castle |
Cleric | 4 (lowest) 
|
 Rampart |
Ranger | 4 (lowest)
|
| Rampart |
Druid | 4 (lowest)
|
 Tower |
Alchemist | 6 |
| Tower |
Wizard | 4 (lowest)
|
 Inferno |
Demoniac | 7 |
| Inferno |
Heretic | 6 |
 Necropolis |
Death Knight | 7 |
| Necropolis |
Necromancer | 5 |
 Dungeon |
Overlord | 7 |
| Dungeon |
Warlock | 6 |
 Stronghold |
Barbarian | 8 (highest) |
| Stronghold |
Battle Mage | 6 |
 Fortress |
Beastmaster | 7 |
| Fortress |
Witch | 8 (highest) |
 Conflux |
Planeswalker | 8 (highest) |
| Conflux |
Elementalist | 4 (lowest)
|
 Cove |
Captain | 5 |
| Cove |
Navigator | 2 (lowest)
|
 Factory |
Mercenary | {{{21}}} |
| Factory |
Artificer | {{{22}}} |
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Importance
User commentary
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Need to fix one or more of these possible problems with the user commentary text: |
Ballistics is not something essential to everyone, but it's really useful when sieging towns, and if a map has many towns you should capture, consider using a hero with Ballistics as your starting hero, improving the skill to Expert as soon as possible. It will make sieging a town way easier, reducing your losses, as you will destroy the drawbridge on an early stage of the battle, and the enemy's defense will worsen significantly. However, the most crucial when sieging a town is properly using your flyers, ranged units, and magic, so as to win as soon as possible and avoid major losses.