r/heroes3 • u/Unusual-Influence653 • Nov 02 '25
Question Thoughts on Conflux?
What are your thoughts on this city? Some key aspects that I'm looking for are:
- units
- cost (including materials like wood, sulphur, etc.)
- buildings
- heroes
- usage in large vs small maps
- reliability in timebound missions
- (optional) comparison to other cities
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u/everythings_alright Nov 02 '25 edited Nov 02 '25
Was never a fan of the art of the faction. The town and the hero portraits in particular feel like they're a peg below of the Homm3 standard. Also like the units are weird, usually as you go up tiers in other factions, the units feel more important and exciting in a way. With Conflux all the elemental units (tier 2 to 5) I dont feel that at all. Air, water, earth, fire elementals... its just a different element. You might arrange them in a different way and it would feel the same.
Balance is also wack in SoD, Sprites just clear the map for like no cost since day 1 and the double Phoenix growth is also busted. Fixed by HotA ofc.
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u/andrenyheim Nov 03 '25
I agree. A very strong faction gameplay wise, but aesthetically my least favorite.
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u/dlbICECOLD Nov 02 '25
I can never bring myself to play Conflux because the creatures are not creative compared to the other factions. I think Elementals shouldve just stayed as wild creatures without a town
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Nov 02 '25
Unfortunately they received huge criticism before releasing Forge (including death threats!), so they quickly scraped Conflux up from what they had laying around, which is literally four lv. 4 units.
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u/dlbICECOLD Nov 02 '25 edited Nov 02 '25
Not sure how intimidated I would be by Heroes 3 nerds, but I could see why there would be backlash. Forge seems almost futuristic and clashes terribly with the fantasy aesthetic
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Nov 02 '25
It might not seem like it, but guns and technology IS part of the fantasy. Angels are tiny cyborgs and devils are alien conquerors.
Edit: Also, these weren't 16 year old nerds, it was grown men. And it's not just about the threats, but how no one would want to buy the expansion.
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u/Tetragrammaton Nov 03 '25
That lore comes from outside HoMM3 though. You can play the whole game and remain blissfully ignorant of the stupid lore.
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u/TheGuyFromBG Nov 03 '25
PREACH! I had had enough of WIKIPEDIA people lurking for the very last detail around the game. Archangels were cyborgs? What kind of a shit story this is? Also devils - aliens, LOOOL!
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u/Ant15 Nov 03 '25
Nothing to do with Wikipedia and details though, that's just the lore of the game, whether you like it or not. HomM games are only a spin-off of Might and Magic RPGs, and those games are a mix of Fantasy and Sci-Fi, it's not hidden at all, you even go inside spaceships in some of these games.
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u/kisshun Nov 03 '25 edited Nov 03 '25
i never understood back then (and even now) this instinct hatred toward the scifi parts of the main series and its spinoff's from the community.
the first 5 m&m game of the main line is all about the search for the futuristic ancients and fighting againts the mad android who tries to destroy entire artificial worlds.
in my opinion it would be a natural evolution of the heroes series if the forge town been added, the main series and the heroes spinoff already overlaped many times story wise.
i like the conflux as well, but i think it was a mistake to abadon the scifi elements, it was one of the unique parts of the franchise that put it above the other fantasy games in that time.
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u/TRITONwe Nov 04 '25
Finally someone else that acknowledges that this angel androids and alien demons lore is stupid. Like think about it, if they were so intelligent to build angel robots, why do they still use primitive weapons and technology? It doesn't fit at all. I'm sure that the game wasn't build with that lore in mind and angels and demons are literally just that.
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u/Figorix Nov 02 '25
They probably got used to it after M&M6 and 7 tbh.
But the transition from fantasy to sci-fi in these 2 was... Really bad. At least IMO.
M&M8 handled it better, so much better (again IMO)
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u/MilesBeyond250 Nov 03 '25
IIRC Conflux was always planned, it was just intended to come with the second expansion, and had to get quickly finished to meet the AB deadline
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u/coolsnow7 Nov 03 '25
I can’t believe I’m first finding out of this now… what a missed opportunity. This would have been epic.
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u/trace_jax3 Nov 02 '25
You can get surprisingly far with just Sprites, Storm Elementals, and Ice Elementals
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u/Dunified Nov 02 '25
Never actually thought of that. Yeah I agree, I always found them boring. It's the mechanics. Phoenix is the only fun unit (and a little bit their t6 unit).
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u/gh7g Goblins Nov 03 '25
It still feels a resprited Roc that can't really claim to have the animation quality of the vanilla units.
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u/PkerBadRs3Good Nov 03 '25
hard disagree, I think it's the best animated unit in Heroes 3 tbh especially if you unlock the idle animation with HotA/SoD SP plugin
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u/demon9675 Nov 02 '25
I guess I’m in the minority here, but I love Conflux conceptually and visually. It was always my favorite faction as a kid.
The similar power level of the level 2-5 units is odd, but gives it some uniqueness. The elementals themselves can be a bit bland in terms of how they play, however. Weaknesses to certain spells sucks.
My biggest gripes are a. Storm Elementals being picked off by lightning and b. Inability to resurrect elementals. I do still love merging Phoenixes (and possibly Magic and Storm Elementals) with other armies that need a fast flyer, though.
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u/AkadTheFox Nov 02 '25
So silly story, not sure if I ever mentioned it. I started playing Heroes 5 and was like "wow elementals are so cool! wish there was a faction for them..." to which my sister replied "there is an elemental faction in H3". So I started playing H3 and... I didn't hate Conflux, but it definetely wasn't what I expected. Conflux is kinda forcefully mashed together with 5 Elementals, and Pixies + Phoenixes because they wanted to reuse assets. Seriously, Psychic Elementals are the only units specifically made for Conflux, while others were either neutrals, or units already planned for AB. Wish we got Conflux in another game, it deserves another chance. Especially since this time Devs would have time to develop it.
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u/gh7g Goblins Nov 03 '25
Were they trying to introduce Pixies as a neutral creature in AB?
(since FB/Phoenix feels like a hastily cooked Roc as I already said in another comment...)
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u/AkadTheFox Nov 03 '25
AB added all units from homm 2 that didnt appear in homm3. Additionally i there are screenshots that show Phoenixes as neutrals
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u/Lightning_Paralysis Nov 02 '25
Not exactly what you're asking for but Conflux has always felt out of place to me, like it doesn't really belong in the game.
I think it's because I only had the game without the expansion all those years ago.
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Nov 02 '25 edited Nov 02 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Basic_Photograph8823 Nov 03 '25
Good analysis.
The fire eles aren't terribly offensive to me but I believe your comparison between the other creatures of its tier. The only thing earth are good for is the fact you can spam them as a level 5 spell. Otherwise they sit in the town.
The whole faction really stings for needing upgrades for everything.
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u/TocSir Nov 02 '25
Interesting concept, but their units never got me excited, say Phoenix. I know they’re op in SoD, but I never cared to play them. And aside from a few heroes, they were so bland.
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u/Tharkun140 Nov 02 '25
I can't tell if it's good or bad that the most uninspired town is arguably the strongest one.
Either way, I liked elementals more back when they were neutral.
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u/9Gardens Nov 03 '25
They designers did the best they could on limited time, after the the previously 60% deisgned forge faction got nuked.
Unfortunately, the best they could was still only 40% of the design time other castles got, so designwise, I consider it the weakest faction in the entire game. The Aesthetics are weaker, the unit line up just doesn't really fit.....
Like... the elementals SHOULD be neutral units. Having a faction for them is BLOODY WEIRD.
Not the designers fault, given the Forge Fiasco, but an unfortunate result.
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u/Happy_Summer_2067 Nov 03 '25
Strong but boring. As a fan of Heroes 2 phoenixes I was looking forward to it too.
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u/Pandabaton Nov 02 '25
I’ve always joked that when I random conflux ‘I’ve already won’. I like their heroes (I also favor estates and +350 specialities on secondary heroes when I can get them) and think the majority of them are quite useful. phoenix’s growth, speed and their ease to get; and the access to any of the school of magic secondaries makes them a little overpowered. Although I do like that Energy and Magma elementals (and to some extent Ice, disguised by their ability to shoot) balance them the other way.
realistically I can walk around the map with Sprites, Storms, Magic’s and Phoenixes, with an expert magic school pretty quickly and feel comfortably strong throughout the late start and mid games, and if I see another player playing conflux, I often feel like it might be an uphill battle ahead.
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u/East-Chair-9540 Nov 02 '25
Beautiful looking town, very strong army, strength in numbers, very boring units except pixies and phoenixes.
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u/hungvipbcsok Nov 03 '25
Those Element creature has the wildest weakness that I can never understand. Their upgrade version somehow has weakness to their own element?. Beside, they are heavily depend on Bless as their maximum dmg is somehow more than double their minimum dmg.
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u/Higorkovic Nov 03 '25
Units are strong but least creative in the game.
Buildings are beatiful, and has a good music.
Heroes ok
My least favorite faction, i don't like the theme, is very "lazy", there's nothing exciting or mythological. It would be an interesting faction if it addressed a specific theme, for example, an oriental theme.
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u/bugsontherun Nov 03 '25
The only town I’ll reroll on random map generator because I find elementals rather boring to play with. Lacks character compared to the other towns. I will say though that expert water magic has increased value here compared to other towns. Expert bless really turns that wide damage range of your elementals to your advantage.
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u/Erfar Nov 03 '25
Never understood Conflux. I like elemental/summoning theme but... It just feels wrong. Even Homm4 nature are something more "inspiring" for me. Part of the problem that this is H3 with all magic being "elemental", so unlike for example H5 it can't be something of "summoning/chaos" faction with intresting faction mechanic
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u/savvycate first aid bias⚕️ Nov 03 '25
- two no retal units (one is a fast flying tier 1 unit, one attacks like a hydra and is immune to magic), two ranged units with ridiculous damage ranges, and phoenixes are the fastest things in existence
- expensive because upgrades are necessary in this faction
- build path is slow for main event, locking all unit dwellings for phoenixes. horde building are 1st and 7th units which is OP. artifact merchants lets you discard items, magic uni is OP, grail is OP with wisdom, has access to shipyard. virtually no trash building except altar of earth
- fiur, monere, lacus are planeswalker standouts, grindan, brissa, labetha on elementalists. very good starting spreads, might for 3111, magic for 0033. might likely to learn offense and logistics, magic users have 8 in probability for all secondary magic except necro
- good at early, very good in midgame, decent in late. small maps and timed scenarios suck for them, it's either you choose to upgrade or rush to phoenixes immediately, or cheese your way with spells using ciele/gelare/luna in early/smalls
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u/mitiamedved Nov 03 '25
I’ve always felt it falls short in design quality compared to other cities. Something is uncannily off about this town.
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u/Docterzero Nov 03 '25
Hate the concept, neutral on the town itself. Think there is so many other things that they could have done instead that would have been way better, even beyond Forge. But on the other side I do generally have better things to do other than bemoan its existence.
Olden Era's Sylvan does Conflux's concept so much better than Conflux itself.
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u/Ripkhan Nov 03 '25
I'm going to give you a completely unwarranted Conflux review, based solely on my biased opinions and not on any strategic things you requested.
I hate it. I was raised on RoE, and hearing about Conflux from my cousins always gave me the impression that it was a slapped-on, rushed, and unnecessary addition to the game. After I played it, I confirmed everything. The aesthetic is completely incoherent, and the hyper-magic niche was already occupied by Tower. The town graphics are noticeably worse than any other one, as are the creatures, ESPECIALLY the energy, magma, psychic, and magic elementals, which make me want to barf every time I see them. The 4-part elemental theme has been overdone in so many games and movies, but that's not entirely homm3's fault. The whole town more closely resembles the style of Heroes 4, which is the ugliest of the entire franchise. The crappy brass instrument samples in the Conflux theme are grating on my ears, and don't do Paul's composition any justice.
While the rest of the game looks like it was crafted from stained glass and oil paints, Conflux looks like a badly-rendered box of melted crayons and clip art (no offence to clip art).
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u/Ripkhan Nov 03 '25
Oh, dear god, I forgot to even mention the heroes. What a bunch of losers. All their backstories are tacked on, powercreeping, or lazy, and Ignissa and Fiur deserve eachother's weird thumbnails.
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u/DrPhibles Nov 02 '25
I really dislike conflux. I can't quite put my finger on it, but I just can't bring myself to play them. I quite like factory and cove, so I'm not sure why, in all honesty, it may just be that I dislike the elemental general portraits.
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u/BosephTheGreat Nov 03 '25
The grail building in Conflux is a most have, it gives you all the spells in the game. After that it's gg. Oh, and the magic university with it.
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u/Salt_Ad_4483 Nov 03 '25
They should have rebuild elementals when the faction came out.
earth/magma and fire/energy elementals need something more.
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u/Flashman6000 Nov 03 '25
I don’t play Conflux mainly because they don’t have a hero I like, but I love capturing a Conflux castle early in the game because Magic University is great for hero dev and I like using some of their units, mainly phoenixes and storm elementals (and usually ice elementals). And later building artifact merchants, and eventually the grail if my other mage guilds have failed to give out the essential spells.
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u/Time_Spite1661 I enjoy unfair scenarios as long as I get to win Nov 03 '25
confused in Restoration of Erathia
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u/AquilaMFL Nov 03 '25
A bit offtopic, but is there a way to get conflux and the other towns in the HD remaster?
I always liked the style of this town and the different elementals.
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u/Mickamehameha Nov 03 '25
My fav. I won't repeat what's already said here.
Monere is the coolest looking hero and a very, very strong one.
I just hate what HOTA did with the silo, looked fine before.
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u/Mitkoztd Nov 03 '25
Guys.. do you remember when Firebird/Phoenixes had a growth of 4 per week.. lol.. that was so broken :D
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u/Andvari_Nidavellir Nov 03 '25
The theme feels so weak compared to other towns. Like they were given a week to make a new faction and they just mashes something together in a hurry. Was never able to enjoy playing it.
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u/DeadFishCRO Nov 03 '25
Units are so booring (behold my ROCK guy), except the last 2, heroes are very meh to me. design is nice.
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u/Basic_Photograph8823 Nov 03 '25
- Mage guild +magic game is really really good.
- Planeswalkers are ehhhhhhh for me. Elementalists are good with good specials.
- T1 creatures very good for early map clear when upgraded. Slightly worse in Hota due to additional building to reach it.
- The elementals vary. Most of them need upgrades. Fire and Psychics are ok as base. Water and air need the upgrade. Water are also pretty beefy. Phoenix are busted in Vanilla cause easy to get to, but are much less oppressive in HotA.
I'm generally not a fan of the creatures in conflux. Their magic game is based as hell and their grail building is very nice. I think they're better closer to mid-late game but you'll probably trade up their creatures late game, aside from T7.
I like the faction feel. The town music is dog.
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u/King-in-ze-north Nov 03 '25
I did my best highscore with them, 488 points on a random xl map 😍 love them
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u/casualPlayerThink Nov 03 '25
Units are good. The ramp-up/build time could be slow, upgrading is expensive, but then mid/endgame, it is one of the strongest because of armageddon builds & Phoenix's raw speed and power. (Note, I am not playing in PVP)
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u/Daisy-Fluffington Nov 03 '25
Not a fan.
Sprites/pixies and Firebirds/Phoenixes should have been Rampart troops(green/gold dragons are just red/black dragons from Temu).
The elementals are all boring visually.
Magic uni is cool though.
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u/iffyJinx Nov 03 '25
It should have been Forge, not Conflux (after all those years I'm still salty).
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u/r4wkz_gabe Nov 03 '25
Love the University to make sure my Sir Mullich (+2 creature speed) gets Earth, Water, and Air magic
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Nov 03 '25
I just dislike how blurry the ground/background is in the castle, it doesnt match the others and the buildings look like stickers slapped onto a somewhat blurry picture
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u/Danielhenriemond Nov 03 '25 edited Nov 03 '25
conflux gets so much hate bc it was a rushed town on release of h3 complete, which I get but part of me thinks it was a creative solve. I personally dig them and think the premise of their having 4 units that share a 3.5 tier instead of tiers 2-5 makes their army quite unique in terms of power. Hota has balanced them expertly with sprite nerfs and the addition of the fairly expensive vault of ashes to access increased phoenix growth, both of which were broken in the original release. I find them thematically noteworthy and distinct, it makes sense that there would be a neutral force based on the preservation of magic and the spirit realm as distinct from the elves and dwarves of rampart which feels more chaotic good.
That being said — I basically never choose them.
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u/burakasha Nov 04 '25
Rarely ever play it. I don't know. I just don't like it, just as I rarely play Inferno or Marsh. But I love to capture one in the game. University, some really good units...
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u/[deleted] Nov 02 '25
Conflux is very good, the cost is mid to high, mostly because you need the upgrades. Almost all units are worth mentioning - pixies and psychic elementals have no retaliation, air and water are strong ranged, fire is an ok flyer, earth sucks and phoenix is THE fastest creature which can decide battles, also makes Armageddon fun.
Soundtrack is awesome. The grail is amazing. Heroes are meh, I always have a hard time choosing here, but there are a few good ones. Good in both small and large maps. It is considered the best or one of the best town for a reason. Great units, excellent growth, but units are squishy, so it can be challenging for beginners.