Heroes 3: Grail Building Rankings (Worst to Best)

Ranking the Grail buildings from Heroes of Might and Magic 3, because why not?

Rarely seen in standard games, the Grail - the ultimate artifact - can be located through the puzzle map revealed by visiting obelisks. When installed in a town (click on the City Hall with a grail-wielding hero!), the grail structure will generate 5000 gold per turn and increase weekly creature growth by 50%, as well as providing a unique bonus effect based on the town it's installed in. This video is my attempt to put those bonus effects into a sort of tier list.

----Rank spoilers below----

9. Guardian of Earth (Dungeon) (0:34)
8. Warlord's Monument (Stronghold) (1:33)
7. Carnivorous Plant (Fortress) (1:46)
6. Deity of Fire (Inferno) (2:11)
5. Spirit Guardian (Rampart) (2:52)
4. Colossus (Castle) (3:10)
3.5. Lodestar (Cove - HotA mod) (3:37)
3. Soul Prison (Necropolis) (4:14)
2. Skyship (Tower) (4:50)
1. Aurora Borealis (Conflux) (5:28)

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[martoncsepregi]

"Aurora Borialis? At this time of day, on this part of the map, localised entirely to your conflux town?"

[Sandro_de_Vega]

I would put the inferno grail higher for one reason. The fact that each week is an imp week not only allows you to recruit more of these creatures. This also means that the enemies will not have a chance to gain the growth bonus of their creatures. And that there won't be a plague week.

[Gcrowan]

I didn't really even know about the bonuses being that different before. Shows how often I actually bother digging up the grail.

[tomasn]

It would be killer grail if necropolis had the opposite to tower - cast cover of darkness all over the map.. Could you imagine the annoyance of the opponents :DDD

[RagnarokiaNG]

The Deity of Fire should have a hidden mechanic where if he takes off his shirt it raises troops morale.
It's getting hot in here, and I'm not talking about the Magogs.

[BurgerFred]

Deity of fire actually does give a decent bonus.
If you're playing necro.
All those free imps become free skeletons. The imps that spawn around the map also become free skeletons.




...That's about it.

[Beenbarian]

I'm more in love with the fact that people still actually play this game. I started playing it on release and I still play it till this day with the same mates I began playing it with. I make my own maps now though. If anyone wants to try one, hit me up. Made a World of Warcraft map

[tigergepard]

I think it would be an interesting idea if the Skyship gives vision over the whole map and the Grail Building of Dungeon gives vision over the whole underground

[TedSCSI]

Few things worth mentioning about HOTA expansion grail buidings. Aurora Borealis works different than in AB/SoD in that regard that it gives you all spells that can "spawn" in conflux (you won't get curse, death ripple, animate dead, armageddon, sacrifice and titan lighting bolt) also you need to build corresponding mage guild level to obtain spells from that tier. Lodestar works quite odd because it affects all cove creatures not only those which belongs to player which owns the grail building, it even affects monsters on the world map.

[Angelologist]

The Deity of Fire's strength is not in making every week Week of the Imp. It's in preventing every week from becoming week of (insert any non-Inferno unit here).

[Externica]

I heard the Conflux is very broken in general, but the Aurora Borealis really took the cake, improved it and solved world hunger in five seconds.

[dustinburlet]

Excellent video with great nuance (morale is always better than luck, for instance, i.e., rampart vs. castle) - I appreciate that you ranked where the Horn of the Abyss grail building falls as well - great job!

[mongolidp]

I have played this game for 15 years and I had no idea until today that the grail gave any bonuses besides the creature growth and +5000 gold/day. Great video.

[nemou]

Defending your grail town is actually VERY important, of course this is versus AI since vs human players you should already win if there is a single grail in the game. But if you are outnumbered, watching the enemy heroes crash vs your +10 defense and attack fortress is pretty key.- On the other hand as there is no fog of war in heroes 3 the skyship is the one that's pretty irrelevant. By the time you get the grail you will have already pretty much have explored the entire map. The only point is cover of darkness.

[karamelltu]

I remember after watching this video me and my friend were playing on hotseat and we both chose conflux and after our enemies started to give us a hard time I found the grail and I told my friend that we are saved because grails are amazing ( I didn't know that before watching this video) and because you can share a mage guild we both got town portal and defeated our enemies, so thank you for this wonderful video I can't wait to see more!!!

[MechaEmperor]

I actually rank the Soul Prism higher than the Skyship since the usefulness of the skyship is directly affected by when you get it as Skyship gets worse as you explore more of the world. Skyship would be hugely beneficial if you can somehow get it in the beginning of the game (either a custom scenario, blind luck, or you rushed to get all the obelisks) but would become less and less useful as the game progresses (and almost entirely useless if by the time you've gotten it, the map has been revealed by exploration or a cartographer). The Soul Prism, meanwhile, is a very powerful boon early game, and remains consistently useful late into the game.

[Benstyping]

Nice to see new videos of heroes being uploaded and it getting lots of views.

[mwa]

In my random scenario games, I always like to have at least one conflux town. In case I have the Grail, I can access all the spells in the game. Some times the entire map just does not have Town Portal which is annoying. Expert logistics + Fly + Town Portal + Dimension Door = Able to move to any spot of the map in one turn. Best.

[ShinerCCC]

I always said "Conflux has the most OP grail building even if it only put Town Portal in your mage guild"

[theblackantonio]

1st place: Conflux
2nd place: Tower
Last place: Everything else