You'd better believe I'm still steadily ignoring all my new games to play Might & Magic VII.

My current project: Single-class challenge runs. I'm going to do runs where I try to win the game with single-classed parties, going through all the classes in alphabetical order. Why? Just for fun, and as an excuse to play more MMVII.

It's early days, so I've only just started playing my first run: Team Archer. I expect the main strength of this party will be ranged combat (duh), so I figure I should make it an early priority to get everyone up to Master level with the Bow skill. This lets my Archers fire two arrows with every shot, literally doubling their damage output. A no-brainer, really. The only problem? The person who can teach Master Bow is located in Mount Nighon, a region which is only accessible by going through a series of three interconnected dungeons, each more deadly than the last. Still, I figure I can make a dash for it. Maybe hire a Gate Master NPC before I go so I can at least Town Portal back to the mainland after getting the skill.

Archers are also decent at the elemental magic skills, but the Expert and Master levels are pretty heavily gated behind the class promotion quests, which in my opinion are among the most difficult in the game. So it'll sadly be a while before I can enjoy the convenience of spells like Fly and Town Portal, though at least this will be one of only three single-class challenge runs where I actually get these spells (the others being Druid and Sorcerer). I also discovered that Expert rank of Disarm Trap is similarly gated (curse you, incorrect Gamefaqs guide!), so I'll have to make do with Basic rank until fairly late in the game. Pretty annoying, hope I can at least find a +Disarm item soon.

Looking forward to the next couple of single-class challenge runs too. Team Cleric should end up as an offensive powerhouse once I get full Dark Magic online. Probably the strongest of all the single-class runs in terms of direct combat potential, given that they have both the most lethal offensive spells in the game and strong defensive spells like Regeneration and Protection from Magic. Team Druid should be fun too, with access to almost all spells in the game and some interesting decisions about how to focus their magic. Honestly, I'm mainly dreading the really low-magic runs like Knight, Monk and Thief, although at least they should be good in combat.