Currently, the Masterful Strategies skill (or Healer personality trait) does not allow for any soldiers from entirely wiped out units to rise up. This makes the skill utterly useless. I don't know why this was nerfed from its status, but at the current time a 30% Masterful Strategies (lvl 4 skill + item) effect only applies to units that are remaining after a battle. This means that realistically the effect is way weaker than 30%, since it does not even account for all the units that may be missing entirely.
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The skill is fine and far from useless. It has the potential to save a large amount of troops over the course of the campaign. You just need to make sure not to lose entire units. Its not hard to withdraw units from battle.
Define fine. Do you mean fine as in "hey, why don't I invest points in Masterful Strategies instead of Masterful Tactics! Hey, I don't need Wedge of Steel; I'll just take Masterful Strategies instead"? I won't speak for everyone but I assure you, I only take Masterful Strategies when I run out of real stuff on which to spend my skill-points.
Masterful Strategies is an impoverished hobo of a skill next to some others -- that's where the fix needs to come in.
Masterful Strategies is an impoverished hobo of a skill next to some others -- that's where the fix needs to come in.
I always take this skill, at least 1 or 2 levels, especially for the battles which you lose only a few soldiers, the skill saving them, you lose 0 troops, so you don't have to spend time to replenish your army.
Of course i always try to not loose any entire unit (except some basic troops i don't care about).
Of course i always try to not loose any entire unit (except some basic troops i don't care about).
It's true that Masterful Strategies is weaker than Masterful Tactics and it's upgrades; this does not make it useless. The skill really does save you a lot of gold by reducing your losses - in the early parts of the game, every gold coin counts.
There are a lot more useless (or at least, situational) skills than masterful strategies. It's true that I do not take this skill over masterful tactics and several others, but on the other hand, masterful strategies artifcats are, in my experience, quite common and randomly available quite early in the campaign, at the time where you get the most of it (eg. you don't have the overpowered units/spells combos that will allow you to win battles with 0 losses - which render this skill obsolete), and, even if it is for a temporary time, it has its role, and can save time, food and money in the early game when those resource are scarce.
It could certainly be better, but imho, the problem with the skill is not the cut to troop loss, it is the morale boost, because the unit stack morale concept doesn't work well in practice : it is trivial to keep it maxxed out if you win your battles, and if you loose, well, you'll have muche more to worry about that unit morale. A more relevant morale system will make it a more desirable skill, imho.
It could certainly be better, but imho, the problem with the skill is not the cut to troop loss, it is the morale boost, because the unit stack morale concept doesn't work well in practice : it is trivial to keep it maxxed out if you win your battles, and if you loose, well, you'll have muche more to worry about that unit morale. A more relevant morale system will make it a more desirable skill, imho.
For me, this skill is the first I take (and max) for any Warlord knight. It allows my armies to fight several battles in a row without replacing any losses - a big plus when invading. Also, less losses = a big economical bonus = you can hire the really expensive units (all-Sidhe army is a killer, believe me).