This guide is for players that want to make a single lord as powerful in combat as possible without using any mods. Built the right way, a single lord can defeat many thousands of enemies in battle on very hard or legendary difficulty. If that sounds of interest, step this way.

The first question is which lord should you choose? For reasons that will become clear, the better choices as solo lords tend to be those that can reach at least 90% stacked physical resist (ward+physical resist). Even lords with quite mediocre combat stats can take out a couple of strong stacks if they're skilled effectively and hit 90% stacked physical resist.



Below is a list of WH2 LLs with their maximum known stacked physical resist values (passive regen and perfect vigour abilities are also indicated where applicable):

High Elves
Tyrion 93% (70% from items)
Alarielle 90% (70% from items)
Teclis 90% (70% from items)
Alith Anar 80% (70% from items), vigour

Dark Elves
Hellebron 120% (70% from items), regen
Morathi 115% (70% from items)
Malus Darkblade 110% (70% from items)
Malekith 100% (70% from items)
Lokhir 80% (70% from items)

Lizardmen
Tehenhauin 119% (74% from items)
Mazdamundi 109% (74% from items), regen
Kroq-Gar 105% (75% from items)
Gor-Rok 104% (84% from items), regen, vigour
Tiktaq'to 104% (74% from items)
Nakai 85% (75% from items), vigour

Skaven
Snikch 125% (70% from items)
Tretch 90% (80% from items), regen
Ikit Claw 90% (70% from items), vigour
Queek 80% (70% from items)
Skrolk 80% (70% from items)

Tomb Kings
Settra 105% (78% from items)
Khalida 105% (78% from items)
Arkhan 95% (78% from items)
Khatep 88% (78% from items)

Vampire Coast
Direfin 180% (90% from items)
Saltspite 130% (90% from items), vigour
Harkon 105% (90% from items), regen
Noctilus 105% (90% from items), regen

And the same for WH1 lords:

The Empire
Gelt 85% (estimated, 75% from items)
Franz 80% (estimated, 70% from items)
Volkmar 80% (estimated, 70% from items)
Markus 80% (estimated, 70% from items)

Dwarfs
Grombrindal 85% (75% from items)
Thorgrim 85% (75% from items)
Ungrim 85% (75% from items)
Belegar 85% (75% from items)

Vampire Counts
Ghorst 90% (70% from items)
Kemmler 90% (80% from items)
Mannfred 80% (70% from items), regen
Vlad 80% (70% from items), regen
Isabella 80% (70% from items), regen

Greenskins
Wurrzag 100% (75% from items)
Grimgor 80% (70% from items)
Azhag 80% (70% from items), regen
Skarsnik 80% (70% from items)

Chaos
Archaon 122% (87% from items)
Kholek 107% (82% from items)
Sigvald 92% (82% from items)

Beastmen
Malagor 80% (70% from items)
Morghur 80% (70% from items), regen
Khazrak 80% (70% from items)

Wood Elves
Durthu 100% (70% from items)
Orion 80% (70% from items)

Bretonnia
Fay Enchantress 115% (70% from items), vigour
Alberic 100% (70% from items), vigour
Louen 100% (70% from items), regen, vigour
Repanse de Lyonesse 90% (70% from items)

Norsca
Wulfrik 80% (91% with Rage active, 70% from items)
Throgg 80% (70% from items), regen

For Warriors of Chaos or the Empire it is recommended to choose Sigvald or Gelt, respectively, as your starting lord. This is because as starting lords they provide armour buffs to all lords in their faction (see faction effects section below). Even if you ultimately plan to run other Chaos or Empire lords solo, they can be made more survivable if you recruit them after starting with Sigvald or Gelt.

Lords can be made much stronger in Mortal Empires than they can in the Vortex campaign, due to the wider variety of LLs available to defeat for traits. Even if you use a WH2 solo lord it is therefore preferable to play in Mortal Empires, and this guide is written from that perspective (though much of the information is valid for both modes).

While resistance is very important, other stats should also be considered. For instance, Mannfred has significantly lower resistance than Ghorst or Kemmler, but his combat stats are so much stronger that he's clearly the better pick as a solo lord.



The absolutely most powerful lords are those that are strong in both resistance and general stats, such as Archaon, Malekith, Kholek, Durthu and Harkon.

A final point before you choose your lord. It can take 15 minutes of in-game time to kill an entire army with just one lord, and multiples of that against multiple armies. It is therefore advisable that you select 60 minutes or unlimited battle length when you start a campaign. The battles don't take as long in real time as they're not micro intensive and can be played at maximum speed if you wish.

The following are the eight stats and abilities you will want to prioritize on a solo lord, roughly ordered from most important to least important:

1. Resistance (except missile resistance)
2. Health points (HP)
3. Regeneration
4. Melee defence (MD)
5. Armour
6. Strength
7. Melee attack (MA)
8. Charge bonus (CB)

The above is all you really need to know in terms of stat and ability prioritization, so if you're happy with that you can just move on to the Resistance section. The following paragraphs are for those that are curious about the reasoning behind the list.

You'll notice that some stats that are usually considered important, such as leadership, CB, MA and strength are rated low. The key point here is that a solo lord should aim to carry the Sword of Khaine, which reduces the importance of these stats. This is obvious for leadership, as the Sword of Khaine makes your character unbreakable. To see why MA (and CB) are less important, we need to look at the 'to hit' equation:

Chance to hit=35%+MA-MD
Minimum hit chance: 8%
Maximum hit chance: 90%

The dominating Sword of Khaine provides +35 MA. As your solo lord will usually be a powerful melee-orientated character, and your skill points (SP) are going to be focused on combat stats, there is the potential to take MA to very high levels.



Now there's nothing wrong with having 151 MA, as in the screenshot, but it will rarely be put to use, because the maximum hit chance is 90%. You will only get the full value of 151 MA against enemies with 96 MD or higher! In fact 105 MA is sufficient to hit enemies with 50 MD or lower at the maximum 90% hit rate - and a large majority of enemies are in this category. Taking MA much higher than 100 is usually an oversaturated benefit, which is not to say that you shouldn't do it, but just that it's a lower priority. Characters with base MA of 60 will almost certainly achieve MA >100 from items, traits, etc even without spending SP on MA in particular. So as a rough guide, boosting MA is a high priority only for characters with <60 base MA.

Why is MD high on the list? Don't high MD values oversaturate just as much as MA? They don't, for two reasons. First, the Sword of Khaine doesn't buff your MD, so MD doesn't tend to get as high on a solo lord as MA (though there are some cases where it does). Second, and more importantly, MA tends to get buffed in combat by CB, frenzy, anti-infantry/large bonus, flank/rear attack, etc, whereas MD tends to get nerfed. In particular, effective MD is reduced by 40% from flank attacks and 75% from rear attacks. As a solo lord you will face a lot of flank and rear attacks, so you want to get MD as high as possible so it's still reasonable after a 40% or 75% reduction. That's why increasing MD is a priority no matter how high your MD.

What about strength? Just as with MA there is an oversaturation issue here. The Sword of Khaine will generally take a combat lord's strength beyond 1200, the vast majority of it armour piercing (AP). This is very useful against high HP entities such as enemy characters and monsters, but against infantry and cavalry there is a tendency for further strength increases to be wasted. The number of models a lord can hit is limited by their "splash_attack_target_size" (splash radius), and splash_attack_max_attacks (the limit of how many models can be hit, usually in the range 3-8). If you have eight 80 HP models in your splash radius, their total HP is only 640, so much of your 1200+ strength will go unused. This is an especially big issue for footlords, who tend to have a small splash radius and low number of maximum attacks.

CB provides a bonus to MA and strength for a few seconds after a charge. The MA component is even more of a wasted benefit than regular MA, taking many characters to a pointlessly high 200-300 MA. The strength component has similar oversaturation issues. Additionally CB is not used that much by a solo lord as you tend to be blobbed by the enemy army.

In short, you should of course buff MA, strength, and CB where you can, but as these offensive stats tend to oversaturate, your defences (resistance, HP, regen, MD, and armour) are a higher priority where you have to choose one or the other.

It's no exaggeration to say that resistance can make your lord ten times as survivable as they would be without it. The resistance percentage is a flat reduction to the amount of HP lost to damage of the indicated type, so it will take ten times as much damage to kill a lord with 90% resistance as it will to kill one with 0% resistance. Even going from 80% to 90% resistance, which doesn't sound like a huge change, doubles the effective HP of your character. Resistance is the single biggest reason why one lord can tank four full stacks.



Resistance types are as follows:

1. Ward - resists physical and magical damage.
2. Physical - resists physical damage.
3. Magical - resists magical damage.
4. Fire - resists fire damage.
5. Missile - resists missile damage.

Resistance types stack. For instance, 20% ward and 20% physical will provide 40% resistance against physical damage. The maximum that you can stack ward+physical or ward+magical to is 90%. This number is crucial for building your solo lord. If at all possible you must get their stacked physical resistance (i.e. ward+physical) to 90%, as the vast majority of damage is of this type. Preferably also get 90% for stacked magical (ward+magical).

All fire damage and all missile damage is either physical or magical. Therefore, if you have 90% stacked physical resistance and 90% stacked magical resistance, you already have 90% resistance against fire and missile damage. For this reason fire and missile resistance are generally less important.

Buffing missile resistance is especially unimportant as all (or nearly all) lords come with native missile resistance. Combined with your stacked physical/magic resistance this should take your stacked missile resistance to 90%+ even without trying.

Fire resistance can, however, be of interest if you have fire weakness, as is likely if you have regeneration, though it is not essential given the rarity of the damage type.

Note that the tool tip on the character card is the most reliable way of seeing overall resistance levels - the 'battle effects' panel doesn't sum everything.

Regeneration is the most important defensive characteristic of your lord aside from resistance and base HP. It is preferably acquired as a passive trait, giving a constant resupply of lost HP until the HP cap is reached. The regen pool is set at 75% of base HP and can only be increased by increasing base HP. For characters with strong defensive stats, regeneration is equivalent to +75% HP, as they can regen at (or above) the rate at which they lose HP.



It is important to remember that regenerating HP is not equivalent to avoiding damage. If you regenerate a lot of HP you will eventually hit the cap, as in the shot above. Increasing the rate of regeneration does not increase your regen pool, it just means you exhaust it more quickly. Taking an additional regen item or using a regen spell is therefore usually a waste of an item slot or winds of magic. It should be considered only as a last resort on characters that lose HP rapidly due to poor resistance, MD and/or armour.

There are several different types of passive regen abilities. The three main types are:

- 'Regeneration'. A constant regen (in or out of combat) that comes with a +25% weakness to fire damage. This is the most widely available passive regen, and is probably what most people think of when they hear 'regen'. Some characters get it by default or in their skill tree (Morghur, Throgg, Gor-Rok, Tretch, Mazdamundi, Hellebron, Noctilus). On other characters it can be acquired as a trait by defeating Isabella von Carstein or via items such as the Armour of Eternal Servitude (Dark Elves), Armour of Eternity (Tomb Kings) or Ouroboros (Tomb Kings).

- Combat-based regen. Regens only in combat, but without any fire vulnerability. Available as 'The Hunger' in vampire skill trees (e.g. Luthor Harkon, Mannfred von Carstein, Vlad von Carstein,
Isabella von Carstein) or in select items, such as the Armour of Living Death (Dark Elves). Lokhir's Helm of the Kraken is essentially a superpowered version of The Hunger, giving regen and +9 MD in combat (unfortunately the armour has no ward or resist so is not a good solo lord choice).

- Leadership-based regen. These combine the advantage of Regeneration (constant regen) with the advantage of combat-based regen (no fire weakness). The regen is only disabled when leadership is broken or (in some cases) wavering. Examples are Louen's The Lady's Champion, Sigvald's Auric Armour, the Dwarfs' Liquid Fortification (available via the Ironwarden's Tankard), and Malus' Warpsword of Khaine (though as you would have to take it in place of the Sword of Khaine it is a poor solo lord choice).



The leadership-based regens are generally best, as they have effectively no downside - you cannot even lose leadership if you have the Sword of Khaine. That said, any of these three are an excellent option. For many characters Regeneration is the best choice simply because beating Isabella is the only way they can get regen without giving up a slot for a regen item.

The four main ways to acquire improved stats and abilities are skills, traits, items and faction effects. I take these in turn.

The highest priority stats and abilities are the eight mentioned above, which are usually in the yellow line of the skill tree:

1. Resistance (except missile resistance)
2. Health points (HP)
3. Regeneration
4. Melee defence (MD)
5. Armour
6. Strength
7. Melee attack (MA)
8. Charge bonus (CB)

Secondary stats like speed should also be taken where SP is available. As well as direct stat buffs, you want to pick up abilities that provide temporary stat improvements such as Deadly Onslaught and special abilities such as Terror (if your mount doesn't come with it).

There are some options for buffing lords in the red (army buff) skills. One option is Stand Your Ground/Stand Or Die; as this is at the end of the red tree, requiring you to spend a lot of SP on army buffs you don't want, it may not always be sensible. Another option that is always a good choice where available, as it's at the start of the skill tree, is the vigour buff, as shown in the shot below.



You want to avoid any skills that are only for buffing other units, as most of the red line is and a few yellow line skills. Skills for less important personal stats (e.g. leadership, missile resistance, speed) should also be avoided, as should anything that is for buffing the campaign (some yellow line and all blue line). I make an exception for the first point in the blue tree, simply because the extra campaign movement is a quality of life improvement, but even this is strictly speaking a waste when it comes to your lord's combat effectiveness.

Hybrid melee-caster lords such as Archaon, Durthu, Malekith, Mannfred and Settra can be very powerful, but they also tend to be very short of SP. Don't go overboard on magic as you need the SP for combat stats. If Arcane Conduit is available, it may be worthwhile to spend the minimum to access it, or if it isn't, spend the minimum to access Power Drain. You may only have 3-4 spells (one by default) so choose wisely. Winds, breaths, vortices, direct damage, augments to personal combat stats, and passives usually deliver good value to a solo lord. Area effect augments, nerfs of any kind, and magic missiles are generally poor value.



In short, you want to put the vast majority of SP into the yellow line, and just a few select items in the blue and red lines like campaign movement, vigour, and buffs such as Stand Your Ground or Stand Or Die. For casters a modest magic selection can be taken. Ideally you will plan this out by accounting for where each of your 39 SP will go at the start of the campaign.

One aspect of the game that many players barely consider, but which is crucially important for solo lords, are the traits received for defeating legendary lords. Here I provide a 'hitlist' of the most important lords to defeat for solo lords, highlighting the most relevant bonuses:

1. Isabella - regeneration (but gives fire vulnerability)
2. Wurrzag - +10% physical resist
3. Nakai - +10 bonus vs large, +10 MD
4. Kroq-gar - +10 MD
5. Gelt - +6 armour
6. Azhag - +30% magical resist
7. Hellebron - +20 armor-piercing damage; +5 MA
8. Malekith - frenzy (+12% strength, +8% CB, +7 MA)
9. Grimgor - +20 armor-piercing damage
10. Throgg - +15 bonus vs large, +3% strength
11. Ungrim - +5 MA, +5% magical resist, +5% missile resist
12. Harkon - +15% magical resist
13. Kemmler - +10% magical resist
14. Kholek - +10 bonus vs large
15. Queek - +6 bonus vs infantry
16. Ghorst - poison
17. Settra - +15 CB
18. Louen - +10 CB
19. Wulfrik - +10% CB
20. Tyrion - +2 MA
21. Gor-Rok - Expert Charge Defense
22. Tretch - +12 speed

Defeating the following LLs can also be worthwhile for solo caster or missile lords:

Cylostra - +15 power reserves, -5% miscast
Khatep - +15 power reserves
Teclis - +10 power reserves
Ikit Claw - +10 power reserves
Alarielle - +5 power reserves
Wulfhart - +10% missile resistance, +5% missile damage

The ranking reflects the high weighting given to magical and physical resistance, regeneration, damage, MD, and armour. Of course, the exact order varies depending on the solo lord in question, and many lords have skills or native abilities that make it undesirable to defeat the corresponding LL. Harkon is an excellent example: he has regen, frenzy, poison (when mounted), high magic resist and good options for ward/physical resist; it is therefore preferable for him to avoid defeating Isabella, Malekith, Ghorst, Azhag, Kemmler, and possibly Wurrzag. The list is useful as a rough guide but you should consider the particular needs of your lord.

In addition to the above, Alberic or The Fay can get the Traitor trait by fighting King Louen. It gives +20% weapon strength, but with the significant downsides of -50 chivalry, +10% upkeep for the lord's army plus the -200 chivalry for declaring war with a Bretonnian faction.

There are a few important traits acquired from combat generally rather than from fighting LLs. Some of these, such as Confident Attacker, will inevitably be acquired in the course of a campaign, but there are a couple that you may have to make a special effort to get: Confident Defender (win multiple defensive battles for +5 MD) and Gore-Drenched (multiple battles with high friendly casualties for +20% HP).



A point to bear in mind is that you have only a limited number of trait slots to fill. Once you have around 30 'visible' traits you will stop getting any new ones. This means that ideally you should avoid defeating LLs that are not on the list, or perhaps more realistically, make sure you pick up the top ranking traits at the earliest opportunity. That's also a good idea given that some factions with excellent traits, such as Von Carstein, are vulnerable to being wiped out by mid-game.

The third way of improving stats and abilities is with items. These are divided between six slots: armour, weapon, talisman, enchanted item, banner, and (for some caster characters only) arcane item.

Armour
Your first target is to ensure that your stacked physical resist (i.e. physical resist+ward) is at 90%, or as close to that as you can reach. For most characters this will mean taking the Armour of Destiny (10% physical resist, 10% ward) in the armour slot.

Some factions and LLs have access to armours that are clear improvements on the Armour of Destiny:

Armour of Dawn (Tomb Kings)
Dragon Armour of Aenarion (Tyrion)
Armour of Templehof (Mannfred)
Alaric's Armour (Dwarfs - nerfs speed, huge armour buff)

There are also characters that can take stacked physical resist significantly beyond 90% through base resist, their skill tree, or powerful items. In this case it may be preferable to give up some physical resist for other benefits. For instance, Archaon's Armour of Morkar has 'only' 10% ward save, lacking the 10% physical resist of the Armour of Destiny; but as he has high physical resist from other sources the higher MD and armour values of the Armour of Morkar make it a better choice.



Weapon
The most important item is the Sword of Khaine - without it, most lords are not able to solo good stacks. At top tier it provides an obscenely strong 30% ward, +650 AP damage, +35 MA and an infinite use vortex. Very powerful characters with good resistance, such as Archaon and Kholek, can solo stacks without the sword if they are otherwise built well, but they are much stronger with it.

Talisman
For most characters the Talisman of Preservation (20% ward) should be taken in the talisman slot to get towards that 90% stacked physical resist. In a few cases there are superior options, e.g.:

Amulet of Pha-Stah (Tomb Kings)
Eye of Sheerian (Archaon)
Carstein Ring (Vlad)
Dragon Cloak of Fyrskar (Ungrim)
Jade Griffon (Volkmar)
SIlver Seal (Franz)
Black Amulet (Dark Elves - lower ward, higher physical resist and MA)



Enchanted item
For characters that have not yet managed to hit 90% stacked physical resistance (i.e. from base abilities, skills, traits, weapon, armour, and talisman), there are faction/LL specific options for further ward or physical resist in the enchanted item slot, such as the following:

Death Mask of Kharnut (Tomb Kings)
Horn of the Ancestors (Dwarfs)
Divine Plaque of Protection (Lizardmen)
Hand of Gods (Kroq-gar)
Cloak of Molten Metal (Gelt)
Cloak of Mists and Shadows (Kemmler)
Lucky Skullhelm (Tretch)

Norsca's Ancient Frost Wyrm Scale, available via a monster hunt, is also noteworthy.



Among generic enchanted items I'd recommend The Other Trickster's Shard for -22% magic resistance to nearby enemies, which is very strong given Sword of Khaine attacks are magical.

Banner
Warriors of Chaos and Vampire Coast are notable for their outstanding options in the banner slot. The Mark of Tzeentch (12% ward) or Spell of the Necromancer's Apprentice (20% ward) is preferable for characters that are not otherwise at 90% stacked physical resist, such as Sigvald, Harkon or Noctilus. For characters with good physical resist (e.g. Archaon, Kholek, Direfin, Saltspite), the Mark of Khorne, Banner of Rage, Dead Man's Chest or Throwing Bombs are good options.

Probably the most powerful banner available is the Cult of Sotek's Totem Pole of Destiny, available from the Sacrifice of Quetza and giving +25% ward save. Tehenhauin can get above 90% stacked physical resist without it but it still gives a lot of flexibility for him.

Among more generic banners, the Razor Standard gives a little extra AP damage (it is preferable to the Banner of Eternal Flame). Alternatively the Lichbone Pennant is a nice way to get extra magic resistance if you didn't defeat Azhag and your ward+magic resistance is below 90%.

Arcane item
For characters that can take an arcane item, the Channelling Staff gives -15 second ability cooldown - particularly useful for keeping those Sword of Khaine vortices raining down.

Summary
There are many excellent faction-specific items that should be taken where available. But any lord will be powerful with this generic loadout:

Armour of Destiny (armour)
Sword of Khaine (weapon)
Talisman of Preservation (talisman)
The Other Trickster's Shard (enchanted item)
Lichbone Pennant or Razor Standard (banner)
Channelling Staff (arcane item)

The fourth and final way to improve your lord's combat abilities is via faction effects. I use this term to refer to all ways of buffing your lord that do not involve their own skills, traits or items.

Settlement buildings
Some buildings provide factionwide combat buffs. Landmarks such as the White Tower of Hoeth, Dark Convent of Sorcery in Ghrond, Altar of Ultimate Darkness, Stellar Pyramids of the Southern Skies in Hexoatl, and the Tomb King pyramids provide factionwide power reserves. The Vault of Nagash at the Black Pyramid gives an especially strong +30 power reserves and +10% magic resistance. Perhaps most notable are the Wood Elf sacrificial grounds (+1 weapon strength, +1% missile strength), which taken in large numbers give Durthu by far the highest weapon strength.



Horde buildings
Some horde buildings significantly buff the lord in question. For example, Vampire Coast have several options for magical abilities such as bombardments via shipbuilding, while the Beastmen's Totem of Horns provides a large buff to MA and armour.



Tech
Many techs provide bonuses to lords. For instance, the Wood Elves's Hekarti provides +20 power reserves, the High Elf Teachings of Hoeth provides +5 MA/MD, and the Beastmen's Beastly Stupor provides +10 MA/MD.

Special mechanics
Faction-specific mechanics provide various options for buffing lords. The Cult of Sotek's Sacrifice of Xahutec provides +10 armour factionwide. Setep, recruitable via the Tomb King dynasties, provides +5 power reserves factionwide. The Vampire Coast office of Fleet Enforcement Admiral provides a significant +10% physical resistance (though unfortunately it is not available to LLs). Vampire Count bloodlines provide options for buffing power reserves and vigour.



Faction leaders
There are some 'faction effects' from selecting an LL as faction leader that will buff that LL and any other lords:

Gelt +10 armour
Sigvald +15 armour
Harkon +6 to MA/MD
Khalida +20% ammunition
Arkhan +10 to power reserves

It is advisable to start with Gelt, Sigvald or Tehenhauin (see special mechanics section) if you plan to use any Empire, Chaos or Lizardmen solo lord.

Heroes
Some heroes have traits or skills with factionwide buffs, such as the common 'knowledgeable' trait for +5 power reserves. Moving into more dubious territory, some heroes provide local bonuses, which your lord can benefit from even if they're not in the army, provided they're nearby (e.g. Master of the Black Arts for -10% miscast). I don't use such local traits as it seems at odds with the spirit of a 'solo lord' but include them here out of completeness.

Events
Finally, your lord can pick up temporary buffs from random factionwide events, such as extra power reserves, charge bonus or MA/MD. Temporary effects from rites and collecting sea treasure can be considered in the same category. Due to their time limited nature I don't consider these as contributing to a lord's true power level, and my screenshots of 'maxxed out' lords are taken when such effects are not active. Again, I only mention them out of completeness.

So you've made a lord with 90% resistance against physical and magical damage, regeneration, a skill tree full of combat skills, and the most effective traits, items and faction effects. You're now ready to solo multiple full stacks per battle. Enjoy!