hello
Try to imagine situation like this, you play on the rather big map (about 125x100) there are about 65 cities and some ruins (about 35 all levels) there are a lot of normal cities, some good cities a few poor cities near starts and about 3 powerful cities in center. there are all types of terrain, but the most open. If you had to buy only 1 hero, which one would you choose?
I think that paladin is a good option (if your tactic includes searching ruins). sorc is far worse, because she doesn't boost any units (expect water leadership which is quite useless) paladin:
boost units with 11 max leadership
has some ward, so he could be used instead of ranger
had 33 max UL and he increases it fast
the other option is valkiria, but only if you don't want to explore much ruins (she can explore only lv1 with help of some scouts) but her 18 attack leadership is the most powerfull hero's ability, so it is always sad to miss it.
please write what do you think
Szymraszyn