I usually choose Warlord lord type and Ranger main hero. Health replenishment and lots of movepoints. And the big crossbow, man, really BIG... :)

Question: if your race has a set of very tasteful level 5 spells (as Legions do), would it be wise to choose Mage lord type with Mage main hero?

What was your experience? Do you feel the shortage of 15% health restore?

I chose Mage lord and Ranger, they both add some dynamics to the game, Mage will help you with the spells and used correctly they will give you the biggest advantages. For example, if you chose Empire you can heal you hero twice/day.

I like the Ranger because is fast, that is a huge advantage in a game where conquering some key points first is so important. Also he is not so easy to kill by melee units.

Anyway, the game (D2) is extremely well balanced, this strategy works best for me, I am also curious what works for others.

Disc2 :
I tend to go for mage lord when I'm playing and yes I do sometimes feel the pinch of not having that 15% healing bonus. With the empire and elves its not much of an issue with their healers. The undead (in disc 2 atleast I thought they were the most powerful) I also went for mage lord because I knew I would eventually get vampires which can heal your units, somewhat. Legions I think I went for warlord as they have no natural healing ability. With the dwarves if I recall, I probably went for mage lord. The dwarves have the distinct disadvantage that they cannot as effectively fight a war of attrition as the other races. The empire and elves can outlast an enemy in a fight with their healers constantly healing, whereas the undead and legions can stun with paralyze and petrify respectively.

So yeah, I think I mostly chicken out and go for mage lord to get my hands on those 5th level spells. I have to say though, I've had a lot of fun with the Guildmaster as well. Works well with the ranger unit since you can dual a leader of a group a couple of times with multiple thieves. The high initiave of the thief means that will usually get in at least one hit before dying. When my ranger unit then attacks I can take out the bothersome leader in one shot!

in Dic1 i did very well with Mage lord, but in Dic2 it did not work very good at all!, had to change to warrior and even then i could barely keep my head above water and in the end gave it up entirely because i was too tired of dying all over the place despite being hugely powerful.

Hmmm, it's a good question.

Warlord is by far the most straightforward - powerful passive bonus that will always come in handy.

Guildmaster is my personal favourite, but far more difficult to take advantage of, as it requires heavy use of spies to really shine. That being said, the special spy abilities are really something else, and someone taking full advantage of their thieves can easily defeat a superior force. The cheaper city upgrades are nice, too. Take a city in the middle of the map, upgrade it to level 5 for dirt cheap, and see how many enemies you can bait into attacking you there.

However, Mage Lord is by far the most powerful. Cheaper research is nice. Level five spells are all awesome, but I feel like most games are essentially over by the time the mana to cast them becomes available, unless you're on a particularly rich map. However, the ability to cast spells twice in one turn is incredibly powerful. Wipe out an entire army using direct damage spells, feel out enemy forces using legions of summons, and all sorts of other fun nonsense. My personal favourite is playing as Empire and double-casting Haste. Truly a broken combination.

As for leader? Well, that depends on the race. I often like Scout heroes to start off with, but personally I can't stand the Undead one. I almost never go with Fighter heroes to start because I find that too often they end up taking the brunt of the damage and regularly wind up dead. Mage heroes can be nice, but I'll usually end up going for Scouts - fast movement and the ability to eventually one-shot a lot of the more annoying enemies (Spectres, especially).

I'm doing an Empire saga playthrough of Disc 2 with Mage lord and Mage leader.

With healers, I don't so much miss the 15% healing per day. And with the mage leader I can safely have 2 healers in the back (once I've increased Leadership) and have my front-line fighters tank away while my leader blasts everyone. There aren't a lot of enemies with Air immunity, but there are quite a few with Weapon immunity, so it's good to have that built-in flexibility. Plus, having a powerful Mage leader makes it easier to level up the other units at the start of a scenario - the fighters can sit tight and defend while the leader does the hard work.

This. The double spell thing is lethal. Healing isn't too important when you can blast a lot of your enemies into the red before you even attack them.

But Guildmaster is the most fun.

I generally go with Mage Lord for Empire and Clans, Warrior Lord for Hordes and Legions, but I usually make a scout my main leader in either case.

For me, I've so far enjoyed going Warrior Lord to get the 15% healing. I can never get enough healing.

For my main leader I switch between the fighter and the mage. With the mage I really utilize all those scrolls found throughout the map so it sometimes seems as if I can have the benefit of casting multiples of the same spell each day. As well as being able to harm almost any creature while having some added protection of being in the back row.

With the Warrior leader it is just fun to be able to hack down opponents left and right with massive damage. As I level him I usually increase his damage, resistance/armor and healing. Just pure damage and fun.

Gotta be the Mage Lord with the Warrior or Mage heroes. I tend to have one of each, since the Mage attacks all, and the Warrior hits hard. Never been able to pick between the two.

For me only the mage lord (for that nasty 5th lvl spells and double casting) and mage leader. Aoe leaders are amazing throughout whole campaign (well, maybe they're a bit weaker in missions 1 & 2 until all units slots are unlocked). Giving them all the permanent potions you can find and that +20/25% dmg items makes them just one hit-six kills casters. Ok ok, two hits sometimes are necessary :) And as long as you remember to fullbuff them (especially armor/resistances) before heading for capital you're not gonna have problems destroying hostile players.
Almost all races have pretty good "tank" melee units so imho there's no need to use warrior hero. Rangers are cool for taking out that powerful enemy's casters/healers in the first turn, true. But in the endgame you'll be able to do exactly the same thing with mage + you'll deliver a lot of dmg to the other enemy units in the battle (propably killing or disabling with a status at least one more).

To be honest I've never seriously tried thief/guildmaster lord cause that playstyle just doesn't suit me. 15% (or more, I don't remember) healing per turn from warrior lord is cool for few races (not so for elves or empire as they have powerful healers) but for me it just pales in comparision to 5th lvl spells with double casting.

Mage hero for Empire, Hordes and Legions, Engineer for clans. As for the lord type, there aren't really favorites, all three have bonuse that are very usefull and you'll use tham constantly. My favorite is Warrior lord cause I hate camping in cities to save gold on healing. Except for the Empire which have healer units, here the guildmaster has my vote, since empire has few damage spells and healing is seldom needed.