NargottThere is the highest dynamics typical for Starcraft, your comparison is more suited to slow RTS like Warcraft.
According to the concepts of StarCraft, the game would pass something like this:
- Week 1 - the opening, and economic development, capture several towns, capture map zones, and for rushes/harrasment, the main power is 1-3 tier units
- Week 2 - the midgame for the main fight, if both players survived after the opening, the main power is 4-5 tier units
- Week 3 - the endgame, if failed to break the enemy at the midgame, the main power is 6-7 tier units
Delaying the game in StarCraft is not encouraged, but in Warcraft, you can safely and slowly leveling on mobs, with "City Portal" and the warranty to no die by the opponent at this time.
In Starcraft you may lose at the opening easy by rush, because the game supports this, no giving any indulgence to the weaker player with far distance, giant maps with long search, or strong quards.
Starcraft is clearly the game about player vs player, from the very beginning to the end, not about player versus mobs, there is no time spent to defeating large numbers of mobs.

Sure, I made comparison on the base mechanics. Long term Starcraft strategy is really imbalanced. I remember in Terran vs Protos/Zerg, the Terran was always on the doomsday clock due to not being able to build huge armies as fast as the other players, and being very hard to control due to the larger number of special abilities compared to other races.

Warcraft is way better comparison.

NargottThis sorcery is imbalanced at 4-6 weeks. Because by this time the armies is not enough much to resist such a magician, especially with 3% attack difference.
It is a good example of how the balance of 5 months is contrary to the balance of 2 months. It's impossible to have a good balance for the all players playing different styles, there is need to choice quick multiplayer, or slow multiplayer, not both. I recommend to add this feature (an orientation for long periods of the game + giant maps) to the description of the mod, since it is very important for the players to understand which style the game is support, quick or slow. Otherwise, playing at normal or quick maps, they will scream that the game is not balanced. Or playing maps typical to mod, complain of too many numerous neutrals.

Подобное чародейство - имба на сроках 4-6 недель. Потому что на таких сроках войск недостаточно много, чтобы противостоять такому магу, тем более на 3% атаке.
Это хороший пример того, что баланс, построенный на 5 месяцах игры, противоречит балансу, построенному на 2 месяцах игры. Невозможно удовлетворить игроков всех стилей игры, нужно выбирать либо быстрый мультиплеер, либо медленный, но не оба сразу. Эту особенность (ориентацию на длительные сроки игры и большие насыщенные карты) я бы добавил в описание мода, т.к. это очень важно для игроков иметь представление о том, насколько динамичной или неспешной является игра. Иначе играя нормальные и быстрые карты, они будут кричать о том, что игра не сбалансирована. Или играя типовые карты модификации, жаловаться на слишком многочисленных нейтралов.

Agreed, there are also some meta classes which require much longer time to develop. We had that issue where on small maps a Dungeon Magic hero will come on week 4 and armagedon everything. Here is a video of the siege dungeon did at week 4 against Might hero with specialization Magic resistance and advanced shatter destruction.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmVgy5q3Rp0

This video is 2 or 3 mod iterations before the current release. Since then a lot of improvement has been made such as:

1. Higher damage gap between advanced and expert level for Armageddon.
2. Higher mana requirements for most of the spells.
3. Shater penalty for the enemy hero was reversed to ToTe levels (-2 spell mastery levels for any 1-5 level spells of that school). We reduced the ability at the early stages of the mod on expert level because we thought it is too strong.
4. Reduced Occultism bonus for destruction from 6 SP at expert to 3 SP.

Also have in mind that when your enemy plays Magic hero you can pinpoint the magic school he uses before you have met (Academy elementalists start with Summoning and cant unlearn it, Dungeon with high spell power is mostly using destruction early game, Haven meta mages are always using dark and so on).
So when you pinpoint the school and get the appropriate Shatter you are more or less protected even early on. Yes, Shatters will slow down the map grinding but as you could see the Magic hero player have to sacrifice population buildings in order to get the Magic guild up to tier 5 early on (this video is not an example because dungeon was able to grind everything with an ease so got the necessary resources to go for dragons as well).

Also with the changes mentioned above mana is always an issue.

I am currently doing a brief guide that will pinpoint changes in all areas made by this mod. I will also mention the long duration of the game. Thanks for the feedback!