The point of the angels is not to add damage or anything, but to add distractions.

Thanks to the sometimes buggy acquisition logic of enemy demigods they will often attack the angels.  Since the angels are moving they'll miss (especially if they're a melee hero) and will then chase the angels, slashing harmlessly at air.

Add to it that angels themselves will bug out and be stranded on random parts of the map you get scouts and distracting useless creeps that chip away and otherwise annoy enemy Demigods scattered all over the place.

It's more useful than you think!

They suck thats all!

Yea they aren't frontline fighters. They help out a ton with scouting and distractions. They have a good bit of HP for fast moving flying units. So they can take that tower heat while ur heavy land forces do the damage. They are also a great counter to Heart of Life. Because if you are being chased by a few angels you won't get more than 2 or 3 seconds of HoL before they get in one of their weak hits. They're also great at killing other creeps.

Another thing that the angels are good for are chasing demigods when they are fleeing and preventing them from using HoL until the demigod can get the angels off of them.

Even without HoL, Angels can be quite effective at taking down a fleeing Demigod.  They don't do much damage, but if the enemy Demigod is already heavily damaged- Acid Spit, Snipe that *almost killed it*, etc... the Angel can provide the final blow to turn a 15 second turn-around to get back into battle to a 40 second turn-around (really effective against Generals as ofc if the General dies then its units go with it whereas if it managed to limp back the General play can still control his/her units to stall the enemy team's progress while the General heals up).

But yeah, the other comments about Angels being distractions are also dead-on.  They tend to screw with Priests and also tend to be the first to the fight or first into a tower's line of sight meaning that they can sacrifice themselves so that more effective minions can do their jobs better.

Minotaurs: basic soldiers - XP for DG's

Archers: basic ranged units - see minotaurs

Priests: healing & damage

Angels: scouts?

Catapults: reasonable damage outside of tower range

Giants: damage soak & reasonable DPS

As I see it only the archers and angels don't have any particular reason for existing

So the common opinion seems to be they suck?

Archers at least are free when you get war rank 3, Angels on the other hand... 3.6k gold down the drain! almost a heart of life less for someone... for nothing, really.

They aren't needed but they aren't useless either. And though they don't spawn up in large numbers at first, being as they are hard to kill by anything but towers they tend to bunch up and before too long you're trying to fight off 10 or so each doing 100 dmg.

Priests are amazing at helping push and destroy enemy towers.  If my team is about to start pushing into enemy territory I would hope that preists have been purchased by this time.

Also, this game is not about killing enemy demi-gods, it's about the objective.  Sure killing is ver beneficial because of the gold you get from it, but I never go out of my way to chase an enemy demigod, unless they are threatening our towers.  As a UB I spend early game in a lane harrassing with spit and leveling up (sometimes at the flag sometimes at my tower).  With the 10% xp bonus I can easily get to being 2-3 levels above my opponents and by the time I get my HoL, I start killing demigods/towers.  The less trips you need to make to your crystal the better off you will be.

Regulus can make good use out of angels. Basicly, they're expendable pointmen.

Yes, they're 100% uselss. You basically get priests and then sit on your money until you can skip angels right to catapults or giants.

they are somewhat bad. that doesn't mean their totally without value, just not enough value for anyone to feel compelled to go out of their way to buy them except when you're buying them at the same time as Catapults. 

they do have 3 characteristics that are somewhat worthwhile though

1) slow attack speed, high attack damage, means they are effective at harrasing demigods without having to remain in close contact to a DG for a long time (and thus get swatted before doing signiicant damage). 

2) they can knock down archers and soldier grunts. ive seen them toss these grunts right off the edge of the map, instantly killing them. 

3) good visibility, greatly extends sight distance through fog of war