How To Use Governors?

Yes, putting a governor in the city is enough. You can see the bonuses when you hover over the city's specifics: +2 growth from 'governor's name' when you hover over growth, for example.

Some Champ bonuses are added directly to your realm's total, however. For example, the Merchant trait.

Governors also reduce Unrest in the city - so a champion with just PotG will reduce it 5% and then a further 10%.

Problem most case, governors won't level up while sitting in city unless city had a advner building even that is a small chance earing xp...

Perhaps path of the governor should also add xp for sitting in a city? I also think that adventurer's guild building should be buffed, well at least the xp per turn part.

You just stick them in a city.  Then run to the next city you want to grow.  Then run to the next city and so on.  And yes, major oversight by Stardock... PATH OF THE GOVERNORS SHOULD RECEIVE 1 EXP/TURN WHILE IN A CITY... FIX IT!

Governors don't really need a slow growing 1 xp / period.  A better way to level them up is to take them on quests as part of a stack of heroes.  They don't dilute quest experience like they would clearing normal monsters when stacked with other heroes.  This only takes 10% of their time and a few quests soon makes them a lot better than a basic level 4 governor. 

In my recent game I bought 5 quest maps from a neighbouring Altar city (costs 100 gold each) and with tutelage levelled my heroes up.  My governor is now level 8 and has Loremaster 2 and Administrator 3 and Road building (very useful).  Loremaster 2 gives 3 research per turn and Administrator 3 means he can quell 65 unrest (5 from hero, 15 Governor trait and 10, 15 and 20 from Administrator 3) which means he can handle nearly all the unrest in a newly conquerred city on his own.  That saves a huge amount of gold that is normally used to rush buy cleric, bell towers and town halls that the AI seldom builds enough of.  You can also take them on quests that kill the boss monster in wildland areas (like Torax), they can build a road as the killer stack of heroes makes its way to the boss.

So governors are very useful in several different ways and not too hard to level up if you think about how it can be done.  They don't just have to sit in a city all the time although they do help boost a new city up to level 2.

JJ

Governors ability only work in sit in city, not wander and doing a quest...Yes you could had governors join army and doing quest, but all those governors' ability is wasted and not make sence if he was not in city...

In fact I tried that, and I end up had governors with me everywhere go rather than sitting in city...so no point level up governors...

I will commonly give a governor hero a strong army and level them up quickly, then plant their butt in a city for a long time. 

Indeed this is true for +2 growth and quelling unrest; and I never said anything other than that my governors sit in cities for 90% of the time.  I am just advocating questing as a means to making a much better governor very quickly.

Two other traits on the path of a governor, Loremaster and Merchant both work all the time, wherever he is, in the city or questing or road building.

Using the 5 quest maps only took about 3 turns since all my champs (including the governor) had horses and tireless march giving 11 moves per turn.  I don't think it is a bad choice to spend 3 turns outside a city to gain 3 levels and hence a much better governor, including extra research from Loremaster.

YMMV

Perhaps you were doing it wrong

I find that a smart solution but situational. You need to play vs altar AI, and them be near of you. Or spend turns sending someone to buy the quest maps. Other solutions to level the governors is send them to "standard" quests, or give them an army and go to some wildlands. But that will probably take more than 3 turns.

Again, you must move them out of the city to let them earn XP. One more thing: roadbuilding. A usefull skill, indeed, that also takes them out of the city ...

Loremaster and merchant are pretty weak too. If they gave a bonus to city research/gildar instead, that could at least give a boost to take into consideration. That would justfy to have one or more governors, and take some time to level them up. To be usefull, would mean that they should not move from that city once leveled, but at least, the bonus could deserve when stayed in a developed conclave or town. A noticeable increase in gildar or research could really offer an interesting alternative for that path. And a new trait, something like "Engineer", that increased the production of the city he stayed, could be also a good one to take in mind.

As randomness rules, having the chance of getting any one of those 3 traits, and/or administrator/roadbuidling (those 2 are the only usefull currently imo), could be a serious improvement for the path.

No, not for me...it's often waste level up if you are not plan had them sit in city using all bouns, it's so much burden move back in and out of city again, and again for me, in that case....

I think governors are great for city defense -- if you ever have a need for an army to garrison a city, a governor is not going to make that particular situation worse and over time you'll have a better army because of the bonuses provided by the governor.

In a way governors are similar to building city improvements which provide production -- you do not get an immediate benefit so sometimes they are the wrong choice. But if you can survive long enough the benefits they provide can be considerable.

I like to take one champ as my fire-mage, another as my archer, and build henchmen to get Path of the Governor.  All they have to do is kill enough monsters to hit level 4.

this can also be achieved in war.