Need Strat Help (for a single mage) (in General)

A few questions,

1, Best defense? AMF or DX? (I know it depends on your opponents but assuming this stat is half of your HP and DD then I'm not sure which would be best)

2, Best spell? MM, FB?

3, Any other tips? The only single mage I've used so far is my "Kung-Fu Midget" on my cb1 account and that worked well with the same strat I have now but my char isn't doing great on cb2 so I assume it's a strat fault and need some tips.

Thanks :)

I'm currently also using a single mage, and it's actually pretty good.

1. Best defense = Tattoo of Jigorokano. It's basically a meat shield in front with HP, ST, and DX, and UC. The best part is that it constantly improves when you gain XP.

2. Best spell is probably FB until many people get the CoBF because of the extra ranged round.

3. Sorry, no extra tips :)

I noticed your single mage earlier (killed my chances of having the biggest FB ;)

Thanks for the tips :)

;)

I agree, the ToJ is so far the best defense.

That rules out Body Armour and Cloaks, which rules out a CBF.

I would stick with MM. The Familiar soaks up attacks in ranged, and helps out in melee. With no CBF, I'd stay clear of FB. Even with one, your familiar is never going to be protected from FB.

As for other stuff, Low Evasion won't hurt. For the enchantments (I'm not sure any are necessary, but...) I'd go with Protection (for low xp cost) to make up for lack of body armour and cloak.

That leaves a choice of AMF or DM. ATM, I'm inclinded to go with DM. It'll lower protection and AS, increasing your damage.

If you have a high enough HP, I don't think AMF is needed.

It's gonna be very hard for me to give up mt ToJ.

I've just realised that Dispel Magic really helps a ToJ Familiar if your target uses EC!

;)

Thanks :)

I'll stick with FB though, the spread attack is too valuable vs any enchanter team. I'll consider dispell but AMF really is important to my char right now, wouldn't stand a chance without it but as my HP gets well above my opponents' I'll maybe use dispell.

FB still has higher total damage, too. I'm also of the opinion that extra dmg during ranged is worth the penalty later. Whether the TJK is enough to help single mages stay viable later on when tanks actually have good equipment is still an open question, though.

Good point, and on that note, against a 1 minion character FB would do more damage? I assume so but haven't ever been sure.

Another thing, DD doesn't need money to be put into it. You just keep fighting, at some point without USD a tank will need to stop and forge or camp. Hopefully that can give the PR advantage. Also, single mages (or the two I've had anyway) don't worry about opponents' AMF, it can barely touch them.

I haven't been looking at the play-by-play (too sick of being decapitated by peoples' tattoos) but on my previous mage I can't remember an AMF that got 20% against me. DD not bothering with base AC leaves me thinking that it may have a chance, even just not being NW dependent is enough to make them worth considering, even in the later stages.

If I find the TJK becoming less useful later on (Which I suppose tends on its XP gaining prowess) I might consider dropping tattoo's altogether, getting a CBF and switching to FB.

I really feel that the returned (50%?) damage to myself in melee is too big a negative to use FB without a CBF. A single mage is going to have a massive FB and you will be very lucky to take out teams in ranged only. The return will really hurt...

Personally, I don't feel that an extra ranged attack and slightly more damage versus single targets make up for this.

If CBF's also still reduce Skills/Enchantments to zero, I doubt I'll ever use one (on my mage) and therefore stick with MM. DM is too good.

It is the only way (bar increasing the spell itself! ;P ) to increase my DD spells damage.

And the the ultimate equaliser against multiple minion teams.

;) Spell checker doesn't like ToJ nor TJK! Or DM for that matter!

Heh, after noticing the huge amount of ToJ's for sale I think I'll have to go without it for a while so looking to put a little more pressure on opponents using it... time to switch to MM..

/me really wishes he'd payed more attention to DD stats when he was a newb to CB.

1. The best defense is HP and AC. Simple eh?
The experience you put into AMF or DX will do you more good if you pumped HP with it.
2. Fireball is definately the best spell. Because your minion is all by himself, he'll need that extra ranged round.
3. Other tips, well, networth is always a nice factor to bear in mind ...

It's fun to see people experimenting with single mages, the long lost black sheep of strategies.
Just wait till I get my hands on a CoBF ;)

FB has another problem though...

4 Minion team + Familiar, your damage is 1/5 until you manage to drop one or more of them.

With a CBF and therefore no DM, AS will stall you.

Without the CBF and with DM, you stand a better chance of killing some, if not all in ranged, but if you hit melee, the 50% return will hurt.

Especially if you face a ToJ!