My first RoS Strategy (in General)

First, consider my original group:

M1 AMF/GA
M2 Tank, heavy AC, BL
M3 Mage, CoC, VA

This group was excellent at defeating DM FB groups. I regularly had DM FB groups ~70k pr above me in my favorites list. The strategy was to reduce damage to such a high degree that my tank, unless stopped (or slowed) by another tank, would be nearly invincible. Since most DM FB groups are comprised of enchanters and mages, the tank's bloodlusted Morgul Hammer effectively flattened their faces before they could become a threat. If this strategy was designed to beat DM FB groups, why did I train up GA and VA to be dispelled away? Simply to round the strategy well enough to compete with other strategies out there. This is the same reason I decided on backing up my tank with a CoC mage, but since no DM group is going to train up AMF, it worked also to strengthen the main purpose of the group: Killing DM FB.

I considered this strategy to be nearly perfect except for one major flaw: Eventually the effectiveness of the ToE would wane in comparison to armor. It would need to be replaced by armor and a new tattoo.

So let's take a look at how I made the transition: Feuersturm

It's almost the same group, the first enchanter casting AS and sporting my newly inked RoS is the minion I freshly hired. This group functions the same way as it did before, I lost only one char off my fightlist, but gained a few. My score hasn't moved much either. This was a complete success.

Advantages gained:
Now I am able to freely armor my mage without tattoo constrictions (specifically a CoI).
GA versus FB mages and ToA tanks regardless of of a possible DM is a godsend... and that's that.
VA will allow my tank to last longer under the heat of a FB.
Two 'mine' minions have been added to the front of my group, hurting all who have to work through them.

Disadvantages? I feel that disadvantages will present themselves, but right now feel theat they've been minimized. Replacing my ToE's damage reduction with armor will certainly be costly, though.

I feel that I have successfully adapted this group to compete in the long run through the higher reaches of PR. It may turn out that this strategy is superior to my previous strategy in every way. Watch and find out!

I agree, this is a big improvement for your strategy =) I wanna see someone put an RoS on their protection minion and see how high protection can get... XD Just a side note I thought I'd add in.

Very nice ... I was working through a strat that would look very similar .. tell me your thoughts if you dont mind :P

M1: Max AS
- RoS
- CORN

M2: GA & AMF enchanter (just like yours)
- CORN

M3: FB MAGE (HP/FB/VA)
- DBs / CoI / McM

M4: TANK (HP/STR/DEX/BL)
- BoTH / AxBow
- McM / EB / HoE / EG / EC / MgS

Realistically I think I would end up doing a combination of both. Using your CoC mage instead of my FB mage (I currently use a CoC mage anyway so no lost XP if i do change the strat) and my TANK with the AxBow and str + dex items rather than your AC+ items .. not that I don't like your strat :P I was happy to see somebody else working through what I had in mind also.

It's ok if you hate my strategy, just admit it! ;p

I feel that while designing any strategy it is a good idea to choose whether you want to kill you opponent before they can retaliate effectively, or survive until your big guns can go to work i.e. quick kills or slow kills. I tend, therefore, to pair archery with FB and BL with CoC. Your idea looks like it's stuck somewhere in between quick and slow. So my advice would be to choose one or the other.

The commonality between our groups is that they're both built for survivability. While FB and archery may be successful, I think that BL and CoC fit better in a survival strategy. ;D

LOL I def don't hate the strat .. I just have issues with all the dex loss coming from items like the Adamantite cuirass .. stuff like that ... But at the same time I see what you're saying about quick fights rather than slow fights ... we are setting our characters up for longer fights with so we may as well exploit that and get the TANKs AC as high as possible ... maybe later on down the road swap out the AC for a high lvl MCM ... I think that is all that I would change ..

<Q> With the new changes to the 1 handed vs 2 handed weapons do you think MH or BoTH?? Also, I noticed that you are using an ExBow .. was there a reason behind that instead of the ExBow or even ELB?

Just a suggestion:
Because your tank will be high AC and also will be a 3 minion team, most likely you don't have much dex. And because you don't have much dex, equipping a ranged weap that seeks tanks will most likely be ineffective. You either miss, or just hit once a round. Not that great.

So you probably would do better using a bow. Just stick with your BL, no harm done, the reason is your bow will at least just hit the first minion, and against most teams, it's most likely an enchanter/mage. In this scenario, you can do multi hit per round because normally they don't have dex at all, so that makes you do maximum damage for your low low dex tank. And bows are cheap now, even for ELB.

I'll handle the both of you in one response. Basically I bought the Exbow because I get a pretty stellar deal on it. The reason I've kept it is because I'm lazy and have better things to spend my money on. Will I get a bow sometime in the future? Probably not before I do a strat change.
I'd rather have the exbow than a compound, because I wouldn't gain much damage. I'd rather have an exbow than an axbow, simply because I don't think an axbow will help as much as an exbow. I've evaluated the two weapons and I feel that reducing ST will give a more consistent damage reduction. And damage reduction is what my tank is all about.

you can try

AS
AS
GA/AMF
COC mage