Anyone trying a ToBF since the buff? Let me know! (in General)

I have to say I am intrigued by this item. I hate fireball mages. I really hate them. Cheap, fast, and deadly, they beat on me even when several hundred MPR below me. So the idea of using this item seems like a given to me. But I hear the horror stories of how horrible it is, how worthless it is, and how we should avoid it.

Seriously though, who has tried it? I would love to see some info / stats before I spend large money and many levels trying it myself. Any idea how much evasion you get? What kind of FB protection are we looking at? Any info would be great. Thanks!

30% more protection from fire is as much as a cosmetic change on CB homepage. You might win 1 or 2 FB users of your level, you suck against everyone else.

Well, thanks for voicing your opinion. Again though, I would like to see some real numbers and perhaps fight data on it.

Besides, it seems like there could be many ways it could help. Extra evasion would be awesome, damaging melee attackers that actually hit would be helpful (would like to know how much though), and FB reduction would be my biggest favorite reason to try it. I just want to know how much of an effect these give.

You may be better off directly asking the owners of the highest ToBFs.

I think actual stats on this item will be very hard to find otherwise.

(This could be totally wrong...)

From what I remember, (There are some old posts on this) the FB reduction is about 10% of the tattoos level. So now, it will reduce about 13% of it's level.

Checked an old post and it seemed to reduce around 12.5 % of it's level (so 16.25 now), maybe even up to 20% (which would be 26% now).

As damage can be reduced to zero with it, there doesn't seem to be a cap.

You'd be better off buying a large minion and turning him into a mage shield wall than investing in the ToBF I'd say. With the ToE and AMF that would give you better defense against FB mages and provide defense against other types of teams too. Hey, why not go the whole hog and get two and an enchanter!

And if you want numbers Oduten hits my mage shield high AC ToE Aura Walls with AMF protection for approx 4k per hit in ranged....that's an FB of over 1.5 mill in level.....

The key to defeating FB mages is to take advantage of the spread fire attacks. You're getting a full hit each round. Dilute their attack and take them to melee where the average FB mage with FF kills themselves...

Sorry, thinking slowly because I've just woken up. You're also losing the benefit of VA due to their DM - it might be time to invest in a Morg or BoTh instead.

I used the ToBF before the buffs - at quite a high level. The newer evasion and FB protection levels may make it a lot better but it's fiery flames defense was rubbish - and that was with a tattoo of about 250k lvl. I would reckon that inking your tattoo to a ToBF will drop you down about 300k in score.

More thoughts as I slowly wake up. You're not using the ToE to the best of it's ability. The aura extension is one of it's best qualities. It's far more useful on a multi minion high HP team than a single minion, and those extra minions will allow you to stay alive far longer.

Anti fb mage tactics reprised:

Your average FB team has a mage, large DM and a FF. Occasionally an enchanter or two as well. Don't rely on enchantments, except AMF. By giving their DM nothing to work on you are effectively lowering their PR.

Reduce your ranged attack but dilute theirs. You want both mage and familiar to last into melee. Unless you have a huge ranged attack you're not likely to kill them in the first three rounds. Take them into melee and let them kill themselves with friendly fire......

It works for me....

Stick with the ToE - with adjustments to your team, extra minions for instance - it is probably the best tattoo to broaden your field of defeatable opponents.

Whew, sorry to repeat myself and post so much! I'm going for breakfast now!

ToBF still isn't worth it, you'll get no help vs coc or tanks. In fact, I'm enjoying a ToBF user that has twice the MPR as me. Soooo that should tell you something.

From what I've seen the ToBF is a joke. Against the largest ToBF in the game(500K+) I get damaged from between 60K-90K damage. With a morg and Va a lot of times this damage gets canceled out or lessened to very little. I think the best thing for the ToBF would be to lower the damage dealt by about 20%-30% and have it do damage for each hit instead of just once. This way it has the potential to do more damage, especially to ToA tanks with their bonus pth and higher dx, and be more effective against Va+morgs.

It's just odd that the tat designed to counter both FB and ToA, doesn't neither.

Maybe it's just for folks who want to lose to everyone else but beat on ToA and FB teams 200k mpr below then and win!

I suspect that if the largest ToBF was to re-ink to a ToE that character would be able to fight a lot higher than it does now....

As I said previously I used one and although it was before the changes old and new, I found that the fights I won I could win without it.

If you trained a large AMF and GA you would get the same results only against a wider selection of opponents and for more damage....

And I know that's not the point....I love the idea of the ToBF....

Now that I think about it another way to buff the ToBF would be to keep its damage the same and still only hit once but allow the ToBF to damage any minion that gets hit by the minion wearing it the same damage. This would make the ToBF more viable for wall/tank type minions or even single tanks.

Here's some numbers for my ToBF (which I got at base as a novelty clan gift in May when I started)

THIS IS MELEE WITH BROCK SAMSON

Shadow Spot's blow was dodged by Brock Samson
Snow Fur takes damage from his own Fireball (3846)!
Snow Fur's Fireball hit Shadow Spot for no damage
Snow Fur's Fireball hit Brock Samson [63132]
Brock Samson beat Shadow Spot [32209]
Brock Samson draws strength from his weapon! [4738]
Brock Samson pounded Shadow Spot [48770]
Brock Samson draws strength from his weapon! [3559]
Brock Samson burns from the flames surrounding Shadow Spot (71581)


Shadow Spot mistimed his attack at Brock Samson
Snow Fur takes damage from his own Fireball (3846)!
Snow Fur's Fireball hit Shadow Spot for no damage
Snow Fur's Fireball hit Brock Samson [32878]
Brock Samson beat Shadow Spot [36776]
Brock Samson draws strength from his weapon! [4614]
Brock Samson burns from the flames surrounding Shadow Spot (71076)


Shadow Spot swung wildly at Brock Samson
Snow Fur takes damage from his own Fireball (3846)!
Snow Fur's Fireball hit Shadow Spot for no damage
Snow Fur's Fireball hit Brock Samson [48681]
Brock Samson fractured Shadow Spot [34633]
Brock Samson draws strength from his weapon! [3921]
Brock Samson crunched Shadow Spot [47879]
Brock Samson draws strength from his weapon! [4925]
Brock Samson burns from the flames surrounding Shadow Spot (87915)


Shadow Spot swung wildly at Brock Samson
Snow Fur takes damage from his own Fireball (3846)!
Snow Fur's Fireball hit Shadow Spot for no damage
Snow Fur's Fireball hit Brock Samson [47672]
Snow Fur cries "Aikkoowww yiyiyiyiy!"
Brock Samson crushed Shadow Spot [38391]
Brock Samson draws strength from his weapon! [4429]
Brock Samson crushed Shadow Spot [46833]
Brock Samson burns from the flames surrounding Shadow Spot (85734)
Brock Samson cries "Eat fist!!"

R.I.P. Shadow Spot R.I.P. Brock Samson

Because Vaynard asked, here is an example of the FB reduction, as a side note the new change to the ToBF added no one to my list.

RANGED AND MELEE AGAINST THE CLASSIC DUO

Snow Fur cast Antimagic Field on Toe Jam's familiar (0.34)
Snow Fur cast Antimagic Field on Earl (0.43)
Toe Jam cast Dispel Magic on all enemy Minions (103,401)
Toe Jam cast Ablative Shield on all friendly Minions (94707)
Ranged Combat
Shadow Spot hit Toe Jam [50553]
Shadow Spot hit Toe Jam [44675]
Snow Fur's Fireball hit Toe Jam [22826], Toe Jam's familiar [22608], Earl [22180]
Toe Jam's familiar takes damage from his own Fireball (28664)!
Toe Jam's familiar's Fireball hit Shadow Spot for no damage
Toe Jam's familiar's Fireball hit Snow Fur [33828]
Earl takes damage from his own Fireball (26360)!
Earl's Fireball hit Shadow Spot for no damage
Earl's Fireball hit Snow Fur [20080]

Shadow Spot hit Toe Jam [39585]
Shadow Spot struck deep into Toe Jam [37333]
Snow Fur's Fireball hit Toe Jam's familiar [28248], Earl [21410]
Toe Jam's familiar takes damage from his own Fireball (32759)!
Toe Jam's familiar's Fireball hit Shadow Spot for no damage
Toe Jam's familiar's Fireball hit Snow Fur [26877]
Earl takes damage from his own Fireball (30126)!
Earl's Fireball hit Shadow Spot for no damage
Earl's Fireball hit Snow Fur [19568]
R.I.P. Toe Jam

Shadow Spot hit Toe Jam's familiar [42757]
Shadow Spot hit Toe Jam's familiar [44308]
Snow Fur's Fireball hit Toe Jam's familiar [65293], Earl [55127]
Snow Fur cries "Aikkoowww yiyiyiyiy!"
Toe Jam's familiar takes damage from his own Fireball (36854)!
Toe Jam's familiar's Fireball hit Shadow Spot for no damage
Toe Jam's familiar's Fireball hit Snow Fur [52037]
Earl takes damage from his own Fireball (33892)!
Earl's Fireball hit Shadow Spot for no damage
Earl's Fireball hit Snow Fur [22498]
R.I.P. Toe Jam's familiar

Melee Combat
Shadow Spot's vorpal blade went snicker-snack! [27141]
Earl takes damage from his own Fireball (37658)!
Earl's Fireball hit Shadow Spot for no damage
Earl's Fireball hit Snow Fur [27922]
R.I.P. Earl