Idea: how about a tattoo for single minions? (in General)

It is change month once again, and at least for me it was a pretty bad one. But I don't want to whine about that, so on to my topic.

It is my firm belief that we need a tattoo for smaller teams. Single minions, two minions, etc. Take a look at our choices now:

ToA: the entire point is it lets non-single tanks compete in size with single tanks. With a single minion, you don't need all the extra ST & DX and you would still take a ton of damage
ToE: effectively now a team tattoo. And it is meant to be and stay that way, with Jon decreasing its effect and increasing the aura.
RoBF: nerfed from any chance of single minion use with removal of evasion. It is another example of a tattoo being changed to team use.
Familiars: mostly for larger teams with AS.
RoS: team tattoo if I ever saw one.

I think that covers most of them. That is far from an in-depth look, but I hope you can see my point, and maybe even agree with me. There is a void of options for a single tank, and maybe it is just isn't meant to be. But I like to think Jon encourages variety in all aspects of CB2, so I can only hope he decides to fill the void of options for us single tank owners. As for ideas, I will leave those up to him. Actually, well let me give a few screwball ideas.

RoF: Rune of Finesse. Equipped minion has his/her dealt damage reduced by 20% and attacks all enemy minions in melee rounds each turn. PTH is 0 for all enemies beyond the first. Works only once per round against all. (having damage dealt reduced is optional, and I guess it could even be ranged as well)

RoR: Rune of Regeneration. Equipped minion gains HP every turn based on the level of the rune. (yeah, it's close to VA, but it gives a good option to single minions all the same)

GF: Guardian Familiar. Summons a guardian for the equipped minion that will use its HP in place of the wearer's, until it is killed in combat. (just a very screwball idea I had)

RoD: Rune of Defense. Equipped minion gains a small amount of every Enchant Defense spell, based on tattoo level. Uneffected by Dispel Magic. (sounds like fun to me. Effect would have to be small to avoid overpowering, but seems like it should work in moderation)

I hope you guys like my ideas. I was just having fun, so feel free to comment and let me know your thoughts. Seriously though, doesn't anyone else think more options would be great? I have no idea what to do with Stalker now that he's been dual nerfed. I am very tempted to change him up. Ideas? Thoughts?

If a ToA gives you too much ST and DX, why not train less of it, and more HP?
Also, I think you forgot to mention the RoE.

RoD, is the only one that sticks out to me .. though, at high levels, wouldn't that leave a big disadvantage to users without it? Further more, would have a DM issue at that point, so ... headache either way as I would see it.

I'm thinkin just use ToA on single tank's.

Maybe something that adds 5-10% to HP/STR/DEX, or the same % for all others on that char, DD, DefM, OffM, Skill ... ? Would have to be a base lvl, as RoE is I would think.


Make the above more interesting, have them spawn at different percentages. Obviously the 5% wouldn't sell high, but new players would be able to afford them early, where the top end players, can fight for the 9 & 10%'s

Call it RoP Ruin of Plenty [5-10%] (whichever percent it has) or somethin

I have to agree that multi-minion (read: the more the better) teams seem to be getting more buffs these days due to the introduction of the RoS and now better aura effects on some of the tattoos. I am also in agreement with GentlemanLoser that 4 minion teams of the AS/GA variety are Boring with a capital "B".

It's not overpowering yet, but there do seem to be a lot more options and changes in the game for four-minion teams than for any other kind. Mixing up the number of minions is just about the only variety left in the game any more for me. If it weren't for starting another character to see how the single minion stuff felt, I probably wouldn't be here any more. So, any sort of shift toward multi-minion teams definitely gives me pause.

Bart: you are right, I could just add HP and go ToA. I don't know though, I just like to have one of the only tanks without a ToA in the game as it seems. Plus mages will hurt even more. And RoE, yeah. That is nice in training, but just strikes me as a means to the end of a good tattoo, not as the ending rune or tattoo to use. Hope that makes sense.

Valiek: thanks. And you are right, it would have to be toned down and balanced. But I'm sure Jon could manage.

Sutekh: glad to hear I'm not the only one that thinks there is a definite shift towards multi-minion. Single minions are still strong, and competitive, but with every change it seems that they become harder to use or that you lose advantages, such as the auras.



I guess that the whole reason I made this post is from frustration. I find myself very near 700k MPR with a single minion, and will probably never be able to afford another minion, and with no real good options to try other than to go with the ToA crowd. Suggestions?

Vay: hiring your additional minions will shortly be a requirement, without (cb1 style) ELBs single minion chars are going to quickly become impossible to run up high (at least until some of the suckier players raise there strats up that high).

Expect a serious shift in strat to reach the top, as the top is still moving rather quickly away from the rest of us...

i liek rof idea but pth BONUS should be 0 after 1st minions ..not pth 0..because then its hurting u right?

I agree with you that they don't have any useful tattoos. Besides maybe RoE and ToA (I think both are a waste of two perfectly good armor slots).

However, the question that seems most important here is; Do single minions need any more tattoo options?

My answer is no, they don't. The ToA and RoE are wimpy but have much needed uses for the single tank and believe it or not, single minions have a huge advantage over anyone else in the game (I'll let you figure that one out for yourself), any more buffs and the only characters worth using will be single minions.

Interesting point, Chuck. However, the single minion has always had the issue of not diluting the enemy fire very much. That was the traditional offset.

Another would be that, by it's very nature, a single minion can't have a lot of balance. The most it might do is have single, powerful attack, and maybe one decent enchantment.

The advantage of the single is the ability to scale an attribute above and beyond whatever its foil. On a tank, that's dexterity. You can't kill what you cannot hit. On a mage, it's DD. AMF will only scale with it for so long, and a large DD spell can really lay the smack down.

Everything I state above is, in my opinion, dead even between single and multiple minion teams. Then come tattoos, where the RoS and the aura effects are beginning to tend toward multi-minion characters (or so it would seem at first glance).

Why is no one talking about the 1 familiar that works well with a single minion?

The one that adds another minion with some endurance, evasion, dex and an attack (although a weak one). It helps disperse FB/COC damage by having 2 minions and acts like a blocker/meat shield.

The good old TOJ, now known as the Jig Familiar!

Now known, annoyingly enough, as Kano-san.

Ranger, JKF is a reasonable option. I've never liked it on a single tank because it's really only a meatshield and using it does prevent you from using the highly underrated cloak and body armor slots.
However, as I'll explain in a minute, it does have one very good use.

"the single minion has always had the issue of not diluting the enemy fire very much."

Sutekh,
You're right, they don't split up DD attacks at all. It all gets focused on their only minion. One of the things I've always heavily relied on is either spreading out opponent DD attacks or getting opponent tanks to hit 20 HP enchanters, I've relied on it because it's a massive advantage. Single tanks don't have this though.

Therefore we can use Ranger's idea. The JKF. Very useful for spreading out DD attacks. 50% damage reduction, instantly, with no lost EXP - well, a lot of lost EXP... but to explain that it'd take an extremely long winded and boring rant, so we'll just ignore it for now.
Anyhow, JKF is very useful for taking on mages, combine it with a decent attack on your tank and you'll chew through mages like nothing else.
You'll even be half decent against tanks! Isn't that good news?

However, I still don't like it.
The reason I don't like it is because I believe that without it someone with half a brain could target tanks far above my PR due to the armor they could have equipped in it's place, with it equipped though you're stuck with a bigger fightlist, just everyone on it is closer to your PR.

That last 'my' is supposed to be 'their'.

You can use ROE :D It works like a charm for any type of team. Always good to stay with lower PR, and bullying lower PR dudes with high score LOL

I kind of like the idea of Rune of Regeneration. But if it gained level it could become too powerful at the higher levels. If it were figured out for it not to become to powerful than it may be a good addition.

However, I don't really see a need for a single minion tattoo. I feel that single minions should be able to compete decently but not as well as multiple minion teams.

I'm more than happy with my JKF on my single tank, I'll be honest my score is no longer 3x my pr but that is due to me not playing anywhere near as often as I used to.
I'm more of a mage killer as I use AMF also but I can still kill a fair few tanks also, there really aren't many clan members I have to remove from my fightlist each time maybe 2-3 out of the 20-30 I get there regularly..