ToA Single Mage (in General)

The new Ranged changes and Johnnywas' comments in the thread have got me thinking...

How about a Single CoC Mage that uses a ToA?

Going to post a question in the changelog thread before coming back to this...

Isn't that an old but not really tried mage strategy?

It was never useful because of the lack of ranged firepower, perhaps it can now work due to slings?

OK. So if you don't lose the first Melee round if using a DD, maybe the Decay/CoC archer could make a come back.

Either Archery + ELBow and CoC or Evasion + SoD and CoC.

The sling would give youthe option to casue 'splash' damage in ranged with explosive shots. To complement the slpah damage from CoC.

Why a ToA? Leave that to take care of your physical stats, plus the pth bonus is nice. The dex you gt from the tattoo will let you get two hits on Mages/Enchanters.

This brings up another question for the changelog...

Well Sling + CoC looks nice. :) Potential Splash damage in Ranged, with more splash damage in melee.

Facing Tanks with both ranged and melee weapons, you get a free round on them. Evasion to limit what archers do, and defensive dex to try to limit what BL tanks do to your low AC self.

Nice to be of help! That lost round in melee is a pain. It's almost the equivalent of letting a CoC mage fire in ranged.

Ah, one of my favourite strats. The only real problem is spreading the xp around sufficiently to ensure you have a fast and strong enough tank as well as mage. But with these changes it should work well...

With A/EXbows seeking agian, maybe they could be of some use now as well. ;)

And this is a buff to UC tanks. Use Slings and still get your first melee round attack.

But in Melee UC tanks won't do near the damage BL tanks will. :/

CoC Mage with a Sling and Ex Shot.

ToA or ToE and train STR/DEX naturally?

ToA. If you go ToE then all your stats will be weak. The biggest problem with hybrids is the dilution anyway, even with a ToA. But do without it and you're asking for trouble..

Use ToA Dex plus trained Evasion (at increased effectiveness) to dodge Ranged.

Hit Melee in the free round, and hope a massive CoC will take out tanks as you don't have to play the dex game with them.

Using ToA, you have 50% of it's level as ST and 33% as DX.

you can put all your experience into the DD spell, HP and optional:

Evasion
AMF or DM
Protection

Imo a small protection will certainly help you.
Evasion will help you additionally if you have DBs.
AMF will help against other mages, while DM will help against multi minion teams mostly.

:) My thoughts exactly Shade. ;)

But; I'm thinking about a two minion team now.

1: HP, Evasion, CoC, DM + ToA
2: HP, PL, Base EC, Base Prot + Mgs & AoI

With A/EXbows seeking agian, maybe they could be of some use now as well. ;)

And this is a buff to UC tanks. Use Slings and still get your first melee round attack.

But in Melee UC tanks won't do near the damage BL tanks will. :/

I'm finding that my UC tank still gets his first melee round attacks, even with an Axbow. 4X 80-100k damage inflicted in the first melee round is certainly better than none at all...

I'm still going to try a Sling o' Death & explosive shot with her, though...

:)

I think people will be fighting over Ex Shots! ;)

Beleg's only do -2% to DD. Something for Sefton to play with. ;)

*chortle*

the two minion strat works well with me but i have GA and evasion on my mage and AS and DM on my E

ok, quickly skimmed through the thread. and this is what we were talking about in chat, i know it was made here but this seems almost perfect.

but this is a mighty fine strat. I was thinking CoC, ToA, Archery, but then you have no room for evasion, which is put nicely in place with:

* Beleg's Gloves
* Sling of Death
* Displacement Boots
* Amulet of Invisibility

* Cone of Cold
* Evasion
* Protection (base)
* ST (from ToA)
* DX (from ToA)
* PTH (from ToA)

basically, train like a normal FB mage with evasion, only into CoC, let ToA take care of the ST and DX needed for ranged with the SoD, hit 3 times, get BG +10 to get 30% more damage. then use your CoC to hit them.

though when talking about it in chat we were gonna use CoI, until some smart being (border :P) pointed out no cloak with tat, lol.
so that would of negated the BG -2% and had basically +10% into CoC, almost perfect. :D

scratch the DB, EB would be a better addition to the level of evasion and also DB stacking with evasion is un-co.

EB will give defensive DX and will do more than DB, it is more effective and much more cheaper.

EB at +25 (2 mil NW or so) will add A LOT of DX especially at higher levels, with it being based on a percentage.

and the all non-important and non-forgetful addition to AC, which is about 35 AC, which is 7.35%. woot! wont make much of a difference, but it helps EB win against DB in the argument.

I've flitted between single or duo minions, but I'm settled on two minions now.

1: Evasion, HP, CoC, AMF, Base Protection.

SoD, ToA, AoM, AG, EB/DB?, HoE, MS.

2: HP, PL, Base EC, Base Protection.

MgS, TSA

The second minion is there to lower DD damage, and keep the front minion alive. Will also stop VA leech on whatever is sucked up by PL.

The front minion will dodge physical attacks. AMF is really for Decat, and will be keep low enough to get 100% on base decays.

Will use Ex Shot to cause slight spread damage in Ranged, and use CoC to finish teams off in Melee.

Thoughts?

too much exp dilution, which is obvious.

and read my 2nd post, it clearly states why EB is better than DB.

With DB I would AoI both minions (to still keep the front one as focus). That would give me an extra +20 on top of whatever plus my DB would have.

True, EB would give me around a 25% increase to my evasion score, which increases my defensive dex as well as pth reduction. I'm torn.

As for XP dilution, it wouldn't be too bade for a two minion team. My STR and DEX will come only from a ToA, so I'm only spending on stuff a Mage would normally buy.

HP, Evaison, DD, AMF.

I'll go with Flamey for the Elven Boots. That bonus to evasion will be better than the stacking with the DB's. Cheaper as well.

Dilution could be a problem, but CoC is powerful enough that you can get away with a slightly smaller one. And you only need to get the evasion to a certain level - ie above the bigger + weapons, which as we've all seen this week is easy to achieve. After that point you can leave it while you pump the DD spell.

And don't bother with two base protections - don't they only add up to (5) or something? I know it's a tiny amount of xp but you might need that slot later on for some haste perhaps...

Any other ED would be a waste. VA would do nothing, and I don't see the worth of AS, GS or Haste, as I could just train those abilities naturally for the same effect, and not be weak to DM. GA would be nice, but with PL (which I'm not going to drop) it won't work. :/

At least I'll get my Potection from (4) to (5) relatively cheaply! ;)

Hmmm... So EB. In that case, No AoI then. I want the front minion to be targetted.

The great thing with defensive DEX is that is can't be reduced by AXBow or EC.