Will it work? (in General)

I have a few ideas on where to go with my team, but was curious what a public opinion would yield :) My current strategy is Archery tank with decent DX, high ST, and a big ELB/seekers to take out enemy mages, and a high DX, big FB mage to take out tanks :) Its working quite effectively atm as well. Here is my current setup:

My current minions:
Violent Jay:
HP:300k, DX 104/80 (to help against base EC :),Evasion: 300,000/241,936 (66), Fireball: 1,126,199/1,023,818 (139,884), Antimagic Field: 100,001/101,524 (?)
Equipping:
EB+22 (named), AG +12, HoC +10, ToE lvl 1,167,694 (named), with an AoI.

Shaggy 2 Dope:
HP: 300,000/300,000, ST: 660,198/377,256, DX: 500,000/378,788, Archery: 187,500/142,046 (1.00), Base EC.
Equipping:
TSA+29 (named), EC+8, EB+25 (named), BG+11 (named), HoE+16 (named), MgS+40, AoM+8, ELBx567 + 58 (named), and VBx211 _15 (named)

After I pay off the MgS i just purchased from Freed, I plan to start saving for a MCM, CoI, Corn, and another minion, that's part of the reason for the ToE, this team is actually destined for defensive battles :) That new minion will be an AS enchanter, be equipped with the ToE and Corn. While my mage can throw on the CoI/MCM.

This new enchanter will be placed in between my mage (up front) and my tank (in the back) so that it is the first to take physical damage, but my tank can still make full use of the +40 MgS against MM.

Once the AS gets big enough, I'm going to save money to hire a heavy AC, Evasion wall (probably around 1.8m MPR, so I have time to think this through :), wearing Heavy AC gear except DB. The wall will then train 60% HP, 40% Evasion, and sit behind my mage as well (I'm hoping for about 300AC), I also plan to start raising PL on my AS enchanter at this point.

At some point I plan to switch my mage to MM, and when AS/PL have gotten high enough to start splitting XP, I'll pump a decent AMF (unless Jon makes CoC viable), so the team will look as follows:

Mage: High evasion, hard to hit :)
Wall: High evasion, hard to hit, can't hit it hard :)
Enchanter: Extra HP for all, PL soaks up spread damage :)
Tank: Seeks out Mages in ranged, tears walls up with VB, Excellent defense against MM :)


Comments, advice?

btw, i know this would all come at a massive cost, but that won't be a problem so long as i know it'll work :)

The AS enchanter is probably the best idea at this point. I notice you're still getting a few draws against me, despite being a lot bigger in MPR and PR. There are a couple of reasons, one being my tank being much bigger than yours. But the only real reason is the lack of HP.

My guy, thanks to PTH, still gets some hits in on your team and with the HoC gets a second chance to try and hit in the first round. If I do hit I'm killing a minion with each hit, thanks to my high damage.

I would try and up the HP on them, even before the AS addition. More real HP and you not only enable them to soak up more damage and give the ToE more to work with, but you also lessen the impact a decent DM would have on your team too.

The best thing about your future set up though is the number of minions. Despite the xp spread, four minions is the best defense a team can get. ;)

More real HP was in the plans for the near future, raising FB to 1.2m then HP to 400k. and raising ST to 750k before raising HP to 400k :) Thanks for the insight tho. By my math, when i can finally afford the Enchanter, I'll be getting ~250k HP per minion when im not dispelled with a +8 corn.

I'd stick a PL and small EC on the AS Enchanter, and a small Protection on the FB Mage.

The config will work good.

I'd also be scrounging for a pair of HoC for your FB Mage and MAYBE turning in your HoE for a HoC for your Archer.

As a note those seekers will get pretty expensive.

You're doing it wrong.

Yeah, maybe it'll work. Should be quite decent actually.

But you're still doing it wrong.

A defensive strategy should not be relying on an archer to do damage. In fact, most good defensive strategies don't need any offense in ranged whatsoever.

You're using an archer.
You're using magic missile.

Big mistake.

Switch archery for bloodlust, keep the bow if you must or sell it off and put the money into your melee weapon.
Don't change to magic missile, cone of cold is more than viable. Just no one's any good at playing defensive so when it's tried it usually fails.
Put it this way, your opponents are more often than not looking to finish their fights quick, 3 rounds of ranged and maybe two or three of melee. If you use a wall effectively and let that enchanter block the biggest hit, you can quite possibly survive 10 rounds or more. If you're at your peak in melee and your opponent spent money and EXP on their ranged, you will absolutely crush them. This is a tried and proven method.

My recomendation: Stick with what you've got. It's working well as it is, think how much stronger than your proposed strategy it will be if you continue putting all of that money into it's NW.

But if you want to play defense, everything has to change, it's not just adding in a little HP, you've got to have a reason to be trying to last those extra rounds and with a bow and a DD that hits in ranged, you've got a much better reason to want the fight to end quick, real quick.

"with a bow and a DD that hits in ranged, you've got a much better reason to want the fight to end quick, real quick."

CoC was my original plan, but with the addition of the HoC, its even more useless than before by comparison... I'd have to be fighting for 12+ rounds against little or no AMF/GA...

I also intended to boost up the VB, and make the switch to BL when my fights started lasting that long... No problems with this plan as of yet. I figure MM is still just as good in melee as it is in ranged, no? And tho I'll be setting up for defense, seeking out and destroying those huge mages ASAP isnt a bad idea either, imo.

My char is not going to look like your typical defensive char, but then again, my char is already breaking all the advice i normally give: Dont spread XP on the mage by over-raising something (300k Evasion), tank should train HP=ST=DX (300k-700k-500k), and various other oddities... I was also told hiring a tank at 260k MPR was a bad idea, but that worked out :)

Thank you for taking the time to look, any serious flaws in my idea aside from it not looking proper? :)

Ah I've missed Mr C's strategy advice! ;) Taught me everything I know!