Tattoo usefullness (in General)

I just want to guage what people think of the usefullness of each tattoo. Inspired by the RoBF thread, I was wondering if some tattoos are meant to be like the double chain main -- a total waste of money. Here's my list:

HF - Useless
IF - Gives HF a run for its money as most useless tattoo
SF - I had a strat that used an SF as a sole damage dealer. I got to the top 20, and that was before junction. Not bad.
FF - Only useful if you can make him die before this annihilates your team
JKF - no clue...
RoE - The best tattoo, everyone should ALWAYS use it unless winning is impossible without a real one.
RoS - The AS / AMF / DM Enchanter strat has been done, but it's hard, and to paraphrase Mikel, it gets harder and harder to maintain as you get closer to the top
RBF - It'd be perfect for UC + Exbow, if only it worked
ToE - Required for mages or walls
ToA - Required for archers and most tanks

The JKF is an excellent tattoo early in the game at lower MPR levels.

However higher up the chain, it quickly gets overwhelmed by DD spells and weapons.

The ROS is a very nice tattoo, however its DM nerfing ability is very low for usefulness at/near the top MPR ranks. Only 25% is pitiful at the level near the top. IE, my TOE is 3.6M which would only stop 900k DM. There are plenty of 1M or higher DM's. And if you want to use DM/EC/AMF you can only use a 900k DM yourself before your AMF and EC get hurt. If the DM ability was as it was-40%, then it may have a nice useful nitch.

FF does not have to be killed before melee, the user just needs to make sure battles don't last that long. *smile* FF is very useful if your main damage dealing only operates in one direction (physical or MM) and you don't use GA. It helps clean out the riff-raff in that case. In the Top Ten, use of the FF is almost perfectly balanced. For teams that I make it to melee with, the FF dos on AMF before I get there, and most other teams I beat in 3-4 rounds.

If one does not have NW to build a wall with, the FF is a great alternative to the ToE for mages...

Change the RoS! Make it better. I don't want to have to rely on a ToE as a mage. I hate the ToE! Boo! I can't remember what the RoS DM-resistance was before it got nerfed... but why did it even get nerfed? Maybe increase DM protection and maybe lower the enchantment bonus... please?

The list looks right on point. HF... pff! IF, psh! SF and FF are both good.

Did I mention I hate ToE's?

HF - Haven't tried it. Wouldn't want to.

IF - I rate this a little higher, but still not on the recommended side.

SF - Not what I'd recommend but mages have limited ways of increasing their damage, and this may mean attacking two minions in one round. Recommended to some but not as many as there are who use it.

FF - This is a nice tat. HF and SF will frequently be hitting walls, this thing however will hit 20hp minions for you. It also should only be alive in ranged so it's nice and simple to use. The more aggressive SF. This thing is recommended.

JKF - The meatyness. It's a meat shield and darn useful.

RoE - The BEST tattoo if you're aiming for top spot. Not recommended, just plain essential. If you're not aiming for top spot I'd only use this to even out minion EXP or make a tank/mage bigger and switch to another tattoo afterwards.

RoS - Very useful but it's disadvantage is that the tattoo itself is mostly just preventing you from getting weaker rather than making you much stronger. Not recommended but certainly usable.

RBF - If only. Not recommended, even I haven't been brave enough to use one and that says something.

ToE - Meh. It's good but overrated.

ToA - The most important thing for a tank is it's ST/DX. ToA gives it just that and some very useful PTH. On a four minion character you need this or RoS if you want to run a tank strategy (except in the top ten where it is obviously a little more specialised).

ok here is my two sense which is probly different than most opinions
HF - haven't tried it but seems to be interesting

IF - could work i a VERY specialised strat

SF - works to add a different attack postions

FF - Good to weed out enchanters and weaken oppostition

JKF -Like above good lower pr then a meat shield

RoE -Good to level out exp between minions

RoS -lets you build a good enchanter based strat or something like i'm working on
RBF - My favorite tattoo lol i know i know its weak underpowered but i love it and my strat is good with it lol
ToE -Hmm i dont like it but it has its uses

ToA -Very good my first char had this and it worked great lol

You've got to look at it, in a sense that, If you could replace that tattoo with a different for that particular strat, would it be effective?

sure, things work, but when you equip an IF, sure it works, but guess what would be better? I guarantee you in any position the SF/FF are greater than the IF in any strat.

I had intended to unlearn archery for junction before equipping an HF on my archer when it started to become difficult with only a RoE.
I know a ToA would work well but I fancied going with something different. Am I really wasting my time..?

I believe your archer will have problems hitting if you untrain archery. Maybe HF on an enchanter would be a better option and training haste would be good for both.

OK, this is probably completely insane, since it might make them the only familiars used in the game; but what if the IF had some integral vampiric aura? If it drained say 10% of the damage it inflicted, it might become semi-useful once more.

As for the HF, well, I think it's a lost cause. But you never know, maybe there's some strat out there waiting to be found...

Flames?

I'll return to my original suggestion when RoS first came out. Have it REFLECT DM back on the other team. That would be so cool.

Bob casts 120K DM on Joe, 50K is reflected back.

Even if it was just the DM that was reflected that makes for some interesting strategy decisions since you could have your own OEs dispelled by a reflected DM. But this idea will go nowhere since it would mess with a LOT of strategies at this point.

You could make it REALLY crazy if it reflected all OEs.

Maybe have the RoS protect against OE's too. Maybe equal to its DM resistance? Or maybe that'd be too powerful... mmm maybe have it resist against DM and OE's and reduce the level of protection to say 20% of its level instead of 25% of its level. I think its currently 25% of its level anyways.

Miteke, reflecting DMs? Have you thought about what would happen if two RoS/DM teams faced off? That could be messy!