Neeeeeed Adviceeeeeee! (in General)

My current character is a single minion UC tank. This leaves me wide open when fighting people with GA and DD. Now my next minion is at this point, 27m away. It's gonna be a long while, but I was wondering what kind of minion it should be. Should it be DM or AMF? Both GA and DD are major problems for me, but I don't know which is the bigger problem? And should the enchanter have a familiar? I also plan on getting a MSK for my monk to help keep smaller mages off of me.

I would say AMF, with a familiar of your choice for extra damage , because I know how people complain about the damage output of UC.

Halidon Familiar!!!!! w0000T!

If you get a familiar, I'd say make him magical. This way the AC problem you'll be dealing with is partially avoided, since they don't have to deal with the base AC....IF could be good if you can keep him alive, and since you'll be dodging ranged attacks, you probably can. AS/DM enchanter might be a good plan, to boost your IF while bombing their GA/AS.

You aren't seriously considering adding a second minion to Queen Beee are you!?!?!

I seriously am.. when I get the 27m, I'll hire a new minion.

It would probably be cheaper for you to just buy AB's character

I'd say DM with a SF - I've found that the two go very well together. GA completely owns magic without a ToE, and since MM deals low damage you have to get rid of as much AS as possible. With a Mageseeker and an MgS you should be doing okay vs. mages.

I've gotten some suggestions to turn it into a single minion FB mage. I dunno. What do you guys think?

I would consider that selling out - the easy way out.. If you want to make a successful character put some money into it and consider other strat advice than making it SMFB.. That's so last year.

quick, don't help him out 'cb' hates him right now

Booooooooooo SFBM.

It's much more efficient to buy a 2 minion char of same MPR than buying another minion for 27mil :P Your 2nd minion is useless to aid you of any form because of the massive exp difference. 27mil worth of experience won't get you much of DM / AMF / EC or whatever you want to put it, but of course it's good to be a tattoo holder + junction, if that's what really wanted :P

SFBM was actually 2 years ago. Last year was single uber-archer...

An Ex or Axbow is overkill with UC that big.

I'd go with AMF & a big ToE on the 2nd minion if you stick with UC, and use a Mageseeker to preempt the mages.

I don't know if it's bugged evasion or bugged bow CTH/PTH, A Mageseeker [5x666] (+90) + 700k TOA can't even hit a single mage 300k MPR lower than me with evasion. One day when I am very fed up, maybe I will write a post to complain :P But not today hehe So... good luck in ranged.

Well it probably has pretty big evasion then.

Besides, the mage has 3x Evasion bonus in the first round, then 7/3, then 5/3...

That's why I called it a bug... it ain't cheap to get it to +90 even with the help of forgers. But completely nullified by a mere skill (btw, lower MPR than me), and if you count in TOA and the dex difference, that's outrageous :P

People are talking about things being "so last year", and yet the ToE is being bandied about? Talk about an over-used idea!

NK, that's no bug, that's the fact that you reduce your +90 down to +18 by not using Archery. ~_^ That's the 20% effect. Doesn't take much Evasion to get past 18 PTH, you know...

If I go giant AMF and ToE, then I get killed by things like EC and GA. Especially GA.

ToE reduces GA

Not enough to the point where GA isn't my biggest thread, which it is. Besides, my ToE right now is 500k. I won't have the money to upgrade to a bigger tattoo if my main focus is getting an extra minion right now.

I was going to buy that char, this is what I was going to do:

Knock the evasion level down to 1.5 mil, bump the HP to 2 mil, and put the rest into AMF. Stay single minion up to 2 mil mpr pumping str and dex, then hire on a couple of walls and dump AMF for a DM enchanter, and finally slap the almighty ToE on the enchanter.

Sadly 7.5 mil didn't hold up :(

So the big minion would have been an enchanter? Cause putting everything into AMF doesn't leave room for ST/DX.

No, one of the new minions would be your enchanter.

By put everything else into AMF, I meant the leftover from lowering evasion.

I would go DM with a Steel Familiar on the second minion. However, whichever type of tattoo you choose, 500K won't cut it. You need something over 1M before even thinking about using an enchanter wearing a tattoo.

I have to say, I'm leaning towards Talion on this one.
AMF is wasted XP against tanks, and DM is useful against all teams. And, from what you said, GA is your biggest problem. The DM will nuke that _and_ any other ED's you may come up against.

The only thing I would say is that the choice between a SF and a ToE is a difficult one. Personally, I'd try to get a loan of each tat for a while and see how things pan out.

Good luck,
muon.

Why is the choice between a SF and a ToE a difficult one? Since I don't have a high AC wall, why even bother with a ToE? The SF seems like a very easy choice.

Just out of curiosity, how big is your UC now? As in the effect, I know your level from stat page : 2460228

Unarmed Combat: 5,448,417/2,460,228 (201)

Woah omg that's freaking crazy.

Also, should I just hire the cheaper minion and put a RoE on 'em for a long while?

Given your finances and the fact that you want it largely for kill slot and tattoo holding reasons I would consider it.

ya, ZOMG that's massive. :P

I've run a few single UC tanks - probably more than most. And I didn't face too many problems with mages. However I did two things differently to your set up: I used a ToA and an ELB. I trained AMF.

The ToA meant that I could use my XP that you're using for ST/Dex on HP/UC/AMF. Which meant that all of those reached pretty high levels. The ELB meant I got some big damage in to start with, which coupled with the AMF meant that mage teams were a lot less of a problem.

For UC on a multiple minion team I would use the Combat Gi, but on a single minion I'd opt for the ToA every time. Simply because of the way it frees up XP for use elsewhere.

ELB + ToA UC tank - that's what I did before too. And I'm wondering whether it'd work with a MSB... of course, Seph doesn't have a big enough tattoo...

A single UC tank with a mageseeker would be a good one...I completely forgot about the mageseeker! You wouldn't even need AMF; and you could train EC instead to help out against evasion.....interesting......

that's what I am doing now JW. Like I said, TOA + mageseeker +90 + a lot of dex diff still can't hit any same level mage + evasion. No matter how many minions they have.

So something is broken, I just don't know what :P

NSK, someone already explained to you that you're not hitting because you don't have archery trained. And without it, it reduces your chance of hitting by a lot.

IMO, an Archery Tank, equipped with huge DX, ToA, and a +90 bow, should be able to hit, and extirpate an opponent with ease, as long as the "x" on the bow is at a reasonable level. Not being able to hit a mage, because it had evasion, is just whacky...

NK - Was the mage wearing DB's?

JW just tested by attacking me. I can only hit double on an enchanter that has nothing equipped and no evasion. And I know about the freaking 20% without archery, I just don't agree wasting millions that I spent just because I choose to use UC. To me, it's a bug!!

Anyway, if you feel it's fine to limit xbow and slings to non-archery users, just ignore my whines :) I just feel it's not right, since mageseeker are supposed to be a replacement for xbow + seeker bolt too. So this "bug" is nerfing other strat for no good reason.

I just miss the days when tank's hits were much easier to compute :P Good old tank-blender :)

UC users, should have the option of what they want to use, as ranged weapons go.

They do have the option. Use a crossbow or use a regular bow, with severely reduce chances to hit. And something's not a bug if that is how it was designed to work.

So, really.. Is an SoD the only option of an UC minion to use? That will actually help on a constant rate? An AxBow or ExBow, shouldn't be classed as N/A for an UC minion. Bow's, should also be able to used, and hit succesfully, without Archery trained..

Uh, actually, yes, the SoD is an option.. Barzoo uses one on his UC monk... And uh, exbows and axbows are available to monks.. my monk has one on? You wanna see the high damage from an ELB or use the seeking ability of a MSK, you suffer the risk of the low chance to hit without archery trained. What kind of thinking is that? That's not balance. That's a "give us everything" mentality.

Well, You are right about that point. UC Monk's shouldnt be allowed to use all the weapons to a great extent, as they have 3 of 5 to choose from. Although, the MSK, being the only ranged weapon that has the ability to seek out mages, to kill them, should be availible to all non-DD minions.

If when using a bow, without Archery trained, makes it very difficult to acheive a hit, then I think we need to have some way of allowing Non-Archer's to have the Mage-Seeking ability, compared to Archers alone.. How about a MSK Crossbow? They MSK would not be replaced, but this way it allows UC Monks a chance for the use of mage-seeking..

If this were implemeneted (which I don't beleive will be), Maybe there could be the option of Converting your MSK to a MSK Crossbow, for a price of 1,000,000 cb2, or something similiar to this.. As this would probably get out of hand, It should only be allowed to do, for 3-5 days, just to give all the UC users a chance to swap over..

Good/Bad Idea?

The SoD has the ability to kill mages, sort of, with every shot.

Regardless, single UC tanks are just not well suited for ranged combat. Too much XP has to go into the UC skill when compared to other skills like Evasion, Bloodlust, and Archery.

If you decide to stick with the single UC tank strategy, just forget about killing mages and focus on killing other tanks.

That's why I think a single UC tank should be a ToA tank; then there's plenty of XP to go around and it can get on with the job of slaughtering minions from ranged onwards....

JW, you would be surprised on how little XP is left to go around once you remove that Combat G.I. bonus to UC. Those triple hits disapear pretty fast. When you reach those higher levels, that bonus 10 becomes huge!

They're not in my possession anymore, but I ran two single UC tanks in a row - both ToA, both ELB wielding and with Helms equipped I had a UC weapon of over a (100) both times, plus large AMF and VA. The ToA makes a huge difference in how much XP gets to go around. I never missed that (10) from the Gi.

And now all this talk about UC is making me want to start a single UC tank again.....it's been my obsession almost since the start of my time in CB!

The problem with single UC tanks is the same problem with any single minion char - the lack of kill slots. You die pretty quickly as a single minion char when you're up against the kinds of damage that are around the upper levels.

That's statement is true for all non-elb wielding single tanks.

Even ELB based single tanks can die a horrible death!.....(psst check out my fightlist....)

"you would be surprised on how little XP is left to go around once you remove that Combat G.I. bonus to UC. Those triple hits disapear pretty fast. When you reach those higher levels, that bonus 10 becomes huge!"

I constantly got quads with a single UC ToA tank. The exp it takes to get 10 more UC is expensive at high levels, yes, but there's really no point to actually train it up that high.

Well, I am thinking about the extra Evasion it grants against other tanks and all that protection against weaker magical attacks because of how little it costs to add +'s on the Combat G.I.

I might actually test all of this with my next NCB. :)

And JW, I looked at your fight list... Sheesh! You really have a hard time surviving against those opponents with 2 or 3 times more PR than you. ;)

Oh, then yes the evasion sacrifice is costly.