Help with PL (in General)

So, I switch the familiar to fire, tired of the chaff. PL still screws me:

Joe takes damage from his own Magic Missile (136376)!
Joe's Magic Missile hit Regdar [184028]
Alhandra absorbs damage [184028]
Hubbell Man's familiar takes damage from his own Fireball (179364)!
Hubbell Man's familiar's Fireball hit Ember [198772], Alhandra [221386], Lidda [166779], Regdar [80284]
Alhandra absorbs damage [166779]
Alhandra absorbs damage [80284]
Ember missed Joe
Alhandra regenerated 50,000 HP
R.I.P. Ember

I know that's a mess. Basically, agains Iconics, I lay plenty down on minions 1 and 3 to kill then. They only have 20 HP each (AS doesn't work so well when I'm involved).

Yet, the PL minions absorb it all away. I was under the distinct impression that if my blow exceeds the target minion's HP, they die. Regardless.

I'm wrong? This is a HUGE difference. Knocking out an extra target in a round is a massive boon to spread-fire. If I can kill one of the 20-HP minions in round one, why not both of them?

Help?

If the PL guy can't absorb enough to keep the minion alive, it wont... Has nothing to do with how much HP that minion has.

I wish it worked the way you thought it did, then i wouldnt need another AoI for my enchanter. As it is, low damage teams overload my PL battery due to him absorbing all the damage done to my armorless enchanter...

I think you misunderstood the PL.

If you do enough damage to kill the minion and the PL minion cannot such up that damage, the minion dies. But if the PL minions has enough HP to help, the original minion lives.

In your example, once Alhandra does not have enough HP left on that minion to safely PL all damage, the original minion dies.

"If I can kill one of the 20-HP minions in round one, why not both of them? "

I would assume his PL isnt high enough to absorb 198,752 damage.

I suppose I can accept that -- the PL minion is having to absorb it (albeit at a reduced rate), so I guess that helps, at least.

But it really does make PL the glue of the whole AMF/MgS/ToE/AC damage reduction. Even spread-fire (seemingly an obvious way to foil the order of the enemy) doesn't help. (Shouldn't it? Doesn't spread-fire already have enough disadvantages while PL and friends do?)

I guess I'm still asking for help -- can anyone give me a better offensive magic strategy for getting through AMF/MgS/ToE/TSA/AC/PL/VA ? I'm seriously asking, as a guy with large PR gaps losing to lower PR teams... What's the key? I need more offense here, so please offer any ideas you have!

Ditch DM (yeah, i said it (along with just about all of chat)!), and counter larger tank teams with a huge EC, and when you're nuking ST, you won't need evasion anymore, use that XP to have a huge CoC. Blows through RoBF, and does the most damage, so its harder to reduce.

IF COC IF COC IF COC, massive junctioned db.

well, obviously, if you're going for max damage, the tat of choice for the strat would be IF :P

Oh, you would have to give up NWO to do this, but you should be able to add quite a few people to your list...

I love the way chat is talking about things I've already tried... *smile*

Sute, there's only two things that beat 'the whole AMF/MgS/ToE/AC damage reduction' thing.

Decay and a VB.

I'd use a maxed out Decay to combat this, if I could figure out how to kill a front slot 20HP Enchanter wearing an AoI backed by PL....

I was caught by this as well, I was sure that PL would only save a minion that would normally survive.

But I'd be inclinded to stick my Decay on a 20 HP Mage, backed by a TSA PL minion of course (who doesn't use one of these, quite frankly *the* staple of the game, hand in hand with a MgS Wall of course...), so that any AMF backlash does absolutly nothing of relevance.

Sut, heres what you could do to dominate up top:

Drop DM for a massive EC, good sized AMF, and switch Joe to a CoC mage. Have your AMF minion train decay, and put a pair of NSC on both JoE and the AMF minion. I would suggest a ToE, but I know you hate it. Because of your large EC, you could stop training evasion and pump that CoC. The reason I suggest a ToE is because you don't need any extra damage dealers with a decay/CoC setup. You should rip through most teams in the top, save for maybe King of Pain.

I didn't ask how to dominate, and I couldn't anyway. Please folks, relax.

A VB, GL? Really? I'm a mage. Switching to tank isn't an option right now...lol

Just giving you your only options. ;)

And as rightfully pointed out to me (I keep forgetting this..) GA would murder a 20 HP Decay Mage. So you'ld need a DM high enough to stop any GA you face. ;)

But really, they're about the only options to deal with the whole AMF/MgS/ToE/AC damage reduction thing.

And one of those isn't really open to you. ;)

OK so granted we are NOT talking a massive MPR here, but its not small, I do not use it, it maintains well.

Score / PR / MPR: 1,484,719 / 1,031,091 / 729,551
Net Worth: $33,394,798 (all of it equipped)

I have a single damage point (with a tiny Decay) and I basically do it right back to them. It might not work at what almost 3X my MPR? But it works OK at 700K PR.

Take a look at Sefton, see what you think. Ideally, I would better gear it, the wall AC would be closer to 300 if I did, I bogart some of the gear for my other guys. Also no HoC which when equipped seemed to help. I have two, but of course on other guys. Anyway, not a brag, just maybe a spark for how to make it work for you?