Ok, asking the noob questions I can't dumb out on my own.... (in General)

....or that I've screwed up already. I'm running VA on my minion, with high (for my level) Dex and Str. A basic bow, and war hammer.
running Anti field, MM, and Giant Str on the other. Where do I need to focus, and what have I screwed up?

thoughts? thanks :)

Usually, a team is made up of one damage dealer, and the rest of your minions support that one damage dealing minion.

I'm not really sure what you can do with your second minion to benefit you the most, but you might be able to keep your AMF and maybe put your VA on him rather than your main tank.

You only need to keep your VA as high as the damage that you deal. I just watched my melee damage for a few battles and took an average of the hits I do and leveled my VA accordingly.

1. Drop the cesti, they have pretty large penalties.
2. You only have one person that actually uses ST, so training innate ST is a far more cost-effective way of getting strength. Plus you don't need to worry about Dispel Magic. Also, pick up archery if you plan to stick with bows.

You want your second minion probably be just an enchanter. That would mean to focus on enchantments only. MM is a mage spell and it would be difficult and probably unwise to run a Mage/Tank 2 minion team. You'd most likely like AMF on it, and VA as well instead of having VA on your tank. The GS wouldn't be worth it on a 2 minion team.

Hey there. Welcome to CB.

I'll give you some generic tips before I go off to work:

1) Untrain all str an dex on your mage. You don't need it.
2) If you decide to use a bow, you'll need to train archery to 25% of your strength. Otherwise, you'll have trouble hitting.
3) Focus your experience more. Don't try to learn too many attributes on one character. It dilutes your exp and makes you vulnerable. Unlear your GS and put it into your hp/magic missle.
4) Get your hand on a better bow as soon as you can. I recommend compound bow starting out. You can try the rental to get a taste of what's out there.
5) Read the help file located on the top left corner of your screen. It's a wiki with tons of information for the game.
6) Get a tattoo as soon as possible. For your team, I guess Tattoo of Augmentation would do well.

Hope this helps.

You don't have to follow all those steps above, it just depends on where your strat goes. Though, one piece of information was wrong. You train Archery to 33% or 1/3 of your ST and not 25%.

oops. Thanks for the correction flamey.

thanks for the input guys. still trying to sort it all out.