Mage NCB strat. (in General)

How does this sound:

Two minion team
One standard CoC mage + evasion
One junction enchanter wearing IF + AMF

The gears:
For the mage it will be AGS + CoI + EBS + AoL, maybe some body armor + HoC
For the enchanter it will be AoF + Nsc + DB's + HoC

Plan of attack:
Single minion + RoE all the way until I hit the MTL, then hire the second minion train junction and up my IF.

Will this work? Pitfalls? Your thoughts?

Well, from what I've seen, most familiar-based teams use AS. So, that could be a liability, as your IF will have a severe deficiency of HP. Also, why double CoC? I would've concentrated XP on the non-Junction minion on whatever you wanted to train :P. I mean, two CoCs are better than one, of course, but unless you're thinking of having your CoC mage as a primary damage dealer and your IF as a double hit, I would've simply switched your mage to something else (the one that -is- the bigger minion).

I would put the AoF + DBs on the CoC mage with junction. That way the familiar gains the advantages of the AoF and HoC and DBs and NSC/AG. Minion 1 would be the enchanter with AoL. You would be savaged by MM though, even with a hefty AMF, so I would recommend expanding to 3 minions and keeping a wall around. The key to making this work would be a huge pair of DBs and a decent wall preferably with a mage shield.

This will not work. CoC is built to last, yet you've built a team that is utter paper. AMF backlash alone will kill your CoC mage. Fireball and MM teams will destroy you. You need to suffer through 5 rounds of ranged doing nothing without ToE, below average HP and no armor. If you wish to use CoC, build a defensive strategy.

Agreed - AMF and GA are your worst nightmare as a CoC mage, try to build a strategy that mitigates their effects as much as possible.

MCM would be a good body armor. You can get at least 70 AC pretty easily and there are no penalties.

colonel, even a high MCM is no defence against AMF backlash; you'll need a 20+50ish Mithril Shield to really cut down on that AMF backlash.

I thought the only things that cut back on AMF backlash were the NSCs and a ToE.

JW, a biggish Mithril Shield can cut a little bit out of the AMF backlash, not major, but quite a bit, [and gazillions more than the MCM can].

Here's some hard data to back up my claims:

The fight is versus Flamey's character :p sorry mate, but your char gives the best fight-list stats for this experiment!


AC 80, MS 20+48 [no MCM]

Counter-Attack cast Antimagic Field on The Establishment Back-Up (0.56)

The Establishment Back-Up takes damage from his own Cone of Cold (209127)!
The Establishment Back-Up's Cone of Cold hit Fountain of Life [41457], Annihilator [36640], Ethereal Enchantress [34150], Counter-Attack [45408]
Fountain of Life's Guardian Angel smote The Establishment Back-Up (16495)
Annihilator's Guardian Angel smote The Establishment Back-Up (14583)
Ethereal Enchantress's Guardian Angel smote The Establishment Back-Up (13495)
Counter-Attack's Guardian Angel smote The Establishment Back-Up (17772)

annihilator 36,640 .... GA 14,583


AC 87, MCM 20+47 [no MS]

Counter-Attack cast Antimagic Field on The Establishment Back-Up (0.55)

The Establishment Back-Up takes damage from his own Cone of Cold (218705)!
The Establishment Back-Up's Cone of Cold hit Fountain of Life [48730], Annihilator [30351], Ethereal Enchantress [36487], Counter-Attack [59840]
Fountain of Life's Guardian Angel smote The Establishment Back-Up (19238)
Annihilator's Guardian Angel smote The Establishment Back-Up (11975)
Ethereal Enchantress's Guardian Angel smote The Establishment Back-Up (14338)
Counter-Attack's Guardian Angel smote The Establishment Back-Up (23610)

ethereal enchantress 36,487 .... GA 14,338


AC 12, no MCM, no MS

Counter-Attack cast Antimagic Field on The Establishment Back-Up (0.55)

The Establishment Back-Up takes damage from his own Cone of Cold (218705)!
The Establishment Back-Up's Cone of Cold hit Fountain of Life [57949], Annihilator [32894], Ethereal Enchantress [49844], Counter-Attack [55930]
Fountain of Life's Guardian Angel smote The Establishment Back-Up (25550)
Annihilator's Guardian Angel smote The Establishment Back-Up (14489)
Ethereal Enchantress's Guardian Angel smote The Establishment Back-Up (21979)
Counter-Attack's Guardian Angel smote The Establishment Back-Up (24637)

annihilator 32,894 .... GA 14,489


All On, AC 155

Counter-Attack cast Antimagic Field on The Establishment Back-Up (0.56)

The Establishment Back-Up takes damage from his own Cone of Cold (209127)!

The Establishment Back-Up's Cone of Cold hit Fountain of Life [62021], Annihilator [42756], Ethereal Enchantress [56773], Counter-Attack [38838]
Fountain of Life's Guardian Angel smote The Establishment Back-Up (22072)
Annihilator's Guardian Angel smote The Establishment Back-Up (14943)
Ethereal Enchantress's Guardian Angel smote The Establishment Back-Up (19494)
Counter-Attack's Guardian Angel smote The Establishment Back-Up (13512)

counter-attack 38,838 .... GA 13,512


What this means is that essentially, the MCM provides no protection against the AMF backlash. My 20+48 MS provides about 9k protection in the 200k backlash, so roughly 4.5 percent. Incidentally, the AMF cast is 0.56 minus the MS, and 0.55 with the MS on, which is on account of the reduced CoC spell with the MS penalties.

But, have a look at the huge difference in GA retaliation. Clearly, it pays to have both the MCM and the MS to protect against GA.

My bad, JW, perhaps the MS too doesn't provide any protection against the AMF backlash. The 4.5 percent reduction in AMF with the MS may merely be a spurious outcome of the 7 percent penalty with the MS equipped. Well, back to the drawing board on that one ;)

I figured as much that GA and AMF would kill me before I do a team, however Couple it with DM and add two minions in the back?

A ToE would be your best bet against the AMF backlash. So, you'd have to forego that Ice Familiar idea, and simply stick to the single damage dealer CoC mage.

When starting out, I don't know how feasible a CoC mage can be, coz i had started out single RoBF ;) so you're in experimental territory with the single minion RoE.

Perhaps you can use my strat, i started out single RoBF and then toward the end of the NCB bought the CoC minion. Its kind of complicated, since you need very high DBs on the CoC mage to evade the MsK hits, and I haven't as yet managed to get the CoC high enough that it can kill on its own, and I can reink the RoBF into a ToE.

Ideally, when you have a big char, and lots of money to burn, you can have a Mage Wall [EH + MgS] at the back, as well as a high AC wall in front to nullify the RoBF teams out there. There can also be place for a TSA with PL, again, if your char is big enough, and there's lotsa cash to burn.

Single minion CoC mage with RBF and evasion works quite nicely thank you; from the ground up.