Unorthodox strat for a NCB (in General)

I spent a good deal of time forging (about half of my character's life, actually) since I saw no potential in getting "to the top" from the first run (but that changed since the re-work of the N*B not so long ago), and I've made a decent run trying out various strategies, and most of them yielded opponents with close to 100% combat bonuses so far.
Soon (in less than a week), my NUB will be running out and I'm planning to start a NCB "in force"... that is, if you don't think it would be wiser to wait a bit longer still (I hear a re-rework of the N*B might be in the pipes?)

Suffice to say, I don't have any desire to go on any of the "beaten paths", and I'd like to get the community's feedback for some rather unorthodox strategies.
___

My first "unorthodox" strategy involved a RoS/GA-based team, and it worked rather well, over 1 mil score even.
I have re-inked the RoS as a RoBF and re-tooled the team accordingly, doesn't work so well since it wasn't conceived for that, but still, I do find a handfull of decent targets.
Bottom line, I have a 800++k tat and a +73 DB, alongside a +11 AG pair and a base HoC I'm not using right now, and a bit over 5 mil in spare cash.

I was pondering a single mage with the DB/RoBF/AG/HoC, but like I said, I have a really nasty aversion towards "standard strats" (so, make that a "light evasion only" mage heavy on the HP side maybe), and I somewhat doubt it could propell me in the top 10% (especially since I don't plan on buying BAs).

I'm wondering wether a SoD/ExShot single minion with DB/RoBF on would make sense at all, for instance ?
What if I trained UC on it too ? Wouldn't it hurt bad if I kept the RoBF, should I maybe re-ink it as ToA or something else ?

I'm also wondering on the feasability of a RoS strat, with the RoS-user having Haste trained up to the max (and a Corn for size, if I can get one, alongside an AoI and the DBs, move to the front), and a high-AC minion (high DX penality, but should bypass that with the Haste/RoS combo) with some decent weapons on it ?

I'm actually open to pretty much any "crazy combo" you can think of, if you have any better idea :)

AMF
corn
AMF
corn
AMF
corn
HP
ROBF and any high AC armor you can throw on

mage hunter!
lol

I'm actually quite interested in something that would "scale well" to something like 3 mil score :)
My dream would be to get to over 1.5 MPR before the NCB would run out... and that would mean beating opponents almost double in score compared to my MPR most of the time on offence... problem being the moment I go past 1 mil PR / 2 mil score, the prospects look pretty grim, to say the least.

During my NUB I ran a GA, AS and RoS strat. It had a UC minion for cleanup and AMF to add insult to injury for mages. Overall I find it to be very effective against SFBM or 4 minion mage teams. I recommend at least 3 minions though, to spread damage, and maximize GA and AS.
I stopped fighting after a while though (700k MPR) and turned to forging, but had I kept going it's hard to say how well I would have done. It was very fun though, although RoBF was farming me to the ground.

The SoD strat looks nice, it's just expensive though, you'll need quite a SoD to make it far into the 1.5 million MPR zone. ToA would definitely work better than RoBF if you intend the battle to end in ranged. But, ToE is a viable option too, because with the ranged damage penalty, ToE can greatly reduce damage, as well as GA, allowing more str and dex to be trained.

The final strat, isn't worth it. Ultimately, a high AC tank with dex still won't have the survivability you need unless you have 350+ AC, or a ToE, but all the AC is going to hurt your PR and slow your growth.


Crazy combos? Hmmm, there are a lot that seem fun:

1. CoC archer with massive Exbow
2. Decay team with lots of EDs and RoBF (DM is your weakness, but if they have DM they can't train AMF, so Decay is more effective, it's a fun idea to play with)
3. JKF and elven equips (some say that elven and AoF equips amplify Endurance, no confirmed)
4. EC and Evasion (tanks will never hit you, ever. Overkill)
5. RoBF with 90% trained AMF. And a base SoD. (mages kill themselves, you kill enchanters with tiny SoD)

just on the top of my head =D

Any JKF strat.

Any HF strat.

I was also pondering one of the "never do this" strats... which might JUST work, because of the RoS.

4 slings and 4 melee weapons, all mediocre ones though.
Train 1/4 or 1/3 HP on each minion.
Out of the rest:

Minion 1 : mostly DM, a bit of protection, maybe an AoL+DB
Minion 2 : mostly AMF, a bit of Giant Strength
Minion 3 : mostly EC, a bit of Guardian Angel
Minion 4 : RoS and all Haste

I'll go with OB, find out a nice HF strat, Hal needs more love from us players!

after a certain point, dex has much less to do with hitting. It's mostly in the PTH.

Personally, I am very against 4 minion tank strats, simply because it cost too much, and the damage output is always subpar. It's also very inefficient with WA problems early on, and the NW lost if a minion dyes. If a minion dies before it can use a melee weapons, it's that much money down the drain.

But who knows, you might enjoy it, that's what counts. It'll just take a long period of preparation.

For that last strat you mentioned, Sickone, keep in mind that using DM + other EOs is shooting yourself in the foot once your own DM level gets higher than 1/3 your tat level (or whatever the DM resistance is).

I'm personally a proponent of the JKF. Back in the day, it was the only Tattoo, and the first supporter item at the outset of CB2. Everyone had one, and everyone kept loaning them around to each other and growing them really fast while they waited for their BA to refresh. Those were the days before MTLs, and you could just throw on a Jiggy and beat people 100 times your score... ah, the good times.

I made a strat revolving around the JKF one time, or attempted to, but it fell apart because my JKF was only like 70k and didn't grow fast enough to keep up with MTL. Let me try to think something up, though. I like the idea of familiar-focused teams, and while there are some big mage ones, it's still highly unconventional on the whole.

i am still using my old JKF (or should i say ToJ?) and i am loving it, but most of the time it doesn't hurt anyone but me ;)

but the last strat you mentioned is really fun, especially in the lower mpr-ranges (tried this on my own) but since you want to go to the top 10% you will have trouble keeping those 8 (!) weapons growing big enough, which is probably only possible using USD. but if you are going to try it, i would recommend :

1. SoD/evasion
2. axbow or exbow/BL
3. same as above
4. elb or msk/archery

using any big melee weapons you can get your hands on (and pumping everything up using USD from a certain point).

the fun thing about those transformer-strats is that you can use really heavy AC on one or more minions, since penalties are calculated before GS/Haste are cast.

one good strat taking advantage of UC is where you take a UC equipped with all it's gear (CG, Elven Gear, HG) with a SoD and AMF and work it up til about 100k MPR, and then make another minion with AMF, unlerning AMF on the UC minion and equip a RoBF or ToE on the AMF minion. the ROBF can reduce magical dmg which could really help, but the ToE can help with it's aura effect. :)