Strategy Help Please! (in General)

Okay, so it is about time to hire minions as I close out my NCB.
Here is my single minionﾒs stats to this point:

Arthur Dent
HP: 2,000,000

Evasion: 2,247,970 >> 1,387,636 >> 148 >> 121
Fireball 4,202,039 >> 4,423,199 >> 617,419 >> 649,914
Dispel Magic 987,569 >> 1,026,046 >> 790,055 >> 820,836
Protection 57,056 >> 59,004 >> 19 >> 20

He is Wearing:
An Amulet of Focus [0] (+12)
A Pair of Elven Boots [10] (+28)
A Pair of Noldorin Spellcasters [0] (+16)
Helm of Clearer site [-5] (+14)
A Buckler [11] (+34)
A Rune of Enlightenment lvl 20
A Towel [1]


Hereﾒs my plan, feel free to poke holes, laugh point fingers, and if youﾒre feeling especially generous, give advice!


AD will be my third minon when it is all said and done.

First Minon will train Evasion, EC, and Protection
He will wear:

An Amulet of Leadership [0] (+7)
42 [28] (+51) (Named MCM)
An Elven Cloak [4] (+10)
A Pair of Displacement Boots [0] (+117)
A Pair of Noldorin Spellcasters [0] (+15)
Deep Thought [0] (+9)

Second Minion will train Decay/Dispel
He will wear:

An Amulet of Invisibility [0] (+10)
A Mithril Chain Mail [28] (+45)
A Cloak of the Istari [6] (+14)
A Pair of Elven Boots [10] (+24)
A Pair of Alatar's Gloves [0] (+11)
A Cornuthaum [0] (+8)


Fourth Minion will train Decay/Dispel
He will wear:

An Amulet of Focus [0] (+10)
A Mithril Chain Mail [28] (+40)
A Pair of Displacement Boots [0] (+63)
A Pair of Alatar's Gloves [0] (+11)
A Helm of Clearsight [-5] (+11)

(Iﾒll also buy him a CoI, just have not gotten around to it yet.)


So let me hear from you. What should I change?
Thanks in advance!

First of all, decay minions have to use NS. Unless your decay will be trained very very high.

First Minon will train Evasion, EC, and Protection : Your diluting your xp there.

Remember your new minions, if you buy the top one, will have 1/9th the xp of your main minion. Not a lot.

New minions, especially this far into your character, are generally good for support. But low level support to start. And of course kill slots.

So switch out the AG to NS
Dump protection on the first minion (with the AoL, I want to keep the Evasion to keep him alive as long as possible.)

Thanks Ranger.

You can put protection on one of the other enchanters. You do not need a high xp investment for a decent return.

Also, you may want the evasion minion to use the AoF. I cannot see a new minion training even 100% evasion doing much evading at your level of play.

Hmmm, EC and Dispel on the same team....not the best of ideas........

The thing is, as Ranger points out, those minions aren't going to be XP rich. Their best purpose, at least at first, is as kill slots. Anything they do is going to be weak to start with.

But if you're using FB they're also going to be working against you, diluting your firepower in melee, if you've lasted that long. Are you planning on changing your DD?

No, I'm not planning on changing my DD. I understand that at low levels, they're all dead anyway.

Oh, and as for Mele, I understand I'm pretty much hosed if that happens, but if I get to Mele now I'm pretty much hosed.

They probably will be. The thing is by adding them to an FB team you're increasing your chances of lasting to melee, but at the point where you need to start doing bigger damage, (that first round of melee) you're actually weakening yourself. You may kill them straightaway, but you're effectively introducing a first melee round similar to the one a tank has.

That's not to say it can't work, but it's a major weakness in FB teams with more than one minion and one that's very easy to exploit.

For instance, you're on my fightlist right now. But it's not a 100% guaranteed win on my part because you face my mage pretty much head on in melee and do very large damage. But if you have more minions I can almost guarantee I will beat you every time. Regardless of my own spread damage. Because of that friendly fire.

It's something I would personally be thinking about.

If you're going to be hosed in melee, why bother adding extra minions?

A few questions to ask yourself?

What do you want to achieve out of your strategy?

Who are you beating now? Who do you plan on beating in the future?

Will the addition of minions change who you can beat now? If you're already not a good melee team are they going to make a difference against the ranged based teams you have trouble with?

Would the cost of the extra minions (if you're determined to stay FB) be better spent elsewhere and gain the same results?

I'm not determined to stay FB, but that was my plan. That's why I'm asking :) As for who I want to beat, everyone!
Honestly though, I'd be satisfied with a spot in the top 20, I'm looking for the best way to do so.

I really think you stand a better chance by staying single. I don't think the extra minions (which face it are going to cost lots) are going to do you any favours.

What about tattoo? Are you still going to stay RoE? Because that's what will proabably make the most difference is a change in tattoo.

I'm not flaming by the way, just writing as I'm thinking it.

I don't think you're flaming, I appreciate the help, I wouldn't have posted here otherwise!

I like the RoE, I could buy a huge tattoo if one ever became available, but how often does that happen? I'll stay RoE until at least my NCB ends, unless some mega -tat comes up. But if I go tattoo for damage, then wouldn't I have to toss out my Evasion to go Junction? Unless then you're talking about hiring a minion to wear the tat....

At this point in my experience, I see new minions as being useful for only a few things:

-- Tattoo wearing
-- PL battery (HP/PL/TSA)
-- Wall, often a mage wall at the back so as to eliminate need for AMF.

Now, mind you, I mention the TSA and MgS both up there... I didn't check your equipment list. Those two items alone will run you 25 million or so, if you can even find them).

My main advice? Become Conundrum. It's just that simple. Play the boring damage reduction game like everyone else, use CoC (the only viable DD to use to play against the very large teams), and see how it works.

If you stick with ranged DD, you will never be able to take on any substantial damage reduction, PL, or TSA teams. You just won't be able to hit them hard enough, sorry. So, I suppose it becomes about finding targets. If you don't think you would get up to the higher teams anyway, you may be able to still find plenty of targets sticking with more of an FB/DM strategy (I still have 4-5 decent targets, the rest of my fight list is just smaller than me).

" Play the boring damage reduction game like everyone else"

That's just it, it's boring, I'm looking for something a little more creative. As for the TSA or MgS, cost doesn't really concern me. (unless you're asking me to outspend Freed, in which case, HA HA HA) But I'm looking for something viable, that isn't straight CoC, Damage Reduction, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Well you would if you were planning on the extra damage. I was thinking of the good old ToE actually. With that you get to cut back on AMF damage, (perhaps even enough to swap the NSCs for Alatars which could mean more damage), or just to back up the NSC effect. Endurance will make that HP of yours worth a whole lot more.

The best thing about a ToE? While bigger is better is true, you don't need a huge tattoo to make a difference, because the bang for your buck is worth more than most other tattoos.

sfbm or even mm mage gets pretty ineffective around the 2 to 2.5 m mpr zone. i think mm actually worked a little better than fb which seems very weak at the higher levels these days. even with the toe, mine was undersized but not tiny by any means, i had very few higher mpr characters on my list. the kill slots thing just seems to overwhelm single mages.

my advice would be that robf is the only way to stay single past 2m mpr. if you do not want to do that, then add minions before it gets more expensive if you are open to it, so i think you are on the right track with your plans.

First off, If I were to switch tatoos, it would probably be to a damage dealer. The ToE is awesome, but I've got two of the biggest NS in the game, and I'd be happy to switch out the two AG for NS to keep with that theme. AMF teams aren't really killing me right now, some of the huge ones are, but I'm going to lose to someone, and if I can use a damage dealing familiar to beat others, I'd deal with the losses against huge AMF teams.
As for the RoBF, I worry about a nerf. I like the idea, but I don't want to change everything around, just to have my strategy nuked at the next changemonth. I think Sut's idea of making one of the minions a PL wall appeals to me the most of any idea so far. I realize that he'd be low as far as XP right now, but I'm looking down the road. "Big Picture"! Once again, thanks for all the ideas and help!

I appreciate everything you guys have said, I have a lot to think about. As a way to say thanks:

Don't Panic (The Guide) 192.147.222.2 QBRanger (Koyaanisqatsi) $200000 -- Thanks for the help! 10:15 AM EDT
Don't Panic (The Guide) 192.147.222.2 QBsutekh137 (Hubbell) $200000 -- Thanks for the help! 10:14 AM EDT
Don't Panic (The Guide) 192.147.222.2 QBJohnnyWas (The Hawk Of May) $200000 -- Thanks for the help! 10:14 AM EDT
Don't Panic (The Guide) 192.147.222.2 dudemus (igot noname) $200000 -- Thanks for the help!

Whoah, that's not necessary! But thanks anyway!

:)

How much BA did you miss during the NCB? Hiring minions would cost you just about the same amount another go would...

I missed 3 days worth of buying ba.
Other than that, I probably missed 5-10%

Besides, why would i want to go again? I like what I've come up with, I'm happy with my char right now, just looking for ideas! Going through this all again for 4 more months doesn't really appeal to me all that much right now!!

Thanks,

Sut does have a point.

I would hire 1 minion more.

To hold the tattoo and cast DM.

But if your set of 3 minions. you could do worse then your plan.
Good luck.

I'm not set on 3 or 4 at all
This was just my idea. I've got a few days left in my NCB, I won't buy any minons until it ends anyway. I'm just thinking ahead. After all the advice, I'm thinking:

FB Mage that I currently have, leaving him alone
1 new PL wall (with a TSA? or is that a bad idea?)
1 new tattoo wearer (down the line if and when I decide to ditch the RoE) casting DM

FB Mage that I currently have, leaving him alone
1 new PL wall (with a TSA? or is that a bad idea?)
1 new tattoo wearer (down the line if and when I decide to ditch the RoE) casting DM

That is a good idea. The PL wall will use a MgS?

But 3 minions is good also. Conundrum does something like what you have. Check that character out.

Assuming I can get both, he'll wear a MgS and a TSA... That might take a while. lol

Thanks again Ranger

Anybody else got any advice to offer?