My VA strat of doom (in General)

My VA strat of doom includes two minions.
Minion number one invests exp into AMF and VA. VA is trained to be about halfway between average damage dealt in combat and the most powerful blow.
Minion number two trains HP, ST and Dex roughly evenly and blood lust 1/5 of strength for maximum effect (which is now 0.75, w00h!).

Now for the equipment:
Massive damage setup - a MH and SoD (possibly ax/exbow), TSA, EC, EBs (or possibly DBs), tulkas', HoE, AoM, and either a BoM or MgS.
This setup will give my minion massive amounts of strength and huge amounts of damage. Also, the minion will suck 60% damage, and that paired with the insane amounts of damage dealt will make me nearly invincible.
What I'm asking about this setup is
A) Will I will be able to hit minions that have an average (maybe below average) evasion, and
B) If the AMF will reduce DD enough to the point where I don't have to worry much about DD spellss, or if I should equip the MgS instead of the BoM for that extra protection.

Above average damage, +PTH - a Blade of Thuringwethil, SoD (possibly ax/exbow), TSA, MC, EBs (maybe DBs), GoM or tulkas', HoE, AoM, and either BoM or MgS.
I think this setup will give me a much better chance against those pesky evasion setups. It won't give me as much damage as the first setup, but I will hit MUCH more frequently.
My questions for this setup are
A) Will the MC give me enough +PTH to be able to hit all but the highest levels of evasion so I can use tulkas'? Or should i use the GoM just to be safe? and
B) same issue about the MgS and BoM. Will AMF be enough so I can use a BoM? or use a MgS just to be safe?
For this strat, I'm personally leaning more towards using the GoM over the tulkas, because it is generally an anti-evasion setup.

Anyways, post your ideas here. All recommendations are greatly appreciated. Spank you =)

P.S. Steal my strat and die! =P

So you know you can't use GoM's with a BoTH or ELS.

Oh no! Ahh!! that significantly decreases the effectiveness of the anti-evasion setup. OK so correction for that setup, I will be using tulkas if I do use the anti-evasion setup. Stupid gloves only working with "short" weapons... Bah!

chuck a TOE on minion number one and it will be THAT much better :) or an SF on it... or a hal even

Ah yes, a ToE on the first minion. I feel like such a N00B for not thinking of that... /spank self
Thanks a lot for the recommendation lostling, it's very helpful. =)

VA is a great spell, provided someone with DM does not dispel it.

Like Ranger said VA is a great spell but having used it before I got tired of it being dispelled that I untrained it. Besides you plan on using a MH or BoTH and they both have innate VA abilities that can't be dispelled. So unless you plan on training VA a lot or using a RoS to keep from being dispelled then you might find another way to better invest that exp. Also a ToE on your first minion would make a better choice. With a big AMF and an Mgs on your tank you stand a good chance of taking out plenty of mage teams.

a tip... ROS might be a good idea too... it will allow you to train DM on your tank to reduce GA and AS... not to mention it protects your VA somewhat... not to mention you will NEVER need to add VA... as the ROS gives a ton of boost to your VA

an added note... wouldnt EGs be better if you wanted an ANTI evasion ?

Update: Now I'm trying to decide between a RoS or a ToE on my first minion. The EGs on the anti-evasion is a good idea, however I'm still leaning towards the tulkas because the primary role is damage and leaching health, secondary role is anti-evasion. I say this because I want my minion to stay alive longer. Also, in my experience, dex doesn't help too much against evasion anyway.

i guess enforcers would be a good idea :)

"P.S. Steal my strat and die! =P "

Why would I kill them for stealing a strat that already is stolen? If I just trained VA and got enough WA to use my Exbow my strat would be identical to this. :-P

Also, if you're using any weapon with VA on it (MH and i think BoTh?), it kinda negates your trained VA. They don't stack. I think the higher level one is the one that effects your character.

"They don't stack."

> Yes they do.

o.O why did i think the wiki said it "doesn't" stack? I just went back and read it, and you're right it does stack, but i could have SWORN it said they didn't.

will the AMF stop DD to a point where you shouldn't worry? No. But if you can survive a few rounds into melee you could probably have them kill themselves.

relying on massive damage to keep you alive is a more difficult than it sounds. Often you'll be running into AC walls, or evasion tanks. If they don't have either what about GA? It'll work fine in many cases, but it'll be far from unstoppable.

i am running a strat like this for years now and it always has been fun. go for it if you like.
but due to the recent changes (especially encumbrance and halved weapon allowance) its impossible for me to invest in my weapons like i did before.
my weapons are just way to big, although i just blacksmithed them using normal fight rewards (no NCB, no NUB, no USD).
thats going to be something you will have to deal with when you are using a ranged and a melee weapon.

Yeah I must admit it's hard to be an archer due to encumbrance and weapon allowance. My bow alone makes up half of my net worth! Then I see that I'm missing against evasion so I try to upgrade the PTH. Then I'm not doing enough damage, so I upgrade that. Next thing I know, my PR is twice that of my MPR... Weapon allowance and encumbrance make me sad... 8(