Strat Talk: WEMW, RoBF (in General)

I have been thinking of one:

4 minion from the start (this is subject to change)
Minion order: WEMW


Minion 1: Heavy Wall Armor (AC, MS, CML, etc.)
Pure HP

Minion 2: Enchanter gear
AMF, HP, PL (1:1 ratio or maybe 100k AMF and the rest HP)

Minion 3: Mage gear
Pure FB, maybe some HP?

Minion 4: TSA, MgS, elven gear, maybe some heavy AC items
Mostly HP, PL

Tattoo: RoBF

Theory: Mage is designed to kill off enchanters and other kill slots and hopefully "burn itself out" before melee combat starts. The heavy wall backed with the Mage Shield wielding PL/TSA minion will keep the team alive for awhile (hopefully) while the RoBF works its "magic".

Any thoughts?

Change from FB to MM because you will be making it to melee and frying your own team

I'd say SG over any other DD. This is clearly a defensive team so FB is not a good choice. And this strat is quite similar to LA's FTW character in many regards.

DM or AS is the only way your mage is going to survive. You should probably rethink why you have a mage.

feels like this could be run better with 2 minions or less.

4 minions are a must. Kill slots are invaluable!!

Also, I'm thinking a mage doing damage in ranged rounds would help keep pace with Archers. I will most likely need this damage to kill them quicker as I will not be using evasion or DB's.

GA hurts archers, and it's defensive.

To add the obvious to my post, DM and GA don't exactly get along well, so it's likely an either-or scenario.

DM and GA work wonderfully together... I use both on my team. Its opponents DM and your GA that doesn't work well.

Nevermind, you're right. I was thinking of AMF for some reason...

Trying to avoid ED's altogether with this strategy. If I do use one, it will be small due to the XP dilution and thus very susceptible to DM.

I guess I'll just have to try it out!

Providing the RBF is big enough you don't even need the mage.

But otherwise kill slots FTW. :)

Oh and as for not using enchantments...works wonderfully. Lots of big DM teams out there that suddenly become very vulnerable.

Doesn't work vs HaL teams or big ELB/MSK teams

There are a couple of similar teams floating around the upper levels. They slaughter me.

Considering the tattoo has to go on the Mage, it's not a good idea for that minion to be a mage. With that much XP dilution, anyone with AMF will blow up your mage, the RoBF protection from AMF is pretty small.

IMO two PL minions is overkill, but it could work. I'm not sure how it works exactly to be honest. I know the larger PL works first, but I don't know what happens if they are equal. Would this minion have a TSA?

Oh and I assume you're fitting Steel Skin in there somewhere..

"Doesn't work vs HaL teams or big ELB/MSK teams"

Actually I am designing this to be a Hal/ELB killer. No ED's makes those pesky DM archers/Hal teams waste all that XP. The heavy wall is designed... well, to be a heavy wall. And my mage is designed to peck at their HP until my RoBF will start biting into them.

"Considering the tattoo has to go on the Mage"

I did not even consider Tattoo placement! Although, the mage would be a good spot. Either that or the enchanter.

"anyone with AMF will blow up your mage"

That's by design. I am hoping to have my mage dead before melee begins. Obviously, this will be a problem with non-AMF users so I am considering MM instead of FB. But my heart really is set on FB!!

"Oh and I assume you're fitting Steel Skin in there somewhere.."

Thanks for the assumption, because I DEFINITELY overlooked Steel Skin. I could put that on my mage or enchanter.

Dark Dreky 10:20 AM EDT
"Doesn't work vs HaL teams or big ELB/MSK teams"

Actually I am designing this to be a Hal/ELB killer. No ED's makes those pesky DM archers/Hal teams waste all that XP. The heavy wall is designed... well, to be a heavy wall. And my mage is designed to peck at their HP until my RoBF will start biting into them.

I did the same thing. It doesn't work. Without SS that wall doesn't work properly. The AC doesn't block that much damage. It does per hit but since the wall has 0 dex and 0 evasion you get triple hit from round 1. And don't get me started on ELB/HaL teams they do 6 hits per round. Even with a PL wall in the back and a 400 AC wall up front its a losing battle. The mage, well magic missile is nice, but you need it large. The RoBF that is nice too, but you it huge. And of course you will lose against EF and SG strategies. You win against any others.

If you want to kill ELB teams, you're going to need an evasion wall.

Once the penalty to melee kicks in, evasion will protect you from all ranged attacks, leaving plenty of time for your RoBF to eat them.

I don't like evasion walls, too much XP dilution. I rather you put money into a pair of big DBs and train HP only. Then use another wall PL battery to support the wall minion.

DB's will stop triple hits but not double or even single hits.

DBs high enough can stop double hits.

DBs can lower the chance to hit down to the Base of the weapon.

Just look at Mikel's DBs. They make everyone hit his tank at most 1 time. Perhaps Vectoidz hits occasionally twice.

If you're planning to have your mage die by melee, definitely put the tattoo on the enchanter. The problem with relying on AMF/GA to kill your mage is that it's not really reliable. But if they don't kill you maybe you'll be able to soften them up enough to win anyway. I'm not really sure, but I think that'd be tricky to setup, but it could work.