Stop Me before I do something Stupid (in General)

So,
After naively thinking that 30 odd Million was enough to start a Tank NCB, nearly 6 weeks in it's obvious that even quadruple that isn't nearly enough.

I've now got 4 minions to retrain.
I'm desperately trying to ignore the voice in my head telling me to get 3 AMF/GA minions backing up an evasion wall with RoBF, but TBH there's so many mages out there that it's hard to.

I'm also trying to resist the voice that's saying "what actually is the point of playing a game where the most interesting strategy is essentially denied me?"

Meh, just beef up your tank's ELB as much as you can and enjoy the run. Even if you can't afford to buy BA every day, it's all about enjoying the team. Just make this run an ELB investment run.

Whoops, no ELB. Invest in whichever gear you so choose.

I'm not sure how it's costing you so much money to run an NCB.. I guess the general idea is you have to buy BA? I've never bought any BA unless it was to finish a forging cycle.. got to 1.2m MPR by playing 4 days a week.. perhaps with pure melee you'd have to use the blacksmith to insta your equip? I found that my equip was definitely weak as I rose in MPR but alas my char is balanced so the ice familiar compensated for the weak equip.

I see where you're coming from with the pure physical combat strategy, I'd like to try one myself. As such I've decided to keep playing and forging with my current char then when I'm ready I don't necessarily have any CBD but I have loads of pre-forged equip to draw from and I can perhaps supplement with rentals.

It may be different with battle clans. If you want more freedom to play a strategy that doesn't cost you loads of CBD then don't worry about the battle clan.. suppose my 1.2m had a 15% constant bonus then I would have reached 1.38m instead. When you think of it that way it's not much of a difference for 6 months of NCB.

It all comes down to how much patience you have. Personally I'm in no hurry to get anywhere near the top since I know what reaching the top means!

Hmmm I'm thinking that if you have 30m CBD to start with then what you can do is have two pieces of each of the forgeable equipment and while you're fighting and using one set you've hired forgers to work on the other set.. then you can switch and repeat? Not sure how that would work but it's an idea if you have that much money.

Unless you're running a NCB to get to the top, I wouldn't reccommend buying any BA during a NCB. Save your money, upgrade your equipment, and level your tattoo for a decent run.

dude, do 1 , 2, even 3 ncbs but get all gear and weapons upgraded.

i am on my second NCB, i already purchased all gear, and i am in final stage forging my SOD and Enforcer Bow.

Keep beeing tank dude, its harder but will be more interesting

btw i've expent more thanb 100 M already in this 2 ncb runs

Posting for advice? Too late.

Tanks most certainly take time and lots of it. Or USD. Assuming that USD is out of the question, it's gonna take you at least a couple runs, especially if you want to go with two tanks (as your character currently is). The absolute most effective way to be competitive at/near the top will be your tattoo, which is going to require at least two NCBs.

If you'd like to get success from the tank side of things, your best bet would be to run one NCB without buying any BA (outside of the occasional 1 or 2 to test something when ya get an idea right after ya run outta BA (happens to me all the time). You will end up with a pretty decent-sized tattoo, and a decent-enough chunk of money to spend on upgrades to get your gear at least slightly above adequate.

Then, if you really wanna go overboard and rock the tank world you can do this, or you can skip this paragraph and go onto the next and still have a decent-enough team. You start another NCB using the cheapest strat you can think of (like a 4E+Familiar team). Run this NCB while paying a forger to upgrade your items (just don't overdo the pth, nw-PR can be as vicious as a mother wolf (2 meanings there if ya think about it). This will allow you to get even more money for upgrades, and even more bang for your buck than paying the blacksmith for them. Through the first half of the NCB it will be smooth sailing as your tattoo would be at max because of the previous run, and through the second half you're enjoying the ride of accelerated tattoo growth.

Then, you run your "real" NCB. This will be the one where you pull out (almost) all the stops. Save up 1600 BA before starting. Buy BA during XP times (but only during XP times, so that you can afford to do this for the first 4 months entirely from the cash you make from battle rewards during the rest of the week. Avoid using your tattoo as well until your max tattoo level is equal to or higher than it, so that you can avoid the huge PR weight of the tattoo for maximum growth. This should net you a large character, with a large tattoo, and at least competent net worth which you can then work on from here.

Until your strat gets nerfed into near-nonexistence and you have to retreat into the forge for the better part of a year ;)

LOL @ Bast (and Hi - not seen you for a while)

Cheers to the rest - not feeling quite so down on stuff now. I shall ponder on my next course of action