NCB (in General)

I'm sitting here thinking, my NUB just ended and this is going to get real boring real fast. So I may start a NCB, as I find it fun to go for the bottom up.
The % is 438 at the moment.
My questions are, do a lot of people do NCB's? Are they a wise choice? Are they expensive to play? My characters MPR is 4M on the dot, could I surpase that with this NCB?
Just some basic questions as I've never really looked into the NCB before.

Not a lot of people do a NCB. It takes a lot of time in the beginning, grinding out the 10/20 and 9/20 regeneration rates and finding new targets.

If you do not buy BA, or only buy during xp time, it is not expensive. However, I really doubt you will get past 4M MPR without buying any BA.

The 2 best NCBs right now are Zenai and Lightning Raider. Both have bought all their BA, which totaled over 70M CB2 already if not more.

Also, a few more questions.
Anyone suggest any strategies? How many minions should I do? I hear going 1 minion and buying more when the NCB is good. Is that expensive?

thought i was replying, but sent you a pm instead, here is more info though. your current team, in the same six month time frame would also grow so you need to surpass that growth as well to really consider it a successful ncb run.

how big is your tat? what all gear do you own?

after doing both, they are both fun and interesting in their own way. i would say enjoy the 6/20 zone for a bit, save up some cb and see what happens. if your strat allows continued growth up the score and mpr ladder then that may keep your interest.

if you start falling behind in score or mpr, then it does get a bit frustrating and that is usually when i decide to hit the treadmill again!

If the fun disappeared with the NUB, then feel free to do a NCB. After all, it's only about entertainment.

But keep in mind that you ran a darn good NUB -- you broke 4 mil. If you were to compare where you would end up with a NCB versus playing your existing character for another six months, your existing character would be on top.

Before you sacrifice your character, try jumping into the tourneys to spice up the game (if you haven't already).

Chances are pretty good that you'd be better off sticking with your current character, at least for a while.
Starting a NCB without a preset strategy, proper gear and serious stockpiles of CB$ is sure to end worse off than where you would get if you just kept on playing.

My Tattoo is the 23rd largest in the game, and the 4th largest Halidon.
Almost 8.1M Score and 146M NW
I have a 64M NW ELB and some other random items.
I was planning on selling everything I owned to possibly make a single minion character and run with that until my NCB expired, I would have no problem funding my character full of items and could buy what I think a big amount of BA. My problem is, which you told me in PM Dude, is that 100m per minion add-on is very expensive. I think too expensive for me.

I've also been in 6/20 for quite some time now. But without the big exp, it just doesnt seem like it's going to be fun anymore. I need something to make it fun. And as you mention Demi, tournaments may be a good idea. I'll have to see about that, but I will still have my big character that I will be leveling and still not really enjoying that.

Another question, say I were to make a NCB and after 1 month I want to restart. Could I delete him and start another brand new NCB? Or would I have to wait until the 6 months are up?

@Sick, Hmm, ya, that makes sense. I was considering selling my gear, or atleast what I could and retiring/selling my current character and hoping to start my NCB by this Saturday, but I think that is way too soon now that you mentioned it. Picking my strategy wouldnt be the hard part, I think selling off my gear (or whatever gear I dont need that I have now for my NCM) would be the part that would take awhile, as I will need $$ to buy other items I will need aswell as BA.

Burton this should help a bit with a few of my thoughts on an NCB:

http://www.carnageblender.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=002uVo

Aside from this I would ask you to please wait a bit for me to finish my NCB and to cleanup my logs and post my NCB Diary. I feel that this would at least help you to see one avenue/perspective. With this you could make a more informed decision.

"Another question, say I were to make a NCB and after 1 month I want to restart. Could I delete him and start another brand new NCB?"

You can restart immediately.

By comparison to NUB, CB life is just so slow. Yeah it isn't fun, but I don't think you'll enjoy 10/20 much either.

You can start another NCB as soon as you have no NCB char active.

And this thread just points out a huge problem with the NUB.

How can one expect most players, after their NUB ends, to continue playing CB at a "snail's" pace after doing a NUB.

CB then becomes so slow.

The NUB is a disgrace to CB and gaming in general.

It is just so wrong on so many levels.

Thanks for the link Zenai and I will wait for your logs. :)
Thanks to everyone else too, very helpful. :)

And Ranger, I think it is just me. I like to be the person who starts low and goes up in the ranks. It's just who I am and what I like.
Everyone (NUB & NCB) will have that 'snail feeling' after their runs, it's not just the NUB.

"My problem is, which you told me in PM Dude, is that 100m per minion add-on is very expensive. I think too expensive for me. "

This is the beauty of the Rune of Enlightenment. Start with as many minions as you plan on ending with, and use the RoE to custom-tailor your XP distribution to exactly what you want it to be. Having a large tat already, you are in a great position to do this, because the saccrificed tat growth oppertunity won't even begin to affect you until you're already well beyond the point of being done with the RoE anyway.


Pros:
1) XP distribution customized to a tee.
2) No cost for additional minions down the line.
3) Extra killslots for your largest minion during the time it would have otherwise been your "single minion"
4) Lower PR during the run without the added weight of a maxed out tattoo

Cons:
1) No tattoo means lower score earlier on from not being able to fight quite as high up as you could, but seeing as you'll have next to no PR weight, instead of hitting a 4m score guy for 70% CB, you can hit a 3.6m score guy for 100% (see Pro 4)
2) Can't "Buy XP" with your minions, but unless I'm mistaken, the XP you can purchase by hiring a large minion costs the same as the XP you get from bought BA. So unless you're buying every single BA during your NCB run, this too, is a non-issue






Far as whether or not to run an NCB, in your current position I personally wouldn't. Just because the chances of you coming up with a better char than the one could have by working on your current char for the next 6 months are very slim... What's worse, if you somehow get messed up along the way, there's no way to get the time back. But if you're just about fast growth and climbing through the ranks at super speed, then an NCB might be just what you need to respark the CB flame.

How does the RoE work exactly, I never quite understood it.
I get more Exp by having it equipped, but it takes up my tattoo slot?

It's only effective for teams with more than 1 minion.
It simply diverts all your xp rewards to the wearer instead of dividing them up like usual.

Ranger this is hogwash:

"And this thread just points out a huge problem with the NUB.

How can one expect most players, after their NUB ends, to continue playing CB at a "snail's" pace after doing a NUB."

I had my NUB almost at the end of the 4 month NUBs and my bonus was over 400%. I stuck around, I enjoy playing CB. Just b/c I'm no longer getting tons of free exp and money doesn't make it any less fun, and it's anything from a snails pace.

Actually I think the opposite would be worse, imagine starting at a snails pace and 5 million behind, at least you're only 1 million behind when you hit the snails pace atm.

Before the bonus, new players stood no chance of overtaking the lead. At all. However, I didn't mind being miles behind the leaders. Instead, my focus was on upgrading my compound bow and hoping to be able to afford a rare elven long bow. I also had my sword to work with as well as tons of armor to forge and work my way up the expensive item list. That was my feeling of progression, and I loved it.

Apparently, that all died with the invention of the bonus. There is no more progression of items. All that's left are a few standard "rares" and many, many pointless items. My NUB was a ton of fun, but now my character is stagnant. I'm not "bashing" the N*B -- it was created to keep competition at the upper ranks, and for the most part, it does it's job. I just don't like the side effects, and I really wish I had something imminent to look forward to -- something to make me feel like my character is still growing.

Titan,

I stated most players. You and others like Rawr are the exceptions.

Just see how many people out of all those trying CB stay past their NUB. I believe it is less than 20%.

Demi: I think a Random Bonus Day would help some with that......Imagine waking up and that day you get a random daily bonus that stays all day.




Just a thought...........