Nub strat. help please (in General)

Assets: $550k (w/Nub bonus)

Archer/lt. tank

Hit Points: 40,278
Armor: 61
Strength: 105,341 / 45,942
Dexterity: 147,831 / 116,193
Archery: 0.98 / 1.00
Ethereal Chains: 32 / 33 (just to throw off those trying to farm me)

Katana [74x45] (+3)
Compound Bow [5x139] (+20)
Leather Boots [4] (+6)
Tulkas' Gauntlets [6] (+7)
Cabasset [3] (+7)
Kite Shield [13] (+15)
A Lesser Tattoo of Augmentation lvl 105,016
Enchanter/Mage
Hit Points: 10,071
Armor: 54
Strength: 20
Dexterity: 20
Armor Proficiency: 1
Fireball: 1,968
Antimagic Field: ?
Haste: 37 (again, just to throw people off)

Leather Armor [6] (+9)
Cloak [1] (+8)
Pair of Leather Boots [4] (+8)
Pair of Leather Gloves [1] (+9)
Cabasset [3] (+5

I'm really considering upgrading to a full tattoo of some sort. However, it kills me because I'd have to buy a lvl 20 tat and not get the 105k lvl bonus the lesser tat gives me.

In the long run you'll prefer a regular tat, even if it sets you back a bit initially...in no time, that little loss of 105k levels will seem insignificant.

Don't delay on upgrading to a full tat - the difference in leveling speed only hurts you the longer you use a lesser tattoo.

Also, if you hold on to that lesser tattoo, it can probably fetch a very nice price during a tournament where contestants are allowed to use tattoos.

Would a tat of endurance work for this build?

Oh, and my AMF is at about 170k w/Fireball at 25k. It seems the AMF is more important because there area lot of DD teams and my AMF only knocks the best of them to about 50%.

My HP is really not high enough to survive very long in melee. Should I up it on the Archer/lt. tank or concentrate on ST and Dex.

I keep the Dex up so I get 2x hits against most teams, but it seems the damage is not enough to get me to 100% teams.

Thanks in advance.

1) Change AMF to DM. FB and archery are quick kill methods
2) Get a Helm of Clearsight ASAP
3) Get an elb quickly
4) Get a full tattoo. You can buy one higher than level 20 for a fraction of its NW. 20% most likely
5) You likely will want a corn vs a HoC for your mage/enchanter. Test each by renting them if you can.

Thanks Ranger.

Should I go 50/50 w/the FB and DM?

I don't have the $ to do all that; what should I do first? I take it the HoC is the most important, but they cost an awful lot.

What tat?

Wise,

Check out my main character. Does the setup look familiar? A quick note, though. If I was able to do it over, I would probably go with a SoD over an ELB to get splash damage from that, and then switch away from the fireball familiar that's causing so much pain in melee.

A ToA is a great one for an archer. It gives str/dex/pth and lets you put the xp into hp and archery.

Your FB mage would most likely be useful to try to take out those low HP minions in front, however, with PL out there it is hard to do that. 50/50 would not be a bad ratio.

Wise a lot of good advice in here. I would say the most important thing right now would be to get a regular Tatoo, not a lesser. Regular tatoos grow at a faster rate, and they are important not only now, but especially later in the game.

There are 2 of them in the auctions right now to bid on. If you need help on how to bid and use the auctions let us know! (look in "quick links" box to the left, highlight "Auctions" then "rare items" scroll down and tatoos are in the middle :)

I'll try to get the ToA - I just got outbid on a lvl 20 when I ran out of $.

And Demigod, yes yours looks very similar. Did you choose the MM of FB to hopefully get some kills in ranged and not just soften them up? Plus that way you don't get damage in melee. Although my FB mage/enchanter usually dies before melee anyway.

One thing I have considered is going 50/50 AmF/Dm and dropping all the HP and FB so he's just an enchanter. He'll go down real quick and adsorb one big hit. Still, if the team has no ranged damage, I'd be wasting all those rounds when I could hit them with FB or MM..

even if you could go AMF and DM on one minion the DM would counter your AMF.
You can't use them on the same minion because they are both EO spells and you only have 1 slot available for EO on each minion

Doh. Slaps forehead.

Alright I switched to 50/50 FB/DM and it definitely works better. Plus the loaned ELB...(thanks man) The DM really hits those multi-min. teams based on AS defense. Although the 50/50 HP/FB 1-min. teams tear me up...

I would not go with AMF for numerous reasons.

It just does not fit with your strategy.

AMF is a very strange spell now. Either you really pump a lot of xp into it or use very little.

There is no middle ground given certain items in the game.

Alright, I'll go with this for now...and let know when and how to return the elb.

Also, remember that you can rent. There is a lot of nice equipment you can afford available in rentals. Try out a Helm of Clearsight and Beleg's Gloves for your archer and see what a big difference it makes. It won't take you very long to get the money you need to buy one yourself, but it will be worth the 100-200K to rent for a month while you save up. Alatar's Gloves are also pretty cheap and will help the MM. A Buckler of Mandos is cheap to rent too.

I won the reg. ToA for $157k! Thanks Knightwarrior for not out bidding me...

I know the HoC is the next item I need. Goodness they normally cost a lot.

But Mike believes I should rent one and would make it the rental fee in fights. I'll probably end up doing that until I can afford one.

Thanks for all the help, gentlemen.

So I rented the HoC, bought an AoM & a base ELB, might get a Cloak of Is. and my ToA is up past 85k now.