single fb mage (in General)

i just want to get peoples say, if it is worth puting evasion, or dispel magic on my single fireball mage? or should i not bother at all?

Do you ever intend to add minions, or will you keep it a single minion forever?

probably keep it as single

Go Dispel magic. The effect of evasion can be simulated with displacement boots

ah thanks!
just wondering though, how should i add my exp to it? right now im doing HP 1/3 and FB max

I did one that was set at 1/3 max HP 1/2 max FB and max DM. A steel familiar worked pretty good. I only got to ~1 mil mpr but I was getting 100% challenge bonus with it.

>I did one that was set at 1/3 max HP 1/2 max FB and max DM.

The end effect of that being you get an even ~33% of each HP, FB and DM.


A RoBF should work almost just as well, with the added effects of magic protection (including from own AMF backlash) and some inate evasion (nicely supplementing any DBs/AoI you put on).

HoC is also most likely a most, gear-wise.

thanks for the help guys, ill keep all this in mind =)

if you use the robf, i would go with alatar's gloves for the dd boost.

hmm probably gonna take me a long time to get a RoBF, should my FF be good enough for now?

As long as it's a "regular" one (not a "lesser" one), it's fine... really, just about any tattoo type would be fine, almost no exception.
That's because it will grow alongside your character and you can always use a newly acquired RoBF to reink it later on, so it's as if you had the RoBF from the start.

On a reink, if memory serves right, the first tattoo keeps its level and changes into the second tattoo type, the second tattoo is sacrificed regardless of level, so be careful which one you select in which slot (it should be relatively self-explanatory though, there should be enough hints on the appropriate page).

aaahhh i see that is good then. yes it is a regular one!
also, how does a robf benefit me more than a FF?

a fire familiar just trains hp and damage. your single minion and your fire familiar would actually hurt each other once melee rounds start.

the robf trains amf and evasion and instead of being a minion in itself, it gives its benefits to you. so it is basically free xp and damage without the self-damaging drawback of the familiar.

I'm on the fence between the two. A FF would be better against multi-minion teams by hitting all members throughout the entirety of ranged rounds. The RoBF's damage wouldn't kick in until melee, becoming more or less useless for a single FB mage, especially given the suicidal nature of fireball. However, the RoBF would grant the evasion necessary to defend against archers, which are more often found on fewer-minion teams.

If you were sporting a single MM mage, I'd say RoBF since you'd target fewer-minion teams, but a FB mage will probably be better suited for multi-minion ones anyway.

i just have a real problem with helping to kill my own team, for that reason the only way i would do fireball is single minion with a robf or toe.

the only way i would do a fire familiar is really as a junctioned enchanter or somesuch.

And I'd say, since you can revert to your old tattoo for up to a week after a reink, that when you can afford to you could always just test it out and see what works better for you. :]

hmm... =/ it kinda a hard choice here... and wouldnt my DM affect the robf antimagic?

The RoBF's magic protection is not the same as casting Antimagic Field, so it is unaffected.

ah thank you, clears up a lot :)

The RoBF's antimagic effect is simply to reduce any magic damage dealt to the minion wearing it, regardless of source, but has no effect whatsoever on the opposing team nor on other minions in your team (it's not an enchantment and not affected by any DM).

It reduces damage caused by enemy spells, reduces damage caused by self-inflicted damage due to enemy AMF cast on you, MIGHT be reducing damage from enemy RoBF (not absolutely sure on that one) and also reduces damage from any enemy SoD fire. Reduction is a percentage based on level of tattoo, quickly ramping up to 10%, then slowing down rapidly, with medium-sized tattoos at around 20% reduction and huge tattoos barely reducing over 25% damage.

Of course, it also deals non-GA-retaliable physical-like damage (1/5 of tattoo level each round) and grants some evasion (1/10 of tattoo level), so leveling up the tattoo does matter to some degree (it's most useful early on though).

hmm... it does sound more useful than FF in my case. def going to use robf when i get the chance

It all depends on what you are trying to achieve. If quick ranged kills are what you are after, you'll want one of the ranged familiars (steel, fire, halidon) but the RoBF may be better if you intend to draw your battles out a bit more.