What tattoo would benefit a SMFB mage most? (in General)

Just curious. Discuss?

your aiming for fast kills with a FB setup so a FF or SF will be great

SFBM and it would depend on char set up and finally personal preference.

With only HP/FB being trained:

HoC, NSC's, AoF, DBs and SoC I would use a "RoBF"(Damage) or "ToE"(To Resist Damage)

HoC, NSC's, AoJ, SB's and SoC I would use a "SF"(Ranged) or "EF"(Melee)

HoC, NSC's, AoJ, DB's and SoC I would use a "Hal"(Ranged) or "Jiggy"(Melee)


Just 3 different Examples with basic set ups there are a LOT of nuances you could add in to balance the strat with other tats.

I used a Steel familiar for mine, I like doing the CoC damage and having the high amount of fb damage to finish them off.

SuiteStuff, what??? You just said 2 different things.

hahhahah sorry, just woke up, my single mage is CoC with Steel familiar and guess what I was thinking had formed its ways into words here.

When I had FB I loved the Steel Familiar, The FB and MM combo of attacking from the back to forth and front to back was amazing! I just simply love Steel Familiar with all forms of magic.

Named RoE :)

That, or a ToA with an ExBow and convert the FB mage to CoC mage :D

Sickone: That would be a SCoCM not a SFBM it is not an answer to the question asked:

Conversion from one type of character/minion to another changes the question completely.

Hence the word "convert"...

You are NOT giving a suggestion inside the parameters of question asked no matter how good/bad it may be.

I was thinking ToE with high AC armor instead of normal mage gear. I understand that I'd be giving up the HoC as well as having a penalty on my FB/DM, but the extra AC might work well with the endurance.

JW used a strat with a ToE and had pretty good results from it you may want to ask him about it. As far as the penalties you might want to try the AP Skill(if it is still not broken :-/ )

If you are going to go with a high AC mage and thinking about using a ToE, ditch the tat all together and go full tank gear with SS. Heavy Mage Wall FTW.

Best in slot for a SFBM?

RoBF (AMF backlash reduction / Magic damage reduction / Extra damage)
FF (Full out nuke)
TSA

Now there's an idea! The only problem is that I'm very low income, so it would be hard for me to have an optimal NW AC set. Also, I lose the tattoo growth, the thing I can take from one NCB to the next.

Well the Drop off for ToE effectiveness is around 7-8 Mil. So if this is truly the route you want to go you can get a starter set and Slap on the ToE. While you are ToEing it(had to do it....lol), you can work on that starter Wall Set(Optional but highly recommended TSA), piece by piece until it is where you fell you need it to be. More often than not I believe that its now how much you have right now but how much you can generate and accomplish through careful planning.

Back to my initial (non-situation-changing) advice, that of a named RoE.

First off, any of the other tattoos don't really expand your target pool hugely all that often, at least not to the degree that you can keep a somewhat similar challenge rating.
By going with a named RoE, you're getting the 4% XP bonus, and you're tacking on the extra challenge bonus values for the same targets, thus helping you grow faster. On the downside, to tattoo growth, so less value on the character. It's a trade-off between character XP and character NW.
Yes, if you go higher in PR, there are situations where even if you get slightly lower challenge bonuses, you can still earn slightly more XP by fighting somewhat larger targets, but the balance between one and the other is tricky, and depends on the exact targets available.

Of course, you can always use a different tattoo defensively, but you won't be getting any significant growth on it.

Just wondering, why would a high AC mage be better than a mid AC mage with a ToE?

Any responses?

Probably because of the ToE's effectiveness drop off range. At lower levels it is great for the Endurance it grants but once you move past a certain point you are better off with a TSA imho.

I see. What this high AC FB mage utilize DM?

I would as that AC while nice will not be able to completely protect you from EOs. DM will kill them though and you will need that extra bit of umpth. I think what you are trying is admirable but honestly it's gonna be difficult to say the least. Still though I say if this is what you really want to do then go for it and let's see where you end up, Good Luck! :-)