Musing of bored Player (strat talk) (in General)

If you had 4.5M extra levels on a ~6.7M MPR char, what would you do with it. I have considered,

- AMF
- EC
- HP+PL

Here's what you can't choose:

- GA

With the three I've looked at so far, AMF doesn't appear like it'd be very helpful. For example, 4.5M AMF would only give 5-6% against Ranger's familiar after his NSCs.

However, 4.5M EC would lower someone's ST by 2.25M. Against the same char again, Horror, who has a tank, this loss in ST would result in ~15% loss of damage. It would take a little over 20M ST to cause the EC to be less effective than the AMF.

Now let's consider the "special" benefits of both of these. 2.5M ST/DX drain is enough to drain the ST/DX on a lot of light tanks. Completely nullifying their damage. However, 4.5M AMF would ensure that even people that trained non-base Decays would be hit pretty hard with the AMF. Finally, we have to take in considerations about which one of them would affect the most opponents. I think right now at the top they are both about equal. I'm still on the fence between these two, but I'm leaning towards EC.

And let us not forget about PL/HP. This one actually is starting to sound the best. It's got an innate 10% damage reduction, almost immediately making it better than AMF. In addition to that, 4.5M more HP would be a near 22-23% increase in health on my current char.

So, what do you guys think? Do you think PL/HP is the best. Do you think there is another better option I haven't considered?

One by one:

AMF, it would be like peeing in the wind vs all the high level familiars and DD you see at the level you fight.

AMF, as I stated in another thread, has basically been neutered by the NSC. The highest AMF I face right now, aside from Mikel, is .23 by MM.

If you are going to use AMF, unless you use 10M levels, I would say use 1M.

EC, as you say, would not do much for that level you will use. I think 4.5M levels would be as effective as 4.5M levels of AMF, not very.

Any ED you use, not backed by a RoS would also be of little help at this level.

My recommendation, give your massive single minion, would be a HP/PL/AC minion.

The only other consideration would be using DM and have your first minion use a AoI to help vs decay. DM would lower other characters GA and AS (not RoS however).

But while we were chatting via CM about you hiring another minion, I had always thought a PL/HP/heavy AC vs TSA minion was how you were going to go.

Minion 1: SS + RoS + ~4.5M exp into something
Minion 2: SG/HP/AP + Very High AC and NSCs

Now I just need to figure out what to do with that 4.5M exp. I'm going to put the minion in front, put an AoI/BoFs on him, so I guess that's another downside to PL/HP with that exp.

I say 500k-1M in AMF to help vs decay and the rest into hp/pl. It will help keep your mage alive longer and help take some damage from MM. Even though that minion will not be using a TSA, who cares if it dies as long as it lives long enough to help keep your huge mage alive.

just as ranger says :)

ugh. Really makes me wonder if "Single minions" really are all that great.

You end up with one super large minion and a few rather useless kill slots.. >.>

Single minions are the best, hiring is the problem

Just wait till I'm beating you with 1/4th your NW.

Single minions have a huge disadvantage due to their inability to wear body armor and use a cloak.

I have a lot of hidden MPR due to the TSA I am able to wear on my huge minion. 660k hp a round regeneration and 60% strength bonus is a huge advantage of having more than 1 minion.

long game is more fun, hiring is for the impatient

The longer you wait, the less likely you will ever hire. At least that is my suspicion.

Yeah, I'll just go ahead and enjoy the 3 years until not hiring would have been a better decision.

I've found I tend to like 2 minions best for purposes of overall power, I like 5 tanks best for fun.