SFBMContents:
The basic SFBM involves training 1/3 to 1/4 of your XP into HP and the rest into Fireball. It is a good way to see how the battles work in Carnage Blender. There are variants of this strategy and is detailed below under the tab "How to build a SFBM". 1) How to split XP(Experience) into 1/3 and 2/3? I do not see the 2/3 option. Answer: The Train engine works the following way. It moves from the top slot downward, and assign the appropriate proportion of XP into that skill. Training 1/2 into HP and 1/2 into DX, for example, will result in 50% of your untrained XP into HP and 25% of your untrained XP into DX. To split 1/3 and 2/3, you simply put 1/3 on the top skill and Max on the other skill. To split 2/3 and 1/3 is a little trickier. Simply train 1/3 into your second skill. Click train. Then assign Max into the first skill. 2) Why shouldn't I hire Minions early? Answer: While hiring minions give you more XP and therefore MPR (Minion Power) right away, it dilutes your XP in the long run. If you would get 100 XP with single minion, having 2 minions each get only 50 XP. I can't explain clearly why XP dilution is bad, so just trust me. Okay? (Please edit). Experience dilution does not help when trying to get a big team, the best thing to do is start with one minion. At least to get the hang of the game. If you have more than one minion right off the bat your XP will be the same amount as a single minion but split, therefore you won't get as much MPR/PR which is very valuable to CB. 3) Why do I want to do a Single Fireball Minion team? Answer: It is easy to train because of there is no shortage of targets, and leaves you with a lot of Carnage Blender money at the end of it for either change of strategy (buy new gears), upgrade your items, or buy new minions. Of course, you can also sell them.
Sub-Strategies with SFBM
Evasion can be used with Dispel Magic or Antimagic Field, but using both means you are diluting your XP, making each spell less effective. Each sub-strategy is targeting a specific type of team, splitting XP means you are less effective against both type of teams, making fighting that much more difficult. Helm of Clearsight gives you an extra round (Round 1 would be only you firing if your opponent does not have Helm of Clearsight as well], This Armor set is suitable for new players. It works with single Fireball minion strategy. However, watch your PR (Power) to maximize your Challenge Bonus. It is not recommended with SFBM, but will not be harmful your strategy until you hit the dead zone (around 1.5m MPR where all strategies including SFBM have problem finding new targets with high Challenge Bonus). Choice of Gloves Alatar's Gloves will increase your Fireball base on the + on it, Noldorin Spellcasters reduce Antimagic Field backlash against your minion based on the +. Elven Gloves increases your DX and Skills. You should only consider this if you are training evasion. Choice of Boots Displacement Boots give you some level of Evasion and Elven Boots give you a DX and skill boost. Elven Boots are better at higher level when your evasion is very big, while Displacement Boots can be used effectively at any level, with or without evasion. Spellboosters is a new item and gives 4% to your Direct Damage spell level. Choice of Amulet Amulet of Focus goes well with Elven gears and Amulet of Invisibility goes well with Displacement Boots. Amulet of Junction goes well with any type of familiar.
While there are many strategies a newcomer might try out and have more or less limited success with, there is one tried-and-tested strategy that ensures a cheap and easy climb to the very top of the rankings... if nothing changed since this guide was written. The name "SFBM" means simply "Single Fireball Mage", named after your team composition and its focus. Several more or less recent changes propelled this strategy to the top of all "easy" choices. The first change came Dec 5 2007, when the "one point for 12 XP" rescale was implemented. This meant that single minion characters (or, for that matter, anybody with a large XP count in a single attribute) got a huge relative boost compared to the previous status quo. The second change that boosted this strategy to the top came Feb 21 2008, with the first adjustment made to the NUB/NCB multiplier value. It was meant to be the first of two rescales of the bonus upwards, but we might as well never see a rescale upwards again, quite the contrary, a scaling down might be introduced. The third change (that only affects NCBs, not NUBs) came right along with the second change, on the very same day : amount of purchasable BA was reduced, and gains scaled up to compensate. This meant that by not buying any BA at all during the course of a NCB, you got relatively more out of your "free BA" than before. There were several other minor changes that promoted the viability of the strategy, but none of them as relevant as the final, big fourth group on Apr 3 2008. That was the day when an attempt to reduce the effect USD-to-CBD exchanges had on the economy, with the introduction of Encumbrance and a harshening of the Weapon Allowance. This automatically meant single minions could pile up better gear and still have no drawbacks, while most of the previous "USD weapons/armors" were forcefully disenchanted, because they were simply too big to use.
This particular strategy is uniquely suited for both a newcomer and a veteran alike because of three things : simplicity, effectiveness and cheapness. It is simple, because you only require a single minion, and only a handful of items. It is effective, because you can always find some targets, even if many will find you a juicy target in return. It is cheap, because it only requires TWO items that need no upgrades at all, ever. Because everything else is optional, as an added bonus, you can simply save all your money until your N*B is over, and hire extra minions... or you can keep going indefinitely, adding optional gear and improving it as you go along. You NEED a Helm of Clearsight and a Rune of Enlightenment. Those two are essential. Leave the HoC at base value, no point enchanting it. You can get a HoC from rentals every now and again, and there are people renting out RoEs if you ask. Keep renting them until you can afford to buy them, or if you're confident you can keep renting them for 4 months until your N*B runs out, don't bother buying your own. You could also make use of either Elven Gloves plus Elven Boots (if you decide to add evasion), or of Displacement Boost and Alatar's Gloves (Noldorin Spellcasters might work too, but AGs are preferable). You can use an amulet if you want to, but it's not really needed at all : Amulet of Invisibility might go nicely with Displacement Boots, or you could try an Amulet of Focus with the Elven Gear, but ultimately, you don't really need any amulet at all. You might want to use a tattoo that grows when you go on the defense. Tattoo of Endurance, Steel Familiar or Fire Familiar, either of them works nicely. However, you don't need any of these. They're purely optional, and you should mainly use them in the defense, not on offense. The very early strategy, you can use just about any other single minion strategy you want. SFBM works decent from the start, but it's not great. Unarmed Combat and a Sling might be a better choice early on, or training pure HP and slapping on a RoBF. (Rune of Balrog Flame) Either way, the early stages do not mater very much. Once you get over 10k MPR, and you have both the RoE and HoC, it's time to convert to SFBM though. Untrain everything else except HP, and put all the XP into Fireball. Try to join (if you haven't already) a clan that earns some bonuses... or just create your own clan. Only train HP and DD (Fireball) for a while. Anywhere from 50% to 90% of your experience should go into the fireball, play around and see what's best for you as you climb the score ranks. Try to always fight at the 100% Challenge Bonus or very close to it, this way you will not inflate your score too soon, and you won't draw attention of people seeking to earn both good challenge bonuses and clan points. DO NOT fight enemies you can't beat in a single fight. Double taps are bad. DO NOT keep fighting enemies you draw with too much. Anything below 90% won fights, and it's time to consider dropping him from the fight list. Eventually, people will notice you, and you'll start getting into negative clan points for a while. This is unavoidable, so don't despair. This is why I said you should join another clan, hopefully the rest can still earn enough clan points to keep the clan afloat while you slowly climb in MPR to a point you are no longer heavily farmed. If you would be the sole member of your clan, you might actually end up with the clan disbanded. However, if your clanmates (from the clan you managed to join) can't understand you, you might end up booted out before you manage to get back on the positive side... this is why getting all those "defensive" items might actually be a good idea in the long run. Just make sure you take them down whenever you fight offensively : your PR is lower, so your rewards are higher. The only item you should even consider keeping on while fighting are the ]Alatar's Gloves].
Later on, when you have reached at least 400k MPR or so, you should think about getting some other things trained except HP and DD(FB). One thing worth training is an offensive enchantment. At least you have a choice here. You could pick AMF (Antimagic Field), to stop base Decay strats from being too effective, or stop some smaller DDs. Personally, I would not go above 200k with it, but you can go as high as you want. You could pick DM (Dispel Magic), to reduce the effectiveness of AS/GA based teams. Get this as high as you like (depending on usual enemy ED levels). Even EC (Ethereal Chains) would be ok against tank opponents, lowering their chance to hit (by reducing DX) and cutting off some Encumbrance (by removing ST). Just remember that the more XP you put into this, the more you drain away from HP/DD, while only combatting a certain kind of enemies... so make sure you size up the numbers of each type of opponent before you decide to commit serious amounts of XP into any of them. The last thing you should consider is training a skill. The only one worth having is Evasion. I would not go overboard with it, better have a little bit less than needed instead of wanting to untrain it to get your HP/DD higher. Works best at higher levels trained (3-4 mil) if you have Elven gear on, works better with Displacement Boots at lower XP levels (even a few hundred k).
If you're doing it right, and you're finding new opponents (either through raw MPR increase or tweaks to your strategy to exploit their weaknesses), your MPR graph should look almost linear. Once you hit 6/20 BA regen rate, you no longer have any penalties for fighting "below PR", so if you can't find any targets with a positive challenge bonus anymore, you can slap on all that optional gear you only used on defense before and keep fighting anybody you want. Your primary target should be to get to 6/20 BA regen (60% of top MPR) before your N*B runs out with a SINGLE MINION setup. If you're looking at a slightly upwards curve, you're doing great. If you're looking at a slightly downwards curve, you either missed too many battles or you should start considering alternate strategies. If you're looking at a pronounced drop in the growth curve that keeps getting flatter constantly, it might be time to convert, since you may not be able to get to the desired endpoint. As to what you can do, you can either hire extra Minions (in which case you should retrain the Fireball as either Cone of Cold or Magic Missile) or you could convert to another single-minion strategy (RoBF or Tank). Getting extra minions has the disadvantage of costing a lot, and unless you can win the fights in range, you have to switch away from FB or you'll be toasting your own team. Switching to any other single-minion strategy means you have to drop the RoE (either to get a tattoo or armor+cloak), so your growth rate will get shot to pieces. It's probably best if you do both at the same time, convert your mage to a tank and hire an enchanter or two, even all three if you can afford them and tank gear.
If you are careful in target selection, if you get the SFBM strategy running properly early on, if you don't miss any of your free BA, you should make it to at least to 70% of top MPR as a NCB (without buying BA), or even above 80% of top MPR as a NUB (getting all extra free BA each day). If you manage to get to 6/20 BA regen (60% of top MPR) with a SFBM before your N*B runs out, the main task of this guide has been fulfilled. Whatever you do past this point is really up to you. If you want to have a shot of the top MPR however, you will never switch away from the SFBM/RoE strategy at all, you will just refine it and add more networth to your items. The sheer MPR difference you will achieve over the ones not using a RoE at all should be enough to eventually leave the non-RoE users behind. Then, if you have kept a good chunk of the cash you earned as a single minion, you can make a sudden huge leap in MPR by adding 33.33% worth of Experience points by hiring all three extra minions at the same time, securing you the #1 spot in MPR, at least for a while (until the next person follows this strategy, if it remains un-nerfed, and does the same thing you did, only later). last edited by Brakke Bres at Mar 13 2009 - Edit SFBM Pages that link to this page: |