Solo Forcemaster Plausibility?

[Iceman8489]

So for the last couple of days, in my free time, I have been checking out the forum and contemplating the possibility of an almost completely solo Forcemaster build (Still include Invisible Stalker).  It doesn't seem out of the realm of possibility, but then again I haven't been playing for very long.   Through my experience on OCTGN with the base Forcemaster desk,  I find very little use in in the thoughtspores and the Psyloks.   They have very low life as well very low attacks,  and most times it only takes a single attack spell to kill them.   Those precious spell points can be used to beef up the Forcemasters attacks or even provide an extra defense.

I've thrown together a spell book that i can still tell is lacking in maybe a few more toolbox options, but this is a super aggro build and the focus should be getting to the opposing mage as fast and as often as you can. (How I imagine an actual Forcemaster would fight anyway.)

Modified 10/10/13

7 Equpiment [16]
1 Dancing Scimitar [2]
1 Force Ring [1]
1 Galvitar, Force Blade [3]
1 Gauntlets of Strength [2]
1 Reflex Boots [4]
1 Storm Drake Hide [2]
1 Colossus Belt [2]


5 Conjurations [12]
2 Fog Bank [4]
1 Battle Forge [4]
1 Suppression Orb [2]
1 Hand of Bim-Shalla [2]

1 Creature [5]
1 Invisible Stalker [5]

15 Enchantments [38]
1 Forcefield [4]
2 Force Crush [6]
2 Charm [4]
2 Reverse Attack [4]
1 Falcon Precison [2]
1 Cheetah Speed [2]
2 Nullify [4]
1 Circle of Lightning [4]
1 Mongoose Ability [2]
1 Vampirism [4]
1 Bear Strength [2]

19 Incantations [33]
2 Piercing Strike [2]
3 Force Push [3]
2 Knockdown [2]
2 Force Wave [2]
2 Replulse [2]
1 Dispel [2]
1 Seeking Dispel [2]
1 Explode [4]
1 Mass Sleep [4]
1 Teleport [4]
2 Battle Fury [4]
1 Purify [2]

7 Attack [16]
3 Force Hammer [6]
3 Jet Stream [6]
1 Hail of Stones [4]


With the obvious lack of creatures a select choice of equipment is needed.  Including the basic FM equips Galvitar, Dancing Scimitar, Force Ring, and Defense Ring.   But I've added the Gauntlets of Strength to give her a stronger swinging melee attack, combine it with galvitar and the quick attack is a 5 dice roll, the full attack has the possibility for 10 total dice.  The next piece of equipment i added was the Reflex boots.  It adds another defense that can block both ranged and melee attacks, Combine it with the dancing scimitar it gives her 3 possible defense rolls. The regrowth Belt I chose because with all of the defenses in this build it should be harder for an opponent to get strikes through in the event they do +2 heal per turn can help immensely.

I chose the Fog Bank as a wall just for the LOS block it provides.  It is the cheapest in terms of mana of the walls but protects my mage from ranged attacks.  If i understand it correctly it should block sight from a wizard tower as well.  If not someone please let me know.  The battle forge is obviously for the amount of equipment this build uses.  The suppression orb i added but feel its more of a toolbox conjuration against a swarm deck.

The incantations are filled with spells to be used with the QC action to buff the FM before she strikes.   Force Wave and repulse can be used offensively or defensively depending on tempo.

I added Jet Stream to the attack spells due to the ability to push and daze.  I have also found trouble from flying creatures in a play through with the base FM deck.  Jet Stream provides a cheap way to roll 4 dice against those damn thunderift falcons.

[Memnaelar]

My gut instinct is include Eagleclaw Boots and consider a Colossus Belt.  While the extra regen and defense is nice, my desire with the FM would be to get in the opponent's face and make certain that he has little means of getting rid of me short of a Teleport.  Between the Boots and the Belt, you're unlikely to be dealing with various of the worst conditions or forced movement that could slow you down. 

Two cents from the newbie,

Miguel

[Iceman8489]

Colossus belt is an option and eagleclaw boots were another Alternative i thought of.  What i didn't include when i through this together was a way to remove conditions.  Such as weakness which would wreck this build. 

[HomelessJoe]

If I was playing a solo forcemaster my strategy would be to get tons of creatures and really bog her down as much as possible with them. Obviously in addition to that throwing tanglevines and other immobilizing spells. Basically trying to slow her down as much as possible, since her one and only strategy is to get to me as quickly as possible and take me out quick.
Knowing that, I would suggest at least one mass sleep in your book. It's not super expensive, and you can either use it defensively if your in a real pickle, or you can use it where you bate the creatures to swarm you, hoping your defenses hold, and then BLAM mass sleep, effectively cutting the legs off your opponent.

You may also want to throw in another dancing scimitar. With essentially no creature backup, and their attack/defense potential, they are really invaluable.

Anyway, good luck. Please post further with any tweaks through testing.

[Laddinfance]

I would remove Defense Ring. I've rarely had this ring justify it's space. In each attack you only get to try one defense and so at best it increase your chance of defending by 8.3%. That's not enough benefit for me.
I agree that the Colossus Belt is amazing for this style mage. I would run that over the Regrowth Belt any day.
Personally I fine stuns much worse than burns for this style of mage. Thus, I run Storm Drake Hide instead of Dragonscale Hauberk.
Fog banks are fantastic, do not underestimate them.
I don't use Mind Control. It just costs too much to control a creature. I would rather sleep them. It takes less spellpoints and less mana to take the creature out during my quickcast.
I'm not a fan of Charm, but if you do run it you absolutely need Mongoose Agility. Once you charm them they will start guarding and you want to get around that.
Vampirism is an amazing enchantment that should absolutely be given consideration.
The various strikes, aren't that good for the Forcemaster. Using her Quickcast she could instead battle fury with is almost always better than any of those, especially since Knockdown is such a powerful spell.
You have no equipment removal, and I would highly recommend either Explode or Dissolve. You don't want to be stopped by Eagleclaw Boots. Charge is not that good. You can't use it on your stalker and you're often better using your pull and attacking someone.
I run light on attack spells, but Force Hammer is incredible right now.
Hopefully this has been helpful. If you're interested I'd be happy to send you my Forcemaster list. It is a bit strange, but I've really enjoyed it.

[sIKE]

I would remove Defense Ring. I've rarely had this ring justify it's space. In each attack you only get to try one defense and so at best it increase your chance of defending by 8.3%. That's not enough benefit for me.
I agree that the Colossus Belt is amazing for this style mage. I would run that over the Regrowth Belt any day.
Personally I fine stuns much worse than burns for this style of mage. Thus, I run Storm Drake Hide instead of Dragonscale Hauberk.
Fog banks are fantastic, do not underestimate them.
I don't use Mind Control. It just costs too much to control a creature. I would rather sleep them. It takes less spellpoints and less mana to take the creature out during my quickcast.
I'm not a fan of Charm, but if you do run it you absolutely need Mongoose Agility. Once you charm them they will start guarding and you want to get around that.
Vampirism is an amazing enchantment that should absolutely be given consideration.
The various strikes, aren't that good for the Forcemaster. Using her Quickcast she could instead battle fury with is almost always better than any of those, especially since Knockdown is such a powerful spell.
You have no equipment removal, and I would highly recommend either Explode or Dissolve. You don't want to be stopped by Eagleclaw Boots. Charge is not that good. You can't use it on your stalker and you're often better using your pull and attacking someone.
I run light on attack spells, but Force Hammer is incredible right now.
Hopefully this has been helpful. If you're interested I'd be happy to send you my Forcemaster list. It is a bit strange, but I've really enjoyed it.

I agree with almost everything here, the one item is not addressed is the Iron Golem menace, Piercing Strike is fantastic when stacked Galvitar's +2 Piercing and if you want to run a wand or a Thoughtspore this is a great spell to bind to it when there be Golems out there. Just keep the Thoughtspore in LOS and 2 zones from you and 3 from the opposing Mage. The Promo Critical Strike (enchantment) also gives Piercing +3 and when it goes main stream (unless it is horribly nerfed) should be an auto-include for any Solo mage build.

[aquestrion]

If relying upon the defenses that a mage can use during an attack use the warlord temple run tactic.... play 4x temple of the dawn breaker. It allows you to reroll the defense die. But this is more of a mid range tactic if they survive your initial onslaught.

[Iceman8489]

The various strikes, aren't that good for the Forcemaster. Using her Quickcast she could instead battle fury with is almost always better than any of those, especially since Knockdown is such a powerful spell.

So would Battle fury work if one was to cast it using the QC,  Then if possible use the full action from galvitar to double strike,  and then use the quick action melee attack on galviatar for a total of a 12 dice before the mages action is complete?

[Koz]

Try a Temple of the Dawnbreaker and see how that runs for you.  It lets you re-roll a Defense die, which is really good and will pay off long term.  I, personally, would NOT remove the Defense Ring.  While you can only make one Defense roll per attack, you will probably be making multiple defense rolls per turn, so it will pay off, especially if you run the Dawnbreaker.

Also, Hand of Bim-Shalla!  Armor, healing, or melee, at any range.  Almost a must have in a build like this.

And yes, the Colossus Belt is the way to go.  You really need to mitigate Daze/Stun as much as possible. 

Also, I think you are missing a few key enchantments.  Mongoose Agility is pretty huge for avoiding guards and Vampirism is a great passive healing card, especially if you remove the Regrowth Belt for the Colossus Belt.  You also might want to consider Eagle Claw boots as others have mentioned.  You could add Cobra Reflexes to make up for missing out on the Reflex Boot's Defense die.

Lastly, consider Enchanter's Wardstone.  Having two (or more) of these out makes removing your enchantments painful for your opponent.

[Laddinfance]

The Defense Ring is my preference, however with the Temple of the Dawnbreaker you almost double your chance of success. At that point if you need a 7+ to defend and you have a Defense Ring you have a 58.33% chance of success, but if you add in the Temple it jumps to an 82.64% chance of success.  The temple makes the ring worth it. On it's own I'm still not a fan though.

[aquestrion]

Maybe add a WAND for a QC hurl bolder or BF?

[Iceman8489]

Ive been tweaking it and have updated to OP.   Still haven't gotten a chance to try it out and see what i do use and what i don't.

[Reptiboy226]

The tactic that has worked well for me in the past has a rather fast and aggressive opening. I put no creatures in. I typically equip galvitar forceblade, and a mage wand. I like to put force bash on a stick. Rush the mage, and get him in a corner alone. Wall yourselves in with steel walls and let the boxing match begin. Each turn cast force bash from your stick, then full attack. Keep him slammed. If you do put in some creatures you may just use a goblen builder or two in case they got out a few creatures and start tearing down a wall. 

[Zuberi]

I have a feeling you are not playing correctly by some rules, because your described tactic would be very difficult to pull off. Thus, I want to point out some rules I think you might be missing. I apologize if I am wrong and I mean no offense.

1) Force Bash does NOT slam the target unless the target moves one zone (FAQ page 14). Thus, you'd have to have 2 zones walled in, full attack, and then force bash him into the second zone. Next round, you force bash him back into your zone before doing your full attack. Walling in two zones is kind of difficult to pull off though.

2) Slam only incapacitates it's target until the BEGINNING of their action phase (FAQ page 11). They would still be able to do a full cast and summon creatures out to defend themselves, among other options. You are not limiting their options by slamming them. The only effect this would have on most mages is the Daze.

Against your tactic I would definitely get out some creatures to put pressure on you and defend myself, some armor to dampen Galvitar, maybe an Agony to dampen it even more (about half my spellbooks include it specifically for Forcemasters), and of course Dissolves because a solo build without equipment is a sad sight to see.