How to counter all mage build?

[Herbspiceguy]

Anyone know a good way of countering an all mage build?
Our rank 1 is all mage and melts 50% of my army away before even touching them.

[resquinox]

Use shooter team + max magic resistance. Silence trait helps too, but it's not needed if your shooters have high attack + fear trait.

[babschild]

I just got past an all-mage boogeyman in my league w/ the silence mutagen & maxed-out fencers (HP and magic damage upgraded almost all the way + the spin move). I didn't even have magic resist up past the first level.

[Hans]

I would suggest next time you fight them that you pause the game and inspect one of the mages to see what perks they have.

I would guess that player has boosted magic damage to probably at least +300% and has the mutation that randomly does 50 damage (+300%) every time he casts a spell. Consider that they're also casting probably thunderbolts with the chain lightning mutation, that's anywhere from 4-6 1050 (+300%) spells that jump multiple times. Then they each cast a fireball for 120 (+300%), the shockwave AoE spell for (+100%), and then maybe the shield spell that absorbs 500 damage, but still triggers the ability damage spell. You take all that damage, then multiple the number of troops by 50 (+300%) for the mutation typed to spell abilities, and that's a TON of nuking power.

babschild's suggestion would probably work since the fencers would get into melee range and could start their death spin for good AoE damage, however if they have the "spiky armor" trait and reflect 50% of that damage back at you, you might still be in trouble.

I beat the super tough all mage team in my league by out-sustaining them. I put 7 healers in the back with remote heal and wore them down. Mages have no HP regen mutations so if you can more or less facetank their opening salvo without taking massive losses, you'll eventually win in a war of attrition.

[Herbspiceguy]

Originally posted by resquinox:

Use shooter team + max magic resistance. Silence trait helps too, but it's not needed if your shooters have high attack + fear trait.

Hmmm I did 2 tries with very powerful shooters (2 rows) and tricksters (2 rows), and a handful of healers. Extra damage, extra AS, rubber, perforating, life steal on shooters. Extra dodge, extra damage, life steal %, life steal flat, shield buff, dodge = splash damage, 25% resurrect on tricksters.
Latest attempt with full magic res + silence (couldn't get fear a well) = not even close to winning.
Previous attempt with 3x magic res + fear = not even close to winning.
Also he's still rank 1, and I see others are struggling as well, new players are hitting rank 2, 3, 4. Seems a bit OP.

Originally posted by babschild:

I just got past an all-mage boogeyman in my league w/ the silence mutagen & maxed-out fencers (HP and magic damage upgraded almost all the way + the spin move). I didn't even have magic resist up past the first level.

I haven't played with fencers a lot, they feel so much more weak than tricksters, I feel they can't hold their own and need to rely on tanks, which I'm not fond of. But I guess I could learn and experiment with them more.

Originally posted by Arngrim:

I would suggest next time you fight them that you pause the game and inspect one of the mages to see what perks they have.

I keep forgetting to do this.

Originally posted by Arngrim:

babschild's suggestion would probably work since the fencers would get into melee range and could start their death spin for good AoE damage, however if they have the "spiky armor" trait and reflect 50% of that damage back at you, you might still be in trouble.

Seeing how they melt my tricksters down so fast, I can't see how fencers could get in there, but I definitely want to try more with fencers.
Where do fighters stand in this situation?

Originally posted by Arngrim:

I beat the super tough all mage team in my league by out-sustaining them. I put 7 healers in the back with remote heal and wore them down. Mages have no HP regen mutations so if you can more or less facetank their opening salvo without taking massive losses, you'll eventually win in a war of attrition.

In my attempts I had 3 or 4 healers, but they weren't a factor, I could try with more, but I found healers less efficient in lategame overall.

[지노]

Try all trickster with 4,5 tier item. 2~3 stilts with 5 trickster is enough to get 11Lv.

[babschild]

I think my fencers had some armor boosts, an extra HP boost from a random event, and maxed-out HP. The HP + armor just makes them so unbelievably durable in a way that, at least from what I've seen, tricksters can't even compete with. I've also faced a few teams with this same uberfencer build where their HP just did. not. go. down. Early/mid game is much harder when you go all in on fencers instead of tricksters, and I should mention I've only managed this fencer build once!

[지노]

If it's hard enough and only uses a skill that doubles ATK, there's no problem whether it's a fencer or a trickster. ^^b

[babschild]

Yeah, I just faced my own team + a better fencer-based team (at rank 2 and 1 respectively) with a different fencer team that did not have any armor perks. I was beaten by both pretty handily. Added armor *really* makes the difference for high HP and base armor units like fencers.

Re: fighters, I haven't seen any in the top 10, and when I've tried fighter builds they just don't seem to get it done in KotH. They do have some good upgrades through quests though. I haven't experimented enough