[Grek]

Mindhunt is the major weakness with using mothers for thugging. You can use AMA, but it does cost more S gems. I tend to find enough, but I could just be getting lucky.

I would do something like Dormant Great Enchantress N4S4E6. You can still get pretty good scales with that. When she wakes up, send her site searching. Forge a booster for a lizard shaman and have it start searching with arcane probing.

Another way to do mother thugs is to skip the bless and go for pure nature items. Boots of the Messenger, AMA and a Regen Ring. It costs more gems total, but it uses mostly nature gems which you should have enough of. Mother Oak may be an option, if you can get alteration researched quick enough.