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I like the Dominator Orb and Controller Font because they will draw aggro from mobs that I've just immobilized. According to the buff icons, it also looks like they are applying Interface effects as well (but I have not verified). Not the best pets, but they are actually doing something.

I have Suppression 6-slotted with Annihilation, which includes a -Res proc. This wasn't my first choice for this set, but it is what I ended up using.

I will comment on a couple of your early powers for the time being. I avoided all Soldier attacks. I use Longfang, simply because I hate having to run after mobs to make melee attacks to finish them off. My build's big melee attack is the patron Mace attack, but otherwise it is all range for my Crab. The arc of Suppression is wonderful. I have Frenzy, but I really only use it in two cases. The first is when melee mobs are actually around me (this is uncommon because of positioning for range attacks). The second is when I am focusing fire on a ranged Target but something has wandered close enough to be hit by Frenzy when I get a break in the attack chain. My Crab has permahasten and I have made sure that the pet recharge is just under the pet duration. This makes them 'perma' (if they live) but I like having the timer tell me how much time they have left. The main issue my build has is that the positional Defenses are all in the mid 30s

You are very welcome!

I'm curious if the extra Def/Recharge in Mind Link is doing that much for your builds? I don't play against 54 AVs, but for most (incarnate) content I don't even use Mind Link when I am solo. I don't use it to hold Shield Wall, so I am just 3-slotting it: Adjusted Targeting: Recharge and 2x LotG; Def/Global Recharge and Def/Recharge. After those 3 I don't see significant improvements in Recharge time. My slotting has Defense bonus at 31.9%, which translates to +13.19 Defenses. On my build the positionals are the highest with 64.8% Melee, 61.1% Ranged and 54.8% AoE (no Winter Sets used, so AoE could be boosted by 7.5 if desired). I'll also note that I don't use Hasten in this build, and the recharge time for Mind Link is 106 seconds.

I am also annoyed about the limited choices of where to slot MM ATOs. I'm also unhappy that the Tanker ATO only exist for the secondary set, and that the set bonuses aren't particularly exciting for tanks that want to focus on the primary set. Surely something could have been developed to help both Defense and Resistance based tanks? I feel like I'd almost rather have one ATO for each than what the Tanker gets now.

Hami-O's don't buff Recharge in Mind Link for the same reason Hami-O's don't buff the non-boostable attributes of other sets that don't take those specific IOs. That is: the game won't allow a ToHit buff boost (from the same Hami-O) in a set that doesn't take ToHit IOs but does take recharge. Originally this is how Hami-O's worked, but it was not what was intended(tm) and was changed. It is possible to boost the recharge time of Mind Link using the pure Recharge enhancement from Adjusted Targeting. My preferred slotting for Mind Link is attuned 3-slots: Adjusted Targeting: Recharge, LotG:Def/Global Recharge, LotG: Def/Recharge. Any (good to lvl 50) X/Recharge Defense or ToHit used in the third slot will get you almost maximal performance. You can eek out a little more, but Enhancement Diversification eats into the time more than it is worth using a fourth slot. YMMV, but that's all I've ever needed.

A few weeks back I used the second build of my 'Crabbermind'/'Craster' to try out a tanky Bane ('Banky' ?). It has very solid defenses across the board, with middling resistances... but the offense is slower (and feels less effective than) my Energy Melee tanker. The activation times on the mace attacks take longer than the recharge times, even without Hasten! It literally feels like the toon is simply standing around waiting to make attacks. This makes it very boring to play a mace-based Bane. I can tolerate having a tank that doesn't do so much damage, because Tanks get a better Taunt (than the Presence pool's Provoke), and generally get some sort of Taunt aura as well as punchvoke... but I'd like a viable under-lvl-32 mace-build that showcases the Mace as much as the Crab-pack can be used at lower levels (after the initial respec of course).

You can eek out some more defense for the Crab pets by different slotting in each Maneuvers, and IIRC Grant Invisibility also has a base 5% bonus. I think the actual answer is to team with other players!

The Spiderlings have inherent 20% resistance against Smashing, Lethal. and 30% resistance to Psionic The Disruptors have 10% resistance against Smashing/Lethal, 20% against Energy, 30% Psionic The Blaster has inherent 20% resistance against Smashing, Lethal. and 30% resistance to Psionic Expedient Reinforcement gives 10% resistance across the board. All spiders have 0% inherent defense, so this is easy to figure out! Edict of the Master gives 5% defense (all) In my build, TT:Maneuvers is providing 15.75% defense (6-slotted with Reactive Defenses) and Maneuvers (2-slotted with LotG) is providing 4.95% defense.

Thanks for the feedback! I don't usually run at +4/8. When I do, it is with teams and I'm not really relying on the pets for damage. Solo, I'm either running +0/8 or +1/8. I like the drops more than XP, and I'm not looking for uber-challenges at this point in my CoH life! Having disclosed that, I take your point about the number of attacks in the Spiderlings. I haven't been watching the pet combat logs, but the Spiderlings are crazy about rushing into close combat, and when I just have them out I can hear what attacks they are making so I know they are using both attacks in rapid succession. I can also see the Build Up triggering on their buffs, and I certainly see them knocking down opponents. The question is: would it be better to slot the Build Up proc on the (two) Disruptors instead? I feel like slotting the T1 pets is generally better: I have the T1 pets at a lower level when exemplared (only 3 levels lower, so not much) There are 3 T1 pets as opposed to 2 T2 I wanted to boost the accuracy and damage of the T3 pets rather than just incrementing the accuracy/damage of the higher tier pets. If I had the extra slots, I would definitely consider add the Call To Arms: Defense Aura. I have a question here: The in-game text indicates that this is only 20' (as opposed to 40'), do you find this makes a difference? The Spiderlings activate berserker-mode at times; this is understandable given their attacks. I give some extra boost to the pets via Grant Invisibility, which would otherwise be a mule power for Luck of the Gambler Global Recharge (as is Invisibility, my lvl 50 power choice) Boring paragraph on personal power decisions hidden:

I'm running a lvl 50 Crabbermind with 6-pets: the sixth is the Epic Patron Blaster from the Mace pool. This toon has perma-hasten, and the global recharges are timed such that the T2 Disruptors and the T3 Blaster have recharged in under 4 minutes. My experience at my difficulty settings (usually 0x8) is that the T2 and T3 are reasonably well-behaved in that they stay close to me and rarely get wiped out before their timer expires, so I don't have extra recharge in those powers. I'm curious to read other Crab's approach to the pets. Here is the slotting I'm working with for these three pets: T1 (Summon Spiderlings) - 6-slots Level 35: Summon Spiderlings (A) Expedient Reinforcement - Accuracy/Recharge (36) Expedient Reinforcement - Accuracy/Damage (36) Expedient Reinforcement - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (36) Expedient Reinforcement - Endurance/Damage/Recharge (37) Overwhelming Force - Damage/Chance for Knockdown/Knockback to Knockdown (50) Soulbound Allegiance - Chance for Build Up T2 (Call Reinforcements) - 5-slots Level 38: Call Reinforcements (A) Expedient Reinforcement - Accuracy/Recharge (39) Expedient Reinforcement - Accuracy/Damage (39) Expedient Reinforcement - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (39) Expedient Reinforcement - Endurance/Damage/Recharge (40) Edict of the Master - Defense Bonus T3 (Summon Blaster) - 4-slots Level 47: Summon Blaster (A)Expedient Reinforcement - Accuracy/Recharge (48) Expedient Reinforcement - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (48) Expedient Reinforcement - Endurance/Damage/Recharge (48) Expedient Reinforcement - Resist Bonus Aura for Pets The rest of this build is pretty tight; the power choices are getting me the Global Recharge I want and I at most could sacrifice a single Proc slot to get an extra slot for the build, but obviously I can move slots among the pets. How do other Crabs feel about this slotting? The Crab pets are all at level 35+, so 4-slotting Expedient Reinforcement as the core of each tier is the no-brainer given that the 4th set bonus is 6.25% Global Recharge. My theory is to have the extra Overwhelming Force damage/knockdown and %Build Up in the T3 because there are three of them and they recharge faster than the other pets. The 40' Edict of the Master Pet Defense (along with my other powers) brings them up to over 25% defenses (from 20% defenses) which definitely feels like it is keeping them in the fight (when they stay close to me!)

The +Recharge is for the Dom, not the Bonfire. I think my Dom has permadom with Hasten, but IIRC is a fraction of a cast time short of permahasten. The timing of Bonfire is such that every proc fires, so the recharge there closes the gap for permahasten.

I certainly have boosted both PVP and Superior IOs, but pay close attention to what you are boosting because if you have already 5-slotted such a set, Enhancement Diversification penalties kick in pretty fast for most of the attributes being boosted. If you are relying on procs, you especially want to see what is happening with Recharge boosters.

Full disclosure: My Bonfire is frankenslotted with Procs (including +Recharge and (Overwhelming Force? or Sudden Acceleration?) KB->KD). Mileage may improve with actual KB sets. As near as I can tell (and I haven't checked logs) the Knockback(Down) in Bonfire doesn't behave like a Control power. I would be happy to be wrong, but I haven't seen it stack and it doesn't appear to contribute to extra WAYLAY! incarnate damage.

I recently activated the second build of my lvl 50 Crab as a Bane. The Crab is a fun AoE w/ 6 pets, but is a little soft with low 30ish% positional Defenses. I realize that I really am supposed to alter play style depending on the build, but taking a lot of aggro with 30% defenses is tricky. I built the Crab with 45%+ positional Defenses and roughly 50% resistances but this build is so much slower on offense. I'm relying on Mace attacks and Mu for offense. The activation animations are murder! The build is extremely capable: on TFs he can run away from the team and not worry about dying, but it clearing rooms by himself was simply not as easy. The Fortunata is as tough as the Bane but delivers so much more AoE offense, plus brings control.

In terms of Fear, I'd like to see a (Superior) proc similar to the Contagious Confusion. Something that can improve the single-target Fear attacks or step up the (PB)AoE. Also, the existing Fear set bonuses are all very similar. A (Superior) Fear set that included some good positional Defense bonuses would be a nice change of pace. Slow IO set bonuses offer the variety that Fear lacks, but I've never been tempted to slot a set in a slow power...it's Frankenslotting or bust. An alternative to the %Smashing proc to deal damage would be (at least) a chance at some variety.

I find the most annoying feature of the Presence pool to be that I can't jump immediately to the last two powers without taking two earlier ones. The single-target Fear isn't a bad power, but it is the one that my toons would prefer to skip on the way to the PBAoE or Unrelenting... because while I don't mind taking one of the three first powers, I typically only use 1 of them.

+1 for both Taunt and Fear. Give them some Purple Love (tm)!

I routinely move salvage (in stacks of 10 or less) into the AH from character storage.

The Panic Button is really the only practical reason to have an AoE Hold. I admit that I've taken the AoE holds on Controllers ASAP, but the (leveling up) recharge times don't make it as useful during solo play for me. YMMV,O. "Panic Button" has a couple of meanings for toons, as hitting the AoE and accidentally grabbing more aggro than you want certainly can cause a panic! My Doms hold off on the AoE holds until the global recharge is better.

If you are only slotting one: the Spider's Bite: Global % Toxic is worth slotting for the reasons mentioned. The %Terrorize gets different mileage depending on how many villains you face at a single time. It should always be in some sort of AoE, but if you are facing small groups the effect will be less noticeable. The extra recharge can be a good thing depending on other slotting. One some of my VEAT, I try to slot both sets. Dominion of Arachnos gets 5 slots, and Spider's Bite gets at least 4 slots. Here is my notes: Some VEAT can have trouble closing the gap on (positional) Melee defense, the 4-slot (Superior) Spider's Bite goes a long way there. When going for MAXIMUM +RECHARGE, it is possible of some VEAT builds to get the +10% Global Recharge from five other non-ATO purple slotting, so the NON-SUPERIOR DoA can give +8.75 Global Recharge, which is one of the "rarer" amounts of Global Recharge. Depending on which powers you pick for your VEAT, it can be easy or hard to get different offensive power sets which scale with you as you exemplar/level up. It's nice to have the extra options for those slots. I have a selfish wish for the VEAT ATOs: I wish they could be slotted in the Epic Patron Power pools. The Patron attacks are at a level range where there are several good choices for 5-slot sets, but I almost always find myself wishing that the 6th slot could take one of the ATO procs.

As was mentioned, generally AoE holds can be skipped while levelling because of the long recharge times. End game is a different story. I wouldn't blame anyone who takes one early, but you generally know what you are getting with an AoE hold, so use the choice to try a different power before a Respec.

Is Hero 1 really cured? Did Ms. Liberty ever give him his sword back? It feels like all my toons are recovering Hero 1's blood/letter/whatever or just beating him down.

I have one long-standing gripe against Statesman: IIRC the character was an Invulnerability Tanker. I can tell you that Invulnerability Tankers (at launch) played nothing like Statesman (crap damage, but also being rooted in one spot). This may seem petty but it has ALWAYS bothered me. Spoilers (not spoilers): Darren Wade isn't dead.