Two Dollar Bill

There are some expensive uniques in here that you can get with merits. I included the ATO sets, though you can get by without them. +Recharge is about what you'd expect with no purple sets. It has soft-capped Ranged and AoE Defense, the important ranged attacks, and your pets will enjoy as many buffs a Humanly possible to try to keep them alive and dealing damage. I suspect most people would replace replace the Blood Mandate in Call Reinforcements and Summon Blaster with a recharge-intensive set, but I think that having your own defenses soft-capped is worth sacrificing some uptime for your pets.

My first character on Homecoming was a team-friendly Plant/Nature Controller. I was flat broke and wanted to get as much +Recharge and +Max Endurance as I could get on a budget, and this is the build I came up with. I generally stand behind the melee characters so I can hit them all with Regrowth, and I can hit the whole fight with Seeds of Confusion if needed. Although I have a macro encouraging people to gather for buffs, many people ignore it, so I usually wait for them to bunch up to finish off the last few bosses in a spawn, then jump in and fire off Wild Growth, Wild Bastion and Overgrowth before they can run off. Despite having Tough, Weave, and Mind Over Body, he's really not very tough and relies on crowd control and hanging back from the fight to avoid getting smacked.

What's the story with Infiltration, Stealth and Grant Invisibility? If the movement benefits of Infiltration are not too critical, I think I'd skip the Concealment pool entirely, put the Stealth IO in Sprint, and take Maneuvers, which will help you hit all your soft caps and give your pets and teammates defense as well. You've got three Impervium Armor IOs for Psionic Resistance, and a couple more that give you a 2.5% recovery bonus but basically zero Damage Resistance due to Enhancement Diversification. If you took those five IOs and used them to 6-slot TT: Leadership with Gaussian's Synchronized Fire Control, you'd gain 2.5% to every positional defense along with assorted other bonuses and better accuracy for your pets. Is Psionic Resistance important? Sometimes, but Defense is more useful. You're going to get merits as you advance so I'd strongly consider assembling a set of Superior Spider's Bite. It gives you 3.6% Max End, which is like a mini accolade (the Atlas Medalion is 5% Max End) and the 5% Melee Defense isn't bad either. I like the new Warp IO set for Teleport which gives you a range bonus to all your powers and a 3% Endurance discount. Anything that improves range is especially good with Suppression. If endurance is a big problem, you might consider taking four slots of Impervium Armor in Fortification and/or Tough since the 2.25% Max End is the real prize of that set. You could also slot the Panacea +Hit Points/Endurance unique in Health. And put some more slots in Venom Grenade! Where would these extra slots come from? CT: Defensive, TT: Maneuvers and Weave are all over-enhanced to gain tiny amounts of Defense due to ED. You could recover four of those while losing basically no defense. TT: Maneuvers and Weave can be 3-slotted with LotG and CT: Defensive could go down to 2 slots, especially if your IOs were set to level 50. I'm also not sure you're getting good value from 4-slotting Stamina. If you intend to run Infiltration with no end cost reduction, that's a big drain. I think I'd lose the run speed from Stamina to make Infiltration less of an endurance hog and you'll be more efficient overall.

When my Crab was new and on a budget I did have a build that used pets. It was pretty similar to this. I didn't have any purple sets at the time, but I did feel that a few uniques were worth the merits. This build has soft-capped Ranged Defense, lots of ranged attacks, and the spider pets that have the sense to fight from range.

Well, you can make characters that are fun to play steamrolling through speed runs.... Alternately, there is some challenging content out there if you look for it. Run some Dr. Aeon Strike Forces with ridiculous challenge settings. Try some "801 missions" at Architech Entertainment. Exemplar with some lowbies. If doing story arcs in Talos Island is more fun than speed-running 54 ITFs, then by all means exemplar.

Definitely a different take on the normally Positional-Defense-oriented Crab Spider, though I would trade in many of these powers for Frag Grenade! If you like min/maxing for small bonuses, something you could do to make your endurance management a bit smoother would be to look at extreme enhancement bonuses that are being wasted by Enhancement Diversification, and turn some of the over-slotting into end cost reduction. For example, the Immobilize bonus of Web Envelope is far past the point where it's economical to boost it any more. If you traded in the Immobilize IO for the Immobilize/Endurance one, it would have no meaningful effect on the immobilize value but you'd get a lot of your endurance back. Likewise, Weave has a Defense/Recharge IO which provides virtually no defense bonus due to ED. If you swapped it for the Endurance/Recharge IO, you'd still be soft-capped to melee, but more fuel efficient. The recharge is worthless either way, but end cost reduction can still be meaningfully enhanced. TT:Maneuvers is in the same boat. You could improve its endurance cost without losing soft cap.

I really enjoy the Crab's combination of ranged and melee combat, though I do it with Frag Grenade and Venom Grenade as part of my melee attack chain and no Frenzy. Frenzy is difficult to use on a team since without a taunt you don't have a reliable way to gather aggro, while grenades are great no matter who's gathering the crowd. Sometimes I wish it had a bit more +Recharge, but this is how I like my Crab.

Crab Spider builds are pretty forgiving, but if there were a hard and fast rule, I'd say it was: Soft-Cap All Positional Defenses. Being even slightly below soft-cap makes you considerably easier to hit, and more likely to suffer a cascading failure from defense debuffs. So, I would try to shuffle things a bit to soft-cap AoE. Superior Frozen Blast can give you a fairly mind-boggling 7.5% AoE Defense with all six slots. Omega Maneuver - If you're soloing and you have plenty of time to stand around watching Omega Maneuver work, it's fun. On a team of modern characters that steamroll through a whole room full of foes in seconds flat, you may find it's... difficult to use to full effect. If you decide it's not working out, I highly recommend Frag Grenade.

Perma-Light Form Human-Only Peacebringers are pretty well documented, but I think that sacrificing a bit of DPS for Glowing Touch is an excellent idea, and being ability to use White Dwarf in an emergency also sounds great. How exactly do you envision White Dwarf being used in an emergency? If you see if as a sort of Personal Force Field that can deliver frustrating slow, weak, melee attacks, your current slotting can do that. If you see it as an emergency team support power that can use it's excellent AoE taunt to protect your teammates and absorb damage, I'm afraid it won't do that. It just needs more enhancement slots. I think the ability to become a serious tank with a real taunt at will is an absolutely amazing ability, a far better support power in many situations than a heal. But the best part is that you don't have to commit to being stuck as a Tanker all the time. (Sorry real Tankers.)

My favorite SoA is definitely my Crab Spider, but I do have a Huntsman. He's an alt but I like him better than any of my Sentinels. Could Huntsmen be made better? Yes. Would I allocate a developer to improve this very fringe build that almost nobody cares about? No.

I'm guessing that roughly one-third of my characters do have Hasten... often Controllers, or Defenders that might need to spam a single heal (Thermal Radiation, for example). My two favorite no-Hasten characters are my Crab Spider (tanky, no pets) and my Force Field / Beam Rifle Defender. Force Field is mostly toggles, and Beam Rifle is all about combining different attacks, not spamming the biggest one.

This is my Stunning Corruptor build. I also created a Mace/Dark Stun Scrapper, largely for thematic reasons, though he is still not 50 and doesn't have his final IOs so I can't really say if I recommend it.

I did mention this a couple of months ago in that Defender thread, but.... My main problem with Sonic Resonance is Disruption Field, the -resist toggle that you stick to your tank. It's a great power but it forces you to stay quite close to your tank all the time to avoid having it break. And it breaks anyway when you use an elevator. It's a hassle to maintain and if I wanted a Beam Rifle character who could only fight at close range, I'd make a Sentinel.... Also, I feel like using Sonic Siphon interferes with the zen of my Beam Rifle attack chain and combos.

A shapechanger has to compromise, and a certain amount of Human performance is sacrificed to make the Dwarf a capable tank. I feel that having some smashing/lethal defense on the resistance-based Dwarf does make a significant difference. Still, some of the more esoteric choices I made, like the +15% range bonus from Bombardment, or slotting Energy Flight to be a real movement power, could easily be ditched to free up a few IO slots for better Human attacks. My Peacebringer never quite made it on to the A-list to get purple sets, but Panacea could be fun in Glowing Touch. There's room in this build for multiple purple sets of course, and I didn't use the damage resist uniques like Shield Wall either, just the defense ones. A few other notes for the OP: - There are plenty of Defenders, Controllers, Corruptors and Masterminds that can heal their teammates, but none of them can turn in to tanks with a serious taunt and 85% damage resistance and wrangle up all the aggro in a room. I think Dwarf is worth slotting like you mean it. It's one of the unique strengths of the archetype. - Exactly what kind of slotting qualifies as the minimum usable Dwarf form is highly debatable. White Dwarf replaces your normal attack chain with a new set of attacks, it replaces your damage resistance toggles with its own damage resistance, and it even replaces your self-heal with a different one, and all of these need to be slotted separately from your usual Human powers. If you don't slot them, you'll find Dwarf form is very weak and sluggish and no fun to play. In that case you're better off using Light Form and hoping you can resolve the problem in 90 seconds and without a taunt. - On the bright side, all these Dwarf powers can give you set bonuses that benefit you in Human form and vice versa. - Pulsar is a Mag-2 stun and you don't have another stun power to stack with it, so it disorients the riffraff that aren't much of a threat anyway, while leaving the bosses free to attack you. A Peacebringer's native crowd control is knockback/knockdown. Your most powerful crowd control ability in Human form is actually Solar Flare with its Mag-4 knockback (easily converted to more team-friendly knockdown).

I don't usually offer these opinions because they're considered sacrilegious and heretical, but... you don't need perma Light Form, and it's okay to skip Nova. My own Peacebringer is Human 90% of the time, runs all the shields, and plays a bit like a Defender... blasting things and healing teammates. The flexibility to be the team's healer is one of the great features of the Peacebringer that many people ignore in their quest for perma Light Form ultimate DPS builds. The problem with Nova is that there's no shortage of DPS characters these days. It's extremely rare that my Peacebringer joins a team and says "What this group really needs is another Blaster!" but it's fairly common to be a team where nobody can heal. I also find Nova blasting gets very repetitive. Dwarf Form is a bit trickier. I will often go all night without using it, but I've also been in situations where it was an absolute life saver. I've tanked whole task forces with it when nobody else on the team could taunt, or partial task forces when the Tanker dropped out. Even if you're playing Defender, there are also situations that you can't heal or blast your way out of, and what the team really needs is for someone to grab all the loose aggro and get things back under control. Only a decently-slotted Dwarf form will let you do that. I feel like my slotting here is sufficient, but you decide how light you want to go. This Hero build was built using Mids Reborn 3.2.17 https://github.com/LoadedCamel/MidsReborn Click this DataLink to open the build! Argent Guard 210311: Level 50 Natural Peacebringer Primary Power Set: Luminous Blast Secondary Power Set: Luminous Aura Power Pool: Teleportation Power Pool: Speed Power Pool: Fighting Hero Profile: Level 1: Glinting Eye -- SprEssTrn-Acc/Dmg(A), SprEssTrn-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(3), SprEssTrn-Rchg/Global Heal(3) Level 1: Incandescence -- StdPrt-ResDam/Def+(A), GldArm-3defTpProc(23) Level 2: Gleaming Blast -- Dcm-Acc/Dmg(A), Dcm-Dmg/EndRdx(5), Dcm-Dmg/Rchg(5), Dcm-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(23), Dcm-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(25) Level 4: Essence Boost -- Prv-Heal/Rchg(A), Prv-Heal/Rchg/EndRdx(27) Level 6: Bright Nova -- RctRtc-Pcptn(A) Level 8: Radiant Strike -- KntCmb-Acc/Dmg(A), KntCmb-Dmg/EndRdx(9), KntCmb-Dmg/Rchg(9), KntCmb-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(27) Level 10: Teleport Target -- BlsoftheZ-ResKB(A) Level 12: Luminous Detonation -- Bmbdmt-Acc/Rech/End(A), Bmbdmt-Dam/Rech(13), Bmbdmt-Acc/Dam/Rech(13), Bmbdmt-Acc/Dam/Rech/End(29), Bmbdmt-+FireDmg(29), SuddAcc--KB/+KD(31) Level 14: Shining Shield -- ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx(A), ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(15), ImpArm-ResDam(15), ImpArm-ResPsi(21) Level 16: Thermal Shield -- ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx(A), ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(17), ImpArm-ResDam(17), ImpArm-ResPsi(25) Level 18: Quantum Shield -- ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx(A), ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(19), ImpArm-ResDam(19), ImpArm-ResPsi(46) Level 20: White Dwarf -- ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx(A), ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(21), ImpArm-ResPsi(31), ImpArm-ResDam(48) Level 22: Reform Essence -- Prv-Heal/Rchg(A), Prv-Heal/Rchg/EndRdx(31) Level 24: Inner Light -- GssSynFr--Build%(A) Level 26: Glowing Touch -- Prv-Heal(A), Prv-Heal/EndRdx(33), Prv-EndRdx/Rchg(33), Prv-Heal/Rchg(34), Prv-Heal/Rchg/EndRdx(34), Prv-Absorb%(34) Level 28: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(36) Level 30: Quantum Maneuvers -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A) Level 32: Photon Seekers -- SprEssTrn-Dmg/Rchg(A), SprEssTrn-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(33), SprEssTrn-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(36) Level 35: Restore Essence -- RechRdx-I(A) Level 38: Light Form -- ResDam-I(A) Level 41: Dawn Strike -- SprKhlGrc-Acc/Dmg(A), SprKhlGrc-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(46), SprKhlGrc-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(46), SprKhlGrc-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(48), SprKhlGrc-Rchg/FormBuff(48), SuddAcc--KB/+KD(50) Level 44: Boxing -- Empty(A) Level 47: Tough -- Ags-Psi/Status(A) Level 49: Weave -- LucoftheG-Def(A), LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(50) Level 1: Cosmic Balance Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A) Level 1: Sprint -- Clr-Stlth(A) Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A) Level 2: Swift -- Flight-I(A) Level 2: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A) Level 2: Health -- NmnCnv-Regen/Rcvry+(A), Pnc-Heal/+End(36) Level 2: Stamina -- PrfShf-EndMod(A), PrfShf-End%(37) Level 1: Energy Flight -- WntGif-RunSpd/Jump/Fly/Rng(A), WntGif-RunSpd/Jump/Fly/Rng/EndRdx(40), WntGif-ResSlow(42), EndRdx-I(42) Level 10: Combat Flight -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A) Level 20: White Dwarf Antagonize -- MckBrt-Taunt/Rchg(A), MckBrt-Taunt/Rchg/Rng(42), MckBrt-Acc/Rchg(43), MckBrt-Taunt/Rng(43) Level 20: White Dwarf Flare -- SprAvl-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(A), SprAvl-Acc/Dmg(7), SprAvl-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(45), SprAvl-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(45), SprAvl-Rchg/KDProc(50) Level 20: White Dwarf Smite -- KntCmb-Acc/Dmg(A), KntCmb-Dmg/EndRdx(39), KntCmb-Dmg/Rchg(40), KntCmb-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(40) Level 20: White Dwarf Step -- BlsoftheZ-ResKB(A) Level 20: White Dwarf Strike -- KntCmb-Acc/Dmg(A), KntCmb-Dmg/EndRdx(37), KntCmb-Dmg/Rchg(37), KntCmb-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(39) Level 20: White Dwarf Sublimation -- NmnCnv-Heal/EndRdx(A), NmnCnv-EndRdx/Rchg(7), NmnCnv-Heal/Rchg(39), NmnCnv-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(43), NmnCnv-Heal(45) Level 6: Bright Nova Blast -- Dvs-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(A) Level 6: Bright Nova Bolt -- Dvs-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(A) Level 6: Bright Nova Detonation -- Bmbdmt-Acc/Dam/Rech(A), Bmbdmt-Acc/Dam/Rech/End(11) Level 6: Bright Nova Scatter -- Bmbdmt-Acc/Dam/Rech(A), Bmbdmt-Acc/Dam/Rech/End(11) Level 1: Prestige Power Dash -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Slide -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Quick -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Rush -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Surge -- Empty(A) Level 4: Ninja Run Level 1: Quantum Acceleration ------------ ------------

I guess my main question would be, have you tried Spiderlings and are you satisfied with how long they live? I think they die way too quickly in any sort of challenging team fight and never do enough damage to justify giving them a lot of enhancements. So, I have a couple of theories on their use: A) Don't bother with them. You can be a maceless Bane Spider with three strong ranged pets and not bother with waving around a non-functional Crab backpack. B) Take them, but slot them with the +Defense and +Resist unique IOs to keep your pets alive longer, and don't worry too much about their own damage. If you are taking the backpack I would definitely take Serum. You're going to have more aggro than your pets and a self-heal is a handy thing to have. Teleport Target is useful if your pets ever get stuck, or if you can't complete a mission because an enemy is stuck in a wall, and you can slot it with a Blessing of the Zephyr Knockback Resist IO, so you don't have to dedicate one of your free enhancement slots. I recommend converting Frag Grenade's knockback to knockdown. Besides annoying melee teammates, knockback can cause your pets (especially Spiderlings, which think they're good at melee) to "play fetch" into the aggro of another spawn.

There shouldn't be any problem trading in Longfang for Frag Grenade since you do already have Channelgun on your list of powers to get. There was a time when teams would stop fighting long enough to gather for the Empath's Recovery Aura, wait patiently for the Controller to confuse a Malta Sapper, and hold their fire for the Tanker to group up the mobs into a nice bunch... and Omega Maneuver would have been a perfectly good power in that game. In modern City of Heroes it's just too slow to be effective for its intended purpose as an opener / AoE control power. If you want to have your pets in play as much as possible, I would get Hasten. Feel free to post a build if you want to discuss fine details.

"Crabberminds" generally slot for +Recharge to keep their pets in play as much as possible. If that's what you're doing, I don't think you will need (or want) to use freebie powers in your attack chain. I would drop Longfang in favor of Frag Grenade in a heartbeat. Even if it caused a momentary pause in your attack chain once in a while, it's just a far more powerful attack and should not be skipped. Take Omega Bomb and give it a spin. My own feeling is that it's fun for solo play and basically worthless on a typical team. It takes some time to lure in its targets and explode, and many teams will steamroll through a spawn before the Omega Bomb even goes off, leaving it to explode in an empty room. I think Wolf Spider Armor and Combat Training: Offensive are fairly skippable if you need more power slots, but they're okay if you just want powers that require no enhancement slots. My Crab has 8 points of Knockback reduction from IOs, and he still gets tossed around sometimes. Carnie Phantasms, for example. Still, I feel 8 points is "good enough". You can slot the Blessing of the Zephyr KB reduction IO into both Super Jump and Teleport Target if you don't actually want Acrobatics.

I admit I do not have a Fortunata, but there has been are fair amount of discussion here in the forum of ranged- or psi-Forts. I know @Tidge plays one and has posted a build which doesn't require a mountain of Shield Wall PvP IOs.

This build seems to be derived from @Bopper's Arachnos Sentinel build in this thread. I recognize the gratuitous use of Shield Wall. https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/26059-pure-ranged-fortunata-soul-mastery-build/ There are quite a lot of Fortunata builds on the forum and I'm curious why you went with this one. What do you want your character do do exactly? Team or solo? End-game content versus exemplaring?

At the top of your chat bar hit the "1" to create a new tab. Move it somewhere you can see it. Hit the Add Tab button and you'll get an interface like this and you can put "Damage Received" and whatever else you want in there. I recommend including something like Rewards that isn't red and will scroll by frequently in combat. If the only thing you include in there is Damage Received it will just stay red all the time and you won't notice if you start taking new hits.

Some other random Crab Spider thoughts. Since the leading cause of death for Crab Spiders is Defense Debuffs, I have tried to make sure that I know immediately if my defenses have failed. I have a chat window that displays damage taken, and if that suddenly starts scrolling red messages, I can check my defenses, which are also displayed on the screen. I also tend to keep my inspirations configured oddly so that if I make a wild stab at the F1-F4 keys I will get a defense buff first, then healing if needed, then resistance, depending on how many times I hit it. Things like damage or accuracy buffs I can just hit with the mouse. I also hate missing with my attacks so I always want to know what my last to-hit chance was....

My own experience with Crabberminds is that they're fun solo but the pets just can't handle the punishment of really challenging (fun) team battles. Spiderlings, in particular, just seem to evaporate and accomplish nothing, despite stacked leadership bonuses and unique pet-buff IOs. My own Crab has no pets and no Hasten. I would also classify Frenzy as a "solo power" because a Crab on a team will struggle to gather up the crowd needed to pull off an effective Frenzy. I think Arm Lash is a more practical melee attack that can take the same IOs. If you've practiced hitting multiple targets with your Sands of Mu as a lowbie, you'll be able to use the small AoE of Arm Lash. I have a lot fewer attacks and fewer procs than you do so I can't really say how your attack chain will work, though I suspect you don't really need both Channelgun and Longfang to go along with five ranged AoEs. I'd probably lose one filler attack and put a couple more slots in Stamina, and get some set bonuses that you have stopped short of, or slot Super Jump like a real movement power. In general though, I would say you are hitting all the important benchmarks for playing the tanky crab.

Controllers can solo just fine, though slowly, since most of them have mediocre damage output. Dark/Dark has some features which imply a close-range "standing just behind the Tanker" play style. - You need to be standing right next to someone to heal them with Twilight Grasp. - Soul Absorption is a team buff which requires nearby foes to power it, so it won't work if you're hiding in the back. - Fade is your big defense and resistance buff, and it's centered on you. Unless you find a team that likes to gather for buffs before a fight, you will have to chase them down and trigger it during the fight. - Heart of Darkness is a PBAoE disorient which can stack with Howling Twilight if you really need it. - Many people take Ghost Widow's Soul Mastery pool for Dark Consumption and Soul Drain to have even more PBAoE powers. A few other odds and ends.... - Haunt is cast like a ranged attack, but it creates two pets that hang around and fight things until they expire. If your target dies before the animation for Haunt completes, the power is wasted and you get no pets, so don't use it on the first minion in the front of a group. - Shadow Field is your AoE hold but it's a ground target which creates a short-lived area hold. It's a hassle to cast but you can do some curious things with it, like using Fold Space to drag foes inside. I tend to use Heart of Darkness / Howling Twilight instead since they both recharge faster and don't need to be ground-targeted. - If you have money to burn on purple sets, or you don't mind slotting everything for maximum +recharge, you can get "perma" Fade and be unnaturally durable for a Controller. I've never had quite that much recharge on mine, but it's something to consider.

For a Mastermind with ranged pets (Robots, Mercenaries) and high defense numbers (Force Field, Traps, Time) Medicine Pool powers can be great. With melee pets and a secondary which doesn't give you any defense buffs, I think you'll get interrupted a lot. I'd concentrate on supporting your pets with buffs and debuffs, maybe a bit of crowd control, and re-summon the casualties.