KaizenSoze

Oh, I know about that def debuff. 😞 While I trying to take out TMs, the Mus are picking my end and hps to pieces. And that is on characters with high defense. Arachnos are a tough bunch. I have to take them slowly. I was hoping someone had found a weakness. If they aren't def debuffing you... Then they are sapping your end... Or placating and criting you... My effective chars have high psi resists... so at least that's not a problem

Arachnos are the nemesis of a lot of my theory builds. If the builds look promising in mids, then I make them on the beta server. Test them out on 4x8 council, cots, then.... Arachnos. Spat! I only have only been able to make two builds that can handle, not crush, Arachnos. Do you have any builds make Arachnos look like Council?

I respec'ed my 2nd build slot into this build. Then slotted with IOs and what set pieces I had available. I think this build exemps better than the Blood Widow below level 28. At least in single target damage because slash is a monster. I might tweak to get placate eariler. Dart burst, not slotted out yet, is doing decent damage. Unexpected bonus, is the run speed. Mental Training, Swift, Sprint, plus Synapse Shock set bonus make for a very quick character. I can dart burst, charge into the thickest part of the mobs, spin, then hop back and dart burst again. Very quickly.

That is a good point. I will watch for that, but I think auto fire it off when I first login. Either way, I will watch for it. Thank you.

I had not considered Cardiac or Hamis! Thank you.

This build only exists on the beta server, but it works against 4x8 Arachnos which is my gold standard at the moment. I tried a pure ranged Fortunata, it was fine, but I didn't enjoy it. I miss my melee attacks. I didn't want a pure melee build. So, here is a Night Widow build with effective ranged and AOE attacks. Night widows have the advantage of easy perma Mind Link, so you can proc out the ranged attacks and still have 55%+ positional defense. Learning to use the AOEs effectively has a definite learning curve. Especially, because two of them are cones. Work in progress. Note, the slotting in Psychic Scream and Dark Burst. You can extend the range of the cones by 9-15 ft. Producing a much better cone size. Party starters are Dark Obilt (with KD proc)->Psychic Scream->Dart Burst. If you Ion Judgement up, then now is a good time. By this time, most mobs are closing around you. Spin->Dark Obilt. The minions should be dead or mostly dead and the lts are hurting. If you have room, back up and hit em again. Then finish with melee and Gloom for the runners or resistant mobs like robots. Also, you can proc out Follow Up, because you don't need the set bonuses for defense. As usual, I pieced together this build from many other posters builds. So, thank you all.

Yes, thank you!. Sorry for the double post. The forum glitched the first time.

Sometime in the last year, I remember a thread where all the powers were listed and at what percentage they were taken. I haven't been able to find it. Anyone have it bookmarked? For instance, I think Widow confront was one of the least taken powers in the whole game. Under .1 taken.

So, I was watching more carefully. It happened in the middle of combat. Maybe I was hit by a status effect, but I was not mezed. Anyway, I won't be labor this issue.

Given your comments, you're probably fine on defense. I should have noticed your Frag Grenade slotting. See if you can find some AOE defense elsewhere. Then proc FG with Overwhelming power KB->KB, FF +recharge, Posi proc, Explosive Strike proc, Bombard procs and damage. The damage piece is optional. You could use that slot somewhere else.

I don't know a lot of soldiers. I do think you're a bit low on defense. Yes, you're soft capped, but at higher levels the debuffs are nasty. Or stay out of melee as much as you can. I am for 55% positional, but that's expensive. I was able do it with a bane. Of course, you have a lot more hps to soak up damage. Just my two cents.

The problem appeared on mine non-beta account. When I logged in Hasten was not on auto. But after restarting Tequila. The problem has gone away everywhere. Edit: Nope, it's back on the beta server. I watched it more careful. Hasten is firing on recharge, but something is causing it to toggle off. I tested mission completion as a possible cause. Nope, auto fire was still set. Any suggestions for things I could test?

A fair point about the ignorance to the power of the spider. The fools! Making endurance my primary suggestion is to avoid the dreaded, but that effects PvP argument. I am hoping for incremental improvements. Changing weapon damage/recharge/cast times, is a harder sell.

I am only seeing this behavior on the beta server - Brainstorm to be specific. Every time I log in my haste power is not set to auto fire. So, I set it. Then I will noticed it has unset again later. Maybe when I finish a mission, but I am not certain. Usually, I have only zoned and done some missions. I will try and figure if there is a specific trigger.

Not sure where I said that VEAT powers cost more than other set. I re-read my comments to be sure, because I don't think particular powers are more expensive than other ATs. Just the combination of powers and toggles. Let's say for the sake of argument that I'm wrong and VEATs are in a good place. Why are there so few? Both HEATs and VEATS have the lowest numbers across all ATs and at level 50. Widows, Night or Fortunata, have the lowest play time of any AT in the game. Banes might be worse, because they don't break out specialties. I don't know why VEATs are so rare. Crab soldiers are in a good place. Even with that ugly backpack. Several Fortunata builds are very powerful. Blood Widows are my favorite build in the whole game. Night Widows and Banes not so much. I think that it's the leveling experience, endurance woes in particular, that turn folks off early on. I almost deleted my Night Widow even at 50, because end was still constant issue. I was a newbie which didn't understand accolades and couldn't afford nice enhancements. In the end, I respec'ed into a Fortunata Blood Widow. Here are the player stats from March.

Also, Banes do not get Whirling Mace. Instead they get two low damage AOEs. They are just over half the base strength of WM.

Just pointing out those health pieces together are around conservatively 20 million at current prices. Money solves a lot of problems. My inherent suggestions more concerned with the under 50 experience. Specially, the under 24 experience.

A couple of points in reply. I still remember and it was a year ago. How painful end issues were when leveling my Night Widow. This is when I had little money and could not IO myself out at 25. The individual power costs might be low, but the attacks recharge quickly. The combination of several toggles and quick attacks is really hard on end. As with any AT, end problems tend to go away after getting fully slotted. Though my melee/psi hybrid Fortuanta, can still burn through end in sustained fighting out w/o Ageless. Again, for an AT whose inherent power is improved regen and recovery. Giving the inherit a boost would not break PvE or PvP. As for the damage difference between Night Widows and Fortunatas. It's very obvious when a Fortunata has most of the same claw attacks and can stealth into a group and delete most of minions with Aim->Wail. Where all a Widow has only Spin with a possible crit. The Widow might kill the bosses quicker because of slash. But the depends a lot on resists. For example, my Fortunata switches to a mix of melee and psi against human Malta bosses because they seem to be decently lethal resistant. As for Banes, there is a thread in the VEAT forums, talking about Bane issues. The quick version is that constant redraw is very painful on huntbanes builds. That pure mace build can be pretty good, but are very far behind even Night Widows in overall damage, particularly AOE, and durability. Honestly, if they would improve end issues and add no redraw, that would be enough to make Night Widows and Banes fun enough for most folks.

Endurance problems are the "bane" of leveling VEATs. A lot of ATs have end issues, but their inherent is not centered around regen and recovery. Increase the inherent recovery rate or add 5-10 points to endurance. Regeneration boost would be nice, but that is tricky with Crab's Serum power. Please, provide a no redraw option. That would allow more build variety. Particularly, huntsman builds. Night Widows and Banes feel like pre buffed Stalkers. I would suggest that they get full crits from hide. This would not be overpowering, as stalker ATOs and their inherent are what make them single target damage gods. Buffing Fortunatas the same would be nice, but they already have a big damage advantage over Widows. An alternative would be have hidden status timer set to the same as stalkers. Pretty sure stalkers re-hide quicker, but I could be wrong. Or another idea would be to lower the recharge and cast time on placate. Allow Night Widows to take both Follow up and Build Up. Fortunatas can take Follow Up and Aim. This is a reach, but replace Night Widow Psychic Scream with Psychic Wail. Give it higher recharge or lesser damage to compensate. It would be a nice mirror of the differences in Mind Link recharge between Widows and Forts. Forts have Follow Up->Aim->Wail, which gives them a massive damage advantage over Widows. Bane mace animation need a review, they feel incredible sluggish. Ifeel like I am standing around waiting for attacks to trigger, which kills the fun. Bane AOEs Mace Beam Volley and Blast need more damage. It does not have to huge, just enough to help remove minions quicker.

Final comment on this experiment. You can tank with either build, but you lose a lot of offensive. I tried to tank the ITF ambush in the first mission. I survived as long as I could get ML, Rune, Melee up or Barrier. If there was a gap, I was done for. So, final eval. Could fill in for a tank for a group in most situations, but you're not going to solo 4x8 with any speed or TFs.

This is the beauty of Widows. So, flexible. Tidge and Gulbasaur have great advice. I on the other hand like to have my Widows tanky. I even made a high def/resist tank version as an experiment. So, I always take tough to get my s/l resists close to 50% and have buckets of def for soloing.

Current tweaked build.

Doh. How could have I not noticed that! Mids only shows 17%, but it's not listed in the power description, it's only on the status resist page. In game show 27%, which as you said isn't much, but it's more than I thought. The best thing about writing the FAQ. I have already learned a few things I didn't know. Extra costume slots and DDR are two.

I was going off personal experience. The red side was a ghost yard when I made my Widow. The extra costume wiki link mentions Brick Johnson. So, that is covered. Fixed the typo.

I juggled lunge and slash. Fixed now.