KaizenSoze

IMO of course. Good job on defs and resists. You should take Crowd Control ASAP. You'll need it when you do lower missions or TFs. I prefer Mace Beam Blast over Volley. Blast is an AOE, Volley is a cone. In melee, the AOE is more practical. Build up is awesome for stealth strikes. I would drop either leadership or tactics, you have too much accuracy IMO. Gaussian for Leadership/Tactics is pretty common for the random free build up. Two slots or six. Pummel is a nice power but redraw costs time. I would drop it, move the slots to leadership, the power slot for surveillance. Just my 2 cents.

Here is the Fort Tank version. Almost as tanky as the Widow, but with more damage. Mind link is almost perma, depending on force feedback procs. Being able to Follow Up->Aim->Psychic Wail is such a massive damage burst compared to anything Night Widows can do. The slight difference in resists is explained by Eviscerate vs Psychic wail, Armageddon vs Avalanche. And being able to slot Basilisk's Gaze which Widows cannot do. I suspect this would be a very busy build to play.

Beta server results. It lives! Rune and Mind link is enough for most groups. Heavy eng/neg damage requires Melee or Barrier to be comfortable. I causally took two groups of 4x8 Arachnos, just walked up and attacked. Rune and Mink Link kept my hp from plummeting. I turned melee on my hp quickly recovered to full. Even with -33 def from the debuffs. I updated the build in the OP. Cardiac Core with 20% to resists is enough and fixes any end issues. Tanking requires management, but 4x8 anything should be doable. I tried the Apex TF pylons with the hydra. I had to turn everything on, but I was able to survive and kill the pylon. Taunt effectiveness is still an open question when melee is down.

To be called insane by you is a high compliment. I have learned a lot about building chars from you, kiramon, and many other. I doubt I could out taunt a brute or tank, but I intend in running more all HEAT-VEAT TFs. During the ITF last night. The Warshade could not hold aggro well enough on AVs. In his defense, he was under leveled for 4x8. Also, I have ended up the only durable melee a few times in groups. This gave me the Night Tank idea. I swear SR tanks got a better taunt aura. I have an SR tank, but I cannot find anything to support that thought.

After all the work on bane builds. I am shifting back to my Widow. I am not very interested in running a Night Widow as a straight scrapper. If I could leverage 85% resist cap and high defense. How tanky could I make a widow? First draft, haven't tried it on the beta server yet. I went with Night Widows over Fortunatas because of the ease of perma Mind Link. Obviously, this build is a late bloomer and very expensive. Pros: All def soft capped, except psi def which is 42%. Lots of debuf buffer in positional. All resist 85%, except eng and neg at 75%. Not taking scaling resists into account Cons: Still has Widow hp after buffs, 1283 Getting 2-3 shot is possible, but with high defense very unlikely Notes: T4 Cardiac core for 20% resist buff and end reduction Overlapping Rune of Protection, Melee, and Barrier to maintain resists Melee Core and provoke for taunt Elude is there for last ditch defense.

We ran another ITF, 4 Arachnos, 1 WS, and 1 PB. It was fun at 4x8. Took an hour.

I found the General Discusson thread on Soliders. Just food for thought.

I tried kiramon's night widow build out. It's laughable how much easier it is to solo with it than my bane builds.

I think I finally did it. First what didn't work. I tried a pet bane aka Spider-Bane. The pets were useful, but they are so dumb that every other fight they would aggro another group chasing runners. I tried provoke to stop the runners, didn't work well enough. Being stealthy and having uncontrollable pets didn't work for me. The build is posted at the bottom just in case anyone was curious. So, I was pondering kiramon's Night Widow build and though. How high can I get my defense. With T4 Agility Core Paragon and some slot tweaking I was able to 55+% positional def and everything else 45+%. That is enough to carefully handle 4x8 arachnos. In fights did I have to use barrier, pop a few insps. But my defense didn't collapse like a wet bag. The Tarantula Mistress, not the queens, are the dangerous non-obvious mob. They have a -33% def debuff with high accuracy. I would target them first, so they couldn't keep the debuff up. Crab slicers have a -12.5 def debuff. My closest fight was 2 Mu Guardian bosses and a mistress, damn Mu must have high accuracy. That required barrier and some insps. I might try and work Shatter Armor back in, if I can keep my defense. Pros: 55+% positional def 45+% everything else +20% def to everyone in range +30% damage to everyone in range End stable, doesn't required ageless even in long fights Here is the pet-bane aka Spider Bane build:

I will look into putting the pets in, maybe that the extra I need to handle arachnos. This is the joy of the beta server. Web cocoon is useful for tagging runners and psi damage, but I am not in love with it. It was a tough choice to drop it, but I have proc'ed out my mace volley to provide some -resist. If I put pets in, then shatter will come back.

Here's a guide for those that haven't done it.

So, I have been tinkering. I made some improvements that allow me to solo 4x4 Arachnos and several other groups 4x8. IMO Bane lack AOE, has has been pointed out. To fix that, I dropped the Mace epic and slotted up Mace Blast and Volley. It's makes a significant difference in damage mitigation and getting rid of minions and lts. The knockdown is helpful in group for crowd control. I am learning the, Bane Boogle. AOE, two steps back, cone, two steps forward, crowd control. Putting assault back in had the nice side effect of limited the bane spider placate duration. Current build, not a leveling build as I swapped the mace attacks directly out for the Mace Epic. I can come up with a leveling build if someone wants it.

Inspired by this topic: Here is my best current attempt at making a all mace bane. No gun, that means no venom grenade Pros: Capped m/r/aoe def. Really good def in most types by accident. High damage mace attack chain, decent crit rate with placate Decent s/l/psi resists Good debuffing with surveillance and shatter armor End stable w/o ageless Cons: Very expensive, purples and winters Low aoe, especially pbaoe Cannot solo 4x8 arachnos or carnies Notes: Single target attack chain: Surveillance->Shatter(crit)->Shatter Armor->Pulverize->Placate->BU->Shatter(crit) AOE: BU->Crowd Control->Disruptor Blaster->Single till CC is up->Placate->CC Great team character Crowd Control is a monster if you get the mobs grouped up properly, but that is the biggest problem.

So, I tried to make the best mace only bane I could on the beta server. Def, resists, damage, very expensive. I'll post the build in a separate thread. There is always room for improvement. I cannot solo 4x8 carnies or arachnos, period. Also, struggled against 3x8 arachnos. Comparing to my Blood Widow, it's all about the PBAOE. My bane cannot delete the minions and lts quickly enough. She loses too much time lining up for crowd control. My widow just aim->wail->spin or tornado. Disruptor Blast isn't bad for CC and damge, but the recharge is to long. Options would be to load up Mace Beam Blast and use that to keep mobs down. If I can get the mobs grouped up nicely, the bane does really deals out damage.

Just when I think I am getting good at making builds, Kiramon makes one. 🙂 Her version is much better than the one I was trying on beta. Both have issues with single target damage and are end hogs even with all the accolades. My hover version is unkillable at least.

First, thanks to everyone's excellent feedback. I finally respec'ed. OMG. A noticeable improvement over an already great build. I can leap frog from 4x8 group to the next with aim->wail->ion->confuse->aoe confuse Add Barracuda (bank), Bobcat, and Neuron to the AV list. I am soloing the Jenkins arc. Has anyone tried soloing the ITF?

Honestly, I find all mace animations, War Mace included, janky. There is weird pause and the beginning and end of most attacks.

I have been flipping between bane/huntsmen and pure bane on the beta server. Builds tried: Pure ranged huntsman Ranged/melee huntsman, no mace 2nd best, only surveillance causes redraw Mixed mace and ranged huntsman attacks Worst option, so much redraw Pure mace bane with mace epic, no nades What I decided was best for me with placate to get more crits Fixing the redraw would help a lot, but I think the bane needs a more defined role. Stalker lite with team buffs, is fine, but doesn't not do enough damage. Except pure bane is ok. In the end, on the beta server, where I can have any build I want. My pure bane only comes somewhat close to my Blood Widow in the ability to clear missions quickly. There is something janky about the mace animations which really bothers me. I think that banes should get a more defined role, like melee de-buffer. Or Stalker level crits, stalker ATOs are what make the crits, so powerful. I don't think it would overpower banes.

Still tweaking but I made some changes due to thread advice. Defense is better, recharge is more sane. Bagged level 51 Nightstar, which I was expecting to be painful, but wasn't bad given my low energy resists and her resists. 51 Chronos Titan as a Monster, the mission version. In the unlock the Alpha Oro arc, strangely Honree was painful. The Caption went first and quickly, but Honree two shot me once. I came back loaded for bear and got him, it still took a long time. Current build:

I am having a bake off between my stalker and scrapper versions of kin/ea. The scrapper versions much more of a tank against 3-4x4 arachnos and carnies in my tests of the beta server. The scrapper ranged attacks are great for kiting or pulling. The scrapper version seems the stronger of the two. Inexperienced with scrappers, so choices might appear odd. Like the best place to put the ATOs. Could be talked out of concentrated strike, but it isn't bother me as much as people warned. Very few builds available. Pros: Softcap all types but dark/psi Psi resists at 34% Pretty of stuns with con strike, smashing blow, and water spout. AOE attacks are quick. Lots of recharge. Cons: Expensive, but can be built over time Negative def could be higher. I was hoping the forum hive mind can help.

Let me be clear, this is not a damage god. She is surprising durable as a melee controller. I built her out on the beta server and ran her against 3-4x4 Arachnos/Carnies and won w/o incarnates. Fights can go on for awhile, but you have all the tools to keep fighting. Pros: Good position def, except psi Decent resists, psi is 37% Stacking stuns from three sources, Smashing Blow, Disrupt, and Water Spout. Pretty of end and hp recovery to survive Mu and Carnie end drains. Attach chain blooms early. Most key powers, except energize, are there by 28. Cons: It's still Kinetic levels of damage. Though robots do go down pretty fast. Expensive, but can be leveled into over time. Negative def could be higher. I was hoping the forum hive mind can help.

Inspired by this thread: Solo: Several, Illusion, Plant... Team: ? AVs: Illusion...

Time/Ice defender. There are only 39 level 50s across all servers and I haven't run into one yet. She is a slow/-recharge monster who can do decent damage.

I went with Agility as that solved the most problems for now. I have gotten several complements about the char. I time-tanked for a 12-15 group. The tank in a PI radio group said I just made everything easier. I will post a more well thought build soon.

Poison is a good choice for the speed of the current end game. Power fire quickly, lots -resist and -hit. Later bloomer than Rad. Paging: @Frosticus