Onlyasandwich

It's been a while since I've had a build I'm satisfied with enough to share to this thread, but here we go! I've been on a CoH kick for a couple months, and recently revisited my Widow. I'd love to hear more about your recent "perfect builds" too, but am inspired to share. 😄 His original build was a Fortunata, and is of course super fun and effective. However, he lacks the absolute staying power in tougher content, even with maxed out defenses. After a certain point, you really need some meat behind that hard shell. Now he's living in Night Widow mode and loving it! What I especially like about this build: ST attack powers are absolutely maximized for damage within the bounds of what those 6 slots will allow. Without outside buffs, this is as far as they are going no matter what your other goals! Widows have several powers with outstanding DPA potentially, especially after stacking follow-up. Even with proc maximization, I still have max hit chance against +3's, even without follow-up accounted for. I hit max S/L resist at around ~50% health through my scaling resists. Other resists across the board are starting at ~30% base, and will max out at little above 30% health. Psi resist will max out from the scaling proc alone at ~90% health. The only hole is toxic, but even here I have a solid baseline. Completely immune to slows. Excellent end sustain for a Widow. (2.59 end/sec without accounting for Perf shifter and panacea procs). Though not totally seamless, very strong aoe rotation with (hidden) > spin > combat TP 40 feet up > Psy scream > Placate > Spin > follow-up > repeat. Despite Widow's low DDR, loads of extra defense pad to help with cascades in melee. Don't have to try very hard on widow for this of course. Smoke Grenade's unresistable debuff makes up the small difference for flooring incarnate hit chances as well. The only thing I would want but didn't squeeze in is Tactical Training: Assault. I could swap Smoke Grenade, but I think I'm happier with the utility and extra defensive tool. This guy can swim in pretty much any +4X8 content and stay afloat with no issue as long as I keep up the attack! I've revisited it a million times and found new improvements with each review, but I think he's finally at a point of near perfection for my goals. Night Widow is a great time! As always, I have disabled temporary buffs, as well as hidden status to reflect accurate damage and tohit totals. Build: Arachnos Widow (Night Widow Training - Widow Teamwork).mbd Picture: Text: So what builds have you pored over and come out with shining like a perfect gem lately? The one you just knew had an extra 2% defense in there somewhere, and after a a moment of inspiration the pieces fell into place and you found it, and the heavens rejoiced - you know what I'm talking about. 😉

It's something you can definitely skip if there's a convincing tool, but there are some good uses. Auto-hit with a substantial defense debuff. Helpful for certain types of solo pulls. Drop it in front of the group and mobs will clump very tight as they approach. Also great to drop in a corner pull. Additional soft control when you are trying to save the team from a heavy over aggro situation.

Thanks for chiming in, everyone! If anyone is curious where I landed, I went with Poison Dart myself this time around. I think Mental Blast probably slightly edges it out in terms of utility with T9 cutting, but theme won the day here. 🙂 Here's the build: Arachnos Widow (Night Widow Training - Widow Teamwork).mbd

Here you go! Stalker (Staff Fighting - Stone Armor).mbd

I do tend to avoid Bonfire with the KD proc in epics these days as well. Beyond the lower chances, the fact that it is no longer a one-slot wonder (requires accuracy!) makes it even harder to fit in. I do have a blaster who is all-in on ranged attacks and ranged defense who enjoys it though! As @Maelwys suggests, I don't use the KD proc for this guy. I just stand in it. It's really great in this context! I wouldn't go dropping it on a mob in a team, but a really great solo tool, and useful situationally on teams. There are even clever scenarios that come up with the geometry where you can constantly keep an entire mob squished against a wall or corner with it. You don't have the careful positioning tools to force this, but can capitalize on it when things line up.

As @Maelwys shared, I do see that it stacks to a useful extent, at least! I can't imagine many situations where I would actively use it when focusing down an AV or GM though. The better DPA attacks from my normal rotation would outpace any gains from -regen. If there is a big baddie that keeps me out of melee for an extended period for some reason, it is a further point in favor of Poison Dart! It is already the winner in that context (higher DPA than MB, quicker recharge), but it pushes it a bit further. Another one that doesn't always jive with folks is theme. Do I want my ninja concept character to shoot poison darts or do more wub wub? Hmm - point to poison darts here. 😄

I recently spun up a Night Widow alt build and am really enjoying it! The buffs are night and day - I feel like they really have a place now in a world with Fortunatas. The level 1 attack power pick ends up being sort of a throwaway used primarily at lower levels, and as a bit of a set mule. That being said, there are some considerations for occasional utility! What do you like to choose? At first I chose Swipe because hey - highest DPA. Then I got to thinking - do I really care about the DPA of an attack that isn't a regular part of my chain? What other utility might benefit me? I see it as: Swipe - useful on low recharge builds as decent filler, or if you want to skimp on picking attack powers (why are you playing a melee dps?). If you don't have enough slow res, might come into play at higher levels to fill out your chain. Otherwise, probably busy with something else 90% of the time. Poison Dart - Still a useful filler when needed! Lower DPA by a fair margin, but gives you some quick ranged utility. Can tag a runner, pull, or sit there and spit darts at range when you really don't want to be in melee on the rare occasion. Super quick recharge lets it basically be a ranged attack chain on its own. The -regen is small enough to mostly ignore. Mental Blast - Still useful for tagging runners/pulling. Even lower DPA than Poison Dart though, and not so fast to recharge (not proccing these powers!). However, gives you a nice little wedge to knock down mobs that pop T9s! You're not exactly nuking them, but it's a heckuva lot better than tickling them through 90% resist or floored hit chance. I'm actually not sure what I like best! I think Mental Blast probably has the best niche use. It solves a problem that, though a bit rare, is truly obnoxious. What do you like to choose, and why?

It is indeed outstanding on a stalker. Also - free built in staff form without choosing the power! Buildup, assassin staff - it's all upgrades in my book. You even have an extra lil bit of free defense from hide.

Or better yet, use lfg port on the lgtf!

I re-optimized a little bit further. Lost a very small amount of proc damage for a nice bump in resists and better recharge on Ground Zero. Tanker (Radiation Armor - Street Justice).mbd

A few things: I still have one achilles and one fury of glad present. I don't typically bother slotting these in multiple powers. In a hard target scenario, it will have pretty decent uptime anyhow given how much you are cycling attacks on the same brick wall. Outside of those hard targets, a damage proc will often work as well or better, as the mob goes down in 1-2 attacks either way, or melts to the general aoe going off without your focus. It's not like the -res procs can self-stack if you're lucky and get back to back fires. Damage always counts though 😄 I'm sure that achilles in both LBE and Shin breaker probably maths out better in a pylon test, but this is the more balanced approach I prefer personally. The achilles in Beta Decay is just too random in my opinion. The proc chance isn't horrible, but you won't have any consistent way of applying single target pressure on the target it hits in order to capitalize on the -res. Meanwhile, the extra -tohit is sort of something, and the modest endredux is pretty noticeable as a one slot wonder. I used to put Enzyme here, but the small difference isn't really worth the inf.

Here's my first round review of how that might look: Tanker (Radiation Armor - Street Justice).mbd Of special note here is that the smot proc is in a power I want to use a lot. Putting it in a mediocre DPA power like a t1/2 attack gives you a bit of a bad choice - do I use my super awesome +res proc, or do I use actually good attacks? Here I have it in a middle of the road power that can absorb some of the recharge it brings, and put the purple proc in it too as I want to be hitting it as much as possible in my ST rotation. I've traded a little bit of F/C resist here for a big bump in Psi, and overall more damage efficiency across the board. Note that FFBack powers are toggled off for procs right now. Also remember that mids doesn't represent the extra resist you're getting from smot proc right now, and you'll be able to stack it 2-3 times.

Pretty solid build overall, Strider! As much as I like to cram in FFBack, I'd consider swapping the one in Heavy blow for the 4th ATO for the recharge bonus. 12% chance for FFback vs 10% global recharge is firmly in favor of the global for overall benefit. The 4th Gauntleted fist in Rib Cracker isn't doing much for you. I'd swap for a damage proc or siphon the slot elsewhere. Impervious skin is a pretty weak set. 4 slot aegis would be an upgrade (drop the Imp armor too). This gives you more S/L pad to back off on the overslotted tough. Could swap the aegis psi in tough for an imp armor psi and you'll be net ahead of psi resists. Swap the decimation in LBE for Purple damage proc for sure. Much better damage return if you're actually using it in your rotation. Spinning strike already does KD (based on combo system - not shown properly in mids), so no need for the KD proc. Could swap for a damage proc or a third winter IO to shore up F/C. There are some other optimizations around that I'd probably hit on a ground-up build, but overall it's good! I feel like there is a version of this build that, with enough playing around, can get the same totals but with more global recharge. The FFback in your attack chain (even without heavy blow) goes a long way though.

Fair enough! No need to overthink it, I suppose. My last little thought - I'm considering swapping Bash out for Mace Beam. The idea being I won't really be relying on either for my normal rotation, except when exemping, and either one is mostly a set mule. Why not add the utility of a ranged attack? Being able to spam beams and Poisonous Ray when needed is at least a tiny little trick to have. Attack chain calculation is both an iffy science at best and subject to so much variance based on the reality of how the game plays out. Do you find yourself relying on Bash very often to maintain your cycle?

Indeed! On average, the current slotting provides 100 damage per activation. Some activations the procs will provide more than 100, some less. As long as I can stay alive, I'm happy enough living in the averages. 😄 Even compared to the proccy Defender, the bane has a higher cycling high damage aoe in Crowd Control, and of course crits, so still some modest advantages here. Definitely proc-oriented builds will be closer to even across ATs than those without! I guess I was mostly surprised at how the layout of their set is sort of sneakily similar to a support set. Well - it is a support set I suppose! This isn't any news to folks who have played them as you noted. With my builds, I start with some baseline goals and hard focus. In this case, softcap to all and absolute damage maximization of mace attacks. Once I achieve that, I start to evaluate what I would gain by backing off of those goals. In this case, I could add some modest defensive utility (PM proc, maybe some S/L res, power transfer heal proc, more KB protection. The extra recharge doesn't hurt either) if I sacrificed some proc potential in Pulverize. Overall, these wouldn't be bad trades. However, I'm happy enough with the current defensive package that I'll take the 100 average damage in a staple ST attack. I definitely use and love Placate on my stalkers! What powers do you like to setup for crits with Placate, @tidge?

The period of time would be per activation of the power.

It occurs to me that, weirdly, this guy isn't super far off of a very proccy force field defender with a mace, but minus the ally buff shields.. Even the damage values aren't substantially different if you compare with a highly optimized Defender attack set. Crits are a big deal though - I'm sure that covers some of the distance. For some reason I had this impression that they'd be a little crunchier. The damage is very serviceable, but it really is closer to a support character than I thought. That's not a bad thing, but just wasn't my first impression of the AT.

I coooould, but then I lose 100 damage in Pulverize! The extra acc would be enough to pull the 4th lotg in both sets and push 2 slots to serve other goals, so it's not a bad trade necessarily, especially with the additional 10% recharge. However, in for a proc, in for a pound! Procs stay, baby 😉 . The only remaining question here is whether I pick up Shatter Armor in place of one of Pulverize, Shatter, or Poisonous Ray. I think I'm good as is! May just put it through its paces and see how I roll from there. I don't want my rotation to be overly reliant on 2+ second animation powers.

The latest build in my post above has kismet. I could shift slots towards tactical training, but the return is not incredible, and still these are slots spent - so at best a wash with the slots in weave/manuevers. The slots in the defensive powers are meaningfully nudging my softcap totals as well. WAWG here is mostly present as an incredible mule for 7.5% aoe defense. There is no better slot for slot return on aoe defense than a full set of Frozen Blast! The other set bonuses are decent as well. It helps that the power has a use case as well (locking down a whole spawn from runners). Your build is a little more balanced between traditional slotting and a few key procced powers. Mine is all-in on procs for every primary power in my rotation, (Bash is filler/not very proc worthy anyhow) which necessitates a greater commitment to global acc. Placate is a power I've grown to learn and love on my Stalkers! I truly appreciate all it can do both defensively and offensively. I wonder - what powers do you usually save it for in practice? For single target, the best use case is Shatter, which effectively returns ~230 DPA on the placate usage, which is about as good (or a bit less than) just throwing another power in my ST rotation unless that power would be Bash. It looks like Placate may be best reserved for big aoe hits or as a defensive tool, or as a setup tool when I'm closing range. I could probably move things around to replace Shatter with Shatter armor. I have no doubt this would be very strong in some situations! Probably not an ideal trade though, as my overall attack chain would suffer, especially at lower levels. I would also lose the FFback opportunity in my ST chain. I like to keep it rolling no matter what the target saturation! Poisonous Ray is another potential swap, but I like the bit of range, and its DPA is rather excellent even without counting how it leverages the extra -res to toxic damage from Venom Grenade. I feel like all of these are probably about equal choices in the long run.

Thanks for taking a look, folks! @tidge The 4th lotgs for both powers are there for the Global accuracy. I have leaned into procs here, and these bonuses keep me at max hit chance against +3's on all powers. If you see a more efficient path to maintain accuracy without losing damage, I'm very open to further optimization! If I'm going to overslot something in pursuit of accuracy bonuses, doing so in my highest return defensive powers gets me that much closer to my softcap goals as well. Speaking of which, placate is already at max hit chance even as is. Although there are some nice sets for threat/placate, they don't serve any specific goals in this build, and the recharge/acc are sufficient with the one slot. I would have to tank my global acc or sacrifice procs to invest the slots. To @Maelwys, Shatter Armor is a nice power, but what would you drop, and where would the slots come from? The slots in the maneuvers and weave are serving global accuracy needs to enable procs, and I also rely on the melee defense bonus in unbreakable from the T1 armor to softcap melee. Even then, every other attack power is already 6 slotted and maximized for procs - do you see any missed targets where I didn't optimize for procs with this slotting? I'd love to find a spot for the PM proc, as I agree it's very effective but don't see any easy flex slots to pull from. My latest iteration does not include damage procs in Surveillance, and I've made further adjustments to balance the return on procs between shatter/pulverize. Build: Arachnos Soldier (Bane Spider Soldier - Bane Spider Training) less sl.mbd Text: Picture:

I did some messing about to optimize damage in Shatter. Lost 3.75 S/L res, but a fair trade in damage with F/C resist alongside. Build: Arachnos Soldier (Bane Spider Soldier - Bane Spider Training).mbd

Hi there folks! It's official - Arachnos Soldier is the only primary or secondary I have never made. It's time to get dirty and join the baddies! At some point I'm going to spool up a Crab build of some kind for an alt build, but Bane looks like a fun place to start. I've reviewed lots of builds and seen many excellent options, but always prefer to spin my own take on things. I'd love your feedback! My goals: Max hit chance against +3's. I'm okay relying on global bonuses to get there. Go crazy with procs - optimizing for maximum overall damage first and foremost. Drown in FFback as much as possible, layer on global recharge where I can. Softcap all positions, reaching for a bit of extra pad where there is no big trade-off to do so. Maximize resists across the board, especially S/L. Slow resist - as much as I can sqeeuze in! Thematic considerations: All mace! I don't want to pop out the gun or spit any epic attacks. There are plenty of great attacks in the pools and initial gun attacks of course, but they are not for my macey guy. Self-contained - no summons. I know call reinforcements is a great power, but unless I'm summoning a mace that floats around and beats things at my command, it's not for this build. Power considerations: Web Envelope here is mostly a mule, but it still comes from the mace, and I can see double stacking immob coming in handy. Surveillance. I had this procced out originally, but chose to steal these slots to maximize S/L resist (5th slot in lotgs). Do you feel it was a worthy trade? (7.5% S/L res vs ~120 damage on this power) Poisonous Ray seems like a potential drop/swap. However, the DPA is good procced out, and it's nice to have a little bit of a ranged option. Do you like it on your macey builds? Without it, I think I'd have to rely on Bash a little more often than I prefer to round out ST. Leadership. I don't have it! How much of a miss do you consider this, since VEATs have such excellent modifiers? I have the in-set powers of course. I originally had it, but retooled for tough/weave, which seem pretty important to achieve softcap goals and add a layer of meat. I could swap combat jumping for maneuvers, but it would put me a bit over the line in end consumption for my preference. I feel like I would probably prioritize this more on a future crab build with summons. Knockback protection. I have 7 points, which is decent but not ideal. I'd like room for one more KB prot IO. What would you swap for it? Note that I have all FFback powers toggled off for procs. Toggle on one at a time to see true damage totals (mids gets wonky with multiple FFback on). EDIT: Updated build. Build: Arachnos Soldier (Bane Spider Soldier - Bane Spider Training) less sl.mbd Picture: Text:

Yep! I had realized this later on. The latest build I shared just has base slot in fortify.

Indeed it's fun how much -res you can stack readily on this combo! Achilles - 20%. Annihilation - 12.5% Sleet -22.5 Heat loss -22.5 I didn't pick any candidates for the Fury of Glad proc, but an inspired person could squeeze it in with cross punch or something. 🙂 I decided to leave the achilles to my own application, popping it in Infrigidate. It will be active basically all the time on targets that really matter. My T1's use the 2 -def damage procs. I wanted room for the KD proc from Overwhelming force, as it makes a pretty big impact here. You're right though - it is an especially synergistic combo. Of course, /Cold dom is pretty amazing on any combo where the pets provide a bit of baseline defense.

I definitely don't consider the combo overall to be bottom barrel! I was more referencing the consensus that Beasts, though decent, is more or less the lowest performing primary at the moment. Even so, I love my beast/cold so far! You're right - they are a shredding blender of claws and fangs. I feel like the array of damage and tohit buffs they can pop are perhaps a bit underrated. They are also one of the few sets that includes not only good baseline defense to all positions, but also a solid spread of baseline resists.