Coming back to the Crab - build help please?

[khy]

A while back I made a crab, and loved it. Then I shelved it to play with other AT's. Now I'd like to return to the world of Crabs.

Specifically, I want to be a crab who uses the backpack a lot. I know, I know, it's not the absolute best for damage - but it LOOKS SO COOL. And the pets? They just look great too! I gotta have 'em. I went with Mace for the theme - all the bots, all the time.

 

How does this build look? I initially took the Toxin powers from Experimentation because I got a great name, but I was disappointed in them - so I grabbed Arm Lash and Slice because they just look GREAT.

 

Villain Plan by Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer 2.7.2.10
https://github.com/Crytilis/mids-reborn-hero-designer

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Toxin Trooper: Level 50 Natural Arachnos Soldier
Primary Power Set: Crab Spider Soldier
Secondary Power Set: Crab Spider Training
Power Pool: Experimentation
Power Pool: Speed
Ancillary Pool: Mace Mastery

Villain Profile:
Level 1: Channelgun -- GldJvl-Acc/Dmg(A), GldJvl-Dam/Rech(3), GldJvl-Acc/Dmg/End/Rech(3), GldJvl-Dam%(5), GldJvl-Acc/End/Rech(5), GldJvl-Dam/End/Rech(7)
Level 1: Wolf Spider Armor -- GldArm-3defTpProc(A)
Level 2: Longfang -- Dvs-Acc/Dmg(A), Dvs-Dmg/EndRdx(7), Dvs-Dmg/Rchg(9), Dvs-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(9), Dvs-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(11), Dvs-Hold%(11)
Level 4: Speed of Sound -- Run-I(A)
Level 6: Slice -- Hct-Dmg(A), Hct-Dmg/EndRdx(13), Hct-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(15), Hct-Dam%(15)
Level 8: Suppression -- SprDmnofA-Acc/Dmg(A), SprDmnofA-Dmg/Rchg(17), SprDmnofA-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(17), SprDmnofA-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(19), SprDmnofA-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(19), SprDmnofA-Rchg/DmgFear%(21)
Level 10: Combat Training: Defensive -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), LucoftheG-Def(21)
Level 12: Venom Grenade -- SprSpdBit-Acc/Dmg(A), SprSpdBit-Dmg/Rchg(23), SprSpdBit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(23), SprSpdBit-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(25), SprSpdBit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(25), SprSpdBit-Rchg/Global Toxic(27)
Level 14: Arm Lash -- Arm-Dam%(A), Arm-Dmg(27), Arm-Dmg/Rchg(37), Arm-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(37), Arm-Dmg/EndRdx(46), Arm-Acc/Rchg(50)
Level 16: Combat Training: Offensive -- Acc-I(A), Acc-I(29)
Level 18: Tactical Training: Maneuvers -- Rct-Def(A), Rct-Def/EndRdx(29), Rct-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(31), Rct-ResDam%(31)
Level 20: Tactical Training: Assault -- EndRdx-I(A), EndRdx-I(31)
Level 22: Tactical Training: Leadership -- GssSynFr--ToHit(A), GssSynFr--ToHit/Rchg/EndRdx(33), GssSynFr--ToHit/EndRdx(33), GssSynFr--Build%(33)
Level 24: Mental Training -- Run-I(A)
Level 26: Fortification -- UnbGrd-ResDam(A), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx(34), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(34), UnbGrd-Max HP%(34)
Level 28: Serum -- NmnCnv-Heal/Rchg(A), NmnCnv-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(36), NmnCnv-Heal/EndRdx(36), NmnCnv-Regen/Rcvry+(36)
Level 30: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(37)
Level 32: Frag Grenade -- Bmbdmt-Dam(A), Bmbdmt-Dam/Rech(39), Bmbdmt-Acc/Dam/Rech(39), Bmbdmt-Acc/Dam/Rech/End(39), Bmbdmt-+FireDmg(40)
Level 35: Summon Spiderlings -- SlbAll-Dmg(A), SlbAll-Dmg/Rchg(40), SlbAll-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(40), SlbAll-Acc/Rchg(42), SlbAll-Dmg/EndRdx(42), SlbAll-Build%(42)
Level 38: Call Reinforcements -- SvrRgh-Acc/Dmg(A), SvrRgh-Dmg/EndRdx(43), SvrRgh-Acc/EndRdx(43), SvrRgh-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(43), SvrRgh-Acc(45), SvrRgh-PetResDam(45)
Level 41: Mace Blast -- Dmg-I(A)
Level 44: Shatter Armor -- Mk'Bit-Acc/Dmg(A), Mk'Bit-Dmg/Rchg(45), Mk'Bit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(46), Mk'Bit-Dam%(46)
Level 47: Summon Blaster -- ExpRnf-Acc/Rchg(A), ExpRnf-Acc/Dmg(48), ExpRnf-Dmg/EndRdx(48), ExpRnf-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(48), ExpRnf-EndRdx/Dmg/Rchg(50), ExpRnf-+Res(Pets)(50)
Level 49: Crab Spider Armor Upgrade -- Ags-Psi/Status(A)
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
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 1: Conditioning 
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 4: Ninja Run 
Level 2: Swift -- Run-I(A)
Level 2: Health -- Heal-I(A)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 2: Stamina -- PrfShf-EndMod(A), PrfShf-End%(13)
Level 50: Musculature Radial Paragon 
Level 50: Ion Core Final Judgement 
Level 50: Reactive Core Flawless Interface 
Level 50: Arachnos Radial Superior Ally 
Level 50: Barrier Core Epiphany 
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Edited October 27, 2020 by khy

[Two Dollar Bill]

My Crab uses Slice and Arm Lash all the time, and I do think they look cool. Rule of Cool is all the excuse you need, really.

 

Your Crab has more attacks and a boatload more recharge bonus than mine. Do you actually need all those attacks? For example, do you really need both Channelgun and Longfang as ranged filler attacks, or could you lose one and allocate those slots to more powerful abilities?

 

Your build is kinda short on procs/uniques. You have the Gladiator's Armor +3% Defense, but what about the Steadfast Protection +3% Defense? Or the Shield Wall +5% Resistance? I'd definitely rather have one of those than an extra slot in Combat Training: Offensive.

 

Pets are fun, though my own experience with them was that your Spiderlings die almost instantaneously if you're fighting anything really challenging, especially if you close to use melee attacks. Your mileage may vary, but I didn't find the Spiderlings were worth the investment.

[khy]

Well, I do have a lot of attacks yes. But that's primarily because I like having situational options. Channelgun/Longfang for longer ranged (Helps to have more than just the one in rotation) when dealing with ranged-only hami orbs or when fighting high flying enemies that constantly bouncing is obnoxious. Slice and Arm Lash for strong melee and also soooo cool looking. And Suppression/Venom/Frag are my primary group damage dealers, doing the bulk of the work. Though truthfully it's usually not any fixed rotation but whatever I feel like. If I'm attacking a strong single enemy (AV or EB) I stick with Channelgun/Fang with some arm strikes if they get in close, and only bother to use Venom to keep up the debuff. I'm sure I could focus more heavily on a smaller set of attacks but variety is the spice of life and all that.

 

As for pets, I won't say they're the most effective but thematically they're perfect and I'm a sucker for that kind of stuff. 3 various arachnobots fighting side-by-side with a big crab spider. I love the whole 'be a part of the huge evil group' aspect. Honestly if I could do missions alongside other Arachnos agents I would (And yeah, almost certainly gonna be doing arachnos lore pets), it's just so FUN with the roleplay of being in such a huge awesome organization after all. Plus they are super useful for ablative armor, if nothing else. The ton of recharge is mainly because I want to be able to summon and resummon pets constantly. Honestly with where I am now (~44ish) I find them helpful enough just as a distraction. And against big badass enemies who fixate on me they do tend to do good work.

 

I will definitely look into more procs, I feel like I could stand to gain some more tankiness. I moved a slot from Combat Training Offensive to Defensive to drop Shield Wall in there, and stuck Steadfast into the Crab Spider Armor because I think I'm fairly covered on the status effects aegis helps with. Wondering what your opinion is on the various incarnate slots and abilities?

Edited November 6, 2020 by khy

[Two Dollar Bill]

I do understand that your heavy focus on +Recharge is to maximize the uptime of your pets. Though, to my mind, this would present a perfect excuse to have fewer attacks since your favorites will have very little downtime.

In my case, I always want one more set bonus out of my IO sets, so I tend to have fewer abilities, more completely slotted. I also don't have enough fingers or hotbar slots to comfortably manage 8 attacks, Serum, Aim and incarnate click powers. I commend your dexterity!

 

I would just see where you can trim a few slots off of your powers to make room for those procs/uniques. For example, if you removed the Soulbound Allegiance: Damage from your Spiderlings they would barely notice, since most of that damage is being wasted by enhancement diversification. The set bonus you lose (5% Psionic Defense) won't be missed. Likewise if Channelgun and/or Longfang were 5-slotted instead of 6, you could get some bonuses that more than compensate.

 

Incarnate powers.... I'm not the best resource since my own Crab mostly exemplars and he's designed to operate without them. When I do play at 50 it's usually on a task force or trial and I want to buff the team. I use the Support Hybrid and the healing Destiny (Rebirth). Interface is Diamagnetic (To-Hit Debuff) so that my AoEs can protect my squishier by more aggro-generating teammates, and I think it synergizes well with having high defense. Since my defenses are already soft-capped, I use the Resilient Alpha to improve damage resistance.

 

[tidge]

Here is my own take on the 'backpack build'. It isn't optimized for DPS, but as written in the first post it is more designed to show off the backpack (primarily ranged) and have a full suite of Spider pets. Part of the lack of optimization is this: in practice (for the content I play) I almost never use the Web Envelope, and Frenzy is only occasionally used. To the point made by @Two Dollar Bill, this build has plenty of attacks because of the (global) Recharge.

 

Like @khy first build, this build is to emphasize set bonuses. The Global Recharge + Pet slotting is sufficient to be able to resummon the T2/T3 pets as their timer expires. The build is ultimately an exercise in compromises between power picks between aesthetic choices, available powers, set bonus options to support the non-Incarnate recharge necessary for 'perma' pets. The most trivial change I would recommend is that the travel power (Mystic Flight) doesn't need to be taken as early but as I recall: when chasing set bonuses for this spin on a VEAT there is an additional constraint of at what level certain powers become available. YMMV if you want the 4 points of Knockback Protection it offers from the Universal Travel IO.

 

Spoiler

Villain Plan by Hero Villain Designer 2.23
https://github.com/ImaginaryDevelopment/imaginary-hero-designer

Crab with Pets: Level 50 Natural Arachnos Soldier
Primary Power Set: Crab Spider Soldier
Secondary Power Set: Crab Spider Training
Power Pool: Sorcery
Power Pool: Leadership
Power Pool: Concealment
Power Pool: Speed
Ancillary Pool: Mace Mastery

Villain Profile:
Level 1: Channelgun -- SprSpdBit-Acc/Dmg:50(A), SprSpdBit-Dmg/Rchg:50(9), SprSpdBit-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(3), SprSpdBit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(27), SprSpdBit-Rchg/Global Toxic:50(31)
Level 1: Wolf Spider Armor -- StdPrt-ResDam/Def+:30(A)
Level 2: Combat Training: Defensive -- LucoftheG-Rchg+:50(A), ShlWal-ResDam/Re TP:50(3)
Level 4: Longfang -- SprDmnofA-Acc/Dmg:50(A), SprDmnofA-Dmg/Rchg:50(5), SprDmnofA-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(5), SprDmnofA-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(7), SprDmnofA-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(7), SprDmnofA-Rchg/DmgFear%:50(9)
Level 6: Crab Spider Armor Upgrade -- GldArm-3defTpProc:50(A)
Level 8: Mystic Flight -- BlsoftheZ-ResKB:50(A)
Level 10: Suppression -- Ann-Acc/Dmg:50(A), Ann-Dmg/Rchg:50(11), Ann-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(11), Ann-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(13), Ann-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(29), Ann-ResDeb%:50(31)
Level 12: Venom Grenade -- Rgn-Dmg:50(A), Rgn-Dmg/Rchg:50(13), Rgn-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(23), Rgn-Acc/Rchg:50(25), Rgn-Dmg/EndRdx:50(25), PstBls-Dam%:50(40)
Level 14: Tactical Training: Maneuvers -- Rct-Def:50(A), Rct-Def/EndRdx:50(15), Rct-EndRdx/Rchg:50(15), Rct-Def/Rchg:50(17), Rct-Def/EndRdx/Rchg:50(17), Rct-ResDam%:50(19)
Level 16: Maneuvers -- LucoftheG-Rchg+:50(A), LucoftheG-Def:50(37)
Level 18: Frag Grenade -- PstBls-Acc/Dmg:50(A), PstBls-Dmg/Rchg:50(19), PstBls-Dmg/Rng:50(21), PstBls-Dmg/EndRdx:50(21), PstBls-Dam%:50(23), SuddAcc--KB/+KD:50(29)
Level 20: Tactical Training: Leadership -- GssSynFr--Build%:50(A)
Level 22: Mental Training -- Run-I:50(A)
Level 24: Fortification -- UnbGrd-Max HP%:50(A), UnbGrd-ResDam:50(27), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx:50(40), UnbGrd-Rchg/ResDam:50(50)
Level 26: Frenzy -- Arm-Dmg:50(A), Arm-Dmg/Rchg:50(37), Arm-Dmg/EndRdx:50(43), Arm-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(43), Arm-Dam%:50(46), TchofLadG-%Dam:50(50)
Level 28: Serum -- Prv-Heal:50(A), Prv-Heal/EndRdx:50(33), Prv-EndRdx/Rchg:50(33), Prv-Heal/Rchg:50(33), Prv-Heal/Rchg/EndRdx:50(34), Prv-Absorb%:50(34)
Level 30: Grant Invisibility -- LucoftheG-Rchg+:50(A)
Level 32: Hasten -- RechRdx-I:50(A), RechRdx-I:50(34)
Level 35: Summon Spiderlings -- ExpRnf-Acc/Rchg:50(A), ExpRnf-Acc/Dmg:50(36), ExpRnf-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(36), ExpRnf-EndRdx/Dmg/Rchg:50(36), OvrFrc-Dam/KB:50(37), SlbAll-Build%:50(50)
Level 38: Call Reinforcements -- ExpRnf-Acc/Rchg:50(A), ExpRnf-Acc/Dmg:50(39), ExpRnf-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(39), ExpRnf-EndRdx/Dmg/Rchg:50(39), EdcoftheM-PetDef:40(40)
Level 41: Web Envelope -- GrvAnc-Immob:50(A), GrvAnc-Immob/Rchg:50(42), GrvAnc-Immob/EndRdx:50(42), GrvAnc-Acc/Immob/Rchg:50(42), GrvAnc-Hold%:50(43)
Level 44: Shatter Armor -- Hct-Dmg:50(A), Hct-Dmg/Rchg:50(45), Hct-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(45), Hct-Dmg/EndRdx:50(45), Hct-Dam%:50(46), TchofDth-Dam%:40(46)
Level 47: Summon Blaster -- ExpRnf-Acc/Rchg:50(A), ExpRnf-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(48), ExpRnf-EndRdx/Dmg/Rchg:50(48), ExpRnf-+Res(Pets):50(48)
Level 49: Invisibility -- LucoftheG-Rchg+:50(A)
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
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 1: Conditioning
Level 1: Sprint -- UnbLea-Stlth:50(A)
Level 2: Rest -- IntRdx-I:50(A)
Level 4: Ninja Run
Level 2: Swift -- Run-I:50(A)
Level 2: Health -- Pnc-Heal/+End:50(A), NmnCnv-Regen/Rcvry+:50(31)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Jump-I:50(A)
Level 2: Stamina -- PrfShf-End%:50(A)
Level 0: Born In Battle
Level 0: High Pain Threshold
Level 0: Invader
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Here is the code:

Spoiler

Click this DataLink to open the build!

 

We discussed slotting Spider pets in the following thread. The build above shows my slotting, but there is an excellent point in the following thread that the Soulbound Alliegence %Build Up proc is almost certainly wasted in the Spiderlings when playing against elevated content (+4) as they have few attacks to take advantage of it.

 

Edited November 6, 2020 by tidge
fixed link