Let's talk about Mu vs Soul

[KaizenSoze]

I am tinkering as usual with my Night Widow build aka the Mu Widow.

 

I am curious which pool people prefer for their Widow or Fortunatas of any flavor and why.

 

Soul:

Gloom: which has a great DPA. I find the dot part annoying, because I don't know if the dot will finish or do I need to attack again

Soul Tentacles: seems to be an very proc'able cone, but it's still a cone

Dark Obliteration: a good AOE proc'able or straight AOE

Darkest night: I am guessing few folks take it

Melee pet has anyone taken it?

 

Mu

Mu Lightning: second best ranged single target pool power it terms of damage. It can return endurance to the user 30% of the time

Electrifying Fences: very proc'able immobilize AOE, the range is a bit short

Ball Lightning: very proc'able AOE or straight AOE

Static Discharge: decent ranged proc'able cone, but it's still a cone

Ranged pet

[Omega-202]

My Widow went Soul for theme, but I barely play it anymore.  Overall you hit all of the main points though, as I've done substantial testing of both on Crabs.

 

Regarding the pets, I can only really speak from the PoV of a Crabbermind.  The Mu Striker is a great ranged and AoE damage pet that generally stays out of trouble.  The Widow chews through single targets really well in melee, but one Boss melee AoE and she suddenly has orange health and is one hit from death.  I will never get the image out of my head when I was testing the Widow on a Council mission and saw a boss use Dragon Tail and she just crumpled into a ragdoll.  Maybe she'd survive a bit better on a Widow that is also in melee and can grant more defense via Mind Link, but on a Crab, the Widow pet was a glass cannon.  

 

One additional comment is Re:Darkest Night.  It's "meh" in my opinion, but some people really like it.  I found it was only ever useful on AVs (and even then the AVs neuter the debuff heavily) or, more usefully, for aggro management as a psuedo taunt aura.  You can anchor something in a spawn and add a lot of threat to yourself if you want to take the heat off your friends.  

[RobotLove]

Echoing Nuke Leah's thoughts on the attacks mostly. Fences I found a bit counter productive with no taunt aura to get mobs to clump though.

 

Darkest Night does its best work with NW Smoke 'nades. -perception on the whole spawn, anchor to a mob on the edge to peel half the pack away. Engangement control. Bit of an art to pulling it off without triggering them all. But the stacked -tohit from both is lovely, if a bit wasted with softcap defense + perma-ML. Mid-level teams will love you though.

 

Pets add some really good dps, but Widows just have to work harder to keep them alive. Soldier's higher base stats on TT: Maneuvers (plus pool maneuvers stacking) means you just have to 'exist' to make them fairly sturdy.

 

As a Widow, you need to time your buffs/debuffs and prioritize your targets to keep them alive. I've had mine live their full 4 minute duration on /x8 content, but always when I can control  the engagement. If you start getting multiple spawns to aggro, or leave a boss up long enough, and the pets tend to go down fast. Keep the engagements tight, and be in range for your auras to buff them, and they can really help chew through baddies.

Edited November 5, 2020 by RobotLove
Clarity, I hope. I'm very ill...

[tidge]

If we are only talking Widows, I don't see a tremendous amount of difference. I favor Mu for some peculiar reasons on my ranged Fortunata: I prefer the 'electricity' effect, as the AoE (and DoT) lights up the enemies in dark (Astoria) content. That character has taken, in order:

 

35) Mu Lightning (6-slotted with Thunderstrike)

41) Ball Lightning (6-slotted with Annihilation)

44) Static Discharge (5-slotted with Positron's Blast)

 

Those sets give me the set bonuses I want.  I could fit the pet in at 47, but it would only get a single slot.

 

That character is a duo-build, with the 'other half' being a Night Widow focused on the melee attacks, but took Soul:

 

35) Gloom (6-slotted with Thunderstrike)

41) Dark Obliteration (6-slotted with Annihilation)

47) Darkest Night (single-slotted with an HO Enzyme)

 

I could afford to be somewhat less strict about chasing positional defense bonuses from sets in the Night Widow build because Mind Link is easily permanent, but I feel that these late-build attacks aren't that important for my play style (with that build, considering what the Fortunata can do).

 

Generally: I wouldn't take an Immobilization, because I prefer the enemies to come to me. I wanted an AoE to fit a different -Resistance proc.

[KaizenSoze]

My thinking at this point is Mu for Widows and Soul for Fortunatas.

 

NWs need something that works in melee and their two native AOEs are cones. Mu has two targeted which is perfect because mobs are going clumped around you.

 

Fortunatas could use a ranged single target attack that is not psi or lethal. They have plenty of native AOE. Gloom fits perfectly.

 

Interesting discovery playing around with Mu Lighting slotting. The difference in damage between 5 slotting Power Transfer with the Apoc proc as the six and 6 slotting Apoc is less that 10 points of damage. ML slotted with PT gives a 30% chance to get 10+ endurance back each attack on a recharge of ~3 seconds depending on the build. Of course, the set bonus matter a lot, but I thought someone might find that useful. Note, Mids and in game power description differ quite a bit. The 30% end return is only show in game description. Mids implies it's every hit.

 

 

 

[Omega-202]

47 minutes ago, KaizenSoze said:

My thinking at this point is Mu for Widows and Soul for Fortunatas.

 

NWs need something that works in melee and their two native AOEs are cones. Mu has two targeted which is perfect because mobs are going clumped around you.

 

Fortunatas could use a ranged single target attack that is not psi or lethal. They have plenty of native AOE. Gloom fits perfectly.

 

Interesting discovery playing around with Mu Lighting slotting. The difference in damage between 5 slotting Power Transfer with the Apoc proc as the six and 6 slotting Apoc is less that 10 points of damage. ML slotted with PT gives a 30% chance to get 10+ endurance back each attack on a recharge of ~3 seconds depending on the build. Of course, the set bonus matter a lot, but I thought someone might find that useful. Note, Mids and in game power description differ quite a bit. The 30% end return is only show in game description. Mids implies it's every hit.

 

 

 

The +end is definitely a nice little bonus and it makes it easier to have an infinite single target chain.  However, I am a big proponent of 5 slot Apoc (all but D/R) + Gladiator proc for maximum single target damage in either Gloom or ML, as long as you haven't used Apoc elsewhere in the build.  The double proc, 10% rech bonus and all around high stats makes that combo a standard in a single target blast in nearly all of my characters.