Crab Spider Build: Sentinel with Pets

[cohRock]

I have a crab spider ("Bakpak") who has just turned 31.  His build is planned in Mids Reborn.  He is only taking traditional ranged attacks from the Crab Spider and epic pools, and no attacks from the Arachnos Soldier Pool.  So his slottable attacks will be:

1. Channelgun
2. Longfang
3. Suppression
4. Venom Grenade
5. Mu Lightning (epic pool at 41)
6. Ball Lightning (epic pool at 44)

Some of his direct offense will also come from the prestige attacks Sands of Mu, Nemesis Staff, and Blackwand.  Since he has extra toHit and Accuracy via Leadership and Offensive, these should be reliable enough to fill in any gaps in his attack chain.  Their chance to hit is also boosted by the -defense side effect of the first three attacks listed.

 

He skipped all the melee attacks.  Thus this build looks a lot like a Sentinel -- ranged-only attacks but with shields and mez protection.  However, he will eventually have 3 sets of pets added as well as a pseudo-pet:

1. Omega Bomb (pseudo-pet at 32)
2. Spiderlings (at 35)
3. Reinforcements (at 38)
4. Mu Striker (epic pool at 47)

Feel free to offer feedback and suggestions.  He will be taking all Traning and Gadget powers as well as all Crab Spider Training powers.  From the Leaping pool he has Combat Jumping, Super Jump, and Acrobatics (since he has no native knockback protection).  The only other pool power he has is Teleport Target.

Edited April 13, 2022 by cohRock

[Two Dollar Bill]

"Crabberminds" generally slot for +Recharge to keep their pets in play as much as possible. If that's what you're doing, I don't think you will need (or want) to use freebie powers in your attack chain.

I would drop Longfang in favor of Frag Grenade in a heartbeat. Even if it caused a momentary pause in your attack chain once in a while, it's just a far more powerful attack and should not be skipped.

Take Omega Bomb and give it a spin. My own feeling is that it's fun for solo play and basically worthless on a typical team. It takes some time to lure in its targets and explode, and many teams will steamroll through a spawn before the Omega Bomb even goes off, leaving it to explode in an empty room.

I think Wolf Spider Armor and Combat Training: Offensive are fairly skippable if you need more power slots, but they're okay if you just want powers that require no enhancement slots.

My Crab has 8 points of Knockback reduction from IOs, and he still gets tossed around sometimes. Carnie Phantasms, for example. Still, I feel 8 points is "good enough". You can slot the Blessing of the Zephyr KB reduction IO into both Super Jump and Teleport Target if you don't actually want Acrobatics.

[cohRock]

@Two Dollar Bill, Since the first two attacks are Channelgun and Slice, he has to choose one of them.  (Alternatively I guess he could tale either Single Shot or Pummel from the Arachnos Soldier set, but I believe that would lead to annoying redraw.)  He will generally be teamed, so if Omega Maneuver is not a useful team power, he could choose either Frag Grenade or Hasten in its stead.  Thanks for the feedback; I'll think about your comments.

[Two Dollar Bill]

There shouldn't be any problem trading in Longfang for Frag Grenade since you do already have Channelgun on your list of powers to get.

 

There was a time when teams would stop fighting long enough to gather for the Empath's Recovery Aura, wait patiently for the Controller to confuse a Malta Sapper, and hold their fire for the Tanker to group up the mobs into a nice bunch... and Omega Maneuver would have been a perfectly good power in that game. In modern City of Heroes it's just too slow to be effective for its intended purpose as an opener / AoE control power.

 

If you want to have your pets in play as much as possible, I would get Hasten.

 

Feel free to post a build if you want to discuss fine details.