Can anyone break down how the Crabbermind plays for me?

[lokiie1984]

I've played a Huntsmen to 50 and I think I did most of the incarnate stuff on it but I've never done a crabbermind and I always wanted to. But how do they play? Is it similar to the MM? I mean I know the pets have long cool downs that need to be reduced a ton and we cant control the pets. But are they more or less durable then the MM pets? Do the pet defense aura enhancements work for them?

 

I love the idea of the mastermind but I've just never been able to get into them much because I feel like I spend 90% of my play time micro managing pets and the rest just standing there not doing anything. So if Crabermind plays a bit more like a dps with a gaggle of pets, that could be pretty neat. 

 

Another question is, can they be set up to be more melee then range? I don't think I've ever seen a melee crab (probably for good reason.) 

[tidge]

Before pursuing a Crabbermind, I have a couple of thoughts to share:

 

(0) These are pets, not henchmen. They are not at all like a Mastermind, except with respect to slotting choices for Defense/Resists/%BuildUp (Soulbound) etc. The Crabbermind is perhaps the best choice (along with an Invulnerability Tanker) to put a Gaussian's %BuildUp proc in one of the Crabbermind's Leadership powers. VEATs have a solid Damage scale, and the pets will improved the chances to get %BuildUp triggers for the Crabbermind. Masterminds can get similar chances for the %proc, but their damage scales are terrible by comparison.

 

(1) You will need enough Recharge to be able to resummon the T2 and T3 pets, should they survive the entire length of their 'natural' lives. This isn't hard, but it isn't trivial. The T1 summon has a shorter cooldown, see next point.

 

(2) Because they are pets that expire, if you resummon a 'replacement' to join previously summoned pets that have not been defeated: the latest summoned pets will expire per the life of any surviving original pets. In practice, this means that you can't be frivolous with resummoning just because a power has recharged.

 

As for playstyle:

 

In my experience, the pets are basically fire-and-forget. You are essentially stuck with whatever attacks they have so there is no real advantage to trying for melee v. ranged. IIRC I think I have at least two (possibly all three) of the summons slotted with 4xExpedient Reinforcement and the only %procs I try to leverage are Soulbound Allegience %Build up on the big guy, and Overwhelming Force Knockdown on the little guys.

 

I should disclose: I rarely used my Crabbermind build, as a lot of what I wanted to do with the character could be done with the other builds. I never paid close attention to how the difference in DPS shook out (between builds), but it certainly didn't feel like less. I suspect that if you want to lean heavily into primarily Mace attacks the pets ought to help a lot, once you get their survivibility improved.

[biostem]

I am currently leveling such a build.  I went with Leviathan Mastery for the extra AoEs and its boss-tier pet.  I was only able to fit in 3 defense powers for the luck of the gambler +recharge rate IOs, so I won't have maxed-out recharge, but the pets are available quite often.  The spiderlings have the shortest cooldown, so I treat them as the expendable fight-opener.  I tend to drop my pets right on enemies, as it can be a bit annoying to try and "drag them" to them, but I am mostly self-sufficient.  You could double-dip and also take leadership if you really wanted to buff your pets, but I prefer using them more as a distraction while I blast away with all my debuffs and AoEs...

[Lusiphur Malache]

I tried using spiderlings and bots on the same build, but in alternating fashion because of recharge.  That didn't really work for me, so I 6 slotted spiderlings.  Spiderlings are melee focused and often go on suicide attacks which isn't beneficial.  I'm much more happy with 6 slotted bots, they usually stay at range, but occasionally one will go melee crazy for no reason whatsoever.  

 

My crab build is a combination of melee and ranged attacks, because I get bored easily.  All mace 3 ST and an AOE, same on melee side.

[KaizenSoze]

Crabberminds are one of those builds you have to spend a lot of money on commit to total focus when playing.

 

I don't play them, because the pets are uncontrollable and fragile. But if you can learn to keep them alive or at least manage their life cycle effectively, you can do a lot of damage.

 

I think there are few players who really rock Crabberminds. Rarely than hens teeth, like really good HEAT players.

 

On that note, I do have a Huntsbane build with pets that works pretty well. Doesn't rely on the pets as much, but uses them as extra damage.