The Spider's Handbook: An Incomplete Guide to VEATs

[Videra]

So I just want to start of by saying this guide is not 100% complete and never will be, I intend to keep adding to this guide with every new bit of information I learn from personal experience or what others have told me (You can help add to it by messaging me in game at: @Videra)

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CALLING ALL SPIDERS!

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Let's start at point-break: VEATS, Villain Epic Archetypes, are a set of Archetypes (Classes) that act as a hybrid between support and damage dealer. Their support is primarily passive, taking the form of auras like Tactical Training: Assault, a 'Leadership' toggle which passively increases the damage output of your team. They are also quite sturdy.

 

 

Can you support like a Defender? No, but you are an invaluable force multiplier that can do more damage than the defender. (Usually)

Can you match the damage of a blaster? Generally, no, but you still reliably do more damage than most support archetypes. (Citation Needed)

Can you lead a random Team/League? Of course - a VEAT is never undesirable.
Can you solo x8/+4 Content? With ease.

Why play a VEAT?

Spoiler

Alright. Simple question, simple answer: "Why would a VEAT when everyone else does the same things they do, but better?" Which is, in and of itself, a valid question. The answer is that you are an unmitigated force multiplier. You are easily capable of dealing competent damage, your support via your auras is entirely passive and significant. Have two instances of maneuvers, assault, and at least one instance of leadership will, on its own, make your team sturdier, deal more damage, and hit harder. They will also have higher perception, and resistance + protection to Confuse and Terrorize.

Not every team is going to have the ideal Power Sets, not every team is going to have players that know how to play the game, and not every team will be level fifty.

Your MERE PRESENCE strengthens every team you are in. And even when those ideal, intelligent, knowledgeable players are present - you still contribute as much as you did before. Buffs are buffs. You kill competently, you empower those around you, and you look damn cool while doing it.

The Lore:

Spoiler

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The Wolf Spider:

 

The lowest-ranking of Arachnos' forces, and probably the most numerous, too. Wolf Spiders are desperate souls and little more than legalized thugs. They have conventional, very basic weapons and armor such as pistols, shotguns and sub-machine guns, all in Arachnos colors.

Those who show grit and skill are promoted to the rank of Crab Spider Longfang, becoming an augmented super soldier. In the case of more rare and valuable traits, such as psychic affinity, they may instead be promoted to the ranks of the Bane Spiders, melding their consciousness into a psionic hivemind. The most ruthless Bane Spiders climb to the rank of Bane Spider Executioner, joining Recluse's personal guard.

 

No Patron commands the Wolf Spiders. Captain Mako commands the Crab Spiders,

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The Blood Widow:

 

The Widows are Arachnos' beautiful and deadly assassins. Widows are trained in the arts of stealth, infiltration, and disguise. As a result, they spend most of their time in plain clothes and assumed identities, ferreting out secrets or blackmailing business leaders into cooperating with Arachnos' designs.

 

 

Typically, tenacious Blood Widows become Night Widows; being given the rank and discretion to form a strike force comprised of other Arachnos soldiers. Other Blood Widows, however, may develop their psionic potential further - resulting in them ascending to the rank of 'Fortunata', Arachnos' Recluse worshipping seers.

 

The Night Widows and Fortunatas are both under the command of Ghost Widow.

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Some Fluff:

Spoiler

I'll keep this one brief: I'm gonna shove some canon compliant costumes in here! Have fun!

Female Spiders.zip

Male Spiders.zip

(Credit to @Lazuli, AKA: Operative Salamanca.)

The difference between an Arachnos Soldier and an Arachnos Widow:

Spoiler

There are two variants of the 'Soldiers of Arachnos' archetype. One is the Widow, the other is the Soldier? What's the difference? More than aesthetics. To clarify:

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The Arachnos Widow:

 

The Arachnos Widow is a primarily melee focused archetype that roughly derives its game-play loop from the 'Claws' melee Power Set. It uses similar fast-paced attacks, though has (bad) poison dart attacks as well. In its initial form, all a garden-variety Widow brings to the table is its leadership toggles. It can also pack confront, if you so choose.

 

The stand-out attacks are Follow Up, Lunge, Strike, and Spin. Dart Burst is HEINOUSLY bad.

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The Arachnos Soldier:

 

The Arachnos Soldier is similar to The Widow in that primarily has its leadership toggles in its Secondary Power Set. It may also summon two spiderbots using the 'Call Reinforcements' power, but at this stage that isn't particularly helpful. Soldier's primary Power Set is comprised of rifle-based attacks, like Single Shot, Burst, and Pummel. Soldier has strong AOE in the form of Venom Grenade, Frag Grenade, and (the absolutely horrible) Heavy Burst. Wide Area Web Grenade is also an AOE immobilize that natively in the Arachnos Soldier kit.

 

Venom Grenade is the star of the show, here - a sixteen second AOE Toxic DOT with a fairly low Recharge that deals a -20% Resistance debuff. Notably, it debuffs Toxic Resistance by a factor of roughly -60%.

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Mental Training:

 

Night Widow and Soldier have this, Fortunata does not. It's a fairly significant +RCH buff, gives you slow res, and increases your run speed - you take it every time.

Leveling from 1-24:

Spoiler

This part sucks the most:
 

Alright, not gonna yank your chain. This part is butts. Widows and Soldiers both suffer big time before they get their sub-class at Threat/Security Level 24. I strongly suggest you do everything in your power to minimize the amount of time you're in this stage. Do DFB (Death From Below), to skip as much of it as you physically can, and then either move into Positron's Task Force (If Blue, level 8, use the bird in Pocket D to swap alignments easily) or Virgil Tarikoss' Strike Force (If Red, level 15)

If you insist on leveling the 'Traditional' way, you are going to want to stack copious amounts of End Reduction in your baby powers. Damage and Recharge are not your friends right now - you want to hit, and you want to minimize how much it costs.

 

Good Luck, I'm So Glad I never Have To Do This Shit Again.

Soldier Sub-Classes

Spoiler

In honor of your shit, Soldier of Arachnos, which you kept together in the face of leveling a VEAT: You have reached level 24, time to pick a Sub-Class. These are a pair of additional Power Sets that you pick in addition to your initial two.

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Crab Spider:

 

My personal favorite.

 

Crab Spider is endowed with many strengths, such as:

 

• Fortification: A +Res (all) toggle that significantly increases your durability on its own. It also increases your status resistance.

 

• Serum: A +Max HP buff that can be made permanent - gives approximately 637 hit-points when fully slotted with the Preventative Medicine IO set at level 50.

 

• Summon Spiderlings: A cornerstone power of the 'Crabbermind' play-style. It summons three Arachnos Spiderlings that are two levels below you. Individually, they're weak - but they become more substantial when you factor in your leadership buffs and other things you get later.

 

• Arm Lash: A 10ft range melee cone attack that is surprisingly powerful on its own. It procs well and is going to be an important part of any Crab's attack chain at 50.

 

At this point, ideally, you will replace Wolf Spider Armor in your build with Crab Spider Armor Upgrade - they're the same thing, but the one in your subclass is stronger. Just as well, at this point, Channelgun and Longfang are consistently stronger picks than Burst and Single Shot, Suppression - while better than Heavy Burst - is still a painfully mediocre power.

 

A Crab Spider at level 50 will typically have both of its potential pet powers, a selection of their relatively strong attacks, and an ancillary power pool of their choosing. They can be sturdy, have fairly high damage, and have relatively strong pets. Wide Area Web Grenade enables them to have a strong lock-down option and several of your powers deal a -Defense Debuff, which, in effect, is like a +To Hit Buff for your team.

 

Final Note: Crab and Arachnos Soldier both have Venom Grenade and Frag Grenade in their respective Power Sets. There is functionally no difference between these four powers, to my knowledge, and you can select backpack animations in the power customization window.

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Bane Spider:

 

Alright, I have less kind things to say here. Bane Spider is by no means a bad pick, it brings a powerful -Resistance Debuff in the form of Surveillance and has Stealth in Cloaking Device. Web Cocoon, a Mag 3 ST Hold, could be neat - but I've never personally felt the need for it.

 

Mace Beam, Mace Beam Blast, and Mace Beam Volley are beans. They're slow ranged attacks that deal low Energy/Smashing Damage. Build Up, mostly due to how tight Bane builds are at fifty, is also kind of a non-starter. The attacks you take from Bane's primary power pool are, in order, Poisonous Ray, which is a toxic dot with a -Defense Debuff that can take an Achilles Heel Chance for - Resistance proc, Placate, which temporarily puts you into Stealth during combat and enables Critical Hits on certain powers . Finally, you also gain access to the Nullifier Mace melee attacks: Pulverize, Shatter, and Crowd Control.

 

Pulverize and Shatter are strong melee attacks, however, they share the level 12 and level 18 Power picks with Venom Grenade and Frag Grenade respectively. This makes them awkward to take, as it will force you to delay other important power picks like Poisonous Ray, or Leadership. On-top of that, you are going to have a dead pick at level 2 and level 41, respectively. As you want to take Summon Blaster, but you will not have enough slots to fill out Burst (Or Mace Bash), and Shatter armor if you take Pulverize and Shatter, this also disrupts your ability to take a travel power and one iteration of tactics.

 

Crowd Control is an AOE cone, and a fairly strong one to boot.

Placate enables Critical Hits on:

1. Pulverize
2. Shatter
3. Crowd Control

 

Final Notes: Think of a Bane Spider as a volatile Mace/Super Reflexes Stalker with no DDR (Defense Debuff Resistance) and lots of group buffs in addition to a few -Resistance Debuff opportunities.

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Widow Sub-Classes:

Spoiler

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Night Widow:

 

Night Widow is . . . unique. I feel the best way to think of it is as being alike to a Claws/Super Reflexes Stalker. They have placate, stealth crits, and do not lose Spin. It gains:

 

1. Mental Blast: a moderate damage psi attack. It's beans.
2. Build-up, this is a non-starter due to you already having follow up.
3. Smoke Grenade: An enemy targeted AOE that creates a zone of -Perception for sixty seconds. It also lowers enemy To Hit, this is unresistable.
4. Slash: An extreme damage lethal attack, with a toxic dot. -Recharge, -SPD. This is basically a single target nuke.
5. Eviscerate: A superior damage lethal attack with a toxic dot, -RCH, -SPD. It's a cone.
6. Psychic Scream: a 50ft psi cone that deals moderate damage and lowers -Recharge. Recently buffed and worth taking.

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1. Pain Tolerance: An auto (passive) power that gives damage resistance to everything but psi and max health.
2. Mask Presence: Stealth, + Defense (Melee, Ranged, AoE), typical stealth toggle.
3. Mental Training: Mentioned above, every veat sub-type gets this. It's a 20% recharge buff, on-top of bonus run speed and slow resist.
4. Mind Link: The crux of Widow and Fortunata's defenses. A long cooldown PBAoE Team buff that gives +To Hit, + Defense (All) and + Resistance (Psionic)
5. Placate: Puts you into stealth and enables critical hits, use this in conjunction with Slash.
6. Tactical Training: Vengeance: Vengeance, but in the VEAT power pools. Use it if a team member dies - generally a skip.
7. Elude: Typical armor set T9 with a crash, pretty much hard caps your Def, grants recovery, among other things. LOTG mule or skip.

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Fortunata:

 

Out of every AT in the game, I don't think anything quite come as close to the spellsword feeling of Fortunata:

1. Mental Blast: See Above.
2. Telekinetic Blast: A moderate damage psi attack, does knockback - not particularly stand-out. Put the Toxic global in here or in Mental, it doesn't matter.
3. Subdue: Very mediocre Mag 3 ST Immobilize, a solid skip.
4. Psychic Scream: See Above, a skip on Fortunata for reasons I will get into later.
5. Dominate: Fortunata's most meaningful power, a ST Mag 3 hold that does moderate damage - and can be proc'd just as thoroughly as its power pool counterpart. Take it.
6. Psionic Tornado: Ranged TAOE that has an absurdly long animation.
7. Scramble Thoughts: A ST Dot + Stun. Bad without Fate Sealed.
8. Total Domination: TAOE Mag 3 hold, mostly useful as a mule due to its base 240 recharge time.
9. Psychic Wail: PBAOE Nuke. You get a nuke out of this tree.

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1. Fate Sealed: Auto Power, grants you additional mez resist and increases the strength of your mezzes. This also ensures that your psychic power's secondary effects trigger on hit. Not really worth it, but you CAN build a CC focused Fortunata if you want, technically.
2. Mask Presence: See Above.
3. Confuse: ST Confuse, not great on Fortunata being as you can't mag stack it like a Dominator, but in theory you could perform some of the same cheese as anyone else with a ST confuse.
4. Mind Link: See Above.
5. Tactical Training: Vengeance: See Above.
6. Aura of Confusion: Mag 3 PBAOE Confuse, 240 base recharge - not great, slots Coercive Persuasion set well.

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CC Fortunata Notes:

 

Okay, so I should go over this being as it is an option.

 

Fortunata can take Fate Sealed (See Above), which makes certain CC powers immensely more useful. This best manifests in Psionic Tornado, which I personally don't care for - think of it like Mass Levitate at a distance. You get more mez duration out of Proc'd Dominate without committing slots, which helps with hold stacking, Scramble Thoughts is good for exemplaring as it shuts down most enemy groups via a mag 4 stun.

 

The AOE mezzes, however, like Total Domination and Aura of Confusion, are not the big ticket items when it comes to this auto power - due to their heinously long recharges.

Leveling from 24-50:

Spoiler

This part sucks less:

Alright, this part sucks less.
 

Not by much, but it gets marginally less awful from here on out! As you level, you'll gain access to more of your kit - and by extension, be able to perform your role better. You'll also likely start slotting basic IOs and Set IOs, by this point. I still strongly recommend stacking endurance reduction and accuracy, as your Powers are egregiously expensive before you factor in a full build.

You CAN level through arcs, and it becomes easier with each level, but I still strongly recommend teaming your way to 50. I leave this part to you, brave soul.

Damage Resist Numbers:

Spoiler

To prevent every AT from getting 100% resists each AT has a different cap on how much resist they can get, so for the example below we will show how much damage you would take if an enemy hits you for 500 damage:

 

Tank/Brute - 90% dmg resist = 50 damage (10 hits = 500 damage)

VEATs - 85% dmg resist = 75 damage (10 hits = 750 damage)
Others - 75% dmg resist = 125 damage (10 hits = 1250 damage)

Soldier of Arachnos Enhancements:

Spoiler

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Superior Spider's Bite:

• (2): 4% Damage (All)
• (3) 32.13 HP (3%) Hit-points
• (4) 5% Defense (Melee), 2.5% Defense (Lethal), 2.5% Defense (Smashing)
• (5) 16% (0.86 HP/sec) Regeneration
• (6) 3.6 Max End

 

One of the Spider's Bite Set-pieces has a global proc that deals 53.54 Toxic Damage and can trigger on attack Power

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Superior Dominion of Arachnos:

• (2) +15% Enhancement (Accuracy)
• (3) 32.13 HP (3%) Hit-points
• (4) 4% Damage Buff (All)
• (5) +10% Enhancement (Recharge Time)
• (6) 6% Resistance (Toxic, Psionic), 10% MezResist (All)

 

Ditto for Dominion of Arachnos, it comes with a -Damage (15%) and Terrorize proc in the specific Power that it is in.

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Final Note: These sets are both shared by Widow and Soldier.

Power Pools:

Spoiler

• Concealment - Good for LOTG (Luck of the Gambler) recharge IOs. Has Phase Shift, which is an 'intangible' buff that lets you stealth things well.
• Experimentation - Uh . . . Shin? Chime in on this one, friendo.
• Fighting - Contains an S/L Resistance toggle and an overall (except Psi) defense toggle. Also has Cross Punch - requires a lot of investment.
• Flight - Alright. You can take this for the LOTG mules, too, if you like the omnidirectional movement.
• Force of Will - Bold and Brash? More like Belongs in The Trash! (Do not use this.)
• Leadership - Cornerstone of Both VEATs. You want to double stack maneuvers at minimum, double-stacked assault is nice, too. Vengeance is a good LOTG mule and strong if team-members die.
• Leaping - Combat Jumping! Take it for the nice movement and LOTG Recharge IO!
• Medicine - Widow is basically one of the only use-cases of Aid Self, so.
• Presence - K E K W (Do not use this.)
• Sorcery - Spirit Ward, Enflame, Rune of Protection. All valuable tools, YMMV RE: Actually using them.
• Speed - Hasten. You MUST take hasten. I'm not giving you a choice!
• Teleportation - Nice movement! And Fold Space, which lets you relocate enemies! "Crow combat teleport has that sephiroth energy." ~ ScarySai

Ancillary Power Pools:

Spoiler

Best to Worst, in my experience:

 

• Leviathan Mastery - This one comes with Spirit Shark: A powerful ST attack with a passive stacking 'combo' (Street Justice) mechanic. Bile Spray: A reasonably strong cone with a Toxic Dot that has synergy with Venom Grenade. Arctic Breath, a powerful cone Debuff that does a minor cold down, Debuffs resistance and defense, inflicts a strong slow and can slot an Achilles Heel Chance for -Resistance proc. Venom Grenade -> Arctic Breath -> Bile Spray is Soldier's most powerful AOE chain.

 

• Mace Mastery - Web Envelope is like Wide Area Web Grenade but with a toxic DOT and a 10/15 target cap and radius instead of 16/25. Shatter Armor is a superior damage ST attack that does a substantial -Resistance Debuff, and Summon Blaster summons a single, relatively powerful Arachnos spiderbot - completing the 'Crabbermind' playstyle.

 

• Soul Mastery - Gloom and Dark Obliteration are a powerful pair of ST and AOE attacks respectively. Both take procs well and share a -To Hit Debuff. They are also accompanied in the ancillary by Soul Tentacles: A moderate negative damage cone immobilize and Darkest Night: An enemy anchored toggle which has a strong -Damage and -To Hit Debuff.

 

• Mu Mastery - Mu Mastery is painfully unremarkable in my experience. Mu Lightning is like Gloom but weaker, Electrifying Fences is a decent but unnecessary proc bomb, Ball Lightning is alike to Dark Obliteration as well, but weaker. Static Discharge is something I have never seen taken on a VEAT, and Summon Striker is . . . alright, I guess? He's stupid and runs into melee despite being a ranged pet, which is par for the course.

Lore Pets:

Spoiler

This is generally a 'Dealer's Choice' option, but Lore Pets are an incarnate power which summons a pair of strong pets which usually have unique effects. The ones that stand out are as follows

 

Banished Pantheon - They come with a -Resistance to Cold and Negative debuff, and Banished Pantheon Radial has an untouchable pet which does substantial AOE damage.

 

Longbow - They come equipped with -Regen and both pets attack from range. Cataphract is still stupid and will sometimes run into melee.

 

Arachnos - Mechanically unremarkable, thematically, you're in the VEAT sub-forum.

 

Carnies - Apparently, right now, some of the hardest content in the game has enemies weak to psionics. YMMV.

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ARACHNOS SOLDIER:

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Soldier Powers:

Spoiler

I don't feel like transcribing these right now so here are the City of Data links. These are more correct than Mids and, often, the in-game tooltips.

 

https://cod.uberguy.net/html/powerset.html?pset=arachnos_soldiers.arachnos_soldier&at=arachnos_soldier

https://cod.uberguy.net/html/powerset.html?pset=training_gadgets.training_and_gadgets&at=arachnos_soldier

Crab Powers:

Spoiler

https://cod.uberguy.net/html/powerset.html?pset=arachnos_soldiers.crab_spider_soldier&at=arachnos_soldier

https://cod.uberguy.net/html/powerset.html?pset=training_gadgets.crab_spider_training&at=arachnos_soldier

Bane Powers:

Spoiler

https://cod.uberguy.net/html/powerset.html?pset=arachnos_soldiers.bane_spider_soldier&at=arachnos_soldier

https://cod.uberguy.net/html/powerset.html?pset=training_gadgets.bane_spider_training&at=arachnos_soldier

Pets:

Spoiler

https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=training_gadgets.crab_spider_training.summon_spiderlings&at=arachnos_soldier

https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=training_gadgets.training_and_gadgets.call_reinforcements&at=arachnos_soldier

https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=epic.veat_mace_mastery.summon_blaster&at=arachnos_soldier

Knockback:

Spoiler

 

(This is a joke, please use Overwhelming Force's Damage/KB->KD Conversion IO in Frag Grenade if you can.)

Sample Builds:

Spoiler

Arachnos_Bane_Spider_Soldier.mbd (Bane: By MadVillain)

Silver_Strand_-_Arachnos_Crab_Spider_Soldier.mbd (Crab: By Operative Salamanca)

Weaver_five_2024.mbd(Leviathan Crab: By ScarySai)

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ARACHNOS WIDOW:
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Widow Powers:

Spoiler

https://cod.uberguy.net/html/powerset.html?pset=widow_training.widow_training&at=arachnos_widow

https://cod.uberguy.net/html/powerset.html?pset=teamwork.teamwork&at=arachnos_widow

Night Widow Powers:

Spoiler

https://cod.uberguy.net/html/powerset.html?pset=widow_training.night_widow_training&at=arachnos_widow

https://cod.uberguy.net/html/powerset.html?pset=teamwork.widow_teamwork&at=arachnos_widow

Fortunata Powers:

Spoiler

https://cod.uberguy.net/html/powerset.html?pset=widow_training.fortunata_training&at=arachnos_widow

https://cod.uberguy.net/html/powerset.html?pset=teamwork.fortunata_teamwork&at=arachnos_widow

DDR and the fact you have (Almost) none:

Spoiler

Night Widow and Fortunata are Defense based characters. They also have low DDR (Defense Debuff Resistance), which essentially means that if an attack which inflicts a -Defense Debuff slips through - and it will eventually due to Streakbreaker - you will experience an immediate Defense Cascade Failure.

 

The primary cures to this are Inspirations of the Orange or Purple variety, which increase Resistance and Defense respectively, and knowing your targets. Kill fast, prioritize enemies that you know deal -Defense Debuffs. An example of these is the Sorrows in Dark Astoria, who use radiation themed powers. Assault Rifles also tend to inflicts -Defense Debuffs.

 

Foresight grants 17.3% DDR which can be enhanced. Night Widow has Elude which grants another 34.6% DDR that can be enhanced to ~55% for a total of 82-83% during Elude's Duration.

Sample Builds:

Spoiler

Acinus_Night_v2_-_Arachnos_Widow_Night_Widow_Training_-_Widow_Teamwork.mbd (Night WIdow: By Koopak)

Acinus_Fortunata_Training_Fortunata_Teamwork.mbd
(Fortunata: By Koopak)

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SHARED ISSUES AND INCARNATES:

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About that Inherent:

Spoiler

https://youtu.be/LLRmBWP2ob4

Endurance:

Spoiler

This is an area every VEAT struggles in.  You can either fix this through clever building, or obviate it in a few different ways that I will list below:

 

• Ageless Core: An Incarnate Power that I will expand upon in the cut below this one - but it supercharges your Endurance Recovery, for one hundred and twenty seconds.

 

• Other Players: There are several Support Power Sets available to Defenders, Corruptors and Masterminds that are capable of restoring ally Endurance or buffing their Recovery.

 

• Temporary Powers: Not my favorite option, but you can acquire Recovery Serums from the S.T.A.R.T Vendor. These, outside of the most Endurance hungry builds, essentially obviate the issue entirely. (These cannot be used in certain pieces of content.)

Incarnates:

Spoiler

Incarnate Powers are an endgame system that looks overwhelming, at first brush. But it's actually quite simple:

 

• The Alpha Slot: There are multiple options on this part, but there are only a few Alpha Slot Incarnate Powers that you will want to consider. They are as follows: Musculature (Core or Radial), Cardiac (Core), Intuition (Radial), and finally Agility (Radial). Musculature is Damage, Cardiac is Endurance, Intuition is a smattering of effects such as increasing the width of cones, and Agility effects Recharge, Defense Buffs, and movement speed.

 

• The Judgement Slot: Dealer's choice, this is a free 'Nuke' type Power that does massive AOE damage. Pick the one you feel suits your character.

 

• The Interface Slot: Most of the Interfaces are beans, but they're passive Buffs to your attacks/Debuffs for your enemies. The ones you want are Reactive (Radial) and Degenerative (Radial). Respectively, Reactive inflicts a -Resistance Debuff and a Fire dot. Degenerative inflicts a currently unique -Max HP debuff, on-top of a Toxic dot.

 

• The Destiny Slot: The Destiny Slot is a hundred and twenty second (or ninety second, depending) Self and Group buff. Every character wants Barrier (Core) and Ageless (Core + Radial). Additionally, if you enjoy HM (Hard Mode) Task Forces, you will likely want to at least have Clarion Core just in-case. (Barrier caps your Defense and Resistance, Ageless caps your recovery or refills your endurance and gives you a 100% recharge bonus depending on Core vs Radial, it also increases your Debuff Resistance across the board. Clarion caps your Mez Protection.)

 

• The Lore Slot: Two big stonkin' Pets. I addressed this particular one above, it is largely dealer's choice - but I would try to have the meta options of Banished Pantheon (Core/Radial) and Longbow (Core) available.

 

• The Hybrid Slot: Fairly straight-forward. This is a self-buff that does unique things. The only ones a VEAT will find themselves likely to consider are: Assault (Radial) which is a substantial damage buff and also allows your damaging Powers to 'double hit' for a large portion of their damage in Energy damage. It also grants a passive boost to damage at all times. You might also consider Support (Core), if you are playing a 'Crabbermind', as it increases damage, Damage, Accuracy, Defense and Special, it also gives a passive endurance reduction Buff. These effects are doubled for pets.

 

Still a work in progress, I will update this further over time.

Edited April 28 by Videra

[Glacier Peak]

Good start, glad to see the community sharing their knowledge of VEATs. This has an @Laucianna Kheldian guide feel to it, which I consider high praise.

 

I'll mark this guide and add any insights I have next time I'm playing my Arachnos Widow. 

[Laucianna]

Agree with @Glacier Peak ❤️ Really glad the other EATs are getting their own dedicated well of knowledge! I hope this helps bring more love to those VEATs!!!

[Episteme]

The Widow sections are barren and desolate :(

[Videra]

2 hours ago, Episteme said:

The Widow sections are barren and desolate 😞

 

Yeah! I've been editing this piece by piece because I feel like a zombie atm.

[Zaldra5]

Would like to Correct you on Mace Mastery Web Envelope,  if you are just looking in Midi's where the entry is wrong it looks like a worse option but on the server they added a tox dot to it. its biggest weakness is that you get it so late in the build

[Novacat]

A few notes on Bane Spiders to help sell it.

Of the three armor passives, Bane Spider Armor is best: On top of the same mez protection as the Crab's, it acts as a half-strength fortification and serum, with a 7.5%(all damage) resistance and hitpoint bonus. Certainly not as good as the trio but for a single power? This also makes fitting that spare wolf armor easier.

 

Unfortunately you're not wrong about the mace beams; at range the Bane is best still used as a Wolf Spider. Their slight range reduction is consistently annoying, including Poison Ray's which stinks of Blaster T3s from the ancient time with their own inexplicable 40ft. I don't use poison ray for that reason (although it's a fairly solid attack up close) but there's room for the Achilles Heel in Single Shot.

 

That utility does shine, though! Cloaking and Placate are versatile and double as melee buffs; the latter granting a few seconds of breathing room while also letting you re-fire a critical shatter or crowd-control mid-fight. Surveillance doesn't aggro, and so can always be up on whatever you need it to be before the fight begins. Web Cocoon's hold is somewhat lonely, but a second stack of -recharge and slow is never bad.

 

From afar, the epic pools will complete you in ways the mace admittedly could not, and you may have a tiny bit more power room to play with than a Crab (albeit due to having more skippable things...)

Mu Lightning may not total as much damage as Gloom, but it isn't a DoT. Ball Lightning doesn't carry the -hit, but does pile a little more damage, being a DoT. Their recharge and cost are a bit high, but nothing good slotting won't handle. If you go Mace Mastery, Disruptor Blast IS better than Beam Blast, but the Mace Beam is better than Mace Blast. In that case, Web Envelope will stack stupid amounts with your base Wide Area Web.

[Videra]

16 hours ago, Zaldra5 said:

Would like to Correct you on Mace Mastery Web Envelope,  if you are just looking in Midi's where the entry is wrong it looks like a worse option but on the server they added a tox dot to it. its biggest weakness is that you get it so late in the build

 

Edited to clarify: It also has a 10 target cap and 15 radius, as opposed to 16/25. It fits into bane builds easier, tho.

[Lhanis]

I don't much agree with what's in the Widow subclass section in regards to Fortuna (or the poor treatment of my dear, sweet Heavy Burst), but it's nice to see the VEATs getting some attention from folks again.

The note about the inherent just about killed me, thanks for that.

[Koopak]

Some notes for you.

 

On 4/21/2024 at 12:58 AM, Videra said:

Mental Training:

 

Both Widow and Soldier have this in their first Secondary Power Set. You take it in every build, slot a Run Speed IO in it, it increases your Recharge Debuff Resistance and gives you additional Recharge on-top of Run Speed.

This is incorrect, Mental Training is only available to Night Widows. While Soldiers have access to it in their base Soldier Secondary Powersets, Widows do not and have to get it from their SubAT which only Night Widow has.

 

 

On 4/21/2024 at 12:58 AM, Videra said:

DDR and the fact you have none:

  Hide contents

Night Widow and Fortunata are Defense based characters. They also have no DDR (Defense Debuff Resistance), which essentially means that if an attack with inflicts a -Defense Debuff slips through - and it will eventually due to Streakbreaker - you will experience an immediate Defense Cascade Failure.

 

The primary cures to this are Inspirations of the Orange or Purple variety, which increase Resistance and Defense respectively, and knowing your targets. Kill fast, prioritize enemies that you know deal -Defense Debuffs. An example of these is the Sorrows in Dark Astoria, who use radiation themed powers. Assault Rifles also tend to inflicts -Defense Debuffs.

 

 

This is also incorrect. Forsight grants 17.3% DDR which is enhancable, usually to 27-28% Additionally NWs have Elude which grants another 34.6% enhancable to ~55% for a total of 82-83% during Elude's up time. The crash is a serious issue but there ARE ways around it. Either way with scaling damage resists and a bit of DDR Widow can manage DDR heavy opponents fine as long as you make use of your tools.

 

I definitely feel you are underselling Fort's mez capabilities. The luke warm response to a dps AT having access to an AoE Hold of the same strength (or with Fate Sealed, more) than a Controller deserves more highlight.

[Videra]

4 hours ago, Koopak said:

*Snip*

 

Objectively incorrect information updated. I'll make a CC Fort tab.

[ScarySai]

4 hours ago, Koopak said:

I definitely feel you are underselling Fort's mez capabilities. The luke warm response to a dps AT having access to an AoE Hold of the same strength (or with Fate Sealed, more) than a Controller deserves more highlight.

 

Hybrid Forts are extremely powerful for many reasons, cc is not one those reasons.

 

Dominate with procs is just a crazy power, and the aoe confuse does aoe confuse things. If you wanna stretch that as "CC" capabilities, pop off I guess.

Edited April 28 by ScarySai

[twozerofoxtrot]

Regarding the Incarnate choices, something to consider:

 

I've gone Musc Radial and Ageless Radial on my VEATs endgame builds, because I was able to reach a certain level of Endurance sustainment that inches over the line with the 33% Endmod buff from Musc Radial. This really only effects Stamina (insofar as I can tell, since the inherent is a non-thing as you've illustrated), but it effects it in a noticeable way.

 

If I get End Drained or the passive Endurance use can't keep up, I used Ageless Radial as a bandaid; much how it could be used otherwise to patch up slows and debuffs.

 

With this synced combo you get damage, recovery, and a status loofa.

 

 

Edited April 28 by twozerofoxtrot
Inherent comment. Lmao

[Koopak]

2 hours ago, twozerofoxtrot said:

Regarding the Incarnate choices, something to consider:

 

I've gone Musc Radial and Ageless Radial on my VEATs endgame builds, because I was able to reach a certain level of Endurance sustainment that inches over the line with the 33% Endmod buff from Musc Radial. This really only effects Stamina (insofar as I can tell, since the inherent is a non-thing as you've illustrated), but it effects it in a noticeable way.

 

If I get End Drained or the passive Endurance use can't keep up, I used Ageless Radial as a bandaid; much how it could be used otherwise to patch up slows and debuffs.

 

With this synced combo you get damage, recovery, and a status loofa.

 

 

To expand on this, losing out the extra damage from core is no big deal for Widows specifically because you are likely to be kissing damage cap basically all the time anyways

[Videra]

Note: I will be updating this again soon, I've just been busy IRL! Not abandoned.