Need Help Fine Tuning Crab

[SourceField]

Hi all. I am really enjoying my Arachnos Soldier crab at 50, but whenever I exemplar down to do TF's, SF's and story arcs, I am suffering pretty badly. I respecced at 24 to pick Crab, and just picked powers that I thought I'd like and filled in the enhancements as I went along. I have not respecced since hitting 50. I didn't follow anyone else's build because all of the one's I could find were for the post-50 game and full of purples and ATO's and PvP sets and not meant to be exemplared.

 

I'm not too particular about Channelgun and Longfang, I picked them over Singleshot and Burst just because they were Crab and not basic Soldier powers, but when doing low level content, the recharge is incredibly slow. I hadn't planned on taking Gloom and Dark Obliteration, but saw I needed 1 more ST and 1 more AoE to make a good 3 attack chain so I picked them up a little late. I've never been a fan of taking Tough and Weave because of the wasted Boxing power, but so many people recommend it I decided to give it a try. I'm wondering if I'd have been better off skipping Fighting and getting Maneuvers instead. 

 

As far as enhancements... I don't know what I'm doing, so I just picked sets that I thought would be most helpful. If I've over/under slotted anything or would be better off with different sets, please let me know. What I'm mainly looking for is to make my character be able to go through all of the flashbacks in Ouro. Once I get through all of that, then later on I can consider making the best Crab beast I can for 50++ content.

 

Thanks in advance.

Arachnos Soldier (Crab Spider Soldier - Crab Spider Training).mbd

[Neiska]

Hello SourceField,

 

Looked over your build, and I have a few suggestions.

 

1. Looking at your level breakdown, at level 14 you only have 3 attacks, at 18 you have 4. Which will leave definite gaps in your attack chain. One power that you can add as early as level 4 and also is a pretty good ST attack is Arcane Bolt. You can add it very early, and when Arcane Power procs it can hit fairly hard. With Arcane Power it hits harder than Longfang, and you can even slot Force Feedback into it for a boost to recharge, so it kind of solves 2 of your issues at once.

 

2. As far as Slotting goes, overall you have a decent setup but it could be better slotted. For Frag Grenade, I would suggest slotting Superior Dominion, your AT set. That will add to damage and boost recharge further.

 

3. Since you are petless. you may think of changing to Leviathan Epic Pool, because Spirit Shark is better for Single Target than Gloom. How it works is each time you use a power, you can get a stacking buff called Hunger, which boosts Spirit Shark when used. 

 

I have cobbled a build together for you, using your own as a base so it would feel similar. It should have a much better ST rotation of Spirit Shark + Longfang + Arcane Bolt, and as a bonus it has both a build-up proc and FF proc in the rotation, making your recharge and damage even better. For AoE you will have Venom Grenade + Frag Grenade + Bile Spray + Artic Spray, which together has heavy Toxic Damage and built in Debuffs. And, as a bonus, it also has Rune of Protection for an additional emergency tool. When used as I have it slotted it will cap all your resists for a full minute.

 

Anyway have a look and let me know if you have any questions. Included a snip as well. 

 

 

Build for Sourcefield.mbd

[tidge]

I also think it is important to have a relatively smooth attack chain for exemplaring down to level 10, exemping down to level 20 should (IMO) have all the tricks to make your AT shine., modulo perma-Domination.

 

The way I approach that is to have at least 3 "attacks" that work exemped down to level 7-10 content, and make sure they are slotted. I also don't rely on Hasten: I see a lot of folks recommend it before level 10, this always feels like a bad choice for me. When I take Hasten, it is never before level 22... I don't have enough powers that can make a difference for!

 

Expensive is in the eye of the customer, it isn't hard to collect enough merits to start to build up an set of ATOs. Another easy set to collect is the Overwhelming Force by doing the summer Blockbuster. I often use that set while leveling up. If you play enough, you will get PVP recipe drops. I use those in characters as they level up.