Crab - MOMAS Dual Leadership with Armor - Concept Build

[Linea]

The intent is to be able to herd all your little low level ducklings along on high level content.  I rather suspect you're going to really need your accolades and recovery serums.

Crab - MOMAS 1b - Leadership - [i28].mbd

 

 

Swapping Double Leadership for Aid Self / Field Medic +Endurance

Crab - MOMAS 1d - Medic -[i28].mbd

 

 

If I get around to an Incarnate Capped Variant, I'll add it here later

 

Crab - MOMAS 1e+ - Incarnate - [i28].mbd

 

 

Adding version f.   I decided to go ahead and swap things around a bit, and add in the resist uniques.  It's a question of +15% performance peak, when everything is capped out, vs +20% performance all the rest of the time.  I almost always go for Peak, or Peaks and Valleys and exploit that mechanic.  It really is a tough choice in this case.

 

Crab - MOMAS 1f+ - Incarnate - [i28].mbd

Edited May 23 by Linea

[KaizenSoze]

I see that you have Rune Of Protection, so when that's running your resists are extremely good.

 

But the Achilles Heel of Banes/Crabs is the lack of DDR. And your positional defense is barely soft capped.

 

One hit from any -defense and I am not sure how effective those resists will be. Since, as you said you'll be taking the alpha.

 

Specific example would be CoT. You aggro the group at range, they will drop Earthquake on you, then Tar Patch, while the Earth casters will be hitting you with -16%+ defense.

[Linea]

I'm aware.  In practice it works fairly well.  Mostly we're just buying time to react as needed.  This version was specifically intended as a "Mom" to herd the ducklings in the back-line or mid-line.  

However, more defense (incarnate cap) and more healing (medicine) are not at all amiss, but that will cost you both recharge and double leadership. 

 

Typical Piloting Guidelines:

• With little to no DDR it's critical that you watch your def/res numbers and know your enemies. 
• When you hit -1/3 health, pop Rune or Hybrid, and Temp Heal  (This solves 90% of the problems)
• If you hit -2/3 health again a second time, pop a Medium Def/Res and Serum
• Double Check your def/res Numbers. If needed pop a Medium Purple, Orange, Def/Res, or Demonic
• If you hit -2/3 to -3/4 again a third time, pop Rebirth or Inspirations
• Triple check your def/res Numbers.  If needed pop a Medium Purple, Orange, Def/Res, or Demonic
• At This Point the dismembered body parts have well and truly hit the dual blades flurry.
• If things continue to go south, use your emergency heal inspirations, more Def/Res inspirations, phase, run, die, teleport to the hospital, or logout as needed.

It's still not durable enough!  So What Now?

1. First, Swap Rebirth for Ageless +DDR.   It'll make things a bit cramped on the piloting check list, but it can not only help keep you out of the defense hole proactively, it can also be used re-actively to get your out of a hole as needed.  Which method works best will vary by target group.
2. In order to keep as much recharge as possible, I'd probably drop Double Leadership in favor of Aid Self / Field Medic.  Field Medic having the additional benefit of being a +endurance power.
3. Sacrifice even more recharge for even more defense, getting as close the Incarnate Cap as possible while retaining Field Medic and Perma-Serum.
4. Sacrifice Aid Self/Field Medic to the Incarnate Defense Gods.  At this point you'll also be pushing the boundaries on Perma-Serum as well.

 

[Linea]

Added the just barely Incarnate Soft Cap with Agility Core T4 version above.

[Neiska]

Looked at your latest build you posted, and some thoughts.

 

First, you have a PSI hole, but that isn't uncommon for ATs. Not a make or break by any means, just pointing it out.

Second, you picked Soldier attacks over Crabber, which is fine. But your damage output is, well, lacking, even for a Crabber. 

You have - Single Shot, Burst, Heavy Burst, Venom Grenade, Frag Grenade, and Web grenade. None of them hit particularly hard. I know this is a theme build, but I think you may struggle solo with higher difficulties. But it should perform just fine on +2/8. But if that's your goal, you hardly need 55% Melee/Ranged/AoE DEF. I just think you might be putting too much into just DEF, especially with your resists being so-so. While your DEF is impressive, you are giving up quite a bit to get it. If you pushed DEF so hard because you lack DDR, there's always Ageless. 

 

Your END looks good, which is always nice to have on a Crabber. I expect you will be popping a blue now and then, but again, not a build-breaker.

 

Oh, and just noticed - you actually don't have the shield wall Unique, so that's an easy 5% all resist. 

 

The last thing I noticed, is that you have 27% ToHit, but 0% Accuracy, which might cause some issues vs some enemies.

 

One thing you might try is adding in Bile Spray and Artic Breath from Levithan Pool. They interact wonderfully with Venom Grenade, due to all the -toxic res debuff stacking, which does more damage than indicated in MIDs. I only just started pushing with them and its been fantastic.

 

Overall it looks pretty good! Just a bit too many "eggs in one basket" for my taste. I like to build my crabbys to be tough and durable too, but I also like to include other things like damage, buffs/debuffs, resists, so on. Here's a snip of my latest build if you want to compare -

 

 

So side by side, You have more DEF than I, but I have DDR to compensate. I am running double assault toggles and have both spiderlings and reinforcements. But my Resists are much higher than yours, and not just during a RoP but constantly. And I should do much better damage, with the Venom Grenade - Arctic Breath - Bile Spray combo. I will likely take out Spirit Shark (at least the slots) and move them elsewhere, as I am not personally impressed by it. It feels clunky, and it takes quite a bit to get the full 5 stacks of Hunger, where one stack of Arcane Power for Arcane Bolt does almost the same damage, and you might get 3 or 4 empowered Arcane Bolts off in the time it takes to get 1 fully charged Spirit Shark off. So, still making fine-tuning adjustments there.

 

But yea! Great Build Linea! You may not kill stuff fast but you are one tough cookie!

 

[Linea]

• If you want crazy Offense, crank up recharge to the max, and get all the pets perma.  Try to get 40ish Ranged defense and 28 to 33 AoE defense with Hover. Then Hover-Tank and send in the pets.  A full offense build like that can push 1000dps.  It's entirely not my style, but it IS effective.
• I'm not overly worried about the psionics.   MRA will block half of it, and minimal resists can deal with the rest.
• I HATE THE CRAB LEGS!  A large part of this build is getting rid of the crab legs via Costume: Syndicate Agent, Costume: PPD Hardsuit, and Costume: Arachnos Arbitor.  Animating Crab attacks without legs is equally wonky.
• DPS (base) Gun 61,92,24; 32,38 vs Crab 64, 81,20; 32, 38.  Assuming a certain minimum recharge, this works out very close to even.  I've soloed a +4x8 ITF with very similar builds, these just emphasize the double leadership a bit more, and have been updated for i27.
• The Third Build is 59/59/59 with Agility Core.  This is by design, as the Incarnate Cap is 59.  Yes that's 55 without Agility and outside of Incarnate Content.  Chances are 44 and down I'll swap to the mother hen build with more recharge.  I'm not currently planning on building the Medic build.  I did build all three in the past, but I'm most likely skipping the middle build this time around.
• I did also mention Ageless in the discussion as an option over Rebirth.  I'm sure I'll actually use both.  Which one is better when will vary by content.
• The endurance is OK.  I wouldn't call it good.  This build definitely needs both Endurance Accolades, then it will be good, but not great.  Carry Recovery Serums.
• Yes I took both resist uniques out of the incarnate build.  Putting one back in asks the question "how?"
  • Both KB and Heal Unique changes below.  This would give resists a big boost, while also doubling the negatives, IF you consider those outcomes negative.  If you are not me, I'd probably say Choose this option and take your +8 resist All and Run with it.
  • Recharge.  But I'm already pushing the minimum boundaries on functional recharge. I feel like this is a definite no.
  • KB1.  This would work, but require wiggling a few things around to bring KB2 in earlier.  Probably swap Tactics1 and Mystic Flight positions, but that goes against the MOMAS principle.  However, this is probably the best alternative.
  • Heal Unique.  I consider this the second best alternative.  But I really really like that maintenance tick.  I "Feel" It helps keep me moving at a good pace without pause.   It might not be helping near as much as it feels like it does.  It probably isn't helping as much as it feels like it does.  But so far it's a Subjective Win, and the devs are probably laughing at me for choosing it and wanting more of them!
• I don't understand the 0% Accuracy Comment?  All the attacks have accuracy slotted and all of them are 112+% chance to hit +3s (50+1 vs 54).  If you mean global accuracy bonuses, I don't see that as a problem.
• Arctic Breath is a great addition, but it's not going to happen in this build, there just is not room.  I also like Shatter Armor as a similar alternative, if you don't like the shark animations.  I do NOT like the shark animations, purely subjective.
• When you choose to take the Rune/Hybrid/Rune/Demonic path you are trading (always on resists) for (peaks and valleys resist on demand).  And if you include Hybrid in that, you're also trading away Damage on Demand.  I would like to have the resist uniques such that I'd be RDR capping at peak, but that is also what inspirations are for.  A standard medium Def/Res will be close enough to RDR cap.  The greater concern is both (Resists and RDR) during Hybrid instead of Rune/Demonic.  But that's also just part of the price of admission to this particular style.

[Neiska]

@Linea

 

Agree with most of your points, respect the ones that are personal like disliking crab legs. About my accuracy comment, if you click the misc buffs tab it will show your total bonuses, such as Tohit, Accuracy, Damage, etc. You have a bit of ToHit but zero accuracy, so yes Global Accuracy. Not a build-breaker, just something I wanted to point out in case you overlooked it. 

 

Much as I like the pets, they don't survive well on +4/8 solo. They do okay on teams to lessen the pressure on them, but alone they just aren't durable enough. Personally, I tend to have 2 builds on my crabbers - one for solo and one for teams.

 

Like I said, good build! I just have other things I like too.