Help me tidy up my Crab!

[Bobitron]

I have something workable in mind with perma-Hasten/Pets and Ranged Def cap plus a good amount of Def elsewhere without dipping into purples, but I realized late in the process I haven't put in any KB resists (oops) and I'm sure I've done something inadvisable somewhere! If anyone has a few mins to review it and clean up my build I'd appreciate it. Thanks!

https://api.midsreborn.com/build/download/Fnfhr4H5NgbtygEQ





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[Two Dollar Bill]

- You have gone well over soft-cap on some of your defenses. Due to how the game calculates To-Hit chances, your maximum useful Defense value is 45%. Having more than 45% could still help if you get debuffed or if you're doing incarnate content and your slacker teammates aren't buffing you with their own Leadership powers, but for most purposes 45% is all you need.

- It should be possible to soft-cap your Ranged and AoE Defense without even taking the Fighting pool, just by using your +Defense Crab powers and IO set bonuses.

- Enhancement Diversification is a system that gives you diminishing returns when you heavily enhance one specific quality of a power. For example, the way you have Stamina slotted with three Endurance Modification IOs, you are getting a 99% bonus, but you'd still be getting 83% with just two of those IOs. Aim and Hasten work the same.

- Tactical Training: Leadership is a great power which will make your pets (which are lower level than you and less accurate) hit more, and you can slot it with a full set of Gaussian's Sunchronized Fire Control to get +2.5% Defense on all your positionals. Very few IO sets can contribute 7.5% to your build's defenses.

- Frag Grenade is an AoE knockback that will force your pets and teammates to chase your victims around. Be a good teammate and give it a Knockback-to-Knockdown enhancement.

- My Crab has 8 points of knockback protection and he still gets tossed sometimes. (Carnie Phantasms, for example.) It's easy to get from Blessing of the Zephyr, but only if you embrace one of the best features of City of Heroes... movement powers! Steadfast Protection is also an easy way to get some since you are already slotting the +Defense unique.

 

[Maelwys]

Looks like Fortification is also rather woefully underslotted; especially since you're taking Tough/Weave?
You're currently sitting on ~26%; but it's rather straightforward to push >65% resistance to S/L on a Crabbermind without overly impacting your recharge/damage buffs.

Hitpoints look rather low too, but I suspect you've not got the accolades toggled.
You should be well north of 2k MaxHP, not hovering in/around 1.8k...

RE Knockback protection, a single Steadfast IO in the Lv1 Armor Passive (-4 KB) and/or 3 pieces of Gladiator's Armor in Fortitude (-3 KB) will suffice; but both are better.

I'll also echo what 2$Bill said about overreliance on ranged defence - personally I tend towards a Melee/Ranged Spread (as my Crabber mostly acts as the "tank" to let their summons survive for longer) but Ranged/AoE is fine if you're always staying back. I've found the sweet spot is *either* ~45% Melee/Ranged (if taking Mace Epic for Shatter Armor) or ~39% Melee/Ranged (if taking Soul Mastery and spamming Dark Obliteration)... and going for Soul has the additional benefit of further reducing the chance of enemies hitting your poor pets.
The Widow from Soul Mastery is Melee focused, but can also hit softcap to all positionals with your double-maneuvers plus the two +Def pet aura IOs. All other pets will cap out in/around the 31% defence mark before -ToHit debuffs and Incarnates.
Using an Overwhelming Force: Chance for KD in Spiderlings can help keep your followers alive for a little bit longer - and once you get access to Incarnates you can increase their survivability a lot further via Barrier Destiny, Support Hybrid and either Lore Talons or Arachnos Radial Superior Ally (Talons are consistently good throughout their duration; Arachnos gives a major survivability spike for 90s once per summoning via "Mind Link").

 

  

zArachnos Crab Spider (Aim + Assault + Weave).mbd
zArachnos Crab Spider (Assault + Tactics + Weave).mbd
Arachnos Crab Spider (Soul).mbd
 

Edited August 26 by Maelwys

[Bobitron]

Thanks so much! I'll review this carefully.

[benai]

Which of these Builds is worth a try?

And is crabbermind budget build? an option?

 

Looking for a playable crabbermind with perma pets and good damage and survivability

[Octogoat]

12 minutes ago, benai said:

Which of these Builds is worth a try?

And is crabbermind budget build? an option?

 

Looking for a playable crabbermind with perma pets and good damage and survivability

 

2DB's build is absolutely an option it's how I started my crab journey and not much has changed besides animations.

[benai]

43 minutes ago, Octogoat said:

 

2DB's build is absolutely an option it's how I started my crab journey and not much has changed besides animations.

 

I actully wanted to play a MM but due to the fact that i have no clue which i want to play I swapped over to Crab Spider Soldier because I always wanted to try a Crabbermind.

But you need for it a lot of global recharge.

 

Still the question is should I go for one of Maelwys builds or with 2 Dollar Bill's.

 

The whole concept is different Maelwys are Melee and much more focused on damage and survivability (?) and 2 Dollar Bill's is purely ranged and seems more like a mid damage type with mostly on supporting your minions.

And which of these Ancillary Summons is the better choice Blaster, Widow, Guardian or Striker?

Edited October 12 by benai

[Octogoat]

54 minutes ago, benai said:

 

I actully wanted to play a MM but due to the fact that i have no clue which i want to play I swapped over to Crab Spider Soldier because I always wanted to try a Crabbermind.

But you need for it a lot of global recharge.

 

Still the question is should I go for one of Maelwys builds or with 2 Dollar Bill's.

 

The whole concept is different Maelwys are Melee and much more focused on damage and survivability (?) and 2 Dollar Bill's is purely ranged and seems more like a mid damage type with mostly on supporting your minions.

And which of these Ancillary Summons is the better choice Blaster, Widow, Guardian or Striker?

 

I like ranged with all spiderbots so I'm biased but 2DB also is good team support.

[benai]

1 hour ago, Octogoat said:

 

I like ranged with all spiderbots so I'm biased but 2DB also is good team support.

 

I like Melee attacks but due to the fact that I prefer pet classes ranged seem to be the obvious choice for a better survival of them.

 

That it with what I came up as a Crabbermind Build, maybe someone review it and give me hints where i can become better. I took the Widow. I dont know what a Guardian or a Striker is or does. And i would like to add another non mechanical unit to my pets.

 

 

 

Arachnos Soldier (Crab Spider Soldier - Crabbermind).mbd

[Octogoat]

I'm at my mom's because she's recovering from a mini stroke but if no one reviews it by the time I'm back home I'll take a look. 

[Maelwys]

9 hours ago, benai said:

Still the question is should I go for one of Maelwys builds or with 2 Dollar Bill's.

 

The whole concept is different Maelwys are Melee and much more focused on damage and survivability (?) and 2 Dollar Bill's is purely ranged and seems more like a mid damage type with mostly on supporting your minions.

And which of these Ancillary Summons is the better choice Blaster, Widow, Guardian or Striker?

 

FWIW the Soul Mastery variant is what I've been playing myself, and yes all three of my builds primarily try to get the best performance out of the pets (in terms of both damage and survivability- the build throws out a lot of AOE buffs and debuffs). The Crab themself has slightly less performance but I managed to get them close to softcap and pretty resilient with a spammable attack chain that contains a lot of AoE. If the pets die off the damage output starts to plummet, however it's still a very nice team support toon if/when all the pets are gone. It's also actually currently one of my favourite Farmer AFK follower toons for doing AE maps alongside my Bot/Kin/Flame MM.

 

Regarding Ancillary Summons... I tried them all, extensively. Guardian stays at range and takes less damage as a result but deals very poor damage (and a Power Transfer 'Chance to Heal Self' Proc does nothing for them unfortunately). Blaster and Coralax and Widow all melee, and the Widow deals by far the most damage... at the expense of blowing through their endurance bar extremely quickly.
 

The Widow is probably the best option as long as you slot a fair bit of endurance reduction in them, and as a bonus they get a decent chunk of +defense (and so tend to be softcapped with Crab Manuevers and the two +Def pet aura IOs - although they do have a major case of "scrapperlock" and can start to struggle if they stray too far from the Crab). The prerequisite powers in the Soul ancillary pool also have very good DPA and inflict substantial -ToHit (Dark Obliteration can also be slotted with a 4-piece Cloud Senses + a HO + a Ragnarok as shown in the first "Aim+Assault+Weave" build linked in my original post if you want to maximise the -ToHit debuff). If you wish to go all-in on pet damage then one of the Coralax prereqs can be Arctic Breath (cone -15% res) and one of the Blaster prereqs can be Shatter Armor (single target -20% -res)... but neither are as spammable as Dark Obliteration or Mu Lightning; and Dark Obliteration at least helps your pets out a bit defensively.

Also, Incarnatewise I'd almost always go Barrier Core Destiny, Support Core Hybrid, and Lore Talons Radial.

 

Edited October 13 by Maelwys

[Octogoat]

3 hours ago, Maelwys said:

 

FWIW the Soul Mastery variant is what I've been playing myself, and yes all three of my builds primarily try to get the best performance out of the pets (in terms of both damage and survivability- the build throws out a lot of AOE buffs and debuffs). The Crab themself has slightly less performance but I managed to get them close to softcap and pretty resilient with a spammable attack chain that contains a lot of AoE. If the pets die off the damage output starts to plummet, however it's still a very nice team support toon if/when all the pets are gone. It's also actually currently one of my favourite Farmer AFK follower toons for doing AE maps alongside my Bot/Kin/Flame MM.

 

Regarding Ancillary Summons... I tried them all, extensively. Guardian stays at range and takes less damage as a result but deals very poor damage (and a Power Transfer 'Chance to Heal Self' Proc does nothing for them unfortunately). Blaster and Coralax and Widow all melee, and the Widow deals by far the most damage... at the expense of blowing through their endurance bar extremely quickly.
 

The Widow is probably the best option as long as you slot a fair bit of endurance reduction in them, and as a bonus they get a decent chunk of +defense (and so tend to be softcapped with Crab Manuevers and the two +Def pet aura IOs - although they do have a major case of "scrapperlock" and can start to struggle if they stray too far from the Crab). The prerequisite powers in the Soul ancillary pool also have very good DPA and inflict substantial -ToHit (Dark Obliteration can also be slotted with a 4-piece Cloud Senses + a HO + a Ragnarok as shown in the first "Aim+Assault+Weave" build linked in my original post if you want to maximise the -ToHit debuff). If you wish to go all-in on pet damage then one of the Coralax prereqs can be Arctic Breath (cone -15% res) and one of the Blaster prereqs can be Shatter Armor (single target -20% -res)... but neither are as spammable as Dark Obliteration or Mu Lightning; and Dark Obliteration at least helps your pets out a bit defensively.

Also, Incarnatewise I'd almost always go Barrier Core Destiny, Support Core Hybrid, and Lore Talons Radial.

 

 

You've got me contemplating an alternate melee build.

[benai]

3 hours ago, Maelwys said:

 

FWIW the Soul Mastery variant is what I've been playing myself, and yes all three of my builds primarily try to get the best performance out of the pets (in terms of both damage and survivability- the build throws out a lot of AOE buffs and debuffs). The Crab themself has slightly less performance but I managed to get them close to softcap and pretty resilient with a spammable attack chain that contains a lot of AoE. If the pets die off the damage output starts to plummet, however it's still a very nice team support toon if/when all the pets are gone. It's also actually currently one of my favourite Farmer AFK follower toons for doing AE maps alongside my Bot/Kin/Flame MM.

 

Regarding Ancillary Summons... I tried them all, extensively. Guardian stays at range and takes less damage as a result but deals very poor damage (and a Power Transfer 'Chance to Heal Self' Proc does nothing for them unfortunately). Blaster and Coralax and Widow all melee, and the Widow deals by far the most damage... at the expense of blowing through their endurance bar extremely quickly.
 

The Widow is probably the best option as long as you slot a fair bit of endurance reduction in them, and as a bonus they get a decent chunk of +defense (and so tend to be softcapped with Crab Manuevers and the two +Def pet aura IOs - although they do have a major case of "scrapperlock" and can start to struggle if they stray too far from the Crab). The prerequisite powers in the Soul ancillary pool also have very good DPA and inflict substantial -ToHit (Dark Obliteration can also be slotted with a 4-piece Cloud Senses + a HO + a Ragnarok as shown in the first "Aim+Assault+Weave" build linked in my original post if you want to maximise the -ToHit debuff). If you wish to go all-in on pet damage then one of the Coralax prereqs can be Arctic Breath (cone -15% res) and one of the Blaster prereqs can be Shatter Armor (single target -20% -res)... but neither are as spammable as Dark Obliteration or Mu Lightning; and Dark Obliteration at least helps your pets out a bit defensively.

Also, Incarnatewise I'd almost always go Barrier Core Destiny, Support Core Hybrid, and Lore Talons Radial.

 

 

 

Then I made with my build maybe not the worst desicions. I took melee area attacked because Mids said high damage instead of 2 Dollar Bill rangedsuggestions. After playing his build now for some time i am not a fan have Frag Grenade and all 6 Leadership toggles. Crab + Maneuvers should be enough, maybe even just Crab and then instead Assault, still looking.

My goal was to have as much recharge and recovery as possible while still have a high amount of pet damage and survivability via auras (pet and mine) and for myself to be not a paper tissue and can dish out mid to high damage myself while doing some debuffs myself.

My problem is I am not sure which is the best choice for Incarnates specially in terms of Core or Radial. Normally I take verything which states "good for pets".

In terms of debuff i prefer -toHit or -MaxHp. Crabby has enough -DEF -Resist in its attacks fro my point of view so not getting hit or faster ending because of reduces HP seems the best idea,

 

When we hadnt had these level or pick at least 2 skills restrictions I would go for Darkest Night instead of Gloom. So you had area -ACC  + -DMG -toHit as an area debuff.

 

8 hours ago, benai said:

 

I like Melee attacks but due to the fact that I prefer pet classes ranged seem to be the obvious choice for a better survival of them.

 

That it with what I came up as a Crabbermind Build, maybe someone review it and give me hints where i can become better. I took the Widow. I dont know what a Guardian or a Striker is or does. And i would like to add another non mechanical unit to my pets.

 

 

 

Arachnos Soldier (Crab Spider Soldier - Crabbermind).mbd 45.16 kB · 0 downloads

 

[Maelwys]

Also for anyone wondering what the Pets will look like in actual gameplay:

[Spiderlings]








[Call Reinforcements]


(same Defense values and Status Protection/Resistance values as Spiderlings)




[Blood Widow]






- - - - - - - - - -

Whilst your Talons Lore summon is active the invulnerable buffing "Siren Essence" pet will constantly cycle a PBAoE aura buff called "Soothing Song", which buffs you and all your pets - boosting Healing Received by 25% (the pet also spams a Single Target heal named "Regenerating Song" on things, so this is actually helpful!) and boosting Damage Resistance and Defense by 10% and 5% respectively. This PBAoE buff has 20s duration, 45s recharge and 2.244s cast time; so roughly a ~42% uptime for the entire 5 minute duration of the summon. Since the Summon Power itself has a 10minute recharge time this pet can be out half the time.




The other Talons pet summoned alongside the buffing one is the "Diviner Essence" boss. It doesn't last as long (not invulnerable and only a 200s duration rather than 300s) but it does quite high damage with its regular ST attack and two cones... and the real kicker is its "Seasonal Shift" ability, which is a PBAoE attack with a target cap of 255 (!!) that deals reasonable damage on anything within 30ft plus a substantial -ToHit debuff on anything within 15ft (18s recharge).


(same Defense values and Status Protection/Resistance values as Spiderlings)

- - - - - - - - - -

Whilst the Lores are NOT active your Spiderling and Disruptor Drone pets will sit at around 31% Defence to all (14% short of the regular content Softcap) and the Widow will sit at 53.5% to Melee and 46% Ranged/AoE (comfortably softcapped; albeit with no Defense Debuff Resistance!).

However running Barrier on a Cycle will add a minimum of 5% defense and resistance constantly; and attacking your foes with either Gloom or Dark Obliteration (without any -ToHit enhancement slotting) also inflicts decent amounts of -ToHit (-5.63% vs +0 targets; 3.64% vs +3s). So typically in regular gameplay even your Spiderlings and Drones will end up at ~40%-45% effective defense before Lores or Support Core Hybrid.
Support Core Hybrid can add another 12%;  and alongside Barrier will push the pets beyond softcap at roughly ~50% uptime (120s up, 120s down) even without spamming -ToHit attacks.



 If you want to have all your pets permanently "softcapped" then picking up Darkest Night instead of Dark Obliteration is the way to go (lowering your AoE damage output but increasing survivability another notch with its additional -tohit -damage debuffs) but IMO going that far is typically unnecessary. And frankly I really like spamming Dark Obliteration... 😸
 

Edited October 13 by Maelwys

[Maelwys]

Oh, forgot the Crab themselves:

 

As per previous post - bit shy of softcap (which for Melee and Ranged is made up by Barrier cycles and Dark Obliteration) and a decent smattering of Resistances which gets boosted by Barrier as well as the Talon Lore pet's PBAoE buff. Max HP being >2k alongside a <100s Serum recast and its inherent Regeneration plus Power Transfer and Panacea +Heal Procs seems to keep them upright just fine despite the Crab tending to draw more than their fair share of incoming fire.
(Occasionally on tougher teams I'll run Melee Core Hybrid instead of Support Core in order to Hardcap their Resistances...)

Mids sometimes borks at displaying the actual healing from Serum, but it's ~865 HP (unaffected by external buffs sadly, so doesn't increase if the Lore pet buff is active!). 
 


Finally - my original post touched on this briefly; but one recommendation that doesn't come up a lot is using an Overwhelming Force "Chance for Knockdown" IO in the Spiderlings. Spiderlings don't need ED-capped recharge in order to get them perma (unlike your other summons) and using a 4-piece "Call to Arms" set (including the aura IO) plus the OF Proc and a Musculature Alpha will very nearly cap their ED damage whilst leaving the 6th enhancement slot free for another Aura IO.
However more importantly - that Knockdown proc is actually very useful to the Spiderlings, because whatever each of the three little scutters are attacking will get knocked prone quite often (it's 2.5 PPM chance in both of their attacks!) and since they don't have much else in the way of inherent mitigation it can really prolong their lifespan.
 

Edited October 13 by Maelwys

[Maelwys]

1 hour ago, benai said:

My problem is I am not sure which is the best choice for Incarnates specially in terms of Core or Radial. Normally I take verything which states "good for pets".

Hybrid: Support Core grants +12% Defense to your pets and 6% to you rather than Support Radial's +8% to everyone.
Destiny: Barrier Core lasts for 120s rather than Barrier Radial's 90s.
Lore: Talons Radial gives you an invulnerable AoE-buffing support pet rather than Talons Core's Boss and LT pet (which deal more damage but do not AoE-buff anything and are not invulnerable!). The only other Lore option worth considering is Arachnos Radial - it can essentially be thought of as a 90 second PBAoE +10% Defense buff (since as soon as you activate it the support pet casts Mind Link which due to its high recharge is only available once per summoning) plus a bit of Single-Target healing. Talons is better if you're fighting longer than 90s once every 10 minutes; and brings benefits that a Purple Team inspiration does not.
Interface: Typically Degenerative (-MaxHP, better vs AVs) or Reactive (-Resist, better vs Everything Else). Radial gives more chance for the debuff, Core gives more chance for the DoT. You have lots of pets so the debuff tends to be maxed out regardless, therefore always go Core.
Judgement: Pick whatever you like, however the only one that has an impact to your pets will be Void Radial since it inflicts a hefty AoE -damage debuff.
Alpha: Typically Musculature Core, since that provides by far the biggest outside-ED damage boost to your pets. Intuition Radial (+Range -ToHit) or Musculature Radial (+RunSpeed, +EndMod, -ToHit) are your other options... although realistically the main thing they'll affect is Gloom and Dark Obliteration's -ToHit debuff and IMO it's not worth the tradeoff in damage output.
 

  

1 hour ago, benai said:

In terms of debuff i prefer -toHit or -MaxHp. Crabby has enough -DEF -Resist in its attacks fro my point of view so not getting hit or faster ending because of reduces HP seems the best idea,
When we hadnt had these level or pick at least 2 skills restrictions I would go for Darkest Night instead of Gloom. So you had area -ACC  + -DMG -toHit as an area debuff.

I believe Darkest Night can still be taken in place of Dark Obliteration; it only requires one prior pick from the pool.

Darkest Night inflicts -11.25% ToHit compared to Dark Obliteration's -5.625%... although your Crab's own AoE damage output will drop pretty drastically and IMO it'd be better to just slot DO for -ToHit and swap to Musculature Radial (which would raise its debuff to around -9.54% ToHit as per my "Aim+Assault+Weave" build posted earlier)
 

Edited October 13 by Maelwys

[benai]

17 minutes ago, Maelwys said:

Hybrid: Support Core grants +12% Defense to your pets and 6% to you rather than Support Radial's +8% to everyone.
Destiny: Barrier Core lasts for 120s rather than Barrier Radial's 90s.
Lore: Talons Radial gives you an invulnerable AoE-buffing support pet rather than Talons Core's Boss and LT pet (which deal more damage but do not AoE-buff anything and are not invulnerable!)
Interface: Typically Degenerative (-MaxHP, better vs AVs) or Reactive (-Resist, better vs Everything Else). Radial gives more chance for the debuff, Core gives more chance for the DoT. You have lots of pets so the debuff tends to be maxed out regardless, therefore always go Core.
Judgement: Pick whatever you like, however the only one that has an impact to your pets will be Void Radial since it inflicts a hefty AoE -damage debuff.
Alpha: Typically Musculature Core, since that provides by far the biggest outside-ED damage boost to your pets. Intuition Radial (+Range -ToHit) or Musculature Radial (+RunSpeed, +EndMod, -ToHit) are your other options... although realistically the main thing they'll affect is Gloom and Dark Obliteration's -ToHit debuff and IMO it's not worth the tradeoff in damage output.

 

Expect of Talons which is for me currently Arachnos thast mostly my pick.

 

I took Void because this char is in melee anyway and i thought best synergy.

 

17 minutes ago, Maelwys said:

I believe Darkest Night can still be taken in place of Dark Obliteration; it only requires one prior pick from the pool.

Darkest Night inflicts -11.25% ToHit compared to Dark Obliteration's -5.625%... although your Crab's own AoE damage output will drop pretty drastically and IMO it'd be better to just slot DO for -ToHit and swap to Musculature Radial (which would raise its debuff to around -9.54% ToHit as per my "Aim+Assault+Weave" build posted earlier)
 

 

When Mids is not lying you unlock with Gloom Dark Obliteration and with Dark Obliteration then Widow or Darkest Night. And then Widow is the given.

 

 

 

Currently thinking about droping Mental Training and getting for Darkest Night and swap all Slots from Gloom into Darkest Night and Slot it with Dark Watcher's Despair. There are just no purple toHit Debuff Sets..

Edited October 13 by benai

[Maelwys]

  

28 minutes ago, benai said:

Expect of Talons which is for me currently Arachnos thast mostly my pick.

 

Arachnos Radial is fine, as long as you're aware that it grants roughly the same benefit to your pets as using a single Medium Purple Team insp once every 10 minutes.
 

  

28 minutes ago, benai said:

When Mids is not lying you unlock with Gloom Dark Obliteration and with Dark Obliteration then Widow or Dakrest Night. And then Widow is the given.

 

Mids is indeed lying if it's claiming that.

Note the "requires ownPowerNum?(Epic) >0" line in Darkest Night's CoDv2 entry. You should only need a single other Soul Mastery power to take it.
(Note that you can only pick Darkest Night at a minimum level of 41 (not level 38!) but you only need one prereq for it!)



I've just tested this in an in-game /respec and seems accurate:



 

  

28 minutes ago, benai said:

Currently thinking about droping Mental Training and getting for Darkest Night and swap all Slots from Gloom into Darkest Night and Slot it with Dark Watcher's Despair. There are just no purple toHit Debuff Sets..

IIRC optimal Darkest Night slotting is 4-piece Dark Watcher's Despair (skip the ToHit/Rech and the Proc) or 2-3x Enzyme HOs.
 

 

Edited October 13 by Maelwys

[benai]

5 minutes ago, Maelwys said:

  Arachnos Radial is fine, as long as you're aware that it grants roughly the same benefit to your pets as using a single Medium Purple Team insp once every 10 minutes. 

 

I took it out of theme and its not fixed. I take whats best for the build.

 

5 minutes ago, Maelwys said:

Mids is indeed lying if it's claiming that.
Note the "requires ownPowerNum?(Epic) >0" line in its CoDv2 entry. You should only need a single other Soul Mastery power to take it.
(Note that you can only pick Darkest Night at a minimum level of 41 (not level 38!) but you only need one prereq for it!)

 

 

But when then I want Dark Obliteration and Darkest Night and dont take Gloom at all.

So that i have:

- Dark Obliteration

- Darkest Night

- Summon Widow

 

 

Thats why my current idea is to get rid off Mental Training and take for it Darkest Night with 5 Slots of Dar Watcher's Despair. Which removes 21,25% recharge which doesnt make me happy.

Edited October 13 by benai

[Maelwys]

1 minute ago, benai said:

But when then I want Dark Obliteration and Darkest Night and dont take Gloom at all.

So that i have:

- Dark Obliteration

- Darkest Night

- Summon Widow

You can open the pool with either Gloom or Soul Tentacles (0 powers required) then it lets you select Dark Obliteration or Darkest Night (1 power required); then it lets you select Summon Widow (2 powers required).

So you'll need to take either Gloom or Soul Tentacles regardless of whatever else you pick unfortunately.
Thankfully Gloom is a really good Single Target attack with high DPA and proc chances; and it IMO fills out the Crab's attack chain nicely.

Nothing to stop you taking Gloom at Lv35, Dark Obliteration at 38, Darkest Night at Lv41 and Summon Widow at Lv44 if you want them all?

[benai]

20 minutes ago, Maelwys said:

You can open the pool with either Gloom or Soul Tentacles (0 powers required) then it lets you select Dark Obliteration or Darkest Night (1 power required); then it lets you select Summon Widow (2 powers required).

So you'll need to take either Gloom or Soul Tentacles regardless of whatever else you pick unfortunately.
Thankfully Gloom is a really good Single Target attack with high DPA and proc chances; and it IMO fills out the Crab's attack chain nicely.

Nothing to stop you taking Gloom at Lv35, Dark Obliteration at 38, Darkest Night at Lv41 and Summon Widow at Lv44 if you want them all?

 

I am missing out slots to put it in and Slot to put into it.

The problems with limitations.

 

It would have been nice when the first 3 would be (0 powers required) and then you could use freely what you want. But that goes for fighting too. Yyou have to take Boxing or Kicking you cant just take Tough and Weave.

 

I want only 

- Dark Obliteration

- Darkest Night

- Summon Widow

Edited October 13 by benai

[Maelwys]

4 minutes ago, benai said:

 

I am missing out slots to put it in and Slot to put into it.

The problems with limitations.

 

It would have been nice when the first 3 would be (0 powers required) and then you could use freely what you want. But that goes for fighting too. Yyou have to take Boxing or Kicking you cant just take Tough and Weave.

 

I want only 

- Dark Obliteration

- Darkest Night

- Summon Widow

I can understand the frustration with being locked into unwanted Prereqs. But there's always a bit of wiggle room.

Take my current build for example: Arachnos Crab Spider (Soul).mbd
There are two spare slots in Stamina which are really just there to buff MaxHP above 2k; and the Numina Proc in health is likewise doing very little. If I wanted to take Darkest Night then I could drop either Aim or Assault (my preference would be to drop Aim and move Tactical Training: Assault to Lv16) then use 1-3 slots from Health and Stamina to fill it with either a 4-piece Dark Watcher's Despair (skip the ToHit/Rech and the Proc) or 2-3x Enzyme HOs.

[benai]

13 minutes ago, Maelwys said:

I can understand the frustration with being locked into unwanted Prereqs. But there's always a bit of wiggle room.

Take my current build for example: Arachnos Crab Spider (Soul).mbd
There are two spare slots in Stamina which are really just there to buff MaxHP above 2k; and the Numina Proc in health is likewise doing very little. If I wanted to take Darkest Night then I could drop either Aim or Assault (my preference would be to drop Aim and move Tactical Training: Assault to Lv16) then use 1-3 slots from Health and Stamina to fill it with either a 4-piece Dark Watcher's Despair (skip the ToHit/Rech and the Proc) or 2-3x Enzyme HOs.

 

 

The problem is certain power pools are limitated in a stupid way to reduce he effectiveness.

Think about someone had designed Leadership with Vengeance or Victory Rush as a must pick to unlock Maneuvers, Assault and Tactics.

 

 

But with Soul Mastery (as an example) and Fighting (as an example) its ok. No, it's NOT!

 

You dont have this with Speed (Hasten) or Jumping (Combat Jumping).

 

 

My only other option would be to drop off Flight entirely (which would leave me with -7,5% global recharge) or at least remove fly and take instead Darkest Night to keep Mental Training.

Edited October 13 by benai

[Maelwys]

All of the power pools are designed that way.
However the various "capstone" powers greatly differ in desirability.
These days everyone wants Rune of Protection and Team Teleport; but hardly anyone wants Whirlwind and Acrobatics.

Regular Primary and Secondary power pools have level-related prereqs too.

IIRC that's one of the design philosophies of CoX - to intentionally gate access to "higher-tier" powers (regardless of how desirable or undesirable they might seem to a particular player!). At least HC have tweaked things a smidge with introducing more mid-tier powers and granting additional benefit to taking some other "less desirable" powers (as seen in the case of the Fighting Pool where taking Boxing and Kick influence the effects of Cross Punch, etc)

[benai]

41 minutes ago, Maelwys said:

All of the power pools are designed that way.
However the various "capstone" powers greatly differ in desirability.
These days everyone wants Rune of Protection and Team Teleport; but hardly anyone wants Whirlwind and Acrobatics.

Regular Primary and Secondary power pools have level-related prereqs too.

IIRC that's one of the design philosophies of CoX - to intentionally gate access to "higher-tier" powers (regardless of how desirable or undesirable they might seem to a particular player!). At least HC have tweaked things a smidge with introducing more mid-tier powers and granting additional benefit to taking some other "less desirable" powers (as seen in the case of the Fighting Pool where taking Boxing and Kick influence the effects of Cross Punch, etc)

 

 

Whatever they do someone lamenting anyway. Still a bit more freedom would be nice for the additional power pools.

 

 

But that aside, would you say my build is valide and could fullfill its role?