Team Support / Control / Melee Blood Widow build

[Imaginary]

So, I've finally put this together and tested it a bit, and it plays quite nicely. I've put it together somewhat differently from the other builds I've seen, so I thought I'd share and ask for commentary. The build is designed to run perma mindlink along with all six team leadership / etc buffs, and have vengance, as well as having higher than soft-capped defenses and a melee attack chain. It's designed to be 'secret sauce' for pubs, where your team may or may not be.... Well prepared.

 

In practice, the team buffs widows can give are ridiculous. +29% to all defenses, +38% to hit, and 30% damage at all times. Your venge gives an extra 34% def all, 43% to-hit and 35% damage on top of that. That means that ALONE, you put everyone else far above softcapped defenses if the tank goes down. 

 

Drawbacks: It does not, sadly, have all that much self mez defense OR a ranged AOE attack chain; I couldn't find room for that.... I'm even considering swapping Psychic Scream for Spin. Additionally, the health and resistances are kinda terrible, but it's obviously designed for team play so that's somewhat beside the point. Positionally, I tend to be behind the AV stabbing him instead of tanking. Tanking with this build is marginally possible but I'd want to reconfigure it for both that and 4* teamplay.  Also, this is a no-budget build. I've stuffed purples and purple procs in everywhere, as well as the ATO's, PvP IO's and WO's. I've +5'd many of the EndRed IO's to keep Assault and Tactics more affordable. Even then, the build is a lot easier to run with a Cardiac Alpha. Musculature would help, certainly, but the primary focus of this build is team buffing; in extended fights with full teams Follow Up certainly gets my personal damage close to cap.

 

Regardless, a few notes on things I've done a little weirdly:

1) I don't see people putting a Membrane Exposure in Vengeance. It's designed for it, so I did.

2) Mind Link can take +ToHit IO's, so I added some to it. It's not a HUGE bonus, but 2.5% to hit for your team is actually far more meaningful than it sounds. That's multiplicative, because that's how to-hit works.

3) Note for those who don't know how proc'ing a power works: I've proc'd out various powers and worked to completely ignore their slotted recharge. This is because there's a hidden feature in the way proc calculations work and your slotted recharge reduces proc chance where global recharge does not. Thus....... Frankenslotting in Follow-up looks very strange, but that's because I want it to proc a lot. I'm spamming it. 

4) In Mid's, all my powers show as 100%+ total accuracy at Enemy Relative Level +7 even without slotting much accuracy. This is because the IO Bonus total of 63% stacks with the various To-Hit buffs multiplicatively. In practice, this saved me a bunch of precious slots. The only power I really slotted for accuracy was Follow Up, because that leads to more to-hit buffs.

5) I kept the holds because I wanted to be able to hold AV's whenever possible.

6) Lunge is a mega-high damage power that you want to spam as much as you can, and if your team doesn't cap out your +dmg, you want it to keep hitting hard. Thus I used it instead of brawl to hold my hecatomb.

 

I'm interested in commentary, but more than anything I wanted to share a build that was focused on the teamwork aspect of widows.

 

Build:

 

WeooWeeScrikck - Hero Arachnos Widow
Build plan made with Mids' Reborn v3.7.5 rev. 21
──────────────────────────────

• Primary powerset: Fortunata Training
• Secondary powerset: Fortunata Teamwork
• Pool powerset (#1): Leadership
• Pool powerset (#2): Speed
• Pool powerset (#3): Teleportation
• Pool powerset (#4): Leaping
• Epic powerset: Soul Mastery

──────────────────────────────

Powers taken:

Level 1: Swipe

• A: Superior Blistering Cold: Accuracy/Damage
• 3: Superior Blistering Cold: Recharge/Chance for Hold
• 3: Superior Blistering Cold: Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
• 5: Superior Blistering Cold: Damage/Endurance/Accuracy/RechargeTime
• 5: Superior Blistering Cold: Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
• 7: Superior Blistering Cold: Damage/Endurance

Level 1: Combat Training: Defensive

• A: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed
• 7: Luck of the Gambler: Defense

Level 2: Fate Sealed

Level 4: Strike

• A: Touch of Death: Chance of Damage(Negative)
• 9: Mako's Bite: Chance of Damage(Lethal)
• 9: Gladiator's Strike: Chance for Smashing Damage

Level 6: Tactical Training: Maneuvers

• A: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed
• 11: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Endurance
• 11: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Recharge
• 13: Luck of the Gambler: Defense

Level 8: Maneuvers

• A: Reactive Defenses: Defense
• 13: Reactive Defenses: Defense/Endurance
• 15: Reactive Defenses: Endurance/RechargeTime
• 15: Reactive Defenses: Defense/RechargeTime
• 17: Reactive Defenses: Scaling Resist Damage
• 17: Reactive Defenses: Defense/Endurance/RechargeTime

Level 10: Follow Up

• A: Touch of Death: Chance of Damage(Negative)
• 19: Gladiator's Strike: Accuracy/Damage
• 19: Gladiator's Strike: Chance for Smashing Damage
• 21: Mako's Bite: Chance of Damage(Lethal)
• 50: Crushing Impact: Accuracy/Damage
• 50: Crushing Impact: Accuracy/Damage/Endurance

Level 12: Super Speed

• A: Blessing of the Zephyr: Knockback Reduction (4 points)

Level 14: Hasten

• A: Invention: Recharge Reduction

Level 16: Psychic Scream

• A: Superior Dominion of Arachnos: Recharge/Chance for -Dmg and Terrorize
• 21: Superior Dominion of Arachnos: Accuracy/Damage
• 23: Annihilation: Chance for Res Debuff
• 23: Superior Dominion of Arachnos: Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
• 25: Superior Dominion of Arachnos: Damage/Endurance/Recharge
• 25: Superior Dominion of Arachnos: Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge

Level 18: Lunge

• A: Hecatomb: Damage
• 27: Hecatomb: Damage/Recharge/Accuracy
• 27: Hecatomb: Chance of Damage(Negative)
• 29: Hecatomb: Damage/Endurance
• 29: Hecatomb: Damage/Recharge

Level 20: Mask Presence

• A: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed
• 31: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Endurance

Level 22: Foresight

• A: Shield Wall: +Res (Teleportation), +5% Res (All)
• 31: Aegis: Psionic/Status Resistance
• 31: Steadfast Protection: Resistance/+Def 3%
• 33: Unbreakable Guard: +Max HP

Level 24: Mind Link

• A: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed
• 33: Luck of the Gambler: Defense
• 33: Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control: To Hit Buff
• 34: Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control: To Hit Buff/Recharge
• 34: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Recharge
• 34: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Endurance/Recharge

Level 26: Total Domination

• A: Unbreakable Constraint: Hold
• 36: Unbreakable Constraint: Hold/Recharge
• 36: Unbreakable Constraint: Hold/Endurance
• 36: Unbreakable Constraint: Chance for Smashing Damage
• 37: Lockdown: Chance for +2 Mag Hold
• 37: Unbreakable Constraint: Hold/Recharge/Accuracy

Level 28: Tactical Training: Assault

• A: Invention: Endurance Reduction
• 37: Invention: Endurance Reduction

Level 30: Tactical Training: Leadership

• A: Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control: To Hit Buff
• 39: Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control: To Hit Buff/Recharge
• 39: Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control: To Hit Buff/Recharge/Endurance
• 39: Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control: Chance for Build Up
• 40: Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control: Recharge/Endurance
• 40: Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control: To Hit Buff/Endurance

Level 32: Psychic Wail

• A: Superior Spider's Bite: RechargeTime/Global Toxic
• 40: Eradication: Chance for Energy Damage
• 42: Fury of the Gladiator: Chance for Res Debuff
• 42: Armageddon: Chance for Fire Damage
• 42: Scirocco's Dervish: Chance of Damage(Lethal)

Level 35: Teleport

• A: Blessing of the Zephyr: Run Speed, Jump, Flight Speed, Range
• 43: Blessing of the Zephyr: Knockback Reduction (4 points)

Level 38: Aura of Confusion

• A: Coercive Persuasion : Confused/Recharge/Accuracy
• 43: Coercive Persuasion : Contagious Confusion
• 43: Coercive Persuasion : Confused
• 45: Coercive Persuasion : Confused/Endurance
• 45: Coercive Persuasion : Confused/Recharge

Level 41: Tactics

• A: Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control: To Hit Buff
• 45: Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control: To Hit Buff/Endurance

Level 44: Dominate

• A: Apocalypse: Damage
• 46: Apocalypse: Chance of Damage(Negative)
• 46: Apocalypse: Damage/Endurance
• 46: Apocalypse: Damage/Recharge/Accuracy
• 48: Apocalypse: Damage/Recharge
• 48: Lockdown: Chance for +2 Mag Hold

Level 47: Assault

• A: Invention: Endurance Reduction
• 48: Invention: Endurance Reduction

Level 49: Tactical Training: Vengeance

• A: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed
• 50: Membrane Exposure

──────────────────────────────

Inherents:

Level 1: Conditioning | Hidden

Level 1: Brawl

• (Empty)

Level 1: Sprint

• (Empty)

Level 2: Rest

• (Empty)

Level 2: Swift

• A: Invention: Run Speed

Level 2: Hurdle

• A: Jumping

Level 2: Health

• A: Panacea: +Hit Points/Endurance

Level 2: Stamina

• A: Performance Shifter: Chance for +End

Level 47: Speed Phase

Level 1: Prestige Power Dash

• (Empty)

Level 1: Prestige Power Slide

• (Empty)

Level 1: Prestige Power Quick

• A: Celerity: +Stealth

Level 1: Prestige Power Rush

• (Empty)

Level 1: Prestige Power Surge

• (Empty)

Level 4: Ninja Run

|MBD;27028;1812;2416;BASE64;|
|G5NpACwK7MayhKB/bP6OauzCW5Gl6lDEjasqcZyH8DRAh8ZquYlWdMLcH3/QpSyEoyW|
|ZMTNLlq6+1mEB6WqqJk67+m3G3vFdn3ckGOkSs6FJgaSSukD//7Vvh0aiJFrRmcTmLZ|
|H65707b9UjYnrH/senItZMGqHoWmJbR6zGfx/27sU8QqT93/bQ01IiNobadW67kBJcR|
|G3/O18zLAqMisbePGDOBl1GvtnExcNaoHmUBsftm5cOMEQaaOAXzQV8H3piUBfntnOn|
|EoMZ0qRlrwVId1dz/Q4IwX03T9oy/NnC/1RENwwxhaMyQ5t7wOq9+xHurIbBQWHD/Tf|
|wvYfc+/0Nuv14cMFBCcw231HZfPAeLfSb6e0sj1rGxc6BX+Yu8MEw/Ihw2tV61UNcN7|
|urcKsstUKHuQsKoVLyjZ/XNN9nuJzSt+cjFtmXUq1M257tcHEW2QuaMB9AzWKFTdNzB|
|M/H+SjOaRM/ZaLxfkM/cHH9p0s0GtJWthHenWEYbmm2b6oav8HZwWk7Albf1SutztTm|
|SF4XEge+8DBMM6ag58yXMu8GVYLpD2ynh1tGAwPMwQhVyzAoVLKgCwYjug5Cgxo8ICM|
|dbv7sPn21UHtg4QfOOyEfsBZM7OBwj/9BKnNiULLJb6n+R7srAYkFLgWuJCROcCFcab|
|gdaGiFtSDS1+bGJvTjwqUJe9+Sfbdt1eFWDL4WBtljB1HFic5/B1U+LorQKA402V5mY|
|Px8+j/JA4KSHKg/1aZvP0hcIIMVY8uOAPKLEsrXvpbd+AoHWVNlYB8slLV6eql2KeDx|
|PuSd754UUqCWuTBoVR7C5ZHkCrkTTV09X3NxL+msqzl1NqwHIvkWhC18AO4LaUE3m4D|
|YERLGplybtrgRXvIdeDxdE3kdEM07HUgCe8mIRTzlhAQ596RaVoJNge8tq+B2ophxZF|
|0b+qF0z+TfnrYw3o3ujvKPNfXf5bSYcu4eASWmmS0YbcaTTyM9SXKwU4qXMlbuWUW6v|
|YVPKIFmasoNlyo0bnlvjXQb6zLGzMc6yJwsDUUmZyFOPO5+MfcziAy+YuMsGG8ZCx6r|
|a6Lskl7SImOpmspme8qRZ9+lk3uAD5YzLuRVWeDG0TQffoYb/a6lmcSDkNJ7hQ1Q7BT|
|VWjCTXej4iNz47maADeFmzsQvsE3KRsdR8ZFw5s3B9sVAQ7cvYnRRMXk1sSISbAS/Vs|
|SE11HOpZZ33znvNAIJ61jxNW3wiaUVoDgRoFy8HZGaKyLltpdoMCY85r827wIdtFlVJ|
|P5swE2S0rtwgceVs8hSN716c4qEexydt9nJBlJ5EVQXhx0dRyrkuWKDDHLxUMdYkFbK|
|mHIJKxnar195ZQpbkk/rP88O/zBIEjA2/6gIXnFPEC6QKElWnpZfurv0mYCq/lKdyAa|
|zeKOwGJe+zLGCpshPVPILsVjZppcJ6QIHBE6wEYpuuzvZf1fDn0Zseh5LRGtH6KAA1n|
|2MBx7P0rSx4iEtVCs3qaBSqCa89JKCbPTQaTbCwLnstkCB9eO4zBegcWziDeEJLsKHJ|
|4PwBeKlEcKpm0XVK18idx4rmqcMhDWY12rO/vipDEguQg2LC7XiTGMbE0FCXPaYOyEO|
|vmGMua3IXdtdwns3F6hoiIfkPqpS0hj7xgXrCr4ZX/8gIi3uaMW9PjSFsSD9sti5WMF|
|UmtZ7sMjwnaDlIM92MDqiywM0ELnYS3Qihx+Agm5pBTaAAwlpE/5F6ce7g/5A4dG2Gf|
|tCfk/gf2YpEzVQnBKpAoDyotiLCRCmd9ZzJjRhfkWukIKQCTaEfyNYAJfjEA/2TNmHm|
|TBuSNuTT7cG6U2okkpClj6wG14bS860CzMqO2HXrKqG0pY2PmRElI97Xa9jle2Hz0/r|
|jz0wCYlu3W7oWJFp3vZnFrvV55WV7jMj+KmkEhbhA/E5fCAl/KgaXU/pM5S/D53IJWP|
|CVQL+3aNr+ylXwublxZ7/wHOZGs7Oyaq2rRiKhWrpvYHaO8cT3U3CPT5vGPhcd4zQsj|
|AiOb4PNu5gkmBW1y4+xJijuGrxRuoPQPnHurIHjw0g8bCdM17Lr5GVZPzbNvSD4vr8d|
|+uk4P01ai4MJ/6WlV8fqKoMMOGTm++kIL5goLJBEVJnaWJqBqueO/yk5ZPN9OUMWsR4|
|BuPElLHiI/aHI6qhVFohpBhL5zAubJcHNpfHQW2kdLOO5LGSHqAeeZxBUD39sq+0ZaU|
|7UZ34CLywcns85nwTibHS/bY6DBRkX62hz756dvWcMnc23ltFiDZq5yVkZA8voclDdl|
|VZHhcfwnfzFxsydSBqydlF+anIpAfZ6qT+aEZ1XE4dwr16GRx8cyPcdBamke75PzQ39|
|O7KA7mtHYRSTuoYrCpegNa/goTBCmX7S/32taY3dNeHq016e7/jJP5mi/NO8uig/usQ|
|P3Y0|

 

 

Edited September 22 by Imaginary

[Glacier Peak]

Unless I'm glued to the Tank (who is already fine on def/res) or play ping pong with the Ranged ATs, I've found the team buff toggles to be a convenient coincidence rather than a devoted play style. The radius on them is too low for modern frenetic team movement, but works well in slow and steady teams (80ft for Widow toggles,  60ft for Leadership toggles)

[KaizenSoze]

I feel to ignore my suggestions as I tend to build differently than a lot of folks.

You'll want to take Psychic Wail as soon as possible and max it's damage. It will do the majority of damage, like 50% of your total damage.

 

You should proc domination out and take it earlier, unless this build is only running at 50. It's such a quick recharging power, than the lower proc chances don't matter.

 

Psychic Scream on Fortunata is bad. Swap it for something else. Night Widows get the good version.

 

Scrambled Thoughts actually does decent damage, but I slot it for stun duration because it's mag 4. Good for taking out problematic bosses.

 

Even with Cardiac you have to be hurting for endurance. You're build is very end hungry, especially with the heavy procing.

 

In general. It has been my experience with builds that try and do both melee, ranged, and support/control is that there isn't enough time to utilize the roles. You can be ranged and support/control. Or melee and ranged, but not all three. For my hard content builds, I go support/control/ranged. Fortunatas are very squishy compared to Night Widows. Since, you do lots of psi damage, that's general good enough against AVs w/o melee. In general content I go with melee/ranged.

 

Also, ranged/control/support builds are more relaxing to play, than melee builds, when you want a change of pace.

 

 

[Imaginary]

Quote

You'll want to take Psychic Wail as soon as possible and max it's damage. It will do the majority of damage, like 50% of your total damage.

 

I've proc'd it out instead, and...... Yeah, it's nice. I like to have something that's up more than once every 25-40 seconds, though. When I need it to hit really hard, I tend to follow-up once or twice first or pop a red. The damage cap is pretty immutable, 

 

Quote

You should proc domination out and take it earlier, unless this build is only running at 50. It's such a quick recharging power, than the lower proc chances don't matter.

That's a decent idea, and I've moved it down to level 22. I don't actually need the bonuses from Foresight all that much.

 

Quote

Psychic Scream on Fortunata is bad. Swap it for something else. Night Widows get the good version.

Yeah, switching it out for swipe is a far better choice, I think. I'm mostly in melee anyways.

 

Quote

Scrambled Thoughts actually does decent damage, but I slot it for stun duration because it's mag 4. Good for taking out problematic bosses.

I've been hitting bosses with Total Domination + Dominate. Total Domination will always push out a 5 mag hold, and Dominate spams out as a 3 mag with 20%'ish chance to proc the +2 mag. I guess if I had another power slot handy I'd throw it in, but I don't know what I'd drop.

 

Quote

Even with Cardiac you have to be hurting for endurance. You're build is very end hungry, especially with the heavy procing.

It is fine at 50+.  When I try to run everything at once and have long combat sessions, yes. But the low-level powers I'm spamming (follow up, lunge, strike, swipe) in melee end the fight pretty fast - and I don't even have PJ / Atlas Medallion yet. I guess I need to experiment more to find where I'm running out of end.

 

I have real end issues when exemplaring. Something is......... Not right there. But turning off the assaults when unnecessary gives it a lot less troubles.

 

Edited September 22 by Imaginary

[Imaginary]

4 hours ago, Glacier Peak said:

Unless I'm glued to the Tank (who is already fine on def/res) or play ping pong with the Ranged ATs, I've found the team buff toggles to be a convenient coincidence rather than a devoted play style. The radius on them is too low for modern frenetic team movement, but works well in slow and steady teams (80ft for Widow toggles,  60ft for Leadership toggles)

You're welcome to hang out dead on the floor over there all you like.

 

This is really useful to, say, a mastermind. One of the aims of this build is to make MM's / crabberminds more viable in higher tier content. Because the defense and to hit buffs are so high, it might allow for migrations away from Barrier and into Rebirth for organized teams. That's one of the goals here; to design a character that shores up some of the things that are completely unworkable in the current metagame.

Edited September 22 by Imaginary

[Glacier Peak]

1 hour ago, Imaginary said:

You're welcome to hang out dead on the floor over there all you like.

 

This is really useful to, say, a mastermind. One of the aims of this build is to make MM's / crabberminds more viable in higher tier content. Because the defense and to hit buffs are so high, it might allow for migrations away from Barrier and into Rebirth for organized teams. That's one of the goals here; to design a character that shores up some of the things that are completely unworkable in the current metagame.

Certainly a niche concept, good luck. 

[KaizenSoze]

3 hours ago, Imaginary said:

It is fine at 50+.  When I try to run everything at once and have long combat sessions, yes. But the low-level powers I'm spamming (follow up, lunge, strike, swipe) in melee end the fight pretty fast - and I don't even have PJ / Atlas Medallion yet. I guess I need to experiment more to find where I'm running out of end.

 

I have real end issues when exemplaring. Something is......... Not right there. But turning off the assaults when unnecessary gives it a lot less troubles.

 

 There has been a long standing issue with Widow, Night or Fort, endurance. I have been complaining about for years.

 

 After a lot of research, help with folks like Glacier Peak, and a lot of whining the problem is simple.

 

The toggles aren't the issue, VEATs get some of the cheapest toggles in the game.

 

It's the claw attacks, Widows can attack so fast, that they will absolutely burn through their endurance. Proc'ing attacks just makes it worse, because you often lose the endurance reduction due to only slotting accuracy, damage, procs. Ironically, full sets can cause their own set of issues, as claw attack recharge is maxed and so you can have the same issue with and without procs. It's just better with full sets.

 

Night Widows pre page 5 without Cardiac were really crippled by this fact. Now, they can kill their targets a lot faster. Reducing the total number of attacks. Fort don't suffer as much because they use more slower ranged attacks and have a nuke.

 

You should consider have a second exemplaring build that doesn't proc as much. Focus on endurance reduction in the claw attacks.

[Imaginary]

7 hours ago, Glacier Peak said:

Certainly a niche concept, good luck. 

 

Err... Sorry to be rude. Look, I've been back for a couple months and had some annoying mud slung at me about the 'meta.' Some people are so attached to it they consider it the only way to play. When I left Live, VEAT's had pretty much just come out, and were mostly unplayed. I loved my crabbermind, but there wasn't really anything beyond what it could do at the time. Now that I've come back to the game 'late,' there are challenges I didn't have in Live, I'm having a hard time adjusting to the community being absolutely set in stone about the stuff they want around for hard content. 

 

I always thought highly organized teams would end up doing the comparatively rational thing and build around everyone having the leadership buffs, and the VEAT's having enhanced versions of those buffs where they could. That would end up with a much more inclusive and flexible metagame. Instead......... Kin + Tank'ish + 3xCold + 2x Dam. Which is fine, but extremely static. Builds like this allow the entire team to slot considerably less Acc / Dam HO's, which opens up quite a few slots for more proc's. Basically, I'm trying to figure out how to design builds that are extremely effective at what they do, so I can build teams around them for high-end non-4* content and then move into 4* content over time.

 

Anyways. It's been a frustrating time hearing people say I didn't know what I was doing because the 'meta' follows a very set path as-is. To me, it looks like people took what they already knew and had from pubs, plonked random selections of it into hard content, and then looked at the numbers as to why the best working stuff managed to win. Which is fine, but excludes a ton of possibilities.

[Imaginary]

7 hours ago, KaizenSoze said:

 There has been a long standing issue with Widow, Night or Fort, endurance. I have been complaining about for years.

I mean....... If I were that serious about exemplared content I could modify the existing Brute inspiration convert-and-chew macro to make one key convert almost anything to end and then eat it. Not really that much of a problem. I ran a Citadel last night and the end problems I ran into were when I used both the big, long recharge AOE powers and the attacks at the same time. I just spammed insps and converted for end. But I see your point..... If I were planning on focusing on low level content I'd probably end up with a Night Widow build that could do that as well as tank more effectively at higher levels.