Arachnos Soldier questions

[ajchvy]

I'm really liking the kit so far on Arachnos Soldier but I had a few questions about Crab/Bane. I'm only level 12 and have only taken the ranged abilities and some of the party support stuff and I really like the "squad leader" style of play that it seems to reward.

As for Bane and Crab, it looks like the class moves away from what I've been doing and goes into full dps instead of support and had a few questions about how the class plays at higher levels.

 

Do I keep the Soldier abilities when swapping to the sub-classes or do they get replaced? If so, why does the Soldier have an ability that is unlocked at 30 when you can switch at level 24?

If I wanted to keep the "squad leader" playstyle, it seems going Crab is the better option. I'm also sad that I'll lose my cool SMG.

Any help or thoughts or general advice would be appreciated. I'm not looking to min-max, mostly playing with some friends.

 

[KaizenSoze]

14 minutes ago, ajchvy said:

I'm really liking the kit so far on Arachnos Soldier but I had a few questions about Crab/Bane. I'm only level 12 and have only taken the ranged abilities and some of the party support stuff and I really like the "squad leader" style of play that it seems to reward.

As for Bane and Crab, it looks like the class moves away from what I've been doing and goes into full dps instead of support and had a few questions about how the class plays at higher levels.

 

Do I keep the Soldier abilities when swapping to the sub-classes or do they get replaced? If so, why does the Soldier have an ability that is unlocked at 30 when you can switch at level 24?

If I wanted to keep the "squad leader" playstyle, it seems going Crab is the better option. I'm also sad that I'll lose my cool SMG.

Any help or thoughts or general advice would be appreciated. I'm not looking to min-max, mostly playing with some friends.

 

The Crab can use the gun without constant swapping unlike a Bane. All the new Crab attacks come from the crab pack. Bane get mace versions, but some of the gun attacks are better.

 

Unless you are going full Crabbermind. A Hunts-Bane actually provides a bit better support, even if you go full ranged. It comes down have another -resist power than a crab. Both Crab and Bane can double up on all toggles.

 

 

[ajchvy]

For Crabbermind would that be taking both summon powers available and staying support with all of the party buffs?

[KaizenSoze]

47 minutes ago, ajchvy said:

For Crabbermind would that be taking both summon powers available and staying support with all of the party buffs?

Both summons yes, but you should search for some builds here. I am no expert on Crabberminds.

 

You need a very high recharge build to make it work. Expensive.

[Two Dollar Bill]

3 hours ago, ajchvy said:

If I wanted to keep the "squad leader" playstyle, it seems going Crab is the better option. I'm also sad that I'll lose my cool SMG.

 

I play a support-oriented "squad leader" sort of Crab, buffing the team with Leadership toggles, debuffing and knocking down whole rooms of enemies, while engaging in both ranged and melee combat. His DPS is only remarkable if he's delivering AoE damage to a crowd, he slows down noticeably if he needs to fight one boss.

 

Guns are fine if you are little and puny and have just four limbs, but Crab Spiders have a unique combat style in which their cybernetic limbs can blast targets at long range and then lash out to shred them in melee. A perfectly over-the-top combat style for a superhero setting! Recent animation changes allow you to make Soldier attacks using Crab animations.

 

[ajchvy]

7 minutes ago, Two Dollar Bill said:

 

I play a support-oriented "squad leader" sort of Crab, buffing the team with Leadership toggles, debuffing and knocking down whole rooms of enemies, while engaging in both ranged and melee combat. His DPS is only remarkable if he's delivering AoE damage to a crowd, he slows down noticeably if he needs to fight one boss.

 

Guns are fine if you are little and puny and have just four limbs, but Crab Spiders have a unique combat style in which their cybernetic limbs can blast targets at long range and then lash out to shred them in melee. A perfectly over-the-top combat style for a superhero setting! Recent animation changes allow you to make Soldier attacks using Crab animations.

 

Great thanks, I like the idea of the crab backpack but wasn't sure how much it changed the class.

[Maelwys]

14 hours ago, ajchvy said:

For Crabbermind would that be taking both summon powers available and staying support with all of the party buffs?

 

Technically THREE summon powers, since you can get a third one from your Patron pools which unlock after Lv35.

 

But yes, the idea of most Crabbers is to lead a squad of pets, either from the front (Melee build - acts more like a Tank/Brute/Scrapper) or from the rear (Ranged build - acts more like a Defender).

With sufficient build investment all the summons can be out permanently and the pets' defense pushed to the regular-content softcap, alongside granting substantial +Damage and +ToHit buffs and inflicting major -Resistance debuffs (and the crab themselves is also no slouch when it comes to raw AoE damage output).

It's quite common for the resulting character to be able to quickly drop tough targets like GMs and Pylons (during the last week or two my own Crabbermind has soloed the Halloween GMs on several occasions for lowbie alts who wanted the badge).

 

The only real downside is that unlike MMs whenever one of your pets dies (and they WILL die) you need to wait a few minutes to get back to "full strength" again. But once you get their Defence high enough that becomes much less common, and the right Lore Incarnate (go for either Talons or Arachnos Radial) helps too.

 

And don't forget that your character can have multiple builds and swap between them - my Crabbermind has a totally different Bane build that he can switch to if needed, even during a mission.

 

- - - - - - - - - -

There's a reasonably recent thread on the subject here with lots of numbers, screenshots and example builds.

As mentioned in that linked thread, my preference is to go Melee and take the Soul Mastery patron pool + Talons Radial Lore + Barrier Destiny + Support Core Hybrid.

The -ToHit from Gloom and Dark Obliteration can help your Spiderling and Disruptor pets close the gap to the Defensive softcap whenever Support Hybrid is down. The Widow can softcap her own defense without Support Hybrid running; and is also consistently the highest damaging Patron Pool pet (providing you can keep her alive and with a healthy-looking endurance bar!). The ongoing healing and AoE Resistance/Defence/HealingRecieved buffs from Talons Lore rounds the whole thing out nicely; providing a much smoother ride over time than Arachnos - Arachnos Crab Spider (Soul).mbd
 

Edited Friday at 11:48 AM by Maelwys

[KaizenSoze]

4 hours ago, Maelwys said:

The only real downside is that unlike MMs whenever one of your pets dies (and they WILL die) you need to wait a few minutes to get back to "full strength" again. But once you get their Defence high enough that becomes much less common, and the right Lore Incarnate (go for either Talons or Arachnos Radial) helps too.

 

And don't forget that your character can have multiple builds and swap between them - my Crabbermind has a totally different Bane build that he can switch to if needed, even during a mission.

@ajchvy 
Since, the OP is new to the AT. Two things should be noted.

 

The pets are uncontrollable, they will aggro things left and right. Unlike MM pets which you can recall or park in a spot.

 

If you take the Crab-backpack on any build for a character. The crabpack will appear on all builds for that character. Meaning your Bane builds will have the crabpack, but you cannot use any of the crabpack powers. It's an annoyance, but some people hate it.

[Maelwys]

10 minutes ago, KaizenSoze said:

If you take the Crab-backpack on any build for a character. The crabpack will appear on all builds for that character. Meaning your Bane builds will have the crabpack, but you cannot use any of the crabpack powers. It's an annoyance, but some people hate it.

 

That one you can at least partially work around via Prismatic Aether disguises.