T1 Night Widow Attacks - what do you pick?

[Onlyasandwich]

I recently spun up a Night Widow alt build and am really enjoying it! The buffs are night and day - I feel like they really have a place now in a world with Fortunatas.

 

The level 1 attack power pick ends up being sort of a throwaway used primarily at lower levels, and as a bit of a set mule. That being said, there are some considerations for occasional utility! What do you like to choose?

 

At first I chose Swipe because hey - highest DPA. Then I got to thinking - do I really care about the DPA of an attack that isn't a regular part of my chain? What other utility might benefit me?

 

I see it as:

• Swipe - useful on low recharge builds as decent filler, or if you want to skimp on picking attack powers (why are you playing a melee dps?). If you don't have enough slow res, might come into play at higher levels to fill out your chain. Otherwise, probably busy with something else 90% of the time.
• Poison Dart - Still a useful filler when needed! Lower DPA by a fair margin, but gives you some quick ranged utility. Can tag a runner, pull, or sit there and spit darts at range when you really don't want to be in melee on the rare occasion. Super quick recharge lets it basically be a ranged attack chain on its own. The -regen is small enough to mostly ignore.
• Mental Blast - Still useful for tagging runners/pulling. Even lower DPA than Poison Dart though, and not so fast to recharge (not proccing these powers!). However, gives you a nice little wedge to knock down mobs that pop T9s! You're not exactly nuking them, but it's a heckuva lot better than tickling them through 90% resist or floored hit chance.

 

I'm actually not sure what I like best! I think Mental Blast probably has the best niche use. It solves a problem that, though a bit rare, is truly obnoxious.

 

What do you like to choose, and why? 

Edited February 6 by Onlyasandwich

[KaizenSoze]

8 hours ago, Onlyasandwich said:

Mental Blast - Still useful for tagging runners/pulling. Even lower DPA than Poison Dart though, and not so fast to recharge (not proccing these powers!). However, gives you a nice little wedge to knock down mobs that pop T9s! You're not exactly nuking them, but it's a heckuva lot better than tickling them through 90% resist or floored hit chance.

This one for all the reasons you stated. They other two just don't have the utility.

[Maelwys]

On 2/6/2025 at 3:40 AM, Onlyasandwich said:

• Poison Dart - Still a useful filler when needed! Lower DPA by a fair margin, but gives you some quick ranged utility. Can tag a runner, pull, or sit there and spit darts at range when you really don't want to be in melee on the rare occasion. Super quick recharge lets it basically be a ranged attack chain on its own. The -regen is small enough to mostly ignore.

The thing to remember about Poison Dart's -Regen...



And since its base recharge time is 4s it'll be up very often.
A lot of the Widow Claw abilities have an Arcanatime of 1.056s; so you can comfortably weave it in after every other attack.
Doing so lets you keep almost exactly 4 stacks up constantly; which is -100% Regen and can start making a noticeable dent in things.

 

However using Poison Dart so often will hurt your average DPA, so it'll depend on the target you're facing if that tradeoff is "worth it".

A -100% regen debuff is roughly equal to 9 additional damage per second vs a regular +3 (lvl 54) AV.
Versus a Giant Monster on the other hand? That -100% regen debuff will be doing a lot more - roughly 53 additional damage at level 50.

Spoiler

An unbuffed Level 54 (+3) AV regenerates 5% of it's 30677.2 HP pool every 15 seconds.

A 100% regeneration debuff will be only 65% effective to a +3 foe due to the Purple Patch 
Level 54 Archvillains will suffer only 13% of this because of their 87% Archvillain Resistance 

(30677.2*0.05)/(15) = 102.2573333 HP/Second normally
(30677.2*0.05)/(15/(1-(1.00*0.13*0.65))) = 93.61658867 HP/Second under a 100% regen debuff
102.2573333 - 93.61658867 = 8.640744667 HP/Second regeneration negated by the debuff.

Giant Monsters scale to your level; and have 70679.18 HP at level 50 (and if its internal level adjusts to level 50; it'll be suffering 15% of the debuff).
(70679.18*0.05)/(10) = 353.3959 HP/Second normally
(70679.18*0.05)/(10/(1-(1.00*0.15))) = 300.386515 HP/Second under a 100% regen debuff
353.3959 - 300.386515 = 53.00938499999997 HP/Second regeneration negated by the debuff.

For comparison; START Temp Envenomed Daggers inflict -250% Regen for 10s and have almost the same base damage as Poison Dart (but can't be enhanced!).
 

Edited Tuesday at 10:23 PM by Maelwys

[tidge]

For a Night Widow, I'm almost always picking Poison Dart for later (post-respec) builds. Early game the Mental Blast is probably more useful. The best effect of the T1 attack is IMO the -Regen component. This is hard to see in a lot of content, but is I think becomes more useful (especially in teams).

[Onlyasandwich]

1 hour ago, tidge said:

-Regen component

As @Maelwys shared, I do see that it stacks to a useful extent, at least!

 

I can't imagine many situations where I would actively use it when focusing down an AV or GM though. The better DPA attacks from my normal rotation would outpace any gains from -regen.

 

If there is a big baddie that keeps me out of melee for an extended period for some reason, it is a further point in favor of Poison Dart! It is already the winner in that context (higher DPA than MB, quicker recharge), but it pushes it a bit further.

 

Another one that doesn't always jive with folks is theme. Do I want my ninja concept character to shoot poison darts or do more wub wub? Hmm - point to poison darts here. 😄 

Edited February 6 by Onlyasandwich

[RCU7115]

I always get all three on my Widows and Forts but I exemplar a lot and it's easy on the endurance playing the ranged attacks.

[tidge]

A minor point I often consider about -Resistance, -Regen (as well as the %proc versions) is "If it doesn't stack, are other teammates likely to be using it as well?" In the case of Poison Dart, it will stack no matter what, which is an advantage over other sources. The 15sec duration (not the shortest debuff in the game, but not far from it) is kinda short for my taste... at least considering what else the Night Widow could be doing to damage that critter.

 

I only have made one dedicated Night Widow and one as part of a multi-build... and in team circumstance my preference leans to the Fortunata, so it isn't as if I feel that strongly about the choice. My Fortunata experience more commonly has "ugh, another enemy with Psi Resist" rather than "I wish I had something else besides Envenomed Daggers for this fight".

[Onlyasandwich]

Thanks for chiming in, everyone!

 

If anyone is curious where I landed, I went with Poison Dart myself this time around. I think Mental Blast probably slightly edges it out in terms of utility with T9 cutting, but theme won the day here. 🙂 

 

Here's the build:

 

Arachnos Widow (Night Widow Training - Widow Teamwork).mbd