A Newbie's impressions of soloing with XEATs

[Vedic70]

Okay, so this is not an impression of what HEATs and VEATs are like at endgame as I have no idea about endgame (my highest level characters are lvl 47 (Necro/Dark MM) and a level 41 Night Widow) but just my new player impressions of what it was like getting the XEATs up to mid levels. 

 

I'm also new to CoH (three months or so of playing with no prior experience), don't have rich alts and have only been equipping with what I could get by buying special salvage with reward merits and selling them on the AH so, if you're also new, the circumstances of my experience would be similar to yours.

 

Also, with the exception of a Death From Below run once for each of the Kheldian archetypes, I soloed all of the XEATs to at least level 24.

 

The first thing to note is that, overall, the experience is pretty painful. You're less effective than a straight out archetype soloing and it shows. From least painful to most painful my experience was:

 

1. Arachnos soldier

2. Peacebringer 

3. War shade; and 

4. Blood Widow.

 

After Arachnos Soldier it was a steep fall-off for me. The reason why is because Arachnos Soldier has Wide Area Web Grenade and ranged attacks (especially Heavy Burst). Peacebringer and War shade were pretty painful with Peacebringer having a more reliable self heal with Dwarf form than War shade. Blood Widow was like putting bamboo shards under my fingertips at times due to the single target no stealth melee (and mediocre melee) damage at low levels.

 

However, it gets much better. For example, I found Night Widow to be my favourite playstyle as soon as I hit levels 24 to 26. Things die fast, you feel like you can actually handle mobs and, if you like stalker, it feels smoother to me since there isn't a wind up time for my hardest hitting attack from stealth.

 

For the Kheldians, they were also super painful until level 20 (when they get Dwarf form) because of Quantum Gunners. If you've ever read 'I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream' the hate that AE feels is comparable to the hate I had of Quantum Gunners until I had Dwarf form. Then they became more manageable. After level 20 I find both archetypes comparable in fun with Peacebringer being more consistent  with healing and survivability at mid levels but Warshades can hold a target and blow up corpses. After leveling up to 20 one of my favourite things with my Warshade is to hold Quantum Gunners, use them as a target dummy, and then blow up their corpse. No, I'm not salty at all.

 

Arachnos Soldier gives a big bump at lvl 24 (I went Crab myself) but, honestly, it was already head and shoulders above the other three to begin with although my personal preference is for my Night Widow after level 24. 

 

For solo levelling I found the following Power Pools to really help:

1. Kheldians: Concealment. Why? To sneak up on Quantum Gunners and scout where they are so a missed one doesn't make you faceplant right away. From what I've read I'll need the extra DEF powers for a LOTG anyway once I can get Light Form, etc

2. Blood Widows: Fighting. I respecced out of it as Night Widow as I didn't need anything from there and Night Widow has some really good powers but, as a Blood Widow, my attacks felt weak and my defenses almost non-existent. Fighting provided some defense and some very necessary crowd control. 

3. My Arachnos Soldier didn't really need anything but I took Field Medic to cut down on my downtime anyway.

 

And, for all of course, Hasten. Hasten makes a huge difference.

 

For the design I find the HEATs kind of odd. I love shape shifting classes in other games but I kind of struggle figuring out what the HEATs bring here. For the VEATs I can, with Maneuvers and Assault from Leadership, bring +30% damage, extra ToHit and enough group DEF to make sure everyone should be soft capped with positionals at higher levels but I don't see what HEATs bring to a group. Sure, the group makes the HEATs stronger at a role but the HEAT doesn't bring anything to the other members. If you're planning for task forces I can definitely see why a VEAT is a great offensive support but I don't see what the HEAT brings. I understand they're being looked at so hopefully that's taken into account and there is a group friendly change to help give them a niche.

 

As well, HEATs need more work to set up as one of the things you'll want to do is set up and keybind a macro to shift forms at a moment's notice. The VEATs require less prep. 

 

If you're also a newbie I would say try the XEATs until mid 20s to decide if you like them or not. And, unless you're a masochist, I would suggest grouping up to get to those levels instead of soloing. A group takes care of a lot of the issues I mentioned above.

 

Anyway, I hope you found the above helpful and good luck to you with your XEATs.

Edited Monday at 04:39 PM by Vedic70

[KaizenSoze]

Sounds about right. Leveling widows unless you using a lot of temp buffs is painful.

 

Low hp, weak damage, not enough resists or defense, and serious endurance issues.

 

Soldiers are much easier, especially after the buffs.

[Doomguide2005]

     They owe some of their difficulty to the fact when originally created and added to the game you had to have reached level 50 on a character.  You were presumed to be a seasoned player.  Further especially with "HEATs", they've been around longer, I believe, than IOs and set enhancements with all the potential baggage associated with being an old AT and the presumptions of game play in those times.  I ran into my first Kheldian characters on my first ever character in i3 while in the Hollows.  I'm no expert but they are not much different from a Khelds from that era in terms of powers etc..  The game has changed vastly from those days.

[RCU7115]

I found Widows to be easier than Soldiers when soloing. The Widows Dart  does the same damage as a Soldiers Heavy Burst, but cost less end and recharges faster. Widows have DDR (not much),  get access to KB protection while Soldiers have no DDR and have no KB protection  which takes 3 slots just to cover that hole. 

  I took Stealth from the concealment pool at 4th level for both. The Widow is able to run with sprint and ninja run 50-60% of the time. A solder can not, they'll be out of end after the first or second fight with a mob of only 3.

   The devs should have made the Pain Tolerance power either a Superior Conditioning or Physical Perfection power instead. Either power would've fixed the end problem for either AT and allow a better recovery on HP and Endurance if you put a Power Transfer Heal Proc % and Performance Shifter Proc %.

   HEAT's just need mez protection early on without having to force you to take Dwarf form for the protection at level 20 while Tanks, Scraps and brutes get it by level 12 I believe.

 

 

[Scarlet Shocker]

Personally I found Widows really difficult, but on live I made an Arachnos Soldier and I went middle path, basically a Bane Spider and he rocked a sea of orange numbers. I've recreated him on HC and he's still good - but I think XEATS are rather overshadowed by the powers creep we've seen in game over the last decade

 

They aren't bad, they're just left behind but bringing them up to date makes the spiral worse.

[KaizenSoze]

1 hour ago, Scarlet Shocker said:

Personally I found Widows really difficult, but on live I made an Arachnos Soldier and I went middle path, basically a Bane Spider and he rocked a sea of orange numbers. I've recreated him on HC and he's still good - but I think XEATS are rather overshadowed by the powers creep we've seen in game over the last decade

 

They aren't bad, they're just left behind but bringing them up to date makes the spiral worse.

 Night Window are really good now. Just leveling them sucks. Once they are built out they rock 1-50.

 Banes are also much better now due to the updates.

 Fort are just as strong as they always were. Easier to level due to have better ranged options.

 Crab are the ones I cannot get my head round.

 

 I think VEATs are in a great spot. Just not popular due to the player base not understanding them.

[Scarlet Shocker]

6 hours ago, KaizenSoze said:

 Night Window are really good now. Just leveling them sucks. Once they are built out they rock 1-50.

 Banes are also much better now due to the updates.

 Fort are just as strong as they always were. Easier to level due to have better ranged options.

 Crab are the ones I cannot get my head round.

 

 I think VEATs are in a great spot. Just not popular due to the player base not understanding them.

 

I did recently get a Night Widow to 50 and I mostly hated it even with a supposedly "good" build.

 

Again, strength of the game - it has something to appeal to everyone!

[hoodedKitsune]

It's so strange to me. I have always found leveling a widow to level 24 to be a blast. yet so many people say it's a pain.  That said I am on the other side of leveling  SoA.  OOOOMG leveling a SoA is SO PAINFUL to me! You get all these attacks/powers that you would think, "SWEET I am about to run though this map so hard" only for me to be resting after the second group 5mins later wondering why my attack feel like an AoE and cone of wet noodles while my End is giving me the cold shoulder and talking about how it's time we start see other people, and me begging my end that I can change...it never works out....wait what were we talking abut again???....stupid Stamina...I had a ring with +Endurance in my back pocket....why couldn't you simply wait till you were 21?!

 

I haven't done the Peacebringer and Warshade in a long time.  All I remember is people being mad at me because 99% of stuff with flying on my PB no matter what I did (was before IOs) and I remember my Warshade being stupid crazy powerful and fun, but it was such PAINFUL getting there that I am pretty much a "never again" thing to this day. Just feels like way more work than I am willing to put in just to get back to that point.  I am also stuck now days wondering if I was a fool back on live servers when it comes to the Night Widow and the Fort.  I simply remember trying the Fort and thinking, "Wow this sucks!" only to now be like, "I AM HAVING THE TIME OF MY LIFE!!!!"

[VortexMaster]

Thank you for your Interesting perspective, if anyone is ever looking for help or ideas fo builds/playstyle with VEATS, There is a chat channel for all things VEATS, called the Victorious VEATs. WE run all VEAT teams and related Redsider content on Excelsior. We have been gathering together as many VEATs together as we can! We do everything from all lvl Mayhem missions, Kill Most Strike/Task Forces, to Advanced mode runs 1-4 Star. In addition we also do Incarnate trials with all VEAT Leagues! 

 

Personally I have 5 lvl 50 VEATs, some with multiple builds, and have been a big fan of them since live! My personal favorite is my Fortunata Widow, He is super tough and mez resist/protected, and good range damage and good Mez. Of course also the great leaderships of VEATs and Mind Link to help buff teams!

 

If you are not aware Homecoming made some awesome changes to VEATs in Issue 27 Page 7, scroll most of the way down and you will find the changes!

 

Finally every Sunday at 8PM Eastern (Excelsior Server) we participate in all VEAT/HEAT Events with the HEATs through the Unity Alliance. 

We do I-trials, Labyrinth, Mothership Raids. Those are run by @Laucianna and @Zaldra5  

 

Power in Unity! for Arachnos and The Unity Alliance! 

Edited Wednesday at 09:45 PM by VortexMaster
Typo

[Laucianna]

On 6/18/2025 at 6:51 PM, VortexMaster said:

Thank you for your Interesting perspective, if anyone is ever looking for help or ideas fo builds/playstyle with VEATS, There is a chat channel for all things VEATS, called the Victorious VEATs. WE run all VEAT teams and related Redsider content on Excelsior. We have been gathering together as many VEATs together as we can! We do everything from all lvl Mayhem missions, Kill Most Strike/Task Forces, to Advanced mode runs 1-4 Star. In addition we also do Incarnate trials with all VEAT Leagues! 

 

Personally I have 5 lvl 50 VEATs, some with multiple builds, and have been a big fan of them since live! My personal favorite is my Fortunata Widow, He is super tough and mez resist/protected, and good range damage and good Mez. Of course also the great leaderships of VEATs and Mind Link to help buff teams!

 

If you are not aware Homecoming made some awesome changes to VEATs in Issue 27 Page 7, scroll most of the way down and you will find the changes!

 

Finally every Sunday at 8PM Eastern (Excelsior Server) we participate in all VEAT/HEAT Events with the HEATs through the Unity Alliance. 

We do I-trials, Labyrinth, Mothership Raids. Those are run by @Laucianna and @Zaldra5  

 

Power in Unity! for Arachnos and The Unity Alliance! 

Power in Unity! 💛