Soldier or widow?

[Alpha Man]

Hi I'm looking to start either a soldier or widow.

 

I am looking for meta builds for both and influence is no object. I know a few people in the community have an opinion on what is the "best" build for both.

[KaizenSoze]

2 hours ago, Alpha Man said:

Hi I'm looking to start either a soldier or widow.

 

I am looking for meta builds for both and influence is no object. I know a few people in the community have an opinion on what is the "best" build for both.

 Are you looking for mostly melee or ranged?

[Alpha Man]

16 hours ago, KaizenSoze said:

 Are you looking for mostly melee or ranged?

Either one honestly. Both lol

[KaizenSoze]

56 minutes ago, Alpha Man said:

Either one honestly. Both lol

There is actually a multiple varieties. If one catches your fancy. Ask for specifics.

 

Fort melee/range hybrid. Scrapper/controller with a nuke.

Night Widow melee with a bit of ranged. Stalker/Tank/Support. Tied with Banes for the fastest placate recharge in the game.

Crabbermind: Ranged with pets. Mastermind/Lite tank with uncontrollable pets. If you can keep the pets alive you are a damage god, but it's hard to keep them alive.

Huntsmen(Bane or Crab): Ranged/debuffer/support/controller. They do have melee attacks, but ranged IMO is their sweet spot. They are great at immobilizing mobs.

Banes: Melee, but with good ranged. Stalker/Debuffs/Support

 

[tidge]

19 hours ago, Alpha Man said:

Hi I'm looking to start either a soldier or widow.

 

I am looking for meta builds for both and influence is no object. I know a few people in the community have an opinion on what is the "best" build for both.

 

You get 3 builds for each character. The only subtle issue is that for a VEAT character that picks "Crab", all builds will be stuck with the Crab backpack.

 

My personal preference is a Huntsman/Bane, but I used to take my body-swapping Fortunata/Widow through a LOT of crazy content. I preferred the Fortunata (despite it's reliance on Psi and Epic attacks) because of the extra amount of controls I baked into it.

 

The most annoying to play for me was a Crabbermind. It was a fun proof-of-concept but I found it to perform at a lower level than a Hunstbane.

[Linea]

I have so many builds for each ... I'm currently running two MOMA huntsman builds to herd little ducklings.

Crab - MOMAS 1f+ - Incarnate - [i28].mbd  - Mostly just run this one, mostly running KW missions.

Crab - MOMAS 1b - Leadership - [i28].mbd - Sometimes alt to this one for malfactoring

Crab - MOMAS 1d - Medic -[i28].mbd - Not currently running this one.

And two Mind Hunter builds for Forts

Fortunata - Mind Hunter 1c+ - [i28].mbd - Ranged Control  (Needs rebuilding for i28)

Fortunata - Mind Hunter Melee 2a+ - [i28].mbd - Melee, more damage, minimal Control (Needs rebuilding for i28)

And I have dozens more ... VEATS are so versatile.

Edited Friday at 05:35 PM by Linea

[Troo]

I didn't even look but take @Linea's and run away happy you got em!

[Linea]

On 10/10/2025 at 1:53 PM, Troo said:

I didn't even look but take @Linea's and run away happy you got em!

That depends.  If you want full offense none of my builds are those builds.  I build with an emphasis on armor and solo play with usually just barely enough offense to solo a +4x8 ITF once fully Tier 4 Incarnated.

 

These particular builds are concept builds.  Still heavily armored, but concept none the less.  Which means I might at times do something completely silly with them, just because.   

 

The Crab was meant to herd teams.  Grab some stun grenades to use with the Immob for a psuedo hold.  Lock down wide areas, debuff and blast them, while herding and buffing the ducklings behind you.  Offense is neither good nor bad, but the versatility and durability are pretty good, and it has moderate defense buffs, and double tactics for good to-hit buffs for team-mates running SOs vs deep purple.

 

The Fort is armored and meant to hunt psionics.  Also, the Fort builds were better before various proc adjustments.  Once upon a time, the procs were effectively 95% guaranteed to lockdown entire spawns.  You'd rotate through them for a huge amount of control.  Still good, but I'd have to test them extensively and rebuild them for i28.