Arachnos SOldier Question

[ceto555]

Hiya folks,

 

I'm leveling up an Arachnos Soldier, only level 11 so far. Up to now, his dps is pretty pathetic and I'm considering dropping him. Before I do, I would Like to know id they get better as they level, and if so, which way should I spec for the optimum solo experience.

 

Thanks!

[Adeon Hawkwood]

Their DPS is pretty weak at that level. It increases a lot once you get Venom Grenade and Frag Grenade to supplement Heavy Burst for AoE damage. At high levels they do pretty good damage (AoE for Huntsman and Crab spiders, single target for Bane Spiders).

 

As for your second question there are three general paths for Spiders:

 

Huntsmen focus on the initial Wolf Spider Rifle powers (most use Bane Spider secondary powers to avoid having the giant crab backpack but you can use Crab Spider secondaries instead with no problem). They get good AoE damage and decent single target (although their single target damage relines on a mixed of ranged and melee attacks).

 

Bane Spiders focus on the mace powers in the Bane tree. They have the best single target damage of all three types (mostly melee) but their AoE damage isn't as good. In particular the fact that they can't use venom grenade without suffering double redraw hurts their AoE damage a lot. They play a bit like a Stalker using hide and placate to generate crits.

 

Crab Spiders are relatively similar to Huntsmen except that they use the Crab Spider attacks instead of the Wolf Spider attacks. Their abilities are roughly on par with the Wolf Spider ones although they do have slightly longer animation times so thier DPS is lower at the absolute high end. In theory you're better of going Huntsman rather than Crab even if you want to use the Crab Spider secondary powers but the difference isn't that major and IMHO the Crab Spider powers look cooler.

 

 

[Seroster01]

For a bit of a follow-up, Soldiers can easily be really good at AoE OR really good at ST.  From my experience it's hard-to-impossible to make an optimised character that's strong at both from the soldier chassis, mostly because the good AOE skills are mostly ranged & the good ST skills are mostly melee.  As such, there's a problem with general positioning to make proper use of the AoEs (in addition to just not having enough power slots to go around).

 

My personal experience is mostly with Crabbers, as my favorite toon on live was a relatively well IOd crab.  What inspired me to make him was when I was playing around in Mids & realized he was relatively easy to get soft-capped to all the positionals, had solid resists, AND had a ginormous health pool (with Serum).  Then I delved into it more & realized he could ALSO be a huge force multiplier for a team because the kit is full of AoE -def & -res Debuffs (especially with Leviathan Mastery), and he could run double leadership pools for very sizable group buffs as well.  In the end he was a smorgasbord of group support & AoE DPS, usually capable of wiping out all the minions &  LTs in a pack by himself with a single AOE cycle.  His major weakness was that he wasn't very good at killing bosses & such by himself (the Debuffs still worked on em, so even then he helped group members' DPS quite a bit.) 

 

To give  a frame of reference, he could very easily solo most missions on +2/x8 (going over +2 whole solo almost never efficient because of level disparity shenanigans) but only if I turned solo bosses off.  With bosses on he could still survive easily, but it was very time consuming to kill them.  I eventually decided it was more efficient to keep the bosses off, so as to complete missions in a timely manner. Made for good salvage & recipe farming, if nothing else.

 

ANYWAY, both of the VEATs have a general problem with being relatively late bloomers, but if you can stick with one into the mid 20s their performance will quickly start to ascend towards being some of the most powerful characters available.

[MajikMayhem81]

I just leveled one to 50 after a lot of alts lol.  It was a really fun ride, one of which I encourage you to stick with.  I second venom grenade, since it's a big dps upgrade.  It does considerable damage, and the -res is really what you want.  I'm personally working on acquiring the ios to get perm hasten/pets, but in the mean time I love feeling like I'm an asset to any team with the strong buffs/debuffs I bring to any group.  Also I did the first strike force (forget the name), with 3 other soldiers and our team was softcapped and the avs just melted.  It's one AT that the more you have the merrier.

[Demon Shell]

If you go Crab, get Leviathan Mastery.

 

Arctic Breath/Venom Grenade/Bile Spray is obscene on an AT with more ranged AoE, damage resist, pets, a mini-nuke, a self heal, a measure of mez protection, and the ability to double Assault.

[Seroster01]

If you go Crab, get Leviathan Mastery.

 

Arctic Breath/Venom Grenade/Bile Spray is obscene on an AT with more ranged AoE, damage resist, pets, a mini-nuke, a self heal, a measure of mez protection, and the ability to double Assault.

 

This is basically what I was discussing.  If my crab had better ST attacks he would've been really OP even by CoH standards.  As he was, he was definitely the most impactful character I ever brought to a group.  (Well, maybe my fire/kin core was more impactful, but he spent so much time dead or CCd I labelled him a Professional Floor Inspector...)

[hoodedKitsune]

Hiya folks,

 

I'm leveling up an Arachnos Soldier, only level 11 so far. Up to now, his dps is pretty pathetic and I'm considering dropping him. Before I do, I would Like to know id they get better as they level, and if so, which way should I spec for the optimum solo experience.

 

Thanks!

 

Okay I saw a lot of the post that talk about way later in the game.  I don't know if you are a new player or just new to the AT.  I will just drop my 2 influence in.  Both the Soldier and Widow big change/upgrade is when you hit level 24.  That said I will say leveling the Widow to level 24 is way easier.  Right now my Solder is level 18 and and am trying my best and fastest to get to level 24...but trying to do a few arcs too lol (my own personal thing)

 

That said it's not my first time and I LOVE the Crab Spider!  Hang in there and get to level 24 to which you will be asking the REAL question!  Do I go Crab or Bane!?!?!  That is one I can't answer for you!  Heck I almost wanna make a second Solder just to have a Bane! Wish I could say the same about the Fort on the Widow side by Forts make my eyes bleed!  You think level up a Soldier is painful?  For me it's like someone said, "OKAY! you are level 24 and you have been having a blast up to this point.....how would you like it if we take your toys away and you world have to work your way back up to this in say another 25 levels...or two?"  Meanwhile the Night Widow is winking at me and comes sits next to me and goes, "You wanna take a long walk down a beach with me in the blood of all our enemies and friend alike?".....then my legs go rubbery and I wake up a week later with  a killer hangover.....I think I got too personal there by the point is just stick with it till 24!

[Demon Shell]

 

Okay I saw a lot of the post that talk about way later in the game.  I don't know if you are a new player or just new to the AT.  I will just drop my 2 influence in.  Both the Soldier and Widow big change/upgrade is when you hit level 24.  That said I will say leveling the Widow to level 24 is way easier.  Right now my Solder is level 18 and and am trying my best and fastest to get to level 24...but trying to do a few arcs too lol (my own personal thing)

 

This is a good point.

 

Your starter attack should be Pummel. It doesn't matter what you ultimately intend to be, Pummel is really good at low levels. That 66% chance to stun feels more like it's 80%. It's damage isn't spectacular, but the stun will delay attacks made against you and reduce enemy DPS. It will also suppress enemy buffs, like Ripper's leadership powers. Single Shot is also nice at low levels due to the increased accuracy it has.

 

This is probably obvious but Combat Training: Offensive is especially great early off where you probably have To-Hit issues.

 

As someone else already said, Heavy Burst is a great level 8 choice. And once you get Venom Grenade at 12 the AT opens up and you can see what Soldier is really all about.

 

On a per level basis, I would say:

Level 1 - Pummel

Level 2 - Single Shot

Level 4 - Combat Training: Offensive

Level 6 - Free (Hasten/Combat Training: Defensive/et cetera)

Level 8 - Heavy Burst

Level 10 - Free (Area Wide Grenade/Tactical Training: Maneuvers/et cetera)

Level 12 - Venom Grenade

 

And from there you can go back and start grabbing things you skipped because they weren't as high priority or you didn't have the slots/recharge/endurance to use them effectively the first time around. Assault at 16. Frag Grenade at 18. Mental Training at 22. And before you know it you're 24!

[Vanden]

Your starter attack should be Pummel. It doesn't matter what you ultimately intend to be, Pummel is really good at low levels. That 66% chance to stun feels more like it's 80%. It's damage isn't spectacular, but the stun will delay attacks made against you and reduce enemy DPS. It will also suppress enemy buffs, like Ripper's leadership powers. Single Shot is also nice at low levels due to the increased accuracy it has.

 

Just make sure to get to level 2 before you team with anyone, so nobody sees that you forgot to bring bullets to your first battle.

[ceto555]

Thank you for the replies, I was wondering if only the Crabs get the pets, or do the Huntsmen or Banes get it as well?

[fxds]

Thank you for the replies, I was wondering if only the Crabs get the pets, or do the Huntsmen or Banes get it as well?

 

Short answer:  Banes can get a couple of pets, Crabs can get more.  Huntsmen can get whichever of those two they choose.

 

Longer answer:  The basic Arachnos Soldier Training and Gadgets secondary set includes Call Reinforcements, which summons up two Arachnobot Disruptors.  All Arachnos Soldiers, regardless of build, have access to those pets because you don't lose access to your basic primary and secondary power choices when you respec at 24 and choose between Bane and Crab.  The Crab secondary additionally includes Summon Spiderlings which, as its name suggests, summons up three smaller Spiderling bots.  Obviously only Crabs have access to the Spiderlings.  A Huntsman's choice is, again, ruled by which of those two paths they chose.

 

All four of the Patron Power Pools also include a pet power that summons up a single pet.  Technically any Soldier has access to these (as do most other ATs for that matter) but I don't think most Soldiers aside from the Crabberminds end up taking one.

[Justisaur]

I took the three low level attacks first so I'd have a bit of an attack chain.  Pummel, Burst and Single Shot, and I filled in with Nemesis Staff etc.  It does feel a bit underwhelming, but it does o.k. Venom Grenade is the real big power, so don't skip that.  I'd also think twice about skipping Wide Area Web Grenade as it's got a -50% recharge debuff, which is a pretty huge debuff to incoming attacks on par with defender rech debuffs, and tends to be pretty valuable while leveling before everyone gets good defenses.

 

You have to remember SoAs are a bit of jack of trades, so they don't have the best damage, but it's generally higher than other more support focused ATs,  but they get a lot of control, buffs and debuffs to choose from that fully damaged focused ATs don't have. 

 

You can eventually focus on ST or Area damage (or support) once you get to Bane or Crab and be pretty competent at it, though you'll still never be doing as much as a blaster or stalker.  I love hitting bosses with an executioner's strike (stealth) with shatter and seeing half their health gone.

[Seroster01]

You have to remember SoAs are a bit of jack of trades, so they don't have the best damage, but it's generally higher than other more support focused ATs,  but they get a lot of control, buffs and debuffs to choose from that fully damaged focused ATs don't have. 

 

I'd debate whether pure DPS ATs have more AOE damage than a properly built Crab at least. The other ATd damage per attack is probably a fair amount higher, but the sheer # AOE attacks with low-to-moderate cooldowns that crabber has access to by lvl 50 means they can have an almost continuous attack chain of cones & targeted AOE, which is full of -def & -res effects.  The combination of the sheer volume of attacks & their debuffs makes it hard for other ATs to put out the same level of continuous AoE damage & then makes your groups' AoE that much more effective.