What do the VEATs play like?

[molten_dragon]

Since I found Homecoming I've been trying out as many new characters and powersets that I never got around to trying on live as I can.  I never did much more than toy around with VEATs and am interested in trying one out.  Can someone more experienced share what the playstyles are like for the various options?  Just trying to get a feel for what I might enjoy most.

[Pyro Technix]

I've only played a Widow to 50, but they are very flexible. The Night Widow plays a lot like a claws/Sr scrapper but with team buffing. Fortunata can use the claws attacks or have a fully ranged build. I currently have two builds, a ranged Fortunata and a melee Fortunata. I mostly play the melee now. I have a very strong claws single target chain, a psychic nuke, Aoe confuse and Aoe hold (both have long recharge), and an Aoe attack chain, plus my team buffing powers. I've got it all purpled out now and love playing it. I've got perma mind-link, over 59% defense to all positions. It's very versatile, I can absorb most alphas, destroy hard single targets and waste large spawns, all while boosting my teams defense, tohit and damage and offering a fair amount of control. The only downsides I see for widows is they are pure defense (no resists, low hp, no regen), high end usage, and Fort ranged damage is not that great. 

[TheAdjustor]

Stalkers/Masterminds/Aoe Blasters/Tanks/Defenders and all very well.

[Ibarra]

Bane Spiders are basically great at single-target damage, pretty much like Stalkers.
Crab Spiders relish in AoE and are more team-oriented, the VEATs in general can apply very good leadership buffs that help out the entire team. I don't play Widows/Fortunatas so that'll be up to others to clarify.

[Justisaur]

VEATS are Jacks of all Trades, but unlike most Jacks of all Trades they're Masters of all, well really a few they choose to foucs on.    Their closest analog would be corruptor - with a side of melee on some, and enough defenses to be equal to a stalker or scrapper in toughness if they so choose.

 

My current main is a Bane, tough melee support with stealth, has o.k. damage, but has a lot of -resist, and can still toss off ranged and melee aoe,  but that's because that's the way I built mine.  It's extremely effective, and does o.k. solo and can take AVs due to all the -resist (soloed mender silos arc with 13 hereos to fight at +2) it can do +4/x8 s/l AE farms, but really slowly.  I can solo cysts on +4 ITFs. I do best on teams though where all that -resist is leveraged, and all the other teammates get huge bonus to defense and decent damage and to hit bonuses just from my presence.  One of the things I love about it is that you get to do most if not all of your support while still doing damage, all your auras are toggles, so no need to hit people with click armor abilities, select someone to buff, etc.   2 of my 3 -resist powers also do decent damage, while also having additional debuffs innately or from procs.

 

With over 50 alts, I haven't found a single one that begins to compare.

 

I had a 50 Night Widow on live, I was never really super into, but was a nice relaxing time when I felt like playing her or my SG could use a NW instead of my Kin or Brute.   I played her as more of a dart expert with a side of melee than the typical NW build. 

 

I've mentioned before that while you don't always feel like you're contributing an awful lot, you'll find that things almost always go smoothly for you and groups when you're along, you're lucky.  Only it's not luck, but that's what it feels like.

 

The Ultimate Support Bane thread has my build in it, it's slightly outdated from what I currently have, and I've gone a bit more into damage than I originally intended, but unlike many others you can do good support with good damage.

Edited September 5, 2019 by Justisaur

[Shockacon]

I made the mistake of leveling my night widow to 50, then going back and playing with others. Oh, how the NW spoiled me... I tried a remake of my first 50 back in the day, a blaster, and lamented that I couldn't blast and kill fast enough. Then I tried Titan Weapons, Savage Melee, even Dual Blades and an Electric/Shield combo at one point... nothing made me as happy as the slice and dice action of that NW. On the original game, I 50'd a NW quicker than the others I had, even without teaming much. I enjoy my other toons, make no mistake about that, but for my money, nothing else seemed to have the same feel as a Night Widow. IMy old Crab Spider came close but since someone snatched my old name before I could I've been lazy leveling it while lamenting the name loss (ridiculous reasoning I admit). 

[biostem]

On 9/5/2019 at 3:54 PM, molten_dragon said:

Since I found Homecoming I've been trying out as many new characters and powersets that I never got around to trying on live as I can.  I never did much more than toy around with VEATs and am interested in trying one out.  Can someone more experienced share what the playstyles are like for the various options?  Just trying to get a feel for what I might enjoy most.

So unlike other ATs, you have your initial build and a limited set of powers to choose from, then you select 1 of 2 paths at level 24.  Widows get to pick between Night Widows (think stalker with extra tools at their disposal), or Fortunatas, (kind of like a psychic blaster/controller).  The soldiers can choose between being a Bane Spider, (kind of a stalker again), or a Crab Spider, (use the spider claw backpack for lots of AoE and such, but still have good defenses).  I find both VEATs a bit of a slog early on, but they do get some cool powers.  It's definitely worth giving them a try...

 

Here and here are some sources you may find useful.

Edited September 7, 2019 by biostem

[Magimaster]

On 9/5/2019 at 3:54 PM, molten_dragon said:

Since I found Homecoming I've been trying out as many new characters and powersets that I never got around to trying on live as I can.  I never did much more than toy around with VEATs and am interested in trying one out.  Can someone more experienced share what the playstyles are like for the various options?  Just trying to get a feel for what I might enjoy most.

The VEATS theme is that they bring signifigant boost to the rest of the team, mainly via the fact that they have their own set of Leadership toggles that they can stack with the Leadership pool; which allows them to provide a powerful boost to the whole team's defense and offense while still being able to dish out the damage.

 

As far as breaking down each spec:

 

Arachnos Soldiers:

 

Soldiers start out as Wolf Spiders, who use a standard Arachnos Rifle with a mix of gun and grenade attacks.  At level 24, you can then pick to specialize as either a Crab Spider or Bane Spider:

 

Crab Spiders utilize the Crab Backpack and a focus towards AoE attacks.  They couple that with solid defenses, a heal/hp buff, and pet summons.  A well built Crab Solider is a tanky mid/close range AoE beast, who can use the pet summons to help supplement their average single target damage.

 

Bane Spiders use the Arachnos Mace with a focus towards strong single target melee.  They have a stealth toggle which allows them to gain a potential crit from stealth like a stalker and also bring solid defense/resistance debuff attacks.  A well built Bane Spider is a powerful Stalker-like melee who can bring solid buffs to keep his fellow melee alive but also debuff priority targets easily.

 

Arachnos Widows:

 

Widows start out with a mix of melee/ranged claw attacks.  At level 24, you can then pick to specialize as either a Fortunata or Night Widow:

 

Fortunata's are able to pickup a whole set of ranged psychic attacks, all of which have some form of CC built into each attack.  They also gain a stealth toggle; both a single target and AoE Confuse; and a strong Team ACC buff which also gives the Widow even more +DEF and a huge chunck of PSI resist.  A well Built Fortunata is a strong hybrid PSI Blaster/Controller, who also provides strong team buffs and very strong self defenses as well.

 

Night Widows pickup even more claw attacks, along with a small amount of PSI ranged attacks.  They too also gain a stealth toggle, but theirs allows for them to crit out of stealth like a stalker. A well built Night Widow is a strong Stalker-like claw melee class, with strong self and team defenses.

[Frostweaver]

I would like to make a special mention for Wolf spider Huntsman. a special build that takes bane spider armors and buildup, but relies on Soldier aoe and ranged attacks.

They are not the mastermind/sentinel cross that crab spiders become, nor the semi-stalkers that are bane spiders. Instead, they play much more like... an assault rifle/radiation corrupter, only with slightly more damage, sentinel-level armor, and no heals.

They are a very powerful build style and loads of fun to play.

[Steampunkette]

Bane Spider: Team-Buffing Stalker with a Mace and Pets

Crab Spider: Team-Buffing Blaster with Pets and Defensiveness

Huntman: Team Buffing Blaster with Pets

 

Night Widow: Stalker with Psi Blast options and Team Buffs

Blood Widow (Fortunata Build): Claw Scrapper with Psi Blast options and Team Buffs

Fortunata: Psionic Sentinel with Team Buffs

 

[Rikmach]

Super-simple summary is "Can do a little of everything, and can be very good at one thing if you focus on it."

[Chuckers]

I have a crab and my friend has a widow... when we team, we are nigh unstoppable. It's pretty great because all the leadership buffs stack between the two. With my crab, I did have to get a proc (Miracle chance for end, I believe) to help make him not suck wind during a fight. 

[gameboy1234]

Forts play like a Psi Sentinel with team buffs.  If mind link is permanent then they have very good team buffs.

 

Night Widows plays like scrapper with built-in +recharge, some stalker-ish capability, psi damage if you really want it, and team buffs.  They usually have better team buffs than Forts due to Mind Link having a shorter recharge time and the built-in recharge, really easy to get permanent for them.

[Ry]

VEATs are honestly one of the best ATs in the game, I'd say Soldier more than Widow overall, but when you get a bunch of VEATs together? With all their buffs?

 

Nothing can stop you.

 

 

Nothing.

[Steampunkette]

Back on live, I had a character named Longfang Vasquez as a Crab in a squad of Arachnos Characters. Huntsman Russeau, Widow Gettes, Bane Thompson. You get the idea.

 

We steamrolled every piece of content in the game outside of Empowered Reichsman and the DE. "DE?!" I hear you cry in confusion and alarm... Yes. DE. Because the ToHit bonus they get from multiple Quartz Emanators makes any level of Defense completely meaningless! MEANINGLESS I TELL YOU! We'd have to actually -fight- the DE like normal characters, more or less, specifically targeting Crystals in the opening volley... THEN we would Steamroll them.

 

You get 2-3 VEATs on a team and they become nigh unstoppable, though. Put together a 6-Man Band with every build variant represented (Night Widow, Blood Widow, Fortunata, Huntsman, Crab Spider, Bane Spider) and you'll never stop killing... but your Fortunata is gonna cry 'cause their Controls mean jack shit. Everything's dead too fast for it to matter and their AoEs are SO SLOW.

Edited November 16, 2019 by Steampunkette

[Gulbasaur]

24 minutes ago, Steampunkette said:

Fortunata is gonna cry 'cause their Controls mean jack shit. Everything's dead too fast for it to matter and their AoEs are SO SLOW.

I've found that only to be true in tank-and-spank groups, but that's a problem with control sets generally. In those circumstances, I go into scrapperlock on my fortunata because there's very little they can't solo - "you seven take down this spawn, I'll get that one over there" is a valid fortunata playstyle. I'd actually argue that Night Widows are the weaker one... after the one opening crit, they're just budget scrappers.

[Steampunkette]

15 minutes ago, Gulbasaur said:

I've found that only to be true in tank-and-spank groups, but that's a problem with control sets generally. In those circumstances, I go into scrapperlock on my fortunata because there's very little they can't solo - "you seven take down this spawn, I'll get that one over there" is a valid fortunata playstyle. I'd actually argue that Night Widows are the weaker one... after the one opening crit, they're just budget scrappers.

Oh, no doubt! For my Fortunata I went Psychic rather than Melee (Because I hate myself) and when everyone else is dead she's just there. Fighting. 'Til people rez, the enemy is dead, or the cows come home.

 

But the 6-Man Band is a Spank and Spank, not Tank n' Spank. With 6 Tactical Training: Assault powers and hopefully 6 regular old Assault powers you're firing off 180% increased damage without build up/aim/follow up. And with just Tactical Training: Maneuvers from everyone in the group you're at 67% Defense to Everything.

 

Okay that's not true. Widows, by default, are going to have 7.5% more melee defense if they don't slot it (And up to 10% more melee defense if they -do- choose to slot it)

 

And with Crab, Bane, and Huntsman pets in play also all getting 180% Damage buffing and 67% Defense Buffing... Plus Incarnate Pets and possibly 6 Epic Power Pool Pets...

 

Nothing stands around long enough to "Tank". Especially once the Bane and Huntsman toss out Surveillance on Bosses and the Crab opens up with a Venom Grenade.

 

AVs will still be standing, typically... But no one has any taunt mechanics because you don't -need- them. You just throw out all of the damage in the world with great accuracy and significant debuffs.

 

Spank n' Spank. It's what's for Arachnos!

[Steampunkette]

.... just writing that last post makes me want to get an 8-man Arachnoteam together to just steamroll everything. Constant 240% Damage Bonus, 120% Defense to all positions (If it's all Soldiers), All Crabberminds with Epic Pool Pets and Incarnate Pets....

 

Gnnn... the devastation....

[Williwaw]

Just one note about Soldiers: The basic Training and Gadgets secondary set has the Call Reinforcements power, which summons two Arachnobot Disruptors, so regardless of whether you go Crab, Bane, or "Huntsman", you can choose to summon those.  The Crab Spider Training secondary set has an additional pet power, Summon Spiderlings.  (And then if you take a Patron Power Pool, you can get a third pet power)

[Shockacon]

Ahhhhh... such fond memories of rolling on those all-VEAT teams... almost felt like we were running on cheat codes most of the time or Lord Recluse had sent us his own Order 66 and instead of Jedi, it was any other villain group in the Rogue Isles... but if Arachnos was in the way it was their fault. Good times... Night Widows and Fortunatas and Crab Spiders and Bane! Oh my! I really should finish leveling up my Crab Spider...

[Steampunkette]

At this point in the game's life a team of 8 Crabberminds could each have 5 core pets, 1 EPP pet, and 2 Incarnate Pets.

 

With Assault, TT:A, and TT:M all fully slotted, that's 64 pets with 240% damage and 120% defense to all vectors.

 

That's just disgustingly OP...

[Tigress]

 

4 minutes ago, Steampunkette said:

That's just disgustingly OP...

And fun! 😉