airhead

Blood Widow Sniper Guide to Level 50 - this guide explains how a Widow might successfully focus on ranged attacks for a different play style.

I thought they said it is dietary? Eating too much vanilla yoghurt?

Edit: Nope, I heard wrong. Villain Yoga. An incarnate power from the Nirvana slot.

Blood Widow Sniper Guide to Level 50

Perhaps this sounds a little ludicrous. Blood Widow is the powerset available to Widows only until level 24. After that, you evolve into a Night Widow or Fortunata. The Widow itself is generally considered a stalker/melee archetype - it has crits when invisible and higher defense in melee, and only a few largely unpopular ranged attacks. On the other hand, Wolf and Crab Spiders overachieve at ranged combat. In any case, sniper attacks just don't work.

But no, you're stubborn or dyslexic, and you want a 'widow sniper'. So let's see how that works out for you:

Motivations

1. You want a solo sniper that doesn't get wiped by the mob's return fire. You could go with holds, but how heroic is that? Your assaults may be pre-meditated, but shooting that cute, helpless, twitching Freakshow feels wrong. Widows on the other hand are built to enjoy a little payback - pain is defense! It's like Excelsior shots all around.
   
2. You still want to be useful. Sure, you're a sniper, but once you've taken your shot it's up to the team to finish the mob off around the guy you wounded a little bit. Widows have loads of team buffs!
   
3. Maybe you want to roleplay a hero. Okay, so you start out in Arachnos, but that shouldn't stop you from slaughtering in the name of the blue team. That puts you in Paragon City around level 20. Where would you ever find an Arachnos trainer for those 'Fortunata' and 'Night Widow' skills? Well, aside from PvP zones, missions and fellow players. Um. Sticking with our initiate Blood Widow makes perfect sense!
   
4. You probably imagine having a superhero who fires lots of darts. Not Bullseye™, single shot kill, but a whole murder of darts. No doubt your character concept has him firing those darts from a dual-purpose set of custom bagpipes, to the tune of Amazing Grace, but while the developers complete your costume and music options you still want to practice. Widows have more dart attacks than anyone else!
   
5. You're an individual. We all are. All those Widow guides out there dismiss the ranged attacks out of hand. You just know there's got to be a reason for them, developers aren't idiots. And it's your job to prove it.

I trust we're now sufficiently inspired to give this a try.

Build Philosophy

The ranged attacks of a Blood Widow are just Dart and Dart Burst. Night Widow (or Fortunata) adds Mental Attack. The first two are obvious picks. Mental Attack can be useful from time to time against opponents with unreasonable levels of defence, but it animates and travels very slowly. If we focus on just Darts we will need a LOT of recharge. We can aim for 'perma-hasten'. Apologies for the fiery-hands-of-doom animations that turn your screenshots into screenshat. Maybe someday they will fix that.

Now, of course we do not ignore the extra powers available after the level 24 respec. We could even consider adding Fortunata attacks in a ranged chain at higher levels, reducing the emphasis on recharge. This would lock out the 20% recharge from Night Widow 'Mental Training', but we don't need that to complete the attack chain. That leads to a classic Fortunata build, not where we’re going. We decide instead to maximise recharge to make the most of the ranged damage boost (Build Up for Widows, Aim for Fortunatas) - the classic sniper method. Pushing recharge as far as possible we get a darts-only attack chain with a fair bit of near-double-damage. It provides a mix of a single target attack and a cone effect, probably with some gaps in the chain at lower levels that allow some time to better position for the cone. Further tactics are described below.

We can still pile on lots of defence. Then more damage. Loosely, the philosophy prioritises for Darts/Recharge/Defence/Damage. Team buffs become a side effect of this. We will run with all the buffs we can, so endurance reduction becomes critical.

Build Example

From level 6 we have both Dart and Dart Burst. From level 8 it's quicker with Hasten, and from level 24 (or level 18 exemplared after respec) we do more damage with Build Up. At level 25 we start accumulating LotG global speed, and Mask Presence makes positioning to snipe much easier at level 28. Throughout our growth we're accumulating self- and team-buffs.

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.952 http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

The core powers

This example character grabs all the powers he can to make his dart sniping work, plus some defense. Mental Blast is in there early on as the only other choices were melee. The Leadership Pool power Leadership has not been added, and I take Combat Training: Offensive later on. Either of these could replace another Leadership Pool power or add to these, if you find you aren’t hitting enough. I’ve only found that to be critical with Malta Sappers.

The omitted melee powers are: Swipe, Strike, Spin, Lunge. I’ve also omitted the taunt, Confront. Without melee plans (no critical hits) I omitted Placate. Also Tactical Training: Vengeance and Elude. Clearly I’m specializing, and some of these powers might be considered, perhaps during the later optional powers discussion. To keep it simple I specialized before taking supplemental stuff.

Itchy Bitchy Sniper: Level 50 Natural Arachnos Widow
Primary: Night Widow Training; Secondary: Widow Teamwork; Power Pools: Speed, Leadership, Teleportation; Ancillary Pool: Mu Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Poison Dart -- Entrpc-Acc/Dmg(A), Entrpc-Dmg/EndRdx(3), Entrpc-Dmg/Rchg(3), Entrpc-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(5), Entrpc-Heal%(5), EndRdx-I(7)
Level 1: Combat Training: Defensive -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
Level 2: Mental Blast -- Entrpc-Acc/Dmg(A), Entrpc-Dmg/EndRdx(42), Entrpc-Dmg/Rchg(42), Entrpc-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(43), Entrpc-Heal%(43)
Level 4: Tactical Training: Maneuvers -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx(25), RedFtn-EndRdx(31), RedFtn-EndRdx/Rchg(31), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(33), RedFtn-Def(34)
Level 6: Dart Burst -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(13), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(13), EndRdx-I(15), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(15), Posi-Dam%(17)
Level 8: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(9), RechRdx-I(9)
Level 10: Indomitable Will -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(A), EndRdx-I(29), EndRdx-I(29)
Level 12: Maneuvers -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), RedFtn-Def/Rchg(19), RedFtn-EndRdx(19), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(21), RedFtn-Def(21), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx(23)
Level 14: Build Up -- AdjTgt-Rchg(A), AdjTgt-ToHit/Rchg(17), AdjTgt-ToHit/EndRdx/Rchg(34), AdjTgt-EndRdx/Rchg(34), AdjTgt-ToHit/EndRdx(33)
Level 16: Tactical Training: Assault -- EndRdx-I(A), EndRdx-I(25), EndRdx-I(37)
Level 18: Assault -- EndRdx-I(A), EndRdx-I(27), EndRdx-I(27)
Level 20: Tactical Training: Leadership -- Rec'dRet-Pcptn(A), EndRdx-I(40)
Level 22: Mental Training -- Run-I(A)
Level 24: Foresight -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
Level 26: Mind Link -- AdjTgt-ToHit(A), AdjTgt-ToHit/Rchg(31), AdjTgt-ToHit/EndRdx/Rchg(33), AdjTgt-EndRdx/Rchg(36), AdjTgt-ToHit/EndRdx(36)
Level 28: Mask Presence -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx(36), RedFtn-EndRdx(37), RedFtn-EndRdx/Rchg(37), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(39), RedFtn-Def(39)

That completes the primary combat functions.

It includes 171.25% recharge when fully slotted:
70%: Hasten
20%: Mental Training
5 x 7.5%: 5 Luck of the Gambler global recharge
3 x 6.25%: 2 Entropic Chaos 5-sets, Positron’s Blast 5-set
5 x 5%: 3 Red Fortune 5-sets, 2 Adjusted Targeting 5-sets
Luck of the Gambler is ridiculously expensive in the market. However for two Hero or Villain merits you can buy one at the level of your choice (level 25 exemplars the most, with very minor loss of defence). That is a cost of just four days’ tip missions each – less any alignment merits you gather from the Who Will Die arcs. Be careful to select the level before buying the recipe. And you can only shop with alignment merits once per day, so buy as you go. If there is a negative to this route, it is that your missions will eventually get repetitive and you might rapidly out-level other content that you wanted to try. You can switch off xp under Options if this is a real worry.

The other powers

Next I chose some travel powers to add some more Ranged Defense through Blessing of the Zephyr IO pairs. For regular travel I use Ninja Run and Sprint, so any travel powers that slot would suffice.

Lastly I added some powers that could hold purple sets. It depends how much you play at level 50 whether these will be accumulated –you start out slotting Positron’s Blast, Entropic Chaos and Basilisk’s Gaze instead. If you do get purple sets they could be placed in, say, the Dart powers, and the IOs there moved over here. Electrifying Fences requires a Patron but it is a convenient place to put a Gravitational Anchor set, the “cheapest” purple set (defined as “selling a costly purple buys you three cheap purples”).

Alternative to either of these additional ‘bunches’ of powers, you could consider:

• Accumulate Fighting Pool powers, for additional defence and resistance. This build is not capped in the mid-levels.
• Accumulate Medicine Pool powers, for the security of Heal Self. I miss this sometimes in my build, but I enjoy the extra stress.
• Accumulate Presence Pool powers, as a place to slot a Fear IO Set on Intimidate. I’d imagine this being purely for the global set bonuses, fear and taunting are done so much better by other archetypes.

Level 30: Recall Friend -- Zephyr-Travel/EndRdx(A), Zephyr-ResKB(40)
Level 32: Combat Training: Offensive -- Acc-I(A)
Level 35: Teleport -- Zephyr-Travel/EndRdx(A), Zephyr-Travel(42)

My purple set holders are below, of course populated with lesser sets until you get there. You could instead chase other options such as mentioned previously to fill out your powers.

Level 38: Psychic Scream -- Ragnrk-Dmg(A), Ragnrk-Dmg/Rchg(43)
Level 41: Spin -- Armgdn-Dmg(A), Armgdn-Dmg/Rchg(45), Armgdn-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(45), Armgdn-Acc/Rchg(46), Armgdn-Dmg/EndRdx(50)
Level 44: Lunge -- Hectmb-Dmg(A), Hectmb-Dmg/Rchg(45), Hectmb-Acc/Rchg(46), Hectmb-Dmg/EndRdx(46), Hectmb-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(50)
Level 47: Electrifying Fences -- GravAnch-Immob(A), GravAnch-Immob/Rchg(48), GravAnch-Acc/Immob/Rchg(48), GravAnch-Acc/Rchg(48), GravAnch-Immob/EndRdx(50)
Level 49: Long Range Teleport -- RechRdx-I(A)
------------
Level 2: Swift -- Run-I(A)
Level 2: Health -- Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(A), Mrcl-Rcvry+(39), Numna-Heal(40)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 2: Stamina -- P'Shift-EndMod(A), P'Shift-EndMod/Rchg(7), P'Shift-End%(11), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc(11)
Level 1: Brawl -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- QckFt-EndRdx/RunSpd(A), EndRdx-I(23)
Level 1: Conditioning
Level 2: Rest -- EndMod-I(A)
Level 4: Ninja Run
------------

Tactics

First things first, we have all our buffs running. Indomitable Will first, so we don't get mezzed before we fire up the other ones. Include Mask Presence, unless we're already leading a hostage or we want to live dangerously (hoarding aggro on a team of blasters). We then target something better than a minion in the mob.

The attack chain is simple: MindLink-BuildUp- then DartBurst-PoisonDart-DartBurst-PoisonDart-, inserting a BuildUp whenever it's up again (I usually use it just before DartBurst). Keep any other boosters handy, such as Heroic Justice and Mind Link, and apply between mobs.

Unlike a Soldier of Arachnos, your first attack does not lock everyone down, so unless you have a a teammate holding the enemy together you will tend to retreat a little before DartBurst to pull everyone into your cone. Any gap in your attack chain at lower levels is a convenient time to jostle for a better position. It is harder work than being an Arachnos Soldier, but perhaps less boring.

The requirement to alternate single target and cone attacks means you can take down the boss/lieutenants at the same time as the rest of the mob. Or you can focus on that sapper while not ignoring the rest. Given these strategies, that work for me, I do wonder if there are any useful approaches to comparing things like “DPS” with other archteypes.

I have not had much experience yet with AVs. The Widow does not have high hit points, and a big hit can really hurt. As part of a team, your “Light” attacks and ranged position do not draw all of the aggro if you have a tanker or brute. The ultimate test will be solo-ing. Stay tuned.

Smelling the Incarnations

Only at level 40 so far, but it’s been fun. My toon is happily soloing at +1/+3, and seems to be welcome on teams, even pushing up the difficulty settings if the team is able to stick together. My Huntsman slaughters with greater efficiency, but my Widow Sniper satisfies all of my motivations. I look forward to the military bagpipes slated to release on Scotland Independence Day! And I’ll keep this guide updated as I learn more.

Cheers, airhead.

Gearsinger, you're right, that does look like Jubes. Unfortunately CoH's 'tan' looks a lot like yellow. Fireheart was spot on though, it's Knitwit. Thanks Henri too - your comment inspired me to take another look in my screenshots folder.

And there I saw the cutest picture of Knitwit's clone with a Freakshow Stunner. Knitwit's hair is a bit different at the moment as she hasn't done the Valentine's Day mission for the laurel wreath. But they looked so darling together.

Until I saw the next two images. It's not every day you see yourself crucified.

A valiant volution DD!

Last year I dropped out because I had one month where I was overworked. A cure for that would be good. Perhaps you can fill in for me in the office

It was not my plan, but that meant I was gone when the psychotic stuff happened. Whatever happens in 2012 (that doesn't wipe out the internet or deflate the planet) should promote fun over metrics. Perhaps a side vote each month to determine who was the biggest fun-sucker, and take away their points... oh the irony!

(I'm really just here to show off my goldname)

(Edit: and that didn't work did it.)

Wrong place, wrong time...

Um... bigger-than-Liefeld pouch set? Arm braces of pouches. Vanguard-like belt that is big fat hip pouches instead. Include the Mender pouch accessory. Fold-over boots converted to pouches around the top. Could have non-humour uses using the bits separately. Pouch-juggling emote.

It could come with a texture alternative to be like foam pads instead of pouches. For that home-made soft armour look. Hacky sack emote. Could be coloured as ablative armour. That texture could be added to the schoolie backpack (big ol' pouch) too.

These are very cool.

Socks! Booties! Thimble puppet with Desdemona accessories!

But I have a question: Does Rogue wool come from black sheep?

This is fantastic guide.

I have read right through this several times now. I also ended up with a non-Patron Huntsman dedicated to ranged combat. I still managed to make something different by pursuing maximum debuff for maximum team damage.

Goal 1: Maximise Debuff. Debuffing both defence and resistance to damage.

• 4 sets of: 5 Touch of Lady Grey (Def Debuff) + 1 Achilles Heel Proc (Res Debuff) (Single Shot, Burst, Heavy Burst, Surveillance)

Goal 2: Maximise recharge. Defense Debuff sets do not provide +recharge so I risked getting less debuff if the single-target or AoE attack chains were broken. With a second purple set on the way I think I am getting very close. The purple Gravitational Anchor set was relatively affordable once I sold a decent purple drop. The Ragnarok remains a long term goal, selling purple drops along the way. The LotG boosts are cheap at 2 hero merits each. I bought IOs at lowest levels to improve exemplaring. That also reduces the defence bonus a tiny bit.

• 5x Luck of Gambler +Rech (TT: Maneuvers, CT: Defensive, Cloaking Device, Leadership: Maneuvers, Leaping: Combat Jumping)
• 2x set 5 Positron's Blast (Venom Grenade, Frag Grenade). To eventually upgrade one set to 5 Ragnarok for 3.5% more recharge.
• set 5 Gravitational Anchor (WA Web Grenade)
• set 5 Adjusted Targeting (Build Up)
• set 4 Expedient Reinforcement (Call Reinforcements)
• 3x Recharge IO (Hasten)

Goal 3: Defence soft cap for Ranged attacks. I get my Knockback Protection from a Zephyr proc in Teleport Friend so I can use a +Defence Proc from Steadfast instead. IOs would help me reach the cap faster, but I used sets to save on endurance and improve accuracy.

• 4x set 4 Luck of the Gambler (incl. +Rech) (CT Defensive, TT Maneuvers, Combat Jumping, Cloaking Device)
• Steadfast: +3 Defence (Wolf Armour)
  - Probably want 1 more Proc (res, maybe def). Would need to sacrifice slots put elsewhere.

Goal 4: Long Range Teleport. For fun. It does mean no Patron Powers, but my SoA has been a hero since Level 20 so he doesn't meet many Patrons. Getting rid of Vengeance could open a possibility but slots would be hard to find for it.

Goal 5: Damage. Whenever I still have to make a choice. I hope someday to have the Hero Merits to buy a Gladiator's Javelin Proc to make the Frag Grenade a bit Toxic.

• 2 Positron's Blast Energy Damage Procs (Venom Grenade, Frag Grenade)

Since becoming an Incarnate I have added Reactive (Res Debuff), Barrier (Defence + Resist for the higher soft cap in iTrials) and Musculature (Dam + Res Debuff). He flies through his hero missions at +1/x8, pulls AVs sometimes and even helped win a B.A.F. despite an adds-powering-up team meltdown. That last one might not be much of a yardstick but it was lots of fun.

I haven't learned Mids yet so this post might be nothing more than ideas. But thanks again Aisynia for a fantastic guide.

I stopped breathing.

Incredible textures and lighting! So much envy. And congratulations. This is magnificent.

The Adam Van Wyk piece is epic! I love the collar piece, perhaps inspire by the Lenin art mentioned. Great to see the momentum forming in unpredictable ways!

You earned my votes, improvements in so many good directions. You have easily overtaken my pet peeve this month! Great work.

Votes are happily accepted from overseas, even as CoH competition entries are aggressively discriminated against...

There really is a thread for everything!

Scrambling onto the Exalted server from a hotel room in a foreign country in the wee hours of the night, I managed to snag my forum name straight away and later transferred my main to Exalted. After four years he finally has his name spelled right. Over several days I also got a few other names that came to mind:

Airhead (woo!)
Altruist (just seemed important)
Arbitrage (An arbiter... in France!)
Bang Galore (in case my other main wants to move from Infinity. Probably won't happen)
Cream (The one colour I want on CoH. Faked with lightest yellow and white mesh photographed from a distance)

A little while later I met a supergroup full of turtles, so I needed a turtle! Or three.

Turnturtle - evil turtle turned good, already level 40
PPD Shell - good turtle cop -> bad turtle cop. Turtle-speeding to level 6
Turtleneck - a hot turtle chick with a posse of overprotective "guy friends". Having fun at the expense of others to Level 11

There was only one character name I tried for but missed, having taken days to think of it: Tungsten.

I am really only posting to see if my sig is still there (which I admit contravenes the Forum EULA as it might be construed as 'bumping') but I sure hope they don't see I've used some colours not available in the costume editor.

(And hopefully they don't look close enough to see someone is picking his nose)

I still need to get back to Foo with an art request. Otherwise I am sure he will take up Jophiel's offer to act as a badly-dressing enforcer.

I'd recognise that bunny spasm anywhere.

Welcome back Blur!

Um.

Kudos to DD for a brilliant submission! If I had a little spare time I'd try too, but you actually made time which is wonderful, for everyone watching.

Kudos to Liz, if only because I'd still love to see what might have been in the works this month. Loads of talent and humour. You're a phenomenal artist.

Kudos to Bubbawheat, you've done so much to inject spice into this event, to keep it rolling along, and to weather the arrows of incontinence that your ground-breaking efforts encountered. Your efforts are purely voluntary, and extremely generous. From the Mission Architect threads to this one, you have always been a huge contributor to forum life, and I hope that you continue to enjoy doing that, so that we may enjoy too.

These are such brilliantly executed posters, and a great fun attitude for teaming. I just have to try enlisting. Hopefully you will meet a potential candidate called Turnturtle in a day or two, he has just three more missions to run. He will be the really ugly long-neck steampunk Arachnos hero turtle.

In case you don't have one of those.

That is looking sweet! Next arrow is going to need a cable, if he's going to escape the burning building. Or perhaps that's why he's called Fatal Arrow

Perhaps he spotted the arsonist. This really is a stunning bit of art. Does he have robotic legs or an exoskeleton?

So much imbricated talent! Very dynamic, ogleworthy and many great power effects. I have been enjoying advanced viewing on your dA page, but there is something positive to be said for the way the images seem to cover each other up in this stream.

Guess I hadn't noticed it before, but it now seems odd that it is the Netherlander who is the pink one. I guess pink Netherlanders can still detect an absence of orange?

My goodness! Talent overload! There's some fantastic stuff here. (and I need to check out this forum more frequently)

Loving Cyborgirl. Perhaps not the most sophisticated piece, but somehow I like it the most. Perhaps it's the since-deleted backstory that makes it so sorrowful.

Blue Boltage is a classic. With that classic flat-crotched Golden Age emasculinity. Sorry for saying that, the pose is nonetheless perfect. And a little Hasbro

Nuclear Zero looks like he's made of some sort of very tough plastic. Which is a fascinating texture for sure. Great colours and shading. He better duck though, them atomic auras are about to conk him in the head...

Mercenary Trooper is awesome. I am always impressed by talented renditions of loose cloth. So much learning in one piece (building on the earlier ones), it's almost time to seek a commission.

Keep up the fantastic work!