Bosstone

Well, taking a look at the options:

- It's hard to judge clearly the damage capabilities of the pets without doing a thorough analysis of cast and recharge times, but from what it looks like the Coral Sentinel may be the best for damage, with the Blaster coming in second and the Blood Widow a close third. However, the Sentinel is entirely Smashing/Lethal damage and the Blaster is Energy, while the Blood Widow is Toxic. That pairs very well with Venom Grenade.

- Regarding survivability, the Sentinel and Blaster have good S/L resists and the Blaster has additional Psi resist, but given that Soldiers can employ a good bit of defense, the 5% Defense the Widow has may be more useful. It's difficult to quantify, though. I'd probably put the Blaster in the lead for survivability. The Striker is tissue paper.

- For utility, each one does something a little different, but they're all about even. The Sentinel has a -Recharge cone and an Immob, the Blaster has a KB attack and an Immob, the Striker saps and has a Hold, and the Widow does -Regen or -Recharge with every attack.

I would say the Widow has the best synergy with Soldiers due solely to the amount of Toxic damage they do. The -40% Resist debuff Venom Grenade offers makes those attacks pretty mighty. If you don't want a melee pet, the Blaster is probably your next best choice. Still, if you want to take Leviathan or Mu for other reasons, the other pets aren't too bad (although I think Mu is extremely limited for Soldiers).

Personally, I went with Mace Mastery, and I'm quite satisfied with the Blaster. I ran Ramiel's arc the other night and the spiders ate all the Elite Bosses in the arc. Whichever pet you do go with, I recommend putting a full Expedient Reinforcement or Call to Arms set in it. The PPP pet is going to be your main source of damage, being equivalent to a Tier 3 MM pet, so give it some love.

As for Alpha boosts, I haven't crafted one yet, but I'm planning to go Spiritual for the Recharge. I slotted my build for positional defense, and even using full IO sets I'm nowhere near the ED cap for recharge on any attack, and having pets up more often is only a good thing.

I've had a level 50 TO sitting on my oldest character for a long time now. Shame it's not as special as I thought it was.

I took Mace Mastery both for Shatter Armor and for Summon Blaster. Can't be a Crabstermind without 6 pets.

I certainly hope so. Trying to tell a story through large-scale trials and events is...difficult, to put it mildly.

I'm not going to say Rain of Arrows because not only have I not played Archery yet, but whenever there's an Archery blaster on my team they always deprive me of unleashing my own AOE goodness. There's a brief sound, then a small forest appears and turns the spawn to corpses, while my Omega Maneuver lands on a paltry two enemies.

Blaster-wise, I've got to go with LRM. It's got a long activation time too, but there is such joy in blowing up a spawn with it.

Mids requires .NET 2.0 to work (according to the front page). Is it possible that's not installed or maybe corrupt?

Another vote for both Manuevers, both Assaults, and TT:L only. Tactics is just overkill; if TT:L is slotted to ~60% to-hit, you need a single 6% Accuracy set bonus to hit 95% against +0s, and if you're slotting full IO sets you'll be hitting 95% against +4s easily.

If you're sticking with SOs, Tactics may help, as you'd need 2 Acc SOs in an attack to hit +4s with just TT:L but only 1 Acc SO with TT:L and Tactics (both slotted to ED cap). At that point though you're kind of wasting enhancement slots IMO.

Vengeance will be far more useful to your team than Tactics.

So it slows them down that much more.

Honestly, though, of the things to worry about in City, RMT is waaay down the list at this point.

I have no idea if you plan to use my build or not, but I put it together this afternoon, and I can confirm that it costs about 800 mil (although I was in "buy it NAO" mode, so I know I overpaid on a lot of salvage) and it is decidedly effective. I've been running steadily at +0/x8 and I'm still only level 47. You do want a purple insp running during combat when solo, but otherwise it works just fine.

Yeah, the downside to Kinetic Combat is that it's level 35, so even if you use all 4 enhancement IOs from it, you still wind up with suboptimal buffs. You really want to use all 4 enhancement IOs in attacks you'll be using regularly, then supplement them with high-grade IOs.

More numbers:
All 4 Kinetic Combat:
Accuracy 22.94%
Damage 85.45%
Endurance Reduction 41.29%
Recharge 41.29%

If you add Focused Smite Acc/End/Rech and Mako's Bite Acc/Dam/End/Rech, you get:
Accuracy 60.79%
Damage 95.86%
Endurance Reduction 78.22%
Recharge 78.22%

Unless you're slotting other set IOs for global accuracy and can take a single additional Dam/End/Rech, or you're simply willing to settle for low enhancement numbers, you can't fit a proc into that.

Web Envelope also costs significantly more endurance. WAWG costs 7.28 base, Web Envelope costs 12.74 base.

I had to make this choice just recently on my Crab, but I'm starting to think I picked the wrong way. I had thought Web Envelope would be the better choice due to the larger radius, but when I use WAWG it's because I want -KB. The problem is I need Web Envelope to count as one of my PPP picks so that I can get to Summon Blaster.

Time to go review the planned build...

Profound realization: You complain

Here's my Crab build, for the record. It's not in-game yet as my Crab is still 45, so I can't actually speak to the effectiveness. It's more of a Crabstermind build as it focuses on all 6 pets and team support buffs, but the ST and AOE attacks are solid, though there's no real chain. Accuracy hits 95% for +4s with the exception of Omega Maneuver at 85%, which may be a waste for most content, but it can't really be avoided. Ranged def is softcapped, with Melee and AOE def one purple inspiration away. There are some relatively pricey sets, but no purples or HOs. It should come in well under 1 billion with intelligent marketeering.

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.92
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Hendricks: Level 50 Natural Arachnos Soldier
Primary Power Set: Crab Spider Soldier
Secondary Power Set: Crab Spider Training
Power Pool: Leadership
Ancillary Pool: Mace Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Channelgun -- ShldBrk-DefDeb(A), ShldBrk-Acc/DefDeb(3), ShldBrk-Acc/Rchg(7), ShldBrk-DefDeb/EndRdx/Rchg(7), ShldBrk-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(9), ShldBrk-%Dam(39)
Level 1: Crab Spider Armor Upgrade -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(A), S'fstPrt-ResKB(3)
Level 2: Longfang -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(9), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg(13), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(15), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(15), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(37)
Level 4: Combat Training: Defensive -- DefBuff-I(A), DefBuff-I(5), DefBuff-I(5)
Level 6: Assault -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 8: Suppression -- Det'tn-Dmg/EndRdx(A), Det'tn-Dmg/Rchg(17), Det'tn-Dmg/Rng(17), Det'tn-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(19), Det'tn-Acc/Dmg(19)
Level 10: Tactical Training: Maneuvers -- S'dpty-Def/EndRdx(A), GftotA-Def/EndRdx(11), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx(11), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(13)
Level 12: Venom Grenade -- Det'tn-Acc/Dmg(A), Det'tn-Dmg/EndRdx(23), Det'tn-Dmg/Rchg(23), Det'tn-Dmg/Rng(33), Det'tn-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(33)
Level 14: Arm Lash -- Oblit-Dmg(A), Oblit-Acc/Rchg(33), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(34), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(34), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(39), Oblit-%Dam(42)
Level 16: Tactical Training: Assault -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 18: Frag Grenade -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(39), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(40), Posi-Dam%(40), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(40)
Level 20: Tactical Training: Leadership -- GSFC-ToHit(A), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg(21), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg/EndRdx(21), GSFC-Rchg/EndRdx(25), GSFC-ToHit/EndRdx(25), Empty(27)
Level 22: Mental Training -- Run-I(A)
Level 24: Fortification -- Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx(A), TtmC'tng-ResDam/EndRdx(27), ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx(29)
Level 26: Frenzy -- Erad-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(A), Erad-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(34), Erad-Dmg/Rchg(36)
Level 28: Serum -- Numna-Heal/Rchg(A), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg(29)
Level 30: Maneuvers -- S'dpty-Def/EndRdx(A), GftotA-Def/EndRdx(31), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx(31), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(31)
Level 32: Omega Maneuver -- Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(A), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(43), Det'tn-Dmg/Rchg(43), AirB'st-Dmg/Rchg(43), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(46)
Level 35: Summon Spiderlings -- ExRmnt-Acc/Rchg(A), ExRmnt-EndRdx/Dmg/Rchg(37), ExRmnt-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(45)
Level 38: Call Reinforcements -- ExRmnt-Acc/Rchg(A), ExRmnt-EndRdx/Dmg/Rchg(42), ExRmnt-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(46)
Level 41: Web Envelope -- Enf'dOp-Acc/Immob/Rchg(A), TotHntr-Acc/Immob/Rchg(42)
Level 44: Shatter Armor -- Mako-Dmg/Rchg(A), Mako-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(45), Mako-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(45), Mako-Dmg/EndRdx(46)
Level 47: Summon Blaster -- ExRmnt-Acc/Rchg(A), ExRmnt-Acc/Dmg(48), ExRmnt-Dmg/EndRdx(48), ExRmnt-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(48), ExRmnt-EndRdx/Dmg/Rchg(50), ExRmnt-+Res(Pets)(50)
Level 49: Vengeance -- RedFtn-Def/Rchg(A), LkGmblr-Def/Rchg(50)
Level 0: The Atlas Medallion
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Conditioning
Level 4: Ninja Run
Level 2: Swift -- Run-I(A)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Health -- Mrcl-Rcvry+(A), Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(37)
Level 2: Stamina -- EndMod-I(A), EndMod-I(36), EndMod-I(36)
------------

Defense also boosts regen, just indirectly, and you can get a helluva lot more of it than regen.

Because I like to illustrate with math, here's some random numbers:

At 0% defense, you're getting hit with 50 DPS (100 DPS with a 50% chance to miss). Your regen with RttC is something like 60 HPS, so your net regen is 10 HPS.

At 25% defense, you're getting hit with 25 DPS (100 DPS with a 75% chance to miss). Same regen with RttC, but your net is now 35 HPS. Stack regen set bonuses all you want, you just can't increase it by those numbers. And because you're taking less damage, you can fight more enemies at once, which increases RttC even more (well, up to 10 at least) and makes you that much more awesome.

That said, after you've got a reasonable amount of defense (around 25% is where you really start noticing a difference in survivability), throwing in a few +HP and +regen bonuses certainly do contribute.

Pulling together sets of Kinetic Combat is time-consuming, but not terribly difficult these days due to a-merits. And it's so very worth it.

I'll be interested in seeing what responses are given. I've been getting lucky on purple drops such that I skyrocketed from ~250 mil to 1.2 bil pretty quickly, and my Crab is quickly reaching level 47, where I can respec into his level 50 build. I have a build set in Mids that I think is reasonably strong, hitting 46% in Ranged def and ~30-35 in Melee and AOE and probably won't cost more than 400 mil, but I bet others can do better.

I'd share it, but I'm at work and don't have access to the build.