Novella

My Night Widow's true orgins start whens he was kidnapped by some Arachnos operative as a child and entered into the Night Widow training program. After successfully assassinating 9 targets, she was summoned by Lord Recluse for a special assignment. On that assignment she was given orders to assassinate her parents as a show of loyalty to Lord Recluse and Arachnos. There is a lot more to the story, but it ends up leading her to Longbow, etc.

My Fortunata was made after my Night Widow and after my Psi/MM Blaster. Initially I was going to just have the Fortunata be bad, but after playing my Blaster up to level 41 I got an idea on how there was a pact made before either of them were born were a Fortunata and Midnight Squad mystic exchanged children due to an ancient prophecy that said two children would be born to the opposite sides and cause great conflict.

I with the game gave more space to type out stories because these three characters have super long storys that I have type out, but can't fit in the game box for our backstories.

I love my Night Widow and it sucks that I can't play her now, well I could but I'm choosing not too. Night Widow's are so much fun because of how versatile they are.

My Fortunata is growing on me more and more and I find myself comparing her to my Night Widow all the time even though she has surpassed my Night Widow since she is level 50 now. I have actually gotten compliments on my Fortunata when people team with her because she is the main attention getting before every fight. Her ranged defense and melee are each capped and she is a full Fortunata with all ranged attacks. I like the all ranged approach with her and its a completely different feel because she is basically a Blaster with mitigation for a secondary. I play my Fortunata more like a Controller/Blaster and she is nigh unkillable.

I tried to solo Ghost Widow the other day and it was a stalemate. She couldn't kill me and I couldn't kill her. I haven't tried to solo with my Night Widow because I can always get her on a team, but lately I have had to solo some on my Fortunata because the population just wasn't there.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Glad I could help you, now have fun with it. I can't wait until I can resume playing my Night Widow. I have retired her until Going Rogue is released, but in the mean time I did just ding 50 with my Fortunata a couple hours ago.


[/ QUOTE ]

But wait....why would you build a Night Widow and then roll a Fortunata to 50 "also"...when we have access to Dual Builds? Concept maybe? I'm not being a jerk...just wondering.


That's one thing I always loved about my Widow, he could be two toons in one without sacraficing anything or rolling a new toon haha (melee and ranged)

[/ QUOTE ]

Can't speak for Novella, but RP reasons would do it for me personally. My widow is a hero. My fortunata isn't. Two entirely different people. RP leads to many choices that don't make sense for non-RP'ers

[/ QUOTE ]

I never really thought of it that way.

In the case of my Night Widow she is an undercover Longbow Agent so she will be returning to Paragon City. I had her planned that way before Going Rogue was announced so it was perfect when they announced it, it allowed me to stop her at a good level so that I can still get all the good contact once I pull her over.

I am on the fence about my Fortunata going good or not. She is tired to my Psy/MM Blaster who I plan on taking to villains so it would only make sense for her to go good, but I am still on the fence because her back story could be taken either way.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Glad I could help you, now have fun with it. I can't wait until I can resume playing my Night Widow. I have retired her until Going Rogue is released, but in the mean time I did just ding 50 with my Fortunata a couple hours ago.


[/ QUOTE ]

But wait....why would you build a Night Widow and then roll a Fortunata to 50 "also"...when we have access to Dual Builds? Concept maybe? I'm not being a jerk...just wondering.


That's one thing I always loved about my Widow, he could be two toons in one without sacraficing anything or rolling a new toon haha (melee and ranged)

[/ QUOTE ]

My Night Widow looks exactly like the NPC Night Widows and my Fortunata looks exactly like the NPC Fortunatas. Since the devs will not give us a 2nd uniform slot I decided to make the Fortunata. My original plan was to use the dual builds, but when I remembered that you only get one uniform that ruined that since I would be using a Fort build while looking like a Night Widow and that just wont do.

Hope this clears it up.

PS I don't think you were being a jerk for asking a question

Don't worry about having enough recharge to perma Mind Link, you won't need it since you are running around with capped melee and ranged defense. I have never been a fan of perma Mind Link builds because in my opinion it completely gimps your build since you would be slotting for nothing bu +rech and not much else.

Elude will basically be your crutch when you are debuffed or if you want some serious movement speed increase and recovery.

Glad I could help you, now have fun with it. I can't wait until I can resume playing my Night Widow. I have retired her until Going Rogue is released, but in the mean time I did just ding 50 with my Fortunata a couple hours ago.

[ QUOTE ]
[I tried your suggestions, and couldn't fit the Red Fortune in due to Slotting Issues.

I did do the Zephyrs, and added that slot to Mask Presence.

Final Positional Defenses on the Build I'm running with:

Defense: 63.8%
Ranged: 48.9%
AoE: 37%

This looks good to me.

Let me know what ya think, and thanks again for all the help.

[/ QUOTE ]

That looks fine.

I am going to assume that youre melee defense is that high due to using 5 sets of Touch of Death? If that is the case I would recommend changing out one or two sets and using Mako's so that you can get over 50% in ranged and melee defense. 64% melee is more than enough defense, its a bit overkill to be honest, and even though your ranged defense is over the cap at 49% I would feel more comfy if I were you if it were a little over 50% because all it would take is one attack from a Family, Mook, Council, Cimeroran to drop you under the cap again.

Otherwise you are good to go now that your defense is up. Also those are numbers excluding Mind Link right? I hope so because there is no need to really use Mind Link to get your over the cap since you can do it using just your normal powers and IO sets.

[ QUOTE ]
[Three pieces of Red Fortune isn't 1.25% defense though. It's a 1.26% resist vs. Fire/cold.

[/ QUOTE ]

I was thinking about Thunderstrike, my mistake. That's what I get for talking to people about a Night Widow and Fortunata at the same time.

The main reason I don't take a travel power with mine is because the NPC Widows and Fortunatas don't have travel powers so I want to keep that continuity.

I think flying, or speeding Night Widows/Fortunatas looks odd, but thats just my opinion. Seeing them with a jetpack, or something like that seems very right because they are natural and would get their equipment from Arachnos.

I wish there was a way to get the Goldbricker jetpack permanently because that would fit the overall look perfectly.

[ QUOTE ]
So...No takers yet?
Now that the discussion (Cough cough arguements) are over with, noone has any stories to tell? or pics to post of SoA's even trying to solo an AV?

[/ QUOTE ]

Last night I tried to solo Ghost Widow at level 50 with my Fortunata who is 48. The fight pretty much went exactly like I knew it go, she couldn't kill me and I couldn't kill her. When I brought out the Shivan it was easily doable, but trying to do with without the Shivan was a complete deadlock.

There were a couple worry moments when she was able to get through my defense and landed a hit on me with Gloom, but otherwise my Fortunata was perfectly fine going toe to toe with her and I wasn't even using Mind Link.

I would try to solo someone with my Night Widow, but I am not playing her anymore until Going Rogue comes out.

Any AT can be played using just SO's, so IO's is a definite yes.

On all my characters since the introduction of IO's I typically will get to level 22 and then use level 25 IO's all the way up to level 37 when I start using level 40 IO sets. I NEVER use purples or anything higher than a level 40 IO.

Since you don't plan on using IO sets just grab level 40 common IOs and you will be fine with a Night Widow. You won't cap your defense, but you will have a nice amount never the less. I would think about buying a Gift of the Ancients, Seredipity, and Luck of the Gambler [Def/Rech] IO so you can max the defense and recharge of Mind Link to help you with keeping it up frequently. You can still have loads of fun playing without IO sets so don't let that discourage you since you see a lot of people with them.

When you are reading Mids the number that gets factored into your totals is the suppressed amount.

I didn't mean for that to sound negative I just don't use travel powers on Widows since you can get the jetpack and use that all the time. Doing that allows for you to take 2 extra powers.

You will want Slash before you get Mask because the damage is ridiculous and even though the recharge is slightly longer than your attacks you currently have, it is well worth the damage. You should also have Eviscerate because you can crit with that attack in a small cone and it does nice damage also.

You're welcome.

Anymore questions feel free to ask.

In all honesty you should have already had both Lunge and Slash in your build before level 28, but thats neither here nor there.

My build is very different because I took Lunge at 12 and Slash at 18 but I see you took Super Speed and Spin so that would explain why you may not have them. Also I think Hasten before level 30 on a Night Widow is kind of pointless but thats just my opinion.

As for your question, Slash has a much longer recharge and if you are looking to fill a gap then Lunge is the obvious answer since it recharges faster. In the end you need both powers because your damage will be greatly increased especially once you crit using Slash or Evis, etc.

I personally think that all the summon pets are pointless because they die fast and aren't really of much use to you, then again I team primarily so it could be different for someone that is used to playing agaisnt solo spawns only.

Just a couple changes you may way to think about.

I would drop fly down to two slots and use Zephyrs in them for the ranged defense using two IOs.

CT, TT:M, Foresight, and Mask Presence would be better off slotted with Red Fortune since you can slot 5 of them for 5% recharge and 6 slots will get you 2.5% ranged defence not ot mention 3 slots gets your 1.25% ranged defense.

Making those changes will get you 15% more global recharge and increase your ranged defense which is important because even stealthed with capped melee you will sometimes need ranged defense more than melee, ie. Cimerorans.

I wouldn't worry about you losing regen, you really don't need to worry about having higher regen since you won't get hit much and even if you do get hit you will be fine.

Other than that your build looks fine. I see a lot of Luck of the Gamblers used which I assume is because of the regen bonus that two of them provides. I personally don't like that set at all.

[ QUOTE ]
I have played around a bit, and come up with this.

These Positional Defense Totals are with all my toggles on, but without Mind Link.

Defense: 63.4%
Ranged: 45.4%
AOE: 36.7%


That is much better than what I had.

Will post the build in the next Post, since it is on my secondary computer, Short-Form.

Please let me know how it looks now.

And, thanks for the help!

[/ QUOTE ]

Those are much better numbers. I will take a look at your build and see what kind of feedback I can give you on it.

[ QUOTE ]
Which blaster is the best?

[/ QUOTE ]

Ice/Elec is the end all be all of Blasters in my opinion. Psi/Mental is 2nd.

I would like Dark Blaster for Blasters, Energy Aura and Ninjitsu for Scrappers.

Well there you have it. All cleared up.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Of the 4 SoA, Fortunata solos the best. Not because she kills the fastest. It's more because she has the defense, mez protection and CONTROL to counter most things you can see when you solo.

[/ QUOTE ]

Who cares about control when the target you face is dead? I understand where you're coming from, but controls or no controls dead is dead regardless.

[/ QUOTE ]

Death is the best debuff/control there is.

[/ QUOTE ]

Exactly.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Mid's must be broken then because mine says 5% base for some reason.

[/ QUOTE ]

5% is the unsuppressed amount. Once you attack it goes down to 2.5 or so.

[/ QUOTE ]

The person above me said that City of Data says the base is 7.5% though so either Mids is wrong or CoD is wrong.

Mid's must be broken then because mine says 5% base for some reason.

5% defense is the base value (meaning unslotted) so once you slot up the power normally supression will drop that down by half, but I can't remember if the defense for a Bane supresses or not. I know for a Night Widows and Fortunatas it does suppress, but I can't recall if it does for a Bane or not.

The best way to tell is pull up the combat attributes and make sure you have it on the defense tab and then attack something while you are hidden. You should see a drop in the defense which would indicate suppression, but if you don't that means Cloaking Device for Banes doesn't suppress.

[ QUOTE ]
Okay...

I'll show my ignorance here. How do I get Mid's to show Positional Defense? I can do the export Short Form, but have never even seen Positional Defense in Mid's.

Where is it at, and how do I include it?

lol, I feel stupid.

[/ QUOTE ]

no need to feel stupid. Just click the view totals tab which is right above the box for "Pool Power 1" and then once the box pops up click on the middle tab to see all your defense/resistance.

However since someone has always posted your numbers I will tell you that you need to get your melee and ranged defense up higher, especially ranged.

A lot of people go for the perma-Mind Link builds but I find that to be pointless so I would recommend slotting with IO sets to cap your melee and ranged defense and then get yourself around 50-70% global recharge with or without Hasten so that you can keep your attacks going.

On my Night Widow (she's built just like the NPC Night Widows) I have her sitting at 49/49/37 with 60% global recharge and she is an absolute beast.

My recommendation is save yourself the infamy and dont go for any purple sets because they don't really offer you anything other than accuracy and recharge and as a Night Widow you will not be hurting for accuracy and you can easily get recharge for other sets while getting better bonuses.

Hope this helps.