Person34

If he takes VG (which he should IMO since it's a ranged attack) and invests in procs like you suggest I can see a potential for some serious damage for a few reasons: gladiator javlin's proc is a 20% chance for toxic (which would be augmented by VG's +40%) and he could put a +chance of BU in each attack as well. Also, poisonous ray accepts the achilles heel -res proc. Also take bile spray from mako's pool and he'd have an interesting combo.

If a melee crab can work I don't see how this couldn't.

If you take wolf armor + crab armor + fortification you will have 14.3 vs hold/stun/sleep/immob and 6 vs confuse/fear. Knockback and repel will be zero, but KB can easily be worked around and if you are gonna be hovering all the time then I'm not sure any other status effects are worth worrying about. Assault grants mag 10 placate and taunt protection too... but I don't see any bane spider NPCs hovering up to you for an executioner's strike.

I think a claw/fire/soul hoverrangedbrute could work: get to 45% ranged defense and you will have focus + gloom for single target damage and shockwave + dark oblit + soul tentacles for AE. Fire can be squishy, but you will also have darkest night for an addidtional -15% tohit and -20% damage when slotted and for your burst damage there's both BU + FE. Burnout would be nice to have for this build as well I think. But can you live without spin and burn?


Question is will fury generation be an issue when you have limited attack options coupled with some mobs that have no ranged attacks?

I'm squeezing into my next build and will run both, yes you are correct TT:M is a huge deal (prob one of a widow's most important powers).

Also, like Jibikao, I am a huge believer in tough on widows - coupled with scaling resists your widow will go into "unstoppable mode" once it gets to the 200-300 hp mark. It ED caps at @ 24% S/L, but throw in the resist unique and a few sets of gladiator's strike and you're pushing 31%, or what your typical bane spider runs.

As a stress test I usually run a malta map on +4/x8 setting after a new build and it's a serious rush to watch my widow's health take a steep dive as a pair of gunslinger bosses, burn patches and turret pets push past your armor... only to have you finnish them off with a sliver of life left and your stat monitor indicating in a light blue font that you are sitting at the 85% S/L resist cap. It takes some getting used to because with some other characters you might either run or pop insps when the health dives, but on a NW using tough you end up at a point where you literally become indestructable vs. standard S/L content.

Surveillance is -20%, shatter armor is another -20% and VG debuffs toxic for -40%. Of course you don't use mace mastery, but you are prob even in a better position as arctic breath accepts the achilles debuff so you could in theory hit -95% if it procs.

Just run 5-6 sewer trials and you're there.

EDIT: NM, seems that was covered.

Like _EU suggested I'd go fortunata, esp if you want a thematic all-around "I'm a master of psionics" kind of toon. You'd have a good starting point for a ranged character with softcapped defenses to positionals and a killer status toggle, but in addition you can also have 45% psi defense and capped 85% psi resistance.

So not only would you be a potent psionic wielder, you will be able to effectively laugh off any psionic NPC that happens to challenge your abilities.

You're absolutely right, what the hell was I thinking. 3% is the superior with 2.25% just below it.

None of my "end game" toons have five purple sets; my NW uses only three. There seems to be a few folks complaining about this (that the ATIOs should have slightly better stats than purples to get around the rule of five); I say if that's the case simply don't upgrade to the superior set because the lesser set's bonuses are still pretty good. The bonuses for these are

+7% acc/health +1.88%/dmg 3%/+ 8.75% rech/ +toxic and psi resist +2.21%

and for a standard set those are some nice numbers. Bottom line is I think it's a win/win scenario: we get the opportunity for a new superior set and, if we already have 5 of them slotted, we can just choose to keep the lesser set and still have some great bonuses.

Now if we can just get that toxic dot...

I'm not sure what the best DPS for ranged and AoE would be, I'm not even sure that anyone has ever tested this because the melee chain would just simply crush it. Psi attacks have never been known for thier damage or activation times, and they have a travel time that is like molasses. Widow melee however is high damage and high activation time... and high endurance.

My personal best melee attempt on a pylon is somewhere between 270-275 (RWZ on Virtue is always so laggy it's sometimes hard to get a good run). This is with T4 muscular alpha and t4 reactive. My build runs softcap without ML so I dont have to worry about it eating up time with its activation, but the attack chain is hard to maintain with the end woes. So what I do is a full burn for the first 90 seconds, activate elude and finnish.

As for chain it is basically "whatever is up a the time". Single target I employ FU, swipe, lunge and slash with 187% recharge. FU has the BU proc and is slotted for 99% rech, so if RWZ was quiet I could prob hit a triple stack FU more reliably and squeeze out a little more damage. All other attacks have the smashing dam proc and swipe has the additional heca proc since it is used most often.

Of course, none of this really matters anymore. If I encounter a hero/GM that is beyond my capabilities I just summon my warwork friends and about a minute later the problem is resolved. Synapse and Mynx were always a concern in the PI bank missions, nowadays they are pushovers. Lore + VEAT buffs makes for a formidable strike team =)

Edit: GMs are only soloable if I have the Vanguard EB pet on me, with lore pets I can still damage a GM but the lore pets expire before the GM is defeated. The vanguard pet solves this issue.

Wasn't a troll attempt, just an honest question: lots of posts regarding how powerful khelds are here, just as many asking for them to be looked at. Just trying to understand is all.

So a WS can just waltz through the toughest factions in the game on the hardest settings w/o breaking a sweat? After reading this I fail to see how anyone can be serious about further buffs to WS's, esp regarding something ridiculous like a -500% regen debuff (what melee toon wouldn't want that?).

Of course I'm no expert on khelds... why do you guys feel these buffs would be justified?

Banes have a better stealth and a bit more hit point potential (+250 with bane spider armor). The have significant -res capabilities as well, making them an excellent choice for a melee buff/debuff toon.

NWs have crazy defensive numbers, where banes have adequate defensive numbers that they augment with reliable knockdowns in their main attacks.

Banes would make a better single target killer than NWs due to its pets. Those disruptors have great damage and control, but in large maps with lots of mobs they randomly engage whatever is in their way so don't always expect them to be up for their full duration.

As for crits, the edge here is on the bane. They appear more suited to use placate offensively due their play mechanics: banes seem to be made for stacking -res, placating and delivering a huge hit with shatter where NWs usually "wind up" and build damage with FU. Bane's placate also has an additional 20% ToHit buff attached, further supporting its offensive role.

Banes have a better ranged and AE I think: poisonous ray coupled with VG are great, and crowd control is a nice attack with guaranteed knockdown.

Personally, if you are going to min/max/invest massive inf into a one I would go with the NW myself. It's combination of offensive and defensive abilities set it apart from the bane:

- NWs are the easiest AT in the game to softcap, and you will have no problems running incarnate soft caps to all postionals and 45%+ to psi damage defense with the right investments.

- Also they have massive psi resists (you can cap at 85% if you wanted) and if your build includes tough then you can also hit the S/L resist cap... but you'll be close to dead.

-They have unbeatable status protection

- Have better buffs (where bane's have good buffs and -great- debuffs)

- Possess @ 27% DDR outside of elude, and @61% with elude running (banes have zero)

- can manage 260-270 single target DPS and respectable AE damage (banes can have great DPS but their pets need to be both focusing on its target)

- Has access to a few ranged psi attacks, which is great for bosses that like to use unstoppable

- Throw in a stealth IO and a NW is on par with a bane's stealth level

NW's aren't perfect though, they have low hit points (if you are pushing 1500 you're doing great), and they can have end issues if you don't slot it in attacks. I think really what it boils down to is the bane spider is a fine melee stealth toon with lots of tools at their disposal, where NWs are just simply a little bit overpowered (yes, I said it).