Santakid

I've been wracking my brain trying to come up with a good concept for a water/dark. ideas so far:

-the petrosexual (black tinted oil spray)
-billy the squid (black tinted ink attack)
-Redundantly evil Jil (tinted red for blood...shoots blood and summons demons/dark)
-Old Malty Dog / Beerbot (with brownish yellow attacks...'dark beer')
-some version of Vigo the Carpathian (pink slime attack and darkness)

None of them really FEEL right. bah!

I REALLYYYY like it! I never bother to add energy defense to my corrupters, but this showed that you did it without really losing much.

I don't usually try to go for anything above 45% defense to anything. If you are just aiming for 45%, you can lose a few % here and there in your build. I also don't really put much faith in set bonuses that add regen / hit points / recovery to a corrupter. I once made a build trying to stack recovery....and it came up painfully short.

I shimmied around a few slots to come up with this:

I was wondering if anyone had tested the overwhelming force proc in robots?

My original thought was to put the proc in battle drones, because I feel like they provide most of the knockback. Looking at their powers however, it seems they only have one knockback power (though you do have 3 of them using it). Assault bot has 3 knockback powers, one of which is AoE.

Just wondering before I started messing around with the test server....

Except that Posi's blast gives a recharge bonus when 5 slotted. If the bonus was at 5 slots, I would be all over it. It might give better numbers then the other sets...but spending hundreds of millions of inf on a set that will make me respec to make it usefull...and doesnt have a great proc....eep

Thanks for the help and the response!

I was wondering if someone could tell me how this works.

Looking at the set, it seems pretty useless. No S/L defense (which is what I wants), the recharge bonus requires a silly 6 slots, bonus is negitive damage added to an attack...meh.

BUT then someone told me the dominator set gives them a global +damage proc, that applies to all their powers. The wiki info seems to make it seem this is just added to the slotted power...but that is not the case.

So, does Malice of the Corrupter apply negitive damage to ALL attacks, or just the slotted power?

Necro0mNomNomicon, I must say you are a master at your craft. Before reading this guide, I really don’t think I understood anything about this game. I’m surprised that I managed to even load it, being the n00b that I was.

I had one concern in reading it though. I am not one to doubt the POWER of knockback. Nay, it is a beautiful thing. But I was wondering…as any aspiring apprentice might…what about the untold wonder that is intangibility?

With that in mind, I present to you my build, which I will begin to construct tonight (on Freedom of course). I will follow it with notes…and pray that I can achieve half the level of helpentroping that you have. Any feedback you have for me would be wonderful.

Now I'll plop down my build, with some notes:

Let’s do some power-by-power feedback now. Note that changing the focus from typed to positional defenses will change ALL of your slotting…hehe

-Pummel/Slice/Arm Lash: See above for melee power thoughts.
-Wolf Spider armor: this power really doesn’t need 4 slots. I understand you slotted this way to get set bonuses, but the power gives such a TINY bonus that having these slots is a waste.
-Combat training, Offensive. Another really weak power. It helps in the low levels when you need more accuracy, but mid to late game its useless. It buffs accuracy (which is weaker then to-hit buffs) a TINY amount. Why it doesn’t hurt, you have more fun options available…and putting a slot in there DOES kinda hurt.
-Tactical Training: mauvers. This power is GODLY. More slots..max its defense!
-Crab Spider Armor Upgrade: see above…I wouldn’t put so many slots in it.
-Frag Grenade: I love this power, but it needs damage, not knockback.
-Frenzy. I wish this power was nicer. It looks cool, its description sounds awesome. But the range on it is reaaaally small. Theres so many amazing PAoE damage powers, and sadly, this is not one of them. I suggest you do what everyone else does…try it out, then respect it away…hehe
-Venom Grenade: buffing its recharge is nice, because this lowers resist. But it needs accuracy and damage…it’s a great damage power (and TOXIC nom nom nom).
-Heavy Burst: slot for damage, not debuff
-Web Envelope / Wide Area Web grenade. Granted, I havnt tried these. I don’t find immobilize to be too important on my crab. BUT if you do want one, take one…not both. You really really do not need both.
-Shatter armor. An excellent choice! Our patron pools are really quite lacking, but this is one of the better options.
-Health: Miracle and numina’s are quite helpful in here, regenerative tissue not so much. The only regen power you have is health itself, plus your inherient for being a crab. I would just have two slots in health.
-Stamina: This is a bit overboard with slots. My build is pretty tight, so I only have 2 slots in here. 3 would be the most I would recommend…4 goes above and beyond your max, and the set bonus from Performace shifter, 4 slots, is not as good as it sounds.

A note on recovery: you have stamina…2 slots will do fine in it, add a 3rd if you really want to be safe (2 end mod IOs, and a performance shifter +end). You also have a bonus to recovery as your inherient class ability. Note that the toggles in your secondary use very little endurance. My crab runs something stupid like 9 toggles, including heavy use ones like tough, weave, and maneuvers, and I do just fine. Get some end redux in your attacks, and is all easy!

Ahh...i spent a half hour writing a response, and then my computer deleted it. Perhaps I'll come back and re-write it, but for now, a summary:

I notice two things right away about your build...

-You are slotting for type defenses, specifically smashing/lethal. Crabs are alot easier to slot for positional defenses...melee/ranged/AoE. this is because you naturally have two defensive powers in your secondary..one gives Ranged def, one gives defense to all. You have no specifically typed powers. Postional defense gives you better protection overall then typed, and is easier to slot for. To really make it work though, you need some positional defenses in your powers...which you have as a crab.

-I also notice lots of mellee powers. Crabs can do several things really well. Ranged AoE death, pets, and survivability. They also have some nice buffs/debuffs. They really are not great at melee fighting. For one, melee defense is the hardest for you to softcap. You have no critical strike like a bane, widow, scrapper, or stalker. Also, my favorite attack is Suppression, which you don't have in your build. Its a cone, which many people avoid...but its a HUGGGEEE cone, with a cool animation. Its a beautiful power, and it would be a shame to skip it. Its little brother, heavy burst, you did take...but it should be slotted for damage, not debuffs.

This guide is very helpful, and is by far the best guide ive seen on these forums....written by Lobster. Give it a read!

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=124467

By 'exploit' you mean "make really fun missions, be creative, and enjoy yourself?"

Rampant exploitation!

Yay! This sounds fun!

Any thoughts on what you are getting for your other slots?

my ideas:
Interface: originally I was thinking reactive, more damage and -resist means killing stuff faster. I think I'm actually going with Diamagnetic now...my toon has lots of defense (softcapped on S/L, high on energy) and the -tohit stacks with that and out toggle debuff. I hate being mezzed, i want to live for my debuffing to work!

Judgment: I think I'm going Void, it has a debuff instead of a mez...Don't know the numbers on this stuff. Plus neg damage is rarely resisted

Destiny: The barrier power is realllly sweet...DEF/RES/rez x 2? so tempting. But so is clarion....ive been wanting mez protection pretty much forever...and it can also boost secondary effects? I just dont know!

*flexes radiation fingers*

Ok, so sonic I dont have much experiance with, but this is what I gather:

-Shockwave does weak damage, has high end cost, and gives lametastic knockback. You dont want to be knocking back the foes that are all in your AoE debuffs.

-sirens song is a cone sleep, which can be useful soloing, but i would say is 99% useless in team fighting. And against AVs....unless you are on a team with other toons with sleep and are trying to be tricky, this wont help. I would defniatly skip this.

-Screech is a single-target disorient. This one also has its uses, but is easily skipable. My corrs usually have a hold for a rare problem enemy (like a sapper) and this fits that role. Again, in big teams, its too slow, too specific, and too weak to be worthwhile. Again, vs AVs (which you mentioned), this wont do anything to em.

Dreadful wail is your nuke, and granted, really cool. But be careful, it takes all your end, which often means insta-death for a /rad. Your fancy debuffs will disappear and anything left standing will be ready, willing, and able to kill you. After a long time using it, i eventually dropped the nuke on my /rad cause I could never find the right time to use it. If the fight was desperate, then I needed my debuffs up or me and everyone else would die. If it was not desperate, the the power was a waste...it was more efficent to use other attacks. However, I'm talking about a fire/rad...and dreadful wail is WAY better then inferno.

Radiation (my forte):
-Chocking cloud, as stated, is really not worthwhile to ya. Also as stated, i love it on my controller, I find it useless on my corrupter. We dont have the holds to stack with it, we move faster then controllers (this power needs time for it to tick) and we do more damage (my troller has damage chances in this). Dont get this one. You also said you wanted to be an AV killing machine, and this wont do much vs AVs.

-Fallout I love but hate. The debuffs and damage from it is CRAZY...but its so situational. Maybe it gets used once or twice a strike force for me? I had it, specced out and dont miss it.

As for mutation and em pulse, i completly disagree. EM pulse is a sweet panic button, and wont drop your toggles. Its just...so...beautiful. The recharge is long, but thats what AM is for! And mutation has saved my team more times then I can count. It adds to the speed of your play (fallen friends up instantly, no downtime). Pulling up that downed tank/brute saves the day. Before I started playing city of, i read things saying rez powers were useless. "just dont die". not really a helpful mindset to me, toons die all the time. And they often die places that awakens wont help them...but mutation will. Mutation has a decent recharge and puts them at 100% of everything with a buff...so it really just needs one slot, which helps a build. And vs AVs...theres something that happens in a AV fight where one person dies and it chains to everyone. The tank falls, the squishes die. The support falls, the tank dies. Getting that first death back up right away prevents this inertia.

To each their own, and this one is mine...

I had combat jumping for years on my main toon, a fire/rad. I recently switched because:

1-with hover or fly, you can tank recluse on the statesmen. Putting a toggle debuff on him and flying away, he will chase you away from the towers and the rest of the team can easily drop them. Adding a damage proc in the debuff seals the deal.

2-being a ranged blast station is fun...hover gives you lots of maneuverability. It makes it easier to pick targets at a distance

3-raptor packs are nice, but can't be used in master runs, new incarnate trials, or some flashback settings. These are rare things...minus the new incarnate trials.

4-SB protection. Whereas when i was running and jumping everywhere, i hated the movement bonus of speed boost. With hover, i love it. The fly speed increase is way less then the run speed, and since you are more maneuverable, the speed is nice.

it does cost more end, but such is life. Though i find fly to be a slow way to travel...i think i will be swapping it for SS so that i can get the +stealth. Then i will have hover and SS...which is weird but oh well.

Ok, one power at a time:
PISTOLS: This one doesn’t really need any end redux (it costs 4.16) or recharge (4 seconds). I’d change the slotting to 4 devastation, this will save you a slot and get you a global 3% damage, as well as more base damage. You could 5 slot it to put a chance for hold, which is fun.

Empty clips: 5 posi’s is great, but the analyze weakness doesn’t do much for you.
Accelerate metabolism: The chance for +end here wont do much, it will only go off when the power is fired…a 20% chance for 10% end every two minutes isn’t much.
Bullet Rain: I think again, the acc/end enhancement is a moot point. Its current accuracy without it is 191%, and putting an end redux reduces it from 9 to 8 end.

Executioner’s shot: I like the 4 slots of devastation in here, yay damage bonus! The other two pieces there aren’t nessesary. If you remove them, you still have 236% accuracy, it recharges in 3 seconds and costs 5 end…fast cheap and it really shouldn’t miss.

Lingering Rad: while it looks like many of your powers are untra-buffed for accuracy, this one could actually use more. Try replacing one recharge with an accuracy or a Acc/slow.
Radiation Infection: If you can get 3 enzymes in here, they ROCK!

Piercing rounds: again, 5 posi= great…drop the tempered readiness.

Choking Cloud: Have you used this power yet? It’s a tricky one. I find it great on my controller and useless on my corrupter. It’s a PBAoE chance for hold. I usually find that my corrupter doesn’t have the pleasure of time to see if this goes off…either hold something or kill it! Hehe. If you have used it and like it, I would reeaaaaally suggest putting in more slots. It uses TONS of endurance…it needs end redux. After having some of those in there, putting in some procs is really fun, and you have many options. Theres a few chance for damages and one chance for +2 mag hold which is fun. If you do remove it, you could add a leadership power (assault for more damage, maneuvers for more defense and recharge) or maybe invisibility.

EM pulse: Ghost widow’s embrace is a pretty ****** set, to be honest. Putting in two lockdown gives you a damage bonus, so I would try to get two in there.
Focused Accuracy: This power is another one that is pretty easily skippable. You still have a TON of accuracy and adding another toggle that gives you more can strain your END without really effecting your play much. If you want another power from your pool to lead up to the pet, I’d suggest web cocoon. It’s not a great hold…it has a silly cast time and a weapon draw to it. But it has saved my *** many times, holding that one target I need to hold. Plus you have two other holds to stack it with…and the –fly has its uses for sure. Either slot if with basilisks for recharge (which lets you take it out of other powers if you’d like) or lockdown for the damage boost…or both!

So…if you take some of this advice, You now would have a bunch of extra slots. What to do with them!

-You can put two lockdowns in any of your holds for a 3% global damage buff.
-If you stick with choking cloud (which I can’t really suggest), throw a few of them into it
-Add procs to your attacks…either chances for holds (I think better on single target attacks) or chances for damage (I think better on AoEs). Most of your attacks can take slow enhancements, and the chance for damages from those sets are pretty cheap.

Good luck!

What do ya feel about this build? It incorporates some of the things I mentioned. It has S/L defense at 46.9 %...above the cap! You said that you wern't a huge fan of the pet...but even if you dont love it, check out the stats it gives you...for 4 slots you get 3% damage and 6.25% recharge. Adding Scorp armor, combat jumping, and a baslisks in the hold give you another yet more recharge and alow you to take it out of other powers. I dropped X-ray beam to 4 slots (still does more damage and gives you damage bonus now). The 7.5% status resist in tough isnt really that useful for ya....if you look, AM gives you 173% resist to most mezes...and having that perma makes other resists not-to-useful. I also dropped lingering to 4 slots using the curtail speed set. Finally, 2 slots were added to venge to give you yet more S/L defense and perception.

The only powers I removed was recall friend and web envelope in favor of combat jumping and web cocoon. I even stuck a slot in some of your toggles to reduce that END drain a bit...though you said it isnt really much of a concern.

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

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Level 50 Science Corruptor
Primary Power Set: Radiation Blast
Secondary Power Set: Radiation Emission
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Leadership
Power Pool: Leaping
Ancillary Pool: Mace Mastery

Villain Profile:
Level 1: X-Ray Beam -- Dev'n-Acc/Dmg(A), Dev'n-Dmg/EndRdx(3), Dev'n-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(3), Dev'n-Dmg/Rchg(5)
Level 1: Radiant Aura -- Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(A), Dct'dW-EndRdx/Rchg(7), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg(7), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx(9), Dct'dW-Heal(9)
Level 2: Radiation Infection -- LdyGrey-DefDeb(A), LdyGrey-DefDeb/Rchg(11), LdyGrey-DefDeb/Rchg/EndRdx(11), LdyGrey-%Dam(13), LdyGrey-DefDeb/EndRdx(13), Achilles-ResDeb%(17)
Level 4: Accelerate Metabolism -- Efficacy-EndMod(A), Efficacy-Acc/Rchg(5), Efficacy-EndMod/Rchg(15), Efficacy-EndMod/Acc/Rchg(15)
Level 6: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(19), RechRdx-I(19)
Level 8: Boxing -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(21), KntkC'bat-Knock%(21), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(23)
Level 10: Assault -- EndRdx-I(A), EndRdx-I(17)
Level 12: Irradiate -- Oblit-Dmg(A), Oblit-Acc/Rchg(23), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(25), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(25), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(27), Oblit-%Dam(27)
Level 14: Super Speed -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 16: Combat Jumping -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
Level 18: Tough -- S'fstPrt-ResKB(A), Aegis-Psi/Status(29), S'fstPrt-ResDam/EndRdx(29), S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(31)
Level 20: Enervating Field -- EndRdx-I(A), EndRdx-I(31)
Level 22: Lingering Radiation -- CtlSpd-Acc/Slow(A), CtlSpd-EndRdx/Rchg/Slow(33), CtlSpd-Acc/EndRdx(33), CtlSpd-Rng/Slow(34)
Level 24: Cosmic Burst -- Decim-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(A), Decim-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(31), Decim-Dmg/Rchg(34), Decim-Acc/Dmg(36), Decim-Dmg/EndRdx(36)
Level 26: Neutron Bomb -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(37), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(37), Posi-Dmg/Rng(39), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(39)
Level 28: Weave -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def(33), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(39)
Level 30: Maneuvers -- HO:Cyto(A), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(34), LkGmblr-Rchg+(40), LkGmblr-Def(40)
Level 32: Mutation -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 35: Fallout -- ShldBrk-DefDeb(A), ShldBrk-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(36), ShldBrk-DefDeb/EndRdx/Rchg(37), ShldBrk-%Dam(43), ShldBrk-Acc/DefDeb(45), ShldBrk-Acc/Rchg(46)
Level 38: EM Pulse -- UbrkCons-Hold(A), UbrkCons-Hold/Rchg(40), UbrkCons-Acc/Hold/Rchg(42), UbrkCons-Acc/Rchg(42), UbrkCons-EndRdx/Hold(42)
Level 41: Scorpion Shield -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), RedFtn-Def(43), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(43), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx(45), RedFtn-Def/Rchg(50)
Level 44: Web Cocoon -- BasGaze-Acc/Rchg(A), BasGaze-EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(45), BasGaze-Rchg/Hold(46), BasGaze-Acc/Hold(46)
Level 47: Summon Disruptor -- ExRmnt-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(A), ExRmnt-Acc/Rchg(48), ExRmnt-EndRdx/Dmg/Rchg(48), ExRmnt-Acc/Dmg(48)
Level 49: Vengeance -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), Rec'dRet-Pcptn(50), Rec'dRet-ToHit/Rchg(50)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Scourge
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 4: Ninja Run
Level 2: Swift -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Health -- Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(A)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Stamina -- P'Shift-End%(A)

And also, using your advise...Here's an updated version of my build. I took End Redux out of enervating field and removed some of the recharge (though left enough for perma AM and Hasten). It ends up with 43.7% S/L defense, 35% energy (Someday I'll save up enough merits for the 3% defense from the PvP resist set). It also does more damage then my other builds, gets more recharge in Rain of Fire (which is a power I love and when I can stack it my heart explodes in joy), though I do lose the chance for buildup in Fire Blast.

I'm running the musculature radial paragon and I LOVE it. More damage, stronger tohit and defense debuffs, and more end mod? SOOOO perfect for me...as a AoE damage/debuffer. The only downside is the runspeed...though stone tanks will love my AM more I suppose. I used to have massive end troubles but with the end reduxs in the powers and more end mod in AM and stamina...mmmm...

http://www.cohplanner.com/mids/downl...97FD175202EEB3

And one last thing to mention is that while we are looking at defense #s....keep in mind most of our targets should have Radiation Infection on them, debuffing their accuracy by 25-43%..

Or yet another build, incorporating stuff found on the forums:

http://www.cohplanner.com/mids/downl...4EF80B777CECC2

This one loses some fun procs, rain of fire loses recharge, loses global status resist, S/L resist and has slightly weaker holds and damage (only a few % though). BUT gains enough defense for S/L to go to 41.8% and energy to 35% (everything else at like 16).

I guess it all comes down to...how much is it worth it?

Another thought would be to alter lingering RAD to use 4 pieces of curtail speed...you'd get the same S/L def with less melee def, and have 2 extra slots to play with.

I'm having basically the exact same problem on my fire / rad. You seem far more commited to the trouble with your build...4 slots in boxing, 6 in lingering rad, 6 in fallout, 5 in web grenade (for more S/L).:

Here's some thoughts:

I would remove recall friend and put in combat jumping instead. This is another 3% defense to all, and immoblize protection. You can then stick a LotG recharge in for fun!

I would also recommend taking web cocoon over web grenade. I do see that its a nice place to get more defense, but just having a hold I find aids in my survivabiliity. Two mobs that I mentioned in my post specifically come to mind...sappers and gunslingers. If nothing else, 6 slot web grenade for a hair more DEF...the power doesnt need that much enhancing to make it worthwhile.

Your last power, I would take the summon disruptor. This will also aid in your survivability, in a less obvious way...the little guy will take some aggro off you and add some more damage..nothing groundbreaking, but something that I've noticed. If you're short on slots, try to get a Acc/Dam/Rec enhance in there.

I do, however, worry about END problems your build may have. You only have one slot in stamina at the moment, and tough, weave, assault, manuvers...none of these are very slotted for END. I find endurance on my toon to be a hard subject...our debuff toggles take TONS.

any advice you have back would be appreciated!
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=254531

Hello folks, I could use some feedback.

The toon in question is a Fire / Radiation corrupter. It was the second toon I ever made and still consider it my "main" after years of play. But, I've recently found that it isn't my favorite toon anymore. I have several characters that can sit in the center of madness and utterly destroy things...this one cannot. He can't really even solo well...a single gunslinger can rock my world.

When hero ancilary pools became available, I gave him the Power Mastery pool. "Two survivablity power and a way to boost my debuffs! ROCK!". However...the survivabilty didnt seem to do much. I think I actually die MORE often. In my old build, I had mace mastery. I could use the hold on problem targets (like sappers and gunslingers), and the pet offered did keep some aggro off. Force of nature seems bad at doing what I want it to do...be an 'oh ****' power. Usually when I activate it, I'm at ~25% health and theres lots of meanies looking at me angrily. So I hit it...and then die. In that situation, I could pop pills or hit demonic and be fine...but Force of nature doesnt seem to help.

My current build (though I have some random purples thrown in to work my way up to a better one):

http://www.cohplanner.com/mids/downl...0D99FF6A7AFD20

So, I'm wondering...go back to mace? I'm looking at builds and trying to figure this out. If I were to take the fighting pool for survivabilty (most likely losing the powers of fallout, aim, and acrobatics), and switch to mace...that still only gives me 34-36% defense vs S/L/E. My accuracy debuffs should raise that up...but I just don't know...hehe. Fallout and aim are powers I can live without, I just added them when stamina became inherent...though I will miss acrobatics I'm sure. There isnt really much room for more S/L defense that I can see...I could 4 slot boxing for a hair more, but that seems like a bit of a waste, and would lower my recharge by taking slots from other powers.

So here's a proposed build with mace returning:

http://www.cohplanner.com/mids/downl...12E12FAE82E61C

(also a change in this build is switching from combat jumping / SJ to hover fly and adding a damage proc to Radiation infection. This is to exploit a trick where you can trick recluse to run and hide during the statesmen...you drop RI on him and fly away...he tries to follow you but can't reach you, and the damage proc holds his aggro. I'm also not sure how this change will affect my toon...hover takes more END and doesnt have immobilize protection.)

Its a rather large overhall of slots, enhancements, and powers...and not something that I can easily test because theres so many new enhancements needed to make this work.

I can also just quit whining and adjust my playstyle instead. It is true that what a fire/rad is good at is killing things...AoE doom for mobs and debuff hell for AVs...and I should rely on control and taunt classes to keep me alive...but that just doesn't feel as fun to me, and I don't want to give up on this toon!

Lobster:

I have to say of all the guides posted on the forums, I think yours is by far the best. Strait and to the point, with lots of advise and including sets. I did some research today, and thought I would post my results on your guide, since I respect it so, and others looking at it might find this interesting:
-----
Of all my toons, the only one that I’m having trouble with alpha slot decision is my crab. Crabs have so many different abilities that its hard to figure out what to slot. I have my IO sets built to maximize positional defenses. After much review, here’s what I came up with

-Cardiac: Useful if you took leadership pool powers. Pick this and never run out of endurance.
-Musculature: Most versatile of the slots…gives you lots more damage while improving debuffs and a bit more endurance
-Nerve: useless
-Spiritual: Useful if you are a mastermind-crab, wanting perma-pets. Otherwise, skip.

I would highly recommend the musculature set for any crab. The reasons why are listed below, with supporting numbers. Note that I’m looking at the final level of the alpha slot, since I like to plan ahead..

=============================

Spiritual:

The Spiritual line doesn’t really entice me much. I didn’t slot my crab for recharge, and didn’t take hasten. The only powers that I have that aren’t up as often as I’d like them are my pets and serum (maybe omega, but meh). I didn’t go for perma-pets, I slotted to max out his survivability. Other bonuses this set provides are healing (for serum and health), Disorient and slow (useless for you), jump, and To Hit Buff (which would up your Tactical Training: Leadership and Aim).
=============================

Nerve:

Accuracy isn’t too important to me, I already have tactical offensive and Combat training: tactics, as well as set bonuses. Taunt, confuse, and fly are useless to me, as is hold. So really this would be for more defense…which is what I’ve been slotting him for. The defense bonus is 20%, so with the ED mod, we’ll call that 13.3%, roughly (the more exact number are below). Important to remember here is that we aren’t getting 13-20% base, but instead a 13% increase to our powers. I did some math, and came up with numbers, based on what was currently slotted:

Combat Training : Def--- BASE: 7.5% to ranged --- Enhanced: 11.8% --- With alpha: 12.8% (+1%)
Combat Jumping ---BASE: 2.5% to all ---Enhanced 2.8% ---With Alpha: 3 (+0.2%)
Tactical Training : Maneuvers --- 10% to all ---Enhanced: 15.75% --- With Alpha: 17.2% (+1.37%)
Weave --- BASE: 5% to all --- Enhanced : 7.8% --- With Alpha: 8.29 (+.48%)

So, it total, 2% increase to all defense, 1% increase to ranged defense. Pretty tiny. If I had maneuvers (and I wish I did), we would see a similar maybe +0.3 defense to all in here.
=================

Cardiac:

The main buff of this set is end reduction. This would be useful on many crab builds, especially those with the leadership power pool. I find I don’t often run out of END, but when there’s enemies around that drain it, it can be rough. Also note that most characters don’t max their end redux on most powers…and as a result, Enhancement Diversification is less pronounced….you’ll get more use out of these bonuses. Other things in this set are range (useful for a crab, we have 1-3 wonderful cones…but not necessarily needed), fear (useless to you), sleep (also useless), and resist. The resist is the most tempting of the secondary abilities…so lets again look at the numbers.

Crab Spider: 3% -> 3.6% S/L, 2%->2.4% PSI
Tough: BASE: 15% to S/L ---Enhanced 21% --- With Alpha: 23.9% (+2.9% to S/L)
Fortitude: BASE: 15% S/L, 25% E/N/C/F/T---Enhanced: 23.6% and 39.4%---With Alpha: 25% and 43% (+1.4% S/L, +3.6% to E/N/C/F/T)

Total Resist:
S/L from 47.6% to 55.2% (+5%)
Psi from 2% to 2.4% (+0.4%)
E/N/F/C/T 39.3% to 42.95% (+4%)

Again, the numbers look sad…though a bit better then the defense numbers. If you had taken wolf spider armor, you would get some other petty number. Also, my tough isn’t maxed on resist in my build, so you could get a few more % out of that.
===============================

Musculature:

Lastly is the damage increase set. Crabs are AoE masters…we do tons of damage, and pull lots of agro (that’s why I tried to max my defense). Having more damage is great, and we would actually have two different viable options with this set, both core paragon and radial paragon have their uses. Core would give more overall damage (roughly +32.35% compared to +23.65%), while Radial also gives end mod, run speed, and to hit deduff…both sets also have defense debuff and immobilize. Almost all of our attacks have a –defense component to them, which I often forget, so this buff is useful. The runspeed will unfortunately effect mental training, swift, and sprint. My crab took Darkest Night from the soul mastery set, which has –ToHit to it, but like the resist and defense powers, the bonus provided from the alpha slot would be quite low on this. Since I'm slotted for max defense, having a stronger to hit debuff is quite useful. Worth looking at, however, is the end mod modifier. I assume this effects stamina, which two slotted with IOs would look like this:

Stamina: BASE: +0.44 End/s---enhanced: +0.8 End/s---with Alpha +0.93 End/s (+0.13 end/s)

(3 slotting it would provide an enhanced +0.857 End/s ---Alpha +0.97 End/s. Also having the accolades increases this somewhat)
Yes, this is way less the benefit you would the Cardiac End Redux…but it is something.
======================

Of all my toons, the only one that I’m having trouble with alpha slot decision is my crab. Crabs have so many different abilities that its hard to figure out what to slot. I have my IO sets built to maximize positional defenses. After much review, here’s what I came up with

-Cardiac: Useful if you took leadership pool powers. Pick this and never run out of endurance.
-Musculature: Most versatile of the slots…gives you lots more damage while improving debuffs and a bit more endurance
-Nerve: useless
-Spiritual: Useful if you are a mastermind-crab, wanting perma-pets. Otherwise, skip.

I would highly recommend the musculature set for any crab. The reasons why are listed below, with supporting numbers. Note that I’m looking at the final level of the alpha slot, since I like to plan ahead..
=============================

Spiritual:
The Spiritual line doesn’t really entice me much. I didn’t slot my crab for recharge, and didn’t take hasten. The only powers that I have that aren’t up as often as I’d like them are my pets and serum (maybe omega, but meh). I didn’t go for perma-pets, I slotted to max out his survivability. Other bonuses this set provides are healing (for serum and health), Disorient and slow (useless for you), jump, and To Hit Buff (which would up your Tactical Training: Leadership and Aim).
=============================

Nerve:
Accuracy isn’t too important to me, I already have tactical offensive and Combat training: tactics, as well as set bonuses. Taunt, confuse, and fly are useless to me, as is hold. So really this would be for more defense…which is what I’ve been slotting him for. The defense bonus is 20%, so with the ED mod, we’ll call that 13.3%, roughly (the more exact number are below). Important to remember here is that we aren’t getting 13-20% base, but instead a 13% increase to our powers. I did some math, and came up with numbers, based on what was currently slotted:

Combat Training : Def--- BASE: 7.5% to ranged --- Enhanced: 11.8% --- With alpha: 12.8% (+1%)
Combat Jumping ---BASE: 2.5% to all ---Enhanced 2.8% ---With Alpha: 3 (+0.2%)
Tactical Training : Maneuvers --- 10% to all ---Enhanced: 15.75% --- With Alpha: 17.2% (+1.37%)
Weave --- BASE: 5% to all --- Enhanced : 7.8% --- With Alpha: 8.29 (+.48%)

So, it total, 2% increase to all defense, 1% increase to ranged defense. Pretty tiny. If I had maneuvers (and I wish I did), we would see a similar maybe +0.3 defense to all in here.
=================

Cardiac:
The main buff of this set is end reduction. This would be useful on many crab builds, especially those with the leadership power pool. I find I don’t often run out of END, but when there’s enemies around that drain it, it can be rough. Also note that most characters don’t max their end redux on most powers…and as a result, Enhancement Diversification is less pronounced….you’ll get more use out of these bonuses. Other things in this set are range (useful for a crab, we have 1-3 wonderful cones…but not necessarily needed), fear (useless to you), sleep (also useless), and resist. The resist is the most tempting of the secondary abilities…so lets again look at the numbers.

Crab Spider: 3% -> 3.6% S/L, 2%->2.4% PSI
Tough: BASE: 15% to S/L ---Enhanced 21% --- With Alpha: 23.9% (+2.9% to S/L)
Fortitude: BASE: 15% S/L, 25% E/N/C/F/T---Enhanced: 23.6% and 39.4%---With Alpha: 25% and 43% (+1.4% S/L, +3.6% to E/N/C/F/T)

Total Resist:
S/L from 47.6% to 55.2% (+5%)
Psi from 2% to 2.4% (+0.4%)
E/N/F/C/T 39.3% to 42.95% (+4%)

Again, the numbers look sad…though a bit better then the defense numbers. If you had taken wolf spider armor, you would get some other petty number. Also, my tough isn’t maxed on resist in my build, so you could get a few more % out of that.

===============================
Musculature:

Lastly is the damage increase set. Crabs are AoE masters…we do tons of damage, and pull lots of agro (that’s why I tried to max my defense). Having more damage is great, and we would actually have two different viable options with this set, both core paragon and radial paragon have their uses. Core would give more overall damage (roughly +32.35% compared to +23.65%), while Radial also gives end mod, run speed, and to hit deduff…both sets also have defense debuff and immobilize. Almost all of our attacks have a –defense component to them, which I often forget, so this buff is useful. The runspeed will unfortunately effect mental training, swift, and sprint. My crab took Darkest Night from the soul mastery set, which has –ToHit to it, but like the resist and defense powers, the bonus provided from the alpha slot would be quite low on this. Worth looking at, however, is the end mod modifier. I assume this effects stamina, which two slotted would look like this:

Stamina: BASE: +0.44 End/s---enhanced: +0.8 End/s---with Alpha +0.93 End/s (+0.13 end/s)
(3 slotting it would provide an enhanced +0.857 End/s ---Alpha +0.97 End/s)

Yes, this is way less the benefit you would the Cardiac End Redux…but it is something.
======================