The Huntsman - Guide to the Arachnos Wolf Spider

One thing I'm not sure if you missed. IIRC you have no KB protection. Now you could spend big on the steadfast or karma -KB IOs, but if you can afford the slots, 4 slotting kinetic crash for 3 points of KB protection is a lot cheaper and makes kick or jump kick (attack powers you're not going to use so buy low level uncommon IOs from that set) not quite the turkeys they started out as. This is something I commonly do on fire armor toons as I want the fighting pool.

Great guide. But aren't you gimping yourself by not going Bane or Crab? Just looking at the dmg numbers on Mids it just does not seem worth it unless it is for a particular concept.

Not trolling mind you, just wanted to hear yours or anyone else's reasoning for not branching out. I am sure others would like to know the advantages of going Wolf Spider as well. Perhaps you hit on this in your guide and I just missed it.

Well my play experience has shown me that I am not gimp. I think the real issue here is that the Arachnos VEAT's (all of them from core to branch) really present multiple different paths to follow and I feel that none of them are really "gimp" I in fact feel that the Crab and Bane are weaker compared to the Wolf, but then again, that is a personal taste.

The reason for not branching is as different as the player that's making the choice. It's like asking why did you choose a VEAT over a regular AT? Why'd you pick that particular rifle skin? Why did you put on that particular pair of socks this morning?

It's all about choice. The Huntsman, as Aisynia describes him, is the "gun-toting badass" of the Arachnos world. Bane is the stealthy melee badass. Crab is the crazy arms of death, ranged/melee/mm/imnotreallysurewhatiam badass. Each one appeals to different people.

Just as some people play for concept, others play for statistical optimization. It's all about what you're into.

After trying Crab, Bane and Huntsman on Test, I went with Huntsman. It seemed the coolest. That's me.

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Just as some people play for concept, others play for statistical optimization. It's all about what you're into.

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The Huntsman combines both of these. It's probably the only time that lolRP and lolnumbers actually cooperate.

Nice guide! One suggestion though: Call Reinforcements could probably benefit quite a bit from the Soulbound Allegiance set (the purple pet damage set). Unlike the other pet damage sets, it has a lot of +recharge (just under 90%) and unlike Hamidon enhancements it has nice set bonuses. It's expensive, but might be worth it.

When I made my Bane Executioner, I went with Black Scorpion to stick with the theme. I already had summon reinforcements, so I got the disruptor also. Wow, what can I say about the 3 together. The 2 spiderbots were crazy damage dealers, but 3 are crazy.

After I hit 50 and started playing with my set IO's I went RV to play around. I got attacked by a tanker, which I placated, got a Executioner's Strike on after BU, but couldn't really do much to him, nor him to me. Then I summoned my 3 spiderbots and with their debuffs and holds I smoked his bags. With the Wolf Spider Huntsman, it would cause a lot of redraw for you, but I love the pets!

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Great guide. But aren't you gimping yourself by not going Bane or Crab? Just looking at the dmg numbers on Mids it just does not seem worth it unless it is for a particular concept.

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I can't speak for banes, but you're right that aside from concept it's not worth it to not branch into crab if you're looking at damage. Fleeting_Whisper actually summed it up quite well with this post:

Wolf Spiders have 3 (damaging) AoEs: Heavy Burst, Venom Grenade, and Frag Grenade. Crabs get 4 AoEs that can be put in a regular attack chain: Suppression, Venom Grenade, Frag Grenade, and Frenzy.

Suppression does more damage than Heavy Burst, with a 4s longer recharge and 0.33s longer cast, and twice the arc size
Venom Grenade(Crab) is 0.2s faster cast than Venom Grenade(Wolf)
Frag Grenade(Crab) has a 0.2s faster cast than Frag Grenade(Wolf), and does higher mag knockback
Frenzy does more damage than any of the other AoEs
None of the Crab AoEs cause redraw

And Omega Maneuver isn't available every fight, but does more damage still.

The Wolf Spider can't have a better AoE chain than the Crab Spider, assuming both are building optimized attack chains. It's not possible.

And just to add to that myself, you can go for a perma-pet crab build that will allow for 6 pets to be out punishing your foes at all times, yet another thing this huntsman can't do.

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Great guide. But aren't you gimping yourself by not going Bane or Crab? Just looking at the dmg numbers on Mids it just does not seem worth it unless it is for a particular concept.

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I can't speak for banes, but you're right that aside from concept it's not worth it to not branch into crab if you're looking at damage. Fleeting_Whisper actually summed it up quite well with this post:

Wolf Spiders have 3 (damaging) AoEs: Heavy Burst, Venom Grenade, and Frag Grenade. Crabs get 4 AoEs that can be put in a regular attack chain: Suppression, Venom Grenade, Frag Grenade, and Frenzy.

Suppression does more damage than Heavy Burst, with a 4s longer recharge and 0.33s longer cast, and twice the arc size
Venom Grenade(Crab) is 0.2s faster cast than Venom Grenade(Wolf)
Frag Grenade(Crab) has a 0.2s faster cast than Frag Grenade(Wolf), and does higher mag knockback
Frenzy does more damage than any of the other AoEs
None of the Crab AoEs cause redraw

And Omega Maneuver isn't available every fight, but does more damage still.

The Wolf Spider can't have a better AoE chain than the Crab Spider, assuming both are building optimized attack chains. It's not possible.

And just to add to that myself, you can go for a perma-pet crab build that will allow for 6 pets to be out punishing your foes at all times, yet another thing this huntsman can't do.

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I'm actually playing both a Huntsman and a Crab right now. The Huntsman is lvl 40 and the Crab is 32, and the both have double assault. Grabbing Build Up from the Bane pool greatly improves the Huntsman's AoE onslaught, even though he has one less AoE than my Crab. I'm building the Huntsman with tons of recharge in mind so that Build Up will be up more often. The Huntsman reminds me very much of my lvl 50 fire/nrg blaster in that he can take down large crowds with three buffed AoEs.

I'm also looking at adding Bile Spray as a patron to add a fourth AoE. You also get a pair of Arachnos blasters at 38, which certainly helps, but not to the extent of the Crabs' pets.

The Crab has Aim to provide a minor damage buff, but in my experience he doesn't kill groups of mobs as quickly as the Huntsman. He is still lethal, however. He reminds me of my AR/devices blaster. And the two sets of spiders, once they're added, will boost his damage output and survivability.

In my playing experience, both are very viable and the Huntsman certainly isn't gimped. It's just a slightly different playstyle that sets the two apart, much like playing the fire/nrg blaster a bit differently than the AR/devices blaster. I actually enjoy my Huntsman more because of what Build Up brings to the party, but both toons are fun and very capable of tackling the job at hand.

Edited for clairty

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The Crab has Aim to provide a minor damage buff, but in my experience he doesn't kill groups of mobs as quickly as the Huntsman. He is still lethal, however. He reminds me of my AR/devices blaster. And the two sets of spiders, once they're added, will boost his damage output and survivability

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patently untrue. While BU will provide 10 seconds of higher burst damage, crabs surpass huntsman in terms of DPS, which happens to be a more practical yardstick to measure performance since it more accurately reflects normal gameplay, ie. missions. As opposed to, for example, comparing 2 toons against one outdoor spawn and then calling it a day. Crabs do more DPS than huntsman, and I'd even argue the burst damage too. Crab's cone is twice as wide and encompasses a heckuva lot more mobs in its arc. Damage type is much less widely resisted, 3 extra pets that actually contribute quite a bit more DPS than people who don't know any better commonly think. And of course, there's OM which recharges quite a bit faster than traditional blaster nukes. There's also no redraw when taking patron attacks. None of the above mentioned even accounts for the crab's PBAoE attack. If I chose to mention that, it'd widen the gap even further, crabs are already ahead without it.

"Patently untrue?"

First, did you miss the parts of the post that included me saying I was basing my opinion on my playing experiences with my two builds. My playing experience and builds might be different from others, so our mileages may vary.

And it seems like you're treating my post as if I said the Huntsman is better than the Crab. Nowhere in there did I say that. I enjoy both, they just play a bit differently to me. I think the Huntsman is a very viable build and it's fun to play. I enjoy the Crab, too.

To me, and again this is subjective, my Huntsman seems to kill mobs faster than my Crab. Perhaps my crab build is different from yours Dveight, which puts us back at our mileages may vary.

You make very good points about the viability of a Crab's damage output and I certainly don't disagree with you. I didn't disagree with that in your previous post. I was merely saying that the Huntsman is a viable build for taking out groups of mobs if you're not looking for a Crab build.

I must be missing something here -- is there any reason to play a huntsman over a crab except for lolrp? I mean, they get comparable attacks, but crab gets all around better AoEs, and some of the best defensive abilities in the game. You use leadership pool powers to run 6 toggles? Are you joking? This build is not defensible from a practicle standpoint. The only way you can defend it is by making some fallacious appeal to "it plays different" or "it's a matter of personal preference" or some other such hogwash. I'm sure the "huntsman" build leaves a very "badass, guntoting" corpse.

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I must be missing something here -- is there any reason to play a huntsman over a crab except for lolrp? I mean, they get comparable attacks, but crab gets all around better AoEs, and some of the best defensive abilities in the game. You use leadership pool powers to run 6 toggles? Are you joking? This build is not defensible from a practicle standpoint. The only way you can defend it is by making some fallacious appeal to "it plays different" or "it's a matter of personal preference" or some other such hogwash. I'm sure the "huntsman" build leaves a very "badass, guntoting" corpse.

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I rebuilt my bane at 41 into a huntsman and never looked back. He is fully IO'd, sports 2 maneuvers, 2 tactics, 2 assault, and vengeance. He has both debuffs, venom and surveillance. 33% melee/AoE defense, 46% ranged defense. A nicely slotted aidself, -res proc in his heavy burst for more debuff. He has no endurance problems running his toggles and teams love his buffs. He is built for teams not for solo, but can solo just fine.

It's your opinion that a Huntsman is worthless, that's fine, don't make one. But the buff numbers I give my teams don't lie. My ranged defense keeps mine safe and I can heal myself. Therefor rarely is my Huntsman a corpse

Excellent and informative guide!

When the VEATs first came out, I made a character named "Gold Huntsman" JUST for this particular path. I hadn't seen any write-ups on following the Huntsman's path until today, and I am a happy camper now!

Thanks for taking the time out to do this. All looks good, and I am anxious now to take my level 23 Wolf Spider to the Hunstman path more than ever!

<QR>
Here are 4 reference builds, gathered from various sections of the forums, each of which is very good in its own way.

Reference A
[u]Click this DataLink to open the build![u]
The open slot is for a PvP IO
Remember 1/2 of cloak's defense suppresses during combat.
Immobilize can be slotted either Enfeebeled for Melee Defense or Positrons for damage at the expense of dropping during combat melee defense to 42 ish.


Reference B
[u]Click this DataLink to open the build![u]


Reference C
[u]Click this DataLink to open the build![u]


Reference D
[u]Click this DataLink to open the build![u]

I've updated this guide with some new info and changed the formatting to match these new boards. There are some other things I would also like to touch up, but it should be okay for now

This guide is EXACTLY what I was looking for.

I have been duoing a pair of wolf spiders and they are now approaching 24 and I was wondering if it would be silly to keep their assault rifles rather than look into either crab or bane.

I got overly excited and added the Achilles' heel proc into all my attacks and was dissapointed when I realised they wouldn't work once I respecced.

Thank you for reassuring me that I can continue to play the characters I have enjoyed so much so far!

Very nice guide have been using it for awhile, and it has helped me ALOT with my Huntsman.

Thanks for updating as well.

I loved this guide but was unable to say when you first wrote it. I wish all guides were this good.

I made my soldier with the full intention of going Crab at 24, but now I'm strongly considering just keeping him a Huntsman, in large part because of this guide. A worthy alternative and well-written too.

One thing that I've noticed reading the guide is that you don't mention the recharge intensive pet sets. I imagine that they weren't around when you first wrote this, but given how careful you are to mention the traditional difficulties with getting recharge into pets, I'm surprised you didn't add the RIP sets when you updated the guide.

The other thing that could stand to be written up is the 5th power that i16 added to each patron pool: arctic breath, shatter armor, static discharge (MORE AOE! ), and darkest night. I think there could be some interesting possibilities among them.

Those are nitpicks, really, though. I've always thought this was an extremely informative guide, and the only thing that's stopped me from building one is that I haven't come up with a concept I like yet. Eventually, though, I will, and I wanted to thank you for getting this idea out where I could find out about it.

Very nice guide. Added to your rep for it

I went a different route slotting out my Huntsman. Soft capped range and aoe defense but still have 108.8% recharge.

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Great guide!
I still plan on maybe going Crab for my second build (the arms don't bother me, in fact, I quite like them) but this definitely made me see the good in the Wolf and Bane powers. Slotting and stuff isn't something I focus greatly on, but a nice overview of the various powers available and what they're good at was very useful, liked the way you gave your honest views but didn't flat out tell people what to pick. I'm not necessarily following the recommendations to the letter, but I get the feeling you didn't make this guide so everyone would have the exact same build as you, but rather, that they/we'd have fun with our Spiders. Thanks!

Awesome guide! This gave me exactly the info I was looking for, as I havent really looked at VEATs at all until this week.

I was hoping that a Wolf Spider build would be viable, looks like thats the case.