My first soldier should be?...
By
Akuma_Mishima,
Posted on: 2009-04-30 10:46 in Soldiers of Arachnos
If you like melee based toon i'd say the bane spider could be a good choice. the crab spider (for the arm's) is ok for melee but is much better at AoE (more focuced on range IMO).
in reality it all depends on what options you choose. They are all good archetypes, some are just better at things than others.
Night Widow is nice at melee. Same powers as claws and spines, kinda. Select the 2nd build as Fotunata for awesome AoE types of ranges damage and you have the best of both worlds.
I just got 1 too, and it's my favorite toon to date i think.
None of them are crap. They have a broad selection of powers enabling you to do almost anything you want other than healing. For example, I recently did a trial with a tanking Crab. He has excellent defense, a big self-heal, an AoE debuff, an AoE immobilize, and a couple of PBAoE attacks. Add in the Presence pool and you have your tank. Another example is my PvP Huntsman, who is rather like a weak AR/Rad Corruptor but with far better survivability.
You might do well by looking at the available VEAT powers and then choosing the AT that has the most of what you like.
Arachnos Widows are the more melee oriented of the two ATs. In terms of specific builds, Night Widows and Bane Spiders are rather melee centric. I'm in the mood to do a breakdown so please bear with me.
Arachnos Widows: Night Widows are renowned for their killing power. A good number of their attacks are classified as high damage powers and their ability to greatly increase their own Defense and that of their teammates via their Mind Link power makes them comparable to Claws/SR Scrappers. However, most of the damage they do is Lethal which, as you probably know, is commonly resisted.
The Fortunata branch provides you with a wide variety of powers. You can blast and control in both single target and AoE capacities. You can even move into melee range if you retain some of the powers from the Blood Widow pool. A melee capable Fort would be my personal recommendation because I like being able to do it all (My main is a Kheld 
). If you choose to go that route I'd suggest you post a build here as there are a lot of choices you have to make.
Arachnos Soldier: Bane Spiders are known for being more Stalkerish. They have lower melee Defense and are more reliant on stealth to deliver heavy blows. Unlike Night Widows, Banes have access to a number of ranged attacks in the form of Mace Beams. Though some people avoid these powers, their Energy damage and Toxic DoT can be useful. Plus, they look freakin' cool 
Crab Spiders are the more ranged centric variant. While they have access to melee attacks, most people avoid them in favor of their AoEs. Crabs are capable of greatly increasing their Resistance and have a self-heal in the form of Serum. The combination leads some to build them for tanking. Crabs are sometimes referred to as "Pocket MMs" because of their ability to summon up to five Arachnobots to assist them.
NOTE: Some people choose to retain a large number of the powers from the Wolf Spider pool and pick up a few key powers from the Bane Spider pool. These builds are known as Huntsmen. There's a great guide for this variant listed in the Guides and FAQs section.
I play a melee Fortunata, and she is my favorite villain. The blood widow melee attacks are very quick, usually under a second in activation time, but take longer to recharge and cost more endurance than the claws set, so night widows and melee forts benefit heavily from set IO's and global recharge.
For a fortunata, having powers like dominate and confuse, which are almost dominator level in duration, are an incredible boon, as having less hitpoints and less defense resists than an /SR scrapper will make you feel kinda squishy at times.
It is probably the most fun ever, confusing a longbow nulifier, and having him use his -res grenade on his balista friend prior to my engaging and bringing a world of pain to them both. (confusing custom kinetics mobs with speed boost in the MA is a close second)
imo, a fortunata that does not neglect it's melee, buff, control, and ranged is one of the most well-prepared builds in the game.
I just ITF'd with my fort a little while ago,Cyclops and Minotaur psy res hole is too fun.
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Hello all jsut hit 50 on my ar/dark cor and now get to make a VEAT.
Question what should I choose? Are any pretty much crap?
I tend to enjoy more melee based toons, but at teh same time those spider arms appeal... :P
does one tend to outshine another?
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Honestly, if you put some decent sets in any of the VEAT, none of them are even close to "crappy".
I put some expensive sets in Fortunata and Night Widow and both of them PWZ so hard. Crazy damage output, defense, team buffs (I have two Assault) and full of fun! They are extremely solo friendly and team friendly.
Lower level VEATS may suck a bit but now you have AE farms... hehe
If you want more melee, go with either NW or Bane. If you like fast action, NW or hard hitting, Bane. Bane is on the "slow" side. Almost every attack takes 2s but Bane is the only melee with two resistance debuffs which can be very beneficial on a large team (against AV for example).
NW has god-mode defense but quite squishy. If you get two unlucky hits by boss, you are dead. Bane at least has two reliable knockdowns which are surprisingly useful when you solo.
Crab can be all range with 1-2 melee mixed in for theme. Crab's aoe is probably the best of all 4. Crab is actually more "tankerish" than Bane.
Fort is the most versatile of the four. You can make her control-heavy, melee/range hybird or all range attacks with some controls (I skipped confuse/aoe hold and took one more Assault and Gloom instead).
Bane can be all melee or a mix of range and one Single Hold, two resistance debuffs. If you want to be an ultimate team-character, take two resistance debuffs (Venom and Surveillance, two Assault, two Maneuver).
What's left is to normalize all Assassin Strikes and improve Stalker's old sets (Claw, MA and EM)! You don't need to bring back the missing PbAoE attack. You just need to make the existing ones better! For example, make Slice a WIDER and LONGER cone.
Make a Tac Ops. I call it that since people make 'Huntsmen' with a mix of Bane and Wolf. Tac Ops? Full Wolf, never branch to other powers. Take All Leaderships, The Medicine Pool, Fitness and the Mace Mastery Epic. Won't need to worry about slotting any accuracy with that build, rather safe, and good damage with Venom Grenade.
People think you HAVE to get some Bane/Crab powers, which I say they actually lose a lot by going into it. XD
With love,
Me! <3
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People think you HAVE to get some Bane/Crab powers, which I say they actually lose a lot by going into it. XD
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Except for the fact that the Bane Armor Upgrade is straight up better than the standard Wolf Spider armor. Refusing to select the upgrade after level 24 is either an act of purist masochism or elitist machoism one, though I've yet to figure out which really compels people.
Anyway, on topic: I'm running a dual-build Bane / Gunbane (I hesitate to call it a Huntsman because of purist crazies, but that's what it is, just with a couple choice morsels from the Bane secondary), and I'm having fun. The Bane build is definitely upstaging the Huntsman-like build at the moment, but I intend to make the Huntsman an entirely team-oriented build, so they should have very different functions by level 50.
Basically, if you've ever wanted a Stalker that doesn't stink, roll a Bane.
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Make a Tac Ops. I call it that since people make 'Huntsmen' with a mix of Bane and Wolf. Tac Ops? Full Wolf, never branch to other powers. Take All Leaderships, The Medicine Pool, Fitness and the Mace Mastery Epic. Won't need to worry about slotting any accuracy with that build, rather safe, and good damage with Venom Grenade.
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Wait...Wolf Spider Tac Ops troops ONLY use the mace. They've got Mace Beam, Poisonous Ray and Pulverize. That's all, no gun. They're more like Banes in training than hybrid soldiers.
My first VEAT was a bane and i instantly fell in love with him,
Plus you said you prefer melee types, i hear NW's are pretty amazing at melee but ive never tried one first hand, so cant lend any help there.
But i can tell you that a bane can 1 shot Lt's from stealth, and 1 shot minions from un-stealth (if thats a word )
PLus theyre pretty survivable. I popped one med purple and solo'd Swan without taking any damage once
Not sure if anyone's mentioned this already but you can kill two birds with one stone now with dual builds.
Level a bane or crab up to 22, slot SOs/IOs and have fun. You can even slot them at the same time, sets exluded, and alternate from one to the other whenever you feel like it.
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My first VEAT was a bane and i instantly fell in love with him,
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This is exactly how I felt, once I turned 24 and switched and SO'ed him up the first thing I did was solo two EB's. after that I turned 26 and got placate, I got on an eight man team and everybody died but me and I took on like three full eight man mobs of Scrapyraiders.
Those were the two moments that I felt epic. Well he was also the first toon I IO'd out, oversoftcapped defenses in melee, range, and AoE. This was the first toon I loved to play (that is not a dominator).
"Yes, winning all the time can be boring."
-Knight_Chill
"It's amazing how well you can put up with endurance issues if you hide them under a large enough pile of bodies."
-Spiritchaser speaking on Dom Revamp
I'd say a Fortunata, it easily the best toon I've used (IMO)
if your looking for a soldier and not a widow, I'd have to
sugest Crab, nice damage fair to good def/res to keep you
up, and the fun of the pets. Though the Fort with even more
def (softcap realy isnt hard on either widow build) and all
those psi attacks with the status affects to just wreck most
foes I've ever encoutered, Dominate and Subdue your best
freind in an attack chain TK thrust up there too. 
Hello all jsut hit 50 on my ar/dark cor and now get to make a VEAT.
Question what should I choose? Are any pretty much crap?
I tend to enjoy more melee based toons, but at teh same time those spider arms appeal... :P
does one tend to outshine another?