The Role of the Bane

I leveled up as a Crab and only made a Bane build as sort of a whim. My Bane has no purple sets nor the fighting pool and does exceptionally well if I do say so myself. The only time I have problems is against Romans and I can still do a good job of clearing the wall. I play it as a scralker and on a team except that my role is to run toggles, surveillance where needed, and take out hard targets when I can. My Fort/Widow is only 43, so I can't give a good comparison between that and a 50 SoA, but I don't think there's anything wrong with playing either from my experiences so far.

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Try a BU>Crowd Control>Venom Grenade from Hide combo on some spawns and I think you'll agree.

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Fix'ed

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I'll see your fixed and raise you a Hide crit.

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Touche

Whats the best way to utilize Venom Grenade in your combos as a bane since you have to try and stealth or placate to get your criticals? Do you venom grenade, build up, then placate, then crowd control in the center of a spawn? Does placating one mob give you the crit on ALL the mobs?

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Does placating one mob give you the crit on ALL the mobs?

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Yes. Because it puts you back into hide.

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I don't understand why all the talk about Bane being squishy, and constantly comparing it to Night Widows. Bane is vastly superior in every facet of gameplay, minus the slow casting and no elude.

The damage output is ridiculously high, and as for smacking around heroes, a fully slotted Bane Spider has no problems doing it. As far as soft capping on defenses, wasting power slots on the fighting or leadership trees is pointless. Just spend the money IO'ing your toon out with purples and other expensive sets, and you'll be fine. I have a lvl 50 Bane God. So my advice is simple...stop comparing it to NW's, its a different class, different style, and better in my opinion. Of the VEATS it is clearly the strongest, anyone who claims it isn't, either has never played a Bane Spider, or just has no skill.

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I think somebody here really overrates their own so called "skillz". It always happens in discussions like this.

"d00d 1f j00 7H1nK 7H15 CH4|24C73|2 5UCK5, 7H47 jU57 M34n j00 g0t n0 5K1LLz"

Next thing you know, he'll be challenging anyone to a dual in the arena to prove his m4d 5k1llz.

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1. Any reason to stack the 2 armors, the initial 1-24 one and the upgraded Bane one? Can you even DO that?

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Yes, you can do it, and the reasons for doing so are pretty obvious: so you get the benefits of both! More damage resistance and more mez protection! Truthfully, you can get away with just one, (the Bane one because it's way better) but getting both can't hurt, and they're a handy place for the Steadfast Protection globals.

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2. If I'm mainly soloing, is there much of a reason to take the Tactics toggle? I'm having a tough time fitting it in with the other powers I want for soloing (Frag grenade, Pummel, Bayonet...just for fun, really).

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More ToHit is always good, and it lets you be more flexible with your accuracy slotting. This helps with the pets, because you'll want to devote at least 3 slots to recharge on them which only gives you 3 slots for Accuracy and damage. If you can find the slots, and it's worth it to, six-slotting it with Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control gives you an excellent 2.5% defense to Melee, Ranged, and AoE damage.

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3. Do people bother with Wide-area Web Grenade? I took it, but rarely use it for much of anything, it seems. Thoughts?

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It's great for dealing with pesky runners, but the AoE is very small and in general the Web Envelope power from Mace mastery is much better (wider AoE and faster recharge). I took it on my Wolf Spider build but don't use it much and generally forget I have it.

I will say that knocking the flying patrols in the Longbow cargo ship base missions out of the sky with it was unusually fun for me.

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4. So Web Cocoon is really that awesome? Based on the mag, looks like it can hold a boss on one hit, and the duration is enough to stack it with minimal recharge enhance (maybe even just Mental Training). Any comments on how to slot, why it's so great?

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Web Cocoon is good for all the same reasons as WAWG/Web Envelope. It can't hold a boss in one shot (unless you stick a Lockdown proc in it and the proc goes off. Lockdown is a good set for Banes to slot because it gives Ranged and AoE defense), but the -recharge can help with mitigation, especially if stacked with WAWG/WE, and since it's a Web 'nade type power that means it's the one of the best "you're not running away now" powers in the game. Plus it's a hold, great for dealing with things like Sappers.

But no, it's really not THAT awesome.