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Also what helps Bane dps is the 2 pets they get, and the -res increases their damage as well.
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I do think that the "pets" that the Bane has access to "should" be included into all damage figures as well as "mitigation" figures. It can be hard to do this calculation, but I think they should be added to the results to make them complete.
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Thank you, it seems they are added to Crabs but most people seem to forget that Banes have access to them as well, even though Crabs get more, Banes do better dps and don't need as many.
"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
And people also forget that Crabs get access to VG as well, and it causes no redraw.
Banes of course get more, but it causes even more redraw.
Question:
Which pets would do better,
a Crab with 5 pets using VG, or a Bane with 2 pets using VG and Surveillance?
This is just a question that has been fiddling at my mind, and I'm to suckie at math to compute it 
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This is just a question that has been fiddling at my mind, and I'm to suckie at math to compute it
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Post it on the Scrapper forums. Everyone goes to them for number crunching.
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Sigh... this again. To start off with, all the SoA are awesome and I've never understood the need to ignore that Forts, Crabs and NW have clear advantages over Banes.
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Night Widows have no mitigation in their attacks, which banes have stuns, a hold, and knockdown. This helps not only the Bane survive but any teammates as well. One major way this is important is the ability to de-toggle nasty debuffs or buffs that enemies may use (hurricane, chill of the night, invincibility).
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False. NW have very high levels of -recharge which they can stack up on a tough enemy in seconds. It's quite amazing when you see a mob running away because it no longer has any attacks recharged.
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Having access to -res makes the bane better at fighting tougher bosses not to mention that Banes do Smashing, toxic, and energy dmg which are less resisted than lethal and psi.
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Again, false. Both -res cause redraw which hurts Bane DPS which already lags behind Night Widows.
I'm not biased by the way. I play a Widow/Fort and a Bane/Huntsman. I think that the Bane is good, the huntsman amazing (almost as good as a Crab without the ugly arms), and the NW/Fort obscenely strong.
I like Banes a lot. I really think they're fun to play. But they don't compare offensively to Widows and they are at best equal to Widows on the defensive front.
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Fair enough on the -rech but widows still lack any way to de-toggle an enemy and as for re-draw it may lower DPS but the -res really increases burst dmg. especially against an enemy with resistances to the Banes/Widows dmg types.
I agree that on Average Widows will do more consistent dmg than Banes, but banes can perform much better against enemies that Widows have problems with (CoT ghosts, robots, Rikti bosses)
I have run both builds to the 40s and there were enemy groups that I avoided with my Widow while my Bane could crack most targets equally.
Level 50s: to many to remember at this point
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Question:
Which pets would do better,
a Crab with 5 pets using VG, or a Bane with 2 pets using VG and Surveillance?
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Against a large group, a Crab, since Surveillance is single target, even ignoring the fact that the Crab has vastly more AoE output.
Against a hard target (AV/Hero being the classic example) I strongly suspect a Bane, since in addition to roughly double the -resist they probably have more ST damage output over a long fight then the extra pets a Crab gets. That would require some research to say for sure, though, as you'd have to find the damage the pets put out.
I may try to look into pet damage, though, as I'm debating whether to first put the effort into IOing out my Bane or my NW. My personal impression so far is that the Bane is more survivable of the two, but its been awhile since I played him and the NW is only up to 41 so I'd really need to compare both against similar foes at similar level to be sure.
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Question:
Which pets would do better,
a Crab with 5 pets using VG, or a Bane with 2 pets using VG and Surveillance?
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Against a large group, a Crab, since Surveillance is single target, even ignoring the fact that the Crab has vastly more AoE output.
Against a hard target (AV/Hero being the classic example) I strongly suspect a Bane, since in addition to roughly double the -resist they probably have more ST damage output over a long fight then the extra pets a Crab gets.
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In my playing experience, Scientist has it right. I play a dual build Soldier. My first/main build is a Crab, while my secondary is a Bane.
My crab is excellent against large groups, but would have problems in lower levels surviving the groups retaliation, as well as getting smacked around by AV/EB bosses alot. With getting all my pets, I can take just about any group solo, including AV/EB solo. With spiderlings and reinforcements, I can back up behind them and force them to take the attacks intended for me. I also notice that they tend to be less clumped in formation rather than a tight group, reducing the chance that aoe's will get them all at once, even from an AV.
My bane has always been my main AV killer. His knockdown attacks, plus stealth strikes and placate hit and run tactics have made it rare to find an AV I couldnt solo. The addition of reinforcements at higher levels help keep attention off of me. I'd like to say I adore Crowd Control for its mitigation and stealth.
My missions for quite awhile consisted of me using my crab to clear all the way to a boss and then, with a few exceptions, getting defeated by said boss. I'd go to the hospital and trainer, switching to my bane in the process, and go hand whatever EB happened to beat me down a few minutes before it's rear end on a silver platter. YMMV of course.
I'm not a number cruncher, not even close, but for comparison purposes, my crab uses SO's almost exclusively, while I have level 30-40 standard IO's on my bane to keep from spending massive amounts of infamy on 2 builds every few levels.
I hope someone got something out of this post, because I don't think I made a point anywhere. 
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I'd like to say I adore Crowd Control for its mitigation and stealth.
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Crowd control is frigging awesome. 180 degree arc, high damage that can crit from hide, knocks down all targets and has a target cap of 10. One of my favorite moves in the whole game.
It was better when it was capless.
*sigh*
But yes. Crowd Control is a awesome power. Sprinkle in Hide, VG, or Buildup for more awesomeness.
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Also what helps Bane dps is the 2 pets they get, and the -res increases their damage as well.
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I do think that the "pets" that the Bane has access to "should" be included into all damage figures as well as "mitigation" figures. It can be hard to do this calculation, but I think they should be added to the results to make them complete.