Crabs can solo quite well, but their key strength is definitely in the - quite frankly disgusting at times - AOE we dish out. I'm sure you can solo a few EBs here and there, but the lack of consistent single target damage and mitigation means you'll likely be struggling to do so (especially without pets).
Would be an interesting project, but far from the best VEAT for it.
My own experience has shown that eight man minion/Lt spawns go down in the blink of an eye (even without the aid of others), but Bosses are rather iffy unless team mates back me up.
I'll be interested in the responses here, only got my crab to 30 atm but the difference between running solo or in a team with other VEAT's is very very significant.... Solo they just dont seem that impressive and I would doubt I could solo an EB without a mass of Insps and a bigger accumulation of debt 
, run with a couple of other VEAT's and you seem to be able to steamroller anything almost too easily....
If you get 8 Crabs at once I say you'd be able to knock around a few AV's. I killed 4 bosses with 4 Crabs in 2mins
[ QUOTE ]
If you get 8 Crabs at once I say you'd be able to knock around a few AV's. I killed 4 bosses with 4 Crabs in 2mins
[/ QUOTE ]
Eight Crabs at once is not doing things solo. 
/gasp
Fair enough. I take it that Night Widows will gut EBs no problem, though? That was the other VEAT I was intending to try out, though after the Crab of course.
I was going without pets because I'd heard that they were only really useful with all those Leadership powers I was forgoing - is this correct?
I would hope there are builds which can provide some degree of soloability, but the design is definitely team based.
Not sure about the Widow, but even there I believe solo will be a challenge by other AT standards.
Hopefully in time some people will offer some build combinations to bais the character one way or the other.
Meh I'vesoloed a few EBs already on my Fortunata. Mainly using Widow powers, as mez is useless.
I'm only at level 15, but I've taken out a couple of Elite Bosses solo without any particular difficulty - a few insps to help things along. I'm hoping I can carry on doing that after specialisation...
First and only EB I encountered on my Crab was Silver Mantis. I couldn't do enough single-target damage to outdamage her regeneration, and eventually, after kiting her around the room with no endurance left, died. Bleh.
Silver Mantis is a serious toughie by EB standards. Took me six deaths for Ghazrak to solo her at level 42, and she was only orange.
Red-conning Manticore, on the other hand, I wiped the floor with.
And everyone forgets the Banes.
Bane Spiders have enough ST damage/buffs/debuffs to take out an EB but lack a little against large amounts of enemies (5 and above is when it gets tricky, but still doable). As said, Crab Spiders are really good at AoE and will wipe out just about anyone below a boss but they lack ST. EBs are doable but can take a while
Do have a glance at Bane Spiders at the very least, they aren't as bad as everyone makes them out to be.
I am the Blaster, I have filled the role of Tank, Controller and Defender
Sometimes all at once.
Union EU player! Pip pip, tally ho, top hats and tea etc etc
[ QUOTE ]
Bane Spiders have enough ST damage/buffs/debuffs to take out an EB but lack the defenses to live long enough to do so without a full tray of purple insps
[/ QUOTE ]
Edited for truth. If you want to solo EBs and AVs then a Night Widow is your best option.
[ QUOTE ]
they aren't as bad as everyone makes them out to be.
[/ QUOTE ]
People aren't making them out to be bad. They are just inferior to the other SoA options. There is a very big difference.
I really should do something about this signature.
See PRAF? That's why I highlighted it in the other thread.
While you say your going to forego all the team buff power I would highly suggest trying to get 'Tacticle Training: Manouvers' as it will provide you with a 'lot' more defence than 'Combat Training: Defence' as the latter only protects a little against range attacks so melee will quite easily hit you while the former will grant defence against all but psi attacks both close and long ranged.
So my DB/WP Brute, Ghazrak Khan, has hit Grandville, and it looks like the most likely VEAT I'll roll once I get to 50 is a Crab Spider.
Now, one of my favourite hobbies in this game (and a useful one, given their prevalence) is duking it out one-on-one with Elite Bosses. My AT and powersets make this fairly straightforward, though still a challenge, and I was wondering just how good Crabs are at this sort of thing in comparison (for reference, I was probably going to make a Crab soloist who skips out on most of the Leadershippy powers and the pets for straight-up individual durability and damage output), given that I tend to build in a slightly suboptimal manner and don't really bother with IOs until about level 37.
Thanks in advance for any replies.