Since night widows can stack followup they put out very good dps and make decent AV soloers. We have a few weaknesses, but most archetypes do.
Base hp
Widows have lower base hit points then stalkers, brutes and scrappers. Even with set bonuses and accolades a widow won't sit much higher then 1400 hp. When AVs do hit us, it hurts pretty bad.
Damage Mitigation
Outside of our defenses we don't have many options to increase survivability. Mind link has to be recast every 90 seconds, which drops dps a bit (unless you build for defense and skip it). The scaling resists we get don't kick in early enough to make a difference against AVs. We have no self heal, other then possibly Aid self, which has a stupidly long animation time and lowers dps. I suppose you could take tough, which opens weave and it would be easier to soft-cap without ML, but that significantly increases endurance drain.
Defense Debuff Resistance
We don't have enough of it to make a difference. This is probably IMO the biggest shortcoming. I hate fighting Cimerorans, or anything that has a sword, or gun, or radiation.
That all being said, widows can be very successful AV soloers. The easiest ones are psy AVs, they tend to have no lethal resistance and since we do have some psy resists, when we get hit it doesn't hurt too much. Numina and Countess Crey are good for starters. The hardest ones are AVs that have attacks with DoT components and defense debuffs. Positron and Silver Mantis suck really really bad, as do any that use fire melee. Sword users take a bit of dancing around. Anything else falls in the middle and is doable. A few exceptions are ones with lots of lethal resistance and tier 9s. I can't even scratch The Honoree.
AVs I've killed with my fort. I'm sure I can do more, but I haven't been at it too much recently.
Easy
Numina, Nemesis, Countess Crey, Swan, Mother Mayhem
Moderate
Sister Psyche, Kalinda, Citadel, Chimera, Hro'Dtohz, Mako
Hard
Ghost Widow
One thing to note, AV soloing isn't always 100%. Some of the easy ones may be, but most of them are a game of chance and will take several attempts. Don't be discouraged if it takes a while to understand each one's patterns or proper strategies.
Something like this would be a basic AV killer build. It has perma-hasten and ML and enough melee defense to overcome 2 defense debuffs from sword attacks before it drops below the soft-cap. It uses no purple IOs, but can easily be made more powerful by them if you care to invest that much. Also keeps TT:L and slash and dark obliteration as AoE attacks so its viable in a team environment. (TT:L isn't really needed for AVs, with all the acc slotting, short of defensive t9s)
[color:#489AFF]Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.401[/color]
[color:#489AFF]http://www.cohplanner.com/[/color]
[color:#B1C9F5]Click this DataLink to open the build![/color]
Code:
Made that up quick, but it should be able to run all the possible widow attack chains (might need to double check the recharge on slash for the quicker chains). In order from most to least damaging they are.| Copy & Paste this data into Mids' Hero Designer to view the build | |-------------------------------------------------------------------| |MxDz;1417;713;1426;HEX;| |78DAA594594F135114C7EF74B1D04E29A5A5855296B6ECCB48DF5C1E0CC1A220454| |C118C1A27633BD2913A43DA21E89B1FC0274DF445138DE0F2EC96C83751BF89683D| |CBB549E3A313F8FFE6DEB9E79CFF3D33B7C5FBE755211E9E134A7CB166341AFA42D| |D28576DA7A16F5915673FB066B87B75A3D651724DC3752A46400891A347FA46DDB0| |6CCBDED6D6ACEDAAABB74F26374CE3DEBE53DFD1E4BC1C4697EDAA59376D57FB7BA| |3AE3B4E4D5BB25CDB6C3478B06A1ABB90234883D2AE6956C2745B342B56D9B2CD44| |61D72A6B9B85850DBDE4ECD5F4A2D170CDFA833EF03605FF2F61477C35FDE20E202| |F3CDB045F9570C22274DC256476088B4180425142F4C2CDA078A5CA1948A4989CC8| |E00CB739439910AC10BA396D0112793991D7DBAD505DCED717A7512A46F0432FFDB| |2A03F47A109980AC8D000C704BF79F049CF7742DF0FC21294E894A19D190A3D04AF| |21E935C45E55F6AAB2D72EF6DAD5E6350905C31CE50973A5112E31C50503B020C29| |53C914DF23DBE0C9810532B842C2C88F2027F748692F630D28C11C6441B3A202A26| |371A7B4695E28F194FB9FC13C27290DF05AEEB4D5243127106B72717254F97605D5| |236243947255661AA5F86F6F3AA548890E6FE0F8509836065805B20064629F4B98A| |A9794F83DCAF216EE910B774845B9AE3968E722F57A0E0B0ECE5702FE5CEF00BCFF| |0577011166465DAEC01ED2F7748187DC3784B187F4798784FB80051631CA58CF1BB| |1E67BC069B9332DF24FB9B667FD3EC6F9AFDCDF216E6D066561C40D48C8C9AF9492| |5668F19BF0873BF194D425E7811C7A01A47F9B40F94EFE447C627C66742FE0B6118| |9A3A2F4DCF17E843C9F36793F6B50E27FCC12556FF9959F7B5CE9D5068E6B2AF753| |8FFEBFADAFA69E8BC82E7BD847215650B44B986721DE506CA4D7C700B45C761F3A8| |151D3985864EA39C41398BF2085706F01086505494304A174A04A51B2586924049A| |1BC4069FE01741B02BB| |-------------------------------------------------------------------|
1. FU > Lunge > Slash > Strike > FU > Lunge > Strike > Slash > FU > Lunge > Strike > Swipe
2. FU > Lunge > Slash > Strike > FU > Lunge > Swipe > Strike > Slash > FU > Lunge > Strike > Swipe
3. Followup > Swipe > Lunge > Swipe > Slash
4. Followup > Lunge > Strike > Swipe > Slash
5. Followup > Lunge > Strike > Swipe
6. Followup > Swipe > Lunge > Swipe
Edit: Forgot to put follow-up in the build, silly me!
Thanks for the build! A few questions about it:
1) What is the magic number for Recharge that you need to use the best attack chains? I know the build is at 158.8%
2) There are 2 set bonuses of HP beyond the cap, was this intentional?
3) What are the tentacles there for? Do they serve a purpose against AVs or just there for the set bonuses? (I have never been a big tentacle cone fan)
4) I was thinking of using Elude as an emergency click for +Recovery. Is this a good/bad idea?
Quote:
1. Global recharge isn't the big deal, just need to have the powers recharge before their spot in the attack chain. The global recharge is important only for perma-hasten to maintain the level of recharge. With some of the chains, you can drop hasten completely, even the lowest damage of the continuous attack chains puts out enough to take down most AVs easily.|
Originally Posted by TitanMan
Thanks for the build! A few questions about it:
1) What is the magic number for Recharge that you need to use the best attack chains? I know the build is at 158.8% 2) There are 2 set bonuses of HP beyond the cap, was this intentional? 3) What are the tentacles there for? Do they serve a purpose against AVs or just there for the set bonuses? (I have never been a big tentacle cone fan) 4) I was thinking of using Elude as an emergency click for +Recovery. Is this a good/bad idea? |
slash in 5.02s
strike in 2.38s
follow-up and lunge in 3.7s
2,3. I just threw that together quickly as an example, figured you'd tailor it to your playstyle and tastes. Tentacles don't really serve a purpose and I only checked the rule of 5s for recharge, didn't check for hp.
4. I recommend against this. After you have the build set for defense and attack chain, then work on the endurance consumption. The problem with using elude for end recovery is that it causes a crash, if you don't like using inspirations this makes things more difficult. As long as you don't run tough/weave or power pool maneuvers, and shut off tt:l you should be fine.
Could someone post thier NightWidow AV Killer build as an example for me to look at? Also can I get some general infor about soloing AVs with a NW? Can they solo all AVs, only some, strengths weaknesses? The more infor the better. Thanks