Huntsman branch for SoA

I know a pretty decent Huntsman can be put together using a few Bane powers (although completely avoiding the mace means losing build-up) and not having a Huntsman branch is kind of thematic in that a single Bane or Crab Spider is more powerful than a single Huntsman. So how about giving the Huntsman some backup?

To give a different feel to the existing branches I started thinking about mastermind-esque controllable Wolf Spiders complete with upgrade powers - we can't have too many pets of course because of all the attacks et al but a single set of pets and 2 upgrades should be workable.

Following the same pattern as the Crab and Bane secondaries we have:
1 Summon Wolf Spider (summons 1 Wolf Spider at even level up to level 23, 2 Wolf Spiders at -1 level thereafter)
24 Equip Wolf Spider (1st upgrade)
28 ?
35 Upgrade Wolf Spider (2nd upgrade)

Base powers: Single Shot, Pummel, TT: Maneuvers (+5% defence to all)
A basic ranged and melee attack and a group defence buff at half the power of your own and a smaller radius (~20'-30'?) - with both pets that's an extra 10% defence. Keep in mind this is in place of the likes of Bane Armor and Cloaking Device or Fortitude and Serum, and we're not going to benefit from mastermind's bodyguard mode either.

1st Upgrade: Burst, TT: Assault (+7.5% damage)
A stronger ranged attack and a group damage buff - again, half the strength and a smaller radius than your own so with both you get an extra 15% damage. We're not getting Aim or Buildup so I'd see this and the predictable "TT: Leadership" in the 2nd upgrade as quite justifiable.

2nd Upgrade: TT: Leadership (+5% tohit), Wolf Spider Armor, Mental Training
I couldn't justify giving them an AoE attack as your own attacks are on a par with a Crab Spider's anyway, so alongside the last leadership aura they have the Wolf Spider Armor giving them some basic status effect protection and Mental Training to speed up the availability of their single target attacks and offer a little resistance to slow effects. The Armor could include a health boost as well to up their survivability a little if needed.

That leaves us with a power needed for 28 (or 35 if we have the 2nd upgrade available earlier. We could be cheap and have a Web Cocoon clone except from the gun instead of the mace. I like the idea of a "Tactical Training: Efficiency" aura to add to the collection, offering 'Conserve Power'-esque endurance reduction (~30% compared to the 120% of Conserve Power or 60% of Energize) and a recharge boost (~20%, the same as Mental Training, seems reasonable compared to the 30% of Accelerated Metabolism and 50% of Speed Boost, but even 10% would be useful in a team setting). I'm not sure if there are any technical restrictions as to why those effects only ever seem to be attached to click powers, so it might end up needing to be a click team buff like Mind Link. Team endurance management powers are quite rare, and that little bit rarer red-side with Pain Domination getting a debuff power during its mutation across from the blue-side Empathy, so I thought it would be a nice touch to finish off with.

After that we still need 2 extra powers for the primary to extend it enough to keep in line with the Banes and Crabs. We're pretty well covered for attacks, especially with the pets backing us up so really we'd want something more in the way of controls or debuffs - the Web Cocoon single target hold wouldn't be entirely amiss if we didn't use it in the secondary, and Confront, the single target taunt could be useful for drawing fire from our pets on occasion. A single target counterpart to Venom Grenade with toxic damage and a resistance debuff would be nice for bosses and the like, or perhaps lethal damage with a small toxic DoT ("Corrosive Shot"?). Or to follow the grenade theme maybe an EMP Grenade, offering a low duration team disorient and endurance drain (5 second mag 2 stun and 20% endurance drain on a 30 second recharge to match Wide Area Web Grenade).

Just some day-dreamy fluff as my Wolf>Huntsman>Bane>Crab sits a single nugget short of 50 and how much I enjoyed his gun-toting days.

Have fun folks n folkettes.

No true Huntsman uses Bane powers

>.>
<.<

The one and only power that is really missing from the Huntsman arsenal is the Shotgun blast...but, given how much we get to make up for that, thats not too big a loss.

Let's face it, Huntsmen are fairly wussy.

Night Widows at boss level are pure evil, Mu Guardians are really mean, Executioners are pretty tough, and the Toxic and Queen Tarantula's are fairly tanked up too.
Executioners and Night Widows we can make, along with Fortunata Mistresses. Webmasters aren't so bad, from experience.

So, standard power Huntsmen from the SoA path are about in line.
Besides, people forget what a nasty combo string they have with the different nades and heavy burst.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

Okay so a Huntsman is pretty wussy compared to an Executioner or Night Widow but how about a Huntsman and 2 Wolf Spiders? Well okay, 3 Wolf Spiders. 4 Wolf Spiders? Fine, just gang war it and send 20 of them in

I sneeze and kill them all.

There is a reason why you stop seeing these guys after a certain level thresh-hold.

I love my lvl 50 Hunstman.