Night Widow - Some questions

So Crab is just about finished, and so looking for a new AT to start and I started playing with a Widow and I'm enjoying it so far.

Closing the gap to 24 and I think I'm going to go with a Night Widow build initally, however after playing around with Mids for a bit I have discovered I'm having a hard time deciding what not to take.

First question I guess is what is an optimal attack chain for a Night Widow? Does it include Slash, which seems to be, if nothing else, a very nice opener on a single hard target?

Also looking at the two first ranged attacks, Poison Dart and Mental Blast, it would seem that in the long run the -regan would make the poison dart more useful overall or is mental blast better than I think it is?

These are the powers that I'm thinking of not taking on my Widow:
Confront (heh)
Either Posion Dart or Mental Blast (only taking one)
Swipe (Really not sure if I need this in my attack chain or not, especially early on)
CT:O (using it till 24, then plan to drop it)
TT:L (I think Mind Link has this covered well enough)
Dart Burst (While it looks somewhat useful, it looks like a more skippable power)
Build Up (Think I'm going with Follow up instead)

I'm on the fence with:
Smoke Grenade
Pyschic Scream
Elude (I kind of want this just because it's Elude, but it will probably be one of my last choices)

About the only Pool Powers I know for sure I'm taking is Fitness, though I'll probably try to fit hasten in if I can.

Any thoughts on those? Big mistake skipping any of them?

ML's tohit isn't so big, sure you also have FU but FU has to hit first, and TT:L also covers your whole team. Smoke nade, Psy scream and Elude are all worst choices than TT:L imho.

Poison Dart and Mental Blast are bad powers for DPS, if you want just one Poison Dart is better (slightly more damage, slightly faster, minor -regen). I'd just skip both and pick Swipe myself, it's much stronger than either. That said, it's not ranged so if you want a ranged option, go with Poison Dart.

Eviscerate (which you haven't listed, so I assume you plan to get it) is a rather weak power in my opinion, sure it's a cone but the range is minor and the damage nothing to write home about. Spin and Dart Burst already recharge so fast you'll have your hands full with that and don't need to bother with Eviscerate.

As for the optimal attack chain, I believe it's Follow Up - Lunge - Strike - Swipe. Slash isn't a bad power, but it's impratical to fit in (efficient Widow chains rely on FU stacking as much as possible). For regular play, as you guessed Slash is a nice opener out of hidden status.

Everything in my post is mostly just optimisations and don't fall into the "big mistakes" category, you could do just fine regardless.

I'd reconsider taking build up over follow up. Follow up is generally your first strike to get the to-hit/damage for your subsequent attacks. This is kind of counter-productive for a widow since FU's damage is pretty crappy and you'll want to optimize your first strike from hide for the crit. Build up/Slash is optimal for that.

That said, what to skip is a huge problem for any widow as pretty much everything has its plusses. A lot will depend on what your budget will be at 50. I, for example, didn't take dart burst while leveling but did in my 50 build just to slot Ragnaroks for the recharge - but I saved up and broke the bank to have perma Mind Link at 25. Turns out I really like dart burst, especially when the knockdown proc hits.

I happen to like eviscerate but I could see skipping it. Poison dart is good damage and good to have for the -regen. Only downside is the animation seems to break your attack chain a bit, even though it's only 1.5.

Elude is good for leveling but can be easily skipped in a final build, unless you're doing a pvp build. I have tactics, assault and vengeance but that's personal preference. Best advice I can really give is to try different things leveling up. With the freespec we just got, patron and the forced respec at 24, you can try out pretty much everything you want and still have a respec for your final build.

One final word of advice - frankenslot Mind Link for recharge as soon as you can.

Thanks for the tips.

Yeah I see so many potentially good powers for NW that I just want to make sure I'm not skipping any gems (which seems very possible) or accidently picking up some poor choices (seems less likely).

Anyway I'll try a few different things with the build.

On a side note, VEATS really feel like a proper super hero (villan) AT to me. Good offense in one area (be it ranged or melee) ok in the other area of offense, decent defenses, nice buffs/debuffs for teams that you don't have to be to active about maintaining.

Overall just feels like a solid AT design for a superhero game.

I'll chime in about Smoke Grenade since you're on the fence about it. While the power has a base ToHit Debuff of only 3.75%, you can approach 6% with some slotting. While this doesn't appear to be much, it's an unresistable debuff that can more reliably be considered a true +Defense since your targets don't get the benefit of Debuff Resistance that hinders other ToHit Debuffs. Also, it has a ridiculous base range and 35ft radius that allows you easily debuff large crowds with ease.

The Perception Debuff helps as well, but I tend to view the power as insurance against groups that carry Defense Debuffs. If i'm not mistaken though, only the Perception Debuff is autohit though. I'm still await confirmation on this and whether Accurate ToHit Debuff IOs aren't currently permitted for slotting.

You guys are not helping my decisions to eliminate powers :P