Whirling Mace for Banes

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.

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

Crab Spider Webmaster:
*Slice
*Arm Lash
*Channelgun
*Suppression
*Wide Area Web Grenade

Total: 5

Bane Spider Executioner:
*Wide Area Web Grenade
*Cocoon
*Mace Beam Volley
*Mace Beam Blast
*Poisonous Ray Burst
*Bash
*Pulverize
*Clobber
*Whirling Mace
*Crowd Control

Total: 10


QED.

Crab Spider Player (personal notes alongside):
*Channelgun (Useful ST filler)
*Slice (Minor melee damage, barely anyone takes it)
*Longfang (Solid ST damage)
*Aim (It's Aim.)
*Suppression (Always gonna take..)
*Arm Lash (Marmite, sometimes good, sometimes bad, depends on the build)
*Venom Grenade (Always going to take)
*Frag Grenade (Always going to take)
*Frenzy (Same as Arm Lash, not bad but not needed due to other powers)
*Omega Maneuver (Mini-nuke, who doesn't love one, though generally considered marmite I like it)

*Crab Spider Armour (Auto mez protection, gotta take it)
*Fortification (Solid defensive toggle, gotta take it)
*Serum (Dull Pain, what's not to love?)
*Summon Spiderlings (Useful but to me a marmite power, good to have the option of more portable distractions though)

Total:14
Good powers: 10

Bane Spider Player:

*Bash (Attack chain filler, usually not that needed)
*Mace Beam (Better damage in patrons..)
*Mace Beam Blast (Better damage in procced up Brawl, let alone patrons)
*Build Up (Needed if you wanna do that spike damage thing Banes are known for)
*Mace Beam Volley (See Mace Beam Blast.)
*Poisonous Ray (Only good ranged damage outside of Patrons, but it's DoT, good damage though.)
*Pulverize (A part of a regular and balanced attack chain diet)
*Shatter (See Build Up)
*Placate (See Shatter)
*Crowd Control (Only good AoE damage and pretty awesome)

*Bane Spider Armour Upgrade (Yummy non-enhancable +hp (that's another point..) and mez protection)
*Cloaking Device (See Placate)
*Surveillance (See Cloaking Device)
*Web Cocoon (Who takes this apart from sets? Honestly, I wanna see a good use for the silly long animation ST hold which takes up time from your DPS)

Total: 14
Good powers: 9

Both sets may be even in power but, IMO, neither are equal in conceivable power picks. The ranged AoE attacks for Banes must simply be there for filler, that's the only possible way for them to exist in my mind. They're slow with damage comparable to Brawl and the worst part? Knockback. Why would a Bane want knockback? Maybe if it was knockdown, or the animation was a lot (read: A LOT) faster they'd be okay.

But the thing which really gets me is that they have those in yet leave out Whirling Mace, why? The Bane Spider is defined by the mace, so wouldn't it only be natural for them to swing it around some more rather than waste time breaking their attack chain?

I'm not asking for a power from Crabs (Serum would be nice, yeah, but oh well) or the Widows (but conceptually Banes with Mind Link -could- work), I just want a power which is already associated with the character which isn't out-performed by Brawl in overall use (Brawl is ST sure, but the blasts also knock everything out of melee after a long animation. It's like if they gave Hand Clap the damage of Jab and called it fixed)

TL/DR
Add Whirling Mace to Banes due to other powers being undesirable from underperformance or;

Damage increase
Animation shortened
Knockback changed to Knockdown

Apply two of these changes to Mace Beam/Mace Beam Blast/Mace Beam Volley.

Little thoughts on the way: Enhancable +hp in Bane Spider Armour Upgrade, adding Mind Link or Serum.