dropping spiderlings... good or bad idea?

They're cute and all but they don't seem to contribute a lot of damage... Would I be a crazy fool to drop the spiderlings for an awesome single attack like Gloom? Need advice from a Crab vet before I burn a respec.

Well no your not crazy to drop them but that isn't a good reason. Their damage is a lot like a cone attack so you don't see them take down enemies quickly but they do contribute quite a lot to the mob as a whole.
The fact that they are uncontrollable and constantly suiciding is a better reason to drop them .

I use them about 1/2 the time. I find them good at annoying the enemy and making them not focus on me. Now that I'm all Incarnatey-goodness though I don't really *need* them.

Still, makes me happy to have my little army of 5 spiders running around.

I love pets and they are one of the things that attracted me to Crab Spiders to begin with. Even so, I dropped Spiderlings from my spec about the time I started doing Incarnate trials. They only last a few seconds before they're killed, and a dead pet contributes 0 DPS.

However... fast forward to Issue 20.5 and doing Keyes Island Reactor trials all the time. None of my pets can survive long enough to be useful. I hate to drop all my pets, but they are useless... or worse if I catch them chewing on Former Praetor Keyes during their brief existence.
So, I am going to have two permanent specs. The "bring home the bacon" spec with no pets, and the "lightweight" spec with all the pet powers and the Leadership pool.

I guess that's my answer. If you're doing Incarnate trials and want pets for their DPS, forget it. If you're playing regular missions for fun, keep them around and watch them chew on the ankles of your foes instead of staying at range and blasting.

My 2 cents, drop all pets asap.. make your crab a tanker with 90% aoe attacks and take lore for pets. I used to farm Liberate TV mish at +2/8 on my crab, thats way b4 any incarnates.

With any tough foes, your pets are gonna die too fast to even make it worth having, id rather slot my crab for melee/ranged/aoe def and use aoes to handle mobs. In the end its better damage and better survivability imo.

And the arachnos lore pets look good for a cool theme to the crab spider.

As some mentioned, it really depends on your build and play style. I went full positional cap and I had no room for them.

If you just intend on running on SO's or not bothering with defenses or whatever then it really does not matter.

But if your going in some specific direction with the build then you need to determine which power is going to benefit you more in the long run.

It depends a lot on your preferences and style. My Crab has all three pets and I've got enough recharge (plus Hasten) to keep them out permanently (unless they get killed). The combination of pet resistance/defense aura IOs and Rebirth Destiny helps me keep them alive in most non-Incarnate content. They do die more in Incarnate content but I still find them useful for drawing aggro and a bit of extra damage.

Now if your main concern is being as personally powerful as possible in Incarnate content I'd say drop the pets and take the Fighting pool.

Personally I would never drop them, having a small army of robot spiders (including Arachnos Lore) is what makes my Crab Spider fun to play.

I remember a thread awhile back showing that the spiderlings did more damage than fire imps with comparable survivability. Would you drop them on a fire dom/troller?

Getting Truelly helpful advice from others, is like believing there really is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow

I'd say it's a pretty bad idea. Interface procs go off for pet attacks just like they do for your own attacks. So the more minions you have attacking the more you get out of Interface.

go the double manuevers double assault route throw in all the pet procs that give +def and
+res then grab barrier and you little spiderlings became a whole heck of a lot harder to drop.

Don't ditch the pets.
Don't think of them as pets, think of them as long lasting DoTs. With reactive interface think of them as long lasting DoTs that do incredible damage.
There isn't another power available to a crab that will do more damage and with the right build you give up virtually nothing to do it.
I have all my defenses soft capped, I have enough +recharge to keep my pets and hasten on perma and full attack chains in both aoe and single target damage.

My build isn't even particularly expensive - in the time since 20.5 dropped, the fact that with my pets prisoners never escape during BAF has erned me enough extra alpha merits to buy and sell lotgs to pay for my build a couple of times over.

Unless they think running off and suiciding sounds like a solid plan, they aren't overly hard to keep alive with double manouevers running, an additional +10% defense from the IOs and the destiny heal.

Fully slotted, 3 spiderlings will do a total of about 70 DPS. They actually do the most damage out of any none-Lore pet available to crabs. Disruptors (Call Reinforcements) do about 40 while a Blaster (patron pet) does only 17.

Of course, this only holds true when you can keep them alive... I don't have trouble doing pylons with them, but never had much success with AVs.

Actually they do a good bit of damage. No don't expect them to take down a boss while you aren't looking but I have launched into a mob and taken out the Lieutenant only to discover the 2 minions were gone by the time I was done.

Are they mandatory.. No but I enjoy my small army of spiders.. 3 spiderlings and 2 Arachnobot Disruptors plus my Archnobot I got from having Black Scorpion as my Patron. Add in the 2 pets I got from Lore and I have as many minons as most Masterminds.

The spiderlings are the weakest of course but still do misdirect some aggro from me and add damage. Sadly like all non MM pets they go where ever they feel like going so I do tend to pick the situations I use them in but Elite Bosses drop l.ike flies when I launch all 8 pets along with my own attacks. All those pets make me a very popular addition to the prisoner phase pf any BAF trial

My Crab on Guardian called Nephila, never had pets.
25Bill build, team orientated, 4 purple sets, 4 PvP sets.
Tanked A-M during a Keyes run, with a fender on me just like the tanks get.
Went in solo to get nades during Lambda, 0 deaths while the 8 man team had 3 wipes.
Can solo a door on BAF with my T4 Arachnos Lore.

Spider pets? When u'r on a team, u don't need them.
Teams like buffs, and that's what i do :P

But.. i agree with most posts. It's all personal preference!
SoA's are so versatile, it's awesome! Can go 3 ways, Huntsman, Bane or Crab. And even in those we have choices. I love my Crab, best toon i have.
But my Crab will not be for everyone, just like those pets are not for me.