Question on Bane Build

I recently leveled my SoA to lev 24 and respecced into a Bane build.

I ended up with a mixture of Ranged/Melee attacks that didn't appear to work very well together. It's hard to keep an attack chain going when half are ranged and half are melee, and a number of the ranged attacks feature knockback.

Questions:

- Is it viable to go completely with ranged attacks or completely melee?
I'd prefer range, but then I'd probably have to switch to Crab to get max dps.

- Should I forego taking attacks from the base SoA attack set? Seems to slow me down quite a bit when I switch between the mace and rifle...

I took Bash, Pulverize, Shatter, and then Shatter Armor from Black Scorpion's Patron Mace Mastery (no redraw) for melee attacks. For ranged, I went Mace Beam and Mace Blast (also no redraw). While primarily melee oriented, it still allows me a few options if/when I can't reach the target.

Edit: Yeah, avoid the SoA for Banes, at least that's what I did.

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No matter how you slice an SOA your going to dabble into a mix in some shape way or form. But you can minimize the mix depending on the route you go.

Crab wise builds..

No pets - Full defense cap - Your picking up Lev mastery for Arctic breath and Bile Spray. Pretty much a bunch of AOE attacks.

Hover Crab - Range defense cap - Perma pets - Your picking up Pets from Ancillary pool as well. Again pretty much long range AOE attacks with pets. Some what spooky with the claws wiggling in the air.

Then there is a mix of defense or defense cap with pets but not perma. Getting close to perma will probably involved some purple IO sets. Much dinero here.

Bane wise

Again Defense cap - Going strong on Melee attacks with some range attacks for set bonuses ( again not much about this you need the powers for the set bonuses ). But primary you will be like a tank, brute, scrapper fighting up front.

Again Bane can go a mix of pets

Then you have what many call Huntsman build

It is basically what you have been doing for last 21 levels. But you end up fleshing it out a bit more. Your going to have double Maneuvers, Double Assault, Tactics. You will have a mix of mace attacks beyond your gun. Yet again not much of a choice here going for set bonuses.

You can have either a huntsman full defense cap with no pets or Huntsman hover blaster range cap with perma pets and then finally I think you can have defense cap and perma pets if your willing to slot 5 purple sets. Again lots and lots of money here.

What I can tell you from my personal experience.

I have a full defense cap crab with no pets. Great toon. Can solo 4/8 settings.

I recently got to 50 a Huntsman range cap hover blaster with perma pets. I just soloed Malta on a 4/8 setting. I was shocked myself. I did it twice, resetting the mission to make sure it wasn't just dumb luck. I do have mace mastery ancillary so I do have redraw using that mace weapon for the attack and for summoning the pet. But though your limited in your number of attacks per say compared to other toons. With the double assault the attacks really do pack a punch. The attacks honestly do some high end damage compared to my other toons and including my blasters.

I have a Range cap perma pets Hover crab build I intend on working on. The great thing about Crabs is they get more pets. Should be very interesting will all the pets running around. I will of course pick up barrier to cap out myself and the pets and pick up Arachnos pets from lore.

Just remember I think once you go crab you cannot turn back. So your stuck with that back pack all the time. I could have made the crab a huntsman and just had a useless back pack, but instead I just rerolled a new toon not to have the back pack.

This is what I've come up with for a ranged Huntsman build. The defense numbers are pretty nice, however I haven't been overly impressed with the dps up to this point. Should I swap out for some Bane attacks or switch to Crab?


Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.942
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Level 50 Natural Arachnos Soldier
Primary Power Set: Bane Spider Soldier
Secondary Power Set: Bane Spider Training
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Leadership
Power Pool: Fighting

Villain Profile:
Level 1: Single Shot -- Decim-Acc/Dmg:40(A), Decim-Dmg/EndRdx:40(3), Decim-Dmg/Rchg:40(3), Decim-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:40(5), Decim-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg:40(5), LdyGrey-%Dam:50(7)
Level 1: Wolf Spider Armor -- RctvArm-ResDam:40(A), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx:40(7), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg:40(9), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg:40(9)
Level 2: Burst -- Decim-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg:40(A), Decim-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:40(11), Decim-Dmg/Rchg:40(11), Decim-Dmg/EndRdx:40(13), Decim-Acc/Dmg:40(13), LdyGrey-%Dam:50(15)
Level 4: Combat Training: Defensive -- LkGmblr-Def:50(A), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx:50(15), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx/Rchg:50(17), LkGmblr-Rchg+:50(17)
Level 6: Fly -- Zephyr-ResKB:50(A)
Level 8: Heavy Burst -- Posi-Acc/Dmg:50(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx:50(19), Posi-Dmg/Rchg:50(19), Posi-Dam%:50(21), Posi-Dmg/Rng:50(21)
Level 10: Tactical Training: Maneuvers -- LkGmblr-Def:50(A), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx:50(23), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx/Rchg:50(23), LkGmblr-Rchg+:50(25)
Level 12: Venom Grenade -- Posi-Acc/Dmg:50(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx:50(25), Posi-Dam%:50(27), Posi-Dmg/Rchg:50(27), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(29), Posi-Dmg/Rng:50(46)
Level 14: Super Speed -- Zephyr-ResKB:50(A)
Level 16: Hasten -- RechRdx-I:50(A), RechRdx-I:50(29)
Level 18: Frag Grenade -- Posi-Acc/Dmg:50(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx:50(31), Posi-Dmg/Rchg:50(31), Posi-Dam%:50(31), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(33)
Level 20: Tactical Training: Assault -- EndRdx-I:50(A)
Level 22: Tactical Training: Leadership -- GSFC-ToHit:50(A), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg:50(33), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg/EndRdx:50(33), GSFC-Rchg/EndRdx:50(34), GSFC-ToHit/EndRdx:50(34), GSFC-Build%:50(34)
Level 24: Mental Training -- Flight-I:50(A)
Level 26: Wide Area Web Grenade -- GravAnch-Immob:50(A), GravAnch-Immob/Rchg:50(36), GravAnch-Acc/Immob/Rchg:50(36), GravAnch-Immob/EndRdx:50(36), GravAnch-Hold%:50(37)
Level 28: Maneuvers -- LkGmblr-Def:50(A), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx:50(37), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx/Rchg:50(37), LkGmblr-Rchg+:50(39)
Level 30: Cloaking Device -- LkGmblr-Def:50(A), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx:50(40), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx/Rchg:50(40), LkGmblr-Rchg+:50(42)
Level 32: Surveillance -- Achilles-DefDeb:20(A), Achilles-DefDeb/Rchg:20(43), Achilles-ResDeb%:20(43)
Level 35: Assault -- EndRdx-I:50(A)
Level 38: Tactics -- Rec'dRet-ToHit:20(A), Rec'dRet-ToHit/Rchg:20(42), Rec'dRet-Pcptn:20(42)
Level 41: Kick -- Empty(A)
Level 44: Call Reinforcements -- BldM'dt-Acc/Dmg:50(A), BldM'dt-Dmg:50(45), BldM'dt-Dmg/EndRdx:50(45), BldM'dt-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(45), BldM'dt-Acc/EndRdx:50(46), BldM'dt-Acc:50(46)
Level 47: Tough -- RctvArm-ResDam:40(A), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx:40(48), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg:40(48), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg:40(48)
Level 49: Weave -- LkGmblr-Rchg+:50(A), LkGmblr-Def:50(50), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx:50(50), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx/Rchg:50(50)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Conditioning
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Swift -- Flight-I:50(A)
Level 2: Health -- Mrcl-Rcvry+:40(A), Numna-Regen/Rcvry+:50(43)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Jump-I:50(A)
Level 2: Stamina -- EndMod-I:50(A), EndMod-I:50(39), P'Shift-EndMod:50(39), P'Shift-End%:50(40)
Level 4: Ninja Run
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