Your Widow has an automatic respec at level 24. You have 20 powers you can choose from your powersets, in addition to pool powers. You only have 14 power slots to fill. There are many tough choices in the respec, this guide is to help you understand and make the choices. This guide is to plan your level 24 respec for PvE. It assumes a single build usable for soloing and teaming, but focused on crits from stealth. It assumes SO's.
STEALTH
A Night Widow has a stealth power of Mask Presence, and their melee attacks do critical damage when hidden. However, Mask Presence does not provide full stealth from bosses and lieutenants. You have three options to get full stealth: take and use Smoke Grenade power, put Celerity: Stealth IO in Sprint and run it, or get Super Speed and run it.
* Super Speed doubles as your travel power so it does not take an extra power slot in theory. It uses END, but can be left always on.
* Smoke Grenade provides concealment for all of your allies and gives the foes a accuracy which gives you protection from attacks. It provides the most benefit, but while a recharge of 15 seconds seems fast it is slow if you are simply trying to stealth through a mission and have to smoke each spawn.
* Celerity Stealth saves you a power (unless you also get a travel power), but costs up to 100 million influence. Putting this in sprint is ultimately your "best" option but you have to be able to afford it.
TEAM VS SOLO
Night Widow's have the standard SoA team buffs which are good enough you will want them solo, but they lack other team support. They are primarily single target damage and will play as something between a stalker and a scrapper.
Build S option indicates a power selection for a solo player, Build T for a team player.
LEVEL 1
You choose between Swipe, a melee attack, or Poison Dart or Mental Blast ranged attacks. If you do not take Follow Up, take Swipe as you will need the extra melee attack for your chain. Since you are going to start a fight with a melee attack from hide, it makes ranged attacks superfluous. Having a single ranged attack for pulling and taking out runners is a good idea if you cannot cover that with a veteran power.If you take can choose to take Poison Dart or Mental Blast as your one ranged attack to pull (which you do not want to do since you crit from hide) or to take down runners.
You must take Combat Training: Defensive.
LEVEL 2
You choose between Strike, a melee attack, and Combat Training: Offensive which is a bonus to accuracy. You would be happy to have CT:O as it is a passive and more accuracy is better, but you need the melee attack.
LEVEL 4
The new power is Tactical Training: Maneuvers which is a defense buff for your entire team. You might also consider taking a travel power at this level.
LEVEL 6
The new power is Dart Burst, a cone attack. This does reasonable damage and is a solid AoE. However, it is a narrow cone which is tough to use in melee. You will want to fit this into your build but it will be hard. Most likely you will take TT:M if you did not take it at level 4, or take a movement power here instead.
LEVEL 8
Follow Up or Build Up. You can only choose one, not just at this level but you can only have one or the other. Build Up buffs your to hit and damage a lot for a few seconds. Enough for a few attacks especially a crit from hide. Follow Up is a melee attack that if it hits buffs your to hit and damage for a short time. Follow Up has a fast recharge and is part of your attack chain, so as long as you hit you are constantly buffed. In general if you mostly solo you probably want Build Up, if you mostly team you probably want Follow Up. In any case you will probably choose which ever one best fits your playstyle.
* Build Up is better for assassinations, it makes your first hit from Hide much bigger and that auto-crits. It is also useful against foes such as Rikti Drones that are hard to hit in the first place.
* Follow Up is better for longer fights such as AV's, GM's, and general fights in teams. It is also a melee attack, so it adds an extra attack to your chain.
LEVEL 10
The new power is Indomitable Will, a status protection toggle. You want this, but may delay until later to get it if there is something else you need. However, your build gets tighter in 2 levels.
LEVEL 12
You choose between Spin a pbaoe melee attack (crits from Hide), Lunge a powerful melee attack, and Smoke Grenade which provides concealment and reduces your foes to hit. Smoke Grenade is not useful at this level as you do not need it until you have Masked Presence at 20 which lets you hide. You need Lunge for your melee attack chain. You almost certainly want Spin when you can fit it in.
LEVEL 14
No new powers at this level. You want to get the second of either Spin or Lunge that you did not get at level 12.
LEVEL 16
The new power is Tactical Training: Assault, a toggle buff of 15% to your whole team's damage. You want this power as the damage buff is not huge but is noticeable, especially on teams. If you are taking Smoke Grenade you probably need to squeeze it in here.
LEVEL 18
You choose between Confront a single target taunt, and Slash a high damage melee attack. Slash is your highest damage melee attack, the one you want to crit with from Hide. You need it. You do not need or even want Confront.
LEVEL 20
You choose between Tactical Training: Leadership a toggle buff to hit for your whole team, and Mask Presence a toggle stealth that lets you Hide. You need Mask Presence for Hide and its crits, so you need to take this. You want it at 20 so even if you exemplar down to 15 you still have it.
LEVEL 22
You choose between Foresight which is a passive status protection plus 7.5 % defense buff, and Mental Training which is a +20% recharge bonus for all of your powers. You want both. If you solo mostly you probably want Foresight first for the defense buff. if you team mostly you probably want Mental Training so you can attack faster.
LEVEL 24
The new power is Mind Link which is a click buff for your whole team for +10% defense. You have to choose between this and the power you did not choose at level 22. If you solo mostly you probably want the other level 22 power. If you team mostly you probably want Mind Link as it buffs the whole team.
Night Widow Level 24 Respec
Your Widow has an automatic respec at level 24. You have 20 powers you can choose from your powersets, in addition to pool powers. You only have 14 power slots to fill. There are many tough choices in the respec, this guide is to help you understand and make the choices. This guide is to plan your level 24 respec for PvE. It assumes a single build usable for soloing and teaming, but focused on crits from stealth. It assumes SO's.
STEALTH
A Night Widow has a stealth power of Mask Presence, and their melee attacks do critical damage when hidden. However, Mask Presence does not provide full stealth from bosses and lieutenants. You have three options to get full stealth: take and use Smoke Grenade power, put Celerity: Stealth IO in Sprint and run it, or get Super Speed and run it.
* Super Speed doubles as your travel power so it does not take an extra power slot in theory. It uses END, but can be left always on.
* Smoke Grenade provides concealment for all of your allies and gives the foes a accuracy which gives you protection from attacks. It provides the most benefit, but while a recharge of 15 seconds seems fast it is slow if you are simply trying to stealth through a mission and have to smoke each spawn.
* Celerity Stealth saves you a power (unless you also get a travel power), but costs up to 100 million influence. Putting this in sprint is ultimately your "best" option but you have to be able to afford it.
TEAM VS SOLO
Night Widow's have the standard SoA team buffs which are good enough you will want them solo, but they lack other team support. They are primarily single target damage and will play as something between a stalker and a scrapper.
Build S option indicates a power selection for a solo player, Build T for a team player.
LEVEL 1
You choose between Swipe, a melee attack, or Poison Dart or Mental Blast ranged attacks. If you do not take Follow Up, take Swipe as you will need the extra melee attack for your chain. Since you are going to start a fight with a melee attack from hide, it makes ranged attacks superfluous. Having a single ranged attack for pulling and taking out runners is a good idea if you cannot cover that with a veteran power.If you take can choose to take Poison Dart or Mental Blast as your one ranged attack to pull (which you do not want to do since you crit from hide) or to take down runners.
You must take Combat Training: Defensive.
LEVEL 2
You choose between Strike, a melee attack, and Combat Training: Offensive which is a bonus to accuracy. You would be happy to have CT:O as it is a passive and more accuracy is better, but you need the melee attack.
LEVEL 4
The new power is Tactical Training: Maneuvers which is a defense buff for your entire team. You might also consider taking a travel power at this level.
LEVEL 6
The new power is Dart Burst, a cone attack. This does reasonable damage and is a solid AoE. However, it is a narrow cone which is tough to use in melee. You will want to fit this into your build but it will be hard. Most likely you will take TT:M if you did not take it at level 4, or take a movement power here instead.
LEVEL 8
Follow Up or Build Up. You can only choose one, not just at this level but you can only have one or the other. Build Up buffs your to hit and damage a lot for a few seconds. Enough for a few attacks especially a crit from hide. Follow Up is a melee attack that if it hits buffs your to hit and damage for a short time. Follow Up has a fast recharge and is part of your attack chain, so as long as you hit you are constantly buffed. In general if you mostly solo you probably want Build Up, if you mostly team you probably want Follow Up. In any case you will probably choose which ever one best fits your playstyle.
* Build Up is better for assassinations, it makes your first hit from Hide much bigger and that auto-crits. It is also useful against foes such as Rikti Drones that are hard to hit in the first place.
* Follow Up is better for longer fights such as AV's, GM's, and general fights in teams. It is also a melee attack, so it adds an extra attack to your chain.
LEVEL 10
The new power is Indomitable Will, a status protection toggle. You want this, but may delay until later to get it if there is something else you need. However, your build gets tighter in 2 levels.
LEVEL 12
You choose between Spin a pbaoe melee attack (crits from Hide), Lunge a powerful melee attack, and Smoke Grenade which provides concealment and reduces your foes to hit. Smoke Grenade is not useful at this level as you do not need it until you have Masked Presence at 20 which lets you hide. You need Lunge for your melee attack chain. You almost certainly want Spin when you can fit it in.
LEVEL 14
No new powers at this level. You want to get the second of either Spin or Lunge that you did not get at level 12.
LEVEL 16
The new power is Tactical Training: Assault, a toggle buff of 15% to your whole team's damage. You want this power as the damage buff is not huge but is noticeable, especially on teams. If you are taking Smoke Grenade you probably need to squeeze it in here.
LEVEL 18
You choose between Confront a single target taunt, and Slash a high damage melee attack. Slash is your highest damage melee attack, the one you want to crit with from Hide. You need it. You do not need or even want Confront.
LEVEL 20
You choose between Tactical Training: Leadership a toggle buff to hit for your whole team, and Mask Presence a toggle stealth that lets you Hide. You need Mask Presence for Hide and its crits, so you need to take this. You want it at 20 so even if you exemplar down to 15 you still have it.
LEVEL 22
You choose between Foresight which is a passive status protection plus 7.5 % defense buff, and Mental Training which is a +20% recharge bonus for all of your powers. You want both. If you solo mostly you probably want Foresight first for the defense buff. if you team mostly you probably want Mental Training so you can attack faster.
LEVEL 24
The new power is Mind Link which is a click buff for your whole team for +10% defense. You have to choose between this and the power you did not choose at level 22. If you solo mostly you probably want the other level 22 power. If you team mostly you probably want Mind Link as it buffs the whole team.
RECOMMENDED BUILD
Lvl 1: S: Swipe, T: Poison Dart
Lvl 2: Strike
Lvl 4: Super Speed
Lvl 6: Tactical Training: Maneuvers
Lvl 8: S:Build Up, T:Follow Up
Lvl 10: Indomitable Will
Lvl 12: Lunge
Lvl 14: Spin
Lvl 16: Tactical Training: Assault
Lvl 18: Slash
Lvl 20: Mask Presence
Lvl 22: S:Foresight, T:Mental Training
Lvl 24: S:Mental Training, T:Mind Link