why are you not playing a crab SoA?

crabs are arguably the best characters in CoX. They have mezz protection, good defenses and some resistance. They have good team buffs, some debuffs, and amazing AoE.

simply put: crabs are tank mages, in theory the holy grail of characters

in the old days they were restricted to redside. But now you can get to 20 and switch to blueside.

but there are very few crabs out there on either side.

so why are you not playing a crab SoA?
And have you tried one?

Because the claim they are the "holy grail of characters" is an obvious joke. They're all around fairly good, but they're no 'holy grail'.

And, of course, the usual: This game isn't that hard.

We've been saving Paragon City for eight and a half years. It's time to do it one more time.

They're also dirty villains

As soon as the backpack is only on specs with the crab tree I might give one a shot. Bane and huntsman till then.

I have one. I like him in theory (and I love the animations), but he feels a lot weaker offensively and squishier defensively than the numbers suggest.

Edit: Then I noticed the problem: he's on IOs, and I have no license. I just respecced his second build into the same build (but with SOs instead of IOs), and NOW he feels a lot better, both offensively and defensively.

.... so I think I will be playing him now. I'm getting tired of my Brutes (and I haven't yet the money to unlock my Masterminds).

I don't know why people don't play Crabs.

I like being able to do a little bit of everything. Sure, other ATs can do one thing or another much better than I can. But who cares? I'm having fun!

Because my other characters need some love sometimes! Of all the characters I have though, my crab is my favorite to play.

There are a number of reasons I have that are just as legitimate as the ones you listed.

1. I don't like the backpack.

2. When I do like the backpack, I wish I could use a cape with them. I don't care if it clips, because the bane spider uniform has clipping parts also.

3. They don't fit my playstyle preferences.

4. I already have an SoA, and he's a fully IO'd bane spider. Why would I want to spend all of my resources fully IOing a second spec for the same character?

5. Even if I wanted to fully IO a second spec, the backpack stays through different builds.

Repetitive animations.

Longfang and Channelgun use essentially the same animation and fire from the same Crab leg.

Same with Venom/Frag grenades.

This leads to the feeling that I'm just spamming the same, single animation over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over... etc.

It drives me insane.

@Oathbound & @Oathbound Too

Arms & backpack. They just look goofy to me. Plus, huntsmen are quite similar overall, and since I'd rather play a huntsman and don't want to play two characters which are so similar, crabs would lose even without the backpack.

Because Widows are way hotter.

I don't play any epic AT. The unique power combo system is the main reason I play CoX. The epic ATs feel extremely limited to me.

Because they're all around just average, and in no way exceptional.

Got one to 50, soft-capped it, soft-capped Bane side for Buld two and got bored, moved on and made a Widow, soft-capped it and got bored, made a WP/EM Tanker, soft-capped it and got bored...I think you're getting the picture.

I'm enjoying my Dark/EM Blaster most at the moment, I actually get hit so I need to manage my health/end and smash face.

I just haven't gotten to it yet. It's in the plans, doing one of every AT. I went with the Widow first because I like the whole psychic angle.

Really surprised at some of the anti-crab comments on here, especially some coming from 'reputable' members. Tank Mage, superb aoe with built in debuffing, passive support toggles that buff the entire team, heal w +max hp, good resists, mez protect, lots of pets for ridiculous, +recharge passive... this is "all around average"?

Weird how these average crabs put nearly everyone to shame on pylon runs. Where's the solo scrapper/brute/stalker all pylon run? To the rebuttal that pylon runs aren't everything, yep, aoe is king in this game and yeah crabs have that covered. That SS/Fire brute with burn and foot stomp pales in aoe speed to a crab's aoe chain. Crabs pretty much have it all. How could you not see this?

But hey, if the consensus is that they're average, then that's okay with me. It's just keeps the nerf bat away from the best AT/powerset in the game. And yes, Holy Grail is an accurate title.

The moments you pets explode or don't focus, your DPS tanks. That's pretty much why they aren't 'holy grail' in the least. And their personal attacks are largely lackluster.

Crab damage is almost entirely their pets. Uncontrollable, derpy pets.

But I'll see if I can't convince some nerfs at the Pummit. Probably need the Pets HP and Damage cut in Half. And for Crabs to lose their self heal, and half of their resistance. And their mez protection.

Yeah. Need to scale them back.

TL;DR - Your All Pylon Solo Run pretty much meant Nothing. That was your pets being in their absolute best case scenario - impossible to receive damage and focusing on a single target. This isn't remotely as easy to duplicate in a Trial, unless it's a Tank and Spank AV that nobody cares about. But one wild AoE and your DPS tanks!

Although, I can admit they're good. Very much so. But there's some 'out of REAL control' quirks to their supreme STDPS, which is why when I look at your Pylon run, I go "Cool, but that's beyond optimal circumstances and really is worth nothing for data."

I have a Crab who is NOT a dirty villain (or even a clean one), thankyouverymuch.

She's more of a Hero With an F in Good.

(She's also an almost purely conceptual build with no pet robots at all, because she would probably shoot them by accident).

i am, lotsa alts.

Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.