Crab woes!

Hello!

Im trying to kit out my new lvl 50 crab and I just cant get the damn thing right! My aim is to make him a ranged damage dealer rather than a tanky kinda guy. Also dont want to rely on my pets too much.

Im absolutey useless at building toons, so I was hoping you guys could help.

I really like Mu Mastery, so I dont want to change that, but everything else is up for grabs. I dont have much money for a build, but this is what ive come up with.

Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.956
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Operative Sidewinder: Level 50 Natural Arachnos Soldier
Primary Power Set: Crab Spider Soldier
Secondary Power Set: Crab Spider Training
Power Pool: Leaping
Ancillary Pool: Mu Mastery

Villain Profile:
Level 1: Channelgun -- DoArach-Acc/Dmg(A), DoArach-Dmg/Rchg(3), DoArach-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(3), DoArach-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(5), DoArach-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(5), DoArach-Rchg/-DmgFear(7)
Level 1: Wolf Spider Armor -- Aegis-ResDam(A), Aegis-ResDam/Rchg(7), Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx(9), Aegis-Psi/Status(9)
Level 2: Longfang -- Dev'n-Acc/Dmg(A), Dev'n-Dmg/EndRdx(11), Dev'n-Dmg/Rchg(11), Dev'n-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(13), Dev'n-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(13), Dev'n-Hold%(50)
Level 4: Combat Training: Defensive -- LkGmblr-Def(A), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(15), LkGmblr-Def/Rchg(15), LkGmblr-Rchg+(17)
Level 6: Wide Area Web Grenade -- TotHntr-Acc/Rchg(A), TotHntr-EndRdx/Immob(17), TotHntr-Acc/EndRdx(19), TotHntr-Immob/Acc(19), TotHntr-Acc/Immob/Rchg(21)
Level 8: Combat Jumping -- Zephyr-ResKB(A)
Level 10: Crab Spider Armor Upgrade -- Aegis-ResDam(A), Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx(23), Aegis-ResDam/Rchg(23)
Level 12: Suppression -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(25), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(25), Posi-Dmg/Rng(27), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(27), Posi-Dam%(29)
Level 14: Combat Training: Offensive -- Acc-I(A), Acc-I(29), Acc-I(31)
Level 16: Venom Grenade -- Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(A), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(31), Posi-Dmg/Rng(31), Posi-Acc/Dmg(33), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(33)
Level 18: Super Jump -- ULeap-Jump(A), ULeap-EndRdx(21)
Level 20: Frag Grenade -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(33), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(34), Posi-Dmg/Rng(34), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(34), Posi-Dam%(36)
Level 22: Mental Training -- Run-I(A)
Level 24: Slice -- Mako-Dmg/EndRdx(A), Mako-Dmg/Rchg(36), Mako-Acc/Dmg(36), Mako-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(37)
Level 26: Frenzy -- Oblit-Dmg(A), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(37), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(37), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(39)
Level 28: Fortification -- Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx(A), Aegis-ResDam/Rchg(39), Aegis-ResDam(39), S'fstPrt-ResKB(40)
Level 30: Arm Lash -- Oblit-Dmg(A), Oblit-Acc/Rchg(40), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(40), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(42), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(42)
Level 32: Omega Maneuver -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(42), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(43), Posi-Dmg/Rng(43)
Level 35: Summon Spiderlings -- SvgnRt-Dmg/EndRdx(A), SvgnRt-PetResDam(43), SvgnRt-Acc/Dmg(45), SvgnRt-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(50)
Level 38: Call Reinforcements -- SvgnRt-Dmg/EndRdx(A), SvgnRt-Acc/Dmg(45), SvgnRt-Acc/EndRdx(45), SvgnRt-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(50)
Level 41: Mu Lightning -- Efficacy-EndMod(A), Efficacy-EndMod/Rchg(46)
Level 44: Ball Lightning -- Efficacy-EndMod/EndRdx(A), Efficacy-EndMod(46)
Level 47: Static Discharge -- Dmg-I(A)
Level 49: Summon Striker -- C'Arms-+Def(Pets)(A)
Level 1: Brawl -- Dmg-I(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Dash -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Slide -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Quick -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Rush -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Surge -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Conditioning
Level 1: Sprint -- Run-I(A)
Level 2: Rest -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 4: Ninja Run
Level 4: Swift -- Run-I(A)
Level 4: Health -- Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(A), Numna-Heal/EndRdx(46), Numna-Heal(48)
Level 4: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 4: Stamina -- EndMod-I(A), EndMod-I(48), P'Shift-End%(48)
------------
------------

OK.

Lots of problems with this build. I think the main one is you have no defence. At all.

Crabs are meant to be tough, even if they are hovering back and shooting.

And your DPS is augement greatly by pets, so I suggest taking them. If you want ranged DPS, wolf powers are better.

I'll build you for good damage/survability, all range. As for Mu, I'll have a go with, but Mu offers little to nothing to you.

This build isn't perfect, but it offers good damage without going into purples/pvps. If you want a pure damage build, Blueruckus's is brilliant for damage and his pylon times are great. Look at that.

http://www.cohplanner.com/mids/downl...7BFA077B4BF20A

Your build is missing some of the most important Crab powers, the ones you should never ever skip, like Tactical Training: Maneuvers and Serum. And it's got some really odd slotting that misses important bonuses. And, yes, it does have the lowest defenses I've ever seen on a Crab Spider. But you've come to the right place; people around here have lot of opinions on Crab builds.

First of all, I recommend you familiarize yourself with the wonders of Crab Spiders by reading a guide! Lobster's Guide to Crabbing is somewhat dated but it's quite detailed and comprehensive. Trilby's own guide, The Tanking Crab may be a different sort of Crab than you plan, but it is modern and points out which powers are good and why. (Where is that new version anyway, Trilby?)

As a general character building tip, I like to use the Paragon Wiki to list set bonuses and where to get them. For example, you can pull up Category:Sets that improve Ranged Defense and make it display the Bonus column from highest to lowest, and see which of those sets you can fit in to your build.

In general, your build specifications are pretty easy to meet:
- Ranged damage dealer
- Not overly reliant on pets
- Mu Mastery
- Cheap
I can make useful suggestions on most of these things, but I'm a little vague on the Mu Mastery part. Since all the Mu powers in your current build are rather, um, underslotted... what is it that you love about the set and want to emphasize? Do you like sapping endurance? Or dealing energy damage? Or just the idea of shooting lightning bolts in general?

It is being worked on. It is called "kick puppies for arachnos" and it is more a general crab guide, suggesting ways to reach soft cap, useful powers without ratings, talks about all the diffrent powers and diffrent ways of building.

I'm still just working through it, but it should be a good general guide.

Thanks guys!

Really its a wonder that I managed to get to 50 with all the problems youve mentioned! I thought I was dying a lot, I just thought that the AT was rather squishy! Seems that I was just playing the whole thing wrong! Durr!

Really the Mu thing is because I really like Scirocco and just like the look of Mu lightning. Wish they would allow that kind of look for actual electrial blast. I guess if Black Scorpions patron powers are better for me, then I should go with him. Im not above changing if it means a better toon in the end.

Any help you guys can give would be great, and very much appriciated!

Yeah, the reason Black Scorpian is better is that the immbolize is better, the pet is better and shatter is a pretty good melee power if you need something to die.

Mu just doesn't give the sheer power, but the mu guy does heal like twice.

What is your budget for this build?

On the cheap side preferably. I dont have a load of inf and I dont think my crab has much in the way of merits to spend.

I think he has around 10 million inf, maybe more. I can always use generic IO's until I get the full set, most of my other builds take a while to aquire all of their IO's.

That was 10 Million with an M? So I take it you would like to avoid things like Luck of the Gambler and all forms of purples. I do have an all-SO build kicking around here somewhere.

Crab woes? Definitely see your doctor.

Cheap Hover Tank, based on the Gun, but you can easily change that to the Arms.

Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.956
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

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[QUOTE=Two_Dollar_Bill;4241929] yes, it does have the lowest defenses I've ever seen on a Crab Spider.

First of all, I recommend you familiarize yourself with the wonders of Crab Spiders by reading a guide! Lobster's Guide to Crabbing is somewhat dated but it's quite detailed and comprehensive.



1. The lowest defenses, you've ever seen on a crab spider...I'm slotted for pure recharge and I hover at about 30.3% for most defenses and 39.3% for ranged. But then again, all of my IOs are +1x5'd with enhancement boosters. I run T4 Musculature Radial, and T4 Diamagnetic Radial. But really my numbers are from taking the powers mentioned to always take in comment #3, lol.

2. I absolutely love Lobster's Guide to Crabbing. His High Recharge/Perma Pets build, was the inspiration for my own crabspider ArachniBlast. Granted, I bankrupted my other 6 50s to build it, and I'm still refining it, as new stuff like the ATO sets come out and such. I'm not tanky by a long shot, but I do really nice DPS with my pets. I'm able to solo most normal missions on +4 =4, and some stuff on +4 =8 even, it just depends what I'm fighting. Longbow and Nemesis on +4 =8? Well...wardens kill me and I'm like an hor dourve for Nemesis Fake Nems and Warhulks. Come to think of it, most PPD kill me too. I like to think of myself as an 8 legged buzzsaw really. But really, strategy is key with playing any build...especially one that isn't softcapped defensively.

3. I totally agree with Trilby and Two Dollar, never ever skip Combat Training Defensive, Tactical Training Maneuvers, Tactical Training Assault, Tactical Training Leadership, and Serum. This is why you're so low in numbers defensively. If anything, Combat Training Offensive and Wolf Spider Armor are skippable in the crab secondary set. But if you're still having trouble reaching a softcap for say Smash and Lethal resistance, then yeah I'd pick up Wolf Spider Armor, even though it's the same as your Crab Armor...I like to think of it as an extra layer of resistance.

Since I don't think I've ever actually seen a Crab with Mu Mastery, I have dubbed this build The ElectriCrab!(tm)
- I attempted to make the IOs in this build "cheap" but there are some procs that I feel are worth buying with merits. You could fill in Health and Stamina with regular old Heal and End Mod enhancements until you got the merits.
- This is a ranged build with only one melee attack. Ranged defense is the easiest for a Crab to pull off cheaply.
- Recharge suffers due to the lack of Luck of the Gambler and purple sets, so I gave it more attacks than it strictly requires, including the fast ones. I didn't include an immobilize, but one of the attacks could be swapped out for that.
- Nobody likes Decimation (which makes it cheap) but it actually does work well for cone attacks because there is a fair amount of extra range built-in.
- I left one power and a couple of enhancement slots unused for... whatever.


Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.954
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

The ElectriCrab!: Level 50 Natural Arachnos Soldier
Primary Power Set: Crab Spider Soldier
Secondary Power Set: Crab Spider Training
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Leadership
Power Pool: Speed
Ancillary Pool: Mu Mastery

Villain Profile:
Level 1: Channelgun -- Decim-Acc/Dmg(A), Decim-Dmg/EndRdx(3), Decim-Dmg/Rchg(3), Decim-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(5), Decim-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(5)
Level 1: Crab Spider Armor Upgrade -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(A), S'fstPrt-ResKB(7)
Level 2: Combat Training: Defensive -- DefBuff-I(A), DefBuff-I(7)
Level 4: Super Jump -- Zephyr-Travel(A), Zephyr-Travel/EndRdx(9), Zephyr-ResKB(9)
Level 6: Combat Jumping -- DefBuff-I(A), DefBuff-I(11)
Level 8: Suppression -- Det'tn-Acc/Dmg(A), Det'tn-Dmg/Rchg(11), Det'tn-Dmg/Rng(13), Det'tn-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(13), Det'tn-Dmg/EndRdx/Rng(15)
Level 10: Tactical Training: Maneuvers -- GftotA-Def/EndRdx(A), GftotA-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(17), GftotA-Def(17)
Level 12: Venom Grenade -- SDoArach-Acc/Dmg(A), SDoArach-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(19), SDoArach-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(21), SDoArach-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(21), SDoArach-Rchg/DmgFear%(23)
Level 14: Arm Lash -- Oblit-Dmg(A), Oblit-Acc/Rchg(23), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(25), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(25), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(27), Oblit-%Dam(27)
Level 16: Maneuvers -- GftotA-Def/EndRdx(A), GftotA-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(29), GftotA-Def(29)
Level 18: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(19)
Level 20: Tactical Training: Leadership -- GSFC-ToHit(A), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg(31), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg/EndRdx(31), GSFC-Rchg/EndRdx(31), GSFC-ToHit/EndRdx(33), GSFC-Build%(33)
Level 22: Mental Training -- Run-I(A)
Level 24: Fortification -- Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx(A), Aegis-ResDam/Rchg(33), Aegis-EndRdx/Rchg(34), Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(34), Aegis-ResDam(34)
Level 26: Tactical Training: Assault -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 28: Serum -- Numna-Heal/Rchg(A), Numna-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(36), Numna-Heal(36)
Level 30: Longfang -- Decim-Acc/Dmg(A), Decim-Dmg/EndRdx(36), Decim-Dmg/Rchg(43), Decim-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(43), Decim-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(46)
Level 32: [Empty]
Level 35: Mu Lightning -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(37), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg(37), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(40), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(40), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(43)
Level 38: Summon Spiderlings -- ExRmnt-Acc/Rchg(A), ExRmnt-Acc/Dmg(39), ExRmnt-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(39), ExRmnt-EndRdx/Dmg/Rchg(39)
Level 41: Call Reinforcements -- ExRmnt-Acc/Rchg(A), ExRmnt-Acc/Dmg(42), ExRmnt-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(42), ExRmnt-EndRdx/Dmg/Rchg(42)
Level 44: Static Discharge -- Det'tn-Acc/Dmg(A), Det'tn-Dmg/Rchg(45), Det'tn-Dmg/Rng(45), Det'tn-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(45), Det'tn-Dmg/EndRdx/Rng(46), Range-I(46)
Level 47: Summon Striker -- ExRmnt-Acc/Rchg(A), ExRmnt-Acc/Dmg(48), ExRmnt-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(48), ExRmnt-EndRdx/Dmg/Rchg(48)
Level 49: Assault -- EndRdx-I(A), EndRdx-I(50)
------------
Level 2: Swift -- Run-I(A)
Level 2: Health -- Mrcl-Rcvry+(A), Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(15)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 2: Stamina -- P'Shift-EndMod(A), P'Shift-End%(37), EndMod-I(40)
Level 1: Brawl -- Acc-I(A)
Level 1: Conditioning
Level 1: Sprint -- Run-I(A)
Level 2: Rest -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 4: Ninja Run
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[QUOTE=Two_Dollar_Bill;4243058]Since I don't think I've ever actually seen a Crab with Mu Mastery, I have dubbed this build The ElectriCrab!(tm)


Looks like curiosity got the best of you there Two Dollar, lol.

Yeah I really like the Mu set. Plus when you use Frenzy, your arms buzz with red energy like the mu static. It matches well and looks different. I know most people chose DS because of the final spider pet power and shatter armour, or GW for the spinning carnival ride hold, but I like Mu.

And Sci isnt as evil as the others. Just.

What server do you currently play your crabspider on RockShock? I play on Virtue. I think it'd be interesting to see how your crabspider plays in missions.

As for the Mu thing. If you like and it works for you, then that is all that matters. Afterall, you're the one that is playing the toon. Besides, you can tell people, that it is how your spider kills the food he eats, for rp purposes. Or maybe your spider got hit by lightning and now how has the power to use electricity.

My only question is, what are you going to take for your lvl 32 slot?

You still owe me a teaming that isn't on LoLUG trial.

CTO is wasted on any but the oddest IO builds. It is often wasted even on SO Veat Builds. It should typically be given a low priority unless you have a specific reason for taking it such as: "I want to solo +4x8 at level 25 on an SO build". Such an expectation however, may be a bit unreasonable, and as such the matching need for using CTO in the first place is then invalidated. A Kismet Unique is typically more useful.

You want 45 defense for the soft-cap. You can cap either vectors or types. Veats are more appropriate to cap vectors. If you need maneuvers and maneuvers to do that, so be it. It doesn't matter how you cap them, so long as you cap them. 40 defense is litterally double damage compared to 45 defense. Melee is roughly 3 times more common than ranged that is 2 times more common than AoE. If you aren't building for symmetric vectored defense, then weight your choices 3xMelee, 2xRanged, 1xAoE. Hover Tanking, mitigates a fair bit of melee damage by simply staying out of reach. It's perfectly acceptable to ignore melee on hover-tank based characters and build for Ranged/AoE instead. However, be aware that if you do drop down into range, you WILL be vulnerable on the order of 2x to 10x.

Frag as an offensive weapon is typically only useful if you take WAG or Patron->Immobilize and use it immediately before Frag. There are other ways to generate similar AoE potential without the immobilize requirement. As a combined control and damage, Frag is fine.