Capes and Cowls Forum

Right, having played her to 26 (so past half) here's my take on the arachnos soldier AT so far.

The wolf spider was a struggle. Damage output is medium at best, a mix of melee, range and ae range, with none of the power behind it that is needed to really efficiently take down mobs. No slow, little knockback/down or any of the other things you could use to even a battle.
Now this would be no problem if your secondaries would help, but for me they didnt. Not really. The self defense is severly limited and while the group versions are ok'ish they still don't really allow you to efficiently melee in my experience.

Solo it was hard, I was not able to really play above the default villanous setting on difficulty.
In groups however it was just as hard, as the soldiers seem to have a taunt ability that matches that of a hero tank. This made it hard to use the AE powers as that would make a lot of a group turn on you and with the limited defense this is generally a bad idea.

I chose to go crab spider at 24.
Solo this did not significantly change the playstyle for me as of yet. My dps is still on the low end and defense is still a problem.
In groups I did find this build play a bit better. The slightly higher defense allows you to survive the aggro a bit longer, though its still a case of paying attention. Once I get pets and a bit more powers I'll update my experience.
I havent tried a widow at all yet.
Time time...

This is completely the opposite to what I found however when I did my VEAT it was just after I12 got released. We had teams of 8 VEATS and they slaughtered everything due to the stacked Leadership buffs.