That's right, Huntsman Tourney my Bane Spider has hit level 50! Tourney is my fourth 50. The journey was very enjoyable. Those who listen to the naysayers on the forums and avoid Banes or roll Banes only as Huntsmen are really missing out on something special.
In PvE they have incredible damage output, especially single target, but the Placate->Crowd Control combo produces impressive AOE damage. Doubly so when combined with Venom Grenade.
I went with 3 ranged attacks(Venom Grenade, Mace Beam, Poisonous Ray) and 3 melee (Crowd Control, Pulverize, Shatter). This gives me a lot of versatility, and makes me a threat at range and up close. A lot of people pick Bash over Mace Beam, but let me tell you Mace Beam is worthy of consideration in every build as it's a great performer. Personally, having tried both, I'd never go back to Bash.
In PvP a Bane can kill squishies with the best of them and can harass, and with some work even kill Scrappers and Tankers. Tankers are usually much more work than they are worth, but it's doable with patience. The Bane is the ultimate anti-armor unit in PvP as they can get no less than four sources of -Res: Venom Grenade, Surveillance, Surveillance -Res Proc and Poisonous Ray -Res Proc. If you get lucky and both your Procs go off, your Resist based target is in big trouble!
My only complaint? Poisonous Ray has no -Res like the Patron version of the power gets. Given the relative squishiness of Banes (I love Banes, but they are undeniably the squishiest of the VEATs) I'd say putting a -20% Res in Poisonous Ray isn't overpowered, but rather fair compensation for their squishiness. This would give a PvP Bane no less than five sources of -Res, too. That would be just devastating even to a Tank. It's still balanced due to Banes' squishiness, though! (It'd be nice to see Bane Crowd Control go to 10 targets instead of the current 5, too.)
About that squishiness. The pets go a long way to mitigating the squishiness. Also, you can use active defense techniques to help keep yourself alive even against a very strong opponent. I used Web Cocoon on Statesman to allow me to kite him and wear him down with my ranged attacks, for example. A lot of people don't get this about Banes, and it's part of the unfair rap they get on the forums.
I will eventually roll another Bane. I'm very curious about doing a ranged Bane so I might go that way.
It was a weird, wild ride. Banes kill very fast, and their leveling speed is reminiscent of Brutes because of that. I highly recommend them, and not those poor-man's-crab Huntsmen either but real mace-weilding Banes.
On to purples!
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