Alvan

Well, looking at the build after feeling it on both sides of PvP, I must admit that it pretty much rocks. At some point my pavlovian response for hearing the Force Bolt sound became to look at my powers tray to see if something critical drop.

Very nice build, shame that the ST bubbles had to go to get everything in it. Issue 7 might bring some pain to teh awesomeness of Force bolt with the decreased toggledrops.

Group Name
E.V.I.L. University

Description
One of the older Villain Super Groups on Union, recently went through a major membership spring cleaning that left us open with lots and lots of open spaces for new members.

We're quite small and comfy group despite our age. We haven't been in a real hurry to get to the top, enjoyment of the game has been more important for us.

There is no actual "theme" in EVIL U - we come from all Origins, Archtypes and histories. We are just a community of learning and enjoying the game in all the ways possible. We do frown a bit at powerlevelers and people who think things must pwn.

Webpage
The Shared webpage of CoW and EVIL U Supergroups which is a bit out of date because of a broken new account creation system and lack of time to fix it.

In game contacts
@Alvan, @Tenebra, @aldwych and few others.

Favoured Activities
Group missions. Some of us love PvPing at the Zones. We have regular WTFs (Weekly Task Force) every Wednesday, on a shared spot with our Hero SG (which means it's not a villain side SF every week). We also have a rad/rad corruptor team going every sunday. Many of us are Badge-Hunters or borderline roleplayers, so that sort of stuff happens a bit as well.

Other Activities
Chatting, forming coalitions, teaching new people the secrets of "Faceplanting 101", talking about how much Cryptonomicon rules, coming up with crazy ideas and putting them to action ("Hey, what if I did a stalker who relied on knockback" "Sounds good, need help with that?")

Admission Requirements
Sense of humor, ability to write and understand proper English without resorting to "omg [censored] u pwn" type of language, mature mentality (most of us are well over 20 years old, so we might not understand the youth of today..)

If you're going for high-level PvP, you should consider getting Invisibility in the build, since it's to a stalker what black is to an emo these days. (REF) I'd personally get more TH_Buffs to build-up to ease life against +def people. But that's just me.

Also, as blackbone pointed out, for PvP, claws is quite terrible (which is why I'm building a PvP Claw/EA stalker atm over at deviant), but it is probably the best set for a "scrapperish" stalker. People have done scralpers (is that the word?) with Claws/Regen, but not sure how it would work with /EA

[ QUOTE ]
I could not attack but I was unseen. I tested this for about an hour tonite and hope to test more later.

If I got in and hit BU then toggled stealth and then AS I could pull off AS b4 anyone was the wiser. In large groups I was shortly owned but hey I got mine first right.

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Here is the key phrases you're looking at as a SH. Most of this has been said here already, but I'll add some small notes. As the OP had said, Hide + Invis is a good way not to get "hunted", but it doesn't mean it's a good way to fight. You need to drop Invis to be able to attack, and that leaves a big timeframe to react.

But to get to the original point I was about to make. Unless the stalker in question has Teleport or is somehow else incredibly mobile (be far away, build up, move in, drop invis, AS), he needs to Build Up, and Build Up makes a sound.

As the SH is always the target of the more ingenious Stalkers you quickly become used used to Stalkers doing quick teleport-ins or dropping from the sky or whatever they've come up with this week - you need to train yourself to deal with them appearing from nowhere and to take them down or at least use your fastest attack to drop their AS and then take them down. As they notice you're threat to their normal tactics, they will come up with new ways.

To rely on the fact you should see them before they are next to you is falling into the same pride-trap as stating "I have stealth + hide, I'm invisible" is.

PS. This is the bible of any stalker hunter

I am still considering should this be done on Test - the upsides is that no-one loses anything, but the downside is that if they are running something critical new test-y stuff there on that particular weekend, it might mean unscheduled server reboots that will render any and all work completed undone.

I'm open to the idea, but I think it pretty much depends on how things look at that point.

After listening to the endless battle of "Stalkers are overpowered with stacked Stealth + Hide" and "Everyone is overpowered now that they can see past stacked Stealth + Hide" still going on, I decided to roll a Stalker.

I was originally trying to move away from the standard archtype cliches, to a completely different approach, but Stalkers are damn hard to customize. You just can't step outside the basic box of strengths - Hide, Build-Up, AS and Placate, so I gave up trying and included them to the build.

This is technically more a PvP than a PvE build. What I'm trying to do is get rid of the mandatory stacked Hide + Stealth, as it has caused stacked perception to rise to unforeseen heights. To such levels that in the end it doesn't really matter that much if you have just hide or hide + stealth, you'll be seen anyways. Naturally the build has weaknesses - I'm actually trying to explore here if stacked knockback would be a valid option for PvP stalking, overpowering Acrobatics that many squishies these days have. I'm not even trying to go against Tankers in Granite or other insane stuff, sticking to squishies.

Exported from version 1.5B of CoH Planner
http://joechott.com/coh

Archetype: Stalker
Primary Powers - Ranged : Claws
Secondary Powers - Support : Energy Aura

01 : Hide endred(01)
01 : Strike acc(01)
02 : Kinetic Shield endred(02) defbuf(3) defbuf(3) defbuf(17)
04 : Power Shield endred(04) defbuf(5) defbuf(5) defbuf(19)
06 : Assassin's Claw acc(06) acc(7) dam(7) dam(9) dam(9) recred(11)
08 : Build Up recred(08) recred(11) recred(13) thtbuf(27) thtbuf(27) thtbuf(29)
10 : Hasten recred(10) recred(13) recred(15)
12 : Placate recred(12) recred(15) recred(17)
14 : Super Speed endred(14)
16 : Entropy Shield endred(16)
18 : Focus acc(18) acc(19) dam(21) dam(21) kbkdis(23) recred(23)
20 : Repulse endred(20) endred(25) endred(25) kbkdis(34) kbkdis(34)
22 : Hurdle jmp(22) jmp(31) jmp(31)
24 : Swift runspd(24)
26 : Stamina endrec(26) endrec(29) endrec(31)
28 : Whirlwind endred(28) endred(33) endred(34) kbkdis(36) kbkdis(36)
30 : Combat Jumping defbuf(30) defbuf(33) defbuf(33)
32 : Shockwave acc(32) acc(36) dam(37) dam(37) dam(37) kbkdis(39)
35 : Super Jump jmp(35)
38 : Overload defbuf(38) defbuf(39) defbuf(39) recred(40) recred(40) recred(40)

For PPP I'm taking Black Scorpion for added Knockback fun, plus the Web Grenade v. 2 it has is nothing to be scoffed at. Not sure if I'm taking all the powers in the pool or not, that's something that I'll decide as I've seen more of the stuff in action on Live servers (since this chara will never hit 40 by I7)

Also I might switch Combat Jumping + Superjump to Air Superiority (or Hover) + Flight and move slots from Hurdle and Combat Jumping to them, but that's still speculation as the character is lv 4 at the moment.

Those who have experience in either Claws or Energy Aura for a stalker can probably provide me with valuable information on how to slot stuff and if I should change something for something else.

Aye, thought to give you guys a heads up, since getting 40ish people who are interested in such a borderline phenomenon together might be hard otherwise.

[ QUOTE ]
just dunno if i can make it at that time cause its bit too far away

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Yeah, the problem was I'm most likely away on the 19th-21st -weekend, and less than one week notice might have been a bit of a stretch. This way people at least have time to fix their timetables

(good to have you aboard )

Ok, since the old "Real Hami Raid" thread is long gone in the winds of history, and contains all sorts of mix-matched information, I'll start a new one about a more specific subject.

I'm looking for about 4-5 full teams of heroes to do a Hive Expedition on Saturday 27th May, 17:00 GMT.

The Purpose of this is not to Raid Hamidon. We'll be out to try and figure out new stuff about what is The Hive and how it works. I guarantee you, if you thought the Hami Raids were boring and full of waiting, this expedition will be much worse. And you will not get a Hami-O from participating.

At least the following things will be done during this "event":
<ul type="square">[*] Travel through the Spiral Path that leads through the hive, without the assistance of Stealth, Invisibility, Phase Shift, PFF or other powers that prevent the Monsters from killing us. We will kill everything that tries to cross our path, and since the enemies are Monsters, this will take time and mean a lot of debt and dying.[*] Try to notice new features about The Hive not previously mentioned.[*] Will occupy the Forests of The Hive, just to see if they serve a purpose.[*] Will occupy the Cave Entrances, for the same reasons.[*] Die a horrible painful death in the hands of the Mitos and Big H himself in a 40-man charge against the blob.[/list]
Ideally your character should be of level 50. If you're lower than that, you need to understand that you aren't gaining anything from this but metric assloads of debt and possibly some insight to The Hive. We want all Archtypes represented, for diversity is part of was is The Vision of Statesman, so come as you are, no need to respec to a specific build.

Also in ideal situation you have both CoH and CoV and a SG base with Medical facilities. If you don't have a SG base with medbay, you should be willing to "temp" in a supergroup taking part that offers these services. This, of course if you have CoV, and can use Bases in the first place. If not, you need to have patience enough to wait for someone to Res you.

If you can live with these terms, reply to this message with the name of your character, the AT and level. Plus any ideas about what other stuff you want to investigate while in The Hive.

Team Leaders will be assigned once I know who is coming, priority goes to those who have investigated this stuff before and have participated in the one-team expeditions done to The Hive.

In case you have no idea what this is about:
Original Thread, lots of thoughts there.

Invis + Hide stacks great, the downside is that you can't attack while invised, so it is more useful for getting away than attacking. To attack you have to execute both "drop invis" and "attack" actions. Not sure if they can be bound to a single macro/bind (not an expert on binds).

The other downside is that Invis reloads a bit slowly, so it might mean a bit of running or slotting it for recharges.

Sounds like a damn big bug. Well, that's what test server is for, thank god for that. Should run a few testruns on Test Server at some point to see if this is really the case or if they were just the sort of stalkers who need to click for mez resistance and were hold before they could click... (not to be sceptical, but that sort of thing happens a lot)

College of War is always up for some cross-server trading. Contact @Alvan, @Tenebra or @aldwych in-game for details.

[ QUOTE ]
I think mez protection has been lowered to .. i got held by acouple holds through kuji-in rin and retus in RV but this would never happen on live as it is now so somethings has changed .. not seen any notes tho.

[/ QUOTE ]

Did you happen to see how many holds got through? The amount of holds my blaster for example can spew out in RV is three times the amount he has on SC for a simple example. I don't even want to know what the numbers are on my controller. So it might be just the ammount of attacks coming at you that has changed, not the mez protection that has been lowered.

If that feels like a trend and it worries you, pick up Acrobatics to help you deal with them a bit better. (I'm doing that for my taunt-tanker for RV even if he has damn good mez protection already)

[ QUOTE ]
SR focued senses (300 +per), focused accuracy (300 +per) and tactics (+234) this gives +834 perception beating the standard hide+stealth combo of -890

[/ QUOTE ]

Just to point out you can easilly be seen outside of RV as well.

My Blaster (lv 50) has Perception range of:

Player: 500 base
Tactics (50 Blaster): +243
Targeting Drone: +300

This brings my perception to 1043 (good 110 short of perception cap of 1153)

Hide gives you: -500
Stealth gives you: -390

For a total of -890, as you said.

Looking at this, I can see you from far far away.

And I have this combo at Warburg already. And Siren's Call. And Bloody Bay.

You have already been seen by solo heroes without any outside assistance, the sad thing is that you haven't ran into them before and had no need to develop any special tactics against them. I've been killed by solo stalkers a million time, but they haven't relied on their hiding abilites against me - cunning use of situational awareness and movement powers is required, but it's very doable.

The advantage of tactics is of course a bit lesser in BB and SC and WB. The totals of my Perception in these areas are: 973, 987 and 1009. All which easilly beat the Stealth + Hide -combination -890.

Have you considered getting Invisibility or Phase Shift as a secondary Concealment Power?

Also good thing to consider about is the fact that Stalker Stealth Cap is 10 ft lower than the perception cap on any character. So if you are borh buffed to the maximum amount, you will be seen at 10 ft.

Quick Edit: PS. Placate is a lifesaver for Stalkers, even if Assault shortens the duration of it a bit, you can still pull off a nice AS in that time.

Big Grats to @Tenebra for getting a second toon to lv 50.

[ QUOTE ]
what about FF with PFF's 56% res to all .. come to think of it can you put pets into bodyguard mode then use PFF ?

[/ QUOTE ]

Don't pets need to be within your Inherent Ability area for Bodyguard to Work? PFF suppresses the IA, so I think they don't work together.

First thing I heard last night when entering Recluses' was someone complaining how the words "jeje nubs" were used. Wasn't hard to quess who was there Dominating the scene

Shame that the balance in RV is still such that it's pretty impossible to say anything about how things will eventually work (much like BB or Siren's back in the day). But with Domination having a more active role in play and both sides having access to Accolades and all their powers, RV should be quite a blast.

[ QUOTE ]
why have you taken no attacks, the attacks allow you to tank better and actually have a degree of soloing ability.

[/ QUOTE ]

Think of it as a concept build. I'm trying to keep the purpose of the character quite straightforward - a team tank with absolutely no soloing potential.

[ QUOTE ]
For epics i took Arctic Mastery which has a fantastic hold (Block of Ice) which gives you a way to hold most bosses in conjunction with knockout blow, which also has some hold.

[/ QUOTE ]

I looked at it, but as there will be controllers and ice blasters who can hold things way better, the point of a single-target hold is a bit lost on the concept.

[ QUOTE ]
Theres also no point taking Hurdle and Swift as it doesn't make much difference having both, especially Hurdle when you have combat jumping and super jump.

[/ QUOTE ]

On the contrary - I have 3-slotted Hurdle and 3-slotted Combat Jump on the character, the movement ability those two provided in combat together is remarkable. I'm not that sure on taking swift, but it's sort of a back-up movement power for pvp (combined with sprint) if I get -jump:ed by some power. I have my pools full, so I can't take an additional actual movement power.

[ QUOTE ]
Also note Invincibilty will make you an irrisistible taunt magnet that will keep most enemies attacking you as long as you keep stomping and hitting things to keep the agro up.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yup, one of the reasons I have it. Not sure about how to slot it, might move one slot to it from somewhere just to get a Taunt Enha into it.

Good points there, took Focused Accuracy for the +perc out of old stalker-hating habits, and Laser Beam Eyes. Well... Come, on, Laser Beam Eyes! It's better than sharks with lasers. But seriously speaking - toyed around the build a bit more.

I hate Endurance Drain, and on a toon that relies on this many toggles, I've tried to make this as endurance light as possible, so that I can survive even when end-drain starts hitting me.

Switched from Energy to Stone Epic as you suggested, which left me with one unused power slot that I used on getting the Foot Stomp early on. Is the slotting on Foot Stomp and Salt Crystals ok in your opinion?

Exported from version 1.5B of CoH Planner
http://joechott.com/coh

Archetype: Tanker
Primary Powers - Ranged : Invulnerability
Secondary Powers - Support : Super Strength

01 : Jab acc(01)
01 : Resist Physical Damage damres(01) damres(3) damres(3)
02 : Temp Invulnerability damres(02) damres(5) damres(5) endred(37) endred(37) endred(50)
04 : Dull Pain recred(04) recred(7) recred(7) hel(31) hel(31) hel(34)
06 : Combat Jumping jmp(06) jmp(9) jmp(9)
08 : Resist Elements damres(08) damres(11) damres(11)
10 : Unyielding damres(10) damres(13) damres(13) endred(40) endred(42)
12 : Resist Energies damres(12) damres(15) damres(15)
14 : Taunt tntdur(14) tntdur(17) tntdur(17)
16 : Super Jump jmp(16)
18 : Invincibility defbuf(18) defbuf(19) defbuf(19) endred(46) endred(48)
20 : Hurdle jmp(20) jmp(21) jmp(21)
22 : Provoke tntdur(22) tntdur(23) acc(23) acc(31)
24 : Health hel(24) hel(25) hel(25)
26 : Tough Hide defbuf(26) defbuf(27) defbuf(27)
28 : Stamina endrec(28) endrec(29) endrec(29)
30 : Boxing acc(30)
32 : Unstoppable damres(32) damres(33) damres(33) recred(33) recred(34) recred(34)
35 : Tough damres(35) damres(36) damres(36) endred(36) endred(37)
38 : Foot Stomp tntdur(38) tntdur(39) tntdur(39) acc(39) acc(40) endred(40)
41 : Weave defbuf(41) defbuf(42) defbuf(42) endred(43) endred(43) endred(43)
44 : Salt Crystals acc(44) acc(45) endred(45) endred(45) recred(46) recred(46)
47 : Swift runspd(47) runspd(48) runspd(48)
49 : Acrobatics endred(49) endred(50) endred(50)

-------------------------------------------

01 : Brawl enhancement(01)
01 : Sprint enhancement(01)
02 : Rest enhancement(02)

Ah, true, haven't updated the planner in a while. Well, that's just cosmetics, the character is at lv 22 now and just got the SOs in place and decided that it's time to think of a respec.

Shouldn't affect the end result, will need to switch Combat Jumping to lv 6, Taunt to 10 and push the two resistance powers up a notch or two. End result should be quite alike (unless I'm exemplaring)

First of all, this is meant for literal tanking purposes - tank is there to take the aggro while the team takes care fo the enemies, not a solo build in any possible way. (Think of a dedicaded empath as a good comparison point - very useless outside teams).

The reason for Acrobatics and over-the-cap resistances brought by stuff like Tough are there with Recluses Victory in mind - planning to one day bring it there to team-play pvp.

Don't pay attention to the levels the slots are taken, it's done in expert mode.

Can LBE be slotted with Taunt? Hero planner said "no", but thought to check it with you guys.

Exported from version 1.5B of CoH Planner
http://joechott.com/coh

Archetype: Tanker
Primary Powers - Ranged : Invulnerability
Secondary Powers - Support : Super Strength

01 : Jab tntdur(01)
01 : Resist Physical Damage damres(01) damres(3) damres(3)
02 : Temp Invulnerability damres(02) damres(5) damres(5) endred(40) endred(43)
04 : Dull Pain recred(04) recred(7) recred(7) hel(46) hel(46) hel(46)
06 : Taunt tntdur(06) tntdur(9) tntdur(9)
08 : Resist Elements damres(08) damres(11) damres(11)
10 : Unyielding damres(10) damres(13) damres(13) endred(40) endred(43)
12 : Resist Energies damres(12) damres(15) damres(15)
14 : Combat Jumping jmp(14) jmp(17) jmp(17) defbuf(19) defbuf(19) defbuf(21)
16 : Super Jump jmp(16) endred(45)
18 : Invincibility defbuf(18) defbuf(21) defbuf(23) tntdur(23) tntdur(25) tntdur(25)
20 : Hurdle jmp(20) jmp(27) jmp(27)
22 : Provoke tntdur(22) tntdur(29) tntdur(29) acc(31) acc(31) acc(31)
24 : Health hel(24) hel(33) hel(33)
26 : Tough Hide defbuf(26) defbuf(33) defbuf(34)
28 : Stamina endrec(28) endrec(34) endrec(34)
30 : Boxing acc(30)
32 : Unstoppable damres(32) damres(36) damres(36)
35 : Tough damres(35) damres(36) damres(37) endred(37) endred(37) endred(43)
38 : Weave defbuf(38) defbuf(39) defbuf(39) endred(39) endred(40) endred(42)
41 : Swift runspd(41) runspd(42) runspd(42)
44 : Acrobatics endred(44) endred(45) endred(45)
47 : Focused Accuracy endred(47) endred(48) endred(48) thtbuf(48) thtbuf(50)
49 : Laser Beam Eyes dmg(49) dmg(50) dmg(50)

-------------------------------------------

01 : Brawl enhancement(01)
01 : Sprint enhancement(01)
02 : Rest enhancement(02)

To get away from the sweet times, when playing meant sitting in the corner of teh dreckz and idling while the fire/fire tank burns you exp, I'll return to the original subject:

College of War Gallery - various screenshots, resized to unbearable size, but who cares.

Grats, mate! Well done

What are you planning on doing next?

[ QUOTE ]
MMs can be effective though, there's a great Merc/Traps "Colonel Sanderz" (I think) who plays in Siren's.

[/ QUOTE ]

Actually I think he is Colonel Sandurz, but yeah - a good PvP-tuned mastermind can be tons of fun, especially with a good team. Solo Masterminds tend to be the favored snacks of anything with burst damage - they go down more easilly than anything else on the field.

When thinking of power pools: Grant Invisibility, Invisibility and Phase Shift are all neat stuff that you'll get from Concealment that can help you survive in PvP (as long as you don't mind the broadcast whine over you using Hyper Phase temp power when you're actually using the real thing).

Also you might think about having more than one movement method around the field - TP+Flight and Superjump+Superspeed are two very popular combos (latter having Acrobatics as an added plus to give you that Hold resistance that you'll be screaming for when you once again get held).

In a Team PvP, depending on your team, you might be more valuable as a buffer than you are summoning your pets (they tend to draw aggro from NPCs around you). Look around and learn from your mistakes and from the mistakes of others.

Oh, and one thing more - keep watching the skies. Villains might have Stalkers, but that doesn't mean they won't try to catch you off-guard, and too few people look directly upwards in a PvP situation.

Great TF, well tanked, Luc and psi!

psst. the name was Aldwych