Abyys

Ive did alot of binds for my blaster so i thought id have a go at one for AS.
I think it was /bind 4 powexec_name "assasin's blade"$$say "Prepare to die $target!"
It seemed to stop the power working sometimes and also it was annoying cos i often tap the button a few times once im near the enemy.

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Regen brute would be so insanely overpowered that there's not even a word for it. Brutes need to have some downtime to balance Fury.

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Yeah lol that would be a joke. Thered be groups of them charging through missions running at full rage the whole time and just self healing between fights.

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Actually, the only Stalker secondary I do think they looked at properly is ninjutsu, which is a beautiful concept set and well worth taking just for beautifully integrated, in-concept powers.

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Erm.. are you playing the same ninjitsu as me??
I think if ninjuitsu was in concept it would have a net trap or something to hold the enemy for 3 seconds, that would be alot more useful. As it is its not very good.

BTW if you were refering to Smoke flash im afraid to tell you it doesnt work at all and is a waste of a power.

If you get your ninjitsu to roughly lvl 30 plz come back and argue the point if you still think that way , and we can have a good discussion.

In think the one that is most in concept is SR, purely because of quickness. Any stalker that feels the need to pick more than 5 powers in his secondary power set is not really getting the essence of a stalker i dont reckon.

I agree with rock eagle and zephyrus on this one. Stalkers dont need any more endurance recovery anyway so it is a logical choice. MoG is more of a stalker power than that imo.

No harm done

If youd bothered to read my post properly youd have noticed i said: [ QUOTE ]
Start doing the respec now, it took me 8 attempts and I was getting more and more frustrated at being gimped each time!

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I never said anything like putting 6 slots in Integration gimps your build!

And then you just re-iterated what i already said! No-one would ever think putting more slots reduces the effectiveness anyway.

Can u imagine Stalker vs Stalker lol
First one to get bored and come outta hide loses!

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Bugger, so I really need to pull half the slots out of each of those?

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I hate to say it, but yeah you do

Like I said i was in the same boat. Start doing the respec now, it took me 8 attempts and i was getting more and more frustrated at being gimped each time!

Oh dear, another player caught out by the abomination that is ED!

I did the same thing. Shoved 6 slots in hasten, later had to respec them out.
Basically with DOs its ok. But once you get to SOs it starts getting sily.
The bonus given by SOs goes (off the top of my head) something like this:
1st SO: 33%
2nd S0: 33%
3rd SO: 29%
4th SO: 4%
5th SO: 3%
6th SO: 2%

The rule of thumb is only 3 of each type. Basically you cant enhance an effect by much more than 100% no matter how good your enhancements are.

You've certainly come up with a unique way to play a stalker and i have to say i like it alot.

Yeah you probably gotta take stealth really if your going pure PvP. Without it anyone with a bit of perception wont be fooled.

The build looks great so far. Take hover soon so u can get those pesky flying blaster. (Tp up to them and AS). Then later you can take fly as well if you want.

Good luck and happy hunting

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I've heard people say that once they give away there position they are pretty weak.

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This is true. However, the stalker is no more weak than a blaster or a corruptor.

In teams the trick is to deal damage in bursts and dont stay in combat too long. Kill the few enemies who do see you, then wait til hidden to pounce on the next group.

Stalkers are, imo, the highest damage dealing class in the game and essential to teams.

You can be a Stalker and not worry about defense buffs too much. Get it right and you'll kill anything near you so fast they wont get chance to hit back.

If you want pure defence then yes SR is the best. However, you need to pick loadsa powers to get the high def vs everything and its a waste of powers if you ask me.

AoE placate doesn't work and its rubbish. See my other post.
Took it, hated it, respecced outta it

ok here goes

1. Your powers choices are good. Youve created a typical stalker that will do well.

However you havent chosen powers to aid your slotting, more on that later and youve chosen the presence power pool. I cant really see where your going with this, why would you want to encourage enemies to attack you?

2. Imho your slotting is not very good. You need to be looking at doing at lot more damage a lot more often to compete with other ATs. You may also find it diffcult to hide as you cant finish off the enemies near you quick enough.

To do more damage, quite simply you should be slotting more damage enhancements in your damage powers. 3 damage SO enhancements doubles the damage of a power, which is a huge increase. Slotting recharge time also increases your dmg if there are pauses between your attacks and youll need more accuracies if you plan to take on red/purp enemies.

Youve slotted lots of endurance reducers, and in a few places that are really unneccesary. Combat jumping for example should not be slotted for endurance reduction.

If you were to pick the fitness power pool and take stamina you would find you dont need to slot as many endurance drain reducers.

I definitly wouldnt slot brawl or rest or combat jumping under any circumstances.

3. I personally decided to take hasten to act as recharge, stamina to act as endurance reducers and then simply slot damage and accuracies to make my "core" attacks extremely powerful.
Imageshack is better for image hosting btw My Build FYI

I think when you make any character you should decide what your core powers are gonna be. I.e. the ones you really need and use most often. For a stalker i think this has to be your damage powers and so you should put 6 slots in them all.

4. Ive only ever played spines scrapper so i cant say how the stalker version would play out.

By your enhancements i can guess your respec lvl. You mite want to use the respec to tweak your build a little bit.

Good luck and happy hunting!

w00t, its great to see posts about stalkers being underpowered i was worried a nerf was coming....

Rock eagle hit the nail on the head, your getting hit by AoEs or somethnig with perception.
You didnt say what build you are but unless you are regen you should get some nice defence powers. Slot them and youll get hit less by AoEs.
As for perception i have played 3 stalkers to at least lvl 15 and there are very few examples of enemies who have it.
One particulalrly annoying example is the guards in the robbery missions. Were you doing those at the time?

Air superiority isnt really very good for a stalker. And you shouldnt consider it another atacking power, but of course if you want fly your gonna need to take that or hover....hmmm...id probably take hover if i went that way.
CJ/SJ or Hasten/SS are probably better alternatives.

The crit chance of AOEs should be 50%. When you run into 5-6 mobs your probably missing 1 or 2. Id recommend slotting accuracies if you plan to use the hide + spine burst tactic often.

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With the current aggro rules being what they are, you have to run a long way and wait a long time to get away from a mob of any size.

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You make a good point but in response id say if you play in a team(which tbh you should), and kill the enemies near you, you dont need to run.

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if you don't take your defence powers its no wonder you have to take build up early because you have to kill them before they kill you

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Lol, if you're not planning to kill the enemy before they kill you, you mite want to reconsider your tactics


But jokes aside, imho i think youve missed the essence of the stalker.
I dont want to be one of those people who says you have to play like this: blah blah blah, im just trying to use my stalker experience to answer your question as best i can.

Would you agree that stalkers are supposed to be the most pure DMG dealing AT in city of villains? I would argue in the whole game.
They have very low health, can perform no holds, and must (generally) get very close to harm an enemy.

From experience i really do believe Stalkers outdmg any other AT in CoV, even in longer battles. And the damage gap widens as they reach higher lvl. The downside is they are quite weak; but due to good use of stealth and running they dont die any more often than anyone else.

My current Stalker for example is lvl 28 and can drop 1 red leutenant and 1 orange minion in 5 seconds. Due to hasten and recharges she can pull off the combo roughly every 15 seconds. In between this combo she has to scrap, but by fighting on the fringes can avoid taking much dmg.
The build FYI

It really is alot of fun, and respectfuly i would say its how the stalker is meant to be played.

Thats look really good.
You might consider taking Kuji-In Rin at lvl 16 tho and pushing all the others powers up one. Especially if you ever wanna play in bloody bay.

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Weird to say but... I'd gladly give up all the secondaries to have ANOTHER control set as my secondary XD

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Yeah that would be cool, but then dominators would do even less dmg. Ive got a fire/fire dominator and I already take about 10 minutes to kil 6 even lvl mobs solo- mind you i dont get hit once during the 10 minutes!

Heres a though BTW: The Devs insist on making respecs overly difficult. With my main I only just managed the first respec on my 8th attempt. I was reluctant to take even 1 dominator in the team by that point.

When the mission is to kill 72 vines in stupidly quick time whilst getting shot at by something that can easily 2 hit you: who wants to take an AT that deals very little dmg?

The Devs are creating discrimination in the game!

Sorry i didnt make that clear. I agree that for navigating to missions and just generally SJ is better.
But just purely for getting away in PvP surely SS has the edge, particularly as your harder to spot on the ground and can get out of line of site faster.

I fail to see how SS is worse than SJ when its faster in a straight line . You cant kill what you cant catch.

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In that case, where do you put it? I run ninjitsu, and literally, by 14, I have 2 attacks, travel+preq, AS, Placate, my two defenses. None of those is nonessential.

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I would disagree, as a stalker and not a scrapper id say your two defense toggles are BOTH non-essential. If theres too many just run, come back 5 secs later and AS one.

If youd looked at my second post you wouldve seen i didnt include ninja reflexes until later in the build.

sorry but build doesnt look too great IMO. heres my 2 cents

PvP build and you dont get mez protection til lvl 26?
In bloody bay you will get owned every time you try to attack.
Youll get off one AS then youll get hit by something as simple as ring of fire or hit with one of many disorient attacks.
This means any good controller, blaster, tank or scrapper will kill you.

You also must take build-up if you wanna stand a chance.

smoke flash is rubbish and shouldnt be taken til it gets fixed (i posted about it recently).

With some slight changes youll be alot more powerful.
Bear in mind because Stalkers have v low hitpoints if you dont kill an enemy within 8 seconds you must run. BTW the build below is purely PvP and probably not particularly good PvE, unless you enjoy hit and run.

Archetype: Stalker
Primary Powers - Ranged : Energy Melee
Secondary Powers - Support : Ninjitsu

01 : Hide
01 : Energy Punch
02 : Danger sense
04 : Bone Smasher
06 : Assassin's Strike
08 : Build up
10 : Hasten
12 : Placate
14 : Super speed
16 : Kuji-In Rin
18 : Hurdle
20 : Health
22 : Stamina
24 : Stealth
26 : Ninja reflexes
28 : Air Superiority
30 : Fly
32 : Total Focus
35 : Tp foe
38 : Kuji-In Retsu

hope that was helpful

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hasnt been 1 single time that i havent had to click it a second time due to interuption for no reason!

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I can get it to work first time if I stand around for a bit before using it.

But it is very annoying. Like the guy above said its like snipe. I think all the ATs in the game take a bit of time to go from what the game considers "moving" to what it considers "stationary" even if you think you are still.

I think youll find you get better at judging when its ready as you lvl up. Dont get me wrong it still happens to me just nowhere near as often as it used to.

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yeah but what if I use Damage inpirations? because I tend to cycle through my inspirations more than most characters I always have damage ones on me, not a dramatic increase in power, but enough to take down a boss

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well yes they help but id use them as well as build up.

Its all relative. If you dont have build up then yes you can use 2 reds and that combo i said to take down a boss.
But use 2 reds and build up and you can take down a boss 2 lvls higher.
Or you can use reds when your build up is recharging.

You have made a good point tho, by buying inpsirations you can imitate the effect of build up, but you still havent given a good reason NOT to pick it.

this is how id change your build

1- Thunder Kick
1- Hide
2- Storm Kick
4- Focused Fighting
6- Focus Chi (Build up)
8- Assasin's Blow
10- Hasten
12- Placate
14- Super Speed
16- Practiced Brawler
18- Hurdle
20- Health
22- Stamina
24- Focused Senses
26- Agile
28- Crane Kick
30- Quickness
32- Dodge
35- Eagle's Claw
38- Elude


You will find that hasten will make your attacks recharge fast enough that you dont need another melee attack.
The cooldown on hasten is annoying so i recommend slotting recharges in it.

Once you get crane kick you definetly wont worry about not enough attacking powers.

hope this helps

I posted about this power in the Bugs section of the forum.

If you think its broken plz post there and maybe we'll get the Devs to fix it before everyone respecs out of it.

Im sorry mate but the short answer is No, you cant survive without build up.

I reccommend taking it, 3 slotting it asap with time reductions, and using it alot.

Put simply the role of the Stalker imo is to deal dmg in bursts.
The combo of Build up + AS + Placate + high dmg attack I think is essential to the stalker. Take away build up and that sequence does half dmg.