Beelzy

Originally Posted by BrandX

Hmmm...I'm actually at a loss to what you're saying then. I have no problem with the soloing.

didn't have problems with soloing a stalker before the buffs, and havent had a problem afterwards.

Solo, if you want to hit and run, you can do easy enough.

If by soloing you mean farm, well that's a different story, however, I don't think faming ability (I have no problem with people farming, when I say this), should be a factor in anything.

Do defeat all missions become a PITA with a single target specialist? Yeah. But then, Stalkers aren't the only single target specialists out there.

Originally Posted by BrandX

Because then teams won't want you for one.

Before the changes to stalkers, I treated my stalker the same way as I did now...get into the middle of the group, pick my target, release one big hit, then scrap it out.

Which target I picked, depended on a mob to mob basis. Sometimes I'd want that Minion or LT taken out in one shot, sometimes I knew it was better to get as much damage done to that boss first, then worry about the others.

Basically, I've played my stalkers as a scrapper with better invisibility.

Hit and run can work for solo (it becomes a matter of patience), but on teams, boring, and you're not helping your team at all (and thusly why stalkers have gotten a bad rap).

You're stalker is tougher than that blaster, corruptor, defender, troller...maybe not that Dominator though >_>

And really, hit and run would only be useful if you killed that target in one hit. And I just don't see Stalkers always taking out the boss level enemies in one shot (outside of inspirations being buffed) as happening. Not enough to make it worthwhile for the team to have a hit and run type.

Originally Posted by Smiling_Joe

To answer the question of what would be the perfect primary set, I would want to see something that capitalized on a stalker's ability to leverage burst damage.

Strictly off the top of my head, I banged out an idea for a set that might do something like that. I call it:

Psionic Melee:

1 Psychic Fist - You wrap your fists in psychic energy and deliver a quick punch to your enemy. The attack deals minor damage, but the psychic residue makes your opponent think they're more damaged than they really are. The illusory damage goes a way after a few seconds, but if they are defeated beforehand the defeat is very real.

1 Neural Chop - You wrap your fist in psychic energy and use it to deal moderate damage to your opponent. In addition, your blow wreaks havoc with your opponent's central nervous system, temporarily shutting some bodily functions down for a few seconds. Your opponent will take a little longer to recover than when hit with Psychic Fist, but there's a small chance that the attack will leave your enemy disoriented for a short time.

4 Dream Daggers - You sweep your arm in front of you as though you're releasing a spread of venomous daggers. They are very real to your opponents, however, dealing moderate psionic damage in a wide cone in front of you. The damage is moderate, but as with the first two attacks feels worse than it is. Opponents think they are poisoned and suffering poison damage over time. The illusory damage fades after a few seconds, but is very real in the meantime.

6 Psionic Strike - standard AS, but all psionic damage

8 Build Up

12 Placate

18 Telekinetic Burst - You deliver a roundhouse blow with a fist of psychic energy, knocking your opponent into the air and sending them smashing to the ground with tremendous force. Because they think they've been knocked higher and fallen harder, the attack deals extra but temporary psionic damage in addition to the damage dealt by both the punch and the fall.

26 Waking Nightmare - This purely psionic attack deals devastating and real damage to an opponent's psyche, made even more terrifying because it happens from a distance. Your opponent is lost in a nightmare of your making, and in addition to the damage suffers from a high mag fear effect.

32 Mind Ripper - A devastating attack. You bring both fists down with full psychic force on your opponent, knocking them down and dealing extreme damage. The psychic shockwaves ripple out, invading the minds of your foe's allies and making them think they too have taken damage from the attack. Mind Ripper deals real superior damage to your target and moderate illusory damage to up to five foes within a fifteen foot radius. If any of these foes are defeated before the mental damage disappears, they too will fall.


Apologies for the stupid sounding names. I put like ten minutes' thought into this.

The premise of the set is similar to spectral wounds from the Illusion Control set. The idea is to reward a stalker's ability to exploit opportunities to do damage and bring foes down with burst damage spikes. The illusory damage would not be counted in criticals, and Psionic Strike and Waking Nightmare carry no illusory damage at all. Mind Ripper deals illusory damage only to those in the AOE. The actual damage of any attacks that also deal this illusory damage would obviously have to be scaled down to balance the extra illusory damage, but the illusory combined with the real damage should bring the set significantly above other single target sets in total damage potential due to the fading nature of the illusory damage.

It would require some heavy testing to determine the correct levels of damage and the duration of the illusory damage, and most attacks would do a combination of psionic and smashing damage.

Originally Posted by Leo_G

Don't go there. We've already been down this road. Stalkers are, indeed, worth a damn. Yes, they could use some tweeks but that doesn't stop what they do from being great. Even the minor adjustments you say are on the table would only do [_____] this much to improve them.

Originally Posted by Leo_G

Well, with a new set, it'd most likely need a unique mechanic which would require extensive testing and coding whereas just adding the animations to a current set would just need to test if the animations played properly.

As for a unique flavor set with Stalkers in mind? Death Scythe.

If they're going to sink resources into a new unique set, I want something with a whole new flavor too. And when you need to split an 11ft tall demon in twain or rip a huge clockwork monolith in half, a pair of knives just won't do it

Originally Posted by Siolfir

So you're saying it's not the size of the blade, but how you use it?