Blitzwulf

don't get me wrong, i loved the set combination of claws/nin, and i loved the character, so it was a ton of fun to level and play at 50. but i also had to blunt and honest, lethal damage is meh on stalkers redside. just keep in mind that is coming from a claws/ point of view, which is the lowest damage lethal set for stalkers (fast yes, but still lots of low damage hits).

the times when lethal resistance at high levels really comes into play and is noticable:
-every time you AS about 90% of the mobs you fight.
-any time you're teamed (or solo w/settings) and you run into an AV, you realized that your 'scrapping damage' output is vastly underwhelming compared to sets like dark melee/ or energy/ simply because of your damage type.
-any fight with a +1 or higher boss, and someone help you if you find that boss to be a PPE or similar high lethal resistance.
-probably others but that's it off the top of my head.

at the extreme end, there is hope, if you want to put the work into IO'ing out and getting non-lethal damage procs, etc, which may actually help spines out due to the aoe-nature of the set.

in the end, play what is FUN for you, regardless of what others say sucks and doesn't suck. if it's really fun to play, you will make it not suck eventually, because passion is what drives people to excel.

the main problem that all villian lethal sets face is the end game: most of what you will fight will be arachnos and longbow, and i think malta or rikti as a 3rd. most (if not all) of the mobs in those groups have high lethal resistance, so any lethal set will have problems.

then you factor in the stalker starting damage modifier (1.0 i think, now?), which is better than it used to be, surely. but lethal damage stalkers get hit hard by the heavy lethal resist later on because when mobs start resisting upwards of 50% of your built-up AS it gets kinda disheartening.

my first (and ex) main was a claws/nin stalker. i took him to 50. i IO'd him up, fairly hefty, two full purple sets and half a 3rd. i built him to do what stalkers do best: fast damage. i think towards the end i had about 80-90% global recharge and 20-30% global damage buffs, as well as assault from the leadership pool. the reason i mention this is because i tried to make the best and most out of my favorite character.

and failed miserably, end game, at what a stalker does best: kill things.

don't get me wrong, i was practically unkillable in PvE, and i could take out pretty much everything but true AV's. it just took forever. to kill anything. except carnies.

in the end, the character was a lot of fun to play, so that kept me going. but when i came back from a few months break, i didn't really bat an eye at rerolling from scratch since i knew what was waiting for lethal damage at the end game.

that's from a claws/ stalker perspective, so your spines/ may get you more milage with the toxic DoT's.

wow, this thing is still going... o.0

i suppose in a way tiger paw left a legacy for aspiring DB'ers.

I appreciate it. The main reason I took such a long break in the first place was due to building my Claws/ Stalker for +dmg set bonii as well as the wall of late game lethal resist that still seemed to be there despite all I could do with IO's.

I'm really tempted to give it a shot again because I do miss the Stalker playstyle, but it sucks when you get as poweful as you can get and still feels like you're playing Super Mario.

I may end up giving Katana/Ninja Blade a shot with it as well. I'm still not sure what to make of the Stalker Eviscerate change, but I do know that I did like the Katana set I just couldnt stand the pauses between attacks. That seems to have been fixed as well so it gives me a bit more hope for a Stalker I can be happy with.

I just tend to put everything into one character and want to make sure it doesn't end up useless this time around.

Hey Scrappers, everyone knows this is the forum to ask the numbers questions, so...

My main question: is it possible for a Claws/ Stalker (or any Stalker, really) to put out enough damage to solo AV's?

A bit of background: My old main was a Claws/Nin for a long time. I took a break before i12 changes came live, so I'm still going by 'old' Stalker experience here. Anyway, I get back and instead of wanting to try the new changes on my old main, I rolled up a Claws/ Brute figuring that not only does Brute Fury give them enough damage for AV's at end game, but also enough damage to get past the wall of lethal resistance that made my Stalker's life a nightmare.

I'm enjoying the Brute, but there are times I miss the Stalker playstyle. And having to think about fights before starting them. But the main thing I want from my character is to push it to the limits and actually feel powerful when I get there.

I tend to favor Lethal sets over the others so if any of you have any advice on any other ATs with Lethal sets on AVs it's much appreciated.

My old main was a Claws/Nin stalker that I took to 50 and played quite a lot. This was before the i12 changes hit and I took a break from my main and the game for a few reasons:

Claws/ is all lethal damage typed. At 50 in CoV, nearly all the mob types you run up against have insane lethal resist. It got to the point that the only time I really felt powerful as a Claws/ stalker at 50 was when I was up against carnies. I just got irritated that nearly all mob types would resist about 20-50% of my lethal-typed AS damage.

There are times I do miss the stalker playstyle, especially stalker version of claws because the set has a good mix of burst damage and damage over time, and it used to have a good mix of single and aoe damage. But, eviscerate was changed to affect only one target instead of as a cone aoe. Good and bad change, but it really does suck when your best aoe damage is no longer an aoe.

When coming back, I went with brute claws simply because fury's damage bonus is enough to bypass late level mob lethal resistances.

just an fyi, but hurdle gives the same jump speed as SJ, just without the height. slot hurdle and CJ and you got a mini travel power w/o suppression. raptor pack gets you height if you need it.

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Given what's been confirmed for I16 as well as mention of a major graphics upgrade in Going Rogue, I'm not sure CoX2 is going to be needed any time soon.

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you have both at 50 and can't test this yourself? no offense, but seriously... with enough IO's and cash any archtype and any sets can be made into gods.

best advice i could toss your way would be: play which one you find the most fun.

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Would this then mean that elude would add no defense bonus?

I think elude has been bringing me above this level.

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i use elude for the endurance regen and it helps to be above 45% defense against purple mobs.

As a stalker you can't go wrong with /Nin.

For PvE: Claws/ is a fun, scrappy-type set once out of hide. You have good knockdown mitigation in Focus and Shockwave. It -is- fun. Until you hit the wall of red-side lethal resist. That's when you want to scratch your eyes out.

For PvP: Any stalker primary can do well, if you build and play properly.

i'm at about 38% to ranged/aoe and already softcapped melee, level 45, using only regular SO's. with mindlink 'm overcapped. it's not expensive, just have to build correctly.

there's a reason pvp is pretty dead. mainly it's the blasters with their buffbots sitting in the hospital, but that's neither here nor there.

i thought anything/anything blasters were still the kings of pvp...?

My main character is a cyborg concept. There are numerous ways to go about it.

First, flesh out who/what the character is/was before the cybernetics. Some sort of paramilitary operative? You could go Natural origin and have the cybernetic implants added to boost performance further than the organic body could go.

Or you could have some kind of brainiac that went full-conversion 'borg because his natural body wasn't fit for the rigors of whatever it is he wants to do. In this case I would go Tech origin.

Really depends on how much of a machine the character is. *shrug* You could go science, but I wouldn't.

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So where does Claws fall on the PvE usefulness scale for stalkers? I assume it's going to be much more of a scrappy set that lacks in damage spikes...

I guess it would come down to how crippling the pure lethal damage was in late game CoV?

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claws/ for stalkers is a nice, fun, scrappy set with good knockdown tools in focus and shockwave. good burst with build up and AS of course.

the downside is, it's all lethal damage. you won't notice it until everything you fight (like the heaps and heaps of longbow and rikti and arachnos and... god, everything.) has insane lethal resistance.

it's at that point that you either suck it up and fight every damn minion+ for a few minutes, or reroll. sad but true.

although you will enjoy carnie carnage. that's about it late game.

...i took a break for almost a year and this thread is still going?

o.0

...wow...

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The net result is a buff, yes.

Previously a broadsword user would swing the sword, stand there for a moment doing nothing, swing the sword again...hang around whistling for a bit...swing once more... do his taxes...finally attack again...

The pauses have been removed.

Drawing the sword the first time takes a moment, but after that everything is now much faster.

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Thank you very much! That very thing was the reason I had trouble getting into Katana when I really tried. At the moment I'm still trying out the Widow VEAT, so I haven't really tested things with my Stalkers.

I appreciate the answers, and now I have much to think about.

I recently came back to the game, and I remember just before I took a break that there was discussion on removing the weapon-draw-time from weapon sets' attack animations. Did this happen, or was this idea scrapped?

claws would give brutes the two things they crave most: fast(ish) recharge on attacks, and built-in endurance reduction(ishes) on attacks.

i mean, why the hell not give brutes claws? it's not like the stalkers are making use of 'em, and that is coming from a claws/ stalker.

not as bad as /invuln would'a been for stalkers.

it sounds like whoever is playing the stalker has absolutely no idea of their role in the team or how brutes work.

brutes are there to make a royal mess of things and dish out damage the messier things get. a stalker is there to kill the toughies before they pose a problem for the team.

in short, if you explain to the stalker players how fury works and why you as a brute need to take the alpha hits, and they still insist on 'scouting' (which any good stalker only does if/when the team lead says to) and starting fights, etc, give them the boot. to the head. and make sure to let them know that you did it to generate fury that would've been already there had they a freakin' clue.

[edit: it may help to explain to the stalker that they should, being hidden, get into melee range of their target and start their assassin's strike as the brute charges in and gets hit.]

i was dissatisfied with my claws/ stalker's damage potential (fully IO'd barring full purple sets), took a break, came back, rolled a widow...

the damage is there for the widow, but i like the look of claws/ over the retracto-needle. :/

i think if/when claws gets ported to brutes it will see some serious changes. focus as a ranged attack would be too quick for a brute to have, and shockwave would probably end up being too much control on too short a recharge for a brute to end up with. *sigh*

...and i refuse to play scrapper.

Thanks for the replies, all. Considering that I went so far as to take the Leadership pool in my old Stalker build for 'team-friendliness' (and Assault for that bit of extra damage >.&gt, the SoA might be what I am looking for.

Thanks again.

The last time I played was just before i12 I think. My main is a Claws/Nin Stalker. I took a break just before the Stalker buff patch and the VEATs hit.

My question is, how do current Stalkers compare to a Night Widow that would be built/played like a Stalker?

Just curious what I can expect from my SoA. Thanks to anyone with the time to give me the rundown on this.