DarkMaster

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I've found keeping the two things layered isn't worth it though. I didn't find Bonfire all that good for damage.

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True, by the time Bonfire can get it's "full" aoe damage affect in, you should have already killed the spawn anyways heh.

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btw, I almost took thermal, but I just can't stand every other power but heat exhaution, went with /rad instead.

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Hmm...so if your purpose is to drain end and then kill targets....why are you pairing Elec and TB with...Rad? I realize that /Rad also has EM Pulse, which is actually quite a powerful end drain tool on other players...however, if you were to use "both" TB AND EMP...then YOU yourself will have to deal some some pretty substantial "end drain" on top of "-recovery" yourself! Basically, you're hurting yourself almost as much as you are hoping to hurt them, if not more.


I mean, Elec/Rad can definately work, but I'd suggest either TB "or" EMP and not both. However, if you're choosing only "one" or the "other" then I'd actually suggest a different secondary altogether. If you don't like /Thermal...have you considered /Kinetics? Paired with ElecBlast, /Kinetics is quite the beast in the end drain department, and may even drain opponents faster than an Elec/Thermal.

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An even sillier idea - heck with it, just give ElA scaling resistance.

SO slotting, 35% Ne, 41% Sm/Le/Fi/Co/Ps, 90% En; using the SR scaling passive percentages (0.9% res/%hp if you sum them up), at 50% health you'd be passing 50% resistance to most damage types and would cap resistance to all but Ne and Tx at 5% health.

FWIW I don't know how effective scaling regeneration would be since by the time you get a significant boost you'd be one or two hits from being killed anyway and it would take longer for the regen to be effective than those hits would take to damage you. If you set it hit enough to survive a few hits then it will shut itself off and you may as well simply call it a small heal and give Power Sink the Energy Drain treatment.

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LOL, scaling +res would definately be good too!


Ah hell, ELA just needs a FIX!!! Plain and simple...dev's...are you listening yet?!?!

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I DO get occasionally bursted to death, and that's probably something SR would have an easier time surviving with their resists.

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Not likely - the resistance values are relatively small and kick in at low enough health that a quick burst is going to get you anyway. Kuji-in Sha helps Ninjitsu survive bursts far and away better than Super Reflexes' scaling resistances do; the issue with Nin is cascade defense failure, something that the capped defense debuff resistance of SR prevents rather nicely.

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Yea, plus with a Stalkers really low HP, those resist values really start to matter alot less, as you have alot less HP to work with. On a Scrapper, and especially a Brute, you can definately notice them kicking in, and they do help alot.

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Yeah. I mean, I have it and I like it, but I don't want to break it out in teams because the animation is long (is it long? It feels long) and the effect isn't easily dealt with.

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I could be wrong...but I thought Fire Cages does -KB? It says it does in CoD at least, though I've actually never tested lol. IF so, wouldn't that mean that you could FireCage a group of mobs...and then throw down BonFire for some pretty dang decent "aoe" damage?

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Do a /search and see that none of them are teamed. Big surprise. Ask them if they want to team and get laughed at. I actually had one Stalker tell me that my Thermal Corr would just slow him down.

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I'll agree, one of the Red-Side's most foolish problems is the TOTAL and OBVIOUS lack of even SIMPLE TEAMING. I mean, it's REALLY quite annoying sometimes. This is why the mere "second" a bunch of Heroes decide to form up even a half decent team, Villains get completely squashed...and then REPEATEDLY get squashed over and over and over again until it finally gets through their thick skulls that their ONLY chance is to form a team....that or until the Heroes get bored of base camping a bunch of idiots and log


Unfortunately, this is sorta how CoV has "nurtured" it's players...with "solo" oriented minds. CoV AT's are, in many ways, ALOT more solo friendly than CoH AT's, and this encourages villain players who enter PvP zones to choose the "solo" route there as well, and rely ONLY upon themselves...unfortunately, they miss out on the true power of a solid team.


But, it's definately something that doesn't "have" to be this way, villains just need to get smarter in general...

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Oh okay, Thanks. I thought Fear effects were pretty much trash in pvp currently. So if this blaster can fear my dom for 4 seconds, possibly a stalker could fear a blaster as easily.

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Unfortunately...no.

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the response i expected to get.... Stalkers QQ more than anyone.... you have the only power in the game that costs 0 endurance.... You are the only Archetype that has a for sure crit... You have placate...

I dont think PPP powers should crit under any circumstances.

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Cry moar, and then go learn to play.

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seeing as how you can only be phased for 30 seconds then you have a 90? second cooldown..... its not a big deal.

If you can wipe out a mission with caltrops in 30 seconds then move onto the next one in 90....... it might matter

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Well.... considering you can get a secondary conserve power in one of the patron pools.... it really does seem unnecessary to have the power at all in ElA. Not only that, but you can get all your endurance needs from Power Sink.

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Huh?


None of the patron pools for Brutes come with Conserve Power, or any form of it.

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I suppose a stalker could be harder now, but harder relative to how they used to be, or harder relative to other AT's?

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A Stalker can be easy to "survive" on if you don't want to ever get any kills. Yes.


A Stalker's "main" advantage is the ability to "choose" when to engage his target. Yes.


However, if a Stalker "does not" engage his target with full potential running (i.e. Build Up+Heals in the ready) then he will epicly phail at getting kills and most likely die himself. A Stalker is actually more squishy than a Blaster in pvp these days. True Story. Without all his toys in the ready, he will die if he's not careful. His "advantage" of choosing his battles, is almost necessary for his success. If he didn't have that advantage, the Stalker AT would be absolute, without a doubt, [u]utter garbage[u] in pvp. The worst AT to take there.


So yes, playing a Stalker is harder than it used to be, and even when relative to other AT's. A Stalker requires full on teamwork to actually get kills now, just like any AT.


Sure, that used to not be the case, but it is the case now, this is what we are trying to explain to you Frost. Sure, the Stalkers you played with in the past were great, but it's much different now. Now, you BU+AS+ET which takes all of a whopping 7.17 seconds to accomplish, only to remove about 70% of a Blaster's HP bar (if your lucky with procs), only to have him hit Hoarfrost and re-gain ALL of his HP back AND make himself even harder to kill with his increased HP, and then to have him immediately fire upon YOU with his absolutely devastating ranged attacks. Then you "attempt" to placate him, with your wonderfully broken placate, only to have it "not" work and he's still attacking you, and thanks to lovely "travel supression" as long as he keeps "pew pew pewing" away at you, it can be extremely hard to escape his wrath without Phase or Hibernate.


Another nifty problem with travel suppression and "escape" is that you have to "decide" if it's "safe" or "wise" to use your heal to save your HP bar...because using your heal will cause even MORE suppression and slow u down for your opponent to catch up to you even further. You can't "turn and fight" either. Why? Because as long as he keeps you out of Hide, your damage is pathetically laughable and barely tickles him. Meanwhile, closing into melee with the Blaster means that he can unleash some REAL melee attacks on you, and quite possibly polish you off in short order. To add to this problem, the second ANYONE see's a Stalker out of Hide, its like flies on [censored], and everyone is attempting to kill you before you flee, so you have more than just "one" Blaster attempting to flatline your HP bar. If you don't plan an effective means of escape, you're toast.


In the end, even if you escape, you've accomplished absolutely...nothing. Teaming, is vital, even if it's simply being "near" a group of other players who can cause a distraction for you. You still need their support to do your job.


Hopefully, this has brought to your attention the difficulties of playing a Stalker. Sure, it can be easy to simply not engage and survive people as well as "choose" when to attack, but that's really where it ends, as I stated before. Stalkers are definately decent PvP AT's, but no better than what else you can find out there.

Stamina is quite overrated if you have the correct sets and accolades. Tactics, I have found, is MUCH more useful to a /Regen Stalker, especially in zones.

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Personally, I would like to see something like Drain Psyche from the Dom /psi set. It works very much like Power Sink, only it debuffs any enemy in range with -recov -regen and gives you a +recov +regen for each one hit. Obviously it would have to be tweaked for Brute numbers in an attempt to keep you from being to powerful.... But i would love to see CP replaced with it.

It could also be a nice precursor for a Power Surge crash to help players recover from it faster.

Either that, or an escape clickie. Much like smoke bomb, it has a blinding effect, -tohit, etc.... but it's more like shining a bright light in their eyes. Perhaps with a chance to stun? Solar Flare, anyone?

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LMAO! I'll admit, I'd LOVE to see Power Sink changed into something similar to Drain Psyche, that would totally rock

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There has definately been a nerf to this power, hopefully unintentional. In other words, the extra damage for the Fire DoT effect was left off.

Flares used to do 0.71 scale damage, with a 0.30 tic of damage following, for a total of 1.01. It had a 2.2s recharge and cost 3.692 Endurance. For that End cost and recharge, my best guess is that the base damage of 0.71 was balanced to the End cost and recharge, and the 0.30 tic was "free".

Flares now has 0.88 (total) base damage, 3s recharge, and 4.37 End cost. Comparing Psi Dart and Thorny Darts, 3s recharge and 4.37 End cost should give a base damage of 0.84. So Flares now has a "bonus damage" of 0.04.

According to Castle, Flares' bonus damage should have been 15% of its base damage. If the base damage is intended to be 0.84, then that means Flares should have a base damage of 0.84, and a tic of 0.126, for a total of 0.966. This is not as much damage as it used to do, but is more than it is currently doing.

As Flares now does LESS damage than it used to, and costs MORE Endurance and takes longer to recharge, I think that can be defined as a nerf, whatever the reasons for it. This has been mentioned, but there's been no dev posts about it.


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I'm REALLY hoping that Castle will look into this...and FIX it soon..

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DM/SD

Utility and hard hitting primary powers that blend well into your secondary. The heal in DM will help tremendously as there is no heal in your secondary.

A + dmg aura, strong defense capability and defense debuff and stackable, ally buffs make shield defense a very team friendly set. You can bill yourself as a brute that buffs .

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This.


My Dm/SD got to 50 FAST, and easy, and never touched an AE mish (was before it's time lol) to do it. It was a fun and powerful toon the whole ride up. The synergy is amazing.

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It's easier to get an AS off now than it was before I13, that much is not debatable (mez and KB changes ensure that there'll always be a small window when it's very easy to get off an AS). However, the damage scale nerf of AS, combined with base resistances, and diminishing returns, make it harder for most sets to score those "one-two" kills a la old-school EM Stalkers.

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Yup, as I said, you'll need to be working as a "team" in order to score those fast kills as a Stalker. You'll want at least one other Stalker with you to double up on AS's and you'll probably want a really good Dominator as well, to create the Mez window. But if you have the dominator, you'll want a bit of support for him as well, so a couple Corruptors are necessary too...and a taunt spamming Brute can be invaluable....aaaand as you can see, we're slowly but surely going away from "omg...one [u]solo[u] Stalker is SEW OP...can't be rite...." to [u]teaming[u]...and as I've tried to explain to people earlier, "teaming" throws all these arguments out the window, since Heroe's can (and do) form the same things for survival and killing, and I'd bank on saying that they can even do it better than Villains can (currently).


Again, even if the Stalker isn't physically on someone's immediate team, he NEEDS other zone players distractions and help to defeat his target these days. So though not "physically" teamed, they are still teamed in the same cause. The day of the Stalker zipping around and getting off quick "2-Shot-Solo-Kills" on anything squishier than a Scrapper (and even them if they weren't fast enough) are long long gone.


The ability to stealth and, for the most part, choose when to start a fight is where the Stalker advantage starts...and stops. There is no advantage past that. It's a decent advantage in the survivability sense, but just about every AT has it's "advantages" so I don't see the problem with a Stalker having that one. It's their "flavor" afterall.

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If you need +tohit or -def in the first place but don't have it, I would think Poisonous Ray wouldn't help that much since it probably would have trouble hitting too right? Idk, I = noob.

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Well, PR has slightly higher inherent accuracy than other powers, on top of the fact that you can slot at least 3 acc into it, and on top of having +acc set bonuses, and most likely running Tactics, PR can hit pretty decently. The only thing I don't like about it is it's animation time. Total phail for that, but it's workable.

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You can build around stealth. And your suggestion wouldn't change that, you'd still be seen likely just as often.

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Can I build around stealth and be unseen by people that have but ONE +perc source ? >.>

[/ QUOTE ]Why should ONE source of full stealth beat ONE source of full perception? One should counter the other.

And again, you can't ignore the SoA or Stalkers, raising the other ATs will impact the SoA at the very least which 2 of the 4 branches are built around stealth (unlike the other ATs where Stealth does nothing but stealth).

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KitsuneKnight is 100% correct.


I don't think the whole zone needs to be running around at increadible levels of stealth. Any AT can achieve decent levels of stealth, for which opposing AT's would have to counter (or not see them at all). But they don't need to have SoA levels of stealth at all.

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Heh .... If you are the DarkMaster, That jumped me with 3 other heroes & eventually a heavy in RV on Protector while I was on my toon "Evil It" (DM/Fire) and all of you died continuously, except the stone Tank that ran to the base then you have your answer >8)
If you are not that same DarkMaster, then someone else that frequents RV has the same name ...
I will admit I do draw with /regen scrappers more than I like to but they aren't killing me either ...

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I am not.


I play on Freedom, and if I would have jumped you with 3 Heroes, you would have died. No question.


My question is, do you actually get kills, against real players? If you play on Protector for pvp, your experience in zones may be lacking though, as they are much less populated there.

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Now read this part carefully, maybe get your mom to explain it to you because I think you need it:
-If a stalker is fighting more than ONE person by themselves they are taking an unnecessary RISK. Hence no stalker ever has to die unless they get careless.



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This is really the whole point that some of us are trying to make. A Stalker only ever has to die when they allow it to happen. No other AT has that luxury. There can be 100 heroes at capped perc bouncing around a zone with just 1 Stalker, and that Stalker need never die unless he chooses to do something that allows that possibility. And no, I'm not talking about just hanging out in the hospital. I'm talking about actively moving throught the zone completely safe and unattackable. Will you get kills doing that? Maybe, maybe not. That wasn't the point. The point is that the Stalker is virtually immune to defeat so long as he chooses his battles wisely. Again, no other AT in the game can do that.

I know this whole discussion is upsetting to some people, and I'm sorry that pointing out the truth has been so painful to so many who thought they were good Stalkers. Making decisions that get you killed doesn't make you a bad player. It happens. It just makes you a bad Stalker.

[/ QUOTE ]Ok as a stalker user from i9 to now, team ladders, to zone, DR free to well you know, i figure i have learned a bit. And from my experience their are actually people out their that will find ways to circumvent what you think you know and will get you sometimes. What pvp are you guys playing? People play this game just like you, and learn to do what you say they can't.

I can't speak for the little servers any longer because all my vills are on freedom. But in case you didn't know, with DR, squishie resist, hyber, phase, hoarfrost, team mates, stalker as nerfs, accolades, your not just going to walk up and two shot anyone past warburg. So this being said, instead of a 3 sec encounter wam bam thank you maam. You just might need more time, and in using this time, you allow the help to come, or a passer by to join the fold, or them to gather themselves and fight back.

Now here's the choices, 1)stay regardless and just make sure he dies before you, 2) run and wait for who knows how long to find someone alone again, 3) come to the forums and speak nonsense about someone not being cautious enough. And i'm seeing a lot of the latter.

What's the point of pvp'ng if theirs no chance of dieing?, that's not fun, most of the joy is beating the odds in encounters. But that aside, you people act like theirs no outside forces that help attackers these days. First and foremost, AS went from a 6x scaler down to a 2x scaler, that is a significant nerf, it has lost over 60% combat effectiveness, next squishies in rv are running at 40% resist to all or better. So your AS will get in, but your follow up with be extremely hampered. So lets do some rough math a blaster running at anywhere from 1300-1600 hp, your AS fully slotted and i'll even throw a proc firing off, with BU on is going to do what? 800? 900? ok we are looking good, he can only have 600-700 hp left. Umm what attack does your stalker have besides AS that's a consistent 700damage? I have both em/ and elec/ stalkers and i don't have any and both my stalkers has billions in io's invested. Sure a lucky TS can, but that's no guarantee and wait... what is the blaster doing while you are following him up? He's clicking hoarfrost getting his whole life back, turning and kiting away while firing off salvo at you awaiting his team to join in battle. Or he's clicking hyber, going to team chat coordinating your death.

Pvp is not black and white as alot of people make it, it's to many variables this makes it gray. And you make a point that a stalker is the only at that can chose battles and virtually is immune to defeat. What pvp are you in? are you still playing i12?

I defy you to get 3 of your buddies and kill el chido, he's no stalker, and while your at it kill most pb's that fight from high above out of visual range and just run off when you notice them, because their fly owns yours and your flight pack. Bottom line any AT built right can achieve, this stalker only status you seem to think exist. Did you know most villians that zone pvp don't even have perception? I sit sometimes, for hours and just check peoples builds from time to time just to see what others are thinking, or maybe something i may have missed that i think wouldn't work, but someone uses well. And i swear id say almost 60-70% of people i check don't even have one +per power in their build. So simply having invis makes you a stalker to them, my old elec brute has no perception, just couldn't fit it, tight builds and i used to always watch blasters disappear out of hyber like magic.

So bottom line, don't fault anyone's style, everyone don't have the patients to wait all day for kills, so it's no right or wrong. Some days i can rush a pack of heroes get kills and escape, than other times i die instantly risk versus reward.

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Ravens has hit it SPOT ON, and I agree with everything that he's said, 100%.


While Stalkers "may" have the luxury of trolling around a pvp zone without much worry of being [u]"ganked"[u] (because that's what happens when you're a "visible" villain in a zone, you're ganked by a death squad of like 8 heroes) you are also, in MOST cases, not going to get any kills without sticking your neck out in the line of fire to do it.


The days of "Omg what's a STALKER?" and standing around damn near AFK in a pvp zone as a Hero are GONE. People simply do NOT do that anymore, even newcomers learn within a couple swift deaths that standing still = Stalker bait. So there are very RARELY any freebee's for Stalkers anymore, and those that are out there, could be killed easily by any AT as they are total nubs.


As Ravens mentioned, thanks to the AS nerfs as well as DR and Global Resists, there is only ONE AT that a Stalker can even hope to 2-shot anymore, and that's a Controller...of course if that Controller is running good +HP Acco's and sets, as well as Earths Embrace from Stone Mastery (which most smart ones take) then 2-shotting them is [u]completely[u] out of the question too. Soooo, with that said, if you "want" to get a kill, you'll have to stick around and hope that your opponent is an idiot. Why an idiot? Because Stalker damage outside of AS and Hide+Crit is totally pathetic. If a Stalker cannot kill you within BU+AS+Placate+Heaviest Attack, they shouldn't be able to kill you at all, period, especially if your on anything meatier than a Controller, which almost everyone is.


Except for AS, most Stalkers have about "one" good solid heavy hitter (EM has two however combined they take over 6 seconds to pull off and tbh, TF isn't all that imho without a crit) so if you can survive those two attacks, you can survive a solo Stalker encounter. Furthermore, all of those attacks, including the solid follow-ups must be done in melee range, so unless we're all fighting in a cardboard box, you can easily escape that 7 ft... Also, when we look at the total time it takes for a Stalker to pull off this alpha, we'll use ElecMelee as an example since it's currently the "FOTM":

BU+AS+Placate+ThunderStrike **For best dmg, you [u]need[u] that placate crit**


So the total time it takes to pull off this chain = 8.97 seconds


....and remember, there is almost "no" follow-up to this chain, after it is expended, that's it, [u]it's done[u]. Throwing Dark Blast or a Shark is a Stalkers best option since after almost 10 seconds your target SHOULD be moving, and unless he gets a lucky crit off a random Shark trow, it still won't be enough....


The only way that Stalkers can get "fast" kills, is to work in groups of 2-3 or more. Then, they'll rush targets and attempt to do multiple AS's on them all at once, to give the target very little time to heal/recover, and if we're talking about a "team" setting scenario now, then all bets go out the window, because Heroes can and DO team as well. To further hamper this, a team of 2-3 Stalkers are still 100% reliant on closing all the way into MELEE range with an "interruptible" power in oder to do their spike, and as I've said before, this is not the old pvp when people didn't know how to counter Stalkers. Not anymore, people have counters and protections now, and they use them...all the time, to keep tactics like these from working.


Another problem that 2-3 Stalkers face when in pvp and trying to coordinate AS spikes is trying to just "get" to their target. Alot of times, the best way to coordinate these spikes is to rush an opponent who has been KnockDown or Mez'd by another AT. But..oh wait...this requires more players now too...even if they aren't on your team, their distractions = a Stalker's kills. So, in a sense, they are on the same team, even if not physically. And again, if we're talking about "team" scenarios, then all bets go out the window, as Heroes can create some of the best pvp "teams" around, bar none (at this time).


I know that people get pissed off when they're double or tripple AS'd every once in awhile, and yea, it's surprising and startles you and it sucks...but being from the other side of the fence too...and watching 2-3 Stalkers attempt to pull those AS's off...well, lets just say...90% of the time, they're failed attempts unless they have Brutes+Doms+Corrs providing distractions and Mez's. Trust me, they miss ALOT. Like I said, every once in awhile, they'll pull it off, but its rare with just 2-3 Stalkers trying to do it. Because basically, the 2 Stalkers still have to either wait for a distraction to setup their AS's, or catch someone between "hops" or "animations" which isn't easy for "two" people to do. One person gets there first and their AS goes off but due to lag or whatever the other guy doesn't get there in time and only 1 AS is fired, from which the Hero heals. Or they both get lucky and get at a "hop" point at the same time...but one misses because Build Up wasn't ready...


There are so many scenarios which can and do happen for Stalkers, it's NOT the killing fest that Heroes seem to think it is. I know Hero's are a bit jadded by Blaster's and their killing fests, but it's not that way for a Stalker.


Stalkers do great as "clean-up" players on a victim who is badly damaged already though, and I think that that is alot fo the kills that people see from Stalkers in pvp, and why they think they're so "damaging" and "untouchable." The one Stalker advantage is that, for the most part, they can pick-and-choose their battles, but that is the flavor of the AT in general. A Blaster who has fly+PFF can fly above a battle ground and wait for a villain to drop below 50% HP, then come out of PFF with BR+Aim+BU going and finish off the villain just as easily as a Stalker could, and from range with little retaliation, and he is almost guraunteed to get a kill. Sure, it's not as effective as a Stalker's ability to hide in plain sight, but it does work pretty darn well for the most part.



Ok, now I hope that we have cleared up some of the misconsceptions up some.


Here are some facts:

<ul type="square">[*]A Stalker cannot kill a player within their initial alpha. Unless they have popped like 5 reds and get REAL lucky on all proc's going off, it just won't happen on most AT's. A player with half a brain should be able to avoid this alpha, live, and retaliate against the Stalker. If the Stalker hides or phases, then it's an effective stalemate, no one loses...no one wins.

[*]A Stalker, while relatively "safe" in stealth, must risk safety to actually produce kills and provide a function, otherwise they are no more than an invisible ghost which cannot touch you. If the Stalker plays the "safe-game" all night, he'll get about 1 kill an hour, and only on nubs. A well built Tanker can do this as well without hide. They can only come out when their tier9 is up and base-run anytime their HP is dropping (El Chido comes to mind..), and they are pretty effectively immune to death...however, they will almost never get kills and provide every little function.

[*]A Stalker outside of hide is an easy kill with just a little coordination. Unless the Stalker is just "running away" (in which case he's doing nothing and producing nothing) he's as good as dead outside of Hide. Stalkers have very little HP for a melee AT and overall weaker defenses. I have been held by a Controller after un-hiding in RV, and killed by 2-3 Blasters before the mere 4 second hold even wore off...it was quite instant and there was zero time to heal or recover.

[*]A Stalker "solo" isn't all that much of a threat. He's about as threatening as ANY solo AT. I explained why above. In fact, if you are solo a solo Corruptor, Dominator, or MM are MUCH more of a threat to you than a solo Stalker.

[*]A Stalker needs "distractions" to get kills. Distractions come in the form of other villain players mostly, but also encompases their mez's, hero animation times, and damage. A Stalker can produce swift kills if those elements are in place, any damage dealing AT can create this same effect as well, it's called teaming.

[*]A Stalker needs to get into melee range to gain effective damage. Hamper their ability to close into melee with you easily, and you've effectively reduced your chances of being Stalker spiked greatly. [u]Reducing this chance is as easy as using this code on your keyboard:[u] wasd+spacebar No other AT in the game (besides an MM) is as effectively shut down by something that costs you nothing, as a Stalker is. For example a Corruptor cannot mitigate 80% of a Blaster's damage by simply "jumping around" while they fight. Just learning to move provides huge Stalker mitigation, and...it's free.[/list]

I hope that people can take this information and use it to their advantage in pvp against Stalkers. If people would be more open minded about them, they'd see that Stalkers are no more of a threat to them than any AT out there, and if a Stalker is actually "playing" his AT with a real function, he's just as at risk of being killed as most AT's. Granted, I do think that they are a tad more survivable than some AT's simply by virtue of their ability to choose a fight, but they are no immortals by any stretch.


The biggest fear that Stalkers have on people, is the "fear of the unknown" which is a natural and VERY human emotion. When you enter a pvp area, you cannot see the Stalkers which may be hunting you, so with every "leap" you wonder if it will be your last. This fear or not knowing when an attack may happen causes people to hate Stalkers and imagine that they are more powerful than they really are. But it's only a fear, when broken down logically, they aren't all that threatening.


Its like running around a big empty room in total darkness and there is ONE metal pipe sticking up somewhere on the floor in that room. You can't see it and you don't know if you're about to trip on it, but you know its there...and that worries you. In fact, the only thing on your mind will be that metal pipe and where it's at, and why someone would be so foolish to have some metal pipe in that room. Its mostly, psychological. Personally, I like that effect that Stalkers bring to the game, and I can't wait for Rogue to finally bring it against the villains too

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Heh!
I hope peeps keep thinking that DM/FA is gimped PvP. I like being semi-unique. Seldom do I die in PvP with my DM/FA brute. Its my Fav PvP toon &gt;8) ... So by all means don't roll a DM/FA Brute.

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Surviving is one thing, but do you really get "kills" in actual "zone pvp" and not Fiteclub? This is a serious question.

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Freedom

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Why? It's due to the 1-2 hit of Defense getting severely curtailed by Diminishing Returns, and Elusivity being reduced to currently brokenly low levels (10 points of Elusivity...it may as well not even be there. The whole point of Elusivity is to balance out the plethora of ToHit available. At 10 points...it just doesn't do that. Nowhere near.)

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Yup.


Thanks to DR...I think that Elusivity should have been somewhere around 15-20 pts, and Defensive sets wouldn't be so trashed right now

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I don't feel like creating a new thread but would I gimp myself much by skipping both Bone Smasher and Total Focus? Hear me out.

I am trying Mind Control for the first time. Mind has a lot of useful powers and it is all ranged.

I looked at the numbers and /Energy's ranged dps is quite impressive. I mean Power Bolt, Push, Blast and Burst is a very solid attack chain. I don't know if I have much time using melee attacks to be honest. Mind control doesn't have -kb so my target after Power Push is always so far away unless I push him to a corner/wall.


Have any of you tried /Energy without melee? Or maybe just skipping Total Focus? I am not a huge fan of 3s attack. I feel 70% of the time it's either overkill or wasted. Another thing is other ATs use Total Focus for mag 4 stun as well but I already have hold. What do you think?

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TF is WAY too good go to even fathom skipping anymore.


Don't skip TF.

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OTOH, Ice has Chilling Embrace, which is quite unique for a Dom. Between that and the built-in slows, you probably have greater protection than usual.

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Eh...Chilling Embrace requires you to be in melee range to get any effect out of it, and even then it's only a -50% recharge to your target. I think CE would be alot better if the dev's would have given it the minor "-dmg" component that a Tanker's CE has, which is -14% dmg. Now, I know -14% dmg isn't all that huge, but it'd definately make CE seem a little more useful imho, and I don't think adding the -14% dmg component would break Ice in any way either.