Dechs Kaison

Ooooh, this. Nothing wrong with relying on purples/greens/blues to keep you going. They drop often enough, and if you've got a full tray, just delete the wakies and eat all the yellows at once.

Unless you're doing a video that, for example, is intended to prove that Dark Armor does not suck.

You could just re-roll him.

Get a solo base for storage, buy up ... what... 5 respecs? Strip him down and start over. That's gotta be cheaper than buying all the IOs over again.

Think about all the pros: You'll get all your vetspecs back, and you'll have a better character, and you'll have a taunt aura.

I know that! I was just poking fun at how many posts of his I've seen where he claimed the brute version would be better. Like this one.

And I'll second this. There's synergy between Follow Up and Death Shroud, plus claws has some stupidly good AoE. Spin, Eviscerate, and Shockwave.

For what it's worth, I know of an empathy defender who solo's the last mission of the ITF on +4/x8 and doesn't even take damage.



It's amazing what a level 54 Imperious can do with powerboosted fortitude and AB.

Don't you mean brute?

Stalkers only out damage scrappers on a full team with everyone in range, and even then, I'd have to do the math to prove it. Right now, I just think it's close.

Base, however, with no teammates, stalkers cannot match scrappers.

Yes.

Please.

Except that stalkers have a lower damage modifier than scrappers. Outside of AS, every stalker attack does less damage than the same attack done by a scrapper. This means damage buffs have more of an effect on scrappers and their crits hit harder.

Crit rate is another beast entirely, and with a full team stalkers will crit much more often. I'd have to do a bit of math on it, but we may determine that stalkers average more damage because of the increased crit chance.

That doesn't mean anything, though, because at the base, scrappers win for damage. Considering that stalkers lack the survivability of scrappers, that should not be the case. We just witnessed this with the brute adjustment. Scrappers are less survivable than brutes, so the scales were adjusted to be sure that scrappers are better in terms of damage. It's time we revisit stalkers, and up the damage modifier.

A quick word on this, as GuyPerfect seems to know what he's doing and I want to back him up. Dave, there is a very large difference between a tank that disregards his damage output and one who simply doesn't optimize it.

A tank who builds to optimize damage will be a decent solo player, but should probably have rolled a brute or scrapper for better results. He will also bring very little to a team, considering he has likely sacrificed the survivability necessary to handle a full team's aggro, and would be better off as a brute or scrapper that at least deals respectable damage.

A tank who disregards his damage output will be a waste of a team spot, as he contributes little and will have trouble holding aggro, especially if there are taunt aura'd scrappers around.

Maybe GuyPerfect doesn't have the recharge for a seamless attack chain. In that case, any attack is better than no attack, GIS included. GIS will certainly be better that cycling brawl or boxing.

Personally, I don't find the demoralize useful unless I'm solo on my own stalker. I hardly ever notice its effects with another stalker on the team.

Likewise with Radiation Infection and Enervating Field. They just don't do much in most cases (in high level play), until you get to the AV. The debuffs just don't stick around long enough to matter otherwise.

Yes, I was mistaken, and I mentioned that. I was ignoring the cone attacks in my initial assertion that stalkers lacked any AoE.

My first experience with a stalker was claws, which I did not level high enough to get shockwave. The lack of any AoE capability ultimately caused me to delete the character. I have tried several other combinations, but the next one to stick was elec stalker, which leaves me with a happy medium of single target and AoE damage.

I apologize for the harsh comment about not understanding me. That was a bit out of line.

I really don't think my position has changed. I've had more than a few mistaken facts along the way, but the message has remained the same.

I stated, and will continue to state, that stalkers are undervalued on teams. The primary factor for this is the single target focus of the stalker AT. Apples to apples, a comparable scrapper will put out more consistent AoE damage (as well as be a bit tougher), which is more valued to most teams than the utility of demoralize and some spike damage.

I was wrong to state that so many sets lacked any AoE. This much I have admitted. The fact remains that, regardless of powerset, the stalker will be more single target focused.

I don't think stalkers need any changes to become more AoE oriented in general. You can't really change that. Let the sets dictate how AoE centric your character is.

I do feel that stalkers need to do more damage. Simply put, there is a scale right now. As the AT loses toughness from tank to scrapper, the damage increases. Stalkers are the outlier, in that they have less mitigation than scrappers, but not a clear cut advantage in damage output.

If the damage of stalkers was better than scrappers, then the lack of AoE could be overlooked.

Very no. GFS does not compare to GIS. The damage values are very different.

Numbers:
GIS: 87.2 damage
GFS: 144.15 damage (Average, the DoT is 80%)

Same cast time, so the DPA for GFS is much higher, making it a worthwhile attack.

I offer the same advice to you.

The AoE debuff does not do damage. The single target focus I am referring to is with regards to damage. AoE debuff does not bring enemies down faster, which is what teams seem to care about.

Let me say this very clearly, because you're not understanding what I'm saying. More single target focused does not always mean "less AoE." I have an elec stalker because I couldn't make an elec scrapper. I wanted more single target damage, and going with a stalker gave me that.

The stalker, despite being elec melee, is still more single target focused than the elec scrapper.

Didn't their defense buffs to each other start working somewhat recently?

Thanks for proving my point.

Ok, you'll do that once. It's a cone that hits how many people? Then, on the next spawn or maybe the one after that, you'll be ready to do it again. Good for you.

The DB scrapper has a constant damage buff from stacked Blinding Feint, flinging out more AoE damage on more targets than your DB stalker could ever dream of.

Oh yeah, and your Attack Vitals combo is only single target.

Scrappers want it proliferated because it would be the top dog in single target damage for soloing AVs and PvP.

Read that carefully.

Soloing.

Why do you think I'm trying to invalidate an AT? I'm saying when it comes to dealing damage, no one says "Oh, we need a tanker for that." Brute EM, by contrast, is quite rare.

Quit pulling out edge cases and compare apples to apples. An Elec Stalker will be more single target focused than an Elec Scrapper. An MA Stalker will be more single target focused than an MA Scrapper.

When comparing survivability between ATs, you don't say a shield scrapper is more survivable than an EA brute, so obviously all scrappers are tougher than brutes. You're smarter than that, I think, so why do you try this argument with stalkers?

This was already touched on by someone else. One AoE in a set will not be noticeable. Several AoEs allow for much faster cycling and a verifiable effect. This was perception on my part to think Whirling Hands was far worse than the others, but the end result is the same. Having one AoE in a set is not enough in a AoE centric game.

You're taking this awfully personal, considering that I have stated I don't have any problem with stalkers. They're single target focused, which I do not think is a detriment, but the fact remains that most people do not desire them on a team because of this focus. They would rather have the comparable scrapper that does more AoE. Again, these are facts that cannot be argued.

You know what's disgusting? Inherent fitness is going to allow me to get Oppressive Gloom in the build, which won't require additional slots to be effective. And Build Up, which won't need additional slots. And Quicksand, an AoE -def debuff that doesn't need slots to be permanent.

The stuff in my video just got trivial.

I understood. I was attempting to make a joke by calling that person a bonus pet with buggy AI, further insulting him considering how dumb our henchmen are.

He's not a moron, he's a bonus pet that doesn't follow orders and talks without /petsay, an unfortunate bug in the AI.

You need 12. Even then you'll still get knocked around by things like a few AVs.

Anything that beats 4 points will also beat 8.

Or in Dark Armor's case, another KB protection.