Dr_Fear

Agreed & agreed. I also remember the days of enormous debt from the days of 2005+. It was a long hard road. Back then I initially played only tankers. Later I decided to try the complete opposite end of the spectrum to which i viewed to be the "Blaster." I immediately loved the concept. Riding on the edge of death as my damage output became greater & greater. A tip to the hat to Arcanaville, in that he/she helped me flesh out my first Energy/Energy character concept way back then, i.e Dr. Fear. COH in a nut shell has taken many changes since then, but i feel the Blaster out of all the other archetypes somehow fell behind. A facelift is definitely called for. Increased survivability I feel needs to be increased, at least to the point of Ice's secondary in my opinion. Why cant any of the other secondaries offer some means of soft control? Not so much to step on the toes of controllers, yet something similar Ice? I love my Blasters, but every time i'm playing mine, I feel like Kurt Russell in the Movie Soldier. An old model in a new environment.

A sound counter point & food for thought.

@Grim: You actually answered a lot of my questions regarding certain attacks. This past weekend I managed to get my STJ/NIN to 32nd lvl. After playing with a few teams I found myself questioning the need for Heavy blow & Sweeping cross in my build,..i found i simply wasn't using them. My other two questions fell on Placate & Hasten. Placate I was now finding I didn't really need. Most enemies were dead by the end of my chain. Hasten I chose simply because my MA/Regen had it (which is phenomenal on him) yet it didn't seem like a must have on my Stalker. I think many will be drawn to split paths on the choice. I feel i'm going to respec out however. I wasn't quite sure if i should go the Fighting pool again, but it seems only logical for the added defense & resist. What I found intriguing about your build is you chose the flight path. Since the creation of Ninja Run. But you answered yet another annoyance I was running into which is being knocked down. I'll look to invest in those recipes to help against it. My final problem to my build was the chain attack endurance issues. Last night before retiring, I purchased Miracle & Numina to help counteract, plus 3 performance shifters. I'm hoping todays run will show a significant difference. @Resolve: Keep up the journal, i am enjoying it big time!

Wow...& I thought this was only my perception. I have been playing COH for quite some time. Made a stalker when they were initially created & really enjoyed playing the class. When teaming, I often felt quite useful back then. I shelfed the character in its early 40's, not for disliking it, just that my SG needed a Defender for a short time. Today, I've been running a TW/ELA, to which I love playing. Got him to 40 & decided I needed a quick break from him to break up the monotony & to try something new for a week or two. I remembered my old Stalker based off of SnakeEyes who was since deleted back then due to limited character slots & decided to create "Taki" after watching a Soulblade trailer. I played the hell out of this character, and got her to 30th easily within a week. I know this is a long read, but bear with me. One night I'm about to retire for the night when I get a /tell requesting a team up. I say sure & soon meet up with a carbon clone of my TW/ELA. I'm kinda psyched, because ive actually only teamed with two other TW's. We enter the mission & he's got it set to +0/x8. I was 30th & he was 37th lvl. We ran room to room, and every encounter was the same. I'd set up for AS, he'd ready a Rend armor I kill mine & he'd kill his,...PLUS go into a Whirling smash, AOD, smash, smash, smash, dead. I felt no animosity to this, i actually just laughed. We continued on & more insued. At certain points he'd even say, dude, dont worry, seriously,..relish in all the XP your getting. I wasnt worried, and I actually took no offense to his comment. I know I'm a solid player, but I couldnt shake what I was seeing. I ask this question to all Stalkers without flame. "Have the dev's forgotten the Stalker's role in COX? I suddenly felt like Kurt Russel in Soldier. An obsolete model, compared to newer and more advanced models. Maybe i'm over thinking this & maybe that lvl 37 player was simply tricked out to the gills, but my perception from that game really made me reflect on the future of the Stalker. Perhaps give the Stalker an animated extreme AOE of some sort. In the end I honestly feel this class truly needs more love/attention from our devs. /rant Off

Thanks Gob, I actually found that out the hard way after reading through a few more Brute threads. It's too bad Brutes don't get that option or I would've tried to replicate my ma/Regen on red side.

"This." Once my TW/ELA obtained Whirling Smash it became a game changer for me. I was on an 8 player team with another TW one day and as we played the other TW kept sending me /tells saying "Dude, this is insane!" The AOE's had us cracking up. TW is not for everyone, but I do think you should at least get Whirling Smash before making a final verdict first. Good luck ya.

Just when I was about to delete my 34th lvl Warshade, this build is really nice if not inspirational. You should really create a guide that reflects your theories on the forms, common tactics to approaching combat, and maybe even a piece that discusses most hated enemies to easily defeated villains. Good luck & thanks.

I can't speak for /Invulnerabity. I went MA/Regen. MA is really fast damage. It doesn't disappoint. Grab tough, weave, & hasten. At 50, I rip through missions. I would also suggest maneuvers to add to your build.

Thanks Pine. I'll search for it.

Thanks DarkGob. Perhaps the gods of COH will someday create the Chainsaw skin for some of the weapon types,..then I will finally have the ability to create a Ash from the Evil Dead series..

Combat, your killing us man! What's the word? Any udates to your build findings? Inquiring minds want to know. I just created one based off of your notes (only level 24) and I'm really liking it so far.