Dragonfish

I have EM/SR and I find that Stamina is very needed if you want to run your toggles and scrap a little as I do from time to time.

If you are happy to use hit and run tactics constantly then Stamina is not needed, especially with SJ. I use Flight and Stamina comes in useful offsetting Flight's enormous End drain.

Like SR, EA has no heal, so the Medicine pool and specifically a six slotted Heal Self (3 Heals, 3 Interrupt Reductions) will come in very handy. I'm really struggling to fit this in my build at the moment. Its not been too much of a problem yet, but slotted Health helps between fights.

I played a claws stalker to level 32 and was completely underwhelmed by the high level attacks. Don't get me wrong, they're useful, but just not particularly uber. They are AoE's which is nice, but not particularly big ones and they don't do much damage. On a DPS measurement they might be quite good, but claws will have improved DPS soon anyway, what you need is a nice big finishing move after AS.

With the new animation times being reduced for the lower level powers, there's even less reason to take the last two attacks. However, Focus is a fantastic power, the set's jewel imo. Good damage, good knockdown, good recharge rate, available fairly early and its ranged on top! Good for the stalker that wants to stay out of the mass melee.

Anyhow, I ditched my level 32 claws/nin for an Energy Melee/Super Reflexes. On the whole, I prefer EM and I'm looking forward to the two big high level attacks, great follow ups to an AS. The AS power looks super cool on a claws stalker but isn't as good looking on an EM. However, I love Flight and so have Air Superiority in my attack chain, which I feel is needed at low levels unless you don't mind hit and run tactics all the time. Air Sup doesn't really work with Claws as it forces you to put them away and then redraw them, very annoying. But then Claws doesn't need any extra attacks, the ones it has do fine damage and recharge fast.

I also think Ninjutsu possibly has the edge over Super Reflexes. It was designed for a stalker and has some useful powers, but SR is all about defence... unfortunately it takes nearly all the powers to get it and you do have to take Stamina to run all those toggles.

SR lacks a heal and for the life of me I can't seem to fit in the Medicine Pool for Heal Self. I think this might be a problem at later levels, we'll see.

Finally, I've no room for any epic powers, SR really eats your slots unless you're prepared to have Ninjutsu level defence with no tricks.

My advice :
Claws for scrapping PvE, EM for a proper stalker
Ninjutsu for tricks and cool stuff, SR for hardcore no nonsense defence

My two inf.

I think you need build up much sooner than 28.

If you do take SJ rather than SS and you still take Hasten, then delay taking it until 22 when you can slot it with SO's.

You can delay taking defensive powers until you're in the teens or later as they aren't much use to a Stalker until you can slot them with SO's and have enough attacks to do some scrapping.

All advice IMHO

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Things I dislike about this build:
Getting my travel power at 16. I thought long and hard about this, but I see no other way. Every power before it is critical, and delaying them would suck. So 2 more lvls walking is, I fear, the only option.
Getting my ranged +def toggle at lvl 10...I have a feeling this may hurt a bit, but on the other hand, it shouldn't be too bad. And heck, debt doesn't kick in until lvl 10 anyways

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For what its worth, my EM/SR stalker is 15th now. I have Hide and the melee defensive power only and I'm not having any problems (died once getting held by a Lost boss).

I find most defensive powers are not really worth it below lvl 20, they don't make a great difference until you can slot them with SO's.

Also, EM is an end-hungry set and you'll never be able to run Hide and two other defensive toggles and then melee for more than 30 seconds and if you're only fighting for short periods of time as most stalkers do then what's the point of running defensive toggles constantly.

Mind you, I do use Air Superiority in my attack chain and combined with the disorients from EM, I find mobs spend a lot of time getting up off the floor or wandering aimlessly , but at least they're not attacking me.

Believe me, you won't need your defensive toggles until later, but that travel power means you will level faster, especially if you plan to ghost a few defeat missions for quick xp.

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From playing 4 different DM scrappers I would genuinely not bother with the debuff on anything but ToF. Especially with the recent nerf.

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Please excuse a slight threadjack.

I've just started a DM/EA brute. He's level 18 and I've not taken ToF yet. I do plan too, but what is your recommendation for ToF slotting?

My MM Blackwar is a kinda evil Nick Fury, but he dresses in a black suit, looks great.

His background is that he was ex-Military and commanded great respect from his men.

I really struggled to find a suitable secondary and in the end went with Force Field partially because I'd never used it before, but had plenty of experience of it from teaming in CoH and wanted to see what it was really like - it also seems like a natural choice for an MM being so team orientated.

After a reroll, I opted to make him a mutant and decided that his mutant powers manifested well into adulthood and in a Jean Grey/Phoenix stylee, he had suppressed them most of his life, but now they are really growing.

I've decided his powers are basically telekinesis, so I've taken flight also (very useful for a squishy MM to get around with when you have no henchmen summoned).

And although I've only taken one personal attack, the gun looks fantastic and it means I always have enough endurance to bubble my minions or team mates mid fight and to use Aid Other (which also fits in well with a "norm" type character).

This probably won't help, but it impressed me.

I rolled a BS/SR at the weekend and took it to fifth and did the usual Hollows run. I was about to tell Wincot to stuff his missions when I thought I'd give it a go seeing as I hadn't been in the Hollows in ages.

Took his first kill 10 Outcast mish and merrily plodded off hunting. Ran into a group of 10 even level outcastes, 8 minions and 2 lieuts and thought I'd run in and kill a couple and run out again. It might have been luck, or it may have been SR, but I wiped the entire group in less than a minute. I was stunned.

I've been to the Hollows numerous times and always struggled with those first hunt 10 X mishes. I'm guessing what did it was the cone Slice attack from BS. Its a good wide arc and deep enough and I could hit at least four a go AND it doesn't drain End too much. I reckon each hit was taking roughly half their hits.

I don't think any of the BS attacks are not worth taking, but respeccing out of the first one might be worth it at higher levels when you have a good chain going with higher damaging attacks.

Also, BS attacks do minus DEF, so it just gets easier and easier to hit.

The advantage of DM tho' is that there is no weapon to draw, so chaining attacks with others such as Air Superiority interrupts your chain much less.

I love the sound and animations of DM, but one of the first three attacks (the Flurry clone, Shadow Maul) really put me off because if it misses it seems to take an age to animate and without it you are missing an attack in a set that doesn't have as many attacks as others to begin with. The minus ACC of DM is very defensive tho', very useful, but then BS has parry which gives a great boost to your hero's DEF in melee.

Try them both to 10th level (wouldn't take long with a regen) and take all the early powers, that would give you a good feel as to whether you prefer the animations of one over the other.

One last thing, BS does get boring, DM probably has more interesting powers.

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I've never had any trouble at all with Malta, but I'll admit that my partner hates them, and we both play kat/regen. The only real issue is Sappers (I don't know what's supposed to be so bad about Gunslingers), and with Sappers it's easy if you see them, and it's MoG if you don't.

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I totally agree, Gunslingers are very easy. Sappers, on the other hand, total nightmare. I don't have MoG, so if they don't get knocked back from a Crane Kick or Stunned from an Eagle's Claw then its a mad panic to either drop them with something else or run away. Good fun tho'!

I must admit, I had no idea Malta were -regen, never even noticed.

My problem with Scrapper Primaries is that with the exception of MA they don't feel that "heroic"... dark energy, claws, swords, spines! All pretty lethal and nasty stuff. Personally, I can't wait for Shields

Nightfear really needs a respec. If I exemp will I still get the respec at the end? Never done a respec mission before.

I solo a lot too and I think Placate is very useful. As you increase in levels and the difficulty of your missions you'll come across harder elite bosses. I find it a great tactic to AS the minions around the boss one at a time, running away inbetween each if necessary (usually very necessary when you have an elite boss pounding on your squishy head), finally returning for the big elite boss (probably a scaled down AV or Hero). Once all the minions are gone you can use Build Up, Assassin Strike, and then Placate and with Hasten running you can usually kill them in relative safety by repeated AS and Placates.

Also in normal battles its very useful as has been said to be able to Build Up, AS, Placate, and then hit the same enemy again with your biggest attack for the critical damage and still with Build Up. This will drop most bosses where a standard Build Up, AS, normal attacks would let them get a hold or stun etc on you.

Placate is a great power for PvE solo and teams, and PvP so I've been told.

My claws/ninjutsu stalker is now 26 and I'm having a blast playing him.

Don't forget that it has recently been suggested that claws will be getting some love in a future release/patch.

That said, here's my current thoughts on the set based on practical use alongside Ninjutsu :

1) Swipe - didn't take it, to be avoided and not needed - long animation time, poor damage
2) Strike - fast, ok damage, a chain filler
3) Slash - slow animation, ok damage, defense debuff that I can't say I notice. I'm thinking of slotting this one for accuracy and defense debuffs to see if it will make a difference. Failing that, if they don't change this one with the Claws love that's on the horizon, I'll probably drop it. You need it early on to make a chain up, but once I have the top three claws attacks, I don't think I'll need it, but then I do run Hasten which helps.
4) Build Up - needed to drop lieuts with AC and generally just a great power.
5) Assassin's Claw - a must have obviously. Interestingly, and I'm sure I'm wrong, but I teamed with a ninja blade stalker and I could've sworn that their AS had a faster animation time. However, the AC animation looks fantastic.
6) Placate - a must have. I'm not convinced you need it as soon as its available, I delayed it to get a travel power, and flew through those levels so didn't really notice not having it. I wouldn't leave it any later than 16 tho', but this is true for any stalker primary.
7) Focus - a brilliant power, I love this one. Its basically a short to mid range (50 yards give or take), very fast, high damage, 100% knockdown power. It does knockback, but only to blues and lower and I'm sure it only ever fails to knockdown when that enemy has knockdow resistance. With build up and placate, this will one shot a white minion - ok that's no big deal, but it is bloody useful when soloing and as a follow up after ACing. The real beauty of this power, and don't tell the devs, is that with Hasten running, it recharges fast enough to keep an enemy on the floor. You can't ask for more than that. And here's something no numbers will tell you, its brilliant in a big team or one with a couple of MM's. As we all know sometimes you just can't get to an enemy, but with Hasten running I can turn into a mini blaster if I need to, keeping out of the melee AoE's whilst keeping the enemy on his bum. And sometimes a stalker just doesn't want to be in the middle of the mob scrapping like he's forgotten which AT he is , I think this power is probably much more useful to Stalkers than Scrappers.
8) Eviscerate - I've just got this power, so the jury is still out as I haven't got it fully slotted yet. The animation is a tad long, not in the Flurry league and possibly a tad quicker than MA's Eagle Claw. I think the extra crit is maybe 10-20% of the time, but again this one recharges fast and I think when fully slotted I'll be enjoying this despite the animation time. The cone seems very short and/or narrow, but then not generating huge aggro can be useful.
9) Shockwave - looking forward to this, not got it yet.

Sorry this isn't a fully comprehensive list. I think claws is a great looking set and not readily appreciated due to some early crappy powers. But for a stalker, Focus is a great power, recharge times are great with Hasten, its a good set and hopefully soon to get better.

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it only hides from person that u put placate on him

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I've also noticed that even if you become unhidden due to taking damage that the target of the placate continues to ignore you for the duration of the placate.

And another thing, the placate lasts just long enough for your normal hide to kick in and hide you properly, if you want to wait for AS to come back up.

Cheers for the numbers.

AoE's are a nightmare when teaming and trying to get into position whilst your team is setting off the alpha attacks.

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I've just got a Claws/Ninja to 10 and also need to know if I can get by without Stamina (was going to start a new thread, but being evil I will just hijack this one )

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And being equally evil I'll contribute to your hijacking

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Main reason I'm concerned is that it looks like there's some really useful powers in the 16-20 space, and I don't want to waste my time in the fitness pool if I don't have to.

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I've read advice on the forum that you don't need Stamina, but I'd say that if you intend on not taking it then you will have to slot your toggles for endreds. I've specced out my claws/ninjutsu to 40 and I found that I needed the slots more than the powers. Hurdle, Healing, and Stamina only takes up two slots, but slotting your three toggles takes up six on top of whatever the slots used for defence if you want effective stamina reduction. I might be wrong, but I've decided to go the stamina route.

I agree though, I am delaying some useful powers in the 16-20 zone. I'm currently missing the status protection and healing clickies, but doing ok without them.

However, you could argue that seeing as I don't have stamina now, do I really need it? But I'm not running my toggles and when I get to lvl22 (only two bars to go) I want to slot my defences with SO's, start using them and up the game difficulty. I also want to slot my attacks for three accuracy and three damage and not have to take endreds in those too.

I should add that I mainly solo and I have noticed that solo and team play do differ, when I team I never seem to need as much endurance.

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Oh and Rogue, not sure about Energy Melee but the Claws Assasin Strike looks brilliant - definitely one of my favourite animations in game.

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I second this, the Assassin's Claw animation is great... its just a shame you can't really see your stalker when you're doing it

Back to the OP though, I'm dropping caltrops from Ninjutsu and the first attack power in Claws because its rubbish. I'm taking Haste and Super Speed and Hurdle and Health and Stamina from the power pools and that doesn't leave a lot of room for new powers in the 41-50 zone...

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I'm pretty sure that there was a statement by one of the Red names ( Castle? ) early on ( beta or maybe later ) that said the unsuppressed AoE defence of Hide was in the 25%+ range. When suppressed this goes away. AFAIK this was always the case.

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Is that an enhanceable defence does anyone know? I saw someone post a recommendation to only one slot Hide, but it would be worth three slotting it if the AoE Def was that high and enhanceable.

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You said it dont fit your build...my advice is set a bind for "Hey look over there, Isn't that Elvis!" then secretly use it under your coat.

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Haha, I like it, that might work

Just recently picked up Total Focus. Ain't it a shame that when you get such an uber power it isn't really that good compared to your already slotted previous powers. Still, looking forward to getting it slotted for damage and accuracy sometime soon.

Cheers for the advice, Kronic.

The only reason the three accuracies are in there is because he's only 18th level, no SO's yet.

I was hoping not to take the Aid Self power as it really doesn't fit with his image.

I've asked this before, but what first power did you take in that pool to get to aid self, did you find either one to be more useful or do you just not use them at all (aid other or stimulant I think they are)?

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I would trade some of those dmg DO's for a few end redux DO's but that all, you lose some dmg , but you will be able to keep a high fury bar for longer !

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That's not a bad idea, I might try that. I was holding out for Stamina at 20, but I am having end problems between fights.

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All you need now is power shild , and you will have all of the must have EA defences !
Energy cloak is nice to have , you get a lot less agro , and the staked defence is nice!

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Yeah, I liked the look of Energy Cloak. Is the extra def worth the extra end drain?

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Aid self, is almost a must have in a EA brute ,get Aid self + nrg drain , and you will never have to stop betewn mobs !

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Is Aid Self really that necessary? What power in that set do you take before it, Aid Other or Stimulant?

Cheers for the offer of advice.

Here's my current build :

Exported from version 1.5C of CoH Planner
http://joechott.com/coh

Archetype: Brute
Primary Power : Energy Melee
Secondary Power : Energy Aura

01 : Kinetic Shield defbuf(01) defbuf(5) defbuf(7)
01 : Barrage acc(01) acc(3) acc(11) dam(13) dam(17)
02 : Energy Punch acc(02) acc(3) acc(11) dam(13) dam(17)
04 : Bone Smasher acc(04) acc(5) acc(7) dam(15)
06 : Swift runspd(06)
08 : Whirling Hands acc(08) acc(9) acc(9) dam(15)
10 : Entropy Shield endred(10)
12 : Teleport Foe acc(12)
14 : Teleport endred(14)
16 : Health hel(16)
18 : Total Focus acc(18)

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I can get a reasonable chain going with the occasional Brawl punch to fill in, but I am lacking in the defence department. It seemed like a good idea at the time as defences are irrelevant in the early game, but with Stamina coming at lvl 20 it'll be lvl 22 before I can get another defence power. Been getting pummelled by mobs with energy attacks just lately.

I've pretty much got the secondaries that I want unless you can suggest something useful, so all that's left to get is the few remaining powers in EM and all the defenses in EA. Any suggestions as to which should come first?

I can't really comment on the effectiveness of Energy Aura, but I can tell you that it is certainly one of the least visually invasive armour sets.

If the obscuring look of DA puts you off then I would say that Fire Aura is nearly as bad whereas certainly the toggles I've taken so far in Energy Aura hardly obscure the costume at all (less than Invulnerability imo).

There is, however, a stealth power in EA which although I haven't taken yet I assume will obscure your toon quite a bit in keeping with other Stealth powers.

I did read someone complain once saying not to take EA if you liked the look of your toon, but I haven't found a power yet that disrupts my Brute's image, but I haven't taken all the powers yet.

My Brute is an Energy Melee/Energy Aura and whilst I like Energy Melee, Energy Aura seems to be lacking.

He's only level 17, but I've not seen much good said about Energy Aura. Does it get better at higher levels?

Can any high level Energy Brutes defend the set?

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I am tempted to start a philosopher heroes (as opposed to Plato's Philosopher kings) one now...

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I'd join that SG! Go for it.

Incidentally, a philosophy strand would also be very welcome... the greatest good for me at least