JD_Gumby

If you play only PvE, then you have absolutely no need for the Concealment pool as your 150ft maximum is enough for every foe in the game that doesn't explicitly and completely ignore stealth effects (most ambushers, Rikti Drones, Rularuu eyeballs, Knives of Artemis; have to be careful around Longbow Eagles and certain flying Cabal witches as they have code that makes them back off and try to keep a certain distance - that can make them aware of you, if you're close enough). There aren't any known foes (to me, anyways) with enough +perception to bring them to 150ft or higher and therefore nullify your stealth.

Shush! Everyone knows that Serum is the worst Mastermind power ever in the history of Masterminds, so how dare you claim to use it effectively? :P

It's simple: if they used standard XP-based progression for levels above 50, they'd have to add a a HUGE new co-op zone (though I'd prefer two, one blue and one red) and a megacrapton of new arcs (probably 5x or more than what was in Going Rogue) to give enough XP as the requirement per level get higher and higher (or even just stops at 5 million XP per level, an even number that is just over what it takes to get from 49-50). A couple of trials here and there and the occasional new lower-level zone (ie, what they're doing here) combined with the nonstandard progression at L50 is FAR easier.

Only against AVs and GMs with huge PBAoE attacks. For those, consider your pets fodder and spend your time using your secondary for your team's benefit. For the rest of the game, melee pets cause foes to melt. It also helps if you've got a secondary with decent heals on you. Your love of Traps (point 1.) might be the real reason you hate melee pets...

An epic bore, perhaps, if the wiki's article is any indication.

Actually, Snipers have a 149ft perception range (Stalkers cap at 150ft and Superior Invisibility at 200ft). Knives of Artemis, Rikti Drones, and Rularuu eyes have normal perception ranges, but completely and utterly ignore all forms of stealth. Big difference.

Incendiary while soloing? That equals regular faceplants, in my experience (though that's as a level 25 Corr) Except against things that heavily resist Lethal, you want it on standard ammo while soloing for the knockback.

Or that they're playing a Blaster, of course, who don't get Traps.

Actually, I think everyone got the free costume change. I didn't qualify for the loyalty (took a couple months off), but got a red message from [Admin] that I had gotten the costume change about the same time everyone was getting their Vanguard pack...

It's for its 2.5s activation time compared to the other low-end cones (0.91-0.96 scale) that Blasters get (Fistful of Arrows @ 1.17s, Buckshot @ 0.9s, Energy Torrent @ 1.07s). Howl (0.81 & 2.33s) and Shockwave (0.64 & 2.17s) are special cases because of the -res component, which likely evens up their damage with, or probably exceed, Empty Clips (even set on Incendiary Ammo) if they're not used as opening shots, so they're still better, despite the low-seeming damage from their details.

Snipers are only 149ft for perception and Turrets (along with GMs) are 100ft - Stalkers are at 150ft (at level 36; dunno if that's the cap for Hide, just what my MA/Nin is at) and thus completely invisible to anything that doesn't outright ignore stealth. Might be situations where a Sniper or a Turret gets a perception boost that lets them see the Stalker or Illusion Controller (200ft) prior to entering combat with its spawn (or aggroing it in a nearby spawn while fighting), but I've yet to encounter them.

That's because it's a pool power. Only in very few cases are pool powers better than their equivalents in the primary/secondary/epic sets.

That's mostly just a matter of perception due to them designing the missions like they were for level 30+ characters and without regard for the weaker slotting and fewer powers of the low-level characters.

Don't care about AoE. Stalkers should be going for a Boss so that it dies around the same time as the Minions in the spawn if there's other AoE going on, assuming there's no priority targets like Sappers or Sorcerors or mezzers of some sort.

And Quills doesn't work well on a Stalker purely because it's not a power they can choose. If they could, though, it'd work fine since aura effects of that sort are now suppressed (not turned off) on Stalkers while Hidden.

It's for both, of course - to fill in holes, if you have them (recharge being most common, I'll bet), or to augment when you consider those holes too minor to care about. Either way tends to do quite nice things to your performance.

My L36 Martial Arts/Ninjitsu Stalker (a Vigilante) gets invites regularly on Freedom, even sometimes for TFs. But mostly only from people who whisper first, strangely enough. Can't remember the last time he got a blind invite, which suits me just fine (I absolutely refuse to join when blindly invited, except when I've just broadcasted an LFT, which I almost never do).

Maybe that Stalker, and the others complaining of never getting invites, never participate in conversations in /broadcast (or are unpleasant jerks when they do) or offer polite advice in /help or are afraid of starting teams and just sit there endlessly "Stalker LFT!" instead of taking a little initiative and gathering up the others also LFTing? (like the Stalker who started the LGTF I was on yesterday [man, my frame rate sucked through most of it, and made me useless for the Hamidon portion :/])

It is when it comes to feeling like you're contributing to the team in a way appropriate to your archetype.