Leo_G

Rage is a dumb gimmick I don't care to work around...and you kind of have to work around it otherwise your low tier attacks are not very super in strength.

Power Siphon? Build up? Follow up? Soul Drain? They're all nice (VERY nice) but you don't have to hinge your attacks around them to be good...and with or without, you're not worse off.

Doesn't mean they shouldn't.

Jump Kick can crit.
Mace Beam/Blast can crit.
I expect Throwing Star to crit as well as Burn when we get it.

So long as it's a targeted power originating from the character and does damage, it should have the chance of double damage unless indicated specifically that it won't.

(Just to clarify: Lightning Rod won't crit because the damage doesn't originate from the character. Total Focus doesn't do double damage, just additional damage because it indicates it. Energy Transfer/Concentrated Strike doesn't crit at all because it is indicated as such. Vet Powers/Temp powers are not affected by inherent powers at all (no fury, no domination, no gauntlet, no crits, no defiance, etc). Those epic powers have no reason not to crit and do not indicate they won't.)

In the back of my mind, I am begging to the dev-gods that the incarnate Justice power might be able to do this. That is, whatever power it is, it will mesh with your powers (i.e. if you're an archer, your justice power comes out of the bow; you got claws, it can be made to come out of the claws; etc.). A focus/shockwave power would be perfect on my Katana/SR character and fills in a weakness of his (he has no range).

Going on a tangent: I'm still curious what the Justice power will turn out to be. It would be nice if you could choose a powerful/long recharging AoE attack or a devastating/not-as-long-recharging Single Target attack with perhaps customizable debuffs/effects. I'd probably stick with something simple and do a 'Focus' type ST attack for my Kat/SR with knockback and bleed DoT. If not, I can still RP that he has a bellowing wind-squall roar if it has to be AoE without a weapon >_>

Probably because it is perfect stealth, grants crit inducing 'Hidden' status, costs no endurance and has a huge buff to AoE defense when unsuppressed...

I'm just sayin', it's not like Hide *isn't* powerful or that Hide needs to have downfalls, but it's not like it's in need of anything more...

You're not looking for min-fx option (we already have min-fx for several sets' including SR, WP, Regen). What you're looking for is a 'No Fade or Pulse' option which has something to do with the translucency the power provides.

The only stealth power that I know that can reduce the translucency is Tanker/Brute/Scrapper Dark Armor's Cloak of Darkness. This is a point I brought up when the option was being discussed, that *all* stealth powers should have this option and it makes no sense at all that Energy Aura's Energy Cloak couldn't get the same treatment as it had the exact same reasons for the change.

/signed on my part, as I do love the look of some of my stalkers and brutes (don't have a scrap or tank with a stealth power) and think the option should be available. However, it should also extend to other powers like Cloaking Device, Group Invisibility, etc.

The devs have already said they don't think SS is balanced properly. If they go in and mess around with power order and adding damage to non-damage powers, they are also going to touch on the stuff they feel is an issue too. If they didn't, it'd be giving off the message that they are 'okay' with how the set is and don't intend to fix it, which isn't good.

Kind of like Kinetic Melee for Stalkers, if the devs went it and reduced the animation time of Build Up to the standard of the other sets, you'd expect them to fix everything else wonky with the set otherwise they give the impression they're okay with KM's faster animating Assassin's Strike or the 100% crit on Burst (honestly waiting for the devs to revisit the set to see exactly what they *are* okay with)

Yes, the limit is 6 >_>

On a Brute, it's probably not worth slotting heavily for damage since they rely on Fury for their extra damage. You can use IO set bonuses, -def from powers like Earth Mastery and +ToHit from powers like Rage/Follow up/Tactics to build up the power's accuracy, the Alpha Slot usually comes with a decent endurance reduction for all powers so that just leaves recharge...

Still doesn't change the fact that it's generic

It's pretty lame when the theme of your powers, darkness, is better emulated by dark colored energy blasts or fire blasts.

Well, because it's 'soul' not 'darkity fuzz blackness' >_>

But being able to have the soul theme for your darkness would be great since most of the color customizations for the regular dark powers looks bland. Maybe you'd get a more decent 'blood' theme with red colored soul?

For my werewolf Claws/EA brute, Focus is more a 'pounce' maneuver. If he's using it close up, he's just knocking them over to rip them up on the ground and at a distance, he's usually jumping at the target he's 'Focus'ing. Probably the closest we'll get to an actual tackle without a target mouse click.

And the winner for most horrific use of tentacles goes to...Not Dante!

*prizes the tentacles to some random Skull*

That's actually the part of the dark sets that looks cool. You're basically shooting pulses of pure death energy which takes on the form of what the target fears most: their own inevitable death.

It's a pretty cool concept if you think about it, and would take some outside skill and manipulation to achieve.

The fuzzy ink-blot blasts on the other hand, look generic. Would be awesome if you throw out a thick pulse of energy that, the further away it gets, begins to disperse...into the shape of a swarm of crows or bats...interesting stuff like that...

Personally, I don't really care for Dark Blast. Dark Armor, however, could look better. Don't like all the fuzziness of the set...it just looks generic. I'd suggest maybe using the new Ultra Mode shadows as a type of Dark Armor with your shadow at your feet moving around, bubbling up or swirling around you instead.

Same goes for Energy Aura which just looks like Dark Armor but bright (i.e. fuzzy light). Give us that one PPD energy deflection thingy they have...or force bubbles.

From my limited experience with the new Fury (only played my Claws/EA Brute a few levels after the change...been too busy with a pair of Blasters and my Scrapper), Fury practically sustains itself. Just walk up to a dude, hit your attacks and there you go. It doesn't shoot up to max but after the dude is dead, you've got time to delete some salvage, combine some inspirations, tab through your targets and then walk up to it all with enough a nice chunk of fury sticking around.

Yeah, a much weaker Dark Regen...except it doesn't cost you 1/3 of your blue bar...and replenishes both blue and green bars...and drains a quarter of the foes endurance....

.....and is auto-hit...

I'm not saying Energy Drain is stronger, but you can't honestly think it is even remotely balanced that this power should replenish *ALL* your endurance *AND* a large portion of your HP on top of it *ALWAYS* hitting its mark.

But serious question: just to get some perspective of the posters replying. If you guys were at the helm, and you were 'fixing' the set, exactly where would it sit?

For me, I love how the set performs as is. I will admit, some of the utility the set has is redundant and it could use some more to even out the playing field for 'fairness'.

The only change I'd put in is probably changing Conserve Power into "Fusion Charge" which would basically be a cross of Conserve Power and Fiery Embrace, except adding Energy Damage to every attack. Survivability wise, the set doesn't seem sub-par if you use its tools however some of those tools may be counter to the playstyle of others (mainly the stealth). Giving it an offensive spin would basically cement the set as an 'off-tanker' (if used by a tanker) and a superb offensive choice for the player that *doesn't* want to be the center of attention (and first to die) yet still wants to dish out the damage. I don't see the problem with EA not being good at tanking.

+2

I only have 1 character that uses SR. I love my character, his concept, his survivability and feel...but I'll never roll up another SR character ever. It's boring to look at and play, it's painful to level and it's so mainstream, I wouldn't ever bother unless some major AT/power combos come available. The only reason I even survived my trip to 50 was because he's Katana/SR otherwise I'd have probably shelved him too long to play.

Besides Shield Defense (for concept!), EA is the only set I have multiple characters with.

I wouldn't think the devs always know exactly what to look for in their datamined storages. Otherwise it wouldn't have taken them even longer to change Domination from i6 up until just a year and a half ago.

And it's arguable if they actually made Doms 'stronger' with the removal of the damage buff from domination. They basically just normalized the high-end with the normal-end of the AT's performance.

Basically 'at this late date' doesn't mean anything. They're always looking to add, balance and rebalance their game. While I'm perfectly fine with the effectiveness of our scaling crits, that doesn't mean there isn't room for improvement to normalize the high-end with the normal-end. Kind of the same with dominators; I was quite okay with the Jekyll/Hyde duality of the AT and so were the devs.

That's why I suggested an Endurance Penalty (a reverse Endurance Discount) applied to the enemy. Actually, I remember hearing Arcana mock up the idea but deemed it too powerful.

It's even more potent than -recovery because the enemy AI wouldn't save their endurance for stronger attacks and instead use their weaker cheaper attacks which would cost more and burn through their blue. And with enough stacks, you could even make the cheapest of the enemies attacks to be too expensive even if they have a portion of their bar left. That combined with draining would be completely crippling.

...Yeah, I doubt improving the set's draining would fly...perhaps making ED radiate an ally +recovery around yourself, similar to SD's Grant Cover...I dunno, some added utility or team-friendliness wouldn't hurt and I don't think the set is in dire need of buffing...

That would be the best option for you, most likely, but I walked into this thread from the beginning knowing it wasn't going to be a truly effective use of time.

As far as being narrow minded, it's in regard to what you're assuming I'm saying. Adding a +crit rate for being near allies is making Stalkers stronger, a type of change we most likely won't get. Altering the means to activate demoralize or gaining hidden status that doesn't force avoidance of combat isn't making Stalkers stronger but a caveat for better assimilation into teams.

It's nice that you're parroting a redname, that's useful for when people lose perspective. But do understand all the information you're regurgitating.

OR

Alter Stalker Dynamics so they aren't trying to avoid combat to get their benefit!

Get your head in the game!!

Why not a recipe randomly chosen from a pool by the computer? Even if it's a highly sought after rare or unique, so long as it's purely random who gets it, all the inf involved in the lottery would be 100% burned, replaced by an item...add an extra 10% burned if the lucky winner turns around and sells his winnings on the market. Limit lotteries to per-server, have multiple lotteries going on at one time, dole out the winnings ever other day to start anew, charge 100k per ticket (1-per character)...

I'd be checking up on lottery prizes, creating new characters on other servers to e-mail inf to so they can bid on desired prizes, the whole enchilada...if I didn't have to try saving billions for a certain PvP IO or a super rare temp-power recipe...maybe even costume codes.

But I doubt I'd ever bother for a crummy Gold Title or Jet pack. Lol, who'd waste their time for stuff like that? >_>

It's only 'academic' because you're purposefully narrowing your viewpoint. You keep saying 'on-kill debuff' even though I said 'on-kill buff'. I'm not even talking particularly about some extra effect gained like an AoE fear or a +damage buff for every kill, I'm talking about an addition to combat the 'systemic' issues of the aggro and how it interferes with Stalker's burst damage, mostly.

Should I point you back to the initial statement that I commented on? Or can we simply agree that, if we gained some benefit (perhaps extended duration of demoralize, instant rehide, chance of instant placate recharge, ect.) for the death of your target, it is *not* disingenuous to the AT? It is a viable, possible and thematic addition. Do you have to favor the idea? No, but that's all it really is is an idea. Does it incur a style of play that is adverse to the AT? Not if I can prove otherwise, it doesn't.

Then you should.

A Stalker is not simply a boss killer. They are a stealth assassin and tactical opportunity melee. If you’ve decided to narrow the AT’s function to designated boss killer and nothing more, you do a disservice to the AT.

Bosses are finite and the ATs that can take bosses out quickly are numerous. Once the bosses are dead, you don’t twiddle your thumbs. Tactic-wise, your goal should be to attack the problem mob, be they minion, Lt or boss. Nowhere does it say a reward for killing would force or even favor killing a minion first. It would be purely up to the player what they choose more valuable: their on-kill buff so kill what goes down faster or removing the problem target/boss first in favor for ease and safety of battle. Each comes with their own advantage. When that problem target *is* a minion is simply win-win, just move on, placate and work on the boss next.

1.Teammate sometimes takes your kills? You can easily return the favor. Can’t count how many times I see my Brute teammate throwing down a couple hits on a Lt and then I walk up all hidden and take it out in one stroke.
2.Conceptually, it’s rewarding you for defeating already crippled foes…kind of like the original +crit on mezzed foes.
3.Vs AVs is where AS and the +crit aura is more useful. Arguably, we don’t really need help there.

The reason there’s no clear solution is because of how people view Stalkers. This skews the issues. What’s more important? Your own little battle vs that boss? Your total contributions to the team? Overall utility for broader choice in battle? Relative AT balance? Since a choice has been made, and Stalkers won’t be getting any more damage, I’m more inclined to favor utility of tactics for more choice.

Yeah, they’re trash minions until they heal that boss you just AS’ed back to full, sap you to 0 END or buff all their buddies…then they’re a problem you should have dealt with first while they weren’t looking.

Because you'll be getting said reward by simply doing what you're already doing? Tantamount to asking 'What good is it to a Brute to gain Fury by fighting the foe if it'll be dead in short order?'...because it's not as if he's going out of his way to get said fury...he's just doing his job.

And I say you should be more open in the scope of possibly improvements. My previous comment was directed more toward:

Then look to the other ATs Stalkers are in direct competition with: Brute, Scrappers, Blasters and Dominators.

How much would you need to improve their Burst damage to make any real difference in that ranking? And do take into consideration those ATs other functionalities.

The only reason to *really* improve Stalker's burst damage is if there is some type of imbalance with the AT. As is, Stalkers function perfectly fine on teams and solo. Why people want to improve Stalker damage is because they feel Scrappers do more and survive more...not because Stalkers don't do enough damage themselves.

Get the mutant pack, use secondary mutation, hope for Tough Hide. Problem solved.

OR

It be a reward for minion bashing which is nearly pointless when the team can wipe them out easily.

Do we need more encouragement to go after bosses? Isn't defeating such targets quickly that could pose such threat encouragement enough?

What's your point? Willpower has *one* powers borrowed from Regen and that's Quick Recovery...hell, Regen doesn't even get defense outside of its tier 9 and only an ignorable amount of resistance outside of its tier 9. The only concept borrowed from Regen is an HP buff (which is a passive rather than a click) and lots of regen which comes in a completely unique fashion. Psychic Mastery isn't an armor set, so that it used powers from it only means that it was a means to create a unique set built upon the concept of a character that is extremely strong-minded (or impossibly bull-headed) which can cover the concept of a melee that uses their mind.

I wouldn't say Energy Aura was a mistake. It is a great functioning set if you bother to use its tools. It's not the most defensive of sets, but it does provide some good utility abilities.

I'm not downing on your set, like you said, the melee set is AoE focused which isn't horrible but considering it is doing mostly psi damage, you're going to have a *TOUGH* time fighting Zeus Titans, council boss robots, carnie bosses and pretty much the majority of difficult foes that pose a moderate challenge to everyone...except x20. But that set is passable and I could see myself playing it anyway.

But the armor set does have some holes and, honestly, it's pretty cookie-cutter. It just looks so interchangeable, IMO. How much would it matter if you were playing Psi Armor or Willpower? Except one gets higher regen, damage and resists in exchange for a weakness to immobilizes and holds?

Just a selfless plug of a suggestion I made...*checks post* over 3 years ago:

Power Set Name: Psychic Armor
Primary/Secondary/Pool: Secondary
Arch-Type: Scrapper

1. Telepathic Aura- (passive +def vs melee, +res vs defense debuff)
You cover yourself with an aura of telepathic waves that reach into the future, giving you the ability to predict the attacks of nearby foes and giving you the time to dodge their attacks. This power is always on and costs no endurance.

2. Telekinetic Waves- (passive +def vs range, +res vs defense debuff/slow/-movement)
You send out telekinetic waves that alter the path of projectile attacks. This power is always on and costs no endurance.

3. Strong Minded- (passive +def vs psionic/AoE, +res vs psi/energy/neg energy/def debuff)
You reenforce your mind with psychic training to protect yourself from other psychics that try to invade your mind. Also, your strong mind allows you to disperse certain energies with telekinesis. You get good defense and resistance to psychic damage and a slight resistance to energy and negative energy. This power is always on and costs no endurance.

4. Psychic Chainmail- (Toggle +res vs smashing/lethal)
You create a powerful armor of telekinetic energy that decreases damage from weapons and bullets but takes much concentration to maintain. This toggle gives good +res to leathal and smashing but has a high endurance cost and very long recharge.

5. Mind’s Eye- (passive minor +def all, +perception, *special* +def all, +res vs def debuff/ToHit debuff/-perception)
When you sleep or are in some way incapacitated, the psychic eye of your mind opens, giving you a chance to react even without consciousness. This power gives you a small amount of +def to all forms of attack but while asleep, stunned, immobilized or held you gain a very large bonus to defense. This power is always on and costs no endurance.

6. Mirror of the Mind- (Click +protection/res vs hold, immobilize, sleep, stun, fear, confuse, knockback, *special*)
You use your strong psychic powers and powerful mind to break away from the pains of any form of suppression and reflects it upon your enemies. This power removes mez effects from the user and places it on those in an AoE around you(of the same magnitude that it was on you). This is a click power that can be used while under status effects like a Break-Free and also leaves you resistant to such effects for a time. The duration and recharge or moderately short, however.

7. Diligent Mind- (Passive +regen/recovery, *special* +regen/recovery, +res vs -regen/-recovery/endurance drain)
Any form of power that attempts to enslave your mind and body will trigger your hidden power, increasing the rate at which you heal and recover. This power increases your regeneration and recovery rate but gives you a much larger bonus to regen and recovery while immobilized, slept, held, confused or feared. This power is always on and costs no endurance.

8. Swift Thoughts- (Passive +rech, +recovery, +res vs mez, protection vs knockback/repel)
You are more intune with your psychic abilities, allowing you to think more quickly and more clearly. You gain a bonus to your recharge times and recovery rate as well as a slight resistance to immob, sleep, hold, fear, stun, knockback and disorient. This power is always on and costs no endurance.

9. Telekinetic Armor- (Toggle +def vs all, +end *special, self endurance hindrance)
You create a set of plate armor made of psychic energy that deflects most attacks. Any energy, negative energy, fire, ice, electric or psychic attacks you receive damage from will restore a small amount of endurance. This armor is a toggle and only costs a moderately high amount of endurance, but is still a hindrance on your mind. All other powers’ endurance costs are increased. *This power does not suppress under mez effects*

Note: Think a cross of Stone Armor and...well...okay, it's a new take on Stone Armor. It's full of passives that provide only moderate survival boosts but are always on and costs no endurance, have high resistance to debuffs attached to each making you half-immune to altering effects and a tier 9 that can make you quite survivable compared to other armor sets, yet will drain you. You'll also have the added benefit of flipping mezzes you're suffering from onto your enemies (that'd be an interesting fulcrum shift when fighting Ghost Widow or just popping an awake if you face plant).