LunaWisp

Hope the one shot kills don't get 'looked at' too heavily for PvE. It's hard enough to cope with large groups of mobs as it is.

[ QUOTE ]


- Cloaking Device
- Beanbag
- Flamethrower

for my 22 power...?

[/ QUOTE ]


hehe your decision I'm afraid. Personally I love all three of those powers.

Cloaking device coupled with superspeed can get you to missions in places crawling with higher level mobs. SS isn't much use in caves and tight places though, it's tough to control. Without SS, cleaking device isn't that great and drains rather a lot of your endurance during a long fight.

Beanbag is invaluable. It's the only means you have of reliably (when it hits) stunning a mob. Since AR blasters are no longer able to put even level minions down with one hit from a safe distance, the ability to stun something while you grind it down with your other attacks is essential.

Flamethrower is now my favourite power. It does a good amount of damage, hits multiple foes and recharges relatively quickly. It's a big aggro magnet and you have to get in close to use it, so it's best for finishing off groups of mobs.


As far as your build goes, since you already have caltrops, you could probably get away with leaving beanbag for a bit longer. Depends if you are happy with your damage output really. If you are having trouble damaging things then flamethrower will be a godsend. If you're getting overrun while soloing, beanbag will help you slow them down. If you team a lot and are getting pounded on while your teammates point and laugh, cloaking device will help to take the heat off.

I'm quite enjoying playing my MM. It's not like a fire and forget missile though. I spend just as much time controlling my minions as I spend controlling my Stalker or Dominator. It's just a different type of control. In my experience, if you send your troops in and stand and watch, like some people seem to be suggesting, you very quickly lose the lot. Zombies are not the brightest bulb in the tree and if you let your attention wander for a second they can be halfway across the map aggroing everything in sight.

I hope they don't get hit with the nerf bat, I'm really getting tired of learning how to play a particular AT only to have it changed to such an extent that it's necessary to relearn it all again. The only CoH characters I have that have escaped such wide ranging changes so far have been the Kheldians.

Woot welcome back

Didn't think it would be long...

That assault rifle makes nice 'beefy' sounds when it fires (except for the buckshot power which now sounds like a damp squib and is not recommended by many people) and it looks impressive. It actually does less damage and feels like it has a longer recharge time than other blaster primaries. I haven't tried AR with an energy secondary so that might mitigate the AR deficencies, have to try it and see.

At level 5 you really have some way to go before you'll know if you have a good build for the way you play. Without the targetting drone of a devices secondary you'll need to slot your attacks for accuracy, that'll reduce the slots you have for damage and recharge. It's all compromises but it can be fun working out how to get your build just right.

[ QUOTE ]
I'd really like to see a Stalker and a Scrapper in an 'even' fight, i.e. without the AS.

[/ QUOTE ]

That would hardly be an even fight though. A stalker has nowhere near enough health to stand toe to toe with a scrapper. No stalker with a brain cell would get into that situation.

[ QUOTE ]
And insane defense is something they also have going for them. What blasters have is slightly higher damage for bread'n'butter attacks, but not so much that it's their obvious advantage. Stalkers obvious advantages is the ability to stack Hide with Stealth, their INSANE assassin strike AND very very high defense.


[/ QUOTE ]

I suggest you create a stalker, take it out for a PvE run and then come back and tell me they have high defence. A stalker is not a scrapper, a couple of hits and it's down and they really are not hard to hit.

[ QUOTE ]
Also, many ppl playing stalkers are COWARDS by nature. I almost can't count the times where I've spent a minute or two fighting a Brute, I am down to around half health and so is the brute, then all of a sudden ASSASSIN STRIKE is printed over my head in large, red and above all unfriendly letters, and I wake up dead.

<snip)

Yes, I say again. It's not the GAME that breaks PvP, it's the PLAYERS that can't seem to fight fair if it depended on the life of their grandmother.


[/ QUOTE ]

I wouldn't interfere with someone elses fight without an invitation to do so but you have to remember that striking a weak(ened) opponent out of the blue is what stalkers were designed for. A stalker can't stand toe to toe with an opponent so what looks like a fair fight to you would be impossible odds for a stalker. If you want stalkers to stand in front of you letting you hit them, you'll need to petition NCSoft to turn them all into scrappers.

[ QUOTE ]
BS. I can usually do one within 5 mins solo, 10-15 if extra guards spawn or if there is a bug so the guards you have to fight don't spawn until you've cleared all the normal guards.

[/ QUOTE ]

Take the 'BS' bit off the start of your post and I might bother reading it...

[ QUOTE ]
Oh and if you're a stalker, why the hell are you doing a bank job with a team?

[/ QUOTE ]

Probably because it takes too long to solo a bank raid with a stalker. You get within spitting distace of the vault and mobs start to spawn at a rate that a stalker simply can't cope with. When I'm soloing, I spend more time cowering outside on the doorstep recovering than I do actually fighting on these missions. And when I go back in the whole lot are standing at the door and start pounding on me the second I step into the room, they can see right through hide so it's a matter of killing what you can then escaping again for another rest. Zero fun but since the missions are largely unavoidable we have to just get on with them.

Stalkers are built for hit and run tactics. Unfortunately those tactics are useless against a whole map that can see you (apart from the run bit). It seems that the instant you step into the vault your stealth switch gets flipped off even for mobs that spawn elsewhere in the place while you are hidden. It is annoying and wastes time.

This only seems to happen in bank raids though, on raids on casino's and such place the mobs run to your last visible location so you can behave like a true stalker in those missions. My view is that the bank raids are broken

I'm sure we've had this discussion before but here's my penny's worth...

Defiance is a waste of programming effort for higher level blasters. By the time your health gets low enough to get any benefit from defiance, you're one hit from faceplanting. In fact, you're probably about a tenth of a hit from faceplanting..

Damage post ED is so poor that the extra boost given by defiance is really not worth hanging around for. Better to just start running and hope you don't get shot in the back.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
But yeah blasters aint good in pvp

[/ QUOTE ]

*snicker*

You've never played a good blaster then? Blasters I know can take out pretty much anyone in under 5 seconds!

[/ QUOTE ]

My AR/Devices blaster is great for holding/slowing things but damage output is pathetic compared to other types of blasters so she can't take on anything but a fellow squishy and even then it has to be caught in a trap of some kind. Er, isn't holding/slowing things a controllers job?

I had great fun levelling her but if I'd known AR would be hit so hard by ED I would probably have chosen another power set. She's now pretty poor in PvE and a waste of pixels in PvP.

[ QUOTE ]
Just a little note, I remember there might have been some bug originally that made the stalker get a lot of aggro after using AS - well I certainly have not noticed anything with my just-started stalker.
Soloing one of my missions, theres for example 4 mobs in front of me. I circle so that I approach them from behind their backs, and then AS the closest one. The next one turns and aggroes me, but the other two continue staring to the distance regardless of being just about 7 feet away from me. Apparently line of sight has some meaning in this game. More often than not I have managed to avoid aggroing extra mobs by placing my approach carefully. I do hope that they'd make the mob spawns a bit more dispersed..

[/ QUOTE ]

Interesting, I've found the exact opposite. I'll have to look more carefully at what I'm doing. I was wondering if they'd increased the aggro range, I find it extremely tough to kill one mob in a room without the whole room being instantly aggroed. Even mobs standing yards away facing in the opposite direction instantly turn around and start attacking. I'll have to scout ahead and see if I can find a better approach angle and see if it helps.

Have you noticed (and this one is annoying) how police mobs in bank raids chase you to the door and hang around waiting inside. As soon as you go back in, even fully stealthed, they attack. Takes the meaning of hit and run to a whole new plane. Put one down, click on door. Wait outside for health to recover. Go back in, instantly get pounded on. Repeat. Bit boring to be honest. What use is all that stealth when they can see right through it?

I am finding my stalker fun in PvE though, a bit exasperating sometimes but still fun to play. Maybe because it needs whole new approach to playing the game.

[ QUOTE ]


Due to the other thread that someones posted, I can't help but to do this! *giggle*

NERF BLASTERS, THEY ONE SHOTTED ME!

[/ QUOTE ]

rofl can't have been me, I can't one shot a balloon these days

[ QUOTE ]

if you would ever play a stalker you would realise that they are a really hard AT to play.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'd agree with that up to a point. It seems to me that there are more single (ungrouped) targets available in CoV for stalkers to play with than I've ever seen in CoH. I honestly couldn't see a stalker levelling in CoH because all the mobs are grouped and that's the one thing that my (admittedly low level) stalker finds it hard to deal with.

There's a hint for people who see stalkers as overpowered, PvP is not a solo activity for most AT's. Stalkers can get away with it with some skill and a bit of luck, almost all others are very vulnerable alone in a PvP zone. Having said that, like every other AT, stalkers can be dealt with if you take the time to learn how. There's a steeper learning curve in PvP than in PvE and I haven't really learned it yet, I just like playing my low level characters too much

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Realistically and logically ARE they overpowerd or is it more likly some others are just underpowerd or should i say over comfortable with their non=PvP builds?

[/ QUOTE ]

I personally don't think it's a matter of over/under powered. I think that many people just don't like the playstyle of the stalker (no offense to the players). I think people don't like being beaten in a manner that doesn't allow them to put up any kind of fight.

[/ QUOTE ]

That's no doubt true but there is no other way for a stalker to play. They can't stand toe to toe with any other sort of melee type character, they can't cope with ranged attacks. I saw them described earlier in this thread as one trick ponies, that just about sums them up nicely.

I had the opportunity to team with another stalker for a bit of PvE yesterday. Was great fun but still groups of 4 mobs + make things very difficult even with the low level AI. Against other people in PvP I can see how playing a stalker just isn't this easy lame thing that some are complaining about. In fact if people are teamed, attacking one of them is going to be extremely dangerous for a stalker with no defence against his angry teammates

I would seriously suggest that everyone should create a stalker and try playing one for a while. They are very limited in options. Creeping up and striking unseen is all they can do. Nerf that and you have an instant unusable AT.

Not a chance. I'll be working. Bad time of day. Maybe this sort of thing could be done on a weekend or a bit later in the day next time? Nice idea though, be interesting to see how it goes.

[ QUOTE ]
Hmm I have not played COV yet, as I awaiting a new computer first so I cannot really comment on if stalkers are overpowered (I dont think they are from my experiences in pvp) , but if they are anything like scrappers then they are damned scary...

[/ QUOTE ]

I have no idea how my stalker will fare in PvP with me at the keyboard. Not too great probably but she's certainly no scrapper. She relies on that first strike hitting. If it fails, which it does with monotonous regularity, it's a toss up between standing and fighting and running for her life. To me, accuracy seems very very poor on this AT, even with a green accuracy enhancement in each attack I'm missing more than 50% of the time on even level minions. Presumably this will improve with DO's/TO's but even so, that first strike missing can be a disaster.

That first strike is the only really damaging attack she has, the others are only really suitable for finishing off an opponent seriously weakened by the initial strike.

PvE is a bit of a pain to be honest. It's fun but she really shines against single targets and there are very few of those around. Mobs tend to go around in groups. I've had to change tactics to keep levelling so with my *very* limited PvP experience and what I've learned about the AT in PvE I'd say if you're a bit squishy the chances are you'll need to team with others to survive in a PvP zone. I'm not sure that the AT is overpowered, it's just different to what people are used to.

ok, I'm getting concerned here. Most blasters are happy with dropping hasten so I decided to experiment. I put 3 recharge SO's (one 53 and two 52's) in each of my attacks. Chaining 4 attacks, the first one is not ready for use for 4-5 seconds after the 4th one has fired (unless I use a slow one like snipe!). Do the AR attacks naturally take longer to recharge than other blasters attacks or am I just lucky (?) This long recharge coupled with vastly reduced damage makes my blaster a mere shadow of her former self.

I did notice that full auto now recharges in half the time it used to, guess they realied they overdid that particular change last time...thanks for that

Congrats Anzoria, great going

Hope the party was a good one, wish I'd had the time to stay..

[ QUOTE ]
I'm thinking of dropping hasten in a respec and compensating with an extra redrec or two in each power (on my nrg/nrg blaster). Has anyone tried this and if so did it work?

[/ QUOTE ]

I tried that with my ar/devices blaster, all I can say is I'm glad I still have a spare respec to use. Two recharge enhancements in no way make up for the loss of hasten. Even the nerfed hasten is useful - leaves you stumbling about next to useless while it recharges (not perma any more) but while it's active your blaster can do some useful damage over a period of time.

[ QUOTE ]
i've been here 10 mins and no one turned up, is it still on?

[/ QUOTE ]

Didn't look like it. I stood around for 20 minutes watching a blaster hurl fire around like there was no tomorrow then gave up and found a team.

woot congratulations Great achievement

If you still have room I can bring my warshade along, she can fly and tp herself and others (recall friend with a different name!) at that level which could be useful. She's a little darklet called Bleak.

Interesting idea but it would have to be used only in 'special' circumstances. Two things I really hated about DAoC was the ludicrous darkness at night (nothing to do with this thread at all) and the the fact that people had to queue at the popular hunting spots for things to spawn. Also if you were getting badly beaten in a cave and had to run, having things spawn behind you is a killer. At least in CoH/CoV you can clear a safe(ish) path to retreat into.