Metal_Magician

You'll see more people that you'll want the -fly on than you will be able to use the knockdown from Focus on. The extra damage helps, a lot, as does the range. My claws stalker has a rough time in Siren's with anything that is scrapper or tank. I've managed to take a few scrappers here and there, but any half decent scrapper can escape, or put you down.

The extra animation time on Impale is a small price to pay for a much better power. As much as I would hate to say it, since there are so many spines scrappers and stalkers anyway, Spines will be the better choice. Claws is by far the worst stalker set in the game, and the most difficult to PvP with. It can be done, but not easily, and there are far more things you simply have no hope of taking on unless the player sucks, and suck really bad I mean.

[ QUOTE ]
SO's are generally slotted at +2 or better.
HO's are slotted at even levels.
SO's are more powerful in regards to raw power.
HO's give more flexibility because you have more slots available.

most folks slot SO's and use HO's for status effects n such.
Like range, mez, etc.

[/ QUOTE ]Actually, at the point of 50 most SOs are 53s, the HOs are combined for +2. The SO will out perform the HO by a small margin, but the ability of the HO to do two things at once over comes this.

Here is an example, using six slots in a ranged attack. I can slot the first three with damage/accuracy HOs. I can slot the remaining three with range/acc, end/damage, and range/recharge or some other similar combination. The secondary acc and damage effects (though lessened due to ED) are enough to overcome the +1 SO advantage. This would leave me with more damage and accuracy than a hero with three damage/three acc 53 SOs, as well as having the benefit of a recharge, range, and end reducer. And if endurance on the power is low, I can slot more for range and recharge instead. Either way, I'm going to come out on top, even if I don't use the extra damage and accuracy in the forth spot, I still have a better deal due to the other improvements in speed and more frequent attacking.

In short, I can slot four 50++ HOs in one power with dam/acc and that should (if I recall) out do a six slotted three dam/three acc 53 SO combination. If four won't cut it, I'm sure five would, either way, I come out on top for sure. For a level 40 villain, who has even less slots in general, this is going to hurt a fair amount. Now once villains get to 50, it won't be so bad for them, and when they start getting their HOs from Recluse's SF, they will be on even ground, but it's going to take a long time.

Remember that when HOs were nerfed they were given the ability to stack like SOs.