Nuclea

As I remember it from the beta forums it was Hide + Stealth + multiple applications of Grant Invisibility to put you beyond the perception threshold. I also seem to remember that this was being looked into along with the whole 1-shot business.

Yeah, I think the special is unresistable in PvP but not in PvE which confused me a little. Only noticed when my AS was doing very poor damage against CoT spectral knights, etc as they are smashing resistant.

Having done a bit more PvP it seems it isn't resistable, although it's a bit hard to check the combat log when you're running for your life and waiting for hide to kick back in. And having it fully slotted with SOs is probably helping a bit too .

Stalkers are not impossible to kill one on one. They can do massive front-loaded damage. Then they have 2 choices - stay and fight it out as a sub-par scrapper with controller level hit points (may be possible to kill your target if AS did enough damage and you're quick enough/they're too slow popping a respite) or run away and wait for hide to kick back in (hoping that nobody else spots them in the meantime while they are visible).

This was already brought up on the beta forums when some MM's were complaining about being 1-shotted by stalkers. The devs are looking into it as this shouldn't be possible - current thinking is that if an AS would have 1-shotted you the you will be left with 5-10% hp to give you a fighting chance.

As has already been pointed out there are several tactics for dealing with stalkers. Most importantly, keep bloody moving. If you stand still on your own with no +perception powers running, no insights popped and no damage auras/autohit powers running then quite frankly you are asking for an AS.

Dealing massive damage with AS and the ability to strike from the shadows is what defines the stalker. They don't really have any other tricks up their sleeves (apart from Placate for a get away). So what happens the first time you run into a brute with fully slotted attacks and a full fury bar and he drops you with 2 or 3 hits? Will he have to be nerfed as well because he can kill you? Or a dominator with domination running? Or a controller for that matter? You are a squishy and 1 on 1 you will nearly always lose to a stalker. And probably a brute. And more than likely a controller too.

What about people who have been 1-shotted by blasters using build up/aim/rage insps and snipe? Does that mean you should be nerfed as well?

You could just take this as a learning experience (you didn't get any debt after all) and adjust your tactics accordingly for the next time you enter a PvP zone. Either that or don't PvP. I'm sorry if that sounds harsh but those are your choices.

Personally I think the traps secondary works better with pets who prefer ranged combat like robots and mercs. Dark may be feasible with ninjas but I found that you would run into the middle of them to heal them and they would run off to another target just before the heal hit.

I took a Ninja/Poison to 16 in beta and found it to be really good (despite it getting some bad press on the boards). The single-target heal has a very good range and actually heals a decent amount of damage. You get a couple of single target debuffs that can be handy against bosses and you can also rez your teammates after level 16. Don't have any experience of the later powers in the set but some of them sound quite good.

I'm sure I read on the beta boards that it was untyped by design so it could get through bubbles/defenses/resists. Otherwise it would be pretty useless against tanks/scrappers and a lot of the mobs in the game. I just discovered that with AS slotted with 2 acc and 4 dmg DOs I can't one-shot an even-con spectral follower!!

As for the disorients in MA they are laughably few and far between (apart from Cobra Strike) compared to MA scrappers in CoH. I'd guess a 1 in 40-50 rate with Thunder Kick.

Just discovered the MA's AS only does smashing damage - the extra isn't "special" like I thought it was supposed to be. May be the reason I could only scratch the tanks in bloody bay yesterday .

Haven't taken either hasten or the fitness pool yet!

I went for Combat Jumping since it gives an extra little bit of defense on top of my other toggles and since Kuji-In Rin (our mez protection) is a clickly instead of a toggle I'm hoping I can get by without taking stamina . An End Red or two in each toggle should work since 6-slotting with Def is pointless anyway once we're on SOs.

I would like to take hasten as well if I can manage it - 18 was my first "free" power choice in a long time and I took Cobra Strike for the Disorient which is working quite well. Unslotted the duration is long enough for me to re-hide and AS again!

Only bothered to check my combat logs on this today since I'm fighting CoT Spectral Followers and AS didn't seem to be as effective.

To a -1 normal minion it's doing 40.42 points of smashing plus an extra 242.59 points of smashing - I thought the extra was supposed to be "Special" damage?

To a -1 spectral minion it does 24.25 and an extra 145.55!!

With the amount of mobs, not to mention heroes and villains that have smashing resistance this has got to be a bug hasn't it? At least it explains why I was doing so little damage to the exemped heroes in bloody bay yesterday.

Took my MA/Ninjitsu stalker into bloody bay yesterday (was 16 at the time) and I definitely couldn't 1-hit anyone. Maybe if you're a high-level stalker exemped down for the zone with SOs in your AS and pop a few rages it could be done but cryptic are already looking at a pvp change to stalkers to stop this happening. Current thinking is that if your attack would have 1-hit killed them then they'll be left with around 5% health to give them a fighting chance.

Well I have a level 18 MA/Ninjitsu stalker and I'm loving it! I mainly played ranged types in CoH (could never get the hang of playing Tankers or Scrappers ) so I think the tactical hit & run nature of the stalker suits me better.

In teams I'm usually the last one left alive. When we encounter a group I pick the juiciest target and move in, let the pets or a debuffer get the mobs attention then let loose with AS. Depending on how much health the mob has left I'll either placate, storm kick, thunder kick him or run away and hide before going back in for the kill.

Solo I still find the stalker very playable - it just involves a lot of running away if things go wrong . Kill all missions can be a pain but when the map is spawned for a solo player there usually aren't that many mobs to take out.

The only problem I've found (and it's not really a problem as such) is that it's quite restrictive regarding power choices at lower levels. At level 6 you really need to take AS, level 8 or 10 for the pre-requisite of your travel power, 12 is placate, 14 is travel power, 16 is mez protection. In amongst all this you still have to try and pick up a decent attack chain for finishing off mobs that survive AS as well as taking your defensive powers from the secondary pool. This is the first character I've ever had still using brawl at level 18 .