Paradoxia

Got to mention this while I'm on as its kind of relevant to the sjkill based issue we are discussing. Just had a Controller on Defiant using tp foe and hurricane to tp people into Bus stops and containers and keeping them there with hurricane. The boasts of broadcast about the controller in question being a 'great' player were insufferable.In the end a lot of us were forced to disconnect and relog to get out of it losing our bounty.

Now this has to be the worst form of terrain exploitation Ive seen in the game so far and the fact that it forced us to disconnect (it took 6 minutes for them 8 minutes to kill me the first time, I wasnt waiting that long a second time). Now a lot us were annoyed by this behaviour as it was clearly an exploit (i.e using terrain and powers in a way not intended in game design). Now talk about killing PvP for the night it was dreadful, you had a bunch of heroes hiding in hurricane waiting for people to be tp'd into a bus stop where we could get pummelled in safety.

Now Im quite concerned about practices like these as they kill PvP quite effectively and allow obviously unskilled controllers like this one exploit rep. In addition to this I'm getting increasingly worried that the misuse of tp foe will end up with it being nerfed, which is sad as its a useful power that can be used to great tactical benefit but not like that. Not just villains getting this I admit as I recall yesterday somebody tp'd Window Licker into one of the towers or something and he couldnt get out. Basically if we want it skill based a few things need to be sorted out and if people misuse the powers we are not going to get anywhere unless those powers are nerfed. As for the bus stop situation I raised a petition for that as its just clearly out of order and an exploit.

I'm sorry Soul but if you are having that amount of problems in PvE with your stalker then it has to be your spec or style of play really. I find stalkers are brilliant and fast AT for both solo and team based PvE and I certainly dont rely just on AS for kills.

On Defiant I team up with other Stalkers like Grudge or Dark Figment and none of us use a stop and start AS tactic in PvE. After the initial AS's we have a tendency to easily wipe through mobs at Relentless level using all of our combat abilities not just AS. In fact I use Slash and Evicerate a hell of a lot more than AS and Id have to say I dont actually need AS to accomplish missions it just makes it easier and faster. I've not really noticed many issues with AS interrupt in PvE either but then again my spec does not make me singularly reliant on it either.

I still think a lot of issues will be resolved once the level cap is increased but there will remain quite a few issues. As I said before tping into drones is not a vioable use from a safe zone and shouldnt be allowed as you can affect you can unduly affect a battle outside by tping combatants into drones with no option of escape. This goes on both sides, I know an awful lot of Villains on Defiant are against this practice and are very keen to stamp it out we would like to see the heroes do that too.

I think what the Dev's need to accomplish is to ensure that any AT has a chance to be defeated by any AT regardless pof powers. A controller using Hurricane for example shpuld not be able to be immune from Stalkers as they pretty much are at the moment, and all AT's shpuld have a chance to see a stalker coming in hide without the need of perception based abilities. Rather than nerfing powers the introduction of a better resist/saving throw system would surely open things up, make the game a bit more skill based and give it a bit more of an edge.

There is a lot of anger at the moment, particularly on the Villain side as we do appear to have a disadvantage in both level and in numbers. The overbalance issue is a real problem with Controllers probably being the most overbalanced AT of all with the ridiculous hold and debuff stacking they can do. Also the villain side on defiant is short on Dominators so we run into problems a lot when we need range classses and corruptors just fail in PvP.

I would go with what I think Stalk said earlier in the thread which is close PvP zones to anyone over level 40 until the cap is raised for villains. That at least would remove the enhancement and slots imbalance we have at the mo. Next thing would be to look at the various holds and stacking of debuffs and see if its reasonable for PvP. Also the ability to turn off defence toggles in PvP should be removed as it basically removes in one go the ability of some classes and gives some people the excuse just to fly around removing them from a safe distance letting their team opick up the rep for them. On Defiant the Heroes have a tendency to remove defence buffs, stack every kind of hold and stun on people and then gank them at at least a 4-1 ratio usually much higher than that. It's not PvP its just ganking and there isnt anything you can do about it due to the mess with holds etc. In addition no firing from or into safe zones should be allowed nor the disgraceful use of tp foe to cowardly tp people into the drones from the safety of your safe zone.

PvP is basically a big mess at the moment and Cryptic need to sort it out quickly or they will lose people to games like wow that at least has a cionsistent and balanced pvp system.

Controllers. Ludicrously overpowered and imbalanced for PvP

Depend os whether you are looking at a single attack or a single attacking chain in which case for a stalker Id suggest the following:

Build Up, Asassins Strike, Placate, Evicerate

Ok its two moves but does a shed load of damage.

I find Intergration uses more Endurance than CJ and basically CJ is just a brilliant ability, much underrated. If you want to use both, which against some opponents you will you have a choice to get Stamina or to heavily slot one or both with End Reduction enhancements. Down to personal choice, personnally I tried the end red option (I really didnt want to use up my power options on Stamina) but I just found I had to rest every few mobs and in a Team I was running out of steam quite early and to carry on I was either switching off cj or Intergration mid fight. Stamina however proved a godsend to me, but as its been pointed out its a personal optionb. I would recommend seeing how slotting fits out for you first and if it doesnt cater in Stamina instead.

I've got a level 34 Corruptor and I have to admit I was very disappointed at the AT's survivability in PvP. I found it an excellent and fun AT in PvE where it has an easier time than a blaster due to the healing/buff based secondarys so was a but disappointed with the damage in PvP.

Back to the matter at hand though. I should point out at this stage the level cap difference betweev CoV and CoH 40 and 50 respectively. I know a lot of us suspect that being knocked down to 30 level 30 doesnt affect slotting or enhancements which gives a significant advantage to anyone fully slotted at level 50 with SO's. With that in mind are we really seeing the true picture of PvP at the moment and can the imbalances and the skill issue be a lot down to that fact. I suspect we will have to wait until the villain gap is raised to 50 to see how PvP will truely function.

You need Health to get Stamina and with Combat Jumping and Intergration he will need the Stamina, trust me I've tried it without and you run out of steam pretty fast. You can easily run either intergration or Combat jumping by themselves without needing to slot them or have Stamina but together they will cause stamina issues pretty quickly. As for Health, I agree with the above a waste to slot it and there are a few other good places to put them such.

The spec is pretty similar to mine except I got Dull Pain earlier (to ensure I had it before level 30 for PvP) and I let Instant Healing drop to lvl 32 as in my opinion Dull Pain is a bit more useful for PvP than Instant Healing and I couldnt fit them bith in.

Focus is always a good choice, despite the reservations of some Stalkers who will leave it out, as it gives you a range ability and buys a bit of time to get a couple of free hits in with its Knockback ability. It also provides a bit of fallback if AS fails and target moves out of range.

As for Evicerate it doesnt look like much at the start but you will come to love its critical hits and trust me there is nothing better than attacking a large mob with two Evicerate equipped stalkers.

Nice thing is there are few duff powers in both these sets but this leads to the problem of what to get. The way I based it on was to balance PvE with PvP in Sirens Call at level 30 cap. You have got a pretty nice spec there that should be nicely balanced for either PvE or PvP depending upon what you want to do.

Stalkers dont have an unfair advantage at all and its daft to say they have. The whole AT is designed to be used to attack from stealth and disappear, that is our purpose like Rogues in WoW (who incidentally are more not less powerful in comparison). We are assassins we attack from stealth and kill quickly, which means we are quite severely gimped by the level of how much Hide is compromised by perception abilities. We should not be totally invisible but perception should be based on a chance to see us not a guarantee we can be seen half a zone away.

We are not an easy AT to play the only easy times we have is if someone is standing around still in the middle of a PvP zone and quite frankly any AT would have an easy time of it then. Truth is it does require a lot of skill to play a stalker especially when outnumbered, as you will be seen, you will be debuffed and lose Hide and you will be hunted down without mercy. As for stalkers ganging up, thats no different from the groups of Heroes grouped up ganking individuals by themselves at 10-1 disadvantages that I see in Sirens Call on a nightly basis. The thing is people dont like the fact that we are pretty much the only AT with the ability to one hit kill out of nowhere. What people fail to realise is to do it is not as easy as it seems and the failure rates (which often prove lethal) are incredibly high. As for cowards, Stalkers are not a cowardly class we are a survival and stealth class. If you want to see cowardly watch the groups of fully slotted level 50 heroes grouped up in large numbers ganking individual villains in Sirens Call on a nightly basis. Stalkers a lot of the time attack solo which is a lot to be said about a lot of the other AT's.

Don't overestimate the Hide ability its not as great in PvP as people make out. With the amount of Heroes with perception based abilities its a rare day when you can move across a zone without being seen at distance. I find most of my AS strikes come from using Placate as I'm rumbled fairly early on, the remainder comes from a painstaking hunt trying to approach out of my prey's line of site. In most cases the only purpose of hide in PvP is to generate our crit for AS.

Requires a fair bit of skill to be a Stalker in mass PvP especially considering the Hero to Villains ratio. The only times we have it easy is in a one versus one scenario where we have the luxury of total surprise....doesnt happen often though

I would get fast healing a lot earlier and slot it heavily as it will certainly increase your longetivity in fights. In addition Evicerate is an essential as it is the only skill that can do crits outside of hide, is the next best damage after Assassins Claw and also engages multiple enemies as well which is extremely useful in a tight spot.

I wouldnt bother slotting so many into Reconstruction a few slots with SO's in are more than enough.