SaintTzu

Smoke Flash does work, but... I tended to find that the animation was slow enough that when I was really in need of it I'd die before it would actually activate.

Once I thought I'd found the perfect use for it: Fire it off in a crowd right before the AS attack to avoid eating the alpha strike. However it also alerts the target on a miss, so that doesn't really work either.

So at the end of the day, yes it works, but it's eminently skippable.

Let me also add that I think it's area of effect should be vastly increased. Right now it will only affect enemies in melee range. Thats fine if what you're trying to suggest is 'smoke in the eyes of the target', but you're not. You're trying to suggest 'using the distraction of the smoke flash, the ninja slips from sight'. That should work on someone shooting at you from 50ft away just as well if not better than it does someone within arms reach.

As a slight change of pace consider Electric/Time. It has the double aura effect with Conductive Aura and Time's Juncture. It also has a very nice double patch combo with Static Field and Distortion Field.

Basically enemies slow down or stop and then flop around from Jolting Chain (from the Gremlins too) and run out of endurance. It's soft control for the win and a good amount of hard control should it be required.

Plenty of other fun tools as well, of course, but those are less directly synergistic.

The 'pet' is just the behind-the-scenes way that the power is coded into the game. It's not a pet in the way most players use the term, so I apologize for being confusing.

You would slot it in the same way you'd slot any PBAoE attack. Although, the damage is not amazing and it's recharge is a bit on the long side so if you wanted to do the best you could for Accuracy and Recharge on two to four slots you'd be forgiven.

I consider its use as 'tactical/control' rather than its damage. You get the effect of a teleport into a group and have a good chance to knock a number of them down. This usually means that you're not going to get the full alpha from that group all at once when you Executioner's Strike your first target. Its not game-breakingly awesome but it's fun and useful.

I have tested it and currently use Spring Attack on one of my Stalkers. It's the pet that does the damage. It is noticed and attracts aggro but does not in and of itself break the Hidden state.

... Unless there's something funky about the Soldier version of 'Hidden' (and I haven't tested this on mine) it should work the same way.

Quick thought on Hasten.

I tried it on my build but finally dropped it. It was a bit helpful but once your recharge is high enough that you're using the assassin's strike more than once every 10 seconds even without Hasten then it looses some of it's charm.

Also I prefer Kuji-in Rin as the auto power and dislike juggling longer recharge clickies like that, but that's more personal playstyle of course.

I'm happy to see that this thread is getting some attention again.

Just to add a bit to the 'touch of Bane' idea, my Hunts/bane sacrificed some AoE (no Frag grenade and Mace Mastery for the patron pool), to add Shatter, Crowd Control, and Shatter Armor.

His recharge is high enough that he can 'almost' chain these, but the gaps leave the space to mix in Surveilance, Venom Grenade, and Build-up when they're ready. He's soft-capped to all three positions so he doesn't mind wading into the scrum after a single hard target when appropriate and Shatter Armor further increases his ability to apply -res to those unpleasant AVs and incarnate bosses. Plus, opening with Surveilance/Executioners Strike on that boss or annoying Lt, then dropping back with the Web/Venom/Heavy Burst, then wading back in with Crowd Control and some follow up Shatter/Shatter Armor strikes is just tactically fun.

I think of him as a perfect soldier, ready for any kind of target or situation and using every weapon at his disposal.

Yes. The 'wave your hands in the air like you don't care' animation made my spirit ninja's soul hurt. He got along fine.

I've got one of these, with a somewhat similar build as well. It's absolutely capable of soloing pylons and of getting really really close to the incarnate defense soft cap for melee and ranged attacks.

Just from skimming over your build...

You want the Stalkers Guile set in Assassin's Claw, and come the next issue you probably want the new damage set (the name escapes me at the moment) in Shockwave (turning that power into knockdown instead of knockback is going to be lovely).

I 4 slotted Ninja Reflexes and Danger Sense with LotG. The set bonuses seem worth it to me. Same for Weave and Maneuvers.

Not sure about the slotting for Kuji-in Sha, Hide, and Tough. In my current build, Hide got three slots for a LotG global, Kismet +Acc, and Karma -KB. Tough just got a couple of Aegis (if Im remembering correctly). Kuji-in Sha got three frankenslot heal/recharge but then take the Steadfast and Gladiators Armor +defenses.

Take this with a grain of salt, I don't consider myself to be a build-master. But that character is really hard to kill and solos easily at +4/x3-5 (I find that at x6 or more that defense cascade failures combined with the stacking debuffs make it harder than I usually like to play, but that's more about your preference).

Oh, regarding Kuji-in Retsu. I largely agree with you about its use when you've already got your defenses so high, but it's still got a place in my build as a panic button against large numbers of stacked debuffs. When you're fighting large groups of things like incarnate level Banished Pantheon it can come in very handy.

Hope some of that is helpful.

I hadn't considered Nerve, but some support for Rise to the Challenge's relatively weak taunt effect could be useful, and Accuracy and Defense is a nice combo.

Thanks, I'll certainly add that to consideration.

My friend's WP/StJ Tank is ready to be Alpha slotted and I'm not sure where to advise him to go. I'm guessing Resilient, but I can see logic behind Agility and Vigor as well. So what's the current thinking amongst the Tanker cognoscenti?

Just found this thread.

After the new stalker changes went through I took out a pylon with my Claws/Nin stalker. T4 Agility which I didn't bother to unslot but no other Incarnate powers used, no pets, temps, offensive powers from the epic pool, etc. [Edit: wait, I tell a lie, T3 Reactive as well]

Took on the order of 5 minutes but I didn't stopwatch it. Maybe 6. I think.

I'm not sure he could do it before this, or at least I probably wouldn't have had the patience to button mash for that long.

I like all of those.

Here's an alternate: Replace Heavy Blow with Rib Cracker. (from a thread in the Stalker forum, not my original idea)

*edit* Yes, Placate should give *at least* one combo point. Is there any power in the game that's more of a 'set up' maneuver than Placate? If Combat Readiness isn't coming back then Placate should add the full three combo points, in my opinion.

Wow. Yes, that would be a nice thing indeed. Replace Heavy Blow with Rib Cracker. Yes, please.

So. Rib Cracker is the power that Stalkers lose within the Street Justice set. How good is it, exactly, and how much will it's lack annoy me and gimp my possible next stalker?

I added Hasten and Provoke when I respec'ed post inherent fitness. However, to be honest, I've really not played my Thugs/Dark enough since then to say how much improvement I got out of that move.

Other than that, Psylenz' notes seem to make sense to me. *thumbs up*

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Oh, and I agree about the KD proc being in Empty Clips, it felt right.

Thank you, this did work for me. Appreciated.