Shatterblast

[ QUOTE ]
I would have liked a more in-depth guide.

Start with the primary set choices and describe how they mesh with Electric Armor. Justice started off with Ninja Blade and Dark Melee, perhaps you can touch on the others.

A detailed look at the powers would be nice. Even though I am familiar with Electric Armor, I'm sure many reading may not. It'd be nice to explain to them what the power does, when it opens up, if you should learn it right away or push it of, etc.

[/ QUOTE ]

Electric Armor for stalkers tends to be a very simple and quick-minded set. Only Power Surge usually requires a decision.

Guides exist in the forums that cover the available primaries in each of the four melee archetypes excluding dominators. Except for tweaks and class-specific values, set-defining powers mostly keep the same advantages between each class type.

The only thing I haven't mentioned so far is the Lightning Aura of the brute's version. Assassin Strike's "non-aggro" fear aura provides a very good substitute by discouraging incoming attacks from PvE opponents. On the flip side, Lightning Aura encourages incoming attacks at a brute. Stalkers benefit from Lightning Aura's absence in their set version.

For an individual considering the option of a stalker "meat shield" as described by Justice, I would highly suggest Tough and Assassin Strike at minimum. Leading with an Assassin Strike before a battle has begun should produce its fear aura the majority of the time, but waiting too long may not, which may indicate good or bad in perspective.

[ QUOTE ]
Since you talk about tanking with your Stalker, perhaps you can share your build and show us how it is a good tanking Stalker. Because, as of right now, I am a bit skeptical. If you mean "tanking with a /Pain behind you," then pretty much any AT can tank.

Also, give some helpful advice or tips on how to play an /Elec Stalker well. So far, the only advice you gave is get Phase Shift...which reflects rather poorly on the set as a whole. Based on that, it seems that the only way to live is to AS and Phase. If you're /Elec is IO'd, maybe you can touch on IO strategies and what to focus on.

[/ QUOTE ]

Does a stalker need Phase Shift even without a heal? No, it is not a requirement. A think any travel power suffices for making a quick escape. Obviously, running into walls by accident and getting lost come up as problems. If you enjoy a specific travel power, you are more likely to make an escape with it.

Phase Shift provides self-rescue in most situations. Sometimes this may get described as "resetting a battle" by different people. While it allows a bit under half of a minute of safety, it doesn't always drop aggro. Aid Self can go together with Phase Shift. I personally don't like Aid Self and prefer to use green healing inspirations, which is why I chose to not mention it.

As for healing from other players, doesn't that come quite randomly? Unless you have a friend, I don't think we can know what tomorrow will bring in that regard though planning helps.

Here is an example of a stalker with Spirit Shark. In this case, it might be the shark who has Electric Armor. I am so jealous.

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[ QUOTE ]
Because you reference Dark Melee numerous times previously, with some confusing oddball remarks that didn't make much sense (as pointed out previously)

As well as stated how a dark/electric can tank AV's which is largely going to be because of Siphon Life giving back HP, while debuffing to-hit. None of the other Primaries (except nin blade) are going to really help /electric when it comes to tanking av's or whatever.

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Part of what makes this game interesting to me is the varieties of mitigation available. Many different abilities achieve almost exactly the same results. How ever when put into proper perspective, some abilities arise as better for different scenarios.

Defenses or resists allow the opportunity for a character to not die in a single hit. A "slow" effect though will not prevent an unprotected character from dying in a single hit should an opponent's ability of that magnitude go off. What a "slow" effect allows is more time to react.

A heal might be a little more obvious. Personally, I don't consider a heal as mitigation. Some individuals will. Multiple ways exist to recover a character's health. To me, mitigation includes the effects that preserve a character's health amount. A heal is more like "disaster recovery" or something.

Electric Armor emphasizes the primary in such a way that it becomes more important to consider mitigation from the primary. How ever, I think it is important to not do so at the expense of enjoyment. Offense with built-in mitigation serves better for this purpose. Not every power of every set offers survivability the same, yet each primary has reasonably similar output.

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Once again I'd argue whatever you're doing is NOT tanking, because i'd be willing to bet that as soon as the brutes and masterminds go in and start doing damage the agro goes away.

You were a meat shield, which is a big difference.

But it appears our definitions of tanking are substantially different.

Yours means taking damage and soaking an alpha, and having outside support to be sustained

Mine means taking damage, soaking an alpha, controlling agro to the team, and having a generally self sustainable health if the fight is drawn out. Any outside support for me just makes me even better at what I do.

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I think our views might be very similar.

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Later on you elude to the Awakens being generally for you to give to your team when they face plant. 2 for yourself and 2 for other people. That's great, but unless you've agro'd too many groups or things have gotten seriously out of hand a good TANK is going to keep the agro to themselves.

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For clarity, tanking single spawns is easy. Two or more tends to cause a problem like the need to go overboard on a ship due to flooding. Also, aggro can from many sources. That may include out-of-control pets, an "accidentally" fire snipe, a pre-emptive rain of any kind, and the list goes on.

It's not like people have patience in this game or something. That would be silly!

Oh wait, that's just me.

Anyhow, multiple spawn pulls go either way. I can't think of anyone tanking that many unless it's someone with Storm. Even then, aggro still spreads.

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And yes Presence pulls agro blah blah blah. That doesn't somehow make /elec a "better" tanking stalker set than /nin or /sr or /ea or /dark or /wp..

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I will say it does better than Willpower in that regard. Willpower does better in other areas.

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My Thugs/pain can tank, heck all my MM's can just by sending their minions in before the rest of the team.

My Db/Stone Brute can tank.

My elec/electric brute generally can't. Relying on powersurge is nice on an AV or whatever situation but not the way I approach every group. Anything witha DoT destroys the electric armor brute, whom has MORE hp than the stalker.

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Electric Armor has that nasty toxic hole. If Power Surge isn't up in PvE, occasionally I have to activate a few of the orange resist inspirations. Those tarantulas with the green legs can almost one-hit kill an Electric Armor stalker without preparation. (And I don't mean Preparation H.)

[ QUOTE ]
Hence why I am posting here. Anyone in the unknown about /elec armor deserves to at least understand that it's not as tanky as you make it out to be, as /elec makes even a brute rather squishy..

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Here comes the DM reference. Sadly enough, my Dark Melee / Electric Armor stalker has out-performed several Electric Armor brutes as well. The advantage of a stalker comes from the need to think more creatively. Oddly enough, the same tools mostly exist the same for both stalkers and brutes. All I can suggest is to please be careful of the toxic hole and use Hibernate and Water Spout in a PvE environment.

On the flip side, I've seen a few Electric Armor brutes just absolutely lay waste to PvE spawns by themselves without focusing on endurance drain. Super Strength / Electric Armor appears like a strong combination for brutes, and it functions well in PvP. An alternative might be Stone Melee / Electric Armor.

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More info to provide in case someone else's idea of Tanking is to be the one more enemies go after:

Brute's Threat Level: 400%
Corruptor: 100%
Dominator: 100%
Mastermind: 200%
Stalker: 200%
Soldier and Widow: 200%

If I understand the threat level's correct (I can't find the posts for it anymore).

A Corruptor would have to do over 4x more damage than the brute to snag agro.

For a Stalker to hold agro they'll need to hold about 2x the damage, which is extremely hard to do as soon as a brute builds fury..

Masterminds throw it off thanks to the pets.

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Even with Foot Stomp at least, I don't see brutes or the few tanks my stalker has teamed with holding pure aggro on everything. I am not trying to prove stalkers as superior to brutes or tanks. How ever, a brute or tank that does nothing is not getting aggro. On occasion, brutes have stolen aggro from any of my Electric Armor stalkers and died there after. My stalker of choice then continues to resume aggro from the bulk of an enemy spawn.

Properly supported and with or without inspirations, I think any "aggro-holder" can tank in my opinion. Several opportunities exist where neither become required.

While I could point out Siphon Life, I don't think of it as necessary. It doesn't define Electric Armor. Rather, Electric Armor helps define it because that it what it does well. The same could be said for Impale and Spirit Shark for PvP.

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Yet more Mis-Information I'd like to correct:

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Brutes have tanker caps but stalker stats for health, defenses and resists by the way.

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Brutes have Tanker Resist Caps 90%
Stalkers max out at 75% (as do scrappers)

ALL At's in the same Defense softcap (45%), however for MAXIMUM possible defense a Brute/Tanker can get up to 225.05%, a stalker can only attain 200.38%

Max HP (ie Capped):
Tankers 3212.7
Scrapper 2409.5
Brute 3212.7
Stalker 1606.4

Health Regen:
Scrapper/Stalker 3000%
Brute/Tanker 2500%

So Brutes are on par with tankers for their caps, and Stalkers are on par with Scrappers for everything except health which is on par with a capped blaster, controller, defender, dominator, corruptor, or mastermind.

But even at their Base stats, Brutes are never on par with a stalker, only the resistances/defenses gained from armors are on par. Health is still higher on a brute (than even a scrapper)

http://cityofheroes.wikia.com/wiki/Limits

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I made the (stalker = scrapper) mistake you made earlier. I have corrected my earlier post and notated it as such. And yes, brutes start out with scrapper numbers on resists, defenses, and health, but after investment or buffs, they can reach tanker caps.

Well, I seem to be tanking with a Spines / Electric Armor stalker just fine. The brutes and masterminds are waiting for me to take the aggro, and my character receives its share of the healing. So that part seems to be working just fine. Yes, not just taking the alpha.

I don't understand your obsession with Dark Melee. I said before I did the same thing without using any of its core powers apart from the stalker-specific ones.

[ QUOTE ]
Anyway.. If you're happy with your tanking stalker, go for it, to each their own. I'm just giving fair warning out there to people that a Stalker is not a good tank replacement.

The guide needs clarification since players new to the game or electric armor may not understand that while the resistance of electric means you can take the most beating, it has no built in chances to dodge, or ways to recover from the beating it's taking which will make your scrapper feel much more squishy compared to some of the other secondaries.

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Defense sets usually get suggested. Stalkers possess the lowest health among those that the sets are available. To counteract this disadvantage, stalkers have the highest stealth cap in PvE or PvP. To summarize a portion of the guide, I first recommend Dark Melee for PvE and Spines for PvP.

Assassin Strike, Hide, and to some point Placate are fundamental aspects of stalkers. In my guide, I also suggest Ninjitsu. It is an awesome set unique to stalkers only. For PvE and in balance with brutes, stalkers can act partially like brutes or tanks without taking as much aggro. In my opinion, Ninjitsu, Dark Armor, and Electric Armor perform best in that area.

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And to not expect electric armor to be an awesome set for a stalker, as there are definitely better choices that are more self reliant.

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Any set can be soloed with. Using escape abilities is vital to surviving in several scenarios. Power Sink and Power Surge are the only two directly offensive abilities in the set. Of the two, Power Surge is the only one in Electric Armor that allows a form of escape. Also, it's pre-emptive nature requires a bit of planning. It has a built-in stun to buy time against almost anything.

If Electric Armor does one thing well, it would be to "buy time efficiently." Many sets do it well in various ways. Electric Armor covers every need, yet fails to recover what it loses in health. It's a set that returns the focus back to the primary because it excels at that from endurance to damage.

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I meant stalker in my post, I had a brainfart and said scrapper.

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Yes, my brain often seems to take a break to visit a restroom as well.

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I ran the Mids numbers with a stalker, I know there is no Electric armor for scraps.

And yes I do know a scrap that can reach the 75% resist cap.. It's called an invulnerable scrapper. It doesn't need tough or actually any resist slots in any powers (just take them) to achieve it.. Assuming you use unstoppable, which to me is the same as achieving the resist cap with power surge.

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Fair enough. In fact, I was looking at that a few days ago and forgot about it. I guess I got so single-minded about stalkers. The only advantages that might come to mind for Electric Armor over Invulnerability in PvP would be the teleport resist, the Psionic resist, the 20% recharge bonus, and sometimes the Repel resist (only in Power Surge). Invulnerability I believe has healing and some defense to it. I believe Electric Armor better as an offensive PvP set. How ever, I realize you may not be arguing for Invulnerability. You answered my earlier question, which I thank you for.

[ QUOTE ]
I still don't see the benefit to electric armor. You've now stated that you need people healing you and such to tank. That's fine, but why wouldn't the other stalker secondaries (specifically the ones that can avoid damage or heal themselves) be better suited for the job?

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For a resist set in PvP, Electric Armor has three things going for it in my opinion: coverage for just about all resist types, reduced need for Stamina because of Conserve Power, and the 20% recharge bonus. For an ambush and flee style of stalkers, it seems to fit well. It does lack Perception without Tactics, but it can still be added without relying on Stamina.

Regeneration for PvP is supposedly the strongest for a one to one battle. I think Phase Shift,Super Speed, Hasten, Lightning Reflexes, a Stealth IO, and Stealth can present a better front for Impale, Spirit Shark, and Spirit Shark Jaws in that environment. Both require Tactics for Perception.

As for Super Speed, it too has a 20% recharge bonus in Quickness. How ever in issue 14 for PvP, resists are suppose to have improved standing among the ranks of defense sets.

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Frankly it boils down to I don't understand what the point of the guide is maybe. If I wanted to tank villain side as a melee class, I'd pick a brute (due to more hp), and think that making a stalker pick things from the presence pool, and not making the most use out of things like placate really hurts the stalker. And further electric armor doesn't in any way seem to be better at being a "tanker" if that's what your going for, than any other set.

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Quite correct. I guess it comes down to that I like dominators and stalkers for melee. Stalkers are closer to my style in both PvE and PvP. While any other melee type can pick up Dark Armor for similar results, I think Electric Armor wins out offensively. Electric also can get 5% to 10% higher resists in PvP depending on power choices.

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The heal in DA makes up for the resistance difference while providing toxic damage

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Power Surge is a requirement for Grandville in my opinion. It is the answer to toxic sources, though other solutions work.

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Energy Armor is only not as effective against psi (no defense to it), however it has a small self heal

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A good set as well with repel and teleport resists. How ever, I prefer a resist set and I like Electric's recharge bonus.

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Nin.. Well it's just awesome and has a self heal, no resistance, but avoiding damage all together with a T9 with only an endurance crash is easier to deal with.

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No comment.

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Regen - Fantastic T9 taking away the alpha. enough regen can make the heals up often enough. DP kinda sucks since the stalker cap is so low (1606)

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Explained above.

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Super Reflexes - lacks a heal, but at least you dodge enough to more easily get off aid self, even better with dark melee

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Explained above.

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Willpower - mix of res/def/and regen.

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I like the option of taking alpha strikes. I think the set's description kind of speaks for itself in that regard. Also, I like Lightning Reflexes. While only a matter of my perspective, I think that Super Strength tends to go with Willpower to cover weaknesses. I'm not sure how Electric Melee performs with it though.

[ QUOTE ]
Each one of the above seems like it'd be better at "tanking" for a team if that's what your going for.

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Power Surge is really the defining power in PvE for this set in regards to stalkers and the concept of tanking with them. As far as typical spawns of enemies go, I actually think Ninjitsu and Dark Armor can excel better. Surviving a 2,000 point damage blast seems to operate more efficiently with 75% resists. I believe Electric Armor does better with heroes and arch-villains.

[ QUOTE ]
Still it seems like a non issue, since I don't understand why anyone would build a stalker that way.

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PvP!

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And it's still certainly not a big selling point on electric armor for a stalker.

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I suppose not if you want a scrapper.

[ QUOTE ]
If you want to be a melee tank villain side you should go for a brute who's base hp are just shy of the stalker cap (1499 of the 1606 cap for a stalker) which I'm not sure what the cap is, but I can get up to 3107 hp without adding IO's and still not be capped. That's a HUGE difference in survivability.

[/ QUOTE ]

If an individual never plans to PvP, this statement can prove true. I would also like to point out that Electric Armor on a brute is a completely different beast of an opportunity. As such, I will not argue for it. Brutes have tanker caps but scrapper stats for health, defenses and resists by the way.

[Edited for clarification: Replaced "stalker" with "scrapper" on the last sentence.]

[ QUOTE ]
Also while I'm on the topic of questioning your guide.. What does this mean:

[ QUOTE ]
you might really consider Dark Melee. Nothing beats it for beating a brute or tanker at tanking in my opinion, except that they steal aggro.

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Doesn't that mean that everything a brute or tanker has beats dark melee for tanking since they steal aggro?

You've lost me here..

[/ QUOTE ]

I was making a wise crack, silly. Stalkers have no innate taunt abilities without something from Presence. I think I see a theme here.

If you don't want to tank, don't take the Presence pool! Problem solved!

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Yes, they can. Just because you haven't done it successfully doesn't mean all can't. On my Dark Melee / Electric Armor stalker, I have successfully tanked Positron twice, Lord Recluse once, Scorpion once, and Sister Psyche once all as heroes or arch-villains. Among all those, I have casually taken alpha strikes on numerous occasions and soloed many elite bosses.

I know... "Screenshots, or it didn't happen...". There are a few stories of Dark Armor stalkers doing similar with Electric Melee / Dark Armor. And Electric Melee is suppose to be the big "flavor of the moment" set for issue 14. Too bad there is so much power levelling I suppose. Also in that respect, I'm not sure how Dark Armor survives for tanking arch-villains or heroes.

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DA has the benefit of a self heal which makes a big difference when it comes to survivability. When it comes to tanking, you CAN tank, but it doesn't make you good at it. Soloing an EB also is a big difference than "tanking." EB's are much more manageable than an AV first of, and second when you're solo you are the only thing drawing agro therefore you aren't tanking. And things like placate become more useful.

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A few who have used Electric Armor on stalkers have made the comparison of it to elite bosses. The rationale goes something like: "If I can't even solo an EB with Electric Armor, why even take it?" This guide helps to point a direction to how that goal remains achievable.

I also never took Placate. While a good power, it serves scrapping better. While other play styles may not include the idea of tanking, doing so for the better part interrupts Placate. Taking or breaking an alpha strike means randomly getting hit for the remainder of battle.

[ QUOTE ]
Dark Melee has the benefit of a heal as well as to-hit debuffs which add a return of life as well as a defense component. This does not reflect electric armor on it's own. While there are certain sets (katana) that can add defense buffs I'd like to see an electric armor "tank" with claws, energy melee, etc. Unless your definition of tank is suck and go down immediately (I tanked that test?).

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I have used power pool attacks, the Leviathan pool, Build Up, Placate, and Assassin Strike as the only support for Electric Armor. PvP as an environment brings that necessity. A PvP build still works in PvE. I believe ranged attacks exceed melee in PvP, though melee attacks can still bring the business. I am aware of Thunder Strike for issue 14.

A "tank build" to me is different than a "solo build," though a tanking style still works for solo. Tanking emphasizes survival over damage and accuracy. A solo build may rely on strategy.

[ QUOTE ]
Now, as a scrapper if you took every shield offered (charged armor, conductive shield, static shield, tough, and grounded) to you and 6 slotted them with level 50 resistance IO's you can make some pretty impressive numbers (64% S/l, 45% f/c, 75% energy, 38%neg, and 45%psi). But most people aren't going to do that. everything drops by about 5% on normal slotting (more if you slot less than level 50)


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As of issue 14, scrappers don't have Electric Armor. Let's please not make that comparison. Except for toxic resist in PvE, Electric Armor can allow a stalker to effectively rival the health of a scrapper. In PvP, it requires Power Surge. Further more, do you know of any scrapper that has reached the 75% resist cap? If you do, I would care to know how. And for the sake of argument and ignoring health amounts, scrappers and stalkers equally can raise resists the same.

Reaching those numbers are quite doable on a stalker of course, even with out Power Surge. Taking Tough and 6 slotting it and every resist-based power of Electric Armor with only the resist type of the Invention category produces good quantities. I have done so, but without Tough. It also required very frequent usage of Power Sink in PvE.

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On top of that you've got 1204 HP at level 50 without any +hp stuff. That's not nearly enough HP to be a good tank.

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See the part about 75% resists to everything.

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So can you tank? Yes. Are you good at it? Not really. You'll go down relatively quick, and you won't hold agro on most teams.

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Depends on play style I suppose. On regular missions, I would regularly take alpha strikes. Against single heroes or arch-villains, I would focus only on the named character. When soloing banks and such, I would have to take out the flood of spawns before engaging an elite boss. I did not poor "billions" into the build. I think I only killed one enemy of hero difficulty solo, and that was before level 40. After level 40, I came close to doing it on Scorpion. Such a build of my style would probably require Placate, Hibernate or Phase Shift, Power Surge, a travel power, and Aid Self.

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A corruptor putting out lots of damage will pull your agro. A mastermind will pull your ago, a brute will pull your agro. You can tank the alpha strike by being the first attacker, but there's a pretty solid chance you're not going to survive the encounter. Unless you've got your tray full of insp, but then anything can "tank" with the right insp. This doesn't put Elec better than any other.

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You are absolutely correct if no aggro power is taken from the Presence pool. Again, Electric Armor stalkers can still make or break alpha strikes. In regards to tanking how ever, the entire concept relies on another player who heals or buffs. I have plenty of time to Hibernate usually. Tanking works on a group of +1 to +2 enemies. I will say +3 to +4 is nigh impossible. Red and purple enemies don't work so well for me, but I can still take those one on one.

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Challenge from the Presence pool will out-aggro mastermind pets. Further more in PvP or arch-villain hunting, a few "tanker-mind" builds use it for that reason. I somehow did it without that power. What happens without the Presence pool is that aggro will slowly peel off to other team mates, a very important part if no one heals. The purpose of leading with Assassin Strike then following with Water Spout is because of lower stalker health. For the sake of argument, I can do those two powers alone in a normal "relentless" enemy spawn mixed with bosses, lieutenants, and minions on a full 8 person team by myself. Without the need to Hibernate or Power Surge and just using Dark Melee's "single target" strength, I can wipe out several enemy spawns in a row while the rest of the entire team focuses busily somewhere else.

It's best to not use Challenge or Provoke if no heal assistance exists since a stalker doesn't qualify as well against tanking builds of the other archetypes. In this, I will agree. When it comes to a comparison, brutes, tankers, and even masterminds do the job in a style both a little easier and better. How ever, a stalker specifically built with a focus in tanking still can out-perform others who are not shaped towards that concept. Even then, defeating alpha strikes may often be the only requirement for success.

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Challenge will pull agro from anything (even tanks) for a short duration. I'm well aware of "tankerminding."

While your guide with the addition of water spout and hibernate add tactics to use WITH electric armor, it really doesn't say much for electric armor itself as being a good set.
I mean Shadow Meld can almost cap defenses, making electric armor tank. etc etc.

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Electric Armor needs a heal or escape ability in my opinion. Shadow Meld might work in tandem with Phase Shift. How ever, I would not suggest Shadow Meld for PvP unless a stalker uses a defense set. That is a good idea. Maybe I can add that to a later version.

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The fact is, stating that electric armor is a viable tank for a stalker is misleading to someone who doesn't know better, and needs to be warned that you'll be a better more viable "tank" with a defense based set, or at the very least something with a heal.

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Taking or breaking alphas isn't really the same as tanking because aggro spreads away from the stalker. Tanking involves someone else healing and the stalker using the Presence pool. The few times it worked for me involved a lack of others taking it from me. At times, it would include just a healer and me while the rest of the team showed up a minute later or such. Also in those times, it would often be just me and the elite boss, hero, or arch-villain with no other spawns. Perhaps, team mates were dealing with spawns / ambushes. I don't know.

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I have no idea what's going on in this guide and the post talking specifically about Dark Armor just helps take any merits of this guide away.

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I like Dark Armor, especially as a contender for PvP. I didn't write this guide in mind that everyone should pick up Electric Armor for stalkers. To put it plainly, it may not fit every individual's style. I wanted to put out a few suggestions for those with thoughts similar to your own.

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What Primary:
Get Phase shift?

WTF?? Does that have to do with the primary?
How about.. Katana works well with Electric armor because Divine Avalanche has a +def bonus to melee which will help increase your survivability, especially with Elec armor.

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Phase Shift becomes more necessary if a chosen primary has no heal as well. Some dominators often rely on Phase Shift to avoid death. It's an escape ability for situations where none other works. It can also be taken at level 20 versus Hiibernate's level 44. For someone doing a straight PvP build in mind, Phase Shift may seem practical.

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How about Dark, because of the -tohit gives some extra defense while having synergy with siphon life since /elec has no heal.

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In relation to Dark Melee / Dark Armor for PvE and regardless of the melee class chosen, it's suppose to be a very strong build. I mention that in case I misunderstand. Not taking a primary into account, my Electric Armor build at 50 ran 10% defense to all types with Hide suppressed. From last I read, Dark -ToHit debuffs at the moment stack upon themselves from the same power. Touch of Fear might rival Ninja Blade's Divine Avalanche if slotted properly. However, I never took the power to test that.

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I'm sure there's more explanation that can be put into this.

How is elec, the hardest and easiest? I can't figure out how it would be the easiest.

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I can tank with it. My character dies a lot more. Siolfir's signature is a good example of what happens when Power Surge activates.

From Siolfir's siggy: Why Electric Armor is bad for Stalkers

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How about this advice? It's not good.

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First thing to do is to carry at least four Revive inspirations, and maybe 1 to 2 Free Will inspirations. They look light blue and purple. Not the defensive ones with a shield. Give those away!

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OK.. If you use an awaken when surrounded you're gonna hit the pavement quick with no break frees. There's no such thing as recovering quick without break frees. You'll need to hit some catch a breaths and respites to get back up to speed quick. Remember you've got no self heal in /elec armor, therefore when you face plant you're going to need extra time to get back to going.

Give away the purple shields?! ARe you kidding!? If you want to go back into hide the purps will make a huge difference. If you want to stick it out and scrap it out in combat, the purps will keep you alive.

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The oranges do better over all for a resist set. I personally think one should emphasis strengths and downplay weaknesses. I have though in moments of madness with no other inspirations available used like 8 or more purple defense inspirations when I was the only character left during a team wipe. I would survive for some odd reason and then pass out Revives to other team mates. That's another reason I like Electric Armor!

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I'm sorry.. But building with the plan of holding 4 awakens in your tray is a waste of 4 insp slots.

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The extras are for team mates who die as an act of courtesy. I usually need only 1 or 2 for myself if I happen to be in the act of combat while Power Surge drops.

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You don't even mention much about the powers about what's good or bad.

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Sorry, I have no desire to do a "Mid's Build."

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I don't even begin to understand the toggle dropping for pvp. Somehow the aura's will make you more noticeable? Without perception have you fought a stalker in pvp? Unless they get hit by your damage aura, you tend not to see them coming.

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Those were PvE references to Dark Armor. Notice I don't mention " detoggling" in the guide. As for Perception, I did mention Tactics. While not the focus of this guide, Dark Armor has its own version.

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Also.. a resist based stalker cannot tank.

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Yes, they can. Just because you haven't done it successfully doesn't mean all can't. On my Dark Melee / Electric Armor stalker, I have successfully tanked Positron twice, Lord Recluse once, Scorpion once, and Sister Psyche once all as heroes or arch-villains. Among all those, I have casually taken alpha strikes on numerous occasions and soloed many elite bosses.

I know... "Screenshots, or it didn't happen...". There are a few stories of Dark Armor stalkers doing similar with Electric Melee / Dark Armor. And Electric Melee is suppose to be the big "flavor of the moment" set for issue 14. Too bad there is so much power levelling I suppose. Also in that respect, I'm not sure how Dark Armor survives for tanking arch-villains or heroes.

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Also.. Mastermind pets have higher agro numbers than the stalker..

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Challenge from the Presence pool will out-aggro mastermind pets. Further more in PvP or arch-villain hunting, a few "tanker-mind" builds use it for that reason. I somehow did it without that power. What happens without the Presence pool is that aggro will slowly peel off to other team mates, a very important part if no one heals. The purpose of leading with Assassin Strike then following with Water Spout is because of lower stalker health. For the sake of argument, I can do those two powers alone in a normal "relentless" enemy spawn mixed with bosses, lieutenants, and minions on a full 8 person team by myself. Without the need to Hibernate or Power Surge and just using Dark Melee's "single target" strength, I can wipe out several enemy spawns in a row while the rest of the entire team focuses busily somewhere else.

It's best to not use Challenge or Provoke if no heal assistance exists since a stalker doesn't qualify as well against tanking builds of the other archetypes. In this, I will agree. When it comes to a comparison, brutes, tankers, and even masterminds do the job in a style both a little easier and better. How ever, a stalker specifically built with a focus in tanking still can out-perform others who are not shaped towards that concept. Even then, defeating alpha strikes may often be the only requirement for success.

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No,I was referring to the "drop toggles, AS, re-toggle" strategy.
It is my humble opinion it would not work that well in pvp.

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I see. At least for zone PvP, I would keep toggles running at all times as a Spines / Dark Armor stalker. I believe the Oppressive Gloom and Cloak of Fear toggles do not stack in PvP how ever. It would be better to prefer one over the other. Either way, the 2 seconds of fear or stun can possibly extend to 4 seconds, but resists can bring them back down to 2 seconds again. I am unaware if one or the other is auto-hit in PvP, though I expect either would require an accuracy check outside of PvE. Most ranged ATs and a few pets remain vulnerable to stun. I would personally select Oppressive Gloom for zone PvP. Dark Armor might be a fantastic match-up against someone with Fire Control due to Dark Regeneration and Fire Imps.

Arena is a different style of beast unfamiliar to me where rules change per the flavor of desires.

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Sorry if I derailed your guide,carry on.

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I am quite capable of derailing my guide succintly on my own, thank you very much.

Spines / Electric Armor ?

Well, if you constantly run all those auras while in Hide, the opponent is going to notice you. Effectively, it reveals you before you have time to use it. It is still quite powerful to toggle on those auras AFTER the assassin strike. That way you get the the nice bonuses from the Assassin Strike to keep you alive and the auras stack on top to just keep you going. That and it gives you a few seconds to get some valuable endurance back between battles. Dark Armor sucks up the blue juice!

The horribly wonderful and fantasticly terrible guide to Stalker Electric Armor. Just reading it may make you weep. Such drama! Such terror! (Only for a limited time.... Operators are standing by!)

Shatterblast's Electric Armor Guide for Stalkers

Introduction:
So what we have here is some odd resist set that doesn't really fit in with the lowest health melee in existence of this game. Further more, let us consider that in PvP settings. As such, this guide will focus on both the PvE and PvP concepts around this resist-based set.

Why:
It's different. It has no perception bonus, but it offers a bonus to attack speed if anything. It's difficult to play with yet possibly the easiest at the same time. And if none of that convinces you, I love a fantastic paradox, an irony of sorts if you will.

How to Deal with Frustration:
First of all, this is no weak-willed set. It's like some kind of wild horse that's hard to tame, but if you master it, you might find something stronger than anything else. There will be dying. Not just of your opponents, but of your character as well.

First thing to do is to carry at least four Revive inspirations, and maybe 1 to 2 Free Will inspirations. They look light blue and purple. Not the defensive ones with a shield. Give those away! The idea is just get back into the fight as humanly fast and keep killing. By doing so, you don't have time to mourn the brown bar on your exp because it will be gone by the time you are done pretending to be like a brute on never-ending rage.

How ever, there are times when escape abilities are beneficial. So we must consider Phase Shift and Hibernate. Hmm, let's think of Phase Shift. If you want to PvP, you will need to pick up Stealth anyways. So do we want to consider Invisibility or Invis Other? Well, Invisibility is weaker than Hide among other reasons. Also, Invis Other might help for those times you want to get accolades so you can make your team mates Invisible while they rush to the bank. Now for Hibernate, why would we want that? Excuse me, I'm dodging a SHARK. I'll let you think on that. Hibernate and Phase Shift don't work together. Also, Phase Shift is 3 minutes for cooldown compared to Hibernate's 4.

What Primary:
Such a good question. The answer: any. If you don't know what you're doing, get Phase Shift. Problem solved. If you want PvE for goodness's sake (Or evil's. Whatever.), you might really consider Dark Melee. Nothing beats it for beating a brute or tanker at tanking in my opinion, except that they steal aggro. How dare they!

Ninja Blade is theoretically great for mixing defense with your resists. Electric Melee destroys a spawn group. Spines is the most favored set for PvP. Martial Arts can supposedly rival Dark Melee for single target DPS. Energy Melee is the favored melee set for PvP, but range seems the way to go for now. Claws seems middle-of-the-road in what it does, a sort of jack of all trades set at least in my opinion. Dual Blades is a love-it or leave-it set, but it rivals Electric Melee for its PvE output potential.

Replacements for Electric Armor:
I will advise of 3 replacements. They are Ninjitsu, Dark Armor, and Super Reflexes. Let's discuss. Ninjitsu is the set that just seems to never go wrong. If you have questions on it, ask someone else. Dark Armor's resists provide a small portion below of what Electric Armor allows. Considering PvP, Electric armor needs Tactics, Hasten, and possibly Tough. Dark Armor for PvP requires Acrobatics, Tough, and quite likely Stamina. Lastly, we have Super Reflexes. It is either loved or shunned, much like its close cousin Electric Armor. (Just don't tell them that.) How ever, it has the advantage of extreme defense along with the attack speed bonus. You get lucky, or you die. Pretty simple.

Why Electric Armor Over the "Replacements":
Ninjitsu is a wonderful tactical set. How ever, you can't tank with it. Well, maybe you can with Dark Melee, but that's some other story. Dark Armor can prove difficult to line up an Assassin Strike with. In PvP, this might not be a bad thing. With Electric Armor in PvE, you can use Assassin Strike to aid your other tanking abilities. It works nicely. I have no argument against Super Reflexes. In my opinion for PvP, you either pick it or Electric Armor for the maximum benefits of quick cycling attacks.

The Business of Tanking with a Stalker:
This usually happens when no other melee types are in your team. Stalkers have a higher aggro type than any other ranged type class. Dominators focusing on melee only, especially Electric Assault types, are the usual exception. Stalkers have no health! They can't tank! Actually, it's the abilities combined that work so well.

When leading with an Assassin Strike, a fear aura goes over the enemy spawn. I'm not sure if it still affects bosses, but if so, the duration is much shorter. This step kills the alpha. After level 40+, we can immediately use a Water Spout (not Whirlwind) to distract the group further. This move tends to save healers or fellow brutes. (At least, I think I am one.) It also gives you a little extra time to heal. We then follow up with Hibernate or Power Surge depending on the situation. Hibernate will keep aggro for a few extra moments where as Phase Shift will drop it. You usually want to hit the button about two seconds before you really want it. It's odd, considering sometimes you don't have two seconds, and the moment is NOW!!! Less than half health means you should just Hibernate. Above half means Power Surge. Also, Power Surge has a stun component that can reveal you when used too early.

What about before level 38? That's all up to your primary. I carried extra greens as necessary, but Siphon Life from Dark Melee, which comes at level 18, began the part-time tanking career. You have to pick up Provoke at a minimum for serious contemplation, but I did not. Also, Tough is very important for survival, but yet again, I did not. Tanking in my opinion strays from PvP.

Powers to Take:
And here we are at the conclusion of this guide. Such a long read it was: the journey from one word to another, syllable by syllable, space by space. Who would allow such silliness? I have no idea, but I wrote it anyway.

Take them all. You can skip Stamina with Conserve Power and Power Sink. Properly slotted, Power Sink as an auto-hit power will drain PvE spawns near you down to 40%. That may allow team mates to suck them dry. Lightning Reflexes provides a 20% recharge bonus to EVERYTHING. Grounded is another reason to not take Dark Armor, and it helps much in dealing with energy draining foes like Sappers and a few from the Carnival of Shadows I think.

How ever in PvP, I would consider not taking Power Sink. Power Surge should also be slotted for heavy accuracy if taken in that environment.

It would be cool to give the option of a "handicap" to certain players who had less time spent on upgrading a personal character. For instance, the game allowing a sacrifice of health for higher defense yet providing a smaller bonus in relation to existing global bonuses so that "veterans" gain little to no benefit. As it is though, time must be spent to choose how to upgrade. It provides no equalizer in my opinion to just penalize everybody equally. It is what it is anyway. I don't like the idea of a complicated version of "rock, scissors, and paper."

[The following are just suggestions, and they should be viewed as such. In that consideration, it may be good to "vote" or ask questions on something before applying changes.]

In my understanding, Placate is designed for single targets only. The problem concerns how the Power's effects become interrupted by the player's character or groups that include monsters or players. A monster's aggression level at a player of course interrupts the important effect, which either relies on the player to follow up with a Power to take effect or permits time to make decisions. The problem may evidence most in AoE sets like Dark Armor and Spines, which focus their interaction mostly with the monster types of minion and lieutenant. (No offense to the military.)

What might happen in PvE is the interruption of this single targetted power much similar to those long-ranged sniping powers all because of effects that draw aggression. It would be like watering down your favorite drink, except its a power "watered-down" by effects with a tiny Taunt effect. Water itself of course is a wonderful thing, and Taunt is as well in some measure, though it can't sustain people in the real world.

The first solution for PvE would include the developers hopefully modifying the code slightly to apply tweaks. This might involve extending a version of the "toggle non-drop" code to stalkers in relation to Placate and the secondary sets like /Energy Aura and /Dark Armor. This could come out in two ways. The first version may temporarily cease "offensive toggles" for the purpose of being able to Assassin Strike the target. I am currently unsure of how Dark Armor's toggles affect Assassin Strike on a target Placated by the player's character. This, how ever, would not benefit characters using Spines.

The second solution for PvE would also hopefully include the developers again. In some way, Spines has a little bit of everything to just upset Placate, yet it is still a wonderful set. I would desire to emulate it in my own game development some day, but that might come much later in the distant future. With that said, it does AoE damage, has a slow component and it also sports damage over time. I don't think anyone wants the multiple effects to disappear. It's just too cool, despite the opinions some think of its graphics. I have no idea how the effects of Spines might cause monster aggression. The damage over time might break the "peace" effect of Placate. It could even be the "slow," but I'm not analyzing that.

Currently, Phantom Army for the Illusion set of Controllers has a form of "untouchable" status on it, which has also been applied to a number of other player pets like Voltaic Sentinel. The player's character though isn't a pet. The player makes the decisions on what powers activate, and the character itself most certainly should not turn untouchable, else "god-mode" and boredom enter thinking. To me, it's all about a moment's "heat." So if a character Placates and loses all aggression, the character might as well become "untouchable." How ever, I do believe Placate should have its risks. It's designed for single targets after all from my meager observations.

Here is what I think should happen as far how Placate affects single targets: a buff should apply on the character and a debuff on the target. In my opinion, the debuff should be auto-hit unless in a PvP zone. In that case, maybe it should have an accuracy bonus in PvP unless it is already auto-hit. We wouldn't want Placate to act as a hold in a group so the debuff might point to a bit of code that would check the Placating character for the respectively related buff. If the check comes out "true," then the targetted monster should resume normal Placate effect behavior, and perhaps, it should even treat the player's character as untouchable, though it truly can take damage still. In vice versa, the same should be from the player's character to the targetted PvE opponent. To sum it up, both objects treat each other as untouchable, though they both receive normal damage, healing, buffs and debuffs. The buff and debuff would act as a "flag" for true/false statements on both sides. In the end, the player still sees the computer opponent, and he or she can choose to react accordingly.

Does it feel like school all over again? I hope not. I think the player side buff should grant a 4 second window of opportunity or so to drop aggro from the PvE AI behavior, just long enough to allow an Assassin Strike or whatever else. The rest of that 6 seconds or so could afford a "luxury" time for the player that only affects the target itself. Again, the player should still be able to take damage for PvP purposes at least. I think the radius should be roughly 40 in-game feet of range as far as powers go.

I have no PvP experience with the "City of" series as of this writing to assert further suggestions in that area.

[If this writing has been of use to you, please consider the "open source" community. This includes Java from Sun Microsystems and 3D scene graph solutions like Xith.org. Thank you.]