Siolfir

I like Fist of Annihilation, myself. Not that it's kept me going back to the MA/Regen all that often, but that's more of an issue with the people I was playing with on that server don't play at the times that I can play anymore, and I dislike soloing.

It works pretty well as an ohnoes power in PvE, actually. I use it on my Dark/Cold Corr when things start getting to be a problem, and I've been known (before I respec'd her out of it) to Taunt and phase during RSF runs on my EM/Elec to take the initial alpha from all of the AVs on an at-the-time SO build with the phase temp from Warburg.

But with that said, when I saw Stealth/Invis/Phase my first thought was PvP (then I looked at the rest of the build). It's actually really close to the build I have for my MA/Regen, but I put FH at 35, had Combat Jumping, and still hadn't decided what to do with the last couple of power picks yet (she's only level 40 atm).

I don't know where you got SO'd from my post - I was talking about extreme performance builds, and that at some point you hit "enough" survivability that you simply don't care if something else is better.

For what it's worth, none of my Brutes can keep that many +4 AVs on them without judicious inspiration usage or outside buffs, but I was on a team with the Invuln Brute that was doing it. My EM/Elec did keep the aggro cap's worth of Deathsurges occupied during the anniversary, though (and giggling at the stone armor who kept getting drained, detoggled, and killed).

They don't have to be, and you can make a Stalker work without AS. But there's not any reason to do so, since if you don't want to use the mechanic, why make a Stalker? It's still generally good advice, though, and I make use of it below.



So, more notes:

• Fast Healing on a Stalker should be put off - Reconstruction is far better for your survivability. I'd suggest skipping it early on and taking it if you feel you want it after you get Integration.
• Taking Recon at 4 and pushing Fast Healing back means Assassin's Blow at 6, Focus Chi at 8, Hasten at 10, and Placate at 12. You'll probably want Placate that early, since as a Regen you're going to get hit - on a defense-based Stalker I'll often put it off.
• See how you do with Reconstruction at level 16, you may find that you're doing well enough to get Integration instead (I did, and pushed DP back into the 20s). If your playstyle demands that you need the second large heal, then you can get it.
• Personally, I'd take Crane Kick earlier than Cobra Strike. I suggest moving it to 35, Eagle Claw to 32, and CK when it opens up at 26.

As for the presence pool... well, there's a reason it's usually skipped. Almost anything else will help more. I understand you don't want a cookie cutter, which is why I was mostly talking about rearranging powers instead of swapping them out, but I'd recommend a different non-cookie-cutter option.

Edit: this was posted as I was finishing mine up...
If you really want to tool around with causing fear at will, you could take Dark Melee. Touch of Fear doesn't require a wasted power pick to unlock, has a shorter recharge so that it can be stacked, includes a tohit debuff that can help your survivability as well, and DM for Stalkers has the advantage of having an AoE if you choose to take Shadow Maul (MA has no AoEs for Stalkers). Since it seems that you're not adverse to shuffling things around, I thought I'd mention it.

I thought about recommending MoG but would've pushed it before anything in the Presence Pool - which if you wanted to experiment with, you already had to wait until the 40s for - so I let it go. If you're changing that out (and yes, I recommend it) then you can do some more shuffling, but then you're at the whole "hey, wait... everybody makes this build" stage.

You can make the original build work, without any modifications. I just think that you may find it less fun. And since fun is subjective, you can safely ignore any or all of my advice that you don't happen to like or agree with, because what's fun for you make have me tearing my hair out (and vice versa).

Having a SD/SS Tanker and a SS/FA Brute and doing various short stints of farming with each, I'm trying to decide whether to doubt your sanity or credibility for stating that the Brute won't be able to reach the Tanker's damage. The difference is a few points on Shield Charge where the tanker has the advantage, and the Brute hits far harder on every other attack.

Now, had you started talking about Elec/Shield/Blaze Scrappers, then I'd agree with you. But a Tanker?! They're capped on damage before the Brute even gets started.

As for being "tough enough"... if you can herd the aggro cap's worth of +4 AVs long enough to kill them, does it matter if someone else might be able to herd them for a longer period of time because they kill them slower?

Spirit Shark Jaws doesn't, either. Which seems a bit silly, since the Corruptor versions of each can Scourge.

Or the case where the mobs you are fighting have reasonable (ie, Tactics/Fortitude/Build Up/Rage) to-hit buffs.

Why do I say "reasonable"? Because a quartz crystal emanator offers +200% tohit, and the defense hard cap isn't even that high for most ATs.

That's one I can't answer for you, since I'd just be guessing. I just wanted to point out that you were looking at the wrong power when you were comparing the holds for PvP stats.

For comparison's sake, the base numbers for a Psi Blaster's attacks in PvP are:
Psi Dart: 96.92
TK Blast: 115.39
Mental Blast: 145.31
Will Domination: 151.54

A single Spirit Shark critical will hit harder than both Will Domination and Mental Blast - not accounting for procs (which the blaster will have an advantage on).

Well, for starters, you're looking at the wrong power. You're looking at Spirit Shark Jaws, which is the hold at level 44. You should be looking at Spirit Shark, which is the blast at level 41.

Spirit Shark, base level 50 damage: 154.56 + 4 ticks of 5.56 (over 3.2 sec). Critical for 154.56 from hidden. 6 second recharge. Total damage of 309.12 + 22.24 DoT (over 3.2 sec).

Soul Storm, base level 50 damage: 11 ticks of 16.41 damage (over 10 sec). No critical. Total damage of 180.46.

Which one of these would you use when you were trying to kill someone in a hurry?

Also, Spirit Shark opens up Hibernate - not that this is much of an advantage, since you need Stealth and probably want Invisibility anyway (just because it doesn't suppress when you're hit).

Corruptors get the "boss" for Soul Mastery, with the Fortunata Mistress - although her use on my fire/kin corruptor was a distraction whose sole purpose was to live long enough for Fulcrum Shift to animate, and anything after that was just a bonus.

And the only difference is the power selections available for them - they all have the same hit points. As for what are they all good at? A little added damage here or there; the Mu Mastery pet for Dominators can heal (as mentioned before in the thread), but my general feeling over them is "meh".

I generally announce when I get on the team, "Now accepting bribes for AB!"



(then I usually just hit whomever as it recharges - but it's funny when people take that seriously and actually offer things!)

You haven't read any of the "I hate Speed Boost" threads, or the one about why they had to re-add a prompt to Mystic Fortune buffs (currently on test), have you?

Yes, people would complain if it was a 20 minute duration buff that cost them absolutely nothing. No, I wouldn't be one of them.

On top of it, there is a balance consideration for the devs - recharge and endurance consumption, two things that Speed Boost helps with, are limiting factors in what a character can accomplish. Slower recharge, or having to pace your attacks to prevent bottoming out on endurance, slows you down.

Given that their entire reward structure is based on how long something takes - for the merit system explicitly, and drop rates are based on kill speed - having less downtime due to constant Speed Boost is something that (IMO) they feel should take a certain amount of attention (ie, time) to maintain.

This, but it's much easier to maintain the damage cap on a Scrapper, Blaster, Corruptor, or... well, anything, really.

Yes, there's always stacked Fulcrum Shifts, but things generally don't live long enough to provide much fodder for them when everyone's capped.

Coercive Persuasion is easy to overlook, unless you're like me and have been collecting them for /Nin Stalkers. They offer better recovery, +dam, +rech, +5% ranged defense, and turn Blinding Powder into Seeds of Confusion with a tohit debuff and longer recharge.

I like them on my Stalkers so much that I didn't even respec the set off of the DM/Nin when I needed a set for my Mind dominator to hit perma-dom.


To the OP: it's generally about the help from click powers having faster recharge, freeing up slots to use to get the +defense bonuses (basically, mitigating the sacrifices you made elsewhere), and (rarely) the occasional +3% hp bonus from a few sets.

No matter what your defense is, there's always that rank-and-level-modified 5% chance to hit. Whether or not it happens isn't a matter of "if" as much as "when". Killing things faster, preventing them from attacking through mezzes, or having your "oh ****" powers back earlier means that you're ready for when it does happen a lot more often, and so you're less likely to get killed.

Tediously hitting the same large sack of hit points for an extended period of time doesn't equate to challenge.

There can be 0 risk of actually dying - and on most teams I've done a Khan TF with, that was very close to the case - and it can still be boring as heck. Think of the computer in the ITF as a comparable case, only Reichsman has more hit points and doesn't even have the benefit of going over the aggro cap to possibly worry squishies. It's not a barrier of difficulty as much as a barrier of patience.

In addition to the 30' range mentioned above (instead of 300'), the criticals on held or sleeping targets has a 20% chance to go off and only works in PvP currently. Given the duration of holds and sleeps in current PvP, I never even mention it as a possibility although it's still technically there. For PvE, it was replaced with the 10% + 3% scaling chance as part of the Stalker buff.

The double criticals can still happen, apparently when the random out-of-hidden critical percentage goes off after you Placated something for a guaranteed critical. It's really fun seeing Assassin's Strike pop up twice over something's head for the same attack.

This is one of my favorites, although usually I BU before the Lightning Rod, then TS. The 50% critical from Hide on the AoE portion can make it a lot better than LR->AS for most spawns. My Elec/Nin also has Ball Lightning to tack on at the end to mop up all the little things so I can just placate and AS anything that had enough hit points to live.

EM for Stalkers was nerfed in more than just the reduced critical on Total Focus and non-critical on Energy Transfer: the chance for stun on the attacks is lower than the versions of Energy Punch (10% vs 30%), Bone Smasher (30% vs 60%), and Energy Transfer (50% vs 60%) that the other ATs get.