Siolfir

Does a video work?

Here is a link... around 26 seconds in you see a good view of it. It's used more often, but that's the first one that shows up well due to range.

Long story short, you answered your own question. It helps you and your team continue to hit a mob.

Now admittedly, with accuracy slotting it's almost always overkill, but then you get into the real benefit of having a -defense secondary effect: slotting a ton of IO procs into the attacks.

With the proposed i17 change to Defenders (giving them roughly the same damage while solo as Corruptors) and Going Rogue coming up, a Cold/Sonic or Kin/Sonic Defender.

I'd link to the post, but it appears to have been removed. Yay for beta leaks?

So... is this a bad thread to mention that I didn't even notice that the challenges were set for a MoSTF badge when I got it on my Cold/Ice Defender?

Most of the good advice is already in the thread, so I won't bother to echo it - but it's far from impossible, and really only requires a good mix of buffs and damage, with some resistance/damage debuffing if you want to make it run more smoothly. If you go in without any preparation or support, then yes - you're likely to have a bad time. But that should be true for far more encounters than it is, so I'd have to call that WAI.

It's kindof a tactical decision, but if you've got the team for it, a lot of the teams I've run STFs on don't even bother with the red or blue towers - either destroying or caging - and just take out the yellow and green; I ended up tanking with my SD/SS on one of those runs, and used OWTS and a couple of large oranges combined with the occasional large green until everybody was gathered and on Recluse.

At least the STF is less quirky about how it goes than the RSF is - that's the only one that I take a look at what the team is before I decide if I want to bother trying. Sure, you can still pull out of a bad situation (such as 8 +3 AVs rushing you) with good players, but you need players that can think on their feet and not get stuck in "they shouldn't do that" mode.

And if you get on a team that tells you that you can't take your <insert AT here> because then they'll fail, and it's not a Master run (because those at least present a different set of issues), get off the team (you should probably at least check to see if it's a MoSTF they're planning, tho ). You don't need an Emp, you don't need a Stone Tanker, and you don't need to team with idiots who can't figure out that there is more than one way to run a Task Force. It just won't be worth the headache.

The blurb about it in the Zephyr thread - not from a dev, so assuming that it's a closed beta leak - is a 35% damage increase while solo, which puts them above Corruptors for damage with better mez, (self-)buff, and debuff numbers. Sounds "balanced".

link

Well, without trying to make it sound better or worse than it is: there is a large segment of the population that has a negative bias against Stalkers - it's not that they can't perform well, but there are those that won't give them a chance to. And Spines/Nin is a good build for PvE play, having good AoE potential and Ninjitsu providing everything a Stalker needs - the critical rate outside of hidden status doesn't change because you're using lots of AoEs, and on large teams the higher critical chance (for teammates within 30' of you) means you can potentially have the highest damage of the melee ATs with all of them using an identical attack chain*.

Some of the bias stems from Stalkers before they were buffed several issues ago - they had lower hit points, did less damage, and their criticals depended either on being in hidden status or on attacking mobs that were mezzed (which are the ones that are the least worrisome). Some of it stems from people who, were they on another AT instead of a Stalker, would be kicked off of teams for playing the way they were (attacking once and running off, or running all over the map "scouting" when most of the team wants to fight through it), but for some reason it was blamed on the AT for enabling them. Part of it also comes from the simple fact that most of the time a Brute does more damage once Fury is built up and has more hit points and acts as a focal point for enemy aggro - Stalkers contribute damage, and that's about it. Everything redside contributes damage.

So yes, you'll run into some people that don't want Stalkers on their team - and it does make it harder to get onto some Strike Forces if you're not the one leading. Although that's not just a Stalker thing - honestly, with the effect that buff/debuff sets have on PvE play, you run into large segments of the population that don't want anything except one or two Brutes and the rest Corruptors for those.

And with all of that said, if you're a good player you'll make friends on the server and never have to worry about finding teams. A good player on any AT is better than a bad player leeching on an "optimal" build. If you really want to play a Stalker, play one, fill up your global friends list, and don't worry about it.





* - this ignores little things like damage auras which add substantial damage over time, and often Stalkers have fewer AoEs than the other ATs (Electric Melee is an exception)... thus the "using an identical attack chain"

Maybe there was some confusion after witnessing obscene comments in local/broadcast/mistells in Pocket D on Virtue?

Well, the AoE is "lacking" for Energy Assault, but having a 15' radius for Whirling Hands isn't horrible - and is something that I'd like to see on all of the versions of it. It's just that it's the only AoE available in the set, and all of the other secondaries have at least 2.

But really, why Mind Control? I've said it before - if something attacks you, you let them do it. There's more control than you really need; just having Confuse alone means that it works well at high levels. Malta have lots of stuns that last forever, right? Now you do, too! Masterminds want a carnie powerset, but you've had one forever!

Throw in Energy Assault (Little Bunny Pew Pew is my 50 Mind/Energy) and you get Total Focus for reliable extra hard control, Bone Smasher for another fairly reliable stun, and Power Push - which actually does good damage on top of having a 1.4x accuracy multiplier - gives a decent timeframe to let your powers recharge and get a second chance to mez on a mob you may have missed.

I conveniently have April 3rd off (it's the first official day of my spring break)! If I remember to log on in time, I'll bring someone.

In a vain attempt at balancing, put me on team 2.

I'll start off by saying that I have not looked at the build posted, so this is just general thoughts based on having a level 50 SM/WP Brute, a level 50 SD/SS Tanker, and having played a SS/SD Brute to 44.

My notes:

You're taking Stone Melee. That means in order to have a nice attack chain, you're going to want +recharge - conversely, with a high amount of +recharge, you've also got one of the best potential DPS chains, topped only by Dark Melee with nearly-capped or capped Soul Drain. However, investing heavily in recharge also means that you're going to want to invest in +recovery, because even with a Numina's proc, Quick Recovery, Stamina, and a Performance Shifter proc, my SM/WP (with ~200-220% recharge and ~75-80% endurance reduction in each attack) can run out of endurance in prolonged fights without a few seconds to recover. Doing missions she's fine, and most AV fights as well... but I've had to hit Strength of Will just for the extra +recovery before.

If you're taking Shields - which doesn't offer QR - enjoy the look of your secondary power icons, because unless you're into pacing yourself (and why play a Brute if you're going to deliberately slow down) or stopping to rest that's all the blue you'll get to see until you get a lot of IOs for endurance reduction invested.

However, Shields will offer you good survivability as well, and Shield Charge to help out with Stone Melee's last-place AoE damage (it's behind EM, even, if you hit the same number of mobs with Tremor and Whirling Hands). You can also go with positional sets for defense, which are a bit easier to build up numbers on, and Against All Odds actually will keep mobs around you instead of running off to go attack everybody else that you don't AoE. But, until you end up softcapped, Willpower is going to help more for survivability.

Also, if you're taking Fault, don't bother with the ridiculously overpriced Kinetic Combats. You simply don't need them - I aimed for recharge, took Tough and Weave, and if I get into trouble, I hit Fault and regen all my hp back before the mobs even stand up. Against things that Fault doesn't work on (Cimerorans), I use Strength of Will - although if you hit it first in the spawn you can still use Fault effectively even against Cims. If it really bothers you a lot, pick up Darkest Night.

My recommendation? If your idea is to make a character that's going to dive headfirst into +4/x8 and try to solo the whole spawn without help, you probably want a softcapped Shields with a self-heal. Having them never hit you is better than trying to outregen the incoming damage when they're getting it boosted from the purple patch. But I do know that my SM/WP can reliably take care of +2/x8 without much thought, if I think about what I'm doing +3/x8, and if Fault works on the spawn occasionally +4/x8, all without Darkest Night. And that's just building for recharge, not defense.

*waits for the screenshot of whoever it was that slotted it with Hecatombs*

Note: the following is only referring to single-target DPA on non-critical hits - any additional targets hit or criticals are gravy.

In order, the DPA attacks for Stalker Electric Melee after accounting for server ticks are:
Chain Induction (1.111 damage scale/sec)
Lightning Rod (0.866 - assumed near the center)
Jacob's Ladder (0.812)
Charged Brawl (0.795)
Assassin's Shock (0.789)
Havoc Punch (0.769)
Thunder Strike (0.571 to primary target)

So, as 2 of the top 3 DPA attacks in the set - and the other one is on a 90 second base recharge, how do you think they do at high levels in Electric Melee?