SonofSpam

I resent the implication that spamming AoEs is the only way to contribute to a team, I resent the statement that I'm a bad stereotype I constantly strive to avoid, and I regret that I revised my first response to you to be so diplomatic.

You're putting words in my mouth. I am not the Stalker who pops Assassin's Strike, then runs away revealing half the map and waiting for the Hidden tag to go back up while my team is still fighting the first spawn. I'm the first to agree about that playstyle needing to choke to death on its own blood yesterday.

When my team approaches a spawn, I usually run around or across it, not past it. I do some split-second reconnaissance, position myself adjacent to the most potentially problematic villain, and one-shot him as the rest of my team gets the first aggro. I take out the Surgeon as our blasters are laying down their first AoEs, and make sure that he won't be around to heal the rest of the spawn back up, negating those first attacks. (I don't mean to overuse the Roman example, but I've been running a lot of ITFs lately, so it's fresh in my mind.) Then I wade in and scrap like everybody else, either with the next "problem child" on my list or whoever's within reach. I have five 5-slotted attacks aside from my Assassin's Strike, and I use them. At some point in the process, I also find time to throw around AoE controls. I generally stay with my team, unless I've been specifically asked to stealth the mission or if the team as a whole is fragmenting in multiple directions (again, as happens frequently during the outdoor portions of the ITF).

You hate Stalkers. You stopped playing them. We get it. So what the hell are you still doing in their forum, other than trolling? I've already read a hundred "Test Rat sez Being A Stalker Sucks!" posts. I didn't need the 101st here.

Yeah, that Immunes Surgeon would die in 2 seconds to my teammates AoEs...if he was standing anywhere near his friends. In my experience (anecdotal though it may be), he doesn't. He stands about half a room's distance back, sometimes around a corner. And he's far from the only problem child who likes to hang back at far range. Having what amounts to "an extra team member" in me means having someone who can run around to the back and flanks of the enemy lines and gank said problem children before they have a chance to ruin my team's day. This, in turn, means less of my teammates' "more valuable" time is wasted on such things, allowing them to, for example, focus their massive AoE damage on the greatest concentration of enemies, where it will do the most overall good. Again, I'm the surgeon, they're the tanks and carpet-bombers. Am I essential? Most of the time, no, of course not; I'm a luxury, and I have no illusions about that. But unlike you, I'm OK with that. And sometimes, I do make the difference between life and death for my teammates, and they're totally OK with that. And tossing out what amounts to a Storm Kick with a radius half the size of my Caltrops patch once every 20 seconds isn't going to change that.

I haven't spent "a ton of Influence" on this character, nor will I, because he breezes through daily tip missions, and thus nets 1-3 recipes and/or 100-200 million a week, depending on which recipes I buy with his merits and whether or not I throw a LoTG or two up on the auction block. Thanks for your concern, but this little pet project pays for itself.

Does he bring a great deal of value to a team? Probably not. I'm OK with that. This is mainly a concept character (I really should've mentioned that from the very beginning), but one of the reasons I specifically chose this archetype and power set was because he was so solo-friendly, and I spend most of my time soloing (much like the characters* I based this one off of do). When I do team up, it's with friends and friends-of-friends who don't care what I bring as long as I'm the one running it, and this character brings most of the same assets as the characters* I based it on. I have other, more "team-friendly" characters I can (and do) bring along on some missions, but even on a soloist, I try not to be completely "selfish" with the build. Any player running any archetype and any combination of primary and secondary power sets can still contribute in some way to the dual objectives in every mission: Keep your allies from dying, and make your enemies die.

*To varying degrees, Batman (specifically from The Dark Knight Returns), Black Panther, Bronze Tiger, Daredevil, Jason Bourne, John Rambo, Hugo Stiglitz from Inglourious Basterds, and Colonel Kurtz from Apocalypse Now. It's a pen-&-paper character of mine who I thought would translate well to City of Heroes, and he did, at least for my purposes.

As you can see from the date under my name, I'm a long-time lurker. I don't usually build an archetype without reading at least 10 pages of their subforum first, along with all the guides. I've read a lot of your posts, Test Rat. And our experiences Stalking seem as different as night and day, both mechanically and socially. I've had a blast playing this guy. Maybe my friends and I just have lower standards or different expectations than you and yours do. Maybe I've just been more fortunate and/or selective in the company that I keep. Regardless, I'm already having fun with it, and I've received no complaints. I'm just looking for ways to squeeze out a little more bang for my buck, without losing the parts of the character that make him fun for me. So with all due respect, I doubt that the sort of input I'm looking for is the sort of input you're inclined to offer.

Gift of The Ancients.

http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Stealth_and_Perception

Yes, Stalkers can take Stealth, and unlike other stealth powers in primary or secondary sets, Hide and Stealth stack. While Hide alone is sufficient to make a Stalker completely invisible to any NPC who doesn't just ignore stealth completely, Hide + Stealth + a Stealth IO is necessary to hit the stealth cap against other PCs. I hardly ever PvP, but I like badges and I love PvP zone temp powers. Having maxed stealth and near-maxed perception while I'm running around in hostile territory gives me peace of mind.

After respeccing into it, I agree. It has really helped to round out my attack chain.

I already had a Performance Shifter proc in Stamina, as well as the Miracle proc and the Numina's Convalescence proc in Health.

Although now I'm noticing that the Performance Shifter proc isn't Unique. Maybe I should slot another two of them, one each in Superior Conditioning and Physical Perfection?

My current build has one each of a LoTG recharge and GoTA run speed in 5 different Defense toggles, for a total of +37.5% global recharge and +5mph run speed. The former is great, and I have no intention of losing it. The latter is nice, both because it offsets the run speed penalty for Stealth exactly and because when Ninja Run + Sprint + Swift is my travel power, every little bit of run speed helps. But it's not important, and I could lose it without a second thought.

That's just it: Why should I spend the money/merits/etc. getting the recipes and salvage for 2 set IOs that each give, for example, Heal+Recharge, when I could just slot a Heal and a Recharge from common IOs, cheap and easy? I suppose the answer is "to get the set bonus." That's why I went for the Steadfast knockback resist IO. But most sets don't have something as awesome as +Recovery at the 2-slot tier.
And I'm buying for positional defense, since that's what the toggles in my secondary set start me off with.

You ain't just whistlin' Dixie. That's why I'm definitely keeping the LoTG globals, and after looking at your suggested build, I'm probably going to wind up 5-slotting Crushing Impact into any attack that I'm not 6-slotting with Mako's Bite or Touch of Death (for the Defense bonuses).

Recent experiences have teamed me with players who aren't necessarily all bloodthirsty psychopaths who insist on clearing every map, so I've finally gotten a taste of what it's like to need Recall Friend and not have it. It would also give me a "free" slot for a knockback resist IO, which is always good.

I also find myself leaning more and more towards Jibikao's advice to Alpha slot Musculature instead of Cardiac, and Postagulous's advice to pick up Assault, whether I ditch Maneuvers or not; I'm on the fence about it. I'm definitely keeping Tactics.

The latter means opening up a power selection, and the former means opening up an entire power pool. Either way, I lose 1-2 of my Defense toggles, which means I need to make up that lost Defense through set bonuses. At the moment, I'm looking at 6-slotting 1-2 each of Mako's Bite and Touch of Death in melee attacks, 6-slotting Tactics with Gaussian's Synchronized Fire Control, 5-slotting Harmonized Healing or Miracle into Ninja Reconstruction, and/or 5-slotting Cacophony into Blinding Powder.

I looked at ways of cramming an area attack into the build, but invariably I wound up sacrificing too much. I'm really not worried about having an AoE. Making a lot of villains fall over all at once isn't my niche. I'm a surgical scalpel, not an atom bomb (although I'm usually packing one). On a team, I function as a sort of "Stalktroller." My first priority is neutralizing problem targets: Bosses, and the more troublesome Lieutenants and Minions (Sappers, Medics, Voids/Quantums, etc.). Secondary priority is laying down AoE controls: Caltrops (I have literally had teams live or die by this power), Blinding Powder, Stun Grenades, and when I'm not grinding Hero Merits, Fear Incarnate. Teritary concern is team buffs, but that doesn't take any conscious effort on my part; I just keep Leadership toggles running, and if I am grinding Hero Merits, try to make sure at least 1-2 teammates are next to me when I pop Call of Justice. The character plays very similarly to a Night Widow or Bane Spider. I admit, my experience with my other two high-level characters, a Controller and a Warshade, probably inform my playstyle with this character as well.

As a single-target specialist, I have no illusions about being important to the team's overall DPS, and it is that very knowledge that I find liberating. It gives me license to step back, take a deep breath, and take in the big picture. To run around to the back of the Cimeroran mob, find the Surgeon half a room away, and feed him his own kidneys before he undoes the hard work of all my teammates who are raining down AoE death upon his comrades. It's not until after the problem children are eliminated that I slip into full-on Scrapper mode and just start punching and kicking whoever's closest until they stop moving.

Technically, I'm still saving up for the Ragnarok knockdown proc and the Gladiator's Armor unique. The latter will bring his Defense exactly to the softcap. Yes, I know that softcapping a */Ninjutsu Stalker is overkill because of all the other mitigation they bring to the table, but after reading Dechs Kaison's analysis, all I could think was "I want." When I team, I team with people who tend to push things to the absolute limit, so I can always use all the help I can get. And honestly, I like feeling "uber" sometimes.

I tried out Superleap + Superspeed, but respec'd out of them because Sprint + Ninja Run + Fitness + GoTA gets me where I need to go 90% of the time, and the other 10% of the time I fall back on a jetpack (I used to invent them, now I just buy them from the Shadow Shard). The lack of a "real" travel power opened up a ton of power choices for me.

I tried out the Presence pool first, thinking that some Fear powers would make me feel more like Batman. But even fully slotted, I was woefully underwhelmed with their performance. Then I respec'd into the Leadership pool, Maneuvers and Tactics specifically, and I noticed a "considerable" effect on my character's performance, in the sense that the Chicxulub Impact had a "considerable" effect on the dinosaurs. The words "I AM A SEXY SHOELESS GOD OF WAR!!!" may or may not have echoed through my bedroom door; witness accounts vary on the details.

I'm trying out Vengeance as his Level 49 throwaway power, under the assumption that it can prevent a single teammate's death from cascading into a total party wipe. But I'm open to other possibilities. I certainly don't need the extra Defense or status resistance. Other choices I've considered include:

• Assault: I've got the endurance for it. I'm not sure if the average +30 points of damage it adds to each of my attacks is worth it. That comes out to about half a Storm Kick extra per chain of 4 strikes. Then again, I wasn't sure if +10% to-hit and +3.5% Defense would make much difference either...
  
• Tough: I can definitely afford the endurance cost of another toggle, and I guess only taking 85-90 damage out of every 100 from the most common types couldn't hurt, but "more survivability" isn't really what I feel like I need from this build at this point.
  
• Crane Kick: With the 5 LoTGs giving me the equivalent of a common recharge IO in every power, I find that the 4 attacks I already have are usually sufficient, and when holes pop up, Kismet and Tactics allow me to get solid use out of the "temporary" Veteran powers. But part of me thinks it would be nice to have a 5th "real" attack in there for times when the veteran powers are unavailable. I don't know if Crane Kick would increase my average damage over time, or drag it down. I already know that Knockback is a double-edged sword; it provides great mitigation against incoming damage, but it also knocks the target right out of my Caltrops patch, which is far and away my best mitigation, for myself and my occasional teammates alike.
  
• Focused Accuracy: Even with Kismet, Tactics, and a common Accuracy IO in every attack, occasionally I miss. I know that there will always be a 5% chance of that, but I don't have to like it. According to Mids, this would increase my average accuracy from around 135% to around 165%. It would also increase my Perception range that last 10 feet or so to my cap. The endurance cost is intimidating, but after the Cardiac alpha, the Atlas Medallion and Portal Jockey accolades, a slot of endurance reduction in every toggle and attack, and 3-slots each in Stamina, Physical Perfection, and Superior Conditioning, endurance problems are a thing in the past on even the most relentless of steamroller teams.
  
• Smoke Grenade: Believe it or not, I actually used this a couple times as a hit-&-run tactic against a couple of difficult Elite Bosses, and it saved my life. But I have the invented version. But I can't slot that. But I invented the expensive one, with a "1.4 accuracy multiplier" (whatever that means), and, again, Kismet and Tactics give good global boosts. I go back and forth on this one.
  
• Recall Friend: This seems like a good choice for a stealthy character, but 1) I already have 4 power pools, and the loss of any of them would tear me away from the beloved softcap, and 2) when I team at all (which is the exception, not the norm), the friends I team with are all bloodthirsty psychopaths who never want to stealth a mission, so I would never get to use it anyway. Vengeance, on the other hand, got activated more times than I had fingers to count the first night I took it out for a spin.