Supernumiphone

Someone tested it and had it nailed down precisely but unfortunately I don't remember the number.

However I can confirm that you can simply leave the reward window up if you run a little early. Claim it when it finally becomes available.

This is a good read if you want to know about stealth and perception.

One distinction worth making is suppressed versus unsuppressed stealth. Suppressed stealth powers lose some or all of their stealth component when you attack or receive an attack. Unsuppressed stealth powers do not. So with an unsuppressed stealth power you can attack one group while standing near another group and not get aggro from the group you're not attacking. With suppressed stealth as soon as you attacked you'd become visible and the second group would attack you.

Exactly how much you value unsuppressed versus suppressed stealth is up to you. I am a huge fan of non-suppressing stealth powers, to the point that I have to have a very good reason to pick a set that doesn't have such a power.

Some non-suppressing stealth powers: Dark Miasma/Shadow Fall; Cold Domination/Arctic Fog; Storm Summoning/Steamy Mist; Illusion Control/Superior Invisibility.

A couple gotchas with non-suppressing stealth powers: They still suppress upon clicking a glowie, and they also become inactive if you get mezzed. So fighting near a group you don't want to engage is risky if there's a mezzer in the group you are fighting.

Well even with the new ones that were added Reactive is still the best over the broadest range of circumstances. The devs were too worried about making them too strong and instead made none a real competitor for Reactive. The one consistent reason to take one of the others is just because other people are likely to be running Reactive and if you want your DoT to stack with theirs you need something different.

I don't worry about that, myself. I figure if the team is attacking enough to keep Reactive DoTs stacked consistently, the added DoT from a different Interface probably isn't needed. So I'll take the one that will help me solo and on smaller teams, that being Reactive.

The one exception is if I'm running something with a decent amount of end drain, I'll probably take the one that has that as the secondary effect. I don't remember the name of it.

It's good to see I'm not the only one who thought this in response to seeing the thread title...

What I did with my Grav Dom was build for defense and play him like a Blaster with a bit of control.

Your three melee attacks are fully slotted for damage, but every other attack is underslotted for damage. Especially your AoEs. Tremor is at only 42% and is slotted for KB. Most people would prefer to keep the power as a KD power so slotting for KB would be counterproductive. Also the Endoplasm slotted there is only enhancing accuracy. You'd be better off with a generic accuracy IO.

You seem to be using a lot of slots chasing +recovery bonuses. You'll probably get a bigger return by adding one slot to Stamina and putting a Performance Shifter proc in there. Those aren't very expensive these days so that shouldn't be a problem to do. Then if it was me I'd take those slots that are being devoted to +recovery bonuses and allocate them towards improving the build in other ways.

I also wonder about Maneuvers. You probably wouldn't need to worry about +recovery if you weren't running that toggle. Since you're not building for +defense for the most part, it's not doing much for you. I'd either add more defense to the build, or drop it. If you want it as a LotG mule then I'd slot it as such, just put a LotG in the default slot and never even put the power on my tray.

Energy Torrent and Explosive Blast are nice AoEs. They are also underslotted for damage. Volcanic Gasses is a hold, not a damage power. Slot it as such IMO. It's a pretty good power, worth devoting more slots to. The single-target immobilize is a bit of personal preference but I don't generally find them very useful on a Dominator. Yours is slotted for damage but with the slow animation on the power you won't want to be using it for damage. If it was me I'd drop it and take something more useful.

I'm not sure what to make of this build. Your powers are underslotted for damage. You've built for +recharge, but stopped just shy of achieving perma-dom. You have a decent amount of regen but didn't slot a Numina's proc. Really what are you trying to do?

I'm concerned that the Stalker changes will make AS better outside of hide. I'll need to run some damage calculations to see the full measure of the difference, but I'm pretty sure that for packing as much damage into a Build Up window from Hide, you won't want to open with AS. You'll be better off opening with a strong regular attack, getting your guaranteed critical and building Assassin's Focus at the same time. Then two quick attacks (for more AF) and an unhidden, standard critical AS. Depending on the set, there will probably be Build Up time left to pack in more attacks after that.

At that point there won't be much reason to use AS from Hide. The only advantages that come to mind are the ability to put off retaliation for a couple extra seconds, and Demoralize. Demoralize is a nice ability, but it's not nearly good enough to choose over significantly more damage.

Having AS outside of Hide better than in Hide also has the effect of reducing the utility of Placate. It's only uses will be minor aggro control, and increasing critical chance on AoEs. It's already too slow to be worth using with most attacks for a damage increase. Removing AS from that short list won't leave much.

So overall the proposed changes will have the effect of reducing the utility of a Stalker's unique mechanics and making them more into basic scrappers. While any damage increase might have that effect to some extent, I don't think it's necessary for the specific ways it's done to amplify that effect, but that is what I'm seeing here.

I do feel that AS gives Stalkers a bit of a unique feel. That's not to say that it's a great power from a meta-gaming perspective, or that it truly gives Stalkers a valuable, unique mechanic so much. It is a part of what makes them fun for me though. I know it's almost unusable in its current form on large teams, or especially leagues. I guess I think of it as more of a solo skill. It's one that I enjoy solo though.

So one thing the proposed change does is to allow me to take a "for fun" solo power without feeling like I'm gimping my teaming performance for doing so, since now it will be a worthwhile attack to use even on teams. I see that as an overall positive change.

Would I rather have something different? Probably, but most of the proposals I've seen that I liked were larger, more fundamental changes to the AT. I can't fault the devs for not wanting to go in that direction.

I do think Placate could use some help. For many sets it provides a marginal DPS increase, if any, which relegates its usefulness to mostly aggro management. Given its long recharge and single-target nature, it's not very worthwhile for that purpose. IMO what Placate needs to be relevant is a shorter cast time and shorter recharge. I think that change would contribute to Stalker damage in a way that would accentuate their unique playstyle and feel, rather than lessening it.

Ion is my default because of its large target cap and potentially huge area of effect. That's especially valuable on Praetorian content with Praetorian Clockwork, since they seem to have a very strong "prefer range" AI. It's just really hard to get them to clump up unless you have a Tanker doing traditional corner-pulling. You could hit a handful with a standard AoE, or you could hit all of them with Ion.

Yeah the tier 1 and 2 powers were standardized as part of Defiance 2.0. It hurt some powersets, helped others, and overall made Blasters more boring to play (IMO of course).

The HP cap being raised is the main thing I'm interested in. I've never thought it was appropriate for Stalkers to get little to no benefit from some powers available in their secondaries while no other AT that shares those powersets has that same limitation.

As for the rest, it seems to amount to mostly just more damage. That doesn't interest me much. I've pointed out that Stalkers having the lowest survivability while not having the top (or even nearly, especially solo) damage was out of whack. However I haven't advocated more damage as a fix for quite some time.

I do have some concern that getting more damage or a gimmicky new trick could close the door on other potentially more interesting changes. Still I've been enjoying my Stalkers as they were. Now that the HP cap issue will be fixed and I can play /Regen or any other secondary without the HP cap gimping it, I guess I'll take whatever else gets thrown in the mix.

Beyond the listed changes what I'd want primarily is the proliferation of more primary powersets with AoE intact. That includes Titan Weapons. I have no interest in playing that set on any AT other than a Stalker, so I won't be buying it until they get it. Also /SD and /FA.

I haven't deleted a 50 yet. I did use the free server transfers we got a while back to move a few to unused servers though. The highest I've actually deleted so far was a level 40. I do have a 50 on the chopping block, but that's because it's going to be re-rolled due to powerset proliferation. I just haven't gotten around to it yet.

Other than that I doubt I'd ever delete a 50 as long as I have server transfer tokens piled up. I figure I might as well move them off somewhere and let them sit. This game has undergone so many changes over the years, there's no telling if the toon I abandon might end up not sucking someday.

Well if nothing else the third item, presuming it goes through, will breathe new life into my /Regen Stalker. I've been telling myself I should banish that toon to an unused server, but I kept holding out hope that the HP cap issue might actually be addressed someday. It's nice to have my optimism validated.

Because it needed its own thread: