Tealeaf

My apologies, I wasn't at all clear. Hide is the first thing I turn on when my feet hit the ground, and I don't turn it off ever. When I put Hide in my attack chain I just meant that I wait until I phase out of sight before I attack. I do have placate now, and I use that as well to mid fight if I don't have aggro from some other mob and Assassin's blade is up.

So yeah, I don't do alot of showing off my costume. But that's ok. There are plenty of non-stalkers around who can do that.

Eh, it's an easy enough thing to miss, in my opinion. It's not like this somehow makes you less of a multi-billionaire. Still ebil, don't worry.

Her. I am a she.

I have nothing against spines. I've played the set on scrappers a few times, and my current alt is in the high 30's. It seemed like a solid set to me, on that AT, and I have no reason to suspect that it wouldn't be on stalkers as well. That said, I've never felt a real connection with them. As I look over my long set of alts, I rarely hear myself saying "Yeah, my spiney! I'd love to play her now!"

Just because one person really loves a particular set doesn't mean that the rest of the ones available to that AT might not be better for other people who have different tastes.

Anyways, I do appreciate all the input I've gotten. I have picked up that this is more of a single target set, and I have to say that so far I'm really digging that. I've got several AoE orientated alts right now, and it just seems refreshing to have a character that is so.... focused. Really a nice change of pace, at least so far.

I've enjoyed playing Pleasant Surprise so much that Mr. Tealeaf also decided to make his first stalker in forvever. He went with dual blades/ninjitsu. I'm pretty interested in seeing how our characters will compare when we duo together with them.

I took the plunge and created Pleasant Surprise last night on Infinity. I played solo for a bit, then duoed with Mr. Tealeaf's level 14 or so Soldier, then we added a dominator and a mastermind for a few missions. When I called it a night she was five bubbles into level 10. Here is her build up to now.

Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.601
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Pleasant Surprise: Level 11 Magic Stalker
Primary Power Set: Ninja Blade
Secondary Power Set: Ninjitsu
Power Pool: Leaping

Villain Profile:
Level 1: Sting of the Wasp -- Acc(A), Acc(3), Dmg(5)
Level 1: Hide -- DefBuff(A)
Level 2: Gambler's Cut -- Acc(A), Acc(3), Dmg(9)
Level 4: Ninja Reflexes -- DefBuff(A), DefBuff(5)
Level 6: Assassin's Blade -- Acc(A), Acc(7), Dmg(7), Dmg(9)
Level 8: Super Jump -- Jump(A)
Level 10: Build Up -- RechRdx(A)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Assassination
------------
Set Bonus Totals:------------
Set Bonuses:

On the advice of the guide Cupper linked, I skipped Flashing Steel and don't plan on picking it up. My attack chain right now is Hide --> Build Up --> Assassin's Blade --> then melee with Sting of the Wasp and Gambler's Cut, plus my vet attacks (I have all of them) as needed. My attack chain has no holes and I've already taken Brawl and my origin power out of my tray. Next on the drawing board is slotting Build up with two more recharges, getting Danger Sense, then a fitness power, Placate at 14, Status Protection, Health, and Stamina at 20.

So far she's a blast. Not tank tough, but then, at this level, neither are real tanks. She feels a bit more delicated than my samed aged scappers did, but then, she also has obviously better burst damage. Makes me wish I had tried a stalker earlier.

I played a stalker for a brief while when CoV first came out. I didn't much care for the AT because mine had a glass cannon in melee feel that I like (granted, I may have been doing it wrong). But I've heard that the AT has been beefed up since then. I like playing scrappers. I hope that perhaps stalkers play more like them now, with a few extra abilities to shake things up a bit.

I like the idea of Ninja/ninjitsu, not really sure why. I'd be playing her solely PVE, and often solo since I keep weird hours. Any ideas as to whether this is a good combo for someone fairly new to the whole Stalker Experience?

I was surprised as how much I dig "Reveal". Never thought of such a power, and when I first read the description I was pretty "Meh". Now it is my favorite vet power, hands down.

Not all the vet rewards are going to be great to everyone. I never, ever use the boxing costumes. I'll never use most of the free tailor sessions. I rarely use the vetspecs, though they are nice to have just in case I screw up. I rarely pull up my pets. I'm pretty sure there are people that are really into all the things I just mentioned.

I just hope that sooner or later the the devs will take my suggestion and give us a Little Black Book, that gives all the contact's cell numbers. If you call them when you are too low a level for them they'd just tell you to talk to them later. And you could also use the "book" to call the "Go see so-and-so" so you don't have to go chat with the pvp contacts or the dude in the hollows or whatever again for the hundredth time.

Until we get this, I don't want the vet program to end!

Just added the fire/mental tag to this post, as I have with over a half dozen others as well. If the OP really wants a build, he could just click on the tag without having to search on his own.

Since I've been usefully tagging most the information subforums, I've found that the "Here's my build, how does it look?" threads tend to get responses much more so than the "Post me a good build" ones. I don't care either way which tact people go for, but as far as results go, I can say with some certainity that the OP is not going about this in the optimal way.

Serious question, what counts as an expert in an on-line game? Devs only? People who have no jobs and do this 14 hours a day? Someone who's been playing since beta? Not trying to be snarky, just wondering what the OP is really looking for.

I love knockback when I am playing my energy/energy blaster. I hate knockback when I am playing any of my characters that are heavy in AoE damage. I've been on teams where the use of knockback has enhanced the fun, and where the use of it has made it more difficult for everyone else on the team and caused much frustration.

My KB blaster is in the mid twenties, and I pretty much just play her solo or when I duo with Mr. Tealeaf. If I were on a team with her and someone complained about it I would simply say "This is what I do, if it is a problem I can drop team." And then follow through if need be. Not using your primary when you're on a team? I really fail to see the point of that.

If you do want to team and use knockback, one suggestion I have is to form your own teams. It isn't as hard as you might think to lead. Just being willing/able to pick missions and tell everyone who to follow ("Everyone on tank, tank, you take point.") is enough for most situations. If someone complains in that situation, I just say "Knockback is what I do. I'm sorry if that isn't working out for you, and I will understand and have no hard feelings if you seek another team that is more suited to your playstyle."

Energy/energy can be great fun. But not on every team. In my opinion, that doesn't mean they aren't worth playing.

Since I've started tagging all the archetype sub-forums, I've noticed that in general the "Someone build me a...." posts get far fewer responses than the "Here's my stab at a ..., anyone have any comments?" threads. Just asking isn't doing any harm in my opinion, but it certainly doesn't seem to be the best way to get input.

Mr. Tealeaf has informed me that bubblers who set to black and red are very annoying and should be beaten with a shovel. So, perhaps that might be one to avoid.

Excuse me, but I was told that there would be no math.

So, I tried to transfer a character over to test from the forum link this weekend. It seemed to go well enough. I got no error message, I did get something that said something along the lines "Ok, she's lined up. Can take up to half an hour, go have a beer or whatever it is you do". But after the half hour, she still wasn't on test. Nor several hours later either.

Ok, so it was thanksgiving weekend and whoever is in charge of such things was still in a turkey coma. No sweat. So I wait till I got home from work at 3am Tuesday morning. Still no transfer. The account store seems to have been up all that time as well. So now I'm stumped. Anyone know if this is a known bug, or just a problem I am having? I don't want to log in and leave a petition if it is something that they have said they are working on.

Welcome to the fourms. I hope that you'll find this is a friendly, helpful community. If you have any thing in particular you want to learn about you can ask in the player questions section, which is probably the most active of the "information" sub boards. You might also want to try reading existing threads using the search keywords or tags feature.

Good luck!

By EM do you mean electrical melee or energy melee?

Kat/invuln is a beast as well. I got mine to fifty easily, with half-hearted slotting and a non optionized build. She solos most AV with no problems.

Message recieved and conter-sent. This is so awesome! *squeals and jumps up and down*

Well, my husband and I have our own cozy little SG. We've gotten all the teleporters, but have pretty much given up on the idea of ever getting the healing badges. If you're of a mind to, Ironblade, and don't have more populated/deserving SG's wanting your service ahead of us, I'd really appreciate your help.

PM me if this is possible!

I've added the claws/elec tag to your post, as I have with several others. If you click on it, you'll see many posts that pose a similar question. Perhaps you can gain some insight from some of these.

I made my energy/energy with the idea that she'd probably be soloing or duoing with Mr. Tealeaf for most of her career. My team search comment is "No Blinds. I do TONS of knockback." I figure that if I advertise her thusly, then leaders have no business complaining about her KB skills.

Of course, I've found that when I do want to team her and the invites aren't pouring in (and surprisingly, they don't very often), then the best remedy is to just form and lead my own team. Someone complains about my knockback? "Oh, I'm very sorry this isn't working out for you. I will certainly understand if you choose to join a different team that is more to your liking."

Of course if you take this track and on are a team that is working very well that you don't want to lose, then you might want to avoid lending the star to anyone. Not that I am speaking from experience or anything on that matter.

I was under the impression that the difficulty slider doesn't work in task/strike forces, and that flashback is flagged as those. Does the difficulty slider actually work for flashback? I know I should know this.

For what it's worth, I kinda wish the female walk wasn't so exaggeately femine also. I don't walk that way in real life, and I don't know any other women that do either. But then, I'm hardly supermodel material.

But then, I don't plan on using the power, ever. I have places to be, gosh darners, and I'm gonna at least be sprinting to get where I've got to go!

Mr. Tealeaf routinely gets his vet rewards two or three months after me, even though we got our accounts within two weeks of one another. Sometimes he has to petition, sometimes they drop in on thier own. Me? On time, everytime. We have the same credit card and other basic info.

It's good to be me.