Voyeur

Wait...People still take taunt?

How cute!

Training Sim Room
Originally suggested by: me? naw....
Category: Fun!
Customizable? Yes
Type: crafted
Description: You can create a room like a holodeck where you can choose different types of enemies to fight against. You can decide their AI and behavior so if you just want to test your damage and endurance usage, you could put the setting on 'punching bag' and work them over. Or you can put them on 'aggressive' and have at it. Wanna see if your defender can solo a +2 Freak Tank? Try it!

Nope,

As a Nin/Nin I have no stunning attacks.
I have no immobilizing attacks.
I have no range attacks.
I have a highly resisted damage type.
I have no knockback protection.

I am the weakest stalker. Without hide...I'm the weakest melee AT.

Okay,

I'm looking at your post and it is hard to find the questions so I'll just look for the question marks. In the future if you want the devs to really pay attention, a few bullet points goes a long way for enticing a response.

Also, instead of making blanket or nebulous statements that it 'seems improbable that the devs would 100% nail the 'balance' of the stalker at in PvP right out of the gate,' you give specific examples that we can focus on and fix ASAP since your statement 'offers little clarity.'

#1 Your first question deals with the conflict between not balancing 1v1 and then having an AT that is 'meant' to take on just one target.

- Well, I'm not sure the stalker is any different than my EM tank with stealth when it comes to 1v1. My tank has exactly 1 aoe and my stalker has exactly 1 cone (2 actually but meh). What I'm trying to figure out is how my nin/nin stalker is anymore designed for 1v1 than my EM tank or kat/regen scrapper?

#2 Your question 2 deals with 'ganking' attacks which I'm assuming are hit and run tactics and how blasters lost that ability with PS being changed so why should stalkers have it?

-Castle himself endorses hit and run as a tactic. Hit and run is no different than port-and-smash, or fear-and-crush, or drain-and-flush, or etc... It's a tactic. Just like safety-in-numbers and run-like-hell. My ar/dev blaster can gank as well as my stalker because she has cloaking device, stealth, targetting drone, and tactics. Not to mention mines and caltrops and 2 stunning attacks. Who has the upper hand between my stalker and my blaster? My blaster hands down.

#3 Your third questions asks about whether placate will get any sort of resists. You assume because all other powers have counters, placate needs a counter.

-It seems others more knowledgeable have asserted that there are already resists to it though I can't verify this. But really, it lasts 10 seconds and any teammate or npc can break it very easily; also caltrops, (do pets?), aoe's, good timing all help. I think that's sufficient. There are so few counters to slows and fears which affect multiple people at one time that placate is very minor in comparison.

#4 You ask who counters the stalker.

-I know that device blasters with tactics have the advantage most of the time as well as hot footed/lighting fielded blasters; plus they have range! I know all stormies are an automatic pass on my list of targets. I know all people who keep moving are impossible. Anyone who flies has an advantage. Anyone who is in a team where 2 people are running tactics.

I think you are over-estimating stalkers abilities and being unfair by comparing them to Perma-Unstoppable/Elude/Mog/IH. As I said before, I played a PU tanker and a stalker is no where in the neighborhood of invincibility either in PvP or PvE. There is no compensation that Stalkers are doing that compares to the circumvention in perma-powers. If I stack hide+stealth, you stack targeting drone with tactics and you win. This is something you may only believe if you play one and my offer still stands.

You mention that you beat stalkers (1v1 I'm assuming?) only when they:

a. Didn't use enough rages to one shot you.

-Well, that's been around for a very long time and it is available to anyone, moreso to heroes with influence to burn. The rages mostly help burst damage types like scrappers, blasters, and stalkers and EM tankers. The inspirations all have counters so is this really an issue? If people are buring rages to hit you, you can be constantly burning lucks as well, just burn one every minute if you like. I burn 6 rages in 2 seconds and sometimes have them wasted by a fleeing or moving target. I only had 10 slots too so I'd always have to recharge for a kill

b. You only killed them when they stuck around and fought while you were playing regen.

-Seems like you answered #4. YOU are the counter. If you add tactics to your character and have SR you have nothing to worry about.

Let me ask you this...how often are YOU defeated in SC and by whom? Since you are SR, I'm assuming it's by blasters with build up or people who pop accuracy inspirations? Perhaps debuffing toggles? Same as me! The number of people who counter your build I think are fewer than the number that counter my build but I don't really know. I mean, what pool power really boosts their to-hit enough to negate your secondary?

I hope you respect the fact that this is the longest post I've ever made and that you address it. I made a concerted effort to honestly look at each of your points. I'd be very disappointed if you reply by saying I'm missing the 'larger issue' or the 'underlying motivations' of you or the devs.

If you fundamentally do not agree with the devs' decision to have this AT in the game at all then that is something entirely different and personal than having it be 'imbalanced'. I'd imagine that having such a unique and potentially controversial AT the devs would have looked at Stalkers the MOST compared to all others and made sure there were enough counters, both on paper and in practice.

Hello Mieux,

I've fought you before in BB as The Whispering Blade and have one shotted you with 6 rages and build up. Was that unfair?

I've now moved onto Siren's and while perched on a building with hide and stealth on, I had a Fire/device blaster tp me onto a pile of mines and caltrops and poof, there I went in one huge explosion. Did I have any recourse? Sure, it isn't technically one shot, but certainly one sided.
Should a developer step in and make changes to the game to prevent these situations?

I say no...

There are extremes on either end of PvP and by definition there will always be these extremes. On one side you have the quick, violent deaths above, and on the other you have 2 tanks duking it out for 5 minutes. I've seen and participated in both extremes as I have a level 50 tanker and I don't have an issue with these extremes.

You have to look at the typical engagments and decide what's an appropriate success rate.

Should a device blaster with tactics who sets up mines be able to kill any and all stalkers that stumble by? I say yes.
Should a stalker with hide and stealth always be able to 1 shot a defender admiring the sunrise? I say yes.
Should a Brute hopped up on Fury be one shotting white minions with his brawl? I hope so!

The only advantage a stalker really has is the ability to choose his battles. The only ability that lets him do that is being unseen. Players have multiple and more powerful ways to do that than he has to counter it. People in PvP will learn this through trial and error, both the sloppy stalker and the idle defender.

As a successful player in PvP, you have to be smart, cunning, and know when to run. The devs can't help you with any of that.

Please, let the process happen on it's own. In 1-2 months from now PvP will be mature and the highlights and lowlights of each AT will be very clear and action can be taken then. The devs really need to err on the side of restraint when making changes.

Mieux, I played a perma-unstoppable tanker and playing a stalker is not anywhere near that level of mindless "I win" mode, either in in PvP or PvE. If you don't believe me, please play one. You can get one up to level 15 by this weekend and I'll help you if you need it. Forum name is global.

The level of skill, patience, and craft required to play a stalker well is quite remarkable and refreshing in this game (PvP & PvE). It would be a shame to reduce it or buff it before it's matured.

Fluffy...

For once I agree with E.T.A

I remember back in Issue 5 when every one and their mom made a pistol scrapper and just sat around Atlas Park doing the /twirlgun emote over and over spouting lines from Dirty Harry.

Wait, frickin time machine did it again! I just erased my parents! Hmmm, that means I erased mys....

[ QUOTE ]
Voyeurs get to observe...

[/ QUOTE ]

Oh, believe me....I will be watching

Another pulling technique that you can do that is even safer is to go fishing for badguys with TP foe and a high perch. Pun intended.
If you miss? no big deal. They can't get to you. Thin the herd before you attack. Fishing is handy for thinning in the early levels.
TP Foe in the later levels is ideal for INV tankers with invincibility when surrounded by a group of baddies. You won't miss because of the accuracy boost and you won't get hit much. If you are rooted with Unyielding stance you can still gather enemies from far away without risking aggro transfer to your team. The ideal team-oriented tanker would have Taunt, TP Foe, and Provoke. (And maybe invoke panic when they release issue 3)

The other handy thing that teleport did was allow you to get under and through the geometry of the world. Ever been underneath the Atlas city representative who gives you the cape/aura missions? All you had to do to get "outside" the map was put your shoulder to a wall with the camera zoomed in and then when you zoomed out about an inch of your screen was seeing through the wall. Bingo, you could teleport through the wall and get to places no one else has been. They fixed it in update 2. I heard it was used to kill Hamidon as all you needed was a tp'er with recall friend and he could port 20 people under Hamidon and they could hit him through the ground but they couldn't be touched.