Energy Melee - A Comprehensive Stalker Guide

Part 1: Introduction

I started my Energy Melee Stalker about a month after City of Villains went live. I have a level 50 Tanker who uses Energy Melee as his secondary, so I am no stranger to the set. I solo mostly, but don't shy away from teaming, especially with my Super Group. One thing I do often, though I hesitate to admit it, is to just run newspaper missions over and over again for fast mission reward bonuses. It's an astonishingly fast way to level. I'm a fan of min/maxxing my builds, though I’m just as happy playing a more varied character. I suffered my fair share of deaths with this character on his way to level 40, but I average only about 1 per level (if not less), as I learn from my mistakes. My motivation for making my first guide, Martial Arts - A Comprehensive Guide, was that there weren't many to choose from to help me, but that's not the case with Energy Melee Stalkers. To that effect, I strive to make this guide as valuable and helpful as possible. With the success of my Martial Arts guide, I was inspired to write another one. So this guide is about the primary power set of my main character in City of Villains, Villainous. A fitting name, if ever there was one.

There's only one real approach to this set: fast, high damage to single targets. Stalkers put Scrapper 'boss-killers' to shame, and EM Stalkers put OTHER Stalkers to shame in the 'boss-killing' department. I will emphasize this point several times in the guide, but I can't stress your single-target uberness enough. One thing that is different between this guide and my last is the lack of a section for PvP. While I've played a decent amount, there isn't really anything worth noting in a separate section that can't be said elsewhere. Since I focused on my 'boss-killing' capabilities, it kind of went hand-in-hand with my 'hero-killing' capabilities.


Part 2: Powers

Energy Melee is a pretty impressive set to choose once you get to the higher levels. While it has an odd (but true) reputation of being the "pink pom-poms of death" set, don't be dissuaded by the eye-candy naysayers. They just envy you. EM is a bit different than the other sets because there are NO multiple-target attacks in the set. I'm a bit used to this since I play an MA Scrapper in CoH, but even HE has one AoE attack. What this means is that the rest of your attacks make up for it by dishing out high levels of pain to the one target it DOES hit. Another nice feature of EM is that part of the damage you deal with every attack is Energy-based. Not as many foes resist Energy attacks, while many resist Lethal and Smashing.

Before I list the powers, I will describe the format they will be presented in. After the power's name will be a series of smiley faces. This is my score for the power. It's a 5-point system, with 1 smiley being a useless power and 5 being absolutely crucial. Following the name will be a list of statistics. These can be largely ignored if you're not a number cruncher and just want to pick fun powers to use; my desriptions should be explanatory enough for casual gamers to get the jest of them. I also recommend slotting for the powers, but I'll leave some of the slots empty so you can make your own contributions.

For those who are not familiar with the Brawl Index measurement popularly used on the forums, it is a way to compare each power's damage output to one another. It's based on how much damage a power does compared to Brawl, which has a baseline score of 1. For example, Energy Punch's BI value is 2.7, which means it does 2.7x more damage than Brawl. Add 3 SO damage enhancements to EP (for a +95% boost to damage) and the Brawl Index goes up to over 5.

Barrage
Recommended Slots: 1x accuracy; 2x damage
Endurance Cost: 3.5 endurance
Activation Time: 1.3 seconds
Recharge Time: 2 seconds
Brawl Index: 1.9 Smashing/Energy damage
Status: minor Disorient (foe)
This is a pretty lousy power. It does low damage and should only be used as a filler attack in my opinion. If you build your Stalker like I did, though, you can replace it with Air Superiority, an infinitely more useful attack. Those recommended slots are only if you bother to take it.

Energy Punch
Recommended Slots: 1x accuracy; 3x damage
Endurance Cost: 5.2 endurance
Activation Time: 0.6 seconds
Recharge Time: 4 seconds
Brawl Index: 2.7 Smashing/Energy damage
Status: minor Disorient (foe)
Here we go, a more decent attack. This is more useful for finishing off lieutenants/bosses or dealing with minions. Pick this up as your first attack over Barrage. You may want a recharge enhancement in it eventually, because you'll only have a few consistent attacks if you follow my build. Aside from your big-hitters, you'll have this, Air Superiority, and Bone Smasher for finishing off enemies.

Bone Smasher
Recommended Slots: 1x accuracy; 3x damage; 1x recharge
Endurance Cost: 8.5 endurance
Activation Time: 1.5 seconds
Recharge Time: 8 seconds
Brawl Index: 4.6 Smashing/Energy damage
Status: moderate Disorient (foe)
Now we're talking! This is your first of many devastating attacks, and it's available at level 2! A critical hit with Bone Smasher at level 2 is a beautiful thing indeed. Often times in the early levels, this can be used as a follow-up to Assassin's Strike to defeat bosses.

Assassin's Strike
Recommended Slots: 1x accuracy; 3x damage
Endurance Cost: 14.3 endurance
Activation Time: 4 seconds
Recharge Time: 15 seconds
Brawl Index: 19.4 Smashing/Energy damage (on critical)
Here it is, the reason you picked a Stalker over any other archetype. If you're hidden and you use this attack, you'll do 6x more damage than normal. With this and Build Up, you can cripple a boss to the brink of defeat. I love it when I surprise my team in combat with AS. They hardly notice my stealthed form, and when the boss they are focusing on suddenly drops to 10% health, it takes them a moment to remember there's a Stalker in their team. Mua ha ha! Take this power as soon as you reach level 6. It will make getting to level 8 all the quicker. One tactic that you can use if you've got a recharge rate enhancement or two in it is to AS a boss, juggle him with Air Superiority and hit him with another attack while he's on his back, Placate him, then AS him again. I used to say Scrappers were the 'boss-killer' archetype, but they don't have anything on Stalkers!

Just like Blaster snipes, however, this power is interruptible. Keep this in mind, because if you're twitchy, you may move yourself and stop the animation, wasting endurance. If you're in a team, you have to be wary of cone attacks hitting you, too. As such, I suggest standing behind an enemy when you use this power.

Build Up
Recommended Slots: 1x recharge rate
Endurance Cost: 5.2 endurance
Activation Time: 0.7 seconds
Recharge Time: 90 seconds
Duration: 10 seconds
Status: +50% accuracy (self); +80% damage (self)
Build Up is how my groups know when to charge the enemy. I sit in the middle of a pile of mobs while they stand back. As soon as they see me activate this power, they know I'm about to assassinate a boss and bring all forms of hell upon my hidden self. I suggest slotting it with several recharge rate enhancements so you can use it as soon as Placate becomes available again. While Scrappers don't rely on Build Up to too much of a degree, it is a really useful power for Stalkers. Not only for the added damage to take out a boss quicker, but also to ensure your AS hits, thanks to the +50% accuracy boost it provides.

Placate
Recommended Slots: 1x recharge rate
Endurance Cost: 2.6 endurance
Activation Time: 1.5 seconds
Recharge Time: 60 seconds
Duration: 10 seconds
Range: 40 feet
This is another power to take as soon as possible. Placate makes life so much easier. Did you get the boss' attention despite the Brute on your team's best efforts? No problem! Placate him and then land a critical hit on his lieutenant buddy's head! 3 recharge rate enhancements makes the power even more useful in a team, since you will probably need to use it in combat more than once. "These are not the droids you are looking for."

If you're new to Stalkers and are confused by this power so far, I'll explain. This power is ranged and auto-hits your target. It makes the target no longer aggro you and lasts for 10 seconds. It also makes your next attack a critical hit, assuming nobody hits you in that time (every enemy can see you like normal except for the individual you Placated, so the others WILL attack). I emphasize "HITS you" because misses will not bring you out of your pseudo-hide state. This makes Energy Aura and Super Reflexes more advantageous than Regeneration in this respect. The following 10 seconds can be used in 2 ways. One way is to run from the enemy, assuming he is alone. If you get out of his range before Placate wears off, he will essentially forget you exist. This is good when fighting something that is threatening to faceplant you. The second way is to get a critical hit on one of the enemies near you. The Placated foe will still not see you right away even if you attack the guy next to him, so keep that in mind. And if he's alone, that means you'll have time to Assassin's Strike him. Confused yet? Don't worry, you have plenty of levels to get used to the power.

Stun
Recommended Slots: 1x accuracy
Endurance Cost: 10.2 endurance
Activation Time: 1.8 seconds
Recharge Time: 20 seconds
Duration: 15 seconds
Status: Disorient (foe)
Stun lands a high-magnitude disorient on enemies, and one application is enough to drunkify minions and lieutenants. Stun plus Total Focus will make just about anything dizzy. The damage of this power, though, is laughable. Never slot it for damage. Heck, never slot it period. I won't deny this is a half decent power, but I simply don't have the room for it. Placate seems to be good enough. I made it to 40 without it, so you can too. If you PvP a lot, you'll probably enjoy Stun more than me. In Aleksander's Energy/Energy PvP/PvE Stalker (v.1.0) guide, he attests to as much:[ QUOTE ]
...this can definitely put the damper on an unwary, toggle-happy defender or controller. IE, Hurricane-types. Something of a sticking point between PvP/PvE'rs, it doesn't have nearly as much use in PvE as it would in PvP, IMHO. If you have the chance to stick it in your build without putting yourself out from the other 'essentials' (as energy has alot of good powers), then grab it.

[/ QUOTE ]

Energy Transfer
Recommended Slots: 1x accuracy; 3x damage; 1x recharge rate
Endurance Cost: 10.2 endurance
Activation Time: 1 seconds
Recharge Time: 20 seconds
Brawl Index: 12.7 Smashing/Energy damage
Status: minor damage (self)
This is one of two reasons why you picked Energy Melee over any other primary set. Energy Transfer does a huge amount of damage in a very short amount of time. The endurance cost is decent for the damage it does, too. It takes a while to recharge, but with an enhancement or two in it, it'll be up quicker, which may not be a good thing considering its drawback. Said drawback is that it does a small amount of damage to you when you use it (on the order of about 7-8% of whatever your max life is). You CAN kill yourself with this power! I've done it before by clicking ET at the same time a boss hit me. The boss' attack would normally have brought me to a smidgen of life, but then ET sucks the rest of it away and before I know it, I'm in the Rogue Isles Hospital being counselled by the in-house psychiatrist. You can counteract the life-draining aspect of this power if you use it while hidden, but that replaces your extra critical hit damage. Yes, you heard me, this power does no extra damage when you use it while hidden. But does it really need to?

Total Focus
Recommended Slots: 1x accuracy; 3x damage; 1x endurance cost
Endurance Cost: 18.5 endurance
Activation Time: 3.3 seconds
Recharge Time: 20 seconds
Brawl Index: 9.9 Smashing/Energy damage
Status: Disorient (foe)
This is the second reason you picked EM instead of any other primary set. The damage of this power is on par with Energy Transfer. It takes considerably longer to activate, however, and costs nearly twice as much endurance. I suggest an enhancement to take care of that to a degree. It will always land a high-magnitude disorient effect on anyone you hit with it, plus a very high chance to land an additional minor disorient effect on top of that. This means you can stun bosses with just this one power! A critical hit with this will not yield double damage, unfortunately, but it's still a +30% boost. This means it has just about the same Brawl Index as ET if you use it while hidden. Imagine for a moment, if you will, the sheer damage you can do with Assassin's Strike, Energy Transfer, and Total Focus. Now why on earth would you want to play any other type of Stalker?

Fitness
Due to the nature of a Stalker's playstyle, you won't be in combat for lengthy amounts of time. All your endurance will be spent up front, and between readjusting your position, Placating and moving around, and fleeing to let yourself get hidden again, you will be given plenty of opportunities to recover your lost endurance. If you team a lot and find you have to resort to scrapping, you may find taking and slotting this power to be more useful than a soloer. As much as I dislike scrapping with my Stalker, I have to in a team quite a bit, so I slotted Stamina. Fortunately, I had the slots available.

Flight
Air Superiority fits beautifully into my build, as is mentioned above. It's a great power, doubly so for Stalkers. A common tactic I use on an enemy I don't want to fight is to hit them with Air Superiority, Placate them, then run. Sure it's cheap, but isn't that the point of Stalkers?

Concelment
Stealth stacks with Hide, which is great in PvP combat. It's not so useful in PvE, but there is a small amount of defense bonus from it, which is worth mentioning if your secondary set is defense-oriented. I won't go into length about the 2 powers stacking because there are plenty of other guides out there for PvP Stalkers.

Teleportation
Recall Friend is a very useful power for Stalkers if you plan on teaming up much. I use this power to assist my team with beelining it to the last room of a mission. It helps to skip a bunch of baddies if we find we're somewhat over our heads or such.


Part 3: Sample Build

This is the exact same build I use for my Stalker. It works incredibly well for me. I never needed to respec, so take confidence in knowing that as you rise in levels, the going will never be tough for you if you follow this build. That's not to say you'll err if you deviate, however.

[/b]01) -- Energy Punch -- Acc(1)Acc(3)Dmg(5)Dmg(11)Dmg(15)EndRdx(40)
01) -- Hide -- DefBuf(1)DefBuf(19)DefBuf(19)
02) -- Bone Smasher -- Acc(2)Acc(3)Dmg(5)Dmg(11)Dmg(17)EndRdx(37)
04) -- Kinetic Shield -- DefBuf(4)DefBuf(21)DefBuf(21)
06) -- Air Superiority -- Acc(6)Acc(7)Dmg(7)Dmg(13)Dmg(15)EndRdx(37)
08) -- Assassin's Strike -- Acc(8)Acc(9)Dmg(9)Dmg(13)Dmg(17)Rechg(37)
10) -- Combat Jumping -- EndRdx(10)
12) -- Placate -- Rechg(12)Rechg(25)Rechg(31)
14) -- Super Jump -- EndRdx(14)
16) -- Entropy Shield -- EndRdx(16)
18) -- Power Shield -- DefBuf(18)DefBuf(23)DefBuf(23)
20) -- Build Up -- Rechg(20)Rechg(25)Rechg(34)
22) -- Swift -- Run(22)
24) -- Hurdle -- Jump(24)
26) -- Energy Transfer -- Acc(26)Acc(27)Dmg(27)Dmg(29)Dmg(29)EndRdx(36)
28) -- Energy Drain -- EndMod(28)EndMod(36)EndMod(36)
30) -- Stamina -- EndMod(30)EndMod(31)EndMod(31)
32) -- Total Focus -- Acc(32)Acc(33)Dmg(33)Dmg(33)Dmg(34)EndRdx(34)
35) -- Recall Friend -- EndRdx(35)
38) -- Overload -- Rechg(38)Rechg(39)Rechg(39)Heal(39)Heal(40)DefBuf(40)


Part 4: Closing

I hope this guide can help aspiring Stalkers, if only to give you an idea of what Energy Melee is like. I had fun playing my Stalker up to level 40, and wish others to have as much fun as I did. The guide was fun to write, and if I think of anything else, I'll be sure to add it. Feel free to add comments, as I appreciate any and all feedback. If you find any errors with the numbers I gave, please, please, please let me know! I strive to make this guide as accurate as possible! You can reach me via private message on either the forums or in the game. My Global Chat handle is @Tulzar, and you can also drop me an e-mail in CoH or at transient1024@gmail.com.


~Works Cited
Energy/Energy PvP/PvE Stalker (v.1.0) by Aleksander, 11-07-05
Martial Arts - A Comprehensive Guide by Tulzar, 01-07-06
CoH/CoV Character Builder by Sherkhan (Sherk Silver), 12-23-05

Ya might want to mention in the title that this is for Stalkers... I was expecting info on an EM/Fire Brute I was planning.

Done! Now I need to do the same to my Scrapper guide.

Hmm, maybe in a future release of this guide I will make it compatible with Stalkers, Brutes, AND Tanks by adding a few things here and there...

Two things I don't understand

You are taking both Combat Jumping and Superjump (at levels 10 and 14). So why are you taking Hurdle at 24 to unlock Stamina? I think it make more sense to take Health instead so you get the bonus to your healing rate (since EA doesn't have any healing ability) since you don't need more jump height.

You go into great detail about how you feel about the EM Primary. However, you mention nothing about the EA secondary. I know you love some aspects of it, but it would be nice if you discussed it also.

Because this is an Energy Melee guide, not an EM/EA guide. And I chose Hurdle over Health for the movement benefit I get from Swift and Hurdle combined. The amount of healing I get from Health is comletely trivial for a Stalker, particularly when I don't have Dull Pain, thus incredibly low HP, and am a defensive set rather than resist or healing. If I'm in combat for long enough to Health to make a difference, then I'm not Stalking very well...

Now an /Inv Brute, on the other hand...

thanksyou.