Guide to Making/Playing a Spines/EA Stalker
By
Kolyma_Nova,
Posted on: 2006-06-03 11:29 in Player Guides
Energy Aura Set
Hide No option to not take
This is what makes you a stalker, If you dont take this power I will hunt you down and delete your character, but since youre required to take it I think youll be OK. 
Kinetic Shield Available at level 2
Provides defense to Smashing/Lethal/Energy attacks. You should pick up very early in the game since most enemy attacks are Smashing/Lethal.
Power Shield Available at level 4
Provides defense to Fire/Cold/Energy/Neg. Energy. Will become mandatory in the later levels but is pretty much useless in the lower levels. I would recommend picking it up in between the levels 16-20. After that, it becomes a very useful power and youll want to have it on as much as you can.
Entropy Shield Available at level 10
A lot like Power Shield, fairly useless at the low levels, becomes pretty much mandatory after the high teen levels. I would say to pick this power up in the 16-20 level range also.
Energy Protection Available at level 16
Not a very useful Power. I would recomend skipping it and using the slot to pick up a more usefull Pool Power (Will explain useful Pool Powers later).
Repulse Available at level 20
This is a situational power. It is pretty good for PvP and kinda good for PvE. I myself pass this power up in favor for a Pool Power or a power from my Primary/Secondary that I still need to pick up.
Energy Drain Available at level 28
This is the main reason you chose /EA as your secondary. Put two slots into this power at level 29 and Put three recharge reductions into it. After that youll want 2-3 Endurance Modifications. With three recharge reductions, it will be up for every new mob when you solo. If you put 1 end reduction into all your toggles and main attacks then this power will let you go without Stamina easily. Ill go into the best way to use this power on a Spine/EA in my strategy section.
Conserve Power Available at level 35
This power, coupled with E-drain will make sure that you dont need Stamina, which is good since that means you can take Aid Self which you DO need. I would suggest 3 Recharge Reductions.
Overload Available at level 38
Its like elude + dull pain...who in their right mind would skip it. The best way to slot this is with 3 recharge reductions and 3 defense Buffs. Youll want hasten so that you can run that after you click this power to shorten the down time. It also has a very easy-to-manage crash (You lose all Endurance). Just Pop a cab and use E-Drain on the next mob.
Pool Powers that I find useful
Flurry or Jump kick
Both of these powers are very useful before level 18. They will help you scrap it out. I would suggest taking one of these at level 10 as your pre-requisite for your travel power. Later you can respec out of them since they become less useful at level 18 and useless at level 26
Air Superiority
This is a great power. Coupled with Ripper, you can keep a boss almost permanently knocked down, which greatly will reduce the damage you take! I also like to use it before I use Placate or Aid Self. It makes it less likely that theyll get off an attack and interrupt your Aid Self or make your Placate not Hide you.
Hasten
Helps you get Overload and Conserve Energy up more times. Extremely useful
Strategies
Getting multiple enemies into your E-Drain (need at least 3 enemies in mob)
1) AS first Enemy
2) Use lunge on Second Enemy and immediately run to third.
3) Use Air Superiority on Third (Second enemy will most often start running toward you, although there are a select few who wont)
4) Position yourself so that you have both enemies in cone range and use Throw Spines
5) Once second Enemy runs into melee range use Ripper (should hit both if you position yourself)
6) use impale on third enemy
7) use E-Drain (can also be used as soon as second enemy runs into melee if your low on end)
8) Kill off enemies and use Aid Self
you just killed a mob of three enemies and ended with close to full health and full end. Now just rinse and repeat.
Taking out Bosses
I know that youre probably laughing at me right now but the first couple times I encountered a +1 our +2 boss I got the floor whipped with me. Then I came up with this strategy.
1) Kill all enemies that will aggro onto you when you attack the boss. You want to have a 1 v. 1 fight. This can be done by ASing the mob you want to kill then immediately Placating the boss, killing any other mobs that aggroed to you, running a decent distance from the boss and waiting for Placate to recharge.
2) Use Build Up + AS on boss, then proceed once through your attack chain
3) Once done with your attack chain, Placate the boss. If the Boss managed to hurt you a lot, run a decent distance from him and use Aid Self
4) When ready to start the fight again use another AS on the boss and use your attack chain again
5) By now he should be dead, if not, then just rinse and repeat every time Placate comes back up.
I hope that this guide was of some help to you. If you have any additional questions do not be afraid to send a PM to me and ask. Good luck on your hunting.
I think this is a good handy guide for aspiring Spines/EA stalkers.
I have a couple of quibbles, not to argue with you but just to offer an alternate viewpoint from someone who took one of these beasts to 40.
First, I would give Spine Burst three or maybe four smilies. It is all but worthless PvP, not very helpful solo, but is very helpful on teams, the bigger the better. If there are lots of enemies around (10+ or so), it can be your single most damaging power in terms of total damage done to all. That it will put the small -recharge and -speed debuff on everyone it hits is nice too -- hard to tell how much that actually helps but in the long run it probably helps more than you would think.
If you are playing with a Dom or Corruptor with debuffs or control, you can use it pretty safely if you wait until the middle or end of battle, when everyone else has attracted some aggro.
With an AoE Corruptor, your spine burst may hurt everyone just enough to ensure that the next AoE blast hits scourge territory and drops them all.
At any event, toward the end of a battle, a single spine burst may drop a bunch of foes so the single target brutes and stalkers don't have to go around and take out nearly dead foes one by one.
I agree that, apart from Barbs it is probably the Spines power to skip if you have to, but especially on big teams it is a big part of my Spines arsenal.
And I would give Repuse at least two smileys. It is kind of a carnival power, but at least it makes a lot more sense with a Spines than any other primary, because once you bounce them away you can immediately hit them with Impale and Throw Spines instead of chasing them down. It is certainly skippable, but I think it is fun to have if you take the time to figure out when to use it, and then remember to use it. I use it to knock things over ledges and balconies so I can concentrate on bosses, knock things into a corner for a good dose of Throw Spines, knock things onto ice slicks and into tar patches when teaming, and even to bounce enemy groups away from doorways so the dang MM minions clear the door 
Again, skippable, but it has a lot of non-intuitive uses that are fun to discover how to use.
As for pool powers: I decided to make a very "pure" Spines/Eng, which means I took every single power in Spines and Energy except for Barb Swipe. That left me with only three pool slots, where I took Air Sup (almost a must for the young Spines stalker), flight (need a travel power, good with Impale) and Stealth (for PvP).
That means I took Repulse (as described above) and even Energy Protection. I agree that EP probably rates only one smiley, but my logic is that I would not have to slot it, and could put those slots into my attacks for damage, accuracy, or recharge. (Repulse isn't slotted either, it is an endurance hog but I only use it in short bursts anyway instead of keeping it on, which is dumb for a stalker.) That sounds like and kind of is damning with faint praise -- it's not good but at least you don't have to slot it -- but I did in fact choose powers that would let me slot out the big damage attacks, and take as many damage attacks as possible, without being tempted to slot pool powers.
Thus in my build I have plenty of slots to max the damage and accuracy of my attacks. I don't have hasten, because my attack chain usually has something up and ready to use. As you suggest, hasten would be great for Overload and the two endurance powers in /energy, but I have found that I don't have any problems with endurance if I use Energy Drain and Conserve Power wisely, and three recharges in Overload brings it up often enough for me.
Again, not arguing, just glomming on to your efforts to write a guide to offer a different perspective because I myself am to lazy to write a whole guide. Good work.
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First, I would give Spine Burst three or maybe four smilies. It is all but worthless PvP, not very helpful solo, but is very helpful on teams, the bigger the better. If there are lots of enemies around (10+ or so), it can be your single most damaging power in terms of total damage done to all. That it will put the small -recharge and -speed debuff on everyone it hits is nice too -- hard to tell how much that actually helps but in the long run it probably helps more than you would think.
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I can really see your point. It's a big your mileage-may-vary power. Some people love it. Some hate it. I loved it on scrappers but I just hated the aggro it got me on Stalkers (I used it too much when not in ideal situations).
I also agree with you that it's easy to do without hasten but I have one power slot left over so I decided to get hasten since it would help with the other attacks too.
Thank you for providing a second opinion on these powers. Its hard to provide an unbiased opinion since a lot of powers are great for a person that likes to do things one way, but suck for someone who wants to do things another way. This is the first guide I've ever written and I am glad to have help.
Looks good from what I could read. Speaking of which... no offense but can you change it to colors people can read in CoH browser with out their eyes imploding from strain? Also thats alot of smileys, and it really detracts from the guide, why not use * for the rating instead.
This is a guide for Spines/EA Stalkers, other stalkers can use this guide to understand these powers, but the stratagies are strictly made for Spines/EA stalkers and will not always work as well as on other Stalkers (You can try though, they might). I have rated the powers from 1-5. Any powers that are rated 5, should definitely be taken. Test out the other powers before you decide to skip/take them since they might be good for your play style.
Spines Set
Barb Swipe Available at level 1
This is a very good ability for the lower levels, but becomes less useful once you get Ripper. It has very close to moderate damage when the Toxic damage kicks in, and along with Lunge, can be used to scrap it out with targets until you get Impale and Ripper.
Lunge Available at level 1
Very good power for a filler in your attack chain. Helps keep the Toxic DoT damage up when fighting Lethal/Smashing resistant enemies (common in the high levels). Also good in the low levels to compliment Barb Swipe when you want to scrap it out.
Spine Burst Available at level 2
Not a very popular power among Stalkers. Not a good power for use on teams because it pulls you too much aggro and you die easily (not great defense with /EA), and when solo you arent typically fighting enough enemies for it to be very good. There are soloers however, that like this power and you might too if you mainly solo.
Assassins Impaler Available at level 6
DO NOT SKIP! Get this power immediately at level 6, it is the reason you became a stalker and it makes soloing SOO much easier.
Build up Available at level 8
DONT SKIP THIS EITHER! This is another very manditory power. With Build Up + AS, youll be able to one-shot Lieutenants.
Placate Available at level 12
DO NOT SKIP (jeez, Im getting tired of saying that)! This is when youll finally feel like a stalker, this power makes one opponent stop attacking you and puts you back into Hide mode.
Impale Available at level 18
This power has a slightly long cast time but is well worth it. It is ranged, does great damage (high), and immobs the target. It also has a fairly good recharge time.
Ripper Available at level 26
This power does higher damage that Impale in a melee range cone, and usually knocks the targets down...are you even going to consider skipping it? Once you have Ripper you can consider doing a respec and losing Barb Swipe for something else since Lunge -> Ripper -> Impale -> Lunge will probably become your new scrapping attack chain.
Throw Spines Available at level 32
This is a good power while solo and while on teams (although you shouldnt use it too frequently on teams). It does moderate damage in a ranged cone that has good width and a good amount of depth. Great for solo since it costs low endurance (by now youll have Energy Drain anyways so Endurance isnt an issue), and does good damage. It also is used well in one of my Strategies which will be explained below.