Stalker PvP Guide (Energy Melee / Ninjitsu) -- v 2
By
Elernet,
Posted on: 2006-06-07 14:09 in Player Guides
Nice update to the original guide.
Ice and Elernet have to get together once you hit 50.
Have you tried out DM yet? What are your impressions?
great guide, i love it. I stumbled across it after making an EM/NIN stalker and have been using it as a basis for my build, i have changed a few things just because of personal preferance but i love it. I have a question for ya though, what are you going to do with the patron powers? who are you going to take and what powers from them are you going to pick up?
Great guide but you stated Caltrops doesnt have -fly/-jump but it does. I does however have to hit with at least 1 tick of damage for the -jump/-fly to take effect. Once the target takes the 1st tick of damage and until they stop taking damage from the caltrops they cannot jump or fly.
But good job and very detailed explanations.
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Great guide but you stated Caltrops doesnt have -fly/-jump but it does. I does however have to hit with at least 1 tick of damage for the -jump/-fly to take effect. Once the target takes the 1st tick of damage and until they stop taking damage from the caltrops they cannot jump or fly.
But good job and very detailed explanations.
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Thank you.
And yes, you are right about Caltrops. I actually was just too lazy to get into the details. 
It almost equates to them not having -Fly and -Jump vs good players IMO for all practical purposes.
Not a big deal at all, but it always makes me smile when I read it. In your paragraph about stun, you mention it is a "baseball bat animation" when its really a pitching animation. Freudian slip there
Firstly, great guide Elernet! i love the videos too. now, onto bigger and more pressing questions.
you wrote in your guide that you advise people to take stealth. does this line of thinking still apply given all the +perception powers that are out there for Recluse's Victory? i had stealth for the RV event and was still being seen by everyone...and that was before anyone even had access to Focused Accuracy. i eventually just quit using it, and was no worse off i thought. just wanted your opinion. my stalker is em/ea, but he is at 50 with nothing else to do, so i've started thinking about PvP again with him. also, you said in another thread that you've chosen a patron...is it a secret who you picked that you are waiting till the right time to unveil, or did i just miss seeing you mention who it was? my stalker is patronless atm, and i am not sure i wanna change that. anyways, thanks again in advance and good luck getting to 50
My patron is Black Scorpion for those who asked.
As far as Stealth and everything else goes, I rather hold up on that until I have been playing at 50 in RV and such for a bit. I am planning to write a different guide - and I already have my respec build for it - I just really don't like saying anything based on theorycraft. You know - test it first, only then advice people on it. Sorry. Give me some time.
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My patron is Black Scorpion for those who asked.
As far as Stealth and everything else goes, I rather hold up on that until I have been playing at 50 in RV and such for a bit. I am planning to write a different guide - and I already have my respec build for it - I just really don't like saying anything based on theorycraft. You know - test it first, only then advice people on it. Sorry. Give me some time.
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NO WE MUST GET AN ANSWER NOW!!!!!!ONEZOMG!!1ELEVENTYBILLION!!1
kidding, keep us posted and keep up the good work!
great guide
Nice guide! I don't suppose you have the numbers for the ninjitu secondary do you?
Oh and I downloaded one of your videos. Very cool! Shame one of my SG mates was one of your victims!
This guide represents my opinion on effecient PvP as a Stalker in general and as an EM Stalker in particular. Everything in this guide is taken from pure PvP perspective - and from PvP perspective only. It assumes some knowledge of the game and background concepts.
I can definately think of better leveling builds then this one - I just did not feel wasting a respec on that was worth it.
[GIANT EDIT: The guide have been updated by popular demand. This is version 2 so to speak. (The original guide can be found here.) This is NOT and I7 or preparation-for-RV guide. This is merely the update of the orignial. I also plan to write a different guide or another update once I7 is out for bit. (Yes, I know I7 just came out. This was actually written a few days ago, and I was just being slow about posting it.)]
THE TABLE OF CONTENTS:
IDEOLOGY
STALKER PRIMARIES
ENERGY MELEE
STALKER SECONDARIES
NINJITSU
TIPS AND TRICKS
MY BUILD:
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:
[color=/00ff00]PVP VIDEOS[/color]
IDEOLOGY
First, some general mind-set background...
PvP as a Stalker differs from that as any other avater since they are specifically designed as a stealthy hit-and-run assasination characters. In my opinion, this is exactly how one should play them. Get in, attack, get out. No, this does not just aply to AS, and by no means suggests only landing one hit or over-relying on the AS itself, but after the initial attack and a few follow-up moves, you should be out of there. I believe that a Stalker should focus on a brief, deadly, all-out assault. If the target is still alive and you think you can manage to finish them off fast enough, do it. If you have doubts, get out. Just come back in a minute and try again. This is especially true for an EM Stalker, who sports high front-loaded single-target damage with horrific recharges and endurance costs.
As far as running goes, some people will whine about you running and try to provoke you into staying instead. Just laugh it off. The bottom line is, there are many very good reasons why you can and should run when necessary. First, its a valid strategy that works wonders in a lot of situations regardless of what the whiners say about it. Second, everyone plays the game how they want to play it, and a simple "I felt like it" is a perfect explanation anyway. Third, think about it this way... As a Stalker - especially a Stalker that follows this type of guide - you invest heavily into your mobility. You spend power-choices, slots, and such on it. You do so to be able to escape from people and to catch people with ease whenever necessary. Meanwhile, you sacrafice the "alternative cost" of taking up a few additional combat-related powers or slots instead. Your opponents, on the other hand, often have not made the same choice. They invested more in combat and less in mobility. And thats fine and dandy - but not a reason for them to whine when they can not compete with you in either catching you or running away from you. Its the price they paid. Simply put - "If you can not catch me or run away from me, that's your problem."
Now, certainly, one can scrap with a stalker - and even do so very successfully - but only in limited situations. Most of the time in buzy PvP zones you will be ganged up upon if you try to fight it out with someone. Even in one on one duel-style fighting, the best way for Stalker to fight is to kite and rehide whenever possible (and well-timed Placate is the key).
Anyway, in light of all this, I believe that one should maximize Stalker's offensive capabilities and not worry about defense as much. I understand that many people try to build defense up a lot - especially those used to scrapper-type combat, but for assassination-focused Stalkers it comes down to this:
- Often, if you have stuck around long enough for your defensive bonuses to matter, you have stuck around too long in the first place. ***
Note: I know that there are many players - good players - who would disagree with all of the above. That is perfectly fine. Please understand that this guide is geared towards those who do agree, and that you are more then welcome to simply continue onto some other guide that suits your views better.
STALKER PRIMARIES
This is MY PERSONAL BIASED VIEW on how the Stalker Primaries currently compare against each other. Please, do not be offended by it if you disagree.
As things stand right now, I believe (again, my opinion) there are 3 Stalker primaries which are most successful in PvP.
Energy Melee:
+ Energy Melee (EM) is the highest straight up front-loaded single-target damage set. It hits the hardest. It also disorients (and thus detoggles) the target, which is extremely useful. EM also does Energy/Smashing damage which is pretty nice, since it is not as resisted as some of the other types (pure Lethal or Smashing damage for example).
- The main downside of EM is its total lack of range of any kind. Also, it has very slow recharge rates - limiting EM's effectiveness in any sort of prolonged encounter. It has heavy endurance costs. It has less attacks then some of the alternatives - having Stun instead of one. Finally, it lacks any AoE.
Spines:
+ Spines is *the* ranged choice of Stalker Primaries. It does pretty good damage, has pretty good speed, and it has a Toxic damage component, which is the least resisted of all Stalker damage types. But the best part is that Spines has very nice range capabilities. It is easilly the best over-all Primary from pure ranged Stalker perspective. Spines has Immobilize and -Fly which are both neat.
- Spines is a very well-rounded set and does not have any striking down-falls. That said, DoT components in attacks is one sometimes. But basically, its the tradeoffs - the exact opposites of its upsides. Its not as damaging as EM but not as fast as Claws, etc.
Claws:
+ I am a big fan of Claws, despite the popular outlook. The way I see it, Claws is sort of half-way between Spines and EM. It is the hybrid melee-range choice. Claws is a very fast attack set, both in terms of move animations and recharge times - and will be even more so once I7 is live. Thus it can be very dangerous. Claws has very nice endurance costs, and thus is also a neat scrapping set, allowing one to duke it out more with border-line targets. Finally, Claws has Focus - arguabely the single best PvP attack for which I personally have a weak spot. It easilly brings a squishy to half life if it crits with build-up - that is, from range. It also knocks targets down, has incredibly fast recharge rate, and is very dangerous used properly. Focus + Hasten + Quickness + 3DMG/3ACC/1RCH is a thing of terror in many a situation.
- The main downside of Claws is its Lethal damage type - which is highly-resisted. Also - save for AS and Focus - its single attacks are not as heavilly-damaging, as a trade of to their speed.
Out of these three choices, EM is probably the most effective Primary versus Tanks, Scrappers, Brutes, certain MasterMinds, and other Stalkers - due to its burst damage output. Spines is probably overall best versus squishy targets - if just because its that much easier not having to chase good kiting squishies all over the place. For example, if the target is moving, it is very easy to follow up your initial AS with a ranged attack from Placate for a finisher - without having to catch up again as with EM. (And if the target is standing still and is a squishy, any Stalker of any AT will pretty much take them out provided he knows what he is doing.) Again, Claws is sort of in between IMO.
Martial Arts and Ninja Blade:
Well, to be honest I do not think these two are on par with the other three at least for the time being. They do decent damage and have nice perks and all that, but they just don't have anything special about them and do highly-resisted types of damage. Basically, I could say that as all-melee sets they are simply not quite on par with EM - while lacking great ranged capabilities of Spines or Claws to make up for it. Currently, there are 3 melee-only sets, one ranged set, and one hybrid-melee-range set. There are many trade-offs to consider when choosing which way to go - but if one does end up selecting the melee-only route, EM is the obvious choice of the 3. I like both MA and NB and I have definately seen people do great in PvP with them, but all things considered I would not advice them from a pure PvP perspective.
ENERGY MELEE
I use Energy Melee, so this is what I will go over. I rate each power out of 5, as well as provide insight on its uses and effectiveness. Also, I will offer some advice on slotting.
Barrage - 1 - This is a decent power at the beginning levels, yet as you level up, it fades away due to its negligable damage and disorient. I would not take this power for one simple reason - at any point in level-up process, there is always a better thing to add to you character then a very week attack like this. In fact, Air Superiority and even Kick might be better easilly-accessible alternatives. If you still decide to take it, I would not waste too many slots on it - unless you have no better options and really don't know what to do with them.
Energy Punch - 3 - (EP) Decent damage, very fast activation, slight disorient. This attack is not that great overall either. However, given that you have to take one of Barrage or Energy Punch anyway, this is definately the way to go. It does more damage, has better disorient, and can actually be used in your attack chain at high levels with some success - although mostly as last resort. This is what you should pick at level 1 without question. I would suggest 4-5 slotting EP. 2-3 ACC, 2-3 DMG. 6 slot it if you have the slots to spare, but remember - it will not be one of your main moves later on. If you lack the slots and only have a couple on it, I would go with ACC. Its damage is not significant enough to make a whole lot of difference in late-game anyway, and its better to ensure it hits when it matters.
Bone Smasher - 4 - (BS) This is your next offensive move. Just like Energy Punch, it is very fast (although a bit slower then EP itself) and it deals more damage with better disorient. Again, nothing spectacular, but I would strongly suggest taking it. You see, since later on EM has a Stun option instead of an offensive move, it does not have as many damage moves as some of the other primaries. So, taking this move can be very important for an attack chain, and it is EM's 4th attack in terms of damage after all. (Note: If you play other ATs with Bone Smasher, don't be fooled by the name - the Stalker's version is nowhere near as good. Just get used to it.) I 6 slot BS - again, since EM does not have too many attacks overall I believe it a good investment to slot well the few ones we do get. 3 DMG + 3 ACC or 3 DMG + 2 ACC + whatever.
Assassin's Strike - 5 - (AS) I don't really need to say anything. If you don't know what this is, look it up. If you don't take this and slot this, don't play a Stalker. That is all. However, I would like to note that this is still not a be-all end-all make-a-stalker move. In fact, it is very far from it. Fist of all, thats a myth in principle. No single move makes a Stalker, and if you disagree with this, I advice you to not play one - you will likely not do well. Second, Placate is actually much closer to that role. But anyway, the point is that you should try to avoid over-relying on AS if you want to really do well. At least, don't rely on it as an opener. Its great for taking out mediocre opponents, but in a good match-up it is often more useful mid-fight after Placate then at the start. Oh, its definately an amazing move if used right - by all means - but don't get too obsessed with it. Absolutely, 6 slots. Again, 3 DMG + 3 ACC or 3 DMG + 2 ACC + whatever.
Build-Up - 5 - (BU) Again, a must have power. Build Up greately increases your damage and accuracy for 10 seconds - though more so the damage then the accuracy. Build up has many uses, ranging from standard pre-AS setup (or pre-whatever-opener setup) to helping any of your lower-accuracy moves hit in a critical situation. As an example, Build-Up + Energy Transfer followed by Bone Smasher and maybe one other attack will roughly kill a Defender or Controller in Siren's Call (depending a bit on zone and personal buffs, and given 3 lvl 43 DMG SOs on powers). Build-Up, TF, and ET will do the same in Warburg. I suggest either 1 or 3 or 6 slots on BU. If you leave BU be it is pretty decent as is, but putting 3 recharges in it lets you use it that much more often, which can be nice as you will often Build-Up just to see the situation change or target move and waste it. You could also slot it with up to 3 ToHit Buffs if you have the spare slots. This will help a lot versus heavy-defense targets, and may also vary a little on how you slotted the rest of your attacks. Basically, just put as many slots as you can into BU and fill them up with RCH and THB as you prefer.
Placate - 5 - Ah, Placate. IMO, this is your single best power. Placate prevents a single target from being able to target and attack you for a few seconds, as well as puts you in a pseudo-hide (you can be seen by anyone with any perception, but you still crit as if hidden). This is an extremely versatile and useful power. It can be used mid-fight to get a critical on next attack (this is where we EM's envy Focus), or to perhaps set-up for an AS (this is hard if enemy is good, but effective and helps vs high-perception targets), or to run away from a loosing fight or a sketchy situation, or to simply exclude one enemy from attacking you and proceed to kill another (I have won scraps 1 on 2 with this - without even an initial jump, combined with Stun and chance disorients). The icing on the cake - Placate is ranged. This is especially crucial to an EM Stalker who is all-melee. Furthermore, Placate has no accuracy check, meaning 100% reliability. (Very nice vs bubblers and tier-9 defenses, BTW) Absolutely, a must have power. You do not really need to slot Placate with anything. It does wonders already. You could slot is with RCH, but if you are using 2 Placates in a single fight, chances are you should not be in that fight to begin with - see ***. If you have spare slots, you could also slot it with Range, which is actually pretty neat if you can spare the slots - since that allows you to fire it off that much earlier as you approach someone or as they approach you.
Stun - 3 - Stun does exactly that - it puts a high magnitude disorient on the target. Technically, Stun does damage, but it is laughable. This can be extremely effective as it essentially gives the target to you to play with for about 7 seconds. Also, you can enchance stun, making it last for up to 14 seconds or so. (I believe there may be some changes to these numbers in I7 but don't quote me on it) However, there are two catches. First, Stun is slow - very slow. It has a baseball bat animation and takes a couple of seconds to activate. Second, a single Break Free inspiration (BF) or sufficient disorient protection - whether personal or from external buffs - will render Stun useless and a waste of valuable time that could have been spent laying on the hurt. On the positive note, Stun can be used as an alternative to Air Superiority - no, it does not apply -Fly, but it applies disorient instead, so if disorient goes through the target will have to react very fast to avoid hitting the ground. I think Stun is very much a matter of taste. I have it, and I like it. It has single-handedly won me many a fight - however, it has also been completely useless in many others. Rating of 3 is not very reflective - its more like 1 or 5 depending on the situation. If you do take Stun, you pretty much want to 6 slot it - 3 ACC (since it has such slow activation and is usually crucial to land) and 3 Disorient Duration (since 14 seconds are way better then 7 and its an all-or-nothing type of deal in most cases anyway).
Energy Transfer - 5 - This is your 2nd most damaging attack after AS. In fact, it does very comparable damage. It is also lightning fast to activate. Again, there are two catches. First, it eats up a small portion of your life to execute. (No, it does not do that on a miss.) Second, it does not crit from hide. Instead, it doesn't eat up your HP if executed while hidden. However, its damage is very impressive as it is. As mentioned above, I have killed countless squishies without using AS at all - largely thanks to this move. This is one of the best attack moves in the game, and I very strongly recommend you take this power. 6 slot - again, 3 DMG + 3 ACC or 3 DMG + 2 ACC + whatever.
Total Focus - 4 - This is another very high damage attack, your 3rd highest damage move, just below ET. And yet again, two catches. Extremely slow activation time is one - you jump in the air and slowly land and smack the target with your hands - couple seconds wasted. Partial critical from hide is another - about 30% damage increase. Crit on TF is roughly the same damage as ET. Regardless, I strongly advice picking this power up of course. As for slotting, there is a slight catch. I have it 6 slotted just like the rest, but if you really need the slots, you might reconsider this for the time being for the following reason - you can only use this in Warburg for now. On Virtue for instance, not many people are often in Warbugn to begin with - so it might be worth considering how often you go there. (NOTE: With I7 coming up, this last comment is much less valid of course.) Just like the rest of attack moves, I recommend 3 DMG + 3 ACC or 3 DMG + 2 ACC + whatever.
STALKER SECONDARIES
I think that Stalker Secondaries are actually pretty well-balanced against each other, and all of the options are very nice. Just pick whichever you prefer. I picked Ninjitsu for its most offensive nature (Blinding Powder) and for its versatility (a heal, +perception power, decent defense, offence again - all in one). Also, I like Kuji-In Retsu / Elude better then MoG or Overload. Finally, I dislike defense - see ***, and I dislike toggles (since they are dropped so easilly by many people, at least until I7) - therefore, I really dislike defensive toggles. However, this is a matter of opinion and if you favor a different secondary - the power to you.
NINJITSU
I am going to run down the list of all the Ninjitsu powers in the same fashion as I did for Energy Melee.
Hide - 5 - You have this by default. Case closed. Slot-wise, I do not slot Hide - see ***, but its up to you really.
Ninja Reflexes - 3 - Melee defense, Sleep, Confuse, Disorient protection. A good power to take if you like to scrap. I don't - see *** - so I did not pick it. However, without it I do sometimes miss the status protection. The reason for still not picking it is simple - why spend a power on something I can eat a 50 infamy inspiration for? If you PvP well, half a tray of BFs will last you for many long hours. (Yes, it takes time to learn not to chug them all away in first 5 minutes and to avoid needing them in many cases, but once you get it down its not bad at all.) Slots are totally up to you.
Danger Sense - 5 - Danger Sense is a great power in the spirit of Ninjitsu's versatility. You get ranged defense - very useful as after you get a kill, you often have angry teammates of the victim shooting all sorts of things at you as you escape. You get AoE defense - which is double useful both for not getting hurt and for having better chances to AS anyone with AoE aura (Spines Scrappers, etc.) and for perhaps landing that de-toggling Stun on that Hurricaner on a fly-by. Finally, you get +perception, and a darn good one at that, which is of course great for seeing Stealthed heroes, as well as some Stalkers in Warburg. You can combine this with Leadership perception to see Hide+Stealth ones too. So, I favor this power a lot. However, I do not slot it - again, see *** - but also again, is really up to you.
Caltrops - 3 - You throw caltrops on the ground that slow enemies down. No, these do not have -Fly or -Jump. So, they are very situational. I used to have them but re-specced out of them. They are very effecient vs SuperSpeeders, not much vs anyone else - and a lot of people have more then one travel power anyway. However, they do help you in certain situations. Caltrops also gain some effeciency from the surprise factor - for example, many people instinctively run after an AS. They don't consider other means of escape and don't think about the caltrops. If you have a power to spare I would pick them up, but I would not rate them a high-priority power - I did not have space for them in my build after all. If you take them, you likely want to 3 slot them with SpeedReduction. If you really have lots of slots to spare, you could add Recharge.
Kuji-In Rin - 4 - Confuse, Sleep, Disorient, Hold, and Fear protection - and Psionic damage resistance. This is a very nice power to have, as it saves you from a lot of status effects. However, note the same question as with Ninja Reflexes - excepting Psionic damage resistance, a BreakFree will do just as well, and can be used while under the effects unline Kuji-In Rin. Thus, after much consideration and indecision I did not pick this power. Yet if you dont want to worry about status effects you might like it. Also, note that this is not a toggle - it is a couple minute activated buff. This means it can not be toggle-dropped, which is great - but, you have to pre-emptively time its usage right. Slot however you wish. A lot of people slot this with Recharge rates, allowing them to pretty much keep the power on permanently. (NOTE: if you slot it with 3 RCH, the power will self-stack. This is very neat for those rare ocasions when you know you are going into a real tough situation - for instance if you plan to attempt a solo gank on a 8-man controller-heavy team. You can time this power right to have 2 instances of it on you as you go in.)
Kuji-In Sha - 5 - This is a heal. A good heal. Enchanced, it heals me for about half my HP at lvl 40. Also, it adds resistance to Toxic damage, which is neat because it helps vs say Spine Scrappers. They hurt you, you heal and you get resistance to further hurt for a short bit. I definately suggest taking Kuji-In Sha - it has saved my life countless times and tipped the scales to win a fight countless times more. You probably want to 3 slot this with Healing. Again, if you have the slots, add in some Recharge.
Smoke Flash - 2 - PBAoE kind-of-Placate. Sounds good at first, yet has a lot of issues. First of all, this does not pseudo-hide you - meaning it can only be used as an escape means and not offensively. Second, it is an AoE attack which means it is not as accurate - and yes, this one does have an accuracy check unlike the real Placate. Third, it has long activation time. All that considered, I think an additional travel power choice or Phase Shift or even a simple defensive power might be a better investment in terms of escape and survivability. If you do decide to take this, you want to 3 slot is with ACC most likely.
Blinding Powder - 4 - An arc AoE attack that is essentially a confuse and a sleep in one. The confuse on it is a bit flaky. Regardless, Sleep is what makes the power nice in first place anyway. This is a good power to have - especially considering that it is ranged and EM is melee-only set, so it compliments us extremely well. Furthermore, it is very nice to have an offensive capability from a Stalker secondary - a ranged sleep, no less, at that. Sleep is very useful because on one hand few people resist it and on the other it completely de-toggles the target. As far as breaking-on-damage goes - that should not be a big issue for Stalkers given our heavily burst-oriented damage. I suggest taking BP if you can. However, due to its AoE nature, it is not too accurate, so it needs to be slotted with 3 ACC to be effective in PvP.
Kuji-In Retsu - 5 - This power gives you huge defense bonuses of all kinds, gives you a very notable speed boost, a not-as-notable but still nice jump boost, and a very nice endurance recovery boost. You can often go into a group of enemies with stacked perception, AS one of them with follow ups, and get out all while being shot/hit at. The downside is that once it wears off, which takes 3 minutes, you have 0 endurance with 0 endurance recovery for about 10 seconds - so you have to time when to use this right. Regardless, this is definately a great power to have. I do not slot it as it is great already and I don't have the slots - however you certainly can if you would like to.
TIPS AND TRICKS
A few other notes..
Slotting powers - I slots all attack powers with 3 DMG and 3 ACC since I am very hit-and-run oriented and those are the two things that matter the most there. One ACC can easilly be substituted for recharge rate, or endurance cost, or whatever you like without too big a difference. Some people choose to go with 4 DMG and 2 ACC instead - the argument being that having that 5% extra damage just might make the difference between a near-dead and dead-for-real target in certain cases.
Travel Powers - Travel powers are very much a matter of personal preference. However, I suggest [color=/00ff00]Teleport[/color]. Teleport is best escape means of all the travel powers, although it is hard to use - especially in confined spaces. Also, you get [color=/00ff00]Teleport Foe[/color] which is very useful for Stalkers in general and for EM in particular - since we lack ranged attacks, it is nice to just TPFoe a near-dead enemy to you to finish them off. Also,
TPFoe + Stun + Placate + BU + AS + whatever, or
TPFoe + BU + ET + whatever to get right into damage
are both great combos that work wonders on many targets. Also, TP in + take out a target + TP out is fast, hard to stop, and - even if enemies have perception - very hard to see coming. Finally, TP has an inherent Hover just after each teleport built-in, which is just enough to get an AS off. So BU + TP + AS will often let you AS people standing on say Caltrops or similar things.
Other good power to pick up is [color=/00ff00]Intimidate[/color]. Not many people resist it and if enchanced it lasts for about 8 seconds which can be a nice substitute to Stun. It also has notably faster activation and is ranged - and once again, anything ranged is terrific for EM. So, having a ranged mez is to compliment our melee-oriented damage is a good choice. However, it has the same downfall with Stun - BreakFrees - and it also requires you taking another pre-requisite power ([color=/00ff00]Challenge[/color] likely) which you will almost never use in your life as a Stalker. Again, nice things you can do:
Mid Air: Intimidate + fly up + Placate + BU + AS + follow ups
Mid Air: Intimidate + fly up + BU + ET + follow ups
TPFoe + Intimidate + Placate + BU + AS + follow ups
My other travel power is [color=/00ff00]Fly[/color], which is totally a matter of preference. I like the vertical element, and it lets me escape from many people who dont have it after kills. It also allows me to get a lot of mid-air kills and to get to some people whom I would never be able to touch otherwise (nice to detoggle Hurricaners for instance) Also, if you choose fly, get [color=/00ff00]Air Superiority[/color] as your first power in that set. (Hover is not that useful for a Stalker anyway, as you can learn to insta-stop Fly by tapping "move backwards") AirSup does decent damage, applies -Fly, and (arguably most importantly) does a knockdown. How to kill a tank (or a Dull Pained Scrapper) without giving them much chance to heal?
BU + [optional travel in Fast] + AS + ET + AirSup (target falls fown) + Placate (target is still getting up) + BS + EP
This is interruptable of course, but one has to react and think incredibly fast to get out of it. If the knockdown goes through, this works pretty nicely. It works on other ATs too of course, but it is usually better to just procede with straigh-up damage after ET with most.
NOTE: I all of the above examples, remember that TF can be inserted at various points if you are in Warburg to make for yet more neat combinations.
MY BUILD:
Please note that the order in which I put things into slots may be off. (If you want DMG first and ACC later go for it. If you want ACC first and DMG later - also go for it. Whatever makes leveling up easier for you.)
I also tend to often swap between 3 THB and 3 RCH in BU depending on what I am doing.
01 : Hide EndRed(01)
01 : Energy Punch ACC(01) ACC(13) ACC(13) DMG(17) DMG(17)
02 : Bone Smasher ACC(02) ACC(3) ACC(3) DMG(5) DMG(5) DMG(11)
04 : Danger Sense EndRed(04)
06 : Assassin's Strike ACC(06) ACC(7) ACC(7) DMG(9) DMG(9) DMG(11)
08 : Build Up Recharge(08) Recharge(39) Recharge(34)
10 : Air Superiority ACC(10) ACC(40) ACC(40)
12 : Placate Recharge(12)
14 : Fly EndRed(14) EndRed(15) EndRed(15) Fly(25) Fly(25) Fly(40)
16 : Stealth EndRed(16)
18 : Stun ACC(18) ACC(19) ACC(19) Disorient(36) Disorient(37) Disorient(37)
20 : Kuji-In Sha Heal(20) Heal(21) Heal(21)
22 : Teleport Foe ACC(22) ACC(23) ACC(23)
24 : Teleport EndRed(24)
26 : Energy Transfer ACC(26) ACC(27) ACC(27) DMG(29) DMG(29) DMG(31)
28 : Challenge Taunt(28)
30 : Intimidate ACC(30) ACC(31) ACC(31) Fear(37) Fear(39) Fear(39)
32 : Total Focus ACC(32) ACC(33) ACC(33) DMG(33) DMG(34) DMG(34)
35 : Blinding Powder ACC(35) ACC(36) ACC(36)
38 : Kuji-In Retsu Recharge(38)
01 : Brawl ACC(01)
01 : Sprint EndRed(01)
01 : Rest Recharge(01)
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:
A lot of people contact me asking the same things - not just here but via PMs and in-game. So here goes..
1) Do you find the lack of Stamina a hinderance?
No, I do not find the lack of stamina Stamina a problem. I run a total of 3 toggles - Hide, Danger Sense, and Stealth with 1 Endurance SO in each. On top of that, I run Fly with 3 Endurance SOs (and 3 Fly Speeds, but thats irrelevent). All of my SOs are +3. That allows me to fly around with all 3 toggles on with my endurance pretty much staying the same. It does not recover unless I land, but does not go down either. (Technically it does, but so slow its not notable. From what I have seen when I go AFK, it takes a couple of hours of non-stop flight with all 3 toggles on. But here is the thing - you do not necessarily need to run all your toggles all the time in PvP. Not at all. Turn them on and off as needed. Heck, I fly around without anything on - not even Hide or Stealth - just to recover endurance when the zones are not too busy sometimes. My fights are short, and I don't run out during the actual encounters. However, if you take more toggles then I did (and - again - plan to run them all at once), you might want to consider taking Stamina indeed. It is a very nice power, I just did not have 3 power choices to spare for it.
2) What do you think about Stealth? Is it worth it?
I advice people to take [color=/00ff00]Stealth[/color]. It makes a big difference in PvP. Can you PvP effeciently without Stealth? Yes, you definately can - and yes, I even made a video just to prove that point. You can still get plenty of kills, using the landscape and whatnot - and overall its still very playable. However, does taking Stealth help you? Incredibly so. You get way more kills, way faster, and you escape much more reliably. It is very useful, and it just makes your life easier.
3) How often do you have to refill your inspirations fighting in the open PvP zones without Mez protection? And what about KnockBack and such?
As far as KB, KD, and KU go, Ninjitsu does not have protection against them to begin with unfortunately. Acrobatics provides some of it, but Acrobatics is another tier-3 pool power that I am not willing to afford. How do I deal with it? I use Fly, which helps greately versus these effects. Yes, this is another part of the reason for choosing it as my travel power. BreakFrees take care of everything else. In terms of usage, 15 BFs will usually last you at least 5 hours on a busy SC day on average - once you are practiced to be economical with them as a Stalker. If you are mezzed, don't be rushing to pop inspirations right away. Learn to evaluate the situation. If its a single controller on you, wait until you are very low life - you can always pop one then, hit your heal and proceed to either kill the guy or escape depending on the situation. Just be conservative about when you use them, and you will do fine after some practice. Also, once you get used to it, you will be able to pop a BF near-instantaneously when you need it.
4) Does relying on BFs instead of mez protection not mean that you will be toggle-dropped all the time?
Yeah, it does. Do I care? No. Exactly which of Fly, Danger Sense, Hide, or Stealth - which are all my toggles - do I really need up once I am already engaged with an enemy? Pretty much none. On the other hand, if - unlike me - you run some toggles that are crucial to your game-play, then I would not advice going the no-mez-protection route.
5) Is this a respec build? It seems very tough to play in PvE..
No, it is not a respec build. I leveled with it. As far as PvE in general, its not that bad actually. Solo, it works out okay because I have 3 mezzes and 3 one-hit shots on white cons using BU. Thats 6 mobs out of equation. On the teams, I play very much like I PvP - come in, take out a boss, run away and rehide, rinse, repeat. I would say I do best solo or on 8-man teams. Teams of 2-4 are the toughest. All that being said, I definately do have a severe issue with Endurance in PvE without Stamina. What can I say, I rest a lot.
[color=/00ff00]PVP VIDEOS[/color]
As a graphical tutorials of sorts..
NOTE: Please don't stream these. If you get an error, thats likely because your computer is trying to stream them instead of downloading the files. You want to download the files to your Hard Drive. If you don't know how to do it, go to http://www.thatslyfe.com/~elernet and choose the files directly. (Copy/Paste that into your browser if the link does not work for you either) Once you see the directory listing, download the files manuall. (Right click + Save As in Internet Explorer)
This was the 1st video in the series - and the most straight-forward one. Just a bunch of good fight clips and fun PvP moments.
Elernet's PvP Video 1 - Death Lurks in The Shadows - High Quality
Elernet's PvP Video 1 - Death Lurks in The Shadows - Medium Quality
Elernet's PvP Video 1 - Death Lurks in The Shadows - Low Quality
The 2nd video was made as an encouragement of sorts to all the Stalkers dismayed by the upcoming RV zone and the alleged incapability of Stalkers to perform well in it due to Hero-side perception. Basically, it is a video done without using Hide or Stealth at all.
Elernet's PvP Video 2 - The Invasion of The Visible Stalker Horde - High Quality
Elernet's PvP Video 2 - The Invasion of The Visible Stalker Horde - Medium Quality
Elernet's PvP Video 2 - The Invasion of The Visible Stalker Horde - Low Quality
Elernet's PvP Video 2 - The Invasion of The Visible Stalker Horde - Very Low Quality
The 3rd video mainly focuses on editing, timing, and overall movie-making detail - so rather then picking the best clips PvP-wise, I was going with the best-fit ones editing and music wise. If you are looking for pure funness of fight-scenes, watch the 1st one instead. This one was a new approach as an alternative to simply stringing together the best-looking clips I have.
Elernet's PvP Video 3 - Good Morning, Sunshine - High Quality
Elernet's PvP Video 3 - Good Morning, Sunshine - Medium Quality
Elernet's PvP Video 3 - Good Morning, Sunshine - Low Quality
Hopefully you guys like them. For all 3 videos, I very strongly recommend getting the High Quality versions - or at least the best possible versions that you can afford downloading. In some of them, the difference is rather drastic.
The sound starts after the titles in 1rst and 3rd video and a few seconds into the game-play in the 2nd. That is intentional.
You will need the latest version of Microsoft MPEG4 V2 and XVID codecs to play all the files.
Thank you to everyone appearing in the videos. No clips were selected on purpose and the only character consideration used was to ensure that no single character appears more then once as a target in the videos. Thanks to Carnal Shadow for the soundtrack idea for Video 3. Finally, many thanks to Slyfe for graciously providing the web-hosting for all this. An alternative route to download all the videos is through his website, which contains all his and mine clips.
Well, that's about it. Wow, I wrote a lot... I am going to not check spelling / grammar of it all now
[Edit: Actually, since this is version 2 now I did a little, haha]
Good luck to all the Stalkers out there!
"Time to die."
[color=/ff0000]Elernet
40 EM/Nin Stalker
Virtue[/color]