Guide to Making/Playing a Spines/EA Stalker v. 2
By
Memphis_Bill,
Posted on: 2006-07-24 09:39 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 useful 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. * (But I heard that its much more useful if you PvP)
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. 3RECH 2-3 ENDMOD*****
Conserve Power Available at level 35
Many people dont like this power because its up for 1.5 minutes and takes a long time to recharge. However, if youre already going to be taking Hasten then I would strongly suggest that you take this power since with Hasten and 3 recharge reducers, this power becomes a lot more useful. It is also great for dealing with the crash from Overload. I would suggest 3 Recharge Reductions. *****
Overload Available at level 38
This power increases your regeneration rate, caps your defense, and gives you a considerable HP boost. The +regen is good enough that I dont usually have to worry about using E-Drain while I have this running (in fact, Ive noticed that in a lot of battles I actually GAIN end durring the battle). The only hole in this power is that it doesnt give defense to psi damage; however, if Im going to encounter an enemy that uses psi, I usually just take a purple pill and thats enough to keep me on my feet long enough to kill the enemy (and since Overload increases your HP it still helps a lot against Psi enemies).
The most used way to time this power is to use Hasten at the same time and then when Hasten drops you have about 30 seconds left of God-Mode. The crash on this power is extremely easy to manage: all you have to do is pop a blue pill, use conserve power, then use E-Drain on the next mob and youre at full end again. Ive even had it drop in the middle of battles and barely taken extra damage since you can get your toggles on again so quickly. If you take Hasten then you can activate Hasten and Overload at the same time, When Overload drops you activate Hasten and Conserve Power, and when Hasten comes back up Overload should be up again. Suggested slotting is 3RECH 1HEAL 2DEFBUFF (you should not slot more than one health SO since one will bring you so close to the HP cap that you only gain another hundred or so HP for a second health SO). *****
Pool Powers that I find useful
Flurry or Jump kick
Both of these powers are very useful before level 18 since 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
Aid Self
Since you dont get a self heal power with /EA you should definitly consider taking this power (youll need either stimulant or Aid Other as a prerequisite). E-Drain keeps you at full end, and this power helps keep you at full HP. It is interruptible though, so any mobs that use a lot of DOT attacks will become a big pain in your rear end.
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 correctly)
6) use E-Drain (can also be used as soon as second enemy runs into melee if your low on end)
7) use impale on third enemy
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 wiped 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, breaking line of sight, 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.
If you still have trouble with the boss, just use a lot of purple and red insps. After level 38 youll be able to just use Overload.
Knives Of Artemis
Im including this section because I have seen a lot of complaining about this faction on the boards. Luckily, Spines/* has just the tools to deal with this pesky buggers. First, let me say that it would help immensly if you could get a ranged attack from a mayhem mish that does moderate to high damage, they help immensly (although it is not mandatory).
1) Impale a target from the farthest range you can and then imediatly break the line of sight. (Sometimes this will make it so that you only aggro one of the enemies, but other times the whole mob comes) If the whole mob does not come then simply wait for Impale to recharge and keep impaling your target till it dies.
2) After the target dies the rest of the mob will definitly agro onto you. As they are running at you, use placate on one of them.
3) when the mob gets there use ripper on a target (Hopefully youll get a crit) and Air Superiority if you have it. The key here is to keep the mob knocked down while you kill it so it doesnt have time to throw Caltrops.
4) Kill the other target from range by using Impale and Throw Spines.
This strategy has often helped me to avoid having ANY caltrops thrown on me, thus greatly decreasing the amount of time it takes me to complete the mission. Ill tell you right now that the key is to use impale to immobilize the targets and then kill them from range. So mess around with this and you may be able to find a much more efficient way of doing this.
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.
Good Guide but I would like to see your PvP version of it. I think a HUGE part of the stalker community PvP so making a PvP version would be very helpful.
I understand, but I don't PvP, and I really don't feel like speding hours in PvP just so I can add another section to my guide.
Maybe, somewhere down the line, if I start to PvP then I'll come up with some stuff.
I'd be surprised *not* to hear from a Spiney PVPer. Honestly, though, I don't see many villain-side in the zones.... given the goodness of things like Impale, I'm surprised. There are enough Spine/* scrappers out there, after all.
Good guide, thanks!
One question:
[ QUOTE ]
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 wiped 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, breaking line of sight, 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.
[/ QUOTE ]
Does AS always mean Air Superiority? Or does it sometimes mean Assassins Impaler? You usually write out Air Superiority, but most stalker guides call Assassin's Strike AS, but Spine's is called Impaler. Just wondering if you use Air Sup on bosses instead of Assassin's Impaler from Hide to prevent return damage, or if you're actually using Impaler for the crits.
When discussing Stalkers, AS always means the assassin move. Energy Melee's AS is the only one that's actually called Assassin's Strike.
Also, this guide was written in '06. Energy Drain has since then had a heal component added to it. For SO slotting, I recommend: 2 heal, 1 endmod, 3 recharge.
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. I also included descriptions of attack Chains that I have found to be helpful at certain levels (This is only my opinion and you may find that other attack chains work better for your playstyle). Please keep in mind that this guide is only PvE and does not have anything to do with PvP.
P.S. I just want to say: Respecs are your friends! So feel free to choose powers that are good at the lower levels (like Barb Swipe) and then drop them in a respec when you decide that you dont need them anymore. Because some powers are really useful in a certain level range but become almost useless after you get higher.
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. I would not put more than four slots in this since all it really needs is accuracy and damage. 1ACC 3DMG**
Lunge Available at level 1
Very good power for a filler in your attack chain for all levels. 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. Again I would only four slots this power. At level 10 I would pick up one of the attacks from the travel Power Pools (Flurry, Jump Kick, or Air Superiority) and my attack chain would be Jump Kick -> Barb Swipe -> Lunge -> Barb Swipe -> Jump Kick (Just sub in whatever power you decide to take in place of Jump Kick) 1ACC 1END 2DMG (before E-Drain) and 1ACC 3DMG (after E-Drain) ***
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. 1ACC 3DMG 1END ** or **** (depends on your style)
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. 2ACC 3DMG and 1RECH if you can spare it *****
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. At level eight, when you first get this, you should save it for the Lieutenant at the end of the mission or for when you get in a really hard fight. 3RECH*****
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. On a regular three enemie mob you should AS the first one, scrap the second one, then Placate->AS the last one. This makes the fight go quicker and youll come out of it with more health. 3RECH *****
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), immobs the target, and does good toxic damage. It also has a fairly good recharge time. All these attributes add up to make this power your biggest DPS dealer. You will learn to use it a lot. This power will make scrapping the second enemy in a mob much quicker. It is also a good power to use on enemies that like to run away since it immobs. My attack chain after picking up Impale was Impale -> Barb Swipe -> Lunge -> Impale 2ACC 3DMG 1END or 1RECH*****
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. This power also does very hefty toxic damage and will make it so that you will finally be able to keep up toxic damage on bosses that are Lethal Resistant (like Freakshow bosses). Same slotting as Impale. *****
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. Like Ripper, you can use this power to keep constant toxic damage on Letha Resistant bosses even though it doesnt do more toxic damage than lunge (damage is still damage). I would recomend replacing lunge with Throw Spines in your attack chain once you get TS fully slotted. I say this because TS does slightly more damage than Lunge but does it in a cone. Often times, by the time you get around to the last guy in a mob hell only have ½ HP left anyways. It also is used well in one of my Strategies which will be explained below. 2ACC 3DMG though you can get away with just 1ACC. ****