What server are you on, I have a Spines/SR and I love mine. I love the spineburst, Ripper combo...not too many things survive. It will be a very tight set I can tell you that. I am planning on taking all the powers I get,'
Let me know if you wanna see my Spines/AR, I do thinkthat the animation is a huge hinderance but my toon found a liquid armor that doesnt shred my clothing!
http://s305.photobucket.com/albums/n...stumes%202011/
Spines is good. Somewhat slow, but has a lot to support monkey-style combat. Maybe not the most popular, but it's easy to have fun with it.
I had a spines/EA stalker that I played to the mid 40s. This was before stalkers got buffed but I liked him.
I think there are two disadvantages to spines that makes people not like them: first, no really high damaged single target attack to use after placate, and second the toxic damage can interfer with placate.
But after the buffs that I've heard about for stalkers I think spines seems pretty good. It's more of an AOE type set which is why I think a lot of stalkers don't take it but if you know that going in and are ok with it then I think it would be a very good choice.
What I do to work with the DoT placate problem is that Ill use Ripper followed by Sands of Mu, this should do two things, it the DoT should indirectly boost the amount of dmg that Ripper does and it will wear out the DoT so I can placate and use AS.
One thing about the Knockdown/back from ripper is that the knockdown will let you AS something easily since the amount of time needed to gt up from knockdown is just the right amount of time to get an AS in. I also noticed that the DoT from placate and the Interfere for AS sync nicely and will let a Crit to hit while there is a ripper DoT.
I do agree with the fact that at the lower level it cant be slow, my first priority was to 3 slot my attacks for damage and I decided that I was going to use the SoM vet power. this did some considerable dmg in the early game that I could not have done without, I was close to deleting my Spines/SR because of the dmg.
The great thing about /SR is that you dont really need manyslots if you are going to IO the toon, I have been IO'in since level 7 so for me 4 slots ( three def buff and 1 endo where needed) leave me lots of space to work with the attack powers, I have most of my attacks ( Barb Swipe, Lunge, Spines Burst, Ripper) 3-5 slots for dmg, rech and acc.
I mean yea it is slow and it is a very tight build.
http://s305.photobucket.com/albums/n...stumes%202011/
Thanks for the feedback guys, yeah spines looks like a ton of fun. Just got lvl 18 this morning and impale is a pretty good attack (animates slow but high damage, immob and -fly? Yeah baby!). Can't wait for ripper, by the #'s it does more damage when its toxic dot fires than all but three stalker attacks (midnight grasp, total focus and of course energy transfer), plus it's also a cone attack that slows, knocks back and immobilizes. I like your idea about following it up with sands Wail, I just need some more global accuracy to pull that off I think (well, need more levels first heh).
Thanks again guys !
I dont worry about Global Acc...If I time myself right I can BU and do Ripper and SoM and get the Acc/Tohit bonus from it. I would go flor global recharge to get BU and Placate up as fast as possible...Your attacks recharge fast enough and having a fast BU means you can take advantage of alot other powers easily.
I tried to do a Shadow Maul--->SoM--->Flurry for a combo I call "1,000 Fists of Death"...Yea people will say that the rooting effects of the three are very dangerous...but if you are a /Nin or /SR then you are fine and if its chained right and the targets dont move it can be a deadly cone combo
http://s305.photobucket.com/albums/n...stumes%202011/
Two advantages of Spines over most Stalker sets:
Ranged attack great to bring down fliers to melee range.
Toxic damage isn't resisted well so is better than simple smashing/lethal damage types.
"It is that balance, the ground between EB and AV, where the PvP struggle should exist. Where a 1v1 becomes a struggle of equals, and 1vMany gives the benefit to the 1."
Freedom: Fireocity, Electro Imp, Gotya
Infinity: Meteor Storm, Mutai Kid, General Bot, Da Smasher
Hell yea Ciera!!
LLast night I saw my DoT Dmg doing 5 ticks of 20!
I love Spines but I am in the 30's and Its going sooo slow
http://s305.photobucket.com/albums/n...stumes%202011/
I adore my Spine Stalkers!
My Spine/DA is one of my favourite villains and is just death incarnate. It is slow to level and very tight with DA but its worth the effort and one of the few Stalker sets that can dish out decent damage in large teams (add in Ball Lightning and your laughing).
Spines starts out extremely slow if you don't have veteran attacks but after lvl 18, it gets a lot better and at lvl 32, you get the best power in Spines.
My Spines Stalker's gameplay is a lot like Blaster. I basically try to team and start the battle with Build Up + Throw Spines, jump in, Spine Burst and Ripper.
You can deal good aoe damage if you can line up the cone right. That's why I like Spines Stalker because I feel I am doing good aoe damage on a team. You are not just limited to single target damage most of the time.
PS: Throw Spines also debuffs speed a lot.
What's left is to normalize all Assassin Strikes and improve Stalker's old sets (Claw, MA and EM)! You don't need to bring back the missing PbAoE attack. You just need to make the existing ones better! For example, make Slice a WIDER and LONGER cone.
Hey guys, I'm thinking of trying out a spines stalker but it dawned on me that I -never- see them being played. Is there something about them that makes them lackluster? Or is it because of the weird spine graphic maybe (who knows, maybe the power cutomization in i16 will offer a different look)? I like the #s on impale and ripper, throw spines seems a bit wonky though (a ranged AE?). Am considering pairing it with SR and see how it does.
Seems this would make for a crazy AE toon, spamming crits and AE attacks and hopping in and out of melee like an unchained rabid monkey!