After 15 levels of stalking I would say probably both.
Soloing, provided you can hit the enemy, the major worry is the number of them..
1 enemy is almost risk free.
2-3 enemies is easy providing you have placate.
With 4 + enemies you have to scrap rather than stalk.
Minions go down in one AS, Lts go down in one AS and an attack cycle or 2, bosses need a bit more scrapping or using a placate to do a second AS. I haven't found anything sensible that had more than half hit points after an Assassin's Strike.
In teams the concern is minimising the number of enemies who aggro on you whilst maximising damage. Smaller teams seem to be better than large teams, unless there are lots of masterminds, whose minions soak up aggro. Corruptors are good, as they provide useful debuffing on the enemy, as well as having good blasting powers than can be used to finish off partiallt assassinated bosses. I haven't teamed with any Dominators yet.
The stalker is a trickier archetype to play than any of the City of Heroes Archetypes. More thought and tactics are needed and you really need to know what is aggroed to you. The use of the placate is the trickiest, I have found it sometimes does a great job allowing another Assassin's Strike but other times ( when you have misjudged the aggro ) it just stops one enemy from attacking you.
@Unthing ... Mostly on Union.
I agree, they're good at both.
I heard a lot of people mention the damage I was doing when I used AS, and saw the body fall as well. 
However, in most of the teams, I realised it was mainly the stalkers that rushing of to hospital. 
I think you've put it perfectly...after getting a stalker up to level 9 in beta, I got a bit fed up, because mobs of 3 or 4 plus got me badly. I didn't have AS or placate then, which might have explained it...but I don't think they can deal with numbers soloing.
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I think you've put it perfectly...after getting a stalker up to level 9 in beta, I got a bit fed up, because mobs of 3 or 4 plus got me badly. I didn't have AS or placate then, which might have explained it...but I don't think they can deal with numbers soloing.
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I believe they are exactly the same as scrappers defensively ( power wise ) but have lower hp. In my opinion if you don't take AS at lvl 6 you are missing out of the whole point of the Stalker. Placate is not so important, but it increases the number of times you can use AS in combat.
My beta character was a Ninja Blade/SR stalker. I the main mistake I made for him was not getting the quick attack at level 2, but getting the cone instead. The thing that makes Darkthing work is that he got the 2 first attacks ( Lunge is good, Barb Swipe is not the pile of poo it was in I3 and I4 due to much faster animation times ). Having an usable attack chain early on helps a great deal.
The other thing is luckily when soloing you never need to deal with more than 4 enemies in a spawn, providing you go for the odd numbered difficulties. 3 or 4 enemies are certainly possible.
@Unthing ... Mostly on Union.
Well mine's only a lowly level 9 but after getting my brute to 13 without much effort I fancied a change.
Initially I played it a bit too much like a scrapper and faceplanted..... a lot. Playing it somewhere between a scrapper and a blaster (i.e. running away!) seems to work.
It's definately one of the hardest AT's to play imo and therefore one of the most challenging and fun. It takes a bit of thought and practice to get used to the way they play but mine is now going to be my villain of choice....overtaking the brute.
Oh and definately get AS as soon as possible......it's the whole reason for being a stalker and there's nothing like seeing a boss go down in one hit 
I'm finding they've the potential to be both.
Yes they can be extremely squishy. You have to know how to manage your aggro and how quickly you take an enemy down.
But having said that, up to level 11 I've had six (I think) faceplants. Three were to use the free teleport system as I couldn't be bothered walking. One was because I tried to 'save the idiot,' another was because I tried to save the team mate that the same idiot griefed using tp friend, the final one was when I bound some chat expressions to the keys I use to launch my attacks. It's hard to take down coppers when every time you try to attack your villain just shrugs his shoulders and says 'Like I care!'
As Unthing says, dealing with a spawn of three or four mobs is certainly possible (unless you start missing everything).
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As Unthing says, dealing with a spawn of three or four mobs is certainly possible (unless you start missing everything).
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This is the bane of my life. It's amazing that simply missing one attacker's strike can turn an easy spawn into a hard spawn or a hard spawn into a free trip to the hospital.
@Unthing ... Mostly on Union.
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As Unthing says, dealing with a spawn of three or four mobs is certainly possible (unless you start missing everything).
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This is the bane of my life. It's amazing that simply missing one attacker's strike can turn an easy spawn into a hard spawn or a hard spawn into a free trip to the hospital.
@Unthing ... Mostly on Union.
Well I have a level 18 MA/Ninjitsu stalker and I'm loving it! I mainly played ranged types in CoH (could never get the hang of playing Tankers or Scrappers ) so I think the tactical hit & run nature of the stalker suits me better.
In teams I'm usually the last one left alive. When we encounter a group I pick the juiciest target and move in, let the pets or a debuffer get the mobs attention then let loose with AS. Depending on how much health the mob has left I'll either placate, storm kick, thunder kick him or run away and hide before going back in for the kill.
Solo I still find the stalker very playable - it just involves a lot of running away if things go wrong 
. Kill all missions can be a pain but when the map is spawned for a solo player there usually aren't that many mobs to take out.
The only problem I've found (and it's not really a problem as such) is that it's quite restrictive regarding power choices at lower levels. At level 6 you really need to take AS, level 8 or 10 for the pre-requisite of your travel power, 12 is placate, 14 is travel power, 16 is mez protection. In amongst all this you still have to try and pick up a decent attack chain for finishing off mobs that survive AS as well as taking your defensive powers from the secondary pool. This is the first character I've ever had still using brawl at level 18 
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Solo I still find the stalker very playable - it just involves a lot of running away if things go wrong . Kill all missions can be a pain but when the map is spawned for a solo player there usually aren't that many mobs to take out.
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I've found no problems soloing but then I have a more scrapperry secondary. Kill all missions have not been a pain for me since placate. I suspect that when we're in the mid twenties you'll be assassin striking more than me due to the utility of your secondary.
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The only problem I've found (and it's not really a problem as such) is that it's quite restrictive regarding power choices at lower levels. At level 6 you really need to take AS, level 8 or 10 for the pre-requisite of your travel power, 12 is placate, 14 is travel power, 16 is mez protection. In amongst all this you still have to try and pick up a decent attack chain for finishing off mobs that survive AS as well as taking your defensive powers from the secondary pool. This is the first character I've ever had still using brawl at level 18 .
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I have had a number of characters that still used brawl at 18, however all of the rest of them were tanks, for Golden Golem I used Brawl until level 35.
I agree totally on the power picks being very tight. It's even tighter if you aim to have stamina ( like me ). Once I got to level 16 and got Integration I really am glad I started the fitness pool at level 10.
I currently have 3 attacks ( Lunge, Barb swipe and Assassin's Strike ) and placate from my primary. Luckily Barb Swipe, Lunge and Brawl chain quite well, I don't know when I will get impale as I haven't planned my twenties yet. I have Hide, reconstruction and integration from my secondary. I also have Hasten and Superspeed from the speed pool and swift from the fitness pool. Hasten is great for speeding up the recharge of placate and reconstruction in those nasty fights.
@Unthing ... Mostly on Union.
Haven't taken either hasten or the fitness pool yet! 
I went for Combat Jumping since it gives an extra little bit of defense on top of my other toggles and since Kuji-In Rin (our mez protection) is a clickly instead of a toggle I'm hoping I can get by without taking stamina . An End Red or two in each toggle should work since 6-slotting with Def is pointless anyway once we're on SOs.
I would like to take hasten as well if I can manage it - 18 was my first "free" power choice in a long time and I took Cobra Strike for the Disorient which is working quite well. Unslotted the duration is long enough for me to re-hide and AS again!
Well, my Stalker went from nothing to level 7.7 last night. Some friends decided they wanted to PL me, basically, up to their level (6-8) and off we went. Team of 6, respectable xp gain.
Now, I expected to be a waste of space initially. Level 2 melee fighter in a level 5 mission. Managed to get a few useful hits in, that's about it.
Later, however, I found that while I was being more effective, I was quite sure the team would have completed the missions without a single problem if I hadn't been there. AS takes so long to wind up that the mob was usually falling before I got to hit it. It's spectacular when it works, but mostly I think I was shaving a couple of tenths of a second of some mob's lifespan.
That said, not one lost lock all night (apart from the ones where the mob died before the attack actually fired). I begin to realise how people with SS were getting 1-shotted in PvP during beta.
Disclaimer: The above may be humerous, or at least may be an attempt at humour. Try reading it that way.
Posts are OOC unless noted to be IC, or in an IC thread.
Hello everyone..since i have a lvl 25 stalker i think i know what i am talking about.
Raven says:
Later, however, I found that while I was being more effective, I was quite sure the team would have completed the missions without a single problem if I hadn't been there.
Well...maybe u are right, but i believe that stalkers can be really critical in a team, we can make things a lot easier, with build up i can one shot an orange liutenant, and with build up effect going on i can also kill a minion or take another liut to about half hp...and i can take away more than half a boss hp in one hit....the thing that counts about stalkers is tactic....u are the one who must start the battle, then hide till u are hidden again and take down what is left, or help a teammate.
Also, being regen, i can scrap quite good, it happened more that once that i was the only one still standing after team died, and i could finish enemies.
Also raven says:
AS takes so long to wind up that the mob was usually falling before I got to hit it. It's spectacular when it works, but mostly I think I was shaving a couple of tenths of a second of some mob's lifespan.
As take some time to recharge, but it is ready seconds after u are hidden again....so it's recharge time is quite perfect on my opinion, and it is definetly not a melee attack.
That said, stalker are to be understood, not so straight like coh AT.
So things have been "live" for Stalkers for a day and a half, just wondering how things working out. Is solo proving a problem and how are things going team wise ?
On positive my Brute was just teamed with two Stalkers and a Dominator and thiongs worked really for us - Stalkers targetted the boss/lt types while my brute and dominator kept the minions busy
Put together a Stalker myself this morning and just wondering what is waiting for me.