I agree that escaping the followup ranged attack is nearly impossible. I have no experience from spines, but at least claws ranged attack, focus, is so fast it will hit about 100% as a followup without placate.
Only ideas that I have are either a.) self heal of somesort or b.) mez them somehow, like maybe knockback or something. (ninjitsu has no inherent knockback protection at least. I dont know about other sets). If they go for placate after AS, then you DO have enough time to outrun them because of placate's longish animation. But if they don't, some sort of selfheal should be enough to keep you alive and maybe turn the tables somehow.
Overall you'd need selfheal, defense boost or something because both claws and spines ranged attack has quite short recharge. So you cant just jump around them and pepper them with your normal ranged attacks cause they just pepper you back, and you had just been hit with AS for starters..
Interesting dilemma 
PS. just checked, Focus from claws has about 1 sec shorter activation than impale..
PPS. Ive only just started to play with a stalker and im not really good in PVP, but I like to think problems over
Im gonna be interested to what people also have to say on this subject. I don't feel spine stalkers are overpowered at all but playing one may make me abit bias.
I have discussed this subject with Atreides last night but to no avail. I argue that it is his tactics that are leading to his downfall and need to change (at the mo he is reliant on the stalker getting off his AS) - he needs to prevent the AS in the first place. He can see the stalkers but doesnt use for example caltraps (or even trip mines) as his standing point which will then get rid of hide. He feels his current tactic of getting some distance is gonna allow him to survive (or get the kill) which I feel is very risky and easily overcome.
For some reason my views/opinions are wrong or dont hold any truth due to the fact that I haven't played a blaster to any high level. I feel any good stalker worth his salt won't have any problems getting the 2nd hit (which is all that is normally needed) in before he can gain his distance. I tried to prove my point last nite by getting him 4 times without using any ranged attacks but apparently this hasn't changed his mind.
Personally I dont think having fly will really aid you in combating stalkers (well the ones you really want to get being spines). I will just as easily use impale which is minus fly.
Examples of ways other stalkers with your powers try to combat stalkers (including Spines) are making traps which lure the stalker in such as the use of mass trip mines/caltraps. Another tip would be to team with others - going alone is possible but you stand a far better chance in a team and communicating - if you can reveal the stalker by shooting them, then one of your team mates could help take him down.
I could go on listing other tips and tricks but they wont always work as there is almost always a counter - I just suggest a change in tactics as I dont think there is much difference between the tactics used against spine stalkers and other stalkers. Allowing a stalker to use AS is pratically suicide - they can and will kill you and if they dont im sure his/her team will 
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It is always better option to stop stalker ASing in the first place.. Sometimes you can survive AS but not against all stalkers..
The self heal off Aid Self might not help much tbh. Spines deal toxic damage over time and mess up interuptibles 
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I wouldn't reccomend Fly against Impale either . The way forward is using the great tools in that set to shut out the AS happening at all.
I don't think Spines is overpowered. The ranged element does pose a potent danger, but I'd probably concede to Energy being the most dangerous melee set overall.
Respites then, but at this point it should be apparent that letting a stalker hit you is a bad idea.
Try and fit fear from the presence pool into your build, only /ninja have protection from that, in which case you can use the knockback from AR (unless they have acrobatics too, then your screwed again). I agree with the other posters that stopping the AS in the 1st place might be a better strategy, but it is good to have a backup plan. As an experiment I played a spine stalker during the RV event, relying exclusively on placate, and impale. I had little trouble with controllers, blasters and defenders. I dont think spine stalkers themselves are overpowered, but the ranged attacks on melee characters may need looked at in general.
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It is always better option to stop stalker ASing in the first place.. Sometimes you can survive AS but not against all stalkers..
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For example Energy Mellee Stalkers. Can two shot anything with less HP than a Tanker, and Energy Transfer has an ultra-quick animation. If I get the AS off, I'm pretty much guaranteed the kill.
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... the ranged attacks on melee characters may need looked at in general.
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LOL, & the melee attacks on ranged characters while they're at it then .
Hi all,
I usually play an ar/dev blaster in sc and can usually hold my own against most stalkers with the exception of the spine stalker. Most of my tactics if hit with an assassin strike are to use ss to gain distance use trops and grenade and try to finish the stalker off with defiance or failing that phase shift. Unfortunately this is all but impossible with the spine stalker because after the assasin strike there is no point to gaining distance to set up my other options as all they do is fire off a ranged spine attack and for a blaster its good night. My personal opinion as a person with ability to see and combat stalkers with my toon is that spine stalkers in general are overpowered with the ability to finish people (blasters in particular) off with a 'quick' fire ranged attack. I'm not talking about to up coming snipe attack as atleast most times you will be able to prepare yourself while the delayed attack happens. Anyway I'd be interested to know how any other blaster would combat this type of stalker. At the moment I only have ss but in my next respec I will be taking flight which may help. Anyway any suggestion is a good one so feel free to post away
Atreides