A good PVE dmg dealer?

Hi all.

I am looking at making a stalker but i can't seem to make my mind up about witch the best for pve.

I have a spines/dark lvl 21 on coh and it's ok but is there a better setup for pve on cov?.

Thanks for any info.

Energie/SR would be perfect for PvE an PvP.

Energy is entirely single target effects. Great for PvP and arch-villians / elite bosses, or solo PvE.

If you are thinking (biggish) team PvE, where you will be facing large mobs, AoE wins the day - So again Spines would be my first choice, maybe claws. Ninja blade has as third choice. Energy and MA as my last choices.

Playing a Spines / Dark Scrapper (the king of scrappin AoE) I presume you are following the team PvE logic of AoE... in which case I would go for a Spines/Dark stalker - although as you have done those sets allready I reckon a Claws/Energy stalker is the next best thing.

In a biggish PvE team a Stalker will generally concentrate on single targets. Stalkers are NOT made for AoE.

There's room for argument on Scrappers, because the damage bonus they get from criticals is a set % chance and it doesn't matter if they're AoE attacks or not. However Stalkers have lower base damage, fewer AoE attacks (No Quills etc.) and the AoE/Wide Cone attacks they do have do NOT get the full 100% Critical chance 2x damage bonus from attacking whilst hidden.

Cases in point:
+ Every set's PBAoE Melee attack except Spine Burst has been removed from the Stalker Primaries.
+ Spines' Spine Burst (PBAoE) only has a 30% chance for a critical from hidden.
+ Dark Armor 'Dark Embrace' and 'Dark Regeneration' get no critical at all from hidden, and will break hide.
+ Dark Melee and Claws have 'Build Up' instead of the AoE damage leech and Follow-Up.
+ Dark Melee 'Shadow Maul' (Cone) only has a 50% chance for a critical from hidden.
+ Claws 'Eviscerate' and 'Shockwave' (Cones) only have a 50% chance for a critical from hidden.
+ Ninja Sword's 'Flashing Steel' and 'Golden Dragonfly (Cones) only have a 50% chance for a critical from hidden.
+ Spine's 'Ripper' and 'Throw Spines' (Cones) only have a 50% chance for a critical from hidden.

Placate also only works on one target. If you have aggro from more than one target your psuedo-hide will likely be broken by incoming damage before you can attack, so you will lose any Critical damage bonus.

To be honest the better Stalkers I've seen so far will "Spike" in and out of melee range, picking off one mob at a time from the group. Whilst Assassin's Strike is by far their most damaging attack, it's not necessary to run and rehide after every attack; especially if you use placate effectively and do not rely only on Assassin's Strike. Stalkers CAN be built to 'scrap', however the longer a Stalker remains unhidden in melee range scrapping with the enemy the worse their overall damage output will be... they simply become lackluster when you take away their Critical hits: they lack a Scrapper's criticals, base damage and hitpoints.

Energy Melee primary has a significant advantage in team play, the two top tier attacks are both very powerful and do not do 100% extra damage from hidden (Energy Transfer does no extra damage, and Total Focus only has a 30% bonus). This means that Energy Melee Stalkers can deal close to their 'normal' level of damage without needing to rehide/placate, which actually makes them a better option for PvE teaming than the other primaries since teammates often complain when a Stalker runs off to rehide mid-fight.

(There's a good reason that EM Stalkers can go unhidden, toe-to-toe with Regen Scrappers in Siren's Call...
Bottom Line, if you want to contribute AoE damage to a villains team: roll a Mastermind or a Corruptor! )

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In a biggish PvE team a Stalker will generally concentrate on single targets. Stalkers are NOT made for AoE.

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Doesn't mean you can't do both.

AS a lieut, jump in the middle, use spine burst/throw spines, placate, AS...

Killing 2 guys and hurting 10-12 guys at once is always more effective than killing 4 guys, for pure killing speed in a 6-8 man team. Unless your team consist of 7 AoE specced cors, I suppose.

Spines stalkers, in a team setting, have more AoE damage than most cors, (as much in some few cases), as their base damage is higher and they benefit from the same buffs/debuffs the cor is using. If defender damage (0,65), corruptor damage (0,75), tanker damage (0,8) can help, stalker damage (0,90) sure does.

Now for a secondary... you're definitely NOT looking at dark, it lacks the damage aura scrappers have. Regen hasn't got defense and no QR, and as a stalker can get splattered quite fast from AoEs in a 8 person team. IMO, that leaves energy aura (good to have the end to keep going on, great tier9, defense based), ninjitsu (some def, a heal, great toys, great tier9) or SR (great def, quickness, great tier9).

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Now for a secondary... you're definitely NOT looking at dark, it lacks the damage aura scrappers have.

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You are kidding, right?
In case you are not: Dark is one of the most team-friendly secondary sets imaginable for a stalker. Heck, I even tanked for small teams (4-5 people) with my Dark/Dark. AFAIK there is not a single stalker secondary with a damage aura, so why would Dark be worse than others because it´s damage aura is missing? Oppressive gloom takes minions out of the fight and Dark Regeneration easily provides enough healing for the rest. And I can even Placate+Crit between two tics of OG. And even if I do go down once in a while (Everybody has his unlucky streak...) I am instantly back in the fight with a gratuitous stun.
I rate solid AoE control (plus nice single target control from Dark primary) higher than sub-par AoE damage any day. Let corruptors have their fun without fear of retaliation.
I wouldn´t say a stalker´s AoE damage is useless, but it is far from anything I would call essential for being a good PvE stalker, especially if we are talking about damage auras.
Btw: High single target damage can contribute just as much to a team´s overall killing speed as AoE damage, but that would lead us far off-topic since that´s about team synergies and stuff like that.
In other words: Know your role... if you know what I´m cooking.

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In a biggish PvE team a Stalker will generally concentrate on single targets. Stalkers are NOT made for AoE.

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Depends on the team really. When teaming within my villain group (where team make up tends to be biased towards corruptors and dominators) I often find that there are times where my most useful attack is throw spines. If I go with single target attacks then most of the spawn is dead by the time I've completed two attacks (or before I've completed one attack if I try for assassin strike). Built Up &amp; buffed Throw Spines into a group takes a large amount of the spawn to scourge range. Critical only has a 50% chance for Throw Spines? On average half the mob dead in the first seconds of a fight? Works for me!

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Placate also only works on one target. If you have aggro from more than one target your psuedo-hide will likely be broken by incoming damage before you can attack, so you will lose any Critical damage bonus.

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In the team described above, I only really get chance to use placate on Heroes or Arch Villains. Everything else is dead (not shooting you) or held (not shooting you). If it's not dead but held, and there are enough of them in a group I'll try to use AoE attacks as if I've got a small chance of critting a held subject, it's more likely I'll get a crit if I hit more of them at once. Admittedly, I could placate or wait for hide to come back to get a 100% crit but if I do I find that I then don't need the crit.

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To be honest the better Stalkers I've seen so far will "Spike" in and out of melee range, picking off one mob at a time from the group.

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To be honest, the better stalkers I've seen make full use of their abilities and adapt their game for the team they're in, or the enemies they're facing. They may spike in and out in some fights, but in others they may choose to scrap as it keeps aggro off other teammates.

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Whilst Assassin's Strike is by far their most damaging attack, it's not necessary to run and rehide after every attack; especially if you use placate effectively and do not rely only on Assassin's Strike. Stalkers CAN be built to 'scrap', however the longer a Stalker remains unhidden in melee range scrapping with the enemy the worse their overall damage output will be... they simply become lackluster when you take away their Critical hits: they lack a Scrapper's criticals, base damage and hitpoints.

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I'm not sure whether I agree or disagree with you on this one, be interesting to see a comparison of damage output.

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To be honest, the better stalkers I've seen make full use of their abilities and adapt their game for the team they're in, or the enemies they're facing. They may spike in and out in some fights, but in others they may choose to scrap as it keeps aggro off other teammates.

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Absolutely agreed. Some builds may be better at one tactic or the other, but generally speaking there is no ultimate tactic for each and every situation in each and every team.

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To be honest, the better stalkers I've seen make full use of their abilities and adapt their game for the team they're in, or the enemies they're facing. They may spike in and out in some fights, but in others they may choose to scrap as it keeps aggro off other teammates.

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Absolutely agreed. Some builds may be better at one tactic or the other, but generally speaking there is no ultimate tactic for each and every situation in each and every team.

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Except, obviously, "MORE DOTS!!!"

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I am looking at making a stalker but i can't seem to make my mind up about witch the best for pve.

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Personally I'd say that EM/NIN would be the best all-round choice for a stalker, EM is by far the most damaging primary and /Nin is great in PvE and no slouch in PvP. Unfortunately like EM/Regen it's a very popular combo, so you'll get no points for originality should you roll one... and a good build will be VERY tight. Spines is another fairly powerful primary in both PvE and PvP, trading mez and spike damage for increased range and AoEs.

Energy Aura and Dark Armor are both very good in PvE (+Endurance, Heal/Gloom) but suck royally in PvP. Nin, Regen and SR are better all-rounders and which one is "best" will depend on the situation and your playstyle.
That said, Nin has a "trick" for almost every situation imaginable... it's a solid choice.

There is no "uber" stalker. Each set has its advantages and disadvantages.

Varation in "uberness" occurs between chair and keyboard as far as I'm concerned.

I will say that stalkers seem the least valuable AT to a team out of any hero or villian team. Not useless, but the least valuable. In a large team I struggle to say that any other AT would not be more valuable. Again, such comments are generalisations and are not applicable to every scenario.

I dont think its helpful to say "EM/Ninj" is "Uber" in all aspects of play. Firstly, because I disagree, secondly, because it fosters the kind of FoTM cookie cutter building that is a significant minus to CoX (E.g. /Regen scrappers on CoH).

As regards AoE damage. In large spawns, AFAICS, AoE damage will be far more mathematically efficient in terms of DPE and DPS than single target attacks irrespective of what AT you are. The only question is - is it safe enough and do you have the courage to use it?/.

Oh, and as for those stalkers that only AS, run and hide?. They can get a warning, a second warning, and a swift kick from any team I run, thats for sure. This is basically "I will not suffer any significant risk of debt to self, and am quite happy to perform sub-par so the rest of the team picks up the slack and the risk". I cannot abide such behaviour in any AT.

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I dont think its helpful to say "EM/Ninj" is "Uber" in all aspects of play.

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No disagreement here, but I WOULD say Nin is the best all-round secondary, and EM is the most damaging primary. And they have some synergy since Nin's self-heal is able to heal back Energy Transfer's damage.

Nin because it has so many tricks (AoE Placate, uninterruptable self-heal, Fear/Confuse Protection, Non-Toggle Mez Protection, +Perception, Caltrops, "God Mode", Decent levels of Positional Defence... the list just goes on) and EM because it has extremely high burst damage of a usually unresisted type, with a high chance for stun.

Like it or not, Stalkers are built for spike damage. Assassin's Strike/Criticals is one example, the mechanics of Placate is another, every Primary having "Build Up" is a third. EM plays directly to those strengths. You are simply not going to find a higher level of Stalker spike damage than Build-Up --&gt; Assassin's Strike --&gt; ET --&gt; TF. And as previously mentioned, ET and TF do not lose much damage output when "scrapping" out of hide.

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As regards AoE damage. In large spawns, AFAICS, AoE damage will be far more mathematically efficient in terms of DPE and DPS than single target attacks irrespective of what AT you are.

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No, not irrespective of what AT you are.

Different ATs have far different levels of ST and AoE damage. It would not, for example, be better to use a 10-damage-per-target AoE than a 200-damage single-target attack when confronted with less than 20 targets (and since most AoEs cap at 16 targets, this is not often the case!).

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Oh, and as for those stalkers that only AS, run and hide?. They can get a warning, a second warning, and a swift kick from any team I run, thats for sure. This is basically "I will not suffer any significant risk of debt to self, and am quite happy to perform sub-par so the rest of the team picks up the slack and the risk". I cannot abide such behaviour in any AT.

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I'd agree if they were JUST using Assassin's strike, or if they were doing sub-par damage and if self-survivability is the reason for this behaviour. HOWEVER, if they're rehiding in order to push their damage output up then I'd disagree. It might take them 7-8 seconds to rehide and then pull off a Build-Up Assassins strike for 600+ damage on a boss, which would make the fight go by much faster. By staying in melee range unhidden they might appease your wrath and draw some aggro from the squishies, but they'd certainly be doing less damage over time than strategically rehiding/placating in order to achieve maximum damage output via critical hits.

Regardless, see my earlier comment about Energy Melee... it'd actually be better for your team to have an EM stalker if you want a stalker that can stay and 'scrap' without losing too much damage output potential.

There is a REASON that some powersets feature consistently in FOTM builds. Just look at the difference in damage output between an Ice and an NRG blaster secondary. I'm not saying the other sets are useless (because they're not!) but they are just not as consistently high performing as EM. If EM had a ranged -fly attack, you'd hardly see any stalkers with another primary.

[Note: I DO have a EM Stalker, but it isn't /Nin. /Nin did not suit my PvP playstyle as much as /Regen did.
I do not pretend that my Stalker is good at soloing big mobs because he isn't. I've a Robot MM for that!]

[/color]<blockquote><font class="small">En réponse à:[/color]<hr />
so why would Dark be worse than others because it´s damage aura is missing?

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Dark is RES based, which doesn't help you re-hide to get crits.

OG, while effective, requires you to toggle it on and off for every single fight if you want to use AS. Minion control can help, but it's not something particulary great or needed in a decent team.

Dark regen is an awesome power, which is fine in every situation for a scrapper, but as a stalker the few damage you'll be (should be?) taking if half of the team do their job will be from splash AoEs.

If you're talking about a bad PuG when noone but you knows what he's doing, I agree dark would be a great choice, if not the best ; but when people have a clue, they don't need the stalker doing aggro control, control and tanking, so I'd rather pick defense to avoid the stuff and hide faster, and utility, and a great tier9 for AV fights/RSF.

DA and Regen have great solo survivability but no good tier9 and no tools to fight faster.

SR : Def-based, easier to re-hide
Quickness for faster recharges =&gt; more damage
Elude for AV fights.

Nin : Def-based
AoE placate
AoE confuse (which boosts XP over time)
Kuji-something for AV fights.

Nrj : Def-based
Infinite end thanks to CP and Energy drain, which means more damage because you don't ever have to stop, and you can slot your attacks for recharge.
Overload for AV fights.

[/color]<blockquote><font class="small">En réponse à:[/color]<hr />
Different ATs have far different levels of ST and AoE damage. It would not, for example, be better to use a 10-damage-per-target AoE than a 200-damage single-target attack when confronted with less than 20 targets (and since most AoEs cap at 16 targets, this is not often the case!).

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Those numbers are purely fictionnal. Even ET doesn't do 2000% damage compared to Brawl.

Let's talk about real numbers, at 50.

Spine burst : 45 damage.
Throw spines : 55 damage.
= 100 damage

ET : 230 damage.
TF : 180 damage.
= 410 damage

Hitting 5 foes with Spine burst and Throw spines will yield you higher damage than TF + ET. It's reasonable to expect you'll hit around 7-8 most of the time, if not all 10, and do almost twice the damage TF + ET do. Even when resistance comes into play (at higher levels, lethal is often resisted but energy isn't), you'll come out ahead with spines.

Not to mention, unlike EM who doesn't have an AoE, you still have AS for your ST needs.

[/color]<blockquote><font class="small">En réponse à:[/color]<hr />
Btw: High single target damage can contribute just as much to a team´s overall killing speed as AoE damage, but that would lead us far off-topic since that´s about team synergies and stuff like that

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Every great AoE set also has ST attacks, and you can't always use your AoE (unless you always run in a team with LOTS of +recharge). I don't believe it is wise to pick a strictly ST set if your goal is maximum efficiency.

In this case, a spines stalker still has AS to deal almost as much damage as ET and TF, and AoEs.

Fire blasters/cors have Blaze. Fire manip brutes/tanks have GFS/Incinerate. SS brutes/tanks have KO blow. Fire doms/controllers have Imps (and contained RoF for the controller).

Even spines scrappers or rad defenders still have impale/ripper or cosmic burst.

There's also two other things that can be important to some and means nothing to others, depending on who you play with :

Lots of people tend to undervalue, or just dislike, AoEs. Some people build for PVP or soloing, so min/max towerds ST damage.

In my experience, you'll hardly find more than 2-3 AoErs in most teams, but you'll find plenty of ST damage. Better to add something that's missing than be another "ST specialist" in a team where the 7 other guys are already doing that.

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Different ATs have far different levels of ST and AoE damage. It would not, for example, be better to use a 10-damage-per-target AoE than a 200-damage single-target attack when confronted with less than 20 targets (and since most AoEs cap at 16 targets, this is not often the case!).

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Those numbers are purely fictionnal. Even ET doesn't do 2000% damage compared to Brawl.

Let's talk about real numbers, at 50.

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Fine, from Spines alone:

88 Lethal Damage (AoE: slotted Spine Burst from unhidden, 3 sec activation, 15 End, 15 Sec recharge)

684 Lethal Damage (ST: slotted Assassin's Impaler from hidden, 3 sec activation, 14 End, 15 sec recharge)

Yes, you can build a claws or spines stalker which has AoE attacks. But you will gimp yourself by focussing solely on AoE attacks, find it more difficult to solo and Corruptors and MMs will still greatly outdamage you.

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Hitting 5 foes with Spine burst and Throw spines will yield you higher damage than TF + ET. It's reasonable to expect you'll hit around 7-8 most of the time, if not all 10, and do almost twice the damage TF + ET do. Even when resistance comes into play (at higher levels, lethal is often resisted but energy isn't), you'll come out ahead with spines.


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However this makes no sense unless you intend to be always on an 6-8 man team. Have you SEEN CoV lately? Defiant rarely tops 100 people in the evenings these days, and Union isn't much better.

Last weekend there were often less than 50 people online. Getting a regular team all the way to 50 is going to be virtually impossible unless you prearrange it with a group of friends and all level at the same rate.

If you were going to be going to that extreme you might as well go the whole hog: skip stealth and take Grant Invis, then kit out your stalker with the Leadership pool and Aid Other/Stimulant. Hey, it'd add up. Forget about those nasty high damage single target attacks and load up on weaker AoEs and pool power allied-buffs...

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Lots of people tend to undervalue, or just dislike, AoEs. Some people build for PVP or soloing, so min/max towerds ST damage.

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True. But there's ATs that are well suited to AoEs and ATs that are simply not. I have a Peacebringer, Bot/Dark Mastermind and a Spines/Dark scrapper, each sitting at 50, each of which is far, far better suited to large-scale AoE slaughter than the best-built Spines Stalker could ever hope to be.

Stalkers are NOT suited for fighting large mobs. Spines has no Quills, Criticals won't work as well (if at all). Dark's AoE damage leech was replaced with Build Up... the list goes on.

If you want to build a villain that is good at fighting large mobs, roll a Mastermind. Stalkers can get AoEs, but they will ALWAYS be sub-par at fighting large groups. Therefore you will get more milage from speccing your Stalker to play on the AT's strengths, rather than it's weaknesses. That means stealth, single target attacks, and spike damage.

If the price for that is to not fair as well in large teams, so be it. Stalkers don't exactly need teams anyway, and usually prefer to team with one or two other melee damage dealers. Two Stalkers working in unison, for example, can make short work of most AVs.

[/color]<blockquote><font class="small">En réponse à:[/color]<hr />
But you will gimp yourself by focussing solely on AoE attacks

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Please don't make me say something I didn't.

A good PvE spines stalker should use both AoEs and ST attacks. As I said, "AS, spine burst, throw spines, placate, AS" works great for me.

Most corruptors can't outdamage spines stalkers in a team setting, as the stalker will get the benefit from the same buffs/debuffs as the cor, and stalkers are at 120% cors' damage (0,9 compared to 0,75, on blaster scale).

There's no solo diff between a spines stalker with Lunge, Impale, Eviscerate and AS and one with Lunge, Impale, Eviscerate, AS, Spine Burst and Throw Spines... Well, actually, the second one might go a bit faster as he has more attacks.

[/color]<blockquote><font class="small">En réponse à:[/color]<hr />
However this makes no sense unless you intend to be always on an 6-8 man team. Have you SEEN CoV lately? Defiant rarely tops 100 people in the evenings these days, and Union isn't much better.

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That's certainly a valid point. However, I haven't trouble forming and getting teams (on Vigilance), so I have to admit all the advice I gave was on a "4-8 man" team mindset.

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then kit out your stalker with the Leadership pool and Aid Other/Stimulant. Hey, it'd add up. Forget about those nasty high damage single target attacks and load up on weaker AoEs and pool power allied-buffs...

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Except that's plain bad advice here ; AoEs are mathematically more efficient for a teamed stalker than the best EM attacks. Spamming aid other is sub-par to any heal a cor could use, and not comparable to anything stalkers do.

Not picking/slotting ST attacks is silly and shouldn't be done. My whole point on a earlier post was to show for teamed PvE, it's more efficient to pick AoE sets as they can get good ST attacks too, and do both jobs, while ST sets can only do ST.

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True. But there's ATs that are well suited to AoEs and ATs that are simply not. I have a Peacebringer, Bot/Dark Mastermind and a Spines/Dark scrapper, each sitting at 50, each of which is far, far better suited to large-scale AoE slaughter than the best-built Spines Stalker could ever hope to be.

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Which is certainly true. However, comparing stalker to stalker, Spines does arguably more damage in a team than the best-built EM could ever hope to do, which is what the whole thread is about, IIRC.

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Hi all.

I am looking at making a stalker but i can't seem to make my mind up about witch the best for pve.

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Now I choose to read this as "everything in PVE". Which is why I'd rather pick something that does good at everything :
- solo (ST damage)
- teamed (AoE damage)
- AVs/RSF (Def-based tier9)

If you only want to do solo/duos, I agree 100% EM is the best choice. No contest. But in teams, Spines (with AoEs) is often better.

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There's no solo diff between a spines stalker with Lunge, Impale, Eviscerate and AS and one with Lunge, Impale, Eviscerate, AS, Spine Burst and Throw Spines... Well, actually, the second one might go a bit faster as he has more attacks.

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EM would stilll solo quicker though!

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If you only want to do solo/duos, I agree 100% EM is the best choice. No contest. But in teams, Spines (with AoEs) is often better.

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Bah, curse you and your l337 precognitive skills!

*shakes fist*

Seriously, I think everything was covered in your last post! I can't see anything to argue with offhand now... well maybe apart from the bit where you took what I said about Aid Other/Stimulant seriously... (unfortunately light sarcasm doesn't carry across into typed media that well even with a winky)

I know that Spines is fairly powerful in it's own right at ST. Unfortunately after having played a completely-AoE-build Spines/Dark Scrapper to level 50, I think that a Stalker with the same powersets built for AoE damage would leave me severely unimpressed. But I don't think I'll ever forget the first time I saw a single Assault Bot's Incendiary Missile salvo wipe out 30+ closely packed Nemesis...

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so why would Dark be worse than others because it´s damage aura is missing?

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Dark is RES based, which doesn't help you re-hide to get crits.


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I still don´t know what this has to do with the damage aura since Dark would still be res-based with or without it.
And you do know that the whole thing about "def helps with re-hide" is highly dependent on playstyle, right?
I´d rather not rely on not being hit by anything (and not being able to attack) for ten seconds just because I want to score one single crit.
And why should I try this with sets that are not particularly good at this but offer different methods?
How my Dark/Dark/Mako stalker scores crits:
- The OG-method: Turn on OG, fear anyone unaffected by OG, turn off OG and run around a corner to re-hide. Crit the first thing rounding the corner (or crit at will if you have lost aggro in the meantime... at least OG will have worn off by now). Preferable to def-based re-hide, because you still leave other team members behind, but at least you leave them behind with mezzed mobs. In fact, you can set up this method while scrapping a little bit, so it´s not like it takes much extra-time to pull this off.
- The classic: Build Up -&gt; Placate -&gt; Midnight Grasp. Midnight Grasp is a fast powerful attack that´s just excellent for critting. You will hardly ever be blasted out of Hide before it´s too late.
- With only few enemies left: Control the strugglers with Touch of Fear, the patron hold and the Water Spout (if necessary), wait for re-hide, AS or crit at will.

As you can see, only the OG method is really affected by the secondary set, and I wouldn´t say it´s for worse.
The only thing more doable with a defense-based set would be the simple Placate -&gt; Build Up -&gt; AS combo when there are too many mobs with aggro on you or your immediate neighbours in case of AoEs. (But that is something I probably wouldn´t rely on anyway.)
I think the only secondary set that is even easier to re-hide and crit with is Ninjutsu, but that is only partly because of it´s defense but mostly because of it´s nice utility powers.
So, the /Dark stalker is still disadvantaged against AVs, right? Wrong. Unless you are really desperate and insist on soloing an AV as a stalker chances are that you will have decent support and most corruptor´s res-based shields and damage-debuffs will stack nicely with your res-based armour. It´s very much possible that your def-based comrades with those same corruptor´s shields and running their lvl38 armour will be smeared on the floor by a lucky hit from the AV (with two damage components or a DoT) while you can easily be healed back to full health after the same shot. And what if you keep the AV´s aggro for too long and he creams you good? Well, that´s what the self-rez is for. Your team mates will thank you for the opportunity to see a drunken AV and you are back in the fight. (He won´t have the chance to do this again to you or your team is quite weak at killing AVs.)
However, there is still one downside to being res-based: high-level Longbows are nasty... unless you can pull them together for some OG and Touch of Fear that is.