DM/EA

Hey all ive decided to make a DM/EA stalker and was wondering how the damage and defense of these sets rate compared to the rest?

Ive got a high lvl regen stalker but found he cant take much of a beating as regen has no defense to speak of.

Thanks in advance.

I can only speak for Dark Melee here, as ive no experience with EA, but I love DM as a set. Sure EM gets the upfront damage and is great for single target attacks and pvp, but when im busy controlling the mobs around me, and still attacking heavily, and the EM ran off to get back into hide, well even a brute was impressed. Dont bother with Shadow Punch, learn to love and abuse Smite (a great quick attack out of hide) play around with Shadow Maul, it takes a lot of getting used too, Touch of Fear is possibly my fave power in the whole set. Make Even bosses cower in front of you while you stand there and let your hide go back up. Midknight Grasp as your lvl 32 power is a great one, as often I will just leave someone in a pit of tentacles and concentrate on the next one. DM is a great set for those that want to get a bit more scrappy and not the hit-and-run style stalker.

Dont really here much about EA, or SR or even DA for that matter, most ppl go either regen or nin, so all i can say is, best of luck witht he combo, and let us know how it goes!

ok cool ty 4 the advice m8.

I will see how it pans out and compares 2 regen lol...

Dooooooom!!

EA imo is the worst set you can choose for Stalkers, the only decent power in it is Overload (which is the best lvl 38 power ever!), but it has poor defence in all the other shields.

It may work well as DM is an Endurance heavy set and the -accuracy from DM could negate the poor defence from EA, and the Endurance powers from EA could certainly come in useful.

It could work, so good luck with your choise!

Im not sure its helpful saying a set is the worst. No set is bad, its just they are bad in certain circumstances.

Energy Armour may be weak on defence, but it has repel which can be excellent damage mitigation and the best mechanisms for maintaining high endurance. It has TP resistance and Repel resistance IIRC which are both very rare.

Have you actually played an Energy secondary on a stalker to high level to comment on how bad it is?

I got a Dark Stalker to Level 32 and frankly... with only four moves that actually do damage... the whole set sucks! He was dumped in the bin... pretty much like every alt I have had but that isn't the point. If you're going EA why not go EM too. I have heard EM is one of the best Stalker sets... that and it gets called "easy mode".

Dark Melee Rocks. End of. EA got best MEz of the game, across with TP/Repel Resistance. Dark melee got a nice debuff/fear power (Touch of fear for those who are familiar with it) and the rest of the chain, combined with the End drain and conserver power of EA works great. It has to be mentioned that Overload is Elude+dull pain together so its worth. Returning to Dark melee, its a set that needs some thinking before you do any move. You can always ignore it though and go with Energy melee which 2 shot most of the things in some seconds. If you have any questions about DM or generally stalkers, find me at @Zaldor (Global). I mostly play Aranos X, a toon of mine.

Edit : The only thing you wont like from Dark melee, i believe is shadow maul, high damage dot, but the time it takes is worse. Thats the only thing i'd like to see changed at Dark melee stalkers, since they need to be fast.

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Have you actually played an Energy secondary on a stalker to high level to comment on how bad it is?

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Yes...Level 50....

Okay, maybe I wasn't being very helpful, but imo I think it's bad.
But, yes Repel is good in PvE, but the lack of a self heal and the poor defence don't go well together, while yes, the repel resistence is incredibly useful in PvP, as is the teleport resistance in certain circumstances. The set does have good points, but it's bad points are the most important (defence). I'm sure it can be a good set if played correctly, but since Stalkers have a tight build, it's difficult to use those good points.

Anyway, I'll go back in my corner and carry on hating EA.

My veiw is that its not a solo set. However, EA and Repel can be very nice in teams (I havent played Stalker EA but I have played these two powers). Ive never beleived in heals at all unless you PvP. Which I dont - I couldnt face the shame of hitch hiking expereince from a PvE group with a PvP build.

Personally I think aid self on a /EA /SR Stalker is pretty much critical at a high lvl

I find EA to be quite handy if you slim it down, kinetic shield gives a rather reliable defence against the 3 primes, combined with the small defence bonus of hide you can sometimes manage to get the 10 seconds you need to hide and another few seconds to pull off the AS while 2 opponents are wailing at you provided you're lucky enough, entropy shield is godly and only needs 3 end reducers to unlock most of the potential in the power, this combined with stamina and an occasional power sink makes it an end cheap method of protection, all other powers except overload (needed for most elite bosses!) in the set are optional.
Seriously, I've survived without power shield for my 30's and I plan to survive the rest of my 40's without it!
(Though it's a matter of opinion, sets and player.)

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Combined with the small defence bonus of hide

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Forgot to say about Hide, Its def to all. A slotted Hide gives around 62% Defense to AoE, so slot it, its enough Defense to hide you for the time your assassin strike will need to get activated.