Hey Maelwys
I total agree with you about Spiderlings! OMG they can do some damage and are very well behaved compared to the widow and MU who like to run into melee before you every chance they get.
Mace in general feels a bit "cheap" compared with the other patron pools, but it's blast and snipe are relatively good; plus the snipe has knockdown.
Mu ,unless you have a dominatrix themed toon, is bad and I mean really bad.
The blast just tickles runners. The snipe, you can go and make a cup of tea and come back, and it still wont have fired. And the hold looks like you've tied them up and are about to beat them!
If thats your bag feel free, but be prepared for disappointment.
GW has great fast blasts but soul storm is a bit counter productive for a Stalker because it raises the foe really high off the ground, which sometimes can be a problem.
Old Captain Sharkie's patron pets are a blast, waterspout is very useful soloing, but can be a pest in teams (it's a bit like tornado) BUT the coral pet has a hold and likes to use it, so it is very stalker friendly.
At the end of the day, if you have the cash for IO sets and the spare slots, the pools are very useful for bonuses and the pets (if given some slotting) really do shine.
I hope this has added a bit to your post
Well to keep it short, the only good patron for pvp stalkers is mace for -fly. But, it unhides you and it takes a long [censored] animation. So i tend to skip it.
Patron powers for stalkers are pure pony as far as i am concerned, Your pet generaly tends to be ignored and the mobs run past it to attack the hidden stalker. Personaly i have not wasted powers for patron powers i only do the arc for the badges and respec.
One of the leaders of the Harlequins villain group and currently on defiant.
No, this isn't a joke post.
As far as I can see:
+ Mu doesn't have much going for it. Damage is weaker and hold doesn't last as long due to "-endurance".
+ Dark has the fastest animating Blast (and used to have a high priority animation hold al-la-Poison-Trap).
+ Mace has the -jump/-fly hold (good for halting foe movement in PvP) but suffers from redraw lag.
+ Leviathian has Water Spout (autohit stun plus a decent defense debuff that doesn't break hide).
+ In general the Snipes are pants. Bad damage, long cast time.
+ The Dark Blast is by far the best. Fast animating, Negative Energy, no redraw. Mob not notified until hit.
+ The Mu Blast is OK, but roots you for longer and notifies the mob at the very start of the animation.
+ The Mace Blast roots you for two seconds and has extra "redraw lag", but takes a Force Feedback Proc.
+ Leviathian has no Blast. Everything except Water Spout is fairly pants, but Water Spout is GREAT.
My own EM/Regen Stalker has taken Mace Mastery. I'm not adverse to a bit of PvP every now and again, and when I do the Web grenades are always useful... however I've found the prerequisate Mace Blast to be fairly rubbish. My Stalker sports a whopping constant +34% Damage buff from Assault + Set Bonuses, but the Blast still only ever does a maximum of 311 Damage (from Hide with Build Up). For comparison, "Bonesmasher" does 508 Damage under the same conditions.
However that said, I've found that I *really* like the Spiderlings.
Wait a sec, I haven't gone mad- hear me out here...
Like any pets they'll create a distraction for you to Rehide or AS something... but unlike the other pets, they do quite respectable damage too. When slotted they'll do around 140 damage a hit with their ranged blast and 70 damage a hit with their claws, which actually works out as better damage than Fire Imps (albeit Lethal damage not Fire). On top of the damage output, they've very fast movement and are quite survivable. They've each got higher base HP than you do, plus 20% Smashing/Lethal Resistance and 30% Psi Resistance. And if you feel so inclined, their blasts will even take the 'Defense Debuff' -Resistance Proc. The only downside is the long recharge and the fact that they spawn at -1 to you.
Has anyone else actually had much experience with Patron Pets as a Stalker? It seems that everyone tends to focus on either the Web Grenade or Waterspout (or in some cases like certain arena teams, Dark Blast) and forget the pets altogether... but in my experience each of the three (slotted) Spiderlings seems to do roughly the same damage over time as I would do if I just spammed (slotted) Mace Blast over and over.