I'm such a kind woodland creature.
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Stalker Update
Increased Stalker Melee damage multiplier from 0.9 base to 1.0 base.
Increased Stalker Hit Points multiplier from 0.95 to 1.125
All Stalker melee attacks now have a chance to critical while not hidden. This chance is equal to 10% plus 3% per additional team member within 30 of the stalker at the time of the attack. This only applies to PVE targets. Stalkers old chance to critical Held or Slept targets now only applies to PVP targets.
o The Critical portion of Energy Transfer operates exactly as if you were criticalling from Hide -- it eliminates the Self Damage, rather than increasing damage to the target.
Using an Assassination attack and missing will no longer suppress Hide (though lesser stealth and invisibility powers will still suppress) if the attack misses. If the attack hits, Hide suppresses normally.
Hide Suppression for Stalkers reduced from 10 seconds to 8 seconds.
Assassination attacks now cause a demoralizing effect on PVE targets that survive the attack. Demoralized targets To Hit value is reduced, and the target may be frozen in terror.
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Well to be honest that was necessary. I am very happy about it and made my day. Now people will roll other toons too other than EM and maybe ill slot my DM again. Woop woop!
This actually seems very nice.. Might finally get my ninja blade stalker to 50 with this 
- @DSorrow - alts on Union and Freedom mostly -
Currently playing as Castigation on Freedom
My Katana/Inv Guide
Anyone who doesn't take truth seriously in small matters cannot be trusted in large ones either. -Einstein
Looks like it is finally time to dust of my stalker.
Definately needed.
I really should do something about this signature.
YAY! My lovely Stalkers are gonna get played again 
@Jay Leon Hart
Kerensky: this has nothing to do with underwear
Zwillinger: I put on my robe and wizard hat...
Synapse: I had to resist starting my last post off with "Yo dawg!"
Nice list of buffs for PvE and PvP 
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All Stalker melee attacks now have a chance to critical while not hidden. This chance is equal to 10% plus 3% per additional team member within 30 of the stalker at the time of the attack. This only applies to PVE targets. Stalkers old chance to critical Held or Slept targets now only applies to PVP targets.
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Kind of have mixed feelings about this.
Admittedly, it's mostly because I enjoyed playing a Dominator/Stalker duo with my brother for some time, heh.
However, with the damage multiplier being raised and all, wouldn't this give Stalkers better DPS in teams than Scrappers and Brutes? They'd crit more often normally even in a duo, and against bosses and such when in a team of 5 and up... No? Keep in mind I'm not a hardcore number cruncher or anything so I could very well be wrong.
Scrappers? Not quite. Brutes, maybe depending on circumstances, but that's as it should be, since scrappers and brutes have more suvivability.
I really should do something about this signature.
I'm likin the suppression reduction tbh, should really help with traditional stalking DPS
@Rooks
"You should come inside the box... Then you'll know what I mean."
its a huge buff to EM and spines (spines for aoe crits), next to nothing for ninja blade and claws as a 0.1 increase to the damage modifier increases massive damage much more than the uber weak damage of other sets.
To be honest these AT wide band aids really need to stop and focus shifted to powerset issues, anyone who claims EM needed a damage boost is a fool and 11% increase in EM damage goes a lot further than ninja blade before laughing at how drastically the damage falls off post lvl 40 with all the lethal resistent mobs. (Oh and bonesmasher, a power available at lvl 2 for EM does 91% of ninja blades lvl 26 power, thats just sad)
**Acceptable "support" responses**
Its your fault
Its your computers fault
Its your ISPs fault
Expect EM nerfs. This is only stage 1.
I really should do something about this signature.
eh, been a long time since we have seen real fixes and rebalances going in the game, its usually AT wide band-aids like defiance 2.0, its great and all but its only served to make the highest performing blasters extend their lead over the lesser sets.
besides which, EM is where the rest of the stalker sets should be, not the other way around. Stalkers are a flawed and badly designed AT which needs each of their sets reworking properly to bring any semblance of balance to bear.
They need to add in a significant portion of toxic damage to the lethal sets to raise their game post 40 as that is where a huge segment of the problem is, badly designed mobs. If they gave the lethal sets a big buff to bring in some sort of parity (like 30% damage increase, numbers pulled out of my [censored]) then they would rampage the pre 40 game and lol while farming carnies. Realistically the post 40 mobs need real design work to fix the game but this isnt likely to happen sadly, giving toxic damage to stalkers would address this and is thematically feasable.
**Acceptable "support" responses**
Its your fault
Its your computers fault
Its your ISPs fault
Serious changes to all stalker powesets on an individual basis = never going to happen, way to much work.
What they are doing, is moving away from the dependance on AS for damage, putting stalkers in the same league as other melee types with regard to S/L damage, and moving away from depending on damage for survivability.
A quick back of envelope calculation reveals this to be an avarage of about +45% PvE damage buff for a "scrapping" stalker on a full team that doesn't have a mezzer.
I really should do something about this signature.
Congratulations Devs, a well thought out planned, taking a lot from community suggestions whilst not treating it a gospel.
It may not be perfect, but I find it hard to fault. Well done indeed.
This'll make my Scrapping DB/Nin Stalker much better to level.
It's a nice buff, but the Stalker HP Cap REALLY needs raised now. It was fairly easy to cap their HP before on a Willpower or Regen Stalker (even without accolades for the Regen). Now it's laughably simple. Dull Pain is now going to be essentially useless other than as a long-activation Heal.
The HP cap is currently 1606 HP. New Stalker Base HP is going to be 1204 HP, 1445 with accolades. Dull Pain can boost your HP by about 60% base HP... but there's only 161 HP to go until you hit the HP cap on an accoladed Stalker WITHOUT +HP IO Set Bonuses. That's at least 561 HP (35% of their capped HP) wasted.
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eh, been a long time since we have seen real fixes and rebalances going in the game, its usually AT wide band-aids like defiance 2.0, its great and all but its only served to make the highest performing blasters extend their lead over the lesser sets.
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That's not very true. With Newfiance I've found my ice/nrg blaster actually to be weaker than before (I was good at riding defiance, 1 shotting stuff helps to stop incoming damage tbh). While my recently made archery/psy blaster can achieve almost a permanent 50% damage buff from level 4, effectively giving him Damage DOs already. Archery, a fast but relatively weak set, is probably the set which benefitted the most from newfiance, not ice or fire.
@Rooks
"You should come inside the box... Then you'll know what I mean."
Oh man awesome.
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eh, been a long time since we have seen real fixes and rebalances going in the game, its usually AT wide band-aids like defiance 2.0, its great and all but its only served to make the highest performing blasters extend their lead over the lesser sets.
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That's not very true. With Newfiance I've found my ice/nrg blaster actually to be weaker than before (I was good at riding defiance, 1 shotting stuff helps to stop incoming damage tbh). While my recently made archery/psy blaster can achieve almost a permanent 50% damage buff from level 4, effectively giving him Damage DOs already. Archery, a fast but relatively weak set, is probably the set which benefitted the most from newfiance, not ice or fire.
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I cant help the deficiencies in your playstyle and archery, a lethal damage set does not get the most out of defiance 2, 50% buff on small damage is not as good as a 25% buff on a big damage low resistent set. Defiance 2 wasnt just the stacking damage buff, it was a straight 12.5% damage on ranged attacks too which benefits bigger damage attack much more than low ones. Oh and fire blast is a faster firing set than archery and far superior damage too but blaster forums are thataway
**Acceptable "support" responses**
Its your fault
Its your computers fault
Its your ISPs fault
lol i might actually roll a stalker if they keep trying to fix them.
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eh, been a long time since we have seen real fixes and rebalances going in the game, its usually AT wide band-aids like defiance 2.0, its great and all but its only served to make the highest performing blasters extend their lead over the lesser sets.
[/ QUOTE ]
That's not very true. With Newfiance I've found my ice/nrg blaster actually to be weaker than before (I was good at riding defiance, 1 shotting stuff helps to stop incoming damage tbh). While my recently made archery/psy blaster can achieve almost a permanent 50% damage buff from level 4, effectively giving him Damage DOs already. Archery, a fast but relatively weak set, is probably the set which benefitted the most from newfiance, not ice or fire.
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I cant help the deficiencies in your playstyle and archery, a lethal damage set does not get the most out of defiance 2, 50% buff on small damage is not as good as a 25% buff on a big damage low resistent set. Defiance 2 wasnt just the stacking damage buff, it was a straight 12.5% damage on ranged attacks too which benefits bigger damage attack much more than low ones. Oh and fire blast is a faster firing set than archery and far superior damage too but blaster forums are thataway
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No, you suck.
@Rooks
"You should come inside the box... Then you'll know what I mean."
On a random note, doesn't the fact that the 20% crit chance against slept/held targets is being made PvP-only nerf the newly available Electric Melee powerset? At least solo/small teams wise?
Or did I misunderstand something?
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I don't know if you read this but the next patch will contain a huge stalker buff including a higher damage scaler, crits out of hide and other nifty stuff. I wish I could give the source, but my internet is acting funny. Check the american boards if you want detailed info on the new test patch notes about this.
This has made my day
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I cant call that quote of buffs in second post huge by any stretch of imagination.
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I don't know if you read this but the next patch will contain a huge stalker buff including a higher damage scaler, crits out of hide and other nifty stuff. I wish I could give the source, but my internet is acting funny. Check the american boards if you want detailed info on the new test patch notes about this.
This has made my day
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I cant call that quote of buffs in second post huge by any stretch of imagination.
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Hmmm 10% more melee damage is significant in itself (let alone the HP bonus and reduced hide supression)
In addition, a 31% chance to crit in an 8 man team for every attack will put them on a par with scrappers for DPS, perhaps even higher if they have enough decent AoEs (Elec, Spines Im looking at you).
Its not huge, and I cant say It will make Stalkers able to pull as much weight as the other ATs, but at least they wont lag so far behing they become a liability.
And thats fair enough - the game has, iirc, always been designed around Strong team/Weak Solo ATs (Defenders, Trollers, Corruptors, Dominators for instance), versums Weak Team/Stron Solo ATs (Scrappers, Stalkers), with various builds/ATs shifting up and down this spectrum.
STalkers with their predominantly ST Attacks and Secondary that benefit normally only themselves are always going to be a solo AT. But at least now they wont just be a lodestone around the neck of a team.
I don't know if you read this but the next patch will contain a huge stalker buff including a higher damage scaler, crits out of hide and other nifty stuff. I wish I could give the source, but my internet is acting funny. Check the american boards if you want detailed info on the new test patch notes about this.
This has made my day