I agree with you there mate, Stalkers are dissapointing. But you say they have no defense. Have you every heard of a Stalker's secondary?
The stalkers secondary is not much of a defense imo. Compared to the trusty scrapper who was made to run headlong into mobs and survive. The Stalkers defenses arent up to that job.
Persistance was the best way I found to make my stalker easy to play. At higher level she can fight damn well, has self-heal and if all esle fails (which it rarely does) Placate comes in handy lol
Golden-Phoenix - Lvl 50 Fire/Fire Tank
Oodja Nikabolokov - Lvl 50 SS/WP Brute
Baby-Phoenix - Lvl 50 Peacebringer
How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could Chuck Norris?
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The stalkers secondary is not much of a defense imo. Compared to the trusty scrapper who was made to run headlong into mobs and survive. The Stalkers defenses arent up to that job.
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Ummmm, I disagree with you there, because the Stalker's secondary is the same as the Scrapper's secondary...
lol Stalker defense is actually better than a scrappers assuming you have a set such as SR which is defense based because they get hide which gives defense to all and a big aoe def, the only reason a scrapper may survive longer is because they have more hp. Also if you fail to AS (miss) you wont unhide anyway so you wont be in trouble there.
The only thing i do agree on which is annoying is the fact longbow see though your hide in mayhems but if you're the only one on the map it wont be very challenging if they just let you run into the vault break the door and snag the loot.
As for the damage of the other attacks i think the damage is more than enough for pve uses, from hide you will always critical and you can placate and do it again. Thats quite big damage imo.
Gamete..
Placate is needed of course. Problem is that you can use the AS on the first and the last opponent because it will be interupted by enemy attacks.
As i said, IF you have the initiative this is manageable.
If however your hide is rendered useless (ambushers, relentless ambushing mobs who follow you all over the map and hostages) you are struggling to keep alive. Running away is not an option because you will agro other mobs.
As for defenses. A stalker without hide is way less survivable then a scrapper. The stalker is designed to be an egg with a sledgehammer. Which works well unless the opponent is immune to his one and only true defense.
I dont even do any mayhem missions anymore. I just let the timer do a timeout because either the longbow will kill me or the hero and his goons get the honors. Escaping from jail is a pain as well.
So my question remains. How can I enjoy playing my stalker? For the record: 25 ninja/ninjutsu.
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Persistance was the best way I found to make my stalker easy to play. At higher level she can fight damn well, has self-heal and if all esle fails (which it rarely does) Placate comes in handy lol
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And how did you deal with hostages ambushes and mayhems? Plus the EB's?
Ninjitsu is a tight build. Ninja Blade, on the other hand, gets Divine Avalanche at level 18. Take it, Slot it (2 Acc, 1 Rech, 3 DefBuff SOs, or a mix-match of IO sets to get some damage in there too) love it.
DA on its own will soft-cap your defense to all melee and lethal typed attacks. When double-stacked, it will let you solo EBs with ease even if you don't count all of Ninjitsu's tricks (realistically speaking, Hide plus the two defence armors and Kuji-In Rin and Kuji-In Sha are all you actually NEED... but Caltrops and the tier 9 "Retsu" God Mode are certainly useful. Smoke Flash too.)
PEBKAC
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PEBKAC
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Please Eat Beef Kindly After Carnifax? 
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If however your hide is rendered useless (ambushers, relentless ambushing mobs who follow you all over the map and hostages) you are struggling to keep alive. Running away is not an option because you will agro other mobs.
As for defenses. A stalker without hide is way less survivable then a scrapper. The stalker is designed to be an egg with a sledgehammer. Which works well unless the opponent is immune to his one and only true defense.
I dont even do any mayhem missions anymore. I just let the timer do a timeout because either the longbow will kill me or the hero and his goons get the honors. Escaping from jail is a pain as well.
So my question remains. How can I enjoy playing my stalker? For the record: 25 ninja/ninjutsu.
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It's easy to survive with ninjutsu... At 25 you get a heal and caltrops.
First, you have to always manage a way to flee, which means to kill every mob on the way.
Second, during an ambush, you placate the smallest mob, do your best critical on him, finish him, and use your heal if you need. For the others, you throw caltrops, which will slow them and make them flee. So you can go behind something to get your hide faster, come back to do one critical (and another if placate is back), and make it again.
Against EB's, same technique (caltrops -> hide -> critical -> placate -> critical -> hide) ; you just need a lot of red and purple insps.
Against the hero of mayhems, I advise you to wait all the ambushes inside the bank before to take the money, and to use the mob in jail, at least before you get Kuji-In Retsu.
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Persistance was the best way I found to make my stalker easy to play. At higher level she can fight damn well, has self-heal and if all esle fails (which it rarely does) Placate comes in handy lol
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And how did you deal with hostages ambushes and mayhems? Plus the EB's?
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I tended to find that solo - Hostage ambushes tend only to consist of 3-4 mobs and as has been mentioned Divine Avalanche gives good additional defence. I also 3 sloted hide with +Def so even though I wasnt stealthed the defence bonus was still there.
Mayhems were a different kettle of fish. Solo I admit they are a nightmare although I would rather fight on my own terms so tended to go straight to bank and fight as they trickle throught the door. It was 50/50 as to wether it worked though. Like youI tended to let to time run out and carry on with normal missions. In teams Mayhems are good because yuoget change to AS people while they are busy fighting others though!! If you can stick at it until Golden Dragonfly (or whatever it is) that is a damn fine power to take and will save you quite often because mobs in the air cannot atack as well 
Golden-Phoenix - Lvl 50 Fire/Fire Tank
Oodja Nikabolokov - Lvl 50 SS/WP Brute
Baby-Phoenix - Lvl 50 Peacebringer
How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could Chuck Norris?
Well, as anybody suggest taking up Divine Avalanche, a power I thought was absolutely gimp. I will get that one asap to give it a try.
I am not happy to waste any mob on the way to a hossie/glowie or any mob for that matter. I am playing someone who cant be seen etc. Not a brute who likes to beat anyone in sight to a pulp. I got a nice brute who just loves doing that. For me a stalker is about stealth and a surgical strike. So i think i will still try to avoid the kidnap missions.
Glad to see that I am not the only one with a big mayhem problem on my Stalker. So I guess no succesfull bank robberies for me as I have given up trying to get parties on villains (I welcome them of course but i wont go looking for em anymore)
Any more suggestions to improve the chances of my stalker ever seeing the 50's?
Mayhems take patience. Advance slowly, wait for the ambush to spawn, take it out and continue the advance.wreak some havoc along the way, mainly things that give you time bonuses.
Once inside the bank, take out all the guards, open safe.
Wait for ambush and take it out. Rest before taking loot.
Now either you wait, or you go to the entrance, in any case pop a few purples (+def) a red or two and a yellow.
Kill ambush.
Plac+bu+AS on boss. Kill boss.
Done.
It really IS simple, if you do it 'right'
And, I am confident this will work with nin/nin too, myself being a Claw/Sr stalker (Yes, i can hit the def cap )
Good luck and don't give up yet.
//cx-1233
For the first few levels (well most...) I avoided kidnap missions and stuck to 'Defeat X' or 'Steal Y' missions (X & Y being used to represent a multitude of things - not actually kidnapping X and stealing Y - Sesame Street would notice that...) as these were fast XP for minimal effort and got good levelling results. They also worked well with the fact that I really struggled to team up to about lvl 35 
Golden-Phoenix - Lvl 50 Fire/Fire Tank
Oodja Nikabolokov - Lvl 50 SS/WP Brute
Baby-Phoenix - Lvl 50 Peacebringer
How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could Chuck Norris?
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And, I am confident this will work with nin/nin too, myself being a Claw/Sr stalker (Yes, i can hit the def cap )
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The defence cap?
I'm rolling myself a Claws/SR if you can hit 200% defence.
CoH PvP SG = SuperUnion - Co-Leader - Union/Freedom
CoV PvP VG = Disruption - Co-Leader - Union/Freedom
Global = @Rent & @Rent.
Playgroup are all **** - Global Handle
Well, you do need to pop a purple or three.. but i _can_..kinda... :P
//CX
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So, how can I turn a major disapointing AT into something that is fun playing? Anyone?
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My tip? Don't solo, from 4 - 50 i don't think i ever solo'd my Stalker, if i couldent find a team i'd PvP, or RP.
I also found picking a set with a self-heal is win, specially for PvP which is what the majority of Stalker players do.
My DB/Ninja fairs very well in PvE with an IO build mainly built on defense. As for solo i coulden't really offer advice as i hate soloing, but in a team, use placate tactically if you have cone attacks position correctly, and if you take a nasty hit, run, heal up back into hide and land in another AS. Common sense things really, my biggest tip is to team though.
Well truth is since the buff to hp and damage , stalkers are easier to play then ever .
The problem is that you need to set out a different attitude , you AS one LT , the rest you scrap it out .
So in that attitude what you fail to exploit or see .
That its a weaker scrapper version , now powerchoices are also very important , WP High Pain tolerance makes live a lot easier on stalker , especially with reconstruction .
Try that one first to get the hang of it before moving over to other more complex min max melee machines .
Well fun factor thats the hard part since brutes are fun.
Stalkers are turned into a weaker version by comparison .
So the fun factor is the challenge that its hard to solo a stalker .
Look played old stalker and new one , the big difference between old stalker when released that 2 basic attacks are enough to scrap it out , in the new cox version you need 3 basic attack at lower level to scrap it out .
So invest into a air superiority (the best ever melee move cause of the knockup) for completing your chain .
thats easy mode , or for hardcore mode just play with 2 attacks and loads of inspirations .
and i do solo stalkers too including all your problems you mention , just problems is brute just leaves them behind .
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Persistance was the best way I found to make my stalker easy to play. At higher level she can fight damn well, has self-heal and if all esle fails (which it rarely does) Placate comes in handy lol
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And how did you deal with hostages ambushes and mayhems? Plus the EB's?
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The real question is how did you get to 25 without doing all those at low level ?
Hostage after killing the Boss with a AS buildup red and yellow inspi , and a second hit from your regular attack kill LT then the Minion .
hide is off but since there is only 2-3 minion coming your way , dont say you can't kill those with your regular attacks .
Well mayhems are same story as the hostage situations just simpler .
Elite boss , well for you save a purple def inspiration .
Buildup some red inspiration AS kill it .
Since you taken ninjutsu with a nice primary of ninja .
Divine Avalance after AS on auto makes you unkillable , sorry you hit the soft defence cap with ease .
I think you should practise a bit more solo , you probaly skipped a lot of content , so you are at a level where your skill stinks terrible , and your powerset aren't even bad choices for a stalker .
If you can't scrap it out with 3 +1 minions then i think you should give it up , sorry to say any AT should be able to kill 3 +1 minions . or they really lack playing experience .
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So, how can I turn a major disapointing AT into something that is fun playing? Anyone?
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My tip? Don't solo, from 4 - 50 i don't think i ever solo'd my Stalker, if i couldent find a team i'd PvP, or RP.
I also found picking a set with a self-heal is win, specially for PvP which is what the majority of Stalker players do.
My DB/Ninja fairs very well in PvE with an IO build mainly built on defense. As for solo i coulden't really offer advice as i hate soloing, but in a team, use placate tactically if you have cone attacks position correctly, and if you take a nasty hit, run, heal up back into hide and land in another AS. Common sense things really, my biggest tip is to team though.
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Well I have been into a team occasionally and then i concentrate on the lt's bosses etc. Problem is getting a team. Defiant is not known for its overabundance of players and i tend to play at odd times as well.
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Persistance was the best way I found to make my stalker easy to play. At higher level she can fight damn well, has self-heal and if all esle fails (which it rarely does) Placate comes in handy lol
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And how did you deal with hostages ambushes and mayhems? Plus the EB's?
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The real question is how did you get to 25 without doing all those at low level ?
Hostage after killing the Boss with a AS buildup red and yellow inspi , and a second hit from your regular attack kill LT then the Minion .
hide is off but since there is only 2-3 minion coming your way , dont say you can't kill those with your regular attacks .
Well mayhems are same story as the hostage situations just simpler .
Elite boss , well for you save a purple def inspiration .
Buildup some red inspiration AS kill it .
Since you taken ninjutsu with a nice primary of ninja .
Divine Avalance after AS on auto makes you unkillable , sorry you hit the soft defence cap with ease .
I think you should practise a bit more solo , you probaly skipped a lot of content , so you are at a level where your skill stinks terrible , and your powerset aren't even bad choices for a stalker .
If you can't scrap it out with 3 +1 minions then i think you should give it up , sorry to say any AT should be able to kill 3 +1 minions . or they really lack playing experience .
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I got to 25 in the course of a year of playing her occasionally. Dying a lot and skipping mayhems after ending up in prisons time and again.
Problem there is of course the longbows and heroes who see through your hide. Maybe DA will help out, I will test that one soon.
And content skipping? Nope not me. I hardly ever got a team. So basicly I solo 90% of the time. Granted, I am not terrible good with any of the melee types and my jumping around is more miss then hit. But if i can level a tank, scrapper, brute (granted only recently) then my gaming skills or lack of them is not the biggest issue. Good tactics and a good build is another thing. That's why I am asking you guys for some pointers. I can handle normal missions no problem its the specials that make me frustrated.
Fair enough ,
So its the Elite boss , the 3 spawns in mayhem or the boss in mayhem .
(am not counting relentless soloing where heroes becomes semi av , that needs a lot of endurance to solo kill something out of reach for most stalkers around your levels)
So well longbow spawns seeing trough your stealth , you get a warning when they are coming a nice blue letter warning in chat , thats when you find a nice position to kill them .
and same time kill some stuff like mailboxes bla bla .
As for EB busting clean out the minions and LT with hit and run tactics first (AS one run away placate one and kill etc while you run away towards elevator or something else)
or use standard pulling tactics (taser knives etc) , where you scrapper kill the whole spawn .
The EB certain EB are simply too hard to solo , Calistix for example , that one requires a really special build to solo or truck of inspirations and timing , infernal is same story .
But most EB like balista for example , is doable .
it cost inspirations either blue red definetly some purple (till you got your 2 stacks of Divine Avalance up 30% def bonus)
Its most important as stalker not to waste inspirations at all at LT fights , that sets you up for boss fights with 1 or 2 inspi max , and EB where you probaly have to pop 4 or more , this counts for other squishy at as well .
Now for example if you didn't have Divine Avalance or ninjablade set, for a balista kill you need to pop 2-3 def cause stalkers are squishy , and getting hit by one of the ET or other high damage attack , is usually a quick 2 shot.
But then again stalker starts out usually with a 25%-50% hp headstart. the rest is just dont get hit dont run out of end and kill him . DEF inspirations are overpowered currently , thats why most players carry some of them around for the tricky bosses it simply means a 1 min 30 second free game play .
Ok partly the problem of stalkers is a tight fit nowadays , in the past 2 attacks suffice , nowadays 3 is mandatory usually i skip placate till 22 .
But at 25 you past that level have stamina , have the selfheal , just forget about caltrops , smokebombs .
Fix the attack chain and def setting first .
Consist of sting of the wasp , divine avalance (usually on ctrl click after the AS strike) and the aoe cone (forgot the name and too lazy to look it up ).
Now i usually have Air superiority for bosskilling or EB busting since every knockup is worth the redraw , cause every knockup is 2 second no incoming damage . while in short term fight it isn't much , but in 1 min+ fight its a lot of avoidance freely given at cost of redraw.
(but thats my personal choice cause of flight travel addiction)
Now diffculty level is also important , dont know many who solo on relentless all the AV or Heroes anymore .
Since the regen rate is insane and melee people do not have the -regen unlike some other AT who do make it a breeze 
I find playing stalkers a lot more enjoyable since the recent buff, you can scrap your way though most ambushes now. I do reccomend getting placate as soon as it becomes avalible btw.
On mayhems I accept that there is a strong likleyhood of being defeated when the hero shows up. I take the hit, hopefully after doing a bit of damage to his pals, bust out of prison and come back to finish him off.
Blegh,
Trying to play a stalker and yes they are very good at assasinating people. But that is all they can do.
They cant fight. If the assasin strike fails you are seriously in trouble. No defenses to speak of, no health and your other attacks dont do enough damage to finish fights quickly. Basicly you are a terrible terrible scrapper without your AS.
Ok you can run from a failed AS strike. However and here is where i am getting more then a bit frustrated.
Mayhem missions with longbows and heroes that see you even when hidden.
Ambushers that keep following you who of course see through your hidden.
Hostages where you have to turn hide of or they wont follow you around (yeah right in theory when you stay real real real close they can see you).
Those missions are HELL. Cant describe it any ohter way. Haven't tried them out on EB's yet. But I am sure they will struggle with those seriously as well. Especially when they summon something, anything. Finally there is the lack of teaming. Now teaming on red side is something that almost never happens but when a team appears they don't want a stalker. And why should they, be reasonable a bane is better then a stalker in every single way.
So, how can I turn a major disapointing AT into something that is fun playing? Anyone?