Too Many Powers....

During Double XP Weekend I decided to try the only AT I've never given a fair shot: stalkers. I made a spines/ea Saturday and got him to 27 before the weekend ended.

I'm finding out that I had a lot of misconceptions about the AT that are pleasantly being proven wrong. Stalkers are not anywhere near as squishy as I thought, and the damage output is quite good.

My only struggle so far has been power choices. There are just too many powers that I feel I can't do without! Hide (duh), AS, Build Up, Placate, trying to squeeze in Stamina....

The end result has been that my 27 Stalker has no travel power yet. Based on my current plan he'll get SJ at 30. I just can't help but think I've made a bad power choice or two somewhere. I mean, shouldn't I be able to squeeze in a travel power AND Stamina before 30? I've never encountered an AT where this was a problem before.

I'm at work and don't have access to Mids, but here are the power selections I've made so far:

1) Barb Swipe
1) Hide
2) Lunge
4) Kinetic Shield
6) Assassin's Impaler
8) Build Up
10) Entropy Shield
12) Power Shield
14) Spine Burst
16) Swift
18) Health
20) Stamina
22) Placate
24) Impale
26) Combat Jumping

I suppose I could drop Barb Swipe, but at this point I feel that would leave me without what I consider a decent attack chain. I just can't stand waiting around on powers to recharge.

Does anyone have any suggestions? I feel like I'm beating my head against a rock. I know I could probably do a better build, but don't have enough experience with the AT to really know a better way to go about it.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Seriously, I'm right there with you on this, except that I rolled a claws/nin.

I can't fit in a travel power until level 30 either because I need stamina to keep up with most teams. Once I slot some sets that come with end reduc, I should be fine. Until then, I don't want to sacrifice slots for it.

Have you found that you *need* a travel power? So many contacts give out little travel packs that getting around isn't too much trouble and then you can stop by Grandville and buy a flight pack for 10k inf.

If it's PvP you're looking at then you need to shuffle around your whole build (i.e. Barb Swipe and Spine Burst are useless there).

That's what I found with my Nin/Nin, yup. Too much vital stuff too early. On most Melee builds, by 20 I have four attacks from my primary, my two main shields or whatever and my mez protection from my secondary, a travel power and prerequisite, and Swift/Hurdle, Health and finally Stamina. Taunts get skipped entirely, except on my Tankers (where they're pushed off into the 20s), and Build Up or its equivalent generally enters my build at 22-24 (so it'll be available for speedy firebase takedowns in Bloody Bay). On a Stalker? Three of those four attacks are replaced with Build Up, AS and Placate as soon as they become available. AS is a great attack of course, but it doesn't exactly contribute to an attack chain once you're already engaged. And my defenses take a hit for Hide, making me push back the second defense toggle or whatever.

Personally, as a veteran of other MMOs where travel times often exceeded an hour, pushing back a travel power on a character I'm mostly going to solo isn't that painful. Pushing back Stamina would hurt too, but the Stalker playstyle does let you limp by without it fairly easily. All of that falls apart on teams though... next Stalker I make, the team build will probably push AS/Placate/BU back, actually, and focus on playing like a Scrapper in earlier levels. Which, of course, will get me laughed right off of teams despite AS having very limited utility in the pace most teams tend to play...

Your power selection is fine, it maximizes combat efficiency. My Claws/WP Scrapper avoided travel entirely and will continue to do so. Its really not so bad.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BackAlleyBrawler you *******!!!!

I always try to get stamina as early as possible. It makes the characters so much easier to play. It doesnt matter what you sacrifice for it because it will make getting to that point where you can take those powers so much faster.

Most of my stalkers don't get a travel power until the 30s. Three or four of them won't be getting travel powers until 51.

Once you get to 32 it evens out a bit. Try getting hasten, speed up the recharge and you can drop attacks. I have my spines/regen and his attack chain is constant with Lunge, Throw Spines, Impale and ripper. Spine burst and barb swipe become outdated and i suggest respecing or usin that dual build.



Level 1: Lunge
Level 1: Hide
Level 2: Kinetic Shield
Level 4: Power Shield
Level 6: Assassin's Impaler
Level 8: Build Up
Level 10: Entropy Shield
Level 12: Placate
Level 14: Swift
Level 16: Health
Level 18: Impale
Level 20: Stamina
Level 22: Hasten
Level 24: Super Speed
Level 26: Ripper
Level 28: Energy Drain
Level 30: Energy Protection
Level 32: Throw Spines

That gives you a decent chain, staminia and a travel power. I personally slot recharges in stuff on my spines/ea cuz i got energy drain to make up for the relative end heavyness

Well, that's if the guy wants Super Speed. I thought he wanted Super Jump.

I would suggest getting rid of Barb Swipe though. I haven't used that attack in forever and when I did it was crap. Unless they fixed the dmg/animation since then, I would suggest picking a pool attack instead.

For PvE, I wouldn't skip Spine Burst. Get some IO procs in there if you can and fire it off + BU on teams. It's quite fun, even outside of hide.

There's been some really great feedback in this thread. I thank everyone for the advice, you've all helped a lot. I've gained another couple levels on my stalker and last night did the Cap SF. I'm still enjoying the AT immensely. Like I said in my earlier post, I really wish I had tried Stalkers before now. I didn't know what I was missing.

One (radical) option that most stalker players don't (emotionally) consider is skipping Assassin's Impaler. Usually stalkers just use it once per combat, and it's often wasting damage on overkilling the target. Stalkers can get by decently in combat when they have a decent attack chain available to them. Hides are often more efficiently spent on 2x damage crits on normal (especially aoe) attacks rather than a 6x damage super-slow tiny-range interruptable AS on a single target.

This is all applicable only to pve though. In pvp Assassin Strikes are a key element of stalker play.

If in the mid pve levels you're honestly hurting for power slots, and you have a decent attack chain with an aoe going anyway, consider respecing out of your Assassin Strike power. At least until you get to a level where you have some breathing room (buildwise) to retake it.

In terms of spines, my main 50 spines/nin just attack chains with two of impale/ripper/throw spines (with liberal placates) depending on the combat situation. With some Caltrops in play I'm pretty effective mowing down masses of enemies. Assassin Strike is reserved only for rare situations against lonely low-threat super-healthy targets (like the computer in the itf). It's just not anything more than a special-case (still good) power in my build.

Most players I know just wrinkle up their faces at the suggestion like they're being forced to eat some broccoli with their red meat. But realistically, it's not AS that defines the stalker. The CoH stalker is more defined by Hide and attacking effectively out of Hide. The stalker does not absolutely need AS to use Hide well, and if your stalker has a need more absolute than AS (like an earlier travel power or a lvl 6 Hasten), then AS should be logically expendable.

I dunno, skipping AS is kind of hefty for a Spines/. I could see skipping it on a EM or possibly even a Claws or MA but Spines is rather weak in the single target department. All you really have is Lunge, Impale and Ripper for effective ST and those 3 are either only moderate damage, very slow animating or both. Having the option to say "Man, this guy isn't going down very fast....*placate* *AS*" would be a tough option to give up, for me.

But that's just my opinion. My Spines/ is Spines/DA, I can't afford to have a tough target whaling on me for very long as the defense I have gathered on him is still in the 20%s.

If the OP was hurting for slots, I'd suggest skipping the fitness pool and slotting out Energy Drain for recharge instead. That's 2 extra powers right there.

My /SR doesnt need a travel power...it is a travel power!

Ok, heres my situation:

I have to take fitness so I can actually keep up with most teams, that means Swift, Health and Fitness. Swift has 2 slots.

Since I am an /SR I get Quickness and that is also 2 slotted for run speed. Eventually I will 3 slot both stam and quick. Since I have my toggles slotted and my attack on each power at 96% I will have extra Enh Slots left over.

If your SG base has empowerment stations, you can gain the run speed buff from there.

I also have Sprint and I have 1 slot for Endo Redux. If I want some verticle scaling I have the Jump Pack.


On top of that I have the Mission Transporter, Oro Portal, SG Base and the Assemble Team Vet Power. In most cases where the mission is too far away for me to want to ...Power Walk...I teleport right to the door and grace my teammates with a group TP. I don't really need a travel power.


If you want a travel power so much I suggest buying a jetpack from GV, I wouldnt suggest gimping your Stalker or limting yourself to powers so you can have a travel power. In this stage of the game the Devs have made it so easy to travel between points and even then being able to get to point B should be easy. I also enjoy the brisk run and AS targets in my travels.

I always consider the fact that I can walk right past any group of nasties I want and never be noticed by them at all to be the ultimate travel power.

As mentioned, the temp powers make all the difference. I have yet to use my Raptor and Jump Packs up, and my Stalker is 35. And I had a 50 MM who kept both of hers all the way to 49. Of course, preserving them like that means walking as much as you feel you can get away with...

Hey.. I've never played a stalker version of spines, but I am going to assume it is very AoE heavy. I HAVE however, played spines version of scrapper and and Elec Melee version of stalker. So here is my advice for an AoE/EA stalker:

Skip Stamina... you can save 3 powers slots by skipping this and also save a power pool as well. You have energy drain. 5 slot this with 3 recharge and 2 end mod's and it will be up for every fight. And once you IO out, it will be recharge faster than you are able to use the End (even if you tried!).

Also, if it is as AoE heavy as I think it is.. then skip Placate as well (CALM DOWN ALL YOU STALKER FASCISTS!!). I find on my elec/EA stalker, since I am always AoE'ing, whats the sense of going into hiding again? Sure I can placate and AS or Thunderstrike for extra damage.. but thats like having 20 gigs of RAM on your cpu.. sure its nice, but definately NOT needed.