How much trouble have I gotten myself into?

When I told a long time friend and wow player that 'no AT/build combo is useless in CoX' she utter'd two words 'prove it' and rolled up a db/ela stalker for me to play, only power pools allowed are fitness and Mu for my epic when I get there. Reason for Fitness is she wanted me to have at least some movement assist without actually taking a travel power. Health and Stam are just an added bonus

I've had trouble getting stalkers out of the teens always stalling out around 16-19, but after the first 8 levels I'm finding this one enjoyable.

Normally I'd just point out my ice/thermal 'impossible to solo till 32+' controller, but she's made it a point of pride for me to take this toon all the way to 50, inbetween sessions with my fort.
So I turn to the community and ask for advice/tips/etc. I do know the basics of DB I have a tank and used to have a brute with that version of the set. The tanks an aggro ***** spamming weaken and empower combos without gaps, no end problems, and keeps everyone pissed at him. I know that isn't the best set up here and that I don't have the pbaoe here to do that play style, currently gunning for the Attack vitals combo plus AS/BU, as my offensive set up of choice.

My BS/Elec is 37 and I don't have a travel power. I have Fitness pool, and sprint, and I have yet to miss it. Don't forget your temp Raptor Pack. I found DB boring as a stalker personally but YMMV. Love it on scrappers, though. The secondary is decent, don't let the detractors tell you otherwise, you have decent resists and don't have to worry about pesky end drain when you fight Carnies/Arachnos Mu/other crap I can't recall. Energize is a nice heal when slotted, and Power Sink is just icing on the cake.

So what's the issue? With the new difficulty settings, you shouldn't run into too many missions that are out and out impossible for you to complete. Although DB/Elec isn't the strongest combo for Stalkers, it's far from useless either and should be quite capable.

I don't really like the idea of limiting pools though. Some secondaries are peachy running what's available within the set but others are capable of more thanks greater management of endurance and that is a strength of Elec that will get no emphasis in your experiment.

Yeah, limiting travel powers makes no sense, will just make the game slower and maybe boring to play due to running...

If you really want to prove your point to your friend you should try something more gimped than a stalker, maybe something/Energy armor brute, something heavy on end prefered, like stone mellee.

She's the one who choose the power sets/limits on this one.

I was just checking in with the community to see what i'd gotten myself into with the toon she choose for this. I think she choose stalker because of my own issues with the class and the lack of travel power came from a discussion of the travel powers and that they aren't needed in CoX as much as Mounts are for WoW. I'm just glad she didn't challenge me to run a petless MM=)

As for the travel powers, just go to GV and buy the jetpack :P

While I was never fond of DB especially on a Stalker I've heard lots of good things about it.

In regards to the no travel power, don't worry about that Lightning Reflexes+Sprint+Swift with some slots is about even in speed to fly so getting around won't be a problem for you at all.

As for this challenge, are you allowed to respec your build later on?
If so then I'd suggest picking up Ablating Strike in the beginning for the Sweep Combo (BU>Assassins>Ablating) remember the combos aren't target dependent and I've found Sweep useful the few times I've tried DB.

At 32 You'll get 1Kcuts which will change everything because you can use that as an opening move for massive AoE and plenty of crits. I also remember many Stalker players saying that for DB, the combos shouldn't be a priority (other than AV) so definitely stick through it and show your friend why Coh is a superior game to WoW.

Just going to say "I agree" with most of what people have said in response already. If your friend is trying to "gimp" you with having no travel power, she's failed utterly, especially after having so many temp travel powers added and easy-to-get in the game.

If anything, she's made things easier for you. Stalker builds are sometimes (often?) described as "tight" and/or "unforgiving" - especially early on if you're trying to get both fitness and travel prereqs in. She's just given you two free pre-20 (pre-15 even) power picks.

Edit: Had to add - the whole "have someone else pick your AT/Powers" bit can actually be rather fun. A group of friends and I did just that, making an alt SG on a secondary server. We dont' play them as much as we'd like - working on several mains ATM - but several of us are quite far along. (The Corr I was given - fire/kin, so I'm not exactly hurting - is 40.)

See my Guides and Tutorials

Also, consider buying the ninja pack. Ninja run+lightning reflexes+sprint+swift is a damn fine travel power. And it works nicely with a dual blade stalker concept.

If you couldn't find a use for Stalkers at level one let me know.

I always figured my Stalker was an "efficiency expert." Having trouble with, oh, Longbow Nullfiers? Lemme optimize that for ya.