How needed is Assassin Strike?

Iv decided to roll a Elec/EA Stalker, and iv been playing the entire time, without Assassin Strike.

Iv been doing just fine, using every melee attack in the Electrical Melee Primary for my Stalker.I did take Placate, for a Garanteed Crit on some of my attacks, but I have yet to buy up a Stalkers signature move, Assassin Strike.

People have asked me why I didnt take my AS, and I dont really tell them anything.I dont think it needs to be exsplained, especially since the Stalker isnt being made for PvP, its being made for PvE.

I felt it would be cute to Farm with a Stalker red side, and many people have told me iv made a weak Stalker.

From what im experiancing, the damage is rather nice, and when in a Team, my AoEs, as well as ST attacks, get a boost to there Crit range per person on the team.So to me, I feel like a advanced Sneaky Scrapper, just with the capability to possition my self before a attack run.

Now, im not caring to go off and Solo a AV, but I am on track to Farm with this Stalker, and dont really see Assassin Strike being put into the build at all, mainly because it doesnt feel needed.

Im pretty sure EA's utility, with Lightning Rod, Chain Induction, Thunder Strike, and even Jaccob's Ladder will do more then enough damage to even bother getting AS.

Im level 22 right now, can anyone tell me why id need AS for the next 38 levels of the game?I just dont see the use taking it.

I like AS on the stalkers that i have made (granted im not a fan of stalkers). It deals an amazing amount of damage compared to most attacks (when from hide at least). I say if you dont want to take it dont, but that is the "play it your way" side of me talking lol.

Because without it you'll be less effective at the AT's specialty, quickly eliminating particularly dangerous targets. That's especially true when you consider the fact that Electric Melee comes up a bit short on single target damage.

You're still early in your Stalker's career so none of the enemies are tough enough or possessed of dangerous enough powers to make a difference. But in the mid levels (24+) the bad guys start to become a lot more dangerous. Bosses are no longer just slightly tougher than lieutenants and lieutenants start to use powers that can really wreck your day (CoT Spectral Daemon Lords and Tsoo Sorcerors come to mind). In those instances your team will be expecting YOU to neutralize those threats before they become a problem. Even when solo you'll be glad you did.

So while I agree that Assassin's Strike can be skipped in the early levels if there's something else you'd like to get I definately don't advise going beyond level 22 without it.

Elec Stalkers have AoEs that can crit out of hide for a 50% chance. This can be awesome on teams, as I've discovered with my Elec/Regen Stalker.

Assassin Shock, however, deals huge damage to one enemy, and I mean HUGE! It's almost always a 1-hit KO on anything other than a Boss, and even Bosses can be taken out in one shot. Against certain enemies, like endurance sappers, being able to take out one really annoying enemy can be more important than getting a crit off of an AoE, and your AoEs are still there for after you've killed the most annoying enemy in the mob.

My Elec/Regen alternates between AoE openings and Assassin Strikes as the situation warrants, and I've not yet found cause to regret picking the power on it, or any of my other Stalkers.

My Elec/Nin Stalker doesn't have Assassin's Strike either. I too never saw the point in taking it if I wasn't playing PvP. Mine is set up for a more team friendly role. I focused on as much AoE as possible and soft-capping my defenses. I have often taken the role of lead Brute with my Stalker. I wanted to break the mold of the one-trick-pony that Stalkers often get accused of. Yes Assassin's Strike deals a massive amount of damage in one shot, but look how long it takes and what you have to do to get that one shot set up. I can Build-Up, Lightning Rod, Thunder Strike, and Ball Lightning in the same amount of time and have almost the entire mob down instead of trying to make sure I'm in Hide, position myself behind the boss, hit AS, and hope nothing interrupts it in the process. Do Stalkers need AS? It's nice for some occasions, but no I don't think you need to have it at all.

Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.

Assassin's Shock isn't needed at all - the power it replaced was Lightning Clap, so you don't miss out on any of the attacks that other ATs get with Electric Melee. Due to Lightning Rod not breaking hidden status and Thunder Strike having at least a partial critical guaranteed, it's not often the best suggestion for leading off a fight unless there's just one hard target to deal with or you aren't going to kill everything with LR->TS and what survives has a good chance to kill you.

Where it's very nice to have - beyond the added burst damage - is when you can leverage the Demoralize effect to help your secondary when dealing with large crowds. The tohit debuff and possible fear is a big help when you're hitting everything, and on my Elec/Nin I usually try to leave something almost dead, but with that little sliver that will get the debuff and then finish them off with one of the AoEs. Let's face it, Stalker hit points aren't all that great, so anything you can do to help keep things from hitting you is nice - whether that means picking off something that's going to cripple you before they get a chance to do anything, or just debuff a whole spawn so that they can't hit you.

And if you happen to care, the DPA for Assassin's Shock, even if it's not a critical, is higher than Havoc Punch's DPA.

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Originally Posted by PleaseRecycle it has gone from unconscionable to downright appalling that we have no way of measuring our characters' wetness.

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Originally Posted by Brillig It's hard to beat the entertainment value of Whackjob Wednesdays.

Taking AS is up to you and your playstyle. Me? My elec/regen took it when it first became available, he uses it as an opener often enough and he'll use it mid combat after knocking down a foe with Lightning Rod or Thunderstrike. I just really enjoy using it. Reasons why anyone would take AS for their Elec stalker:

-Demoralize. You're going to be attracting some attention with all those AoEs. Being able to fear some and debuff their ToHit to make it harder for them to hit you is always a plus.

-Single Target Damage. As an Elec stalker, you're lacking ST, same as a Spines stalker. You don't have to take AS to cover that up though but it's right there available for you at lvl 6...

-Tactical Burst Damage. Because AS will not alert foes to your presence during its use or if it misses. If you use a normal attack from hide, the enemy will immediately be alerted to your presence even if you miss. Also, they will be alerted to you *the moment* you start the attack. So Thunderstrike from hide = the enemy looking and shooting at you the first 2 sec of your attack. Sure, LR doesn't *break* hide but it will still alert the enemy even if it misses.

-It looks Frikken cool! I *STILL* yell "CHIDORI!!" every now and then when I use it. Even if the attack did crap damage, I'd probably take it because it looks so awesome.

Whether AS is needed or not really comes down to individual playstyle. To me, it's the equivalent of a blaster's snipe and isn't absolute necessity. Hide is necessary on a stalker in order to make their inherent work, and you have no choice but to take it... you don't *have* to take AS, and it doesn't make much sense to take it in your case since you'll basically be "scrapping" and using it to farm.

I have an Elm/Ela stalker at 44 currently and never took Assassin's Shock (I don't have placate either), I have to say that for this particular toon, I've never missed AS at all. BU+LR+TS= DEAD spawns, "problem" enemies, like sappers etc. aren't a problem and "tough" bosses aren't that tough when they're the only thing left for the team to kill. While there are occasionally some minion stragglers missed by the AoE's, they can be taken care of fairly easy... Elm's ST isn't THAT bad, but it could use a little love from the devs. I do plan on making a 2nd build with AS at some point, for the simple fact that I think it's the best AS animation in the game and I love watching it.

I dual boxed with this character and my Earth/Psi Dom til around level 33-34 so I can't specifically comment on solo play prior to those levels since I always had "support", in a sense. I can say during that time, i rarely had any trouble from bosses or larger spawns. I always ran missions set to +0/x3 minimum, with bosses/no AV's after level 16.

My Dom is now 50 and I've solo'd the stalker for approximately 8 of the 10 levels I've gained since I stopped boxing with the Dom. I was able to solo Ghost Widow (EB) in the patron arc without any issues as well as various others (Johnny Sonata comes to mind). I've never had anyone tell me it's weak in-game, but I've read it frequently on the boards and it's one of the reasons I originally made this alt, that and I grew especially fond of Electric powersets through my 3xElec Blapper

The demoralize effect can still be quite valuable when fighting large groups. If you plan on just farming, in which case you'll probably be fighting cherry-picked easy groups, you probably won't miss it. For general teaming it can be useful.

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Originally Posted by Siolfir And if you happen to care, the DPA for Assassin's Shock, even if it's not a critical, is higher than Havoc Punch's DPA.

It made me smile when I calculated DPA for my Spines Stalker and found that a non-crit AS was my second best attack (well third best if you include a crit AS).

You don't feel like a squishy scrapper? Good job making it work, dude.

Better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.

There's literally no reason not to take it? It allows you to instantly remove the biggest threat in a group, and even if it fails to one-shot the enemy you'll still demoralize the group. It's not like taking it reduces the strength of your other powers or anything...

A stalker without AS is heresy.

I think on average Stalkers are gimpier without it.

It's 50/50, really, since Stalkers do more damage now and have more hit points, not to mention Criticalling more often on teams, the attack is not nearly as needed to level. OTOH, the demoralize effect can be quite handy, if not for direct damage dealing, at least for a team support and damage mitigation tool. So I would say it is no more or no less needed, but it is a signature power of the Stalker.

I actually levelled my first Stalker from 1 to 26 without Assassin Strike, to say that I could and I did. There was no appreciable lack of damage dealing capability, I simply used Crippling Axe Kick as my primary attack, and Criticalling every time as I was coming out of Hide the damage was at least enough to one hit kill a Minion, particularly with Focus Chi. Anyone who says you NEED Assassin Strike to take on a Minion or Lieutenant is overstating the case, most of the damage is overkill unless you are taking on a Boss. Against Bosses, though, AS is still your best weapon.

I would personally say that past 20 you should probably pick up Assassin Strike. That's what I did, after all. But there should be room for it in your build by then, no matter what the case, and you'll have already learned the techniques you need to survive without it. That can help you keep from relying on AS too much as a crutch. Of course, the other reason I respec'ed into at 26 is that Crane Kick finally unlocked, and I traded out Crippling Axe Kick for it, as my primary attack. So I actually had an ulterior motive for choosing that level.