What Changes are needed to make Stalkers an acceptable addition to a Team?

Dealing with stragglers are the work of either the entire team, or MM pets. If anything, a Brute should be more interested in stragglers as that keeps their fury going without needing to jump into the next spawn. Of course, that doesn't stop them from doing whatever the heck they want no matter if the rest of the team is ready or not.

But dealing with stragglers as a Stalkers is...overkill. Like a Blaster using Aim+BU+3rd tier blast to deal with minions.

It's not always a Boss rank that I would AS. It depends on the npcs abilities whether or not I would think it's worth taking out asap with AS. Normally I AS just as the Brute enters and gets aggro should I of got in ahead and found a target with abilities that can work against the team well. Sometimes I find people sharing targets with me within a fight. We can overkill the level of damage required on that target combined making it more effective to not share.

I disagree on Brutes with stragglers as I play Brutes who are in the thick of things and tank large numbers for fury as opposed taking out targets in turn and perhaps only having very few interested. Fury rises quicker taking an alpha and herding. I prefer other peoples aoe effects to hit as many as possible. I'd be herding up, doa couple of AoEs leave the team to mop up, herd next and so on. Fury is high and aggro is kept and peoples aoes do more.

Hmm...it dawns on me that a Stalker can take Provoke and thus make their lack of aggro control a non-issue. Assuming you AS and then Scrap it out, they are plenty survivable enough to handle pulling some aggro. My main reason for not liking playing Stalkers is my inability to keep the squishies safe.

I think I just might make a second build for my DM/Nin and try it out. Smoke Bomb to release aggro when I'm about to AS and Provoke to grab it back before the bosses crush the squishy corrupters. Hmm.

Less scumbag players who don't want Stalkers on their team.

...Oh you meant for the archetype, never mind.

Stalkers are great imo. My Nin/Nin stalker has outlasted several brutes on a team with just DA spamming, and also a couple of times, has managed to tank it up until the brute got back from the hosp. The extra crit % on teams was the icing on the assassin's cake when that came out. I think it's 3%/teammate? (could be wrong there). but if that's correct, geez, that's a 21% chance to crit on a full team, with every blade swing.

There's another stalker I have on Champ, an EnM/SR that is a crazy 1-shotter just using any move out of hide. So the AS is absolutley brutal and only meant for redcon or higher, as posted before it's kind of a waste on the yellows and under.

Pretty much the same moral of the story though, if you play your stalker right, you'll make believers out of any hater. Good to see all the stalker love in this thread.

The other Day I was on a team with my NB/SR.

We were fighting lvl 54 Malta, at one point someone complained about Sappers so I said, give me a sec to wipe them out then. (The team was moving from mob to mob somewhat rapidly and charging somewhat recklessly) after that the team started giving me approximately 1 sec to isolate and eliminate threats and things went smoothly.

Later in the same mission I ended up soloing a Boss Gunslinger which grealty impressed one of the others and i made a new friend.

Come to think of it I was able to pull the team out of some bad spots quite often.


I think part of the problem is that Stalker intentions run counter to Brute intentions and there are a lot more Brutes than Stalkers.

Cause a Brute wants to charge in at full steam, whereas a Stalker wants a brief moment to get set up.

Well, well, well. Having Provoke on my Stalker is a resounding success!

I can AS, then Provoke, and scrap it out. Smoke Flash, Placate, AS, Provke again. No more watching other squishies get mezzed or die! Of course, anyone can take provoke, it just so happens my DM/Nin is quite survivable with Siphon Life and Kuji-In Sha.

I'm very happy with the results, granted, not for everyone, but when my Stalker is soft capped, awesome!

I've had similar experiences to the OP. I can't remember ever having people make comments about not wanting a Stalker on the team after I've joined though. Usually it happens in tells before I join. Someone advertises that they are recruiting for an SF. I send them a tell offering to bring a Stalker. Usually what I get back is something along the lines of "Do you have a Corruptor or Brute you could bring instead?"

Other times I get no reply at all. It does happen to me. I still get plenty of invites to teams on my Stalkers though. The one place I really notice it is on LRSFs. Getting one of my Stalkers invited to one of those is like pulling teeth. I just rolled a new Stalker, currently level 9, and I'm already dreading trying to get him through an LRSF so I can get the Marshal accolade.

As to the main point of the OP...I agree with what another poster said earlier. The only problem currently is one of perception. The only change that would fix that is one that made Stalkers ridiculously OP.

9 times out of 10 I would rather have a stalker than a scrapper on a team.
My only hesitation is that a badly played stalker may be slightly more of a liability than a badly played scrapper.

I quite like stalker myself, having a fair sized stable of them. However they are generally under appreciated in teams. This is too a good extent a matter of perception, and I have seen the anti-stalker attitude in person as well even not on Freedumb.

However I would proffer one minor adjustment to improve the stalker- increase the range of the team crit buff. Right now it is about short enough that you need everyone in melee for the stalker to really benefit. That should be extended a good bit.

Beyond that, they work well enough. I don't know about well enough to change the perception, but then you can't buff away stupid.

Thinking about this some more, I agree with Doc Buzzards idea of increasing the range for the Crit bonus(although the theme behind the bonus was essentially a flanking bonus from D&D.)

One other thing I would do is increase Stalker build up to a 100% Bonus instead of the 80% they have now. To this day I have no idea why that was done or why Scrappers are allowed to keep their 100% if raising the Stalkers isn't an option.

only reason I can think of for that is because stalkers are garaunteed a crit out of hide, rather than at random?

LOL, for all you you fellow posters who say that you've never encountered being rejected as a stalker YOU are the lucked out ones! I have played numerous Stalkers and I have had insults and I have been kicked from Teams as well as ITF's and SF's. It just something to do with the n00b players in fact I'm had my bane kicked from team before...mind you he was running two Maneuvers two Assaults and Vengeance that just proves right there how crazy some people are.

Ignoring paper missions, what missions or arcs do Stalkers seem to have the most advantage on?

I'm thinking that missions with a timer, as long as they aren't defeat alls, work in a Stalker's favor since it focuses on the objective as opposed to just aimlessly smashing things. Efficiency Expert Pither's arc and the corresponding badge seemingly would work best with a Stalker. While it's blueside, the Cavern of Transcendence trial probably favors an all Stalker team more than any other TF in the game.

To the OP: Stalkers are acceptable. You just need to change your perception.

The only slight gripe I have with stalker is the max HP cap. Personally I think it should be around 1800-2000. But that's just me.

What changes are needed to make stalkers an acceptable addition to a team?

That's easy. You don't need to change anything at all about the AT, just the mindset of those people who view it as useless. There's nothing actually wrong with stalkers, people just seem to think that you have to be able to slaughter dozens of enemies at once or you suck. Stalkers are single target specialists, and excel at hit and fade, then hit again playstyles. Unless you're farming I'm sure you can find a place for that on your team.

Nothing, and I do mean NOTHING in the game can kill an annoying boss faster than a stalker. It never takes mine more than 3-4 hits to kill one. (depending on resistances)