Regen vs SR

Which one is a better 2ary for stalker? For general use in PvE and occassional PvP

I know stalkers do not benefit from Regen because of their low HP. But aside from that, is it still a good set?

How does it compare to SR and perhaps WP too? Which will you go for?


Thanks

A well built Regen = Win in PvP.
If you have Shadow Meld in PvE it is also a win.

Defense in PvP is screwed for the most part.
Regen is a benefit, even though stalkers have a lower HP cap. You can easily cap you HP without Dull Pain, making it a heal that can heal you for about 1k HP. So use DP for heal, not the HP buff.

WP to me is squishy. My opinion and it most likely differs from people that use it a lot.
SR can be great in PvE, less so in PvP. The only time you are going to excel in PvP is when Elude is on.

PvE it depends on your settings and your missions. all defense-based sets perform similar against most enemies: you don't take damage. Regen assumes you are getting hit, then you survive and heal it back.

So on my /regen I can solo a ton of dot/low-damage enemies but very few spike-damage enemies. One very noticeable example is the crey tanks. I can ignore up to 14 cray ice/elec tanks. By "ignore" I mean walk away and make a cup of tea, then come back and kill them. I have literally done this. But just two of the power tanks can spike me down all by themselves. /SR would have the ability to walk away from the power tanks.

/SR is pretty low maintenance and definitely better for weapon builds. Regen is active and I'm not happy with the redraw issues.

willpower would do really well if you don't mind using it, you can cap your hp off of hpt slotting alone and you get a decent mix of res and def with reconstruction

out of sr & regen; regen is overall better as even though sr is solid it needs all of the powers aside from elude to peak

all 3 sets are good secondarys in both pve and pvp, what primary are you planning to use? that would help in guidance

The followilg is for PVE only. Don't ask me about PVP, I know next to nothing about it.

Between Regen and SR, it depends on your primary. As has already been said, Regen is very click-intensive, so you're going to have a lot of redraw if you pair it with a weapon set. How much of a problem that is depends entirely on you; some people hate it, others don't care. SR, on the other hand, only has one click power (outside of the god mode), and you're only going to be hitting it once every 1.5-2 minutes, so it's more redraw friendly.

Sword sets are an exception. With Parry/Divine Avalanche, you can easily add a good chunk of defense, which can bolster SR's existing defense, or pair with Regen's +regen for multiplicative survivability. I would consider putting up with the redraw tolerable on a Katana/Regen.

One of the best sets for PVE is Broadsword/WP (Katana works too, but BS's higher damage plays more to a Stalker's burst damage method, in my opinion). Combining Hide, Heightened Senses, Combat Jumping, and Weave gets you decent defense to almost everything, and Parry gets Melee and Lethal softcapped with one or two applications. Your +HP comes from an auto power, so there's no redraw from hitting Dull Pain (though you do lose out on DP's heal), and you get a bit of resist from it as well. Mind Over Body and Weave combine to give you very good resist to S/L, meaning that you don't need to hit your heal too often. And of course you have extra regen from Fast Healing (and probably Health too, since stalkers don't get Quick Recovery, meaning you'll need Stamina for all the extra toggles I've suggested). In the end, you'll have medium to high Defense, Resist and Regen, plus a self heal - you can't get much better than that. Unless you take Soul Mastery and use Shadow Meld to softcap yourself to everything before Assassin Striking - you won't even notice the Alpha.

Something like what I'm suggesting is a very tight build - I gave up a travel power and am using Ninja Run instead to help make room. But the potential off SOs alone is VERY good. Add IOs, set bonuses and accolades, and it becomes even better.

SR isn't as bad as most people think, though its lack of a heal does stick out like a sore thumb. Also, it's a very tight build usually and you can't really afford to miss most of the powers. That aside, I agree with what's been said about it being much nicer for a weapon primary because you have toggles more than click powers.

Also, I might note that it's crazy convenient when you avoid taking damage that would normally knock you out of stealth. For instance, a nearby mob uses an AoE as you're lining up an AS. A defense build is much less likely to be interrupted, something I also use to my advantage in PvP. If I have to make a "strategic retreat," for instance, I can generally count on avoiding enough attacks to re-enter stealth before getting killed.

Edit: I'm also speaking as someone who has a completed build! I don't really remember what using SO's was like.

As long as you have a pulse, you can do great with any secondary in PvE. In PvP, /Regen is going to perform better.

WP is very solid all around and a good deal cheaper to build effectively for PvP though.

Meh, I don't like SR so I'm already biased. I just think SR requires you to take every single powers within the set...which is a pain.

SR is also useless in PvP unless Elude is on, like others have mentioned, just because everyone either has Aim or Build Up and there are a lot of accuracy/tohit bonuses flying around from IO's.

Also, like I've stated in many other posts, it's much easier to get defense from IO bonuses on a resistance-based set than it is to get resistance on a defense-based set. This pretty much means that your /SR wont have as much room for improvements.

SR is good if you don't want to be bothered with micromanaging your defense / health status. Unless you just completely miss the boat on DEF in your power selections and slotting you'll spend most of your time completely healthy and occassionally will get hit hard by something and have to use an inspir or run. It can be rough early on before you can generate high enough DEF levels, but purple shields are your friend.

WP is good if you avoid big alpha strikes, but your health bar will yo-yo back and forth as your regen teeter totters against incoming damage. If this alarms you, you'll not like it. You must take Rise to the Challenge, or you will not make it.

Regen is solid, but you need to be johnny on the buttons or you will faceplant a lot. If you can't pay close attention or don't have good twitch reflexes to hit the right button at the right time, you probably wont do well.

Stalker WP is actually really, really nice because it allows you to mitigate burst damage quickly instead of hoping you can out-regen it.