So... Stalkers.

Ok, I've posted my idea in another thread but looks like this thread is more about possible changes to Stalker. My idea could be more dramatic but I think it's better for an "Assassin game play".

The system we have now, Stalker scores one critical in the beginning and that's it, unless you do nothing for 8s or use Placate (which has pros and cons).

After the initial Critical, all the other criticals are "random". Having more teammates around you, is still "random". That's not how I envision an Assassin. When I think of an Assassin, I think of "planned" Critical, not random. Planned critical allows me to eliminate things faster and if I feel lazy, I don't need to switch target. There are plenty of times when I score a critical with Eviscerate on a dying minion.


I am thinking of a killer Instinct timer. When it pops up, your Stalker's next hit is a Critical which follows the current critical formula (aoe/cone). The timer is longer when you solo but with more teammates, the timer recharges faster which allows you to score more critical. If I see the icon is up, I know that my next successful hit is Critical and I can plan it! I don't know how the timer is going to be. It should match the current critical rate. The natural critical chance is like 10% and more with teammates. Maybe it pops up once every 20s and the timer goes down to 12s with full team or something like that.


But I think in the end, we are going to get something like larger critical radius so Stalkers can play more like a Scrapper. Nothing wrong with that, it's just not very Assassin-like.

Smiling Joe,

I think that we can all agree that nobody would like AS to be converted into ranged. I was just suggesting a way that may be easier than actually shifting the stats.

That being said, there are PBAoEs with radii of 20 (Fire Sword Circle, Shield Charge, Lightning Rod, among others) and regular melee attacks with ranges up to 10 (Headsplitter, Golden Dragonfly, etc). They are not in the ranged damage category, it would be difficult to put AS with a range of 12 in said category.

I also like the idea of allowing AS in motion, although this may PO some non-stalker PVPers... having a motion threshold may be workable though. If you move less than say 5 during the cast you should be fine. This will compensate for drift and minions walking into you.

I was just looking at examples where range or effective range for melee powers exceeded 7ft.

If 10ft already exists, then having AS as 10-12ft range would not make it a ranged attack.

Back to AS. Since the damage on AS is backloaded add a low duration -RES debuff frontloaded while attacking out of hide.

Would help to give it some more oomph while not breaking things making a portion of it unresisted in pve.

Icrease the range on it as it is prone to latency failures

Also make demoralize less random and allow the debuff to stack from multiple stalkers.

Increase the damage scale on single target attacks and keep the aoe as they are.

Lower the time to get back into hide.

Not going to go into a wall of text here, just tossing in my 2 inf:

-I think Assassin strike is fine the way it is. I never use it on teams, just go into scrapper mode.
-I do believe that their HP cap should be hightened, OR the defense should be hightened with hide suppressed.

Other than that I think stalkers are awesomesauce just the way they are.

I'm inclined to think that Stalkers deserve to be widely regarded as single target melee king in almost all situations, with the possible exception of dedicated blappers, who sacrifice even more survival for their dps, and take significant risks to be in melee range.

I think changes should be made to create that situation

The advantage of a stalkers AS substantially evaporates on teams, but it's still a compelling advantage solo, so I'd suggest that the advantages that stalkers get should focus a little more on team play.

Increasing the damage modifier will do this more strongly than increasing the damage self buff modifier.

Increasing the critical buff range would do the same.

Given how different things are in PvP anyway, I assume that these changes could occur without intruding on the math on that side of the game.

Now: whatever route is chosen, it's still only half the fix

The other half is to refocus [edit] around 30% of game content to single target centred fights...

Large team spawns should have a chance to be able to be one single EB... and maybe a couple of minions

edited for a less unbalanced suggestion, but still, wouldn't it be good to hear a team say:

"Lets get another stalker or a MA scrapper and a psi blaster for more Single target damage"? I'd even settle for "MOAR ST NAU!"

How would people feel about Build Up being standardized at Spines/Claws levels of 0.73, Assassin's Strike being standardized and Kinetic levels of 2.67 and Placate being standardized at the Dual Blades level of 1.43?

Would this sort of standardization, which would help Stalkers as a whole, be beneficial enough to overlook the cost of individuality from the different sets?

Also, does anyone think there would be an objection to Hidden status being on 3-4s countdown rather than 8s?

If you like that suggestion by Leo, you'll love this:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Leo_G Not that I think Stalkers are in desperate need of a damage buff, but reading the threads gave me some inspiration. So a different spin on the "Killer Instinct" inherent idea: -I always like to think of exactly how an idea would be implemented so it draws not only from Jibi's thoughts of more 'controlled bursts'. -Also pulls from the tech shown in the new Fiery Embrace change. -The ability of Mastermind's Smoke Flash power. -Finally, Castle once suggested a change to Blaster Defiance when it was being looked at, that change being a buff for every foe you defeat. Assassination Inherent (what we've got) -Bonus damage on Assassin's Strike from the 'Hidden' status (PvP and PvE) -100% critical chance on single target attacks and 50% on AoE attacks from the 'Hidden' status (PvP and PvE) -Demoralize on a group of enemies if attack does not defeat the target (PvE) -Scaling Critical rate for each ally within 30ft range (PvE) -20% chance to critical hit held or slept foes (PvP) (what this idea would add) -A 'Killer Instinct' counter for each foe the Stalker defeats with a primary power (PvE) --You can only obtain 1 kill counter per power used. So a ST attack will get you 1 kill counter if the foe is defeated by the attack. An AoE attack will get you 1 kill counter if one or more foes is defeated by the attack. A successful Assassin's Strike, if the foe is defeated or not, adds 1 kill counter. -You can stack up to 3 'Killer Instinct' counters that will basically appear in your buff bar as a unique icon, each of which will last approx. 30 seconds. -Stacking more than 3 kill counts will rewrite the oldest counter's duration. -Using Build up or Placate will basically expend the 'Killer Instinct' counters and reset them to 0. Why focus on applying this to Build up and Placate? Because, as is, Assassin's Strike is already a strong tool with alternate uses (an Alpha dampener and burst attack from hide) while BU is pretty Binary and Placate does have some defensive capabilities and limited offense, it *is* a unique power to Stalkers... Placate- When you use Placate with 0 kill counts, it acts like it does now. But for each kill count you rack up before using Placate, you basically get *another placate*. Think of it like MM's smoke flash that lets their Jounin chain crit for a short duration. Placate will basically be a BuildUp/SmokeFlash mash-up that basically boosts damage by giving you up to 3 extra chain crits *if* you defeated 3 foes within 30sec (or started out with AS and then defeat 2 foes within 30sec). Build Up- When BU is used with 0 kill counts, it acts like it does now. But for each kill count you rack up before using BU, you basically get a 1-shot 'Fiery Embrace' damage add-on that is enhanceable by the inherent damage buff of BU. Think of it like Fiery Embrace, that adds (i believe) 45% of the base damage of an attack as fire damage. So BU would be a Placate/FieryEmbrace mash-up that gives you a +15% extra added damage to the next attack(the type of damage added would depend on the set...so Claws would add lethal damage and Energy Melee would add Energy damage) for each kill count you have...that's +45% of the base damage of an attack added if you kill 3 foes within 30sec (or started out with non-BU AS and then defeat 2 foes within 30sec). I could see various approaches to take in a fight, some lending better to certain sets but every set being able to exploit any of the available approach due to the make-up of all Stalker sets.

Just give all stalkers Vorpal Swords =)

Why not have stalker's hide last longer than the inntial break? You can get off strings of criticals for single-target take down, or move from mob to mob quickly to take out problem mobs like Sappers or Longbow Nullifiers?

Assuming it lasts about 5 seconds or so, you can easily get off 1 + 1-2 more attacks, depending on animation time. This will help in solo and team play, due to the damage that the crits will cause, which kinda equalizes out the damage that stalkers do compared to scrappers, without adding in bonus damage.