With GR basically allowing Brutes to be heroes, are scrappers obsolete?

I will never roll a brute, because i can't stand the fury system.

Top of that we have now, for the tanker, all the shield + weapon so i've no raison at all to roll a brute.

Stalkers fit in the game because they have a radically different playstyle. Comparing them to melee archetypes isn't really the thing to do, because the comparions flows poorly. I think of them as a sort of sawn-off Corruptor. They've made a deal withSatan to swap the 0 on the end of the attack ranges for status protection, and the ability to buff everyone else for the ability to buff themselves. Sure, it's an odd way of thinking of it, but it's much more appropriate for the right Stalker mindset than thinking of them in the Brute/Scrapper 'attack attack attack, wait I'm in the red, heal, attack attack attack'. They really do work better coming from a Corruptor because you're used to the utility-belt style of problem solving instead of just killing it first.

Stalkers are entirely justified as an AT because they feel and play differently. It's not enjoyable for everyone, but no AT is. Complaining your Stalker isn't a brawler is like complaining your Dom isn't a Corruptor.

The question is are they fun for you to play. If so, then fine. If not, play another thing. I love playing my Nin.Regen Stalker because it's an extremely active and demanding combo to play, capable of huge damage and amazing resilience, but only if I use every last tool in my toolbox at exactly the right time. Not a half-hour ago I took down a +3 Longbow Ballista, and it was an incredible challenge, because I have to hit the heals, the regen buffs, the accolades, the MoG, and the handful of inspirations I had at exactly the right time. I spent half the battle a single decent hit away from death, desperately scraping away at the Ballista's health, until I just managed to take him out with a Hail-Mary unhidden AS.

Was it efficient? Hell no. My SS/SD Brute would have just kept putting him on his **** until he went down.

Was it LEET XP? No. I could have ghosted about five missions in the time it took to take out that one Ballista.

Was it fun? Absolutely. Unlike my effectively-immortal WP/DB tank that only starts to have trouble when trying to tank four Mothership Magi alone, I actualy felt challenged. It felt like actually playing some kind of super-assassin against a walking Abrams, desperately using all the skills at your disposal to take down a foe with far more raw power than you'll ever have. Most importantly, it felt right.

I like Stalkers as they are. They don't do super-teamy tank, buff, or AoE. Whoop-de-doo. They offer a unique and fun for many playstyle that can also contribute just fine to any competent team that won't break down and cry if their Inf-per-second falls below their calculated high-end yield.

The only things I'd ask for is that Golden Dragonfly's critical be adjusted, given the uncertain crit from hide was made to balance the non-Hide crit when that was rare and incredible, and for the HP cap to be adjusted a little upwards, or powers like Dull Pain or True Grit be adjusted to make up for not actually giving the intended benefits.

I could see shorting Assassin's Strike by a little bit, as it is rather difficult to get off on a team and not feel like you're being too slow (I usually fire off a regular attack for a guaranteed crit, unless I'm getting in there before the rest of the team or it seems like the debuffs from AS would help).

But increasing the damage? They kind of already played with that by using a percentage or whatever (forget how it worked) when tweaking the Stalker AT, and it was seen as a bit much against some mobs and not enough against others. I would think having a shorter AS activation would make more sense to help Stalkers a burst AT. Not sure if they really need it, but it'd help more on teams.