Energy Transfer

Placate is the only tool that stalker EM has that Brute EM lacks; Billz feels that stalker EM does not have mitigation issues, and that Brute EM does. Therefore, it must be placate that is doing the duty of mitigating all the extra damage, and the lower HP must indicate it's doing a ton of work on it.

As far as 'hit and run' goes, you might as well discuss which AT is best at ferrying salvage around. It's not a tactic that anyone is built for, or provided particularly amazing tools for.

I guess I just disagree with Billz as to the role of the stalker, and I feel that his description is dismissive of the stalker as part of the discussion of EM.

Heroes, Villains ♦ Reviews ♦ Retrospect

Stalker: Medium HP high burst damage archetype built around a the ability to hide from enemies and placate them when the going gets rough.

Are you really going to try and tell me that the archetype that hides and placates isn't designed for hit and run tactics? Really?

Stalker Spines lost quills, part of spines overall aoe output.
Stalker DB lost Typhoon's Edge, part of DB's overall aoe output.
Stalker Elec melee, lost lightning clap... ok, no loss of aoe there.

In any case, stalker EM's aoe output means squat when discussing EM's aoe output because stalker EM, apparently by design, has none. Any change to whirling hands to increase tank/brute/scrapper aoe output has no relevance to stalkers in any case because it doesn't exist for stalkers.

Ok, that's what I had thought. The wording was odd. And yes, I consider hiding in plain sight to be no different that running away. Both serve the same purpose.

So you feel that EM's mitigation/AOE is fine on an archetype where you don't understand their AOE and mitigation? :? I am confuzzed.

Heroes, Villains ♦ Reviews ♦ Retrospect

Just wanna chime in with an additional point that I think EM's _DPS_ is probably fine as is, what the set "needs" IMO is to feel less sluggish.

I realize that most ways of doing that would probably involve reducing ET and/or TF in raw power so as to maintain an equilibrium of DPS in the SO game.

I doubt that this'll get anywhere, but what the heck:

I have a couple of 50 EMs.

if you only count levels above 25, I still probably have over 100 levels of EM play on my various EM characters.

I think one, or perhaps at most 2 of those levels happened after the ET nerf. I loved the old power, I hate the new one.

With a passion.

While I doubt it'll happen, I'd love to see the old animation restored, and the new power rebalanced for a 12 second recharge time. It'd be more damaging than other 12 second recharge powers due to the self damage, and it'd still be hellishly fast, but it would be flat out broken the way the old power was.

EM would probably still underperform a bit, but at least it would feel cool again

I think that the biggest problem facing Castle in trying to 'fix' EM is that he faces two separate problems. Those who want it to remain a fast set and aren't as concerned with DPS and those who want it to regain its former place as the ST DPS King.

It appears to me that if Castle were to attempt to 'fix' EM he'd have to decide which of those camps he wants to satisfy. This would almost certainly anger the players in the other camp.

If ET were returned to its former animation and then reduced significantly in damage to a level appropriate to its animation time and then Stun was given the Clobber/Cobra Strike treatment, it might give EM a decent level of DPS and return the feel of a fast set.

This would have probably been the best solution if they'd done it back then. If he tried it now then we'll inevitably get some people complaining about the loss of ETs current animation. So I think that at this point Castle has put himself into the infamous 'Damned if you do and damned if you don't' situation.

Ok, I didn't start the thread for this, but it is obviously a contentious issue. There are those that say it is underperforming for DPS, and it is obviously a rather slow moving set. It seems to me, the answer to this is pretty easy.

Increase the speed of the attacks but leave the damage where it is. That will increase DPS and make the set act more quickly. Certain powers, such as Energy Transfer and Total Focus, should remain slow activating, so should have some kind of boost. Precisely what that boost should be is closer to what I started the thread for.

Make Energy Transfer ranged, explosive, or both. Make Total Focus higher damage.

Would this fix everything to everyone's satisfaction?

You forgot why it got nerfed in the first place, didn't you?