I like Ninjitsu. It's got a little bit of everything and fits pretty perfectly what I think a 'stalker' should be. Some defenses, some soft controls, some misdirection.
Edit: The addition of the controls is something that appeals to me. While the straight mitigation sets like WP or SR might be effective, they're kind of boring. The Stalker, in my opinion, really shouldn't be a straightforward fighter as we have (at least) two of those already in Scrappers and Brutes. While in general I prefer resistance to defense, for a new Stalker secondary I would definitely go defense based simply because of how much it compliments certain aspects of the AT's playstyle.
As to what a new set might look like, I can't really say.
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The Ninjitsu secondary is definitely very appropriate, as far as primaries, I would be interested in a Ninjitsu primary to match the secondary. It would include a variety of weapons, Nekode (palm claws), kyoketsushoge (knife on a chain), garrote, poison knives, etc, plus some poison gas and hand and foot based attacks. Not flashy moves, moves that are tight and subtle. Maybe even a Teleportation ST attack for the Tier 9... Similar to Lightning Rod or Shield Charge, but ST instead of PBAoE...
Moving it to Tankers, Scrappers and Brutes you can add Caltrops and Blinding powder while replacing BU with FU.
Right now I'm loving my KM/Nin though. It works well, and I like the feel for Stalkers. KM actually seems to work much better for Stalkers than other melee ATs, and it is very good for ST damage, may be the new ST king.
While I think the tools of Ninjutsu are quite novel for the way a Stalker should function, the passive mitigation it offers is very binary. It's basically just defense and a heal.
Of all the 'Taoist' sets, I think Willpower works really well. Point: It has just enough +HP to get you near the cap but not over it while providing you with a good deal of passive resistance. It's got some nice defense to build off of too as well as passive Regen and full mez coverage. Yeah, it's not as 'active' as Ninjutsu, but lets you focus on offensive tactics and meshes well with active primaries (paired with Dual Blades or Dark Melee and you've got tools you'll be too busy).
That said, I think the perfect secondary for Stalkers would basically add multiple (bit) layers of passive mitigation with probably 1 primary 'trick' to use as misdirection:
-A bit of +HP and regen to get you near the cap
-Some resistance to some of the damage types
-Either a good amount of active +def or small to moderate amount of passive +def that's always on
-1 trick to distract multiple foes
If you think about it, a modified Ice Armor (with 1 power exchanged for Ice Melee's Ice Patch) would fit that bill pretty nicely, IMO.
As for Primaries, I'm curious to know if longer recharging but higher damaged attacks would be the better suit for a Stalker primary. Think about the changes to Eagle's Claw which recharges slower but does more damage, would a primary that's secondary effect is basically to recharge slower but does more damage (like Claws has the secondary of END and rech discounts) be the suit for Stalkers?
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Attacks like garrotes probably wouldn't look good at all in this game since the scale and type of models we attack wouldn't allow proper use of it. Same with 'cut throat' attacks and such moves.
| I would be interested in a Ninjitsu primary to match the secondary. It would include a variety of weapons, Nekode (palm claws), kyoketsushoge (knife on a chain), garrote, poison knives, etc, plus some poison gas and hand and foot based attacks. Not flashy moves, moves that are tight and subtle. Maybe even a Teleportation ST attack for the Tier 9... Similar to Lightning Rod or Shield Charge, but ST instead of PBAoE... |
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I figured Ninjitsu was made specifically with Stalkers in mind, as it's the only AT to have it.|
Originally Posted by Leo_G
What do you think is the perfect set for stalkers (multi-fold question)? I ask because, as far as I can tell, there were no sets (barring 1) specifically made and balanced for the AT. Every set Stalkers get is a hand-me-down from another AT. But what if that were going to change?
-Primary or Secondary, which sets do you feel is most aesthetically fitting for stalker and why? -Primary or Secondary, which sets are just great performers? For teams, solo, PvP, or just in your opinion? -If the devs were planning to make a powerset specifically for the Stalker AT with its style in-mind (and proliferate it later), what do you think would/should be in it? How would it play? What might/should it look like? Keep in mind, the set should and would be proliferated to the other melees and shouldn't require too much alteration to work. That said, it doesn't have to play perfectly on the other ATs, just Stalker. |
That said, I love WP on Stalkers more than WP on Scrappers, as I personally prefere the Burst heal, over the regen of RTTC.
If they made a new set, I'd love one set up like Shields without obviously being shields...Positional Defense, Some Resists, with a self heal. Okay it's a bit different than Shields, but I think you get the point.
No +HP. No Dull Pain (unless it's maybe int he tier 9, that's setup a bit like SoW. Gives somemore +Resists with a Heal/+HP boost, that's ona fixed timer).
I don't know if I really think it needs control. I don't see stalkers as a control type per se. They're a get in, and get rid of that hard single target fast type to me.
Sadly, in this game, that means, DPS and being a melee fighter, as having the burst to take out one target to quick is OPed.
BrandX Future Staff Fighter
The BrandX Collection
Out of all the stalker sets I've played to date, EM/Nin has been the best for a good balance of control/power, with a close-tieing second place of NB/Nin.
The only secondaries I haven't gone far with in fact is /SR and /Regen. I find them both pretty boring compared to the bag of tricks each other secondary has.
the nice thing about stalkers is that they're the melee type that gets to exercise a little control to maintain their survival in battle with /Nin. It pairs well with the stacking stun from EM/, KM/, and MA/, the -tohit from DM/, the -end from ElM/, etc.
Since GR, I've been levelling a KM/WP, which has been a blast, it's been the first time using /WP since my Brute, and it's up there on the popular list with /Nin because it offers a little bit of everything, which Leo's pointed out in better detail.
Another neat thing I've yet to try is the new feature where toggles like Repel from /EnA or Cloak of Fear from /DA now suppress in hide and take affect as soon as you come out of hide, after my KM/ project I'll delve into that a bit more.
For future sets, I'd like to see some more proliferation happen for us, Assassin's Chop with Battle Axe for instance, all that KB/KD would be great to pair wth /Nin's caltrops, and Fiery Melee/Fiery Aura would be a beast of a stalker combo.
In general, I think will power is the perfect secondary for all ATs. I really hate click powers for defense. I want to kill things. I don't want to protect myself.
My ideal secondary would have 4 toggles, 3 auto powers, and 1 offensive aura and 1 offensive click. No tier-9 godmode. Thematically? I'd like a phase/teleport defense set. You know the one from anime where the bad guy (good guys never get this power) goes. Fwoosh! and vanishes, then reappears behind a good guy and creams him. I want THAT. it screams stalker. And no 2 second teleport activation time. 0.000000 not even 1 server tick activation. Instant. poof. Preferably no animation. Just gone. Exactly like the version from anime. they dn't gesture and vanish, they're just gone.
My ideal primary would have AS and 1 other slow hard-hitting attacks. All the rest would be faster than claws with no rooted time. pure buzzsaw, fast moving, in and out to go with the teleport defense. Just be all over the field. Instead of placate, have a followup clone that lets you cream someone and placate them all at once.
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I can be found, outside of paragon city here.
Thank you everyone at Paragon and on Virtue. When the lights go out in November, you'll find me on Razor Bunny.
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You know, I kinda picture that teleport idea, to be the basis of Placate.|
Originally Posted by GavinRuneblade
In general, I think will power is the perfect secondary for all ATs. I really hate click powers for defense. I want to kill things. I don't want to protect myself.
My ideal secondary would have 4 toggles, 3 auto powers, and 1 offensive aura and 1 offensive click. No tier-9 godmode. Thematically? I'd like a phase/teleport defense set. You know the one from anime where the bad guy (good guys never get this power) goes. Fwoosh! and vanishes, then reappears behind a good guy and creams him. I want THAT. it screams stalker. And no 2 second teleport activation time. 0.000000 not even 1 server tick activation. Instant. poof. Preferably no animation. Just gone. Exactly like the version from anime. they dn't gesture and vanish, they're just gone. My ideal primary would have AS and 1 other slow hard-hitting attacks. All the rest would be faster than claws with no rooted time. pure buzzsaw, fast moving, in and out to go with the teleport defense. Just be all over the field. Instead of placate, have a followup clone that lets you cream someone and placate them all at once. |
Also, I'd say Batman has that ability at times, so I wouldn't say it's always a badguy power.
BrandX Future Staff Fighter
The BrandX Collection
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Janemba from DBZ movie 12. The guy's across the room, punches into a hole he makes in the air, and the fist comes out right into Goku's face. that's some cool teleporting that's not really even teleporting since he doesn't budge.|
Originally Posted by BrandX
You know, I kinda picture that teleport idea, to be the basis of Placate.
Also, I'd say Batman has that ability at times, so I wouldn't say it's always a badguy power. |
check it out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiSJ92pXqa0
I believe I saw in Vampire Hunter D a baddy that literally bent time around himself. The sword looked lie it went through him, but it went around...
Basically, what I'm thinking is something similar to SR, with a sheen rather than a fighting pose, Time-warping would be their Recharge/speed enhancement. Then borrow a Shield Charge-like power from Shield. I'd like a thematic heal, like temporal anomaly or borrowed, where you would basically gain both End and Health, on a long recharge. And an Internal Clock auto or click power to protect against mez effects.
Offensively it could work as well, hooking up Wormhole from the grav set, as well as some interesting malfunctions of the timespace continuum.
You could also introduce a new mechanic. Take Dimensional Shift from Gravity Control for the Primary set, and A special phase power for the secondary that makes you intangible and able to effect intangible foes... You'd basically pull opponents into a separate realm to fight one on one... but you'd need both sets to do it, or the Phase Shift from the Power Pool... make that valuable...
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I really have to disagree here. If you're using Ninjitsu as defense plus a heal you're doing it wrong. You can - with at least some reliance - separate the stalker secondaries into two categories: Taoist and Rogue. The Taoist gets its mitigation by focusing on self reliance. Regen, Willpower, Super Reflexes, are perfect examples of this. Rogue sets get their mitigation by directly affecting the enemies' offense, and Ninjitsu, Dark Armor, Electric Armor and Energy Aura are examples of this. (although Electric Armor to a lesser degree)|
Originally Posted by Leo_G
While I think the tools of Ninjutsu are quite novel for the way a Stalker should function, the passive mitigation it offers is very binary. It's basically just defense and a heal.
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My point is that if you're using Ninjitsu as a Taoist set you're missing half its mitigation.
Caltrops slows their movement and (I think?)attack rate, but more importantly it carries a hefty fear effect, meaning that they're actively trying to leave the patch and not attacking you. Combined with Ninjitsu's defense toggles that's hefty mitigation.
Blinding Powder confuses, sleeps and holds, but not everyone and not for very long. Again, it's intended to slow and redirect damage, not stop it altogether.
Smoke Flash... well, yeah. It's intended to slow incoming damage, but IMHO it doesn't do it very well. They need to either up the accuracy considerably or give it a chance to placate individual foes, but that's a topic for another thread.
You seem to see Ninjitsu in terms of its uses as self mitigation, and if you're doing that you're missing the point of the set.
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| Of all the 'Taoist' sets, I think Willpower works really well. Point: It has just enough +HP to get you near the cap but not over it while providing you with a good deal of passive resistance. It's got some nice defense to build off of too as well as passive Regen and full mez coverage. Yeah, it's not as 'active' as Ninjutsu, but lets you focus on offensive tactics and meshes well with active primaries (paired with Dual Blades or Dark Melee and you've got tools you'll be too busy). |
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|
That said, I think the perfect secondary for Stalkers would basically add multiple (bit) layers of passive mitigation with probably 1 primary 'trick' to use as misdirection: -A bit of +HP and regen to get you near the cap -Some resistance to some of the damage types -Either a good amount of active +def or small to moderate amount of passive +def that's always on -1 trick to distract multiple foes |
The Scrappers' Guide to Dark Melee | Kheldian Binds and Strategies
To answer the question of what would be the perfect primary set, I would want to see something that capitalized on a stalker's ability to leverage burst damage.
Strictly off the top of my head, I banged out an idea for a set that might do something like that. I call it:
Psionic Melee:
1 Psychic Fist - You wrap your fists in psychic energy and deliver a quick punch to your enemy. The attack deals minor damage, but the psychic residue makes your opponent think they're more damaged than they really are. The illusory damage goes a way after a few seconds, but if they are defeated beforehand the defeat is very real.
1 Neural Chop - You wrap your fist in psychic energy and use it to deal moderate damage to your opponent. In addition, your blow wreaks havoc with your opponent's central nervous system, temporarily shutting some bodily functions down for a few seconds. Your opponent will take a little longer to recover than when hit with Psychic Fist, but there's a small chance that the attack will leave your enemy disoriented for a short time.
4 Dream Daggers - You sweep your arm in front of you as though you're releasing a spread of venomous daggers. They are very real to your opponents, however, dealing moderate psionic damage in a wide cone in front of you. The damage is moderate, but as with the first two attacks feels worse than it is. Opponents think they are poisoned and suffering poison damage over time. The illusory damage fades after a few seconds, but is very real in the meantime.
6 Psionic Strike - standard AS, but all psionic damage
8 Build Up
12 Placate
18 Telekinetic Burst - You deliver a roundhouse blow with a fist of psychic energy, knocking your opponent into the air and sending them smashing to the ground with tremendous force. Because they think they've been knocked higher and fallen harder, the attack deals extra but temporary psionic damage in addition to the damage dealt by both the punch and the fall.
26 Waking Nightmare - This purely psionic attack deals devastating and real damage to an opponent's psyche, made even more terrifying because it happens from a distance. Your opponent is lost in a nightmare of your making, and in addition to the damage suffers from a high mag fear effect.
32 Mind Ripper - A devastating attack. You bring both fists down with full psychic force on your opponent, knocking them down and dealing extreme damage. The psychic shockwaves ripple out, invading the minds of your foe's allies and making them think they too have taken damage from the attack. Mind Ripper deals real superior damage to your target and moderate illusory damage to up to five foes within a fifteen foot radius. If any of these foes are defeated before the mental damage disappears, they too will fall.
Apologies for the stupid sounding names. I put like ten minutes' thought into this.
The premise of the set is similar to spectral wounds from the Illusion Control set. The idea is to reward a stalker's ability to exploit opportunities to do damage and bring foes down with burst damage spikes. The illusory damage would not be counted in criticals, and Psionic Strike and Waking Nightmare carry no illusory damage at all. Mind Ripper deals illusory damage only to those in the AOE. The actual damage of any attacks that also deal this illusory damage would obviously have to be scaled down to balance the extra illusory damage, but the illusory combined with the real damage should bring the set significantly above other single target sets in total damage potential due to the fading nature of the illusory damage.
It would require some heavy testing to determine the correct levels of damage and the duration of the illusory damage, and most attacks would do a combination of psionic and smashing damage.
The Scrappers' Guide to Dark Melee | Kheldian Binds and Strategies
I am quite happy with Ninjitsu combined with Spines and Electric Melee.
Great single target, Competetive AOE. Spines has a bit more control, and Elec melee has that wonderful aoe burst/KD.
NInjitsu provides the tools to assist and protect teamates via Caltrop and Blinding powder.
While some may depreciate the power of Smoke Flash, I have used it to a great deal and correctly slotted it is a HUGE mitigation tool, though dangerous for teamates.
I feel sad for those stalkers who are limited to single target only attacks, it must be a sad existance.
When something good happens to me, I can never enjoy it....
I am always too busy looking for the inevitable punchline...
BEHOLD THE POWER OF CHEESE!
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You misinterpret what I'm trying to say. Ninjutsu's passive mitigation is pretty much defense and a heal. My argument doesn't lie with the 'point' of the set but the flexibility of the set.|
Originally Posted by Smiling_Joe
You seem to see Ninjitsu in terms of its uses as self mitigation, and if you're doing that you're missing the point of the set.
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Consider Dark Armor, another Rogue set. It's passive mitigation? Resists and a heal sort of like Ninjutsu. But that's not all. You've got a power that can rez you when you die, stun everything around you up to Elite Bosses and give you 15 seconds of Untouchability.
Not so binary.
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| That's basically the recipe for a rogue stalker, and so I'm a bit surprised to see you endorse this but dismiss Ninjitsu (and saying it's little more than defense plus a heal is pretty much a dismissal). |
I'm basically talking about a Rogue set that is varied in its passive mitigation like Willpower. Perhaps trading one of the tricks that come with certain similar type sets to accomplish the non-binary passive mitigation.
Ice Armor has some resists + damage debuffs as well as defense and endurance recovery. The heal I'd exchange for a passive +HP +regen buff and since we need to come up with a different tier9, something usable decently often without a crash (perhaps even limiting combat in some way like Hibernate would) and you've got some decent passive mitigation and some utility thrown in. The single trick in the set could be the Ice Slick. Bypassable, yes, but still extremely useful vs multiple targets.
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| My ideal primary would have AS and 1 other slow hard-hitting attacks. All the rest would be faster than claws with no rooted time. pure buzzsaw, fast moving, in and out to go with the teleport defense. Just be all over the field. Instead of placate, have a followup clone that lets you cream someone and placate them all at once. |
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Ah. So you're mainly concerned with passive verses active mitigation, the idea being that passive > active mitigation in terms of pure effectiveness. I can see that.|
Originally Posted by Leo_G
You misinterpret what I'm trying to say. Ninjutsu's passive mitigation is pretty much defense and a heal. My argument doesn't lie with the 'point' of the set but the flexibility of the set.
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Some might prefer active over passive, but you're quite right about the reliability of passive mitigation.
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Consider Dark Armor, another Rogue set. It's passive mitigation? Resists and a heal sort of like Ninjutsu. But that's not all. You've got a power that can rez you when you die, stun everything around you up to Elite Bosses and give you 15 seconds of Untouchability. Not so binary. |
I see what you're trying to say, now.
EDIT - and I get the point you made regarding mixing resistance with defense and heals. Meant to say that too.
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| Ice Armor has some resists + damage debuffs as well as defense and endurance recovery. The heal I'd exchange for a passive +HP +regen buff and since we need to come up with a different tier9, something usable decently often without a crash (perhaps even limiting combat in some way like Hibernate would) and you've got some decent passive mitigation and some utility thrown in. The single trick in the set could be the Ice Slick. Bypassable, yes, but still extremely useful vs multiple targets. |
As to the tier 9, off the top of my head a unique power would be a buffed version of Arctic Fog. Place it on a timed toggle like Hibernate, and up its defense. Make the confuse 100% chance, and give it similar duration/recharge as hibernate. Graphically, give it the same treatment as Dark Armor's cloak power, where it obscures the character with a cloud of white mist. Give it a crash, don't give it a crash, based on how it's balanced.
Too much?
The Scrappers' Guide to Dark Melee | Kheldian Binds and Strategies
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I'd have more room for Smoke Flash if it didn't break hide. Will I take it again after Issue 19? We'll see.
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Originally Posted by Test_Rat
While some may depreciate the power of Smoke Flash, I have used it to a great deal and correctly slotted it is a HUGE mitigation tool, though dangerous for teamates.
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The Scrappers' Guide to Dark Melee | Kheldian Binds and Strategies
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Not talking about passive vs active mitigation (or Taoist vs Rogue). Talking about passive mitigation and nothing more. Forget caltrops and oppressive gloom and repulse, just looking at what passive mitigation is offered in a set and how flexible that mitigation is.|
Originally Posted by Smiling_Joe
Ah. So you're mainly concerned with passive verses active mitigation, the idea being that passive > active mitigation in terms of pure effectiveness. I can see that.
Some might prefer active over passive, but you're quite right about the reliability of passive mitigation. |
That said, I still think that, overall, the defense in Ninjutsu is superior than other Rouge mitigation sets offer(well, I still think EA is pretty nice too, just not as good a utility heal in Energy Drain). But after playing with IOs on my my DA stalker, I'm starting to get why those sets aren't 'trash' like people think. If you actually choose powers that give defense (and build toward that with IOs), you're basically pushing the set into the realm of what I think is the perfect Stalker set: tools to distract, misdirect or subdue multiple foes while offering multiple varied layers of passive mitigation.
Sure, you can do the same with Ninjutsu and cap your defenses, but then you're at a roadblock. Powers in the set itself become less useful (Elude, Retsu, Overload) because you're basically capped the majority of the time, team +def buffs have a smaller effect on you and great powers such as Shadow meld are tools that don't do anything major for you (not to mention resistance is hard to come by). Those resist sets can put that stuff to work ontop of the resistances it gets.
Sets with only moderate defense or resists or regen or heals topped onto eachother have room to improve. I remember hearing every point of defense is more effective than the one before it, not sure if the same goes for resists or regen but yeah, that other stuff gives you room to improve and will be greatly noticable when you add even small buffs than if you had none to build off of at all.
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| EDIT - and I get the point you made regarding mixing resistance with defense and heals. Meant to say that too. |
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| Trading Ice Slick for Icicles? Sounds like a good recipe for proliferation. |
Perhaps roll Hoarfrost and Permafrost into a passive with +Max HP and Resistance like WP has then make up for the loss of the heal with the more often up Ice Slick.
As a heal, the 'Dull Pain clones' aren't that great anyway as they aren't up very often and much of the +HP is wasted on our cap. So losing the heal shouldn't be too big a loss. Opinions?
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As to the tier 9, off the top of my head a unique power would be a buffed version of Arctic Fog. Place it on a timed toggle like Hibernate, and up its defense. Make the confuse 100% chance, and give it similar duration/recharge as hibernate. Graphically, give it the same treatment as Dark Armor's cloak power, where it obscures the character with a cloud of white mist. Give it a crash, don't give it a crash, based on how it's balanced. Too much? |
Personally, I was thinking an Ice Statue clone power that'd freeze you in a block of Ice, like Hibernate but you kinda jump out the back of it, leaving a pet that taunts the foes, giving you your chance to escape. While frozen (and a duration after you break from it), you get a regen and recovery buff. So it'd be like Hibernate, but with less duration and a misdirection tool built in.
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I like your thinking on Ice Slick/Permafrost/Hoarfrost. So here's a theoretical look at the power tiers:|
Originally Posted by Leo_G
Actually, Icicles would probably be exchanged for Hide. I'm not so sure what Ice Armor could lose now that PBAoE toggles suppress with Hide so we'll most likely keep Chilling Embrace and it's slow/-dmg.
Perhaps roll Hoarfrost and Permafrost into a passive with +Max HP and Resistance like WP has then make up for the loss of the heal with the more often up Ice Slick. As a heal, the 'Dull Pain clones' aren't that great anyway as they aren't up very often and much of the +HP is wasted on our cap. So losing the heal shouldn't be too big a loss. Opinions? I dunno. That sounds more like something that'd go in a control set, not an armor set. Not really sure how to approach adding a new power because you don't want to improve the set's mitigation over the other ATs and this would probably push the set beyond the tanker's...not in raw survivability, mind you (Tankers will always beat out Stalkers there) but relatively. Personally, I was thinking an Ice Statue clone power that'd freeze you in a block of Ice, like Hibernate but you kinda jump out the back of it, leaving a pet that taunts the foes, giving you your chance to escape. While frozen (and a duration after you break from it), you get a regen and recovery buff. So it'd be like Hibernate, but with less duration and a misdirection tool built in. |
1 Hide
2 Frozen Armor
4 Permahoar
10 Chilling Embrace
16 Wet Ice
20 Glacial Armor
28 Ice Slick
35 Energy Absorption
38 ???
That's right. I said Permahoar. I hate coming up with names, had ya noticed? So what do we do about the tier 9? The arctic fog idea was meant to substitute a short burst of confusion for the high defense/resistance of the other tier nines, but since confusion affects the whole team I think you're right to say it's too "controllery."
I like your frozen statue idea. Exploring that a bit, now: The easier animation would be to drop something the way DE drop Quartz. The notion of a pet-bassed aggro magnet is problematic if we keep Chilling Embrace, however. Granted, CE won't have a taunt component, but given the way mobs in this game seem to overreact to debuffs I'm betting it would still draw aggro.
The other problem I have with it is that it's little more than a flashy smoke flash. The other Tier 9's in the stalker sets are "god modes" that allow you to continue the combat with impunity. Well, except for /DA. Okay. I can live with something different.
BUT - what if they combined smoke flash with the frozen statue? In other words, you throw down the crystal with a flash of mist. This spawns a stationary non-combat pet with a chilling embrace taunt aura. Yours is suppressed for the duration of the power. In addition, all foes de-aggro from you in favor of the pet. This gives you the chance to get away or - if you're not really hurting too badly - play the scrapper to your pet's tanker. The pet's chilling embrace will not prevent you from going back into hide. If attacked, your foes may well aggro to you until the taunt ticks again.
Other options include a longer timer with the ability for your foes to damage the pet. It could also be healed by a supporting teammate. Another - rather far-fetched - option might be to give the pet the icicles power instead of chilling embrace. A tier 9 defensive that damages? No stranger than shield charge.
Just thinkin' out loud. By typing.
The Scrappers' Guide to Dark Melee | Kheldian Binds and Strategies
Caltrops alone is one of the best mitigation powers in the game.
It's also highly undervalued by the player base.
Skipping Caltrops on a Ninjitsu toon is like skipping the SR passives.
When something good happens to me, I can never enjoy it....
I am always too busy looking for the inevitable punchline...
BEHOLD THE POWER OF CHEESE!
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Nope. Leveling up an MA/Nin now. Not having any trouble getting teams. Plenty of bosses to kill on teams, especially the ones running at +2. Funny... no one is killing those before I can. You said that would happen, no? Still waiting for it.|
Originally Posted by Test_Rat
I feel sad for those stalkers who are limited to single target only attacks, it must be a sad existance.
|
Yeah, sad existence alright.
Villains: Annie Alias, Dr. Amperical, Shade Golem, Knight Marksman
Heroes: The Clockwork Mime, Soccerpunch, The Fissioneer, Samurai Houston, Oversteer
Join The X-Patriots on Virtue!
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Possibly you.play on rather weak teams |
Originally Posted by Zem
Nope. Leveling up an MA/Nin now. Not having any trouble getting teams. Plenty of bosses to kill on teams, especially the ones running at +2. Funny... no one is killing those before I can. You said that would happen, no? Still waiting for it.
Yeah, sad existence alright. |
When something good happens to me, I can never enjoy it....
I am always too busy looking for the inevitable punchline...
BEHOLD THE POWER OF CHEESE!
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If they're facing +2 foes with multiple bosses and not wiping, I wouldn't call that team weak.|
Originally Posted by Test_Rat
Possibly you.play on rather weak teams
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[Re:] Joe, I was just putting out an idea. No clue if it even be useful or if your confuse/defense toggle wouldn't work either. But overall, whatever the tier 9 is, at least the rest of the set could be pretty solid if they choose to remove Ice Slick from Ice Melee for AS and stick it in the defense set instead
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I like! |
Originally Posted by Smiling_Joe
Psionic Melee: 1 Psychic Fist - You wrap your fists in psychic energy and deliver a quick punch to your enemy. The attack deals minor damage, but the psychic residue makes your opponent think they're more damaged than they really are. The illusory damage goes a way after a few seconds, but if they are defeated beforehand the defeat is very real. 1 Neural Chop - You wrap your fist in psychic energy and use it to deal moderate damage to your opponent. In addition, your blow wreaks havoc with your opponent's central nervous system, temporarily shutting some bodily functions down for a few seconds. Your opponent will take a little longer to recover than when hit with Psychic Fist, but there's a small chance that the attack will leave your enemy disoriented for a short time. 4 Dream Daggers - You sweep your arm in front of you as though you're releasing a spread of venomous daggers. They are very real to your opponents, however, dealing moderate psionic damage in a wide cone in front of you. The damage is moderate, but as with the first two attacks feels worse than it is. Opponents think they are poisoned and suffering poison damage over time. The illusory damage fades after a few seconds, but is very real in the meantime. 6 Psionic Strike - standard AS, but all psionic damage 8 Build Up 12 Placate 18 Telekinetic Burst - You deliver a roundhouse blow with a fist of psychic energy, knocking your opponent into the air and sending them smashing to the ground with tremendous force. Because they think they've been knocked higher and fallen harder, the attack deals extra but temporary psionic damage in addition to the damage dealt by both the punch and the fall. 26 Waking Nightmare - This purely psionic attack deals devastating and real damage to an opponent's psyche, made even more terrifying because it happens from a distance. Your opponent is lost in a nightmare of your making, and in addition to the damage suffers from a high mag fear effect. 32 Mind Ripper - A devastating attack. You bring both fists down with full psychic force on your opponent, knocking them down and dealing extreme damage. The psychic shockwaves ripple out, invading the minds of your foe's allies and making them think they too have taken damage from the attack. Mind Ripper deals real superior damage to your target and moderate illusory damage to up to five foes within a fifteen foot radius. If any of these foes are defeated before the mental damage disappears, they too will fall. Apologies for the stupid sounding names. I put like ten minutes' thought into this. The premise of the set is similar to spectral wounds from the Illusion Control set. The idea is to reward a stalker's ability to exploit opportunities to do damage and bring foes down with burst damage spikes. The illusory damage would not be counted in criticals, and Psionic Strike and Waking Nightmare carry no illusory damage at all. Mind Ripper deals illusory damage only to those in the AOE. The actual damage of any attacks that also deal this illusory damage would obviously have to be scaled down to balance the extra illusory damage, but the illusory combined with the real damage should bring the set significantly above other single target sets in total damage potential due to the fading nature of the illusory damage. It would require some heavy testing to determine the correct levels of damage and the duration of the illusory damage, and most attacks would do a combination of psionic and smashing damage. |
I am trying to think of "cool" powers especially powers that can "jump". They seem to have mastered that new mechanism.
I've played WAR Online and one of the things that's interesting is "position" fighting. You get special attack/damage when you attack from Side/Behind. I've always thought that would benefit Stalker as Stalker has the advantage of sneaking in and taking position any way he likes.
I think "Mind Psionic Weaponry" can be a very cool set on Stalker because Assassin should be good at "causing fear and panic" among the enemies.
What's left is to normalize all Assassin Strikes and improve Stalker's old sets (Claw, MA and EM)! You don't need to bring back the missing PbAoE attack. You just need to make the existing ones better! For example, make Slice a WIDER and LONGER cone.
I'd also consider renaming the set Illusion Melee or Spectre Fighting or some such.
Cool! If I get time I may put some real thought into it and present it as a bona-fide suggestion for a new primary.
EDIT - @ Leo: Spectral Melee?
The Scrappers' Guide to Dark Melee | Kheldian Binds and Strategies
What do you think is the perfect set for stalkers (multi-fold question)? I ask because, as far as I can tell, there were no sets (barring 1) specifically made and balanced for the AT. Every set Stalkers get is a hand-me-down from another AT. But what if that were going to change?
-Primary or Secondary, which sets do you feel is most aesthetically fitting for stalker and why?
-Primary or Secondary, which sets are just great performers? For teams, solo, PvP, or just in your opinion?
-If the devs were planning to make a powerset specifically for the Stalker AT with its style in-mind (and proliferate it later), what do you think would/should be in it? How would it play? What might/should it look like?
Keep in mind, the set should and would be proliferated to the other melees and shouldn't require too much alteration to work. That said, it doesn't have to play perfectly on the other ATs, just Stalker.