The Ultimate fix for stalkers.

My vote is to give ninja reflexes the power "Bouncy Ball". Then, enemies would be forced to play jacks when you use both at the same time.

I still think the way to "fix" Stalkers is to buff their single-target damage to higher than a Scrapper's, while leaving AoE damage at its current state (or even nerfing it by a very small amount to compensate for the ST buffs). They're supposed to be single-target specialists, and yet Scrappers' ST attacks outperform those of a Stalker right out of the gate, and Brutes outperform them after just a few seconds in combat.

Of course, the last time I suggested this, I was all but called an idiot and told I didn't understand how the game worked. Mileages and variations and what-not.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nethergoat it's NEVER too late to pad your /ignore list!

Caltrops, really?

How to make stalkers better:

1. Reduce the AT of assassin strike and add a 25% to terrorize group in PVE.
2. Reduce the time it take to hide after a confrontation.
3. Increase HP (Stalkers are not Corruptors) because Dull the pain does not increase HP when a stalker is HP are already at 1606 or increase Damage Resistance for a short period when Dull the pain is activated.
4. Increase AS Damage.

I think this would make stalkers better over all.

if stalkers inherent abilities are found to be weaker for the type of game that they're in, then the best bet is to increase those. make it harder for critters to see you hidden, and/or easier to placate them. that's the kind of buff thats going to see people dusting off their stalkers in numbers.

Mmm...

How to get caltrops and not break cottage rules...

My thoughts would be to add it as a secondary effect to an existing secondary power set power.

For instance, there is the smoke one in Ninjutsu, why not just add besides the smoke properties that it also deployed a set of clatrops. It would make sense to me, because usually we tend to slow down when surrounded by smoke. I believe all secondary power sets have a smoke like counterpart, thus implementing the caltrop suggestion should not be an issue of which Stalkers based on their secondary power set choices could have or not.

I do like theidea of caltrops, from the aspect if I bit more than I can chew; it gives me a better chance to get out of dodge alive.

Stormy

WP for Stalkers getting some kind of dark-effect RTTC variant would be sweet. But I dunno...

Maybe I'm missing something, but I'm just not a big fan of caltrops.


My biggest beef with stalkers is how difficult it is to use Assassin strike, and how little of a reward you actually get for it. My encounter with an enemy group on a team always follows this same pattern:

#1: Try to find the boss with my mouse only to find I keep targeting the guy behind me or another member of my group in the middle of the mob.
#2: Furiously use auto-target with tab to try and find anything that con's purple or is boss ranked.
#3: Chase this thing down and try to properly position myself for AS.
#4: Re-chase this thing down after AS inexplicably fails.
#5: And again.
#6: Finally begin attack chain after successful AS, ensuring that demoralize effects were either not needed, or my team would already be dead because they were needed.
OR
#6: My stealth drops because of some aoe or cone attack that managed to nick me, preventing me from doing AS since I will now be targeted by some enemies.


Which explains why it is half the time I just rush into a squad and then use Build Up + PBAoE instead of going through the above. I know AS is a high damage single target attack (though I swear I've seen Elec/Shield scrappers that can do nearly the same amount of damage to entire mobs), but it seems like so many fixes are in place that prevent Stalkers from truly being effective as single target kings.

A fix on stalkers part would be to either make AS more powerful (directly or indirectly), or remove the interrupt section so you don't fail AS while standing completely still or can preform AS on flying targets.

My personal vote is for the latter, since reliability is a sweet thing to have. The ease at which AS can be used increases when you don't have to position yourself correctly and be stationary to use. Though I doubt this will happen, since allowing AS to fly while under attack means that you can get critical hits much easier, potentially over single-target damaging.

For the former, I'm not referring to damage. I would personally like to see Demoralize receive a buff (50% increase in duration or potency would be nice), and would like Demoralize to be a side effect of all successful assassin strikes, regardless of whether or not the target lives or dies.

Any combination of the two above will suffice, too. Whether it is just more reliable (and indirectly more damage) or if demoralize is worth the positioning and failure rate.

I do hate it when balancing issues become about my incompetence. Mainly because it is a completely unprovable assertion that cannot be countered by any sort of volition on my part. Being relate-able hasn't worked, so let me move this away from personal skill:

*Assassin strike will be interrupted while completely stationary for seemingly no reason, regardless of skill.
*Assassin strike is harder to use on moving and airborne targets, regardless of skill.
*Assassin stirke is harder to use while under the effect of speed boost, regardless of skill.
*Assassin strike is only useful against stronge targets. A target that dies from AS had less remaining HP than the damage AS does, reducing the meaningful damage and therefore use of AS. Skill does not change this.
*Targeting, positioning, angling the camera, and executing an assassin strike is time consuming and, by the very nature of skill being brought up, is a difficult endeavor.
*The chaotic environment of battle, especially melee combat, provides countless instances in which targeting, positioning, angling the camera, and execution can be hindered or go wrong, regardless of skill.
*Combat situations in which the stalker does not initiate the alpha strike provide a situation in which stealth can be dropped from incoming ambient damage, causing aggro and thus preventing use of AS without going through a series of steps intended solely to fend off aggro and retry AS. This is regardless of skill.
*Demoralize is only useful in two situations:
#1: Large groups of enemies of substantial threat where a to-hit debuff and fear provide damage necessary damage mitigation. If a situation where necessary damage mitigation from AS never occurs , then this lends credence to the ineffectualness of demoralize.
#2: Against very strong targets like EBs and AVs, who's high damage output would need mitigation from the to-hit debuff to keep the team alive. If a situation where necessary damage mitigation from AS never occurs, then this leads credence to the ineffectualness of demoralize.
*The defensive effects of demoralize in groups is time-sensitive, requiring that a successful AS occur quickly enough to prevent the team from sustaining too much damage. This is regardless of skill.


The myriad of difficulties in this AT's signature abilities are needless complications that provide no needed or known balancing features. The fact that skill has to be brought up as a crucial matter when attempting to achieve at best mediocrity in overall team worth indicates that this class needs to be buffed. The capability for certain players, through rigorous training, to marginally cope with the few problems that are possible to deal with is no excuse to not resolve problems and undeniably benefit every stalker player in the game. Same train of thought goes for certain primary or secondary powers aiding in some of these complications; Fix what is broken, working around what is broken doesn't fix it.

The solution to this problem is simple: Either remove these unneeded complications, or make these complications needed.


EDIT: I have searched for specific string targeting for Boss and up multiple times, and the only results I get are from guides that say you cannot set yourself to auto-target the "boss" rank of enemies. You can set certain names contained by the bosses within a particular enemy group, but setting up a system to always target the bosses and up in a group would require either a large number of binds to find every specific boss for every specific group, or to re-set your binds for targeting the bosses in the group that is on the map for every map, requiring knowledge of the names of all the bosses of all the enemy groups.

Believe me, I've already barked up that tree.