The most durable Stalker?

I have atleast one lev 50 for about every AT in the game....
except I have not attempted much of anything as a Stalker.
I was wanting to see if I could drum up some pointers, experiences, and info about Stalker builds.
Mainly in the durability aspect.
Which type is GENERALLY the best in the defensive part of being a Stalker?
Danke in advance!

I don't know about the other sets, but I did a /nin stalker, and had a rough time of things in Praetoria... until I made level 10 and got caltrops.

Then I pretty much just laughed at stuff, except for some of the Very Fun missions.

Basically, I took the ranged defense toggle, and then used caltrops and walls to avoid meleeing more than one thing at a time. Ranged attacks tended to miss, and things in melee tended to die. Problem solved!

I suppose it depends what kind of 'durable' you're talking about.

People will say Ninjutsu but I find that set pretty flimsy when you get hit. Players will say caltrops fixes that but if you don't want to rely on that, all you've got is the defense and heal. This isn't durability, it's utility. But I guess it hinges on if you consider making enemies forget to melee with you for a little while as being durable.

I've always considered Willpower as a more durable set in the general sense. It has a good base to work with IOs, some defense, some resists, you can cap your HP all the time and a worthwhile tier 9 that works even if you manage to cap your defense with bonuses.

Putting some IOs in my /DA stalker to get some 28% defense on him (to varying types...his build isn't done tho), I find his ability to debuff ToHit and fear mass enemies to feel more sturdy than my /Nin with a bit more defense so far thanks to the huge heal and the resistance on top.

This is coming from a stalker player that doesn't have great amounts of experience with /Nin tho, so take that as you will. I'd probably say certain combos are pretty sturdy rather like a DM/Nin or a DM/WP. Kat/Elec would be great too. I enjoy the sturdiness of my Spines/DA thanks to IOs and /EA is easy to softcap with powers/IOs and great endurance management to boot.

So my vote for durable would be Willpower, things combined with Dark Melee (especially Ninjutsu, Super Reflexes and Willpower) and Katana/Broadsword (especially combined with Electric, Willpower and Regen) with outlier stuff like stun stacking with Energy Melee(or Kinetic Melee or Martial Arts)/Dark Armor.

I don't have a ton of experience with different stalker sets, but I do spend a lot of time playing in Mid's, and I will say that if you want survivability at the expense of everything else, a pure defense set (/nin, /SR, /nrg) is probably not the way to go. The reason, of course, is that you can softcap defense through other means, but serious amounts of resistance or regen can only come through armor sets based around those attributes. If you go this route, you will definitely want your primary to be BS or NB.

I may be underestimating the amount of survivability granted by the controls in /nin, but I hear /dark's controls are also decent and it is resist-based. As for myself, I have an NB/elec with range soft-capped, melee soft-capped given one stack of Divine Avalanche, 34 AoE def, 52 S/L res, 43 F/C res, 75 nrg res, 22 neg res, and 32 psi res. She still manages to put out 140+ dps, has solo'd a few AVs, and has completed the RWZ challenge. I don't see any reason why you wouldn't be able to achieve similar numbers with /dark, in addition to the mitigation from Cloak of Fear and Oppressive Gloom (at least, similar survivability numbers - your dps may be limited due to end issues).

Of course, large numbers of defense debuffers tear me right the hell up, but with a ranged attack from my epic pool I can pull them in small groups that won't cause cascading failure. If you're interested in jumping into the middle of large groups of mobs, and you want to be able to do it to EVERY enemy group, then you'll need a set with decent DDR. That's kind of a silly goal on a stalker though (not that I'm one to judge). Also my regen is pretty terrible at 11.7 hps and Energize only up every 48 seconds, but I guess you can't have everything.

I would assume, that the "most durable" Stalker, is most likely NB/DA/Lev (for hiber) -or- NB/DA/Soul (for Meld). I think a Dm/DA/Lev -or- Dm/DA/Soul is right up there in that ballpark of awesome survivability as well.


Of course, this all assumes that the Stalker is played and built correctly as well...

I have found /nin and /DA to have great durability in different ways, I've also heard good things from a /WP and /SR stalker I know...

The main thing is that you have to remember that Stalkers are not scrappers, brutes or tanks, and play appropriately. If you pay attention and limit your aggro you have a great deal more durability than the other melee toons. If you get scrapperlock, however, you are screwed.

I'd say /WP as well. I have lvl 24 KM/WP that survives way better than my Nin/Nin did at that level. The /Nin gets by better right now of course, after slotting several numina's this and Regenerative tissue that, /WP still pulls ahead in survivability on +0/x3 with just bare bones that /Nin did at that level. I can just imagine what /WP WILL be like at lvl 44 with all that stuff slotted as well.

NB/Nin

Self explanatory why NB (Divine Avalanche), and for Nin it is a defense set that is positional, with lots of toys along with a reliable self heal.

I'd have to agree with Leo, I wouldn't call Stalkers durable per se.

Build for Defense, so you don't take the hits. 1600 hit points, just isn't enough to take those hits.

Thanks guys for the ideas.
At the moment I am roaming around Mercy Island with a Kinetic Melee/ Ninjitsu Stalker and I have to admit it has been fun thus far.
Only at lev 4 but it seems to have the feel of some potential to me.
I much prefer the KM for this toon vs. the KM/Energy Aura brute I roamed Praetoria with.
That brute got on my nerves because it seemed like all the KM was knocking the foes away from me and preventing the fury bar come into play too much for my tastes.
But I have to admit.....
this stalker just feels more like the KM fits it better

I've been running a Nin/Nin stalker since CoV Launch, and I'm constantly given bewildered thumbs up by pugs for my ability to tank really nasty stuff.

My build opted out of several toys to pick up the slack from soul mastry.

I purposely prioritized survivability over damage, and for any defensive secondary, Ninja Blade is great at it. Sadly, Ninja blade also deals a highly resisted damage type, so without some teammates or creative use of temp powers and insps you might find yourself in a deadlock with certain melee AT EBs solo at +2 or harder.

The good news is that if you play it right, they'll never kill you. The bad news is that you're weilding a big knife, which doesn't get you very far in the damage department, so you might find yourself resorting to nukes and other temp powers to fill your damage gap if you're solo and your target pops big self heals or +resist defensive nukes.

Lucky you, you're a stalker. You can farm warburg nukes with your eyes closed.

Nin/Nin "Shadestorm's guide to Ninja Tanking" quick guide:

*Take Divine avalanche. Slot it for recharge and def buffs. You can stack this. Lots. Use it EVERY time it comes up. This is the key to your def tank. Without it, you lose.

*Demonic aura, aside from looking cool, is THE accolade you want.

*Take Sting of the wasp. Slot that bad boy for defense debuffs.

*Take Blinding powder. Resist the temptation to slot for confusion. Slot for tohit debuffs.

*Soul Mastry rocks. You've got a ranged tohit debuff, a hold, and a short term def buff with a timer JUST PERFECT for covering the space between your AS and your first stack of DA def buffs. Oh, did I mention the hold?

*Slot your heal. You will get hit hard once in a blue moon. Keep it handy.

*Don't rely on your toys. Those power picks can be much better used on pools that amp your almighty def. I personally don't bother with caltrops or smoke bomb, as it allows me to take and slot much better utility from Soul Mastry.

*Remember to three slot your hold resist with recharges and auto it.

*Remember to pay close attention to Retsu. If it's flashing, GTFO. (I use teleport for maximum GTFO velocity, your results may vary.)

Sorry, yes. That was a pre-coffee error, but that's exactly what I've got slotted in there

I totally edited that to save embarrassment.

Really helps with def based EBs and those damn robots with OMGWTFBBQ lethal defense.

Added bonus of this setup: You're a ninja, and you actually have the ability to flip out and kill stuff without running away all the time

Aside:

I never fight States or Lady liberty straight up. Too much lethal resist. I walk up to them in a mission, I turn around, arm nuclear weapons and come back.

Its the only way to be sure you know. Well, I guess you could bring friends, but I like taking care of EBs solo. It makes me feel important

I guess I should add that the answer depends a lot on when you want your stalker hit its prime. My earlier suggestion to go for a resist- or regen-based set and stack defense with IOs and NB or BS assumes that you're looking at maximizing your potential post-50. The people telling you to take BS or NB with a defense-based set like /nin aren't wrong; you'll be able to cap defenses early in your career and without access to the best IOs, making you invincible for much of the leveling process - but all that defense will become sort of redundant if you want to min/max at the level cap.

I'd say Dark/Nin is up there for one of the more durable Stalkers with softcapped defense and two heals.

my only stalker is a katana/willpower, and he's quite survivable. If things get hairy I stack Divine Avalanche on his existing defense, he's got some okay resists and a heal for emergencies. And he's only slotted with generics, if I ventured into set IOs he'd be quite a bit harder.

My dark/dark amazes me with what it can survive and as I've mentioned in several posts her build sucks.

She's rocking 6 slots in hide (including -end woohoo that was a moment of genius on my part, and I did it on two different stalkers ech), no murky cloud, and 6 slots of resist sets in obsidian shield that not giving any defense bonuses but some AoE from Aegis. And though those handicaps between siphon life, and dark regeneration she can take x6 spawns. And when she does go down, soul transfer has prevented team wipes with the huge AoE stun.

Not saying it's the toughest, but I've been very impressed.

I love my Kat/SR scrapper to death, but were it not for dual-procing his attacks (and he is my main character/concept character) and that I love his costume, I'd probably say it's a tad boring hitting Divine Avalanche every other attack.

Granted, he's already soft-capped to melee ranged and AoE, he still uses it as a filler when foes only have a sliver of health.

The most funnest stalkers I've played so far are my Spines/DA and my DM/WP. Now that I stopped trying to squeeze in caltrops in my tactics all the time, my DB/Nin is getting fun too.