Dark Armor is great. I'm leveling up a NB/Dark right now as a bit of an experiment and I love him. Tough as hell for a stalker. As an aside, divine avalanche is simply unfair. There was a recent "buff" to stalker Dark Armor in that the control auras are now suppressed while hidden. You can toggle up your oppressive gloom and not worry about it breaking hide.
Claws, in my opinion, is lacking for a stalker. This is just my opinion, and I gave up on it before I got shockwave, so take this for what it's worth. It was far too single target focused, and I think follow up was too big of a sacrifice to lose. I understand follow up does nothing for a stalker, but the set was balanced around having that constant buff. When that buff was taken away, I don't feel the set was rebalanced well enough without it. Spin, one of claws' shining features, was removed and the cone on eviscerate was removed as well.
Only thing else I'll say is this: If you're having fun, you're not doing anything wrong.
Where to now?
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The MFing Warshade | The Last Rule of Tanking | The Got Dam Mastermind
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don'T attempt to read tHis mEssaGe, And believe Me, it is not a codE.
Claws was pretty good before dual blades came along. Focus does good damage, is ranged, and has utility. But with the arrival of dual blades, it seems lackluster to me now. Dual Blades covers the utility of knock up in spades, and does more lethal damage in bursts, and superior AoE. I think it was a mistake to turn eviscerate into a single target attack.
The advantage of claws is that it has fast recharging attacks, and buildup/placate come up quicker due to the better recharge. But for the most part I would say pick claws for thematic reasons.
Dark Armor is surprisingly good for stalkers, assuming you are willing to stick it out, and invest slots into all its toys. Dark Regeneration will not work like you want out of the box (meaning no slot investment), so you have to slot this early (eg accuracy). With fitness becoming inherent picking up Soul Transfer will be a must from my point of view.
My main is a claws/super reflexes stalker and I personally looove the claws powerset. Keep in mind, though, that my primary focus is PvP, so the single target damage is ideal and the fast recharge has spoiled me so I have a hard time playing other powersets. Shockwave, even from a PvE standpoint, I find disappointing and would never recommend it unless in very specific situations. For the most part, the knockback on it will just annoy teams.
As far as far as dark armor goes, I've never played it on a stalker and wish you the best of luck with it! As Dechs mentioned, it recently received a buff so offensive toggles won't mess with your hide, so I've been tempted to make one and test it out. Combined with claws' single target focus, the DA secondary sounds like it might be interesting.
*Puts down cane to tell story:
I had a 50 Claws/Dark Armor and I deleted him. Surprisingly good in the early days of PVP, I teamed with other dark armor users. Dark Regeneration generates a rush of God mode when it hits, but when it fails, you pretty much take a dirt nap. Good times.... good times.
*Picks up cane again*
I like Claws. I like the mix of burst and damage over time the set offers. Mid to late game, you fight more things with heavier lethal resistance, it feels like some fights take forever. With focus and shockwave, that's usually not a problem. eviscerate as a single target attack, it doesn't deal enough damage compared to it's animation time. With a bit of recharge, claws is really a never-ending-chipper and big booms of AS damage. It's also a safe set, because with focus and shockwave, not many mobs will be standing to try to attack. The ones that can, usually can be controlled with placate.
personally i prefer building claws for +damage bonuses and recharge. feels like playing a pounding sledgehammer after AS.
"Scrappers don't want the bit of dignity that Brutes left them taken away by (lol)Stalkers." -Delta_Strider, on Stalker buffs.
Current Project: Hard Goodbye, StJ/Nin
Retired: Blitzwulf, Claws/Nin (50); Perdition's Blade, Night Widow (50)
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison
I understand follow up does nothing for a stalker, but the set was balanced around having that constant buff. When that buff was taken away, I don't feel the set was rebalanced well enough without it.
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Gemini_2099
The advantage of claws is that it has fast recharging attacks, and buildup/placate come up quicker due to the better recharge. But for the most part I would say pick claws for thematic reasons.
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I don't think it does, because once enhanced the amount of time actually shaved off is pretty low.
The only tip I would say is if you pick up Cloak of Fear (I would!), then you want to almost always AS something you won't actually one hit, so the fear effect can trigger and stack with CoF. If it does, you'll fear down everything nearby.
@Gilia1
I play heroes on Champion.
I play villains on Virtue.
I have tried a number of Stalkers in the past, and even got a Dark/Dark Stalker up to level 38. However, at that point, I deleted him because I didn't like how Dark Melee and Dark Armor worked with each other (also, I realize now I was trying to play him like a Scrapper...my mistake)
Last night, I rolled a Claws/Dark Armor Stalker, and have gotten him to level 12 in Praetoria thus far. He seems a lot of fun to play (love the quick recharge on Claws, and the secondary effects of Dark Armor).
So, do the more experienced Stalker players out there have any general tips or advice on Claws/Dark Armor?
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