If You Were Castle How would you change Stalkers?

I have several ideas on how to change stalkers in general.

Suggestion 1 is to return all the missing powers from various sets such that stalkers arent penalize for taking hide and assassin strike. Meaning powers like QR, Lucky(scaling resistance/debuff resistance), RttC(without the aggro component), Quills, Lotus Drops, Spin. Many folks would be like what about the aggro? Well we know its possible now for them to make the toggle powers not effect others while hidden, like the stalker version of cloak of fear and oppressive gloom. So that cant be used as a reason not to do this now.

The main reason I am wanting most of the aoes to return is because its our greatest weakness when teaming unless your elec then you get the best of both worlds. What we lack is that aoe contribution in a game where AoE is king and single target is lol unless its a hard target like an AV. But at that point sustained damage is going to help you more so than burst damage will.

While I know suggestion number 1 is the hardest and most talked about thing to do it might not be able to happen so, here is suggestion number 2. Make stalker single target damage simulate AoE. One is make the damage so high you pretty much 1 shot + 4 luitenents with single target attacks. The only way to make this happen and work well is if they throw out the whole recharge/endurance/damage formula to a point and make some exemptions because thats whats pretty much holding stalkers back right there.

Suggestion number 2 might be seem to be overboard so here is another idea. Suggestion 3 revisit the stalker scaling damage with AS but also apply this to all or some of the more heavier hitting attacks. This idea is crucial considering how we got 2 new taskforces. Chances are there will be some extremely beefy targets that need to be taken out and the best way to do it is make stalkers into the single target specialists they were always meant to be.

Suggestion 4, while I dont like this as much as the others only because it seems to have the weakest impact on perception but not on actual numbers. Change stalker damage mods such that they along with blasters get the highest numbers for damage buffs. Meaning stalkers and blasters get 130% damage boost for build up, and melee damage boosted to a 1.30 mod. This ensures no one will be out damaging them using the same powerset with the same level of buffage. This will need to be done in conjuction with getting rid of the leash on the current stalker team buff. As it stands currently the buff is counter productive to itself. If you have more range than melee then the stalker doesnt get the buff to benefit the team as much. If you have alot of melee when the stalker does get the buff its kind of pointless because you already have melee damage. So the stalker never really gets to shine because he is over shadowed by his teammates bigger crits, higher damage from fury. I suggest making the range equivalent to the old sidekick range. It keeps stalkers from running off from the team and it works with every possible team composition.

Thats pretty much what I would do if I werent afraid to buff stalkers. Keep in mind none of these changes would be effective in pvp in any way shape or form since teaming is the stalkers issue in pve.

Quick.

Freaking.

Recovery.

Change the damage modifier to match scrappers, perhaps go 10% higher.

Increase the HP cap to match the previous base HP increase.

Done.

Raise the Stalker Damage mod so it's the same as Scrappers.

Fix Build up so it's a 100% boost instead of the 80% we get now.

Change the range on Team crits to 60 feet.Or maybe 80 feet as that's the typical range for most ranged abilities/attacks.

1. Rather than boost their damage I'd change their debuff/team buff/ally heal modifiers to MM or even Corruptor levels. (Since they don't have much debuff abilities available to them in the first place, I can only see this being a problem is dark melee)

and/or...

2. A proper assassin's strike (AS power from hide) will alert everyone to your presence but not drop your hide status, allowing you to save your placate and follow-up with another crit of your highest damage.

and/or...

3. Give Assassin's Strike a much more massive Debuff to all stats when it hits a target from hide. This would bring an element of team value to stalkers as while they might not even hurt an AV that much with the attack, it would leave them suffering painfully and vulnerable to the rest of the team. In solo play this would also allow a stalker to quickly finish off what they started. For the debuff's numbers I'd say...

Duration: 15-20 seconds (Possibly even a fully 30)
-40% Resistance
-40% Defense
-30% ToHit
-50% Recharge
-30% Damage
-500% Regeneration
-50% Recovery
-50% Jump speed, jump height, run speed, fly speed
Fly Protection Mag. 3
-80% to special (buffs, debuffs, heals, control duration)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow City of Heroes is a game about freedom of expression and variety of experiences far more so than it is about representing any one theme, topic or genre.

Forgot to add:

Make the assassination debuff pseudo-pet drop on the player, not the target, so we can one shot pesky minions and still debuff the crowd.

Me? This might sound weird, But I'd rethink stalkers from being the stealth specialists to the single target specialists.

Why? Because the way the game functions, stealth is not in inherently rewardable aspect, and has a thresh hold of value reachable via outside options, in many ways. As is, stalkers are split in two for their specialty: stealth, and single target strategic burst damage. Not only is their stealth not a stand-out strength, but the single target damage is not that different than what other damage archetypes have. The strategic nature of their burst damage is still fairly unique, however.
But when the stalker buffs came around, it was decided that the player does not get control over the extra damage. Instead, it's random. Sooo, stalker get (a) controlled burst damage, and (b) bonus damage, which is dependent on ally placement, but is still random.

But I blather on. Here's my suggested change: stalkers get a crit chance from 'hide,' assassin strike, and a burst damage buff whenever they eliminate, or help eliminate, a target. This effect has limited stackability, but can be chained.

Soo, the stalker can do buildup/assassin strike/placate means for damage, but can extend their damage after those are used up by quickly eliminating targets. They know exactly how much damage they'll get by quickly killing a lieut, or by killing two successive minions. Each and every damage-contributing attack is a very reliable/predictable step to giving the next burst of damage.

Unlike things like fury/scrapper criticals, this approach would very much benefit from a strategic/planned application, and don't encourage the stalker to do what they aren't made to do: wail away at stuff hoping for bonus damage to help them finish things off. It would reward the stalker to do as much burst damage as possible. The quicker they die, the more buffs you can stack, the quicker you kill the next target. Yet limiting the stacking would mean you don't gain much from doing reckless stuff- if the stalker can only get three kill-bonus damage boosts, they won't try silly stuff like trying to kill a crowd at once for some mini-fulcrum shift.

This could also help more on teams- when you have allies to help eliminate targets, you'll have an easier time getting the kills more easily/reliably. Likewise, the consistent damage boosts make the stalker a reliable damage source ally, and does not favor a melee ally over a ranged one.

You could call the damage boost 'bloodlust', or something of the like.

Note: I would keep the Assassin strike change fear/-tohit change, however.

I'd probably change the Crit mechanic to being the mirror version of scrappers, highest crit rate against minions and lowest against AV's and what not. Since Stalkers get an AS crit from hide on the toughest target they tend to need help with the minions (Especially in teams as they have few AoE attacks)

Possibly look into making Hide inherent and to give back the power that it currently replaces.

Maybe give a +Crit buff to teammates (Including self) after a successful AS for a few seconds, nothing too large but something to make people look for Stalkers as an AT rather than a filler.

1. Reduce Assassin Strike activation time and possibly remove interrupt in PvE. If they get rid of interrupt, then they can keep the same activation time.


2. Get rid of the team buff radius. Does Kheldian have radius limitation for their team buffs? Stalker should get team buff critical with teammates in the same zone/map.


3. Add decent -regen in Assassin Strike. This makes Stalker a bit more attractive than other melee class during tough AV/Hero fights because afterall, Stalker should be the Single Target Elimination specialist. During AV fight, it seems like Brute and Scrapper are better than Stalker because they survive a bit better and it's not like Stalker's dps is higher without teammates.


4. I don't know why being hit after Placate loses critical as Placate doesn't really grant "Hidden" status does it? You only "blind" one target but other targets can still see you. It would be nice that Placate grants Critical regardless you get hit or not. Either that or shorten Placate's animation time.
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The above is what I consider "likely" fixes but I still think it doesn't address some of the main problems.


1. Some sets need to have at least one AoE, namely Martial Arts and Energy Melee. I know this won't happen so I classify it as "not likely" to change but I think it should. AoE in this game is just too important and it's not like MA and EM's Assassin Strike is much stronger than other sets'. If AS replaces the precious AoE, then those two sets' AS need to be stronger to make up its loss of aoe.

2. Higher critical rate is nice on a team but it is still RANDOM. I've always thought Stalker should be able to control his critical hits rather than random. We already have Scrapper for random critical hits.


3. Ideally, I think Assassin Strike should come with different buffs or debuffs for each set, like Spines can apply poison dot damage after AS. This won't happen but I think it will make each AS more interesting.

1. HP - glass cannon is not a good melee design
2. improve sustained dps without improving burst dps too much. The easiest way is to greatly reduce placate refresh. At least make them equivalent to stalkers and brutes in pylon killing.
3. something to simulate AoE without being AoE. Maybe a chance to one hit kill minions and lts with any single target attack. You wouldn't be the guy taking out 3/4 of the group with an opening attack or two, but cleaning up the lucky dodging trash quickly isn't a bad schtick. When things are dying left and right to AoE, it's not enough time to wait for those long animation abilities - let them kill something with a tier 1 or 2 attack.

For Demoralize, how about if instead of using the temp power situation we have now, if AS had a PBAoE component added that was the same as the Demoralize effect.

Similar to how the Sweep combo works for DB.

I'm pretty sure, if I were Castle, I wouldn't change them.

I base this on the observation that they seem to be unchanged.

The question might be "if Castle were me, how would he change Stalkers", and I think the answer to that would probably be some kind of tweak to the assassin's strike debuff, and/or possibly a better way to lose aggro -- say, something like "if you can break line of sight for N seconds, you lose aggro".

Some good ideas here. Some oddball ones as well.

What I'd personally like to see:

- Hide as an inherent: Awesome idea here! Frees up a spot to add a missing defense set
power.

- higher damage modifier: Check! I want it to equal a scrapper's.

- something unique to add damage: like stalker's BU adding +40% crit rate when active
or similiar.


What I don't want to see:

- higher hit points: I don't think it's realistic to ask for more hit points, and in essence adopt the survivability of a scrapper, and then go on to ask for a bunch of damage increasing abilities as well. It's either one or the other and I'd rather have the lower hit points + a nice damage boost then become a lower damage mod scrapper with controlled crits.

-adding debuffs beyond demoralize: Stalkers are not bane spiders. It just doesn't make sense (to me anyways) for a stalker's attacks to have -regen or -resistance or whatever associated with them.

Well first off, my playstyle on my Stalker may be different than others (if not the majority of others).

How I played them before the buffs, and how I played them after the buffs is pretty much the same. I play them as a Scrapper who comes in with a promised big hit, then scrap it out.

When on teams, I won't always be re-hidden by the time I get to the next mob, but I do tend to have the defense that I can placate then take out a speciic target (sapper) or take out a big chunk of a specific targets health (boss).

I wouldn't change Hide to an inherent power. Seems like a lot of work. And having an inherent power like Hide, that grants all that defense might be a bit OPed.

I'd increase the damage mod to Scrapper levels. So Smite would do the same damage ona stalker that it does on a scrapper.

This would increase the damage of Assassin Strike.

I want to say increase the +damage mods to power like Build Up to 100% like Scrappers, but I think this would get nixed because of PvP personally.

Now for solo play, the only difference in survivability between a Brute and Scrapper is hit points, with the Scrapper doing a bit more damage to kill the enemy before they kill them, needed much more than Brutes who can take the hits a bit faster but still finish the enemies fairly fast.

Now, Stalkers will have the added benefit of shredding aggro versus one target with due to Placate, but that only goes so far in added survivability.

My thought, increase the max hit points to around 1800.

Currently...Brutes have roughly 803 more max hit points than scrappers, who have 803 more max hit points than stalkers.

Now tankers only have roughly 321 more max hit points than Brutes (according to paragonwiki, which I'm not sure accounts for the recent buff to Tanker's max hit points).

So, if we go with roughly 321 less than Scrappers for max hit points, that would say go to about 2088 hit point cap.

But I think that's likely to much. With the increase in damage mod, the stalker (with the use of AS) will have the better burst damage capabilities for sure, and might edge out scrappers on DPS (though most Scrappers will do more AOE damage), if not edge them out on DPS, it should be alot closer than it seems to be now to quite possibly say Stalkers give up the survivability edge for that added burst.

Playing my stalker now, who knows, maybe the increase in damage mod with the burst damage capabilities might make up for lower survivability they currently have.

Personally, I think and increase in max hit points would still be okay without breaking them, as no matter what, they'll still be seeing less HP than their Scrapper counter parts in the hit points department.

My DB/WP Scrapper will still have way more HP than my KIN/WP Stalker can manage to get, since the scrapper has a higher hit point base.

This will also allow Stalkers with IOs to make more use out of the +Health set bonuses (something my stalker finds to be just a waste of a set bonuses...HPT with +Health Accolades).

I believe Regen Scrappers see the same problem with Dull Pain. And going into mids, I didn't find it to hard to reach the hit point cap on a /SR stalker using Accolades and a few +HP set bonuses.

So an increase to 1800 max hit points (or up to 2000) doesn't seem to out of line, and still going to keep the Stalker relying on taking less hits (much like a /SR Scrapper who's going to be a bit over 1700 hit points when Accolades/+HP is taken into account.

Sooo...from my own playing experience...

Increased Damage Mod and Increase in Max HP.

I'd also like the idea of Hidden equals 100% for ALL attacks, while this won't do much for Martial Arts or Energy Melee, as they have no AOEs to speak of, I always thought it should of been a feature of Hide to begin with (for lightning rod this may or may not be a problem, but I don't recall if it can even crit to begin with).

This is all from my own play experience and my own playstyle mind you (ie...sneak sneak BOOM scrap it out!). So what I see as a good idea may not go over well in the majority of other stalker playstyles.

If I were Castle, I would find the quickiest and easiest way to satisfy Stalker fans because I have other bigger issues to address!


Since Stalker usually has no soloing problem, then team-play is the key and the new strike forces are going to be hard and Stalker may feel even less welcome.

This means...

1. Get rid of team critical buff radius (check!). Most people who don't play stalkers probably will never know Stalker gets this team buff anyway so I doubt getting rid of the radius is going to ruin the game. If making the radius bigger causes too much lag, then I would make the critical buff even stronger because it is unlikely that Stalker has teammates around him all the time. 3% per teammate? Now it's 5% per teammate!

2. Interrupt in Assassin Strike is a must so I would probably reduce activation time a bit and I would reduce even more for MA and EM because they have no aoe.

1. Remove team critical bonus, increase base critical bonus to 10% for minions and Lts and 15% for bosses.

2. Scrapper Damage Modifier.

3. Improved Assassins Strike, make assassins strike work like swap ammo for blasters granting toggles that provide add ional effects like -res and -regen for pve only.

1) Reduce activation time on on AS.

2) Remove team critical chance buff.

3) Grant a scaling critical chance bonus for all Stalker attacks based on the number of debuffs the target has on them. (In addition to the bonus for a status effect.)

1) Reduce animation/activation of AS (and Blaster snipes) to less than 1 second and uninterruptable;
2) Increase recharge to 60 seconds;
3) REQUIRE being in Hide to use AS
4) Raise Stalker HP cap
5) Add a chance to all Stalker attacks to proc the Hidden State for 3 seconds.