Kinetic Melee/Energy Aura: the early levels
By
GavinRuneblade,
Posted on: 2011-01-25 12:41 in Stalkers
1 - Quick Strike/Hide
2 - Body Blow
4 - Kinetic Shield
6 - Assassin's Strike
8 - Smashing Blow
10 - Entropy Shield
12 - Placate
14 - Build Up
16 - Power Shield
18 - Burst
20 - Combat Jumping
22 - Hasten
...is what I'd do for those levels. Don't like Hover on my melee characters and, thanks to Ninja Run, probably wouldn't even take Super Jump unless I was stuck for filling a power choice later on.
Placate is essential for quick kills on bosses when solo'ing. Generally on any primary I get it when it first becomes available. I run Kin/Nin and have to say no matter what secondary you pick, being choosy can have good and bad effects. I think more so it has to do with the slotting than actually getting the right powers. You can have all the right powers but if they're not hitting (which is an issue I have though a lot less since putting Kismet: Accuracy in Hide) or dealing sufficient damage, what's the point?
I would advise you not take Placate at lvl 12. Take at least 3 attacks and some secondaries for survival. I don't normally take Placate until after 20s.
I've made so many stalkers and I find that taking Placate too early actually hurts my performance at early level because 1. you don't have the +recharge to use it often 2. you don't have heavy hitters to make it worthwhile 3. it's only useful when you solo which I seldom do now and having 3 attacks like Quick Strike, Body and Smashing Blow help me kill much more efficient.
If I am Martial Arts, I may take placate just because you get a heavy hitter in Axe kick so early.
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.
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More of a preference thing. I'd suggest taking placate once it's available simply because it's a great power out of the box that requires no slots, is auto hit, costs no endurance and can get you out of tight squeezes. Then you have more time to spread out slots.|
Originally Posted by Jibikao
I would advise you not take Placate at lvl 12. Take at least 3 attacks and some secondaries for survival. I don't normally take Placate until after 20s.
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Some people don't care to use placate or don't prioritize it highly. It's up to your playstyle.
My philosophy is usually pushing back the travel powers to the mid 20s because you've got temp travel, Oro portal, market TP, linked trams/ferries, SG teleporters as well as inherent swift/hurdle and sprint. Lay on Ninja Run if you like the flavor and there's really no point picking up travel as soon as possible. The only time I'd pick up travel ASAP is if I need it for concept (gotta use those wings, after all).
Other stuff I'd put off is maybe Entropy shield to no later than 16 (so you're good for exemp'ing up to lvl 11). Honestly, there just aren't many fights in the early game were you end up getting mezzed. Otherwise, you're basically running a toggle that does absolutely nothing (especially with suppressing toggles on mez). The late teens is where you start noticing mezzes but even then, they're not that bad...usually just sleeps and the occasional KB.
I'd probably go with something like Gumby's layout except move BU sooner, push back Entropy and maybe the tier 1 a few slots and maybe pick up Combat Jumping/travel power in the 20/22 slots. I rarely take Hasten.
That said, powers to choose for Energy Aura: You've got a powerful endurance management tool in the mid 20s (and inherent stamina too). You can practically run all the toggles you want (except Repulse). Options for more defense = Stealth, Maneuvers, Combat Jumping, Hover, Tough/weave. You can take them all and possibly even run them without too much issue. It'll bring you that much closer to soft cap if that is what your goal is. I personally like Repulse. It has a cool looking effect and pushes stuff out of your way. Since it suppresses, you can basically start the match with a 'Sweep' combo at the cost of some endurance...could be a pain if too many foes are around but then EA usually has blue to burn.
Recharge, eh...not that big a deal. Energy Drain already recharges fast. It'll be up practically any time you need it. Using it every time it's up will eat into your damage (it's not a fast animating ability). The only other benefit from recharge would be the tier 9. You can probably try building up Ranged defense for your build. Why? Psi attacks (which you have no defense against) are usually ranged or AoE and building ranged defense from IOs also builds up negative energy defense (which are kind of low for EA). Besides that...HP/regen maybe? Damage? It's up to you, really.
I'm with leo, placate is not limited to being a damage power it is a swiss army knife in a single slot. I like to get it as soon as possible.
It lets you take on larger spawns safely, if you pull aggro from a second group instead of running you can placate the most dangerous one back, get out of line of sight, kill the 1.5 spawns you're fighting, and take that loner out with and AS at your leisure.
Not recharging isn't an issue as with one slot it is still up every spawn, sometimes more.
And I skip travel powers in favor of the jet pack. Don't care about ninja run, I hate going around things. I fly.
"Hmm, I guess I'm not as omniscient as I thought" -Gavin Runeblade.
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.
Another trick for placate in the early levels: you die a bit too close to an enemy and use an awake?
*Placate*
Now you can wait for Hide to recharge while getting away without being seen.
But now we're getting off topic...
Thanks for the tips. I'll go with Placate and postpone travel powers. He's a Praetorian, so there's not much to go to that Ninja Run won't handle.
I guess my next question is Energy Drain. I found it underwhelming on my previous Eng/Eng. I like what it does in theory, but the numbrers just don't seem to add up to much, specially the healing aspect and the animation times.
Granted, I didn't play with it too much.
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Energy Drain is good. Slot it with a mix of healing/+end recovery. It's auto hit and it allows you to continue fighting most of the time. The healing part is small but it does help if you hit more than 2 targets. Don't treat Energy Drain as a 'healing" power. Just use it as +endurance and whatever healing you get is just bonus.|
Originally Posted by Tormentoso
Thanks for the tips. I'll go with Placate and postpone travel powers. He's a Praetorian, so there's not much to go to that Ninja Run won't handle.
I guess my next question is Energy Drain. I found it underwhelming on my previous Eng/Eng. I like what it does in theory, but the numbrers just don't seem to add up to much, specially the healing aspect and the animation times. Granted, I didn't play with it too much. |
- Energy Protection passive is good. Any passive with +resistance is great because it's much harder to get resistance than defense. It's a passive with 3 +resistance type. Very good.
Yeah, you don't really need Hover or Fly before lvl 22. And if you are on villain side, temp fly pack is good enough!
Edit: Slot some -end because it costs like 13 end to use it. There were times when my end was really low and when I hit Energy Drain, my toggles went off. Just a bit of -end helps a lot.
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.
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Agreed. If you're grouping all the time I can see how skipping Placate until later will help but if you're fighting a boss followed by a lieutenant - solo, it's nice to distract one or get rid of the lowby so that you may take the boss comfortably. It's a great escape tool as well should that remaining mob catch you under guarded. |
Originally Posted by Leo_G
More of a preference thing. I'd suggest taking placate once it's available simply because it's a great power out of the box that requires no slots, is auto hit, costs no endurance and can get you out of tight squeezes. Then you have more time to spread out slots.
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For me, Placate is what the stalker is all about. Drive-by-AS so I take it whenever it becomes available because I already know what I'll be doing.
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| Another trick for placate in the early levels: you die a bit too close to an enemy and use an awake? |
The other thing about Travel Powers though, with Ninja Run they're not that crucial to have. Sure NR isn't as fast as SS or provide altitude jumps like SJ but it scales by level and better than sprints.
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Yup. Actually, I kind of treat it like a 'top off' button on my Brutes and Stalkers. If I notice my End is good but my HP is dipping toward or past half empty, I use ED. If my HP is fine but running low on End, use ED. If you're dying and your blue bar is nearly bone dry, pop a purple, a green, use ED and keep going.|
Originally Posted by Jibikao
Don't treat Energy Drain as a 'healing" power. Just use it as +endurance and whatever healing you get is just bonus.
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I only wish Energy Drain was an actually good sapping tool. It's great for helping to top off your bars but you don't have any tools beyond that to keep foes drained.
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| Edit: Slot some -end because it costs like 13 end to use it. There were times when my end was really low and when I hit Energy Drain, my toggles went off. Just a bit of -end helps a lot. |
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| That only works if you got a back-up purple though wont it? Personally I don't advocate this tactic, it is a bit of a pain unless I have a purple on me to remove the dizziness affect. >_< |
Energy Drain shouldn't cost 13 end. It's a bit too much IMO.
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 just started up a KM/Nrg sitting around level 22 till after double xp
I agree with most on here. Heres my take though on 1 thing.
Take Energy Protection as soon as you can fit it in. I took it at Level 20 its actually a good power now for one thing and thats a Steadfast +3 Defense IO. I took it before CJ since I can get more defense out of it. Also you can slot whatever level you want in it for now since the +3 is what you are going for so by a lower level one for cheap.
Freedom Server - Main = Lil Bug & way too many alts to list
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There's problems like that with plenty of powers. I mean honestly TP shouldn't cost energy either what with power suppression in existence. So I'd kind of agree, especially by end game you can set yourself up to where it's rare you ever go bellow 20% of your E-gage.
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Originally Posted by Jibikao
Energy Drain shouldn't cost 13 end. It's a bit too much IMO.
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you want assassin strike and placate as soon as possible....
you also want to get your toggle defenses just as fast.
everything else is secondary...
This is so you can slot those powers and not die super fast.
So I rerolled my Energy/Energy to Kinetic/Energy for <insert excuse here>. He is still a baby, 7 or so and I'm having a tricky time figuring out which powers to get in what order. Everything in Kinetic Melee seems important, but that would leave me with little or no secondary for a while.
It wont really be a problem once I'm in the 30s, but the first 20 levels are tricky. Too many powers, too few power picks.
So I'm here to ask what powers should be priority for a leveling build? Focus on attack and forget about armors? Postpone Placate till I have the SOs to not make it recharge in forever? Skip travel power till much much later?
If you were to make a build up to level 20, how would it look?
EDIT:
Managed to actually try it in Mids and it does not look as tricky as I thought.
So kinda got this. Am I missing something deadly important for the first few levels?
Level 1: Quick Strike
Level 1: Hide
Level 2: Body Blow
Level 4: Smashing Blow
Level 6: Assassin's Strike
Level 8: Hover
Level 10: Entropy Shield
Level 12: Build Up
Level 14: Fly
Level 16: Kinetic Shield
Level 18: Burst
Level 20: Power Shield
Level 22: Placate
And from this onwards... Assuming not much of an IO investment.
How's Energy Protection and Repulse?
Fighting Pool? Yay or Nay?
Thinking Combat Jumping for a free bits of defense, as well.
EDIT 2:
And if I were to IO it. Super mega recharge? Or aim for defense cap? Or buff both bit by bit?