Soul Mastery: Moonbeam (request for clarification)

I've come up against a contradiction in documentation on the Soul Mastery attack powers for Stalkers, Dark Blast and Moonbeam, between what can be found in the City of Data repository and the v1.920 of Mids'. If anyone actually has either (or both) of these powers on their Stalkers, could you be so kind as to check the in-game data provided on the enhancement slotting screen and share it here?

Specifically, what interests me is that the City of Data entry for Moonbeam (and Dark Blast too for that matter) shows that both of these two attacks do extra damage when Hidden. What I would like confirmed is if Moonbeam specifically delivers a damage burst from Hidden status that looks like it ought to rival the damage throughput of almost any primary powerset's Assassination Strike.

A lot of what I've read concerning the tradeoffs between Moonbeam and Dark Blast have to do with whether or not either of these attacks can be used as part of a regular attack chain, mixed in with the Primary attack powers. In such an analysis, the answer is (somewhat obviously) Dark Blast, because of its fast cycle time and quick animation speed. But that neglects the potential of Moonbeam when used as an alpha strike, from Hidden status, as an extreme range Assassination Strike. To be sure, sitting back at extreme range, doing nothing but Moonbeam, would be a hideous waste of damage potential over time ... but when used as a single shot opening gambit? The calculus changes when thinking of Moonbeam as an additional Assassination Strike which can be safely launched from Hidden status even while standing next to the target.

Using Moonbeam as an Opening Attack from Hidden status leaves your Placate and Assassination Strike in reserve for immediate use after completing Moonbeam, if "sniping" at melee range to your $Target. And under most circumstances where you (the Stalker) have the initiative and can choose when to begin combat on your own terms (such as when soloing), being able to (Hidden) Moonbeam --> Placate --> Assassin Strike as an opening attack gambit on unaware mobs could prove to be a decisive advantage when dealing with either a single tough Boss that you want to dispatch quickly ... or a pair of Lieutenants in close proximity to each other that you want to defeat in a hurry.

And this is also not counting the possibilities of Corner Pulling at long range, where forcing a mob to come to you (thanks to terrain blocking Line of Sight) might require them to take upwards of 8 seconds to arrive at your location, in which case you will have re-entered Hide just in time for them to round the corner and meet your Assassin Strike ... and you'd still have Placate in your back pocket for dealing with anything else in the spawn group.



Bottom line ... if you're trying to work Dark Blast/Moonbeam into your in-combat attack chain ... go for Dark Blast. If instead you want a second (ranged) Assassination Strike ... consider Moonbeam.

And for those of us who live and die by reaching the Defense Softcap, a 6-slot Extreme Measures (sniper set) in Moonbeam is not to be dismissed lightly, if you're close but not quite there yet on your build.

It's the end. But the moment has been prepared for ...

Yes, they critical when hidden.

Moonbeam does about 250 damage less than AS, assuming ED slotting and no Build Up. Using Moonbeam > Placate > AS will work fine, provided you don't mind the six second interrupt on Moonbeam; you almost certainly have faster ways to achieve similar results.

The last time I tried a Stalker Snipe is about 2 years ago or could be longer?

I remember the damage is kinda low for the amount of time you spend on casting. If you use Build Up, you literally waste at least 7-8s for just one snipe.

I remember the damage isn't even that good with critical.

It is just very terrible IMO because even if you don't want to open the battle with Assassin Strike, you get way better dps by just cycling through all your attacks.

I think I have more problem with the damage part of it. I can't remember how much but it is quite low because Stalker's range damage modifier is only 0.6? I mean I can see some squishies trying to open the battle with a burst snipe but stalker has defensive secondary to withstand some aggro.


I don't understand why you would "need" Stalker Snipe because:

1. If you want to pull, Dark Blast works well enough. You don't need a snipe to pull.

2. You need a range attack to finish off a runner? Dark Blast is way faster.

3. You need a good burst damage? Assassin Strike or any of the 8s or higher ST attack are much better choice.

If you play with two monitors animations with long cast times are great. I can multi-task on the second monitor during snipes.

By multi-task I mean surf the web.

I had Moonbeam from Soul mastery and hated the long activation time of the attack and the recharge for that poor attack.
I love Soul mastery, but I hate it for scrappers.
I dont get why it has a defense toogle, it should come with Dark obliteration for AoE damage, like all the others APP/PPP fro scrappers have AoE attacks.
All scrappers got defensive toogles already.

I have Moonbeam (and have used it the past 4 years, or so) on my Dark/Dark/Soul stalker. It is 5 slotted with 3 Sting of the Manticore and 2 Devastations for a +24% Regen and, if I recall correctly, a boost to max health.

I can almost one shot an orange lieut from over 150 ft away.(Using BU, and striking from Hide). If you dont see that as having any uses, then don't take the power.

IMO, it is and always was an awesome power.

Another thing I like about it is when you have a runner, you Soul storm him then activate Moonbeam, by the time it fires you're hidden again, so you get the crit.

EDIT: I have to clarify my previous statement. I can do this because I use the SotM chance for +Toxic damage proc.

I don't think anybody disputes that opening with Moonbeam in complete safety lets you frontload a fight with another big orange number.

I personally find using it that way slow, boring, and inefficient compared to just scrapping it out. In three years I have found Moonbeam actually, legitimately useful exactly once: ganking the portals before wading into the Holtz/Honoree fight.

I keep it for three reasons:

1. Sometimes it's fun to drop a dude from halfway across the map.
2. Set mule.
3. See number 1.

If the snipe takes 4s, I may consider taking it...

Either that or they increase the snipe damage more because spending 7s on an average attack makes no sense to me.

I don't know if the Stalker Moonbeam works exactly like the blast set version, but, Interruption Reduction enhancers does wonders for the power. It enables me to use it even while in melee chaos. Also, with the Interrupt Reduction, you can start moving before the animation completes and it still goes off.

The snipes have not used the ranged damage table since Issue 15. No melee ATs use their ranged damage tables for anything anymore.

I could be wrong, but I think that the endurance cost for using Moonbeam over its 7.33 sec animation time could be lower than the amount of endurance which gets recovered on my build during that same time span. That would mean that (effectively) Moonbeam is an attack power which "refunds" blue bar when used ...

It's the end. But the moment has been prepared for ...

Hi,

Dopey noob-Stalker question: there are other Patron pool snipes (at least one), do they also get bonus damage coming out of Hide?

Thanks.

-Gate