A few stalker improvement ideas...

Firstly, I've never really played a stalker, but I want to, and I want them to perform their roll specifically better. So I may not have the issues down quite right ... but, in descending order (with 1 being the fix I think would work the best, thematically and generally speaking).

1.) Unresistable Assassination damage: This way stalkers aren't pushed quite so hard into non-lethal primaries, and they continue to be masters of taking down HARD targets (such as enemies under a t9 resist, or high resistance enemies). This would be applying D&D style rules, basically "you've had time to find an opponents weakness and capitalize on it".

2.) Scaling chance to 'triple-crit' upon entering hide state to a certain threshhold. This would work like the destiny incarnate powers, but for a special crit chance and it would rise instead of fall over two minutes. This maintains the stalker as a precise ambush fighter well, rewarding the use of stealth, but limiting also the frequency of useful applications thus reducing a chance to abuse the power.

3.) Take the time to apply truly interesting secondary effects to ALL powersets, this would put them into a semi-single target debuffer type roll. (which makes PERFECT sense, considering stalkers specialty is supposed to be precise fight control and no one else fills this roll).
specific suggestions...
-Ninja blade: Chance superior lethal DoT (Bleed damage)
-Broad Sword: 5% chance proc bonus lethal dam (hit something important)
-Martial Arts: -dam/-tohit (you redirect force and anticipate opponent movements)
-Dark: (leave as is)
-Kin (As is)
-Elec Small chance to jump attack on every attack (a la chain induction)
-Nrg -rech/slow movement. (It's harder and harder to move as you're pummeled by pure force).
-Spines: Increase Tox DoT to actually mean something.
-DB: very small +Def/-def (your dual attacks are difficult to read and relentless.
-Claws: Light lethal DoT/light +dam (Bloodfrenzy, the sight of your weakened opponent only urges you on).
__________________________________________________ ____________________________

This is an attempt to step back on the right path of correction. The previous fix rewards scrapping in a team scenario, and it seems inherantly one of scrappers most powerful tools with the most recently added sets (/Elec, /Kin) are their abilities to do strong AoE.

Neither of these things really reward stalkers for doing, thematically, what they were built to do. Hide, ambush, and apply heavy, precise, burst damage.

I'm interested in which of these ideas may appeal to you, and which are totally off.

MORE HP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! the max is only like 1606 something and un nerf assassins strike. :P or at least make it more powerful.

I really like idea one and three on that list. I mean rework some of three and I think it would work really well to make Stalkers more unique and better as an AT. Unresistable damage may be a BIT much but I would like to see a portion of critical damage as unresistable even if it is as small as 5% because that would do WONDERS for making Stalkers more desirable on larger teams. Upping Stalker Hp would be the low hanging fruit in my opinion...it would be nice but wouldn't really change anything about how Stalkers work.

As much as I and a lot of other Stalker players would like #1 it was considered when Stalkers got their buffs a while back. Unfortunately it broke too many parts of the game. Just to give you some examples AS could light Oil Slick Arrow, damage any and all of Hami's Mitos, actually cause civilians to take HP damage, could probably damage the Thorntree before Vines go down. Basically the game uses 100% resist for a lot of special encounters and effects, unresistable damage would mess that up, and possibly cause other issues.

As for #2 While I do like it, it would be a coding nightmare as currently Criticals are built into the powers themselves so this scaling chance would have to be built in as well. and that's alot of powers to tinker with. So from a coding standpoint it seems like too much for little benefit, especially considering the 33% chance to Crit Stalkers can get when teamed.

#3 definitely sounds nice but any kind of DoT damage would be problematic as it would break Placate effects and prevent Stalker criticals from working properly when Hidden/Placated.



Things I would like to see are an increase on the radius of the Team Crit bonus from 30ft to 60ft as this would enable a Stalker to get more of the bonus more often.

I'd like to see Stalker Build Up changed to be a 100% boost instead of the 80% they have now

I'd also want to see the Stalker damage mod raised to the 1.125 that Scrappers currently have. I see no reason for Scrappers to be more survivable and deal more damage than Stalkers. Obviously the Survivability-Damage ratio is important as Brutes recently recieved changes that make sure they never out damage Scrappers, which makes sense beause of the higher survivability.

So why shouldn't the same apply to Stalker/Scrapper numbers. Seeing how a Scrapper will always be more survivable then a Stalker, why are they allowed to out damage said Stalker?

I wouldn't normally bother posting this and don't even think it that balanced but since it wasn't changed in a recent update even though it would require a simple change in values...but since it was left alone...

1. Change all AoEs to 100% criticals from hide. When the devs had Kinetic Melee under their thumb, they changed Concentrated Strike to 100% crit from hidden but left the 100% crit on Burst alone. Makes no sense to me that this wasn't changed to 50% just like every AoE, so might as well add the same thing to every other AoE for Stalkers. I think Fire Ball does the same thing.

2. Like the OP said, scaling double crit on ST attacks. We already have a chance to 'double crit' with out base chance + placate/hide. Now just up this chance so that double criting with ST attacks is a reasonable occurrence. Why? Well making AoEs 100% crits really eats into the utility of criting with ST attacks so adjusting it to keep somewhat similar separation like we do now is what this is for.

3. Attacks that do not crit, add something to them. Mainly just Energy Transfer and Total Focus. It's alright that LR doesn't crit, it also doesn't drop hide so that's something...ET simply doesn't take HP off and TF only partially crits. If the other ST attacks are 'double critting' some functionality needs to be added to them. Adding more crit chance by landing a successful ET/TF/ect. just like Scrapper Eagle's Claw would be what I'm thinking of.

Seems solid.

#1 Unresisted damage on AS. Don't fault this request because it broke certain aspects of the game. Fix those and this is good and balanced.

#2 I love it since it is similar to my old idea on criticals. Basically stalker 'fury'. Increases while hidden, although in my idea it did more damage automatically, but an increased crit chance or more damage is more or less the same thing. Increased crit chance or damage is gone the second a stalkers aggro anything.

#3 Sounds fun.

I don't realistically see a way for the problems unresistable damage on AS would cause. But that's more a problem with the engine and how its coded rather than a fault with the suggestion.


Although thinking about things again, I wonder if the scaling AS damage idea could be done in a way that it calculated damage based off of MaxHp rather than rank?

For those unfamiliar with this idea...

The premise was that As would deal bonus damage based off of a mobs rank. This worked great for several things with a notable exception being AV/Hero class enemies that were scaled down to Elite Bosses. The problem was with the game and how it decided whether something was an AV or an EB. the result being AV damage against EB targets.

I don't remember if Max Hp was considered back then, but I believe it was a problem since we didn't have separate rules for PvP at the time. Now that we have separate PvP rules it might be plausible for AS damage to scale based off of MaxHP.

There are many problems with releasing unresistable damage because they had a similar issue with Blasters in PvP back before they ruined it. Blasters had a portion of their damage as unresistable in PvP and it was REALLY unbalancing; Now in PvE that wouldn't be so much an issue because NPCs can't complain when something is OP but if you think about it AV's have such high resistances ontop of a large health bar. When I was looking at Marauder last night my AS was doing in the realm of 120~ and unresistable damage would add another zero to that....that is a a HUGE difference and would make Stalkers almost mandatory for any AV encounter because they would make it almost trivial. Though I guess the balance would be that the AV would then turn around and womp the Stalker that just did so much damage to it...

A quick thought to assasin strike buffing, kind of making a roundabout from the 'unresistable' avenue.

What if the setup for AS caused the target to apply a non-stacking -res to themselves? This means that the assassin strike hits harder, but the debuff doesn't reveal the stalker because the critter is debuffing themselves, not the stalker. This is, admittedly, stolen from bruising, but I think it makes sense as an indirect way to ensure damage. In addition, it bypasses the purple patch, as the critter is self debuffing, rather than comparing stalker vs. critter values. As higher rank foes gain higher and higher debuffs, it also achieves a desired scaling effects as well. The tougher the foe, the weaker they make themselves.

Just a thought.

Some nice ideas.

After leveling a MA/Will to 50, I've noticed that I get "double critical" after Placate more often than I thought. Nothing is more beautiful than seeing Double Eagle Claw critical. I want to see more Double Critical chance. We are still not sure if it's a bug or intended but it fits Stalker's Burst damage mode.


Give most attacks 100% critical from Hidden is also a good idea, although they may need to adjust Spines. Maybe 75% from Throw Spine or something.


After finding out that Bane's Placate actually gives 10% tohit chance, I have an idea for improving Placate. How about adding 10% Defense-All + 15% Resistant-All right after Placate for 10s or something? If Stalker is tied to Placate in every set, I think Placate needs to be better. There are times Placate just hurts your dps but if I can get more survival out of it, I'll use it and it should be useful against AVs too.

And while we are at it, please reduce the casting time a bit. :P


And also, improve Assassin Strike. I think it's taking too long especially with interrupt. I don't care how you want to increase the damage...through -resist or unresisted damage. it just needs to improve Stalker's overall dps on an AV. If a BU + AS can't even kill a +2 lieut, something needs to be done.

I wouldn't expect BU + AS should kill a +2 red-con lieutenant outright. But I would like it to be able to put a big dent in pretty much anything. Too many times I do BU + AS and do like 10% damage to a boss and forget about EB's. It's pretty disheartening and it makes me wonder why I didn't start off with an AoE attack to begin with instead. Something needs to be done to improve the results against the harder targets, whatever that is.

I would also prefer that even successful assassinates applied a fear effect instead of only when you fail to kill... possibly using a short-lived pseudo-pet put down at the victim's feet. This isn't a biggie but it would increase survivability for both him and his team.

Absolutely need to increase the radius of the Team crit bonus.

I wish AS was slightly faster.

I don't think a buff to AoE's would be a good overall stalker buff since not all sets have an AoE attack. I know I'll be booed for this but if a couple of AoE attacks are doing a lot more damage out of hide than all the others they should be lowered to the standard.

I'm also good with buildup at 80% because of the length of time it lasts. It is much more useful to me than a scrapper or blaster's typical buildup power since it invariably applies to multiple attacks. Now if it gave 100% long enough to get an AS off then drops to 80% for the rest of the time that would be awesome. Or, maybe leave buildup as-is and instead we could get a blaster-style buff - each attack applying a stacking but short-lived damage buff. The longer you stay unhidden in combat the more each attack does and the closer you get to or even exceed base scrapper damage.

My friend and I had a lengthy discussion about Stalker in general. We concluded that Stalker, while has similar set abilities as a Scrapper, should have been a melee/control instead. The reason being that Stalker is squishy and their big move rely on enemies remaining still (not to mention remaining hidden). Being a melee/control archtype would allow Stalker to 1) has an edge outside of hidden, and 2) able to pin down enemy for AS, which is among their key path to victory, and 3) in team setting they would become more welcomed not only taking down the elite but also fill in some controls.

Aside from adding new sets, Here some thoughts:

1) Stalker's AS already has a chance to fear surrounding enemies, the idea could be expanded. Similar to what Katten suggested, each set could have it's own innate trait to activate its unique power if executed hidden. For example, Elec could have 100% chance of drain endurance if executed Hidden, while Dark Melee could cause short duration of AoE miss chance among the group of mobs when executed Hidden. This way Stalker not only could 'assassinate' key enemies, their hidden moves would indirectly allow them to not only solo easier but also becoming a powerful control asset in team play. This leads to the next pt.

2) Placate-style powers only hits one enemy with one exception that is Smoke Flash. It's not a bad thing but given the CD and possible situations when a Stalker has to face multiple enemies it comes up a little short. Just like suggestion 1, Stalker's defensive set should also have an innate power that gives Placate more utility. For example, Regeneration can instantly heal some health/endurance (% base), Super Reflexes gives +def by a large amount, Energy Aura do AoE stun for a short duration, etc.

3) Build Up should allow certain +level bonus to the Stalkers or at least with increased duration. As Golden_Avariel said, the % penalty on higher level enemies is huge and BU may not be as useful as it would be. Solo it's less of a problem but in team BU's short duration is not also the most useful. Just like AS and Placate, the power set could add some bonus to the build up. For example, Claw Melee BU could add 100% chance to apply additional bleeding damage, Martial arts could stun or disorient enemy regardless of their rank (i.e., even more control tool for Stalker), etc.

4) Combining the above three suggestions, suddenly the options become HUGE. Players can now mix and match different set to create a new breed of style that could benefit solo or team in their own liking. If they want to focus on controlling they could pick Dark/Energy and they would provide control akin to that of a Dark Miasma and can situationally stun enemies with their Placate. No two Stalkers would be the same.

5) Concealment set should give Stalker unique bonuses. Since many Tanker/Brute would pick Toughness to add to their defense, I don't see why Concealment should provide only the temporary benefit to Stalkers. In addition to the normal effect, perhaps the Concealment powers could also automatically add bonus for stealth during Hidden, extra AS damage, shorten Placate CD, etc.

Stalker could be very unique and not a Scrapper wannabe, and I think given its 'assassin' image the archtype should receive more control in their innate power instead of extra defenses. If revamping the whole Stalker power sets is too taxing, they could also add innate traits to them so Stalker could shine further on its specialty.

But guys, Stalkers are fine and about where the devs want them power wise.
Any issues they have are not AT but systemic.


None of these Improvements are necessary.

We all want new sets for Stalkers. Several of us want the devs to design the set for Stalkers first then worry about porting to others but it's never been done that way so far.

Stalkers have always had some concerns about game play and team viability. When Stalkers first got buffed it helped a bit but those concerns were still lingering around. Fast forward to GR and Side Switching is now available. Since teams are limited to 8 (not counting leagues) and Scrappers and Stalkers have very similar team roles the two AT's are realistically competing with each other for team spots. The same concern happened for Brutes and Scrappers and lo and behold Brute numbers were changed.

So it's only natural for Stalkers to raise the same concerns that have always lingered. Granted half of it is a perception problem which the devs can't really change, but the other half is a problem with numbers which can be changed.

Scrappers numerically are more survivable than Stalkers. this comes from the Hit Point values each AT uses.

Now Stalkers were given a buff in that their Crit rates will improve the more teammates they have within 30ft up to a 33% crit rate. Our resident number crunchers(specifically Arcanaville) did some calculations that showed when a Stalker operating at the 500% damage cap and the 33% crit rate will just barely pull ahead of a Scrapper at their 500% damage cap and 10% crit rate(Boss/EB/AV number) if i remeber correctly the overall damage difference was 5-10 points.

To me that feels wrong.