Making Stalkers without AS?

So after the I21 changes to travel powers I decided to take the opportunity to go and respec several of my toons. One of the common themes in my respecs was removing snipe powers from my ranged toons. While I'm sure that snipe power have many excellent applications in this game, to me they always felt really slow powers in an otherwise fast-paced MMO. Enemies often die before the power triggers, you often get get interrupted and waste the endurance, and as a combat opener you wanna use AoEs most of the time, so a single target power isn't the best opener, which is where an interruptible power would feel most at place. So in other words, I either never use snipe powers or I use them and end up wasting endurance for nothing.

So what does this have to do with Stalkers and their Assassin's Strikes? Well, to me AS always felt like a sort of melee-snipe. It's a slow, interruptible, single-target power that works best as an opener. That already makes me feel about them like I feel about snipes, but to make things 'worse' for me is that to effectively use AS, I'd have to wait for my Hide to go up before even approaching a mob, slowing the game down further. Like, if I approach a mob as my hide is going up, I'm gonna catch aggro, wasting both my Hide and AS as I get attacked. If I instead use my strongest non-AS attack, I can get a sure-fire critical in before I get hit.

I guess at this point I am pretty certain that AS isn't doing it for me, but where I don't feel strongly about skipping snipe powers in Blasting sets since blasting sets are more about AoE anyway, I wonder what the point of being a Stalker would be if I skip AS?

I mostly enjoy Stalkers, I even got one at 50+1. I especially like the guaranteed criticals that Hide and Placate off. I don't mind the lack of AoE. As contradictory as this sounds, it's not a matter of me disliking the AT as a whole, it's just that I cannot stand its signature power.

TL;DR: Are Stalkers without Assassin's Strike a viable choice, or should I stick with the power/just not bother with Stalkers if the power's not doing it for me?

I know a number of experienced melee players who have said on the forums that they dropped AS. EvilGeko is the one that I remember off the top of my head. I'd say it depends what you're playing. I wouldn't drop it from my Spines/Nin because I want the ST damage for soloing. On the DM/Nin that I'm leveling now... it's certainly a possibility once I'm up to 50.

Edit: I agree that given the fast-paced way the gameplay has evolved AS is clunky at best and worse than useless at worst.

It's a semi-viable choice. Assassin's Strike - at least on a critical - is still a nice attack, and Demoralize working even if the target dies gives a boost.

Martial Arts is likely the best off when skipping it since you have so many hard-hitting attacks that all have full criticals - you can substitute Eagle Claw with a base damage difference of 64.51 (125.79 slotted) on a critical but get a mag 3 stun, no interrupt, and shorter animation in trade.

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The problem with comparing AS to ranged snipes is that ranged snipes actually DO suck for DPA. Always. AS only sucks for DPA when used outside of Hide. So there's no question it is situational, but in that situation it actually IS the best single-target DPA you can manage.

Personally, if I was going to skip AS on a Stalker, I'd probably not play a Stalker. Even for those sets with good AoE potential, if you find yourself on a team that already has enough AoE to easily kill the minions and LTs, having AS lets you contribute damage where it is really needed instead of just contributing to the overkill of the trash. Even for Martial Arts, while you can compare Eagle's Claw to Assassin Strike, neither one is as good as having BOTH.

I'm going to mostly agree with what's been said. I think it's a valid choice. You might be missing out on a little damage in those situations where you can actually pull off an AS, but that's not that big a deal. I really like the demoralize effect and wouldn't want to give it up, but it's not exactly a game changer, so you're not missing out on that much there either.

But yeah, if you're skipping AS and you can choose the same power sets on a Scrapper, why not?

well you can always take a sniper attack as a Stalker from a Patron Pool if you want to....that is to say if someone feels they need to have some high damage opener attack still.

I personaly use a Sniper Shot with one of my stalkers...to do long range Assasination hits....
Yah i know i wont ever do the damage of a Blaster...but it still makes me happy hitting something at a very long range away....having it run towards me....then i use my assassin strike on it....

I've never had AS on a Stalker since i18.
Works fine to just use a Stalker as a Scrapper. And it's easy to be better at it than... a Scrapper.

Today's Assassination just makes all the difference.

My Claws/Will Stalker does not have AS (well actually she does have it, took it at 49 because I didn't have anything else to take).

I didn't miss it, and I didn't feel that it's wasn't worthwhile to play a Stalker instead of a Claws Scrapper. Certainly, I miss my beloved Spin, but I like that Eviscerate is a very hard hitting ST attack. I used that as my Assassin's Strike and it worked much better IMO than the real AS.

Stalkers are more tactical than Scrappers. You have a lot more control over your damage and IMO that's enough to warrant playing the AT over Scrappers. I'm currently slowing leveling a KM/Nin who will also skip AS. Since this combo loses very little in the conversion to Stalkers, I suspect I'll actually like it better than the Scrapper version.

Why not do go both routes? Make a solo and team build. The team build could drop AS. I've never had an issue using it on teams, but I do roll only defense builds on my Stalkers. I'd suggest the only set that you shouldn't drop if for would be Elec since it is lacking in strong single target attacks.

One of the several reasons I choose a Brute or Scrapper over a Stalker each time I start a new toon.

I always felt AS was too slow and clunky for my playstyle. Of course it might be just me, but I wouldnt mind a real strong buff to AS.

It could be something like the old Energy Transfer, fast, non interruptable, hits hard out of stealth, does nothing while not stealthed. And it wouldnt make Stalkers unbalanced in any way I guess as it doesnt get into an attack chain, it's just an opener. It would fit a fast and more fluid playstyle.

Maybe I'm asking for too much, I don't know, but that would get me interested to play stalkers again for sure.

While I like AS, I think you should pick a primary that benefits from other things if you skip it, like KM (insta-BU from hidden CS) or ELM. I used the combo L.Rod+Thunderstrike (which has 50% chance to crit since LR doesn't unhide you) more than AS in my ELM/Regen. I rerolled her into ELM/EA (Regen is too squishy with the low hp cap) and in this combo I'll probably use AS once in a while, but ELM is good enough to take advantage of Stalker's Hide without AS, as is KM imo.

No, don't skip it, that's pretty dumb IMO. Besides what would you take in it's place? Some other crappy ST attack?