What are the currently 'best' stalker primaries and secondaries?

Reconstruction, in both Regen and Willpower.

Can also find it in Healing Flames, Earth's Embrace, Inv's Dull Pain, Restore Essence, and Hoarfrost (of which only Healing Flames is stackable, and only Hoarfrost Stalkers have access to).

It's always been there, to dubious benefit. nice when needed, but it means the power doesn't benefit from +Healing bonuses from IO's.

Kuji In Sha also gives Toxic Resist. In fact, it's the exact same power as Reconstruction. Reform Essence (the PB one) I'm not sure if it accepts Resist IOs, I'm on Mac OS X now so no access to Mids, and City of Data says nothing about Toxic res although it's the same power in healing and recharge as Recon.

Anyway Healing Flames would be better for this since its base recharge is 40 sec base versus 60 of Recon/Kuji, all three grant 15% toxic res for 60 seconds.

Yeah that's what I'd recommend and plan to do on my last Stalker for now, he's Elec/EA only because I'm a bit sick of Ninjitsu having played a EM/Nin to death when it took months of regular play to level. But imo Nin>all. Heck it's completely playable and survivable even if you skip Caltrops and Blinding Powder (I had both, respecced out of Caltrops and always forgot to use BP, although it is a good power - plus very nice for the purple confuse set, which was my main use because I simply forgot to use it, never impacted my survivability because Ninjitsu is that good).

I think we have better Electric Melee than brutes thanks to the crit mechanics.

And While I'll agree that dark melee is better on brutes and scrappers, the difference is not great, and it does fit well into the stalker play style. I don't think dark is a bad choice on any archtype.

Dark melee on a scrapper brute or tank far outstrips what a stalker is capable of.

Did you forget Soul Drain and Dark Consumption? Its like night and day.

Forget no, but having used them, I wasn't impressed. I've seen what others can do with them, but I've never been able to get them to do me any damn bit of good.

Warshade Mire and Eclipse, soul drain, etc. All have the same problem. When others use them they are apparently "godly". When I use them, it's like a small insp at best.

I've run my stalker with a dark/inv brute as a team, and I keep up with him in damage. He can down the hordes of minions better thanks in part to the output from those powers, but on hard targets I'm right up with him and the controlled crits and reliability of buildup are very handy when we're just hitting an AV and no one else is around.

It's not like dark/ is a farming set anyway. heh.

What are you looking for? A single target focus (Dark Melee)? AoE (Electric)? A mix of ST/Aoe (Kinetic)? I strongly recommend a Defense based secondary (like Nin) regardless; it will make getting controlled Crits easier since Defense=avoiding attacks that would break hidden status.

Errr you ever looked at ingame numbers?

Eclipse caps your resistance, buffs recovery, mires and soul drain lasts longer than BU and are awesome buffs... In fact Warshades can farm quite well because of Eclipse and Mires, and solo AVs if they have mobs to fuel from.

You know the best way to use them is with more than ONE mob around right? Or are you gonna say Drain Psyche which works the same way is garbage too? I leveled an ice/psi dom without stamina to 50 (before it was inherent) because of that power, and after permadom she could stand in the middle of Romans PSW'ing them with capped recovery and regen, no defense at all.

Yeah, WSs can be true monsters, there are multiple posting on their board about them soloing lvl 53 and 54 AVs, taking on loaded +4/x8 maps and doing the simply otherwise impossible.

And yet at this very moment they have a thread running with the opening line of the first paragraph that reads "Basically, here's the deal. The Dev's are aware that Kheldians are under performing a bit...". Lol.

Please look a bit more carefully at what I posted. I didn't say the powers were bad, I said I wasn't able to get the same level of benefit out of them that others do, so I'm not so impressed.

Yes I have seen the ingame numbers. Yes I know they are better with more enemies around. But there's also a balance that needs to be struck between enough and too many and it depends on build (slotting), reflexes, and whether they come up again before wearing off (been killed many times trying to get eclipse off when I had no resists, much safer to do it while the previous one was still up). And Just like not everyone prefers the go-go-go of chasing fury, chasing the endless buffs to keep up performance is not optimal for all players at all times. As they say warshades have higher highs and lower lows. they're not just flat "better".

And all of that is to say, you aren't always surrounded by enough people to make AAO from shield or the dark melee buff or eclipse/mires work to full effect. What I was saying is that I have been partied with other players using the brute version of dark melee. In big groups yes he was better, on EBs and AVs, my buildup and autocrits let me keep up on the damage. It's not just a clear cut case of X has higher potential in large group circumstances therefore it is better for all players at all times.

@Person34, the big difference is the reason that some people find /regen awesome and some can't figure out how it can survive at all. The right build helps a lot. But not all ATs and not all powersets perform equally well in the hands of all players. Iggy Kamizaze does things with his characters that other people using the exact same build can't. Just because some powers work great in the right circumstances, doesn't mean they are "better". Just like when someone asks for the "best build" you have to ask "better at what" or "better in what circumstances" or "best on what budget". There are no SO-only human form warshades farming at +4/x8 that I'm aware of. And I can't even using the same build as one posted by someone who has solo'd AV's.

Except that it is the WS soloing the lvl 53 AVs that says they are underperforming. I just don't understand how players can brag about all their ingame achievments, and then say they are not performing at the correct levels. I understood the peacebringer's stance, but a WS's?

Is it the same player because I haven't seen that. I mean are smiling Joe, twoheadedboy, alienone, dechs kaison et all the ones saying they underperform?

And if so, look carefully at how they word it. I've seen people with extremely powerful builds say that the AT or the powerset isn't up to par overall. And both can be true. A very few people were able to solo AVs on all SO builds. These days that caliber of player can take the worst performing sets and do amazing things. Doesn't mean the set isn't weaker than it should be, it just means that the right build can do amazing things even with crap to work from in the hands of the right player.

those are the players who know the best. They have the experience with the AT and the powersets to really know if it is up to par or not.

See that's what I find weird. Soul Drain and Mires require nothing but 1 acc+3 rech to start being awesome. I never had a problem to jump in the middle of a mob and Soul Drain/Mire on any toon, and I'm not talking about crazy IO builds. My DM/DA scrapper just jumped in, I hit v (my bind key for SD) and done, I felt like I was in godmode. Same with the WS. It really doesn't depend on slotting/build because all you want is acc and recharge since there's no 'accurate tohit' set - so IO builds usually put some pbaoe set focused on recharge for these powers instead of adjusted targetting/gaussians. Eclipse is a no brainer too, acc, rech, res, better frankenslot with 4 rech/res and mire before. I'm not talking perma eclipse here, just the fact that it is the best warshade power beginning at level 39 when you slot it, it'll be up quite a bit already. I just don't understand how you can play dark armor well (I imagine since you say you like it so much, I also do) and find other powers that are mob-dependent like some DA powers having 'problems'.

I never said warshades are better, and I agree they have 'lower lows' than other ATs, in fact the only AV soloers posts I saw are in AE missions where they can put lots of mobs to fuel from.

And imo the only builds that can farm +2-4/x8 with SOs (from personal experiences) are fire/kin trollers (normal farms) and ss/fire brutes (ambush farms, much faster and effective) - maybe robots/traps since those can solo GMs on SOs but I don't play MMs and haven't seen people talking about them farming.

Specifically what is being referred to in that post is PEACEBRINGERS being underperformers. The consensus of the Warshade community is that Warshades "don't need help" beyond their current status. There are some things which could be optimized (like transformation times), and adding Endurance Drain Resistance to Dwarf Forms (PB and WS), but the simple truth is that Warshades aren't "hurting" for a Buff ... unlike their Peacebringer counterparts, who *DO* desperately need more Buffing.

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

My bad then, I assumed "kheldians" referred to both species.

By build I do mean having above a certain level of defense enough recharge in all your powers, etc. Not talking min/maxed. But, for example, my doms are built with less than 1/10th the recharge needed for permadom, and less than 5% to any defense. I survive via holds. I have a chance to hold proc in everything that will take it, and that especially includes the Grav Anchor in my AoE Immob. If I run into a mob and try to get off Drain Psyche, I'll be dead before I'm even within melee range. If I hit smoke->firecages->ST Hold a boss->Drain Psyche, it's a totally different story. Drain Psyche gets me up to 48hp/sec as the best I've ever managed to pull off. With functionally zero defense, If I'm not locking down the enemy completely, three minions can kill me fast enough that I'm not comfortable with it. 48/sec is just not that much as the *only* defense. Layered with something is it extraordinary. Alone, it's the reason people think /regen sucks and regen can get to over 170/sec not counting incarnate buffs.

With my warshade, she's got ~20% def v range and a bit of AoE. No accolades. If I try to get off eclipse or mire in a big group, and I'm alone, she's dead. I did some testing with Cims, Rularuu, Malta, and Carnies. Even with capped 85% resist all she can't survive more than 8 seconds (Carnies) against any of those groups alone. (Test was: Pop three med purples, wait until they start flashing, jump into middle of +1x8 spawn, pop eclipse. Take hands off keyboard and count until dead). Now, I've tweaked her a bit since then, not a lot but maybe enough to make a difference.

Obviously in play I'm attacking, and killing them so getting access to stygian fodder. However, my reflexes are crap, I often die THEN try to heal. Doesn't work so well.

I play dark armor primarily on my stalker. I have exactly one mob-based power, the heal. I have it 6 slotted and need 3 to get to full hp, or most of the way off of 2. My warshade I run at -1/x6. Anything less than x6 and she's too hamstrung to work right. Anything more than +0 or x7 and she's dead over and over and over even with capped eclipse and a small purple going. I do plan to give her the latest FOTM two nucleus and two recharge into eclipse. I hear that you need a lot fewer enemies to cap resist that way and it will be up faster than what I currently have. I also run an axe/dark brute, I took a claws/dark stalker to the mid 30s and a DB/Dark stalker to the 40s and a fire/dark scrapper to the 40s. But /dark is very different from dark/.

I love the onion-like layers of /dark. I love how easy it is to frankenslot, to build for any bonus you want, and to just run on crap common IOs. But dark/ I have a hard time with except on stalkers. For me, the reliability of buildup beats the peaks of dark consumption. Just like why my peacebringers both outperform my warshade even with crappier builds and a weaker AT.

/elec brutes/tanks too. My understanding is that even on SOs they can hit 80%+ energy resist, have a heal that's solid (but not as good as fire's), and have a godmode that lasts longer than most ambush farm maps have enemies to spit at you.

That's understandable. The reason I could use Soul Drain so well (haven't played her in a long time) before IOing her was OG - it let me ignore minions so I could focus on the bosses and some pesky lt since she never had much AoE (DM after all).

On WSs the best slotting for Eclipse is one you can max rech and res. With 2 nucs you'll cap res because of the HO exploit, on mine I have 4 cheapish rech/res IOs (like Aegis, Impervium, etc) which achieve the same effect as 2 HOs+3 rech plus an acc, so 5 slots anyway, the 2 HOs would give you better acc but I dont find it necessaty in my case.

Anyway Eclipse doesn't turn you into a tanker, even if it did, my SS/Fire Brute can die in an ambush fire farm (and of course he has 90% fire res, plus even 30% fire def so I can po a purple and not worry about dying) if he stands still - killing mobs fast is a way to get attacked less, farm or not. In the case of the WS, I play like an energizer bunny, eclipsing, miring and then changing forms, going ranged and melee, stunning with the cone stun, holding with GWell, in fact he has so many binds (eclipse, mires, stygian, form shift) that every time I log him I get owned a few times before I get a grip on him again, it's worse if I stand more than a month without playing him (like now) and have to remember what each bind does again - unlike my ss brute or my dm scrapper who have binds for Rage and Soul Drain, the WS ones I die in seconds if I misclick one. It's the tootn that requires me most reflexes to play decently, the only one I have that busier is my mind/emp troller (she has more binds too ) but in her case the busy part is to be efficient with buffs and control, it's not like the WS where she'll die if I don't use all my resources all the time, she just won't buff the team as efficiently, trollers are safe anyway, I always found them a bit OP especially after having epics, I've been sticking with corrs nowadays because trollers are too busy sometimes.

My dom has no defenses but I started doing crazy stuff with her after permadom and in the good old days of spamming PSW (which had great damage under dom, lower rech, lower radius), so she was always at the regen and recovery cap in the middle of big mobs (slotted DP wth 1 acc+5 doctored wounds), ice/psi doesn't have the hard control other primaries have but since she was always under domination it wasn't hard to hold say, 2 bosses who hit hard and kill the rest fast even having only Arctic Air to give me some protection (which was not much).

BTW elec brutes can cap energy res (90%) at SO level, as long as you have grounded. IIRC scrappers can cap at DO level (75%) after Grounded, I remember being quite shocked when I saw the resists on my db/elec at level 20 because of the blue number on the stats, they were are 75% already, it's been a long time but I'm almost sure of that, you don't see blue numbers very often.

On a Brute you don't even need capped anything to farm, check out the CEBR thread in the Broot forums. I took a claws/fire to 33 in 4 hours using a farm that caps you at 3 (meaning, I had like 25% res to s/l/f) and a claws elec to 30 the same way. Tried with my db/elec scrapper and it was very tough, she's 40 but with her powers up to level 8 and in this level 3 farm slotting makes no difference, so without fury she didn't kill fast enough and died before getting insps, while the claws brutes powered by fury and no slotting refilled the entire tray after each Spin and always got one or another after each tick from the dmg aura (which is also powered by fury). It's actually more relaxing to farm with the claws catgirls (yeah I made two catgirls lol) than with my 50+3 ss/fire broot. With the claws ones, I just have to use 4 purples+4 oranges and click before entering, maybe eat a lot of reds if I'm not lazy and reserve 4 purples for when the first 4 I used before entering expire - although insps drop so fast that I survived most times I forgot to pick more purples because if I just mashed f1=f5 after each spin I was somehow always with good def and resists. My SS/Fire is 50+3 and has a 1-billion secondary build for farming (although he could do it with SOs especially after the alpha slot when I bumped to +4/x8) but I have to remember clicking Rage, FE, FStomp, Ball Lightning, E. Fences. On the claws ones (one is locked at 33, the other I don't remember) I just leave Spin on auto and only use follow up. If I remembered to click hasten before entering (since I won't have it inside the mission, picked after level 8), I cap tickets before the second row of lucks expire, if I didn't click Hasten that's ok too because lucks drop anyway and get defense capped most of the time.

Curiously my WS was the toon I had the easiest time after the brute in those lowbie farms (after the brutes). Got to level 6, picked nova, and went to a level 1 ambush farm. Since at this level Nova is more powerful than any blaster (two aoes, two good sts at lvl 6) and the mobs' ranged attacks were weaker than the melee ones, I was able to cruise to 22 (level I wanted since I had deleted my previous WS at 30 so I wanted to get the new one to SOs at least) in less than an hour. I tried a fire/fire tanker which has great aoe damage for a Tank at this level (blazing aura, combustion) and god he was so slow to kill stuff because of no fury and low damage mod, it seemed to take forever to get to 22. But I guess a fire/fire of ss/fire tanker can farm SLOWLY with a 50 build on SOs, the IO'ed out ones I saw doing that were way slower than my SS/Fire Brute when he was SOed. And I'm not even of of those who eats tons f reds to stay damage capped on my Brute or time my farming time, I actually like doing it more with the claws girls because of fewer presses, even if it takes a bit longer to cap tickets and it's way less infl/min since I'm not farming at +4/x8 like the broot. I only do it when I'm really bored anyway so I want to have the most relaxing experience possible when farming (and worrying only about insps and pressing 1 for follow up with spin on auto lets me spam the channels with chatter ).

I dislike claws on Stalkers because the reasons I like them so much on Brutes and Scrappers are exactly the same things Stalkers lack - Spin is awesome and despite doing lethal damage, claws is competent even in s/l resistant mobs on the other ATs because of double stacked FU (and Fury on Broots). The faster BU and higher damaging Eviscerate were nice touches although they turned Evisc into a ST attack, just isn't enough for me to play the set on Stalker.

Elec/Ice is also proving itself for me right now.