Why be a stalker?

I been poking around with an Elec/Nin stalker and I like the idea of it, but I'm not certain that this is the sort of character that I can make a big investment in as far as time and influence simply, because it seems like anything a stalker can do another AT can typically do better.

Why play a stalker? What is so great about a stalker that make you want to play it? The low hit points, the less effective secondaries (Compared to scrappers), the relatively low damage out of stealth....

What am I missing?

Well your Elec/Nin which is one of the best if not THE BEST combos available to Stalkers.

The point of Stalkers is the controlled crits.

As for your Elec/Nin Lightning Rod will not break hide, this lets you follow up with Thunderstrike (which has a guaranteed crit on the targeted mob) this lets you nuke a spawn without any problems.

Stalkers were supposed to be "melee blasters", but there ended up being sub=par scrapper with a niche that doesn't really matter in todays game, which is single target burst damage. Controlled crits are nice, as is a 31% crit chance on teams. The problem is that almost all Stalker sets give up AoE attacks in order to get Assassin Strike, and AS is an incredibly situational attack on teams.

There are some sets that are are superior on stalkers than on other ATs, notably Elec Melee and Kinetic Melee. They both have a faster animating AS to make it easier to use, More AoE than usual for a Stalker Set, and some neat tactical tricks that other Stalker sets lack.

Add to it the fact that most stalker defensive sets give up a more useful power than hide for hide, and are hampered by the low HP cap of stalkers. Several sets have a Dull Pain clone that has wasted potential because it will go over the HP cap without slotting.

There are some serious issues with the AT, as based on the damage>survival scale stalkers should be the highest damaging as well as the least survivable. They are currently the least survivable and behind on damage against every one except tankers, but tankers will still be contributing more to a teams overall damage output thanks to bruising.

That said, the playstyle is unique, and can be a lot of fun. It's also the only at you can play /Ninjutsu on, which is a seriously fun set.

As mentioned, there are problems with the AT. My personal reason to play it at the moment is that electric melee is actually stronger on stalkers, and that /nin and /ice are not available to scrappers. I prefer the style of stalkers, but the comparative weakness of the AT drives me to scrappers and brutes for non-elec/nin or /ice.

Stalkers:

Primary: /KM /Elec
Secondary: /Ninjitsu /Ice /Energy

For anything else, roll a Scrapper or Brute.

Because you want to. *shrug* For me, at least, I don't need another reason. Yeah, bit of a cop out answer, but I'll have character ideas come along and a Stalker fits them better.

Plus - yes, stalkers have fewer hit points, but y'know what? I tend to find "Hey, get a few levels and be nigh-unkillable" scrappers downright boring. (Brutes, too, to a point.) I have to be a bit quicker on my feet while scrapping with my stalkers. And I like that.

No, the game doesn't really cater to the Stalker. *shrug* For me, I don't care. My Khelds go Void hunting, rushing ahead of the team to kill *their* enemy. My Stalkers run headlong into packs of Rikti drones and go to town. I find it fun. And that's all that matters to me.

See my Guides and Tutorials

Simple.

For me, the playstyle is intriguing and enjoyable...

I like planning out a battle and then implementing that plan. It's awesome when it works,
and instructive when it doesn't.

In both cases, I find it fun. YMMV.


Regards,
4

PS> My Stalkers are *solo* toons. It's extremely rare that I'd team with mine.
That said, I do have one Stalker that was intentionally made to duo with a friend,
but it is an exception, rather than a norm.

I guess the better question should have been what will it take to finally get rid of "lol stalkers" in all teaming situations across all servers?

You know I second Angelxman81 comment. To be honest I just never looked at what was unique to Stalkers and in actuality its a good simple table to keep in mind when looking to make a Stalker. It's straight and to the point..

Stalkers are like like Device in many senses. Both are cool concepts but other stuff does it better. My only stalker is a DB Nin which of course is a defense cap build.

Why be a stalker? To form your own team of 8 stalkers and become super scrappers! Get 8 players with a 31% crit rate and the ability to AS half the mob all at once, or get a huge lightning storm going and stay hidden so you can 8 man AS the next mob.

Never personally tried this, but now I really want to :P

Honestly? "Because it's fun". And no, that's not a cop-out answer. It's the only answer that matters. I don't like playing scrappers or brutes, I love playing Stalkers.

If you don't see a "point" in playing stalkers, that's fine. Then there are two other ATs that cater to your tastes better. There's no crime in that, different ATs appeal to different people.

Personally, I wouldn't hate to see stalkers "brought up" (honestly, though, I have no idea what that means) to a level where it's more viable, but I'm really afraid that any changes would just turn it into a vaguely different Scrapper and I really don't want to see that.

I really enjoyed Dominators before the dominator changes. After? Not so much. I'm afraid the same thing would happen to stalkers. The last bout of stalker changes were cool, and more changes that keep the spirit of the stalker alive are fine. But I don't know if I trust that would happen.

Right now, stalkers are fine. They could be better than fine, but they don't need to be. Not at any cost.

My only issue with stalkers is First Ward. Grr. I want to take whoever designed First Ward, strap them into a chair and force them to play through all of First Ward on a stalker. And then make them do it again!

I only have two Stalkers in my collection of alts but I do find them fun. Even on a big team, I love being able to take out the troublesome foes before they can cause any issues. Sky Raider Engineers, Banished Pantheon Shamans, Tsoo Sorcerors, Sappers - gone in seconds the moment the fight starts. The teams I play with know to let me get into position first and then start the fight. They can relax knowing that the mezzer or problem mob is taken care of and that they can wail on the rest of the spawn with no issues. There's something about being the problem solver that I really enjoy.

Can I scrap as well as the other melee ATs? Of course not. I have a lower HP cap (which I would really love to see raised) and less AoE than other sets but I still find my Stalkers effective both in teams and solo. I couldn't care less for PvP but my PvE Stalkers are still lots of fun.

If they really wanted to make a big change to Stalkers (and this really would be a big change) it would be to make Assassins Strike and Placate inherents, awarded at certain levels and put back the AoE attacks into the sets that had them removed. The most recent additions (Kinetic Melee and Street Justice) have managed to retain the their AoEs and they stand out to me as the superior sets. Give Stalkers the full range of attacks, raise their HP cap a little (but still maybe a little lower than Scrappers) and I reckon the Stalker AT could be more popular.

I play a stalker because some character ideas just don't work as scrappers or brutes. And I create characters, not collections of numbers represented by a group of polygons.

My most recent creation, a Street Justice/Ninjitsu/Weapons stalker, is intended to be a Batman-esque character. And that concept just doesn't work with scrappers, at least not for me. Once i get my defenses up I'll be able to play him like a scrapper, but when I'm soloing I want to have the ability to take out enemies one at a time with their buddies being none the wiser.

I'm thinking of the scene in Batman Begins on the shipping dock, where Batman takes out the entire group and no one ever gets a good look at him other than the guy he WANTS to see him. He's just a vague shadow accompanied by sudden and decisive violence.

THAT'S why I play a stalker.