Possible I22 Stalker improvements

God do I love the Regen numbers on Ice Armor Stalkers. *Foams at the mouth*

I would suggest a much simpler solution for Stalkers though. a damage scalar on Assasin's Strike. just the full one in hide. Have it scale to the Enemy. So a fully buffed AS could level an Boss, any Boss, easily. A buffed AS could leave any EB wobbling and clean some of them. And a buffed AS could actually make a gnarly tick on an AVs health bar. Oh, and add a danged stun to the AS for these hard targets. Cause it should be very surpising to almost get assassinated. Even with purple triangles up. There, then Stalkers would get some respect. And it could be done with a few hours coding, not changing the whole game.

Just had a thought about the new Assassin's Focus change and what it may entail for the standard course of a Stalker's strategy.

First of all, I still don't agree with the AS being slower while hidden and 1sec activation while unhidden. It just underminds the purpose of using AS in the first place. And you can point out the increased damage and demoralize all you want, that doesn't change a thing. Are *YOU* going to be using AS the majority of the time when starting a fight after the change? Or are you going to use a sure-fire hard hitter like Soaring Dragon, Eagle's Claw, Midnight Grasp, etc (or an AoE, for that matter) and just use AS afterwards for *more* combined damage? And how often do you plan to try using AS with Placate? Some of the times? Rarely? Never?

But that's beside the point, I suppose. My point comes in with adding another possible branch to the tactics you can choose...kind of replacing Hidden AS but not entirely...

So Snipes. They come late in the game but probably around the time all that junk that starts making AS at the start of combat *REALLY* shaky. So the idea is for the snipes to be AS's replacement late game...

-First of all, the cast times of the snipes needs to be brought down to nearly regular snipe cast times. Normal snipes are around 4 sec while Stalker snipes are like 7 sec. I propose bringing Stalker snipes down to 4.5 sec.

-Secondly, while hidden, a snipe would animate *faster* at around 2.5 sec and be uninterruptible. While unhidden, a snipe would animate it's full cast time and be interruptible.

-Thirdly, when a snipe crits, it'll only be for 2x current damage. Assassin's Focus, however, is spent when a snipe is used and gives a heightened chance to 'Assassin's Scope' a target for around 90% of what a hidden AS would do. This will also carry the same demoralize effect.

What this does...
1. Gives you an Assassin move to use at the start of battle that isn't 'gimp'. You can quickly crit a target at range without being interrupted.

2. Gives you something to cast demoralize with that isn't handicapping you mid combat but for a portion less damage.

3. Gives you something to use with Placate that doesn't bite in comparison. Vs not using placate at all, now you can use it for a sure-fire demoralize after you get a few hits in during a fight.

Personally, I think it'd be a refreshing addition to the AT that doesn't actually add any more gimmicks (besides what we have and what they're giving us). One can use a ranged attack > a hold > a ranged AoE > placate > snipe to provide long range support if close combat isn't the best option. And honestly, it sounds fun and not bassakwards like what we'll be getting.

I am all for improving Snipes but your idea only works for 4 out of 8 Epic/Patron sets. What about Epic sets that don't have Snipes?

In fact, they better fix Critical in Weapon, Body and Darkness epics in Issue 22!

And I also agree that "hidden" AS needs to be more attractive. It is hard because the "slowness, interruptable" AS is exactly the reason why many people hate. I know I am one of them.

I was on TNP trial and I was assigned to take out Telepaths since the leader said "no aoe and no pets" and I told him I am MA and I don't really have aoe. Well, in that situation, they certainly added many things that interrupt hide!! There's FREQUENT auto damage as soon as you are within Telepath's range. The damage isn't high but it's constant and it's impossible to set up Assassin Strike (which is supposedly our bread-and-butter ST-elimination tool). And then the NPCs would throw bombs that also have "burning patches".

They certainly don't shy away from adding things that make this Interruptable, Slow Assassin Strike useful. It's to the point that why bother using an interruptable attack when you can just BU + other attacks?

In fact, can anyone do a quick math on 10s attack chain between BU + Hidden AS + remaining hits VS BU + Heavy Hitter Eagle Claw + two other hits + unhidden Critical AS? I have a feeling not using BU + Hidden is going to produce more DPS because you can hit at least two more times during AS' old casting time.


The way I see it is this:

1. BU + Hidden AS still has an advantage in a way that you can take out an enemy before it hits you and you get Demoralize. This advantage gradually fades away when you team but at least there is still an advantage. Maybe they can improve Demoralize somehow. Make the fear duration longer?

2. They need to make Placate more attractive. Placate + AS will be pretty sucky. Placate + AoE is more attractive but we already have this now. They need to speed up Placate.

What the Devs really need to do about Assassin Strike is to "bite the bullet" and realize that putting an Interrupt into Assassin Strike and then make the power NOT accept Interrupt Reduction enhancements was a tremendous mistake in the first place. Interrupt on a Melee Attack is just ... stupid ... if that Interrupt time is longer than 1 second.

Conversely, Assassin's Focus would no doubt work "better" if it was reworked to simply be a Global Interrupt Reduction Enhancement. I'm thinking something on the order of +100% Interrupt Reduction per charge of Assassin's Focus (so 3 stacks is +300% Interrupt Reduction, which reduces Interrupt duration to 1/4 normal). Do that and you don't even *need* to resort to a Titan Weapons-esque "every nail needs THIS hammer" solution of making two Assassin Strike attacks with different animations for in/out of Hide.

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

While Lethal will usually end up doing less damage than other types, it's wrong to say too bad so sad for people that have already picked the powerset, especially since a lot of people have made their character and leveled it up several years ago when the game was very different and it didn't matter as much as it does now.

Using your analogy(though I'm not familiar with cars or racing)it would be as if the racers were told a large part of the race would be in urban areas so they make thier decision, show up for the race and find out it's really a Form 1 competition.

As far as I know ( 4 1/2 year vet, although not the best at game mechanics) I have been seeing similar posts about what is the most common damage type, what is the most resisted in the game since I got here. Lethasl is common, and is commonly resisted/defended. Negative and even moreso Psi, are uncommon shiny and exotic. I run a lot of characters with dark powers, due to the fact that these fit many of my concepts well (I have a whole big death theme in my stuff) and due to the fact it works well in the game. I do not have a lot of fire using characters, even though they tend to be near the top of damage on so many ATs, because these do not fit my concepts well. I wish they did. But I hate almost everything about fire use for my stuff. So sad for me. Can I get a rewrite? No. Okay, back to Dark. Hey, I wish Grav/Nrg Doms werent as horrid as they are, they are the only Dom I enjoy running. But they are ....that....bad. Sigh. So, if I choose to run one I got no recourse. i 50'd my first one before i realized how bad. That does not give me the right to ask for the game to be rebalanced. Well, I can ask... I have no one to blame for the 2nd and 3rd time I 50d a Grav/Nrg Dom. We play what we like. If you choose to take a MA Stalker and expect Smashing Damage to compete with Negative Damage I honestly do not know what to tell you. Somewhere in the back of your mind you had to realize just maybe the exotic damage might have a slight edge? a little?

But back to the topic. My idea has seen a tiny amount of refinement. One that even would help that Lethal or Smashing using Stalker. Against Boss, Elite Boss, AV, and GM have the AS in Hide to a set amount of bonus damage. Different against each class of mob of course. The idea is that a Stalker should be able to kill a Boss, Severely mess with and/or kill an EB, take a significant chunk out of an AV (5%...?) and whip a nice slice out of a GM as well. Rather than let a player (or team) get too much control of that (so many abuse options) just hard code the number, unbuffable. But also decrease the mobs ability to resist it. Yes, I really do want a Stalker to be able to have a guaranteed amount of damage against these types of creatures. In return I want the Devs to have a guarantee that number will not shift too much. Then let the regular damage that Stalkers have been getting be put on top of that. Call it a Meta Crit.

I haven't read the entire thread... too lazy. But aren't these changes just making Stalkers into Scrappers with Hide? I mean, really, being able to use AS without hidden status? The one power that the entire AT is pretty much based on and now it's core use is all but eliminated?

Do I think AS is underpowerd? Hell yeah! It sucks, especially in teams. But this change pretty much just gives Stalkers yet another ST attack. Why didn't the devs look at the hundreds of suggestions in the pages upon pages of ideas in the forums?

Instead they just come up with something that will pretty much just add yet another ST attack to my tray... Great... So as much as they call this a buff, it's really just a band-aide to try to revive a long dead AT.

Like hell it was! I've followed those forums for months. No one ever suggested making Stalkers pretty much Scrappers with Hide. And what does it take to please me? Not changing the AT to be almost the same as every other melee AT in this game. Build on the powers it has, not change the core of the AT.

Uninterruptable, yes; but useful without the signature power ALL Stalkers must take that is Hide? What's the point then in being a Stalker? Let me just jump on my Scrapper with SS and Stealth IO and poof! I'm a Stalker with more survivablility, more functionality, and more options.

As for Stalkers being 80% like Scrappers, I'd like to change that. That's what was proposed in those threads. To make Stalkers more unique and build on their strengths, not make them into Scrappers.