My Opinion On Stalkers

It's an interesting idea, I'd have to agree. Wonder if anyone else thought of such an idea? I'm pretty sure there were a lot of suggestions to add debuffs to AS...giving the attack the ability to turn off the purple triangles is something I'm curious if it's possible.

We have the tech to cancel buffs?

Wonder what the ramifications of such a change would have.

But I would presume this would be *in addition to* making the AT a top contender for ST damage?

So in a world where AV's really aren't a common threat, stalkers are relegated to granting another AT the ability to shine? Interesting - but again pointless. AV encounters make up significantly less than 1% of all time spent in-game. Being able to grant functionality to another AT in these rare occasions does nothing to help stalkers.

Nothing I have seen in this thread leads me to believe a simple, tangible fix to stalkers will fix the underlying problems. Stalkers have problems because they're not needed, not because they're not good at what they do. Of course, they're not good at what they do, so I guess once there's a role for single target damage, then we can discuss triangle-annihilation and damage modifiers and scaling AS.

In what respect do I contradict myself?

For starters, if stalkers could 'hinder a strong targets ability to resist mezzes', then yes, that would be a good thing. The trouble is, strong targets make up an insignificant portion of the game. My proposal outlined in the original post discusses the steps necessary to make stalkers powerful in a significant portion of the game. Furthermore, being able to allow others to mez an AV is not that great of a gimmick. What about encounters where stalkers are unable to hit an AV? What about encounters where stalkers are unable to use AS? Why should stalkers be good only in the .1% of content that involves fighting AV's? Who the hell needs AV's to be mezzed these days anyway? It's not like they're challenging.

On the contrary, I'm not being intentionally pessimistic. I don't think scrappers have any real need in the game either, save as DPS machines. In order to maintain thematic differences in playstyle between scrappers and stalkers, these two entities must be kept from becoming clones of one another. Scrappers, under my proposal, would still have the ability to slaughter minions en masse while maintaining respectable single target damage and high defense capacities. Stalkers, on the other hand, become single target nightmares - and what's more, single target would actually have a use. That is why stalkers don't need gimmicks or tweaks. They need their unique, AT-specific goals to be emphasized in-game. I don't want the game to require a stalker for team roles any more than the game should require buffers/debuffers. But I think that having each group of critters contain one or two immensely powerful bosses that a stalker could dispose of in mere seconds would allow stalkers to fill a role - niche though it may still be, nevertheless it would be a unique role to play that could not be subsumed by scrappers or brutes.

Well, you're certainly not going to get the primary content made more difficult...well, maybe. But that still doesn't prove much that it is what Stalkers need...the game has evolved. If bosses become too hard, people just turn them off, lower their difficulty and so on.

But you seem to be focusing on Single Target Damage as the problem. Last I checked, Stalkers aren't limited to only ST.

It's rather...what's the word I'm thinking of....I dunno, but it's, like...cramped or something...to think that Scrappers (and Brutes and whomever else) should only be good at fighting minions while Stalkers should only be good at fighting bosses. I'd much prefer Dark Melee, Martial Arts, Energy Melee and the like be good at dealing with bosses and Electric Melee, Fire Melee, Titan Weapons and the like be good at dealing with minions. The AT should simply affect *how* that is carried out. Stalkers simply need flexibility in that area.

But I do agree with you that Stalkers and Scrappers should be kept separate in approach. That is what I've been saying from the beginning *WAAAAY* when proliferation was first talked about. I always thought the melee sets should be completely different from AT to AT and not rely solely on AT mods. Now? You have to rely on AT mods and whatever gimmick the AT has to really differentiate the ATs.

So I was right in that regard. When I proposed those gimmicky ideas to help make Stalkers great, it was because the actual sets are geared to ATs like Scrapper and Brutes so *something* is needed to make the AT something other than another flavor of scrapper.

However, the devs do not seem aware what their gimmick idea actually does to the Stalker AT's style. To state it plainly, it makes Stalkers exactly like Scrappers. For proof, just go make a Street Justice Stalker and Scrapper and see how differently it plays...

When i run a stalker solo, i check what the mob consist of, scout around for stragglers and any other mobs nearby, and start by surgically striking important targets first ,like healers. Stalkers are great for this. But usually this tactic isn't used or needed on teams. The few uses for stealth on a team can be done by other AT power sets with stealth like Illusion or Dark Miasma or with the stealth pool power. Stalkers just don't have anything unique to bring to a team. The coming changes may make them better at single target damage. But that would just make them specialized scrappers with less staying power. Stalkers are a stealth oriented AT. But stealth isn't used or needed as often on a team, which reduces the usefulness of a stalker. If stalker stealth was better than other stealth and stealth had more uses on a team, stalkers might be in demand. I doubt anything can be done for this though.
I'm aware that the stealth for stalkers can be better than other AT stealth in PVP, but there's no real noticeable difference in PVE.

But we don't have much trouble taking down AVs, EBs, GMs now. Hell, I might even go so far as to say no trouble taking them down. They are the same as minions: hit them until they die. They just take longer because they are huge sacks of HPs.

There is nothing in the game we can't overcome. So why try to make Stalkers into something they aren't. I have to agree with A_C that Stalkers are just obsolete.

*hands Leo an ice cube to cool off - or at least smack people - with*

Quote:

Originally Posted by PleaseRecycle it has gone from unconscionable to downright appalling that we have no way of measuring our characters' wetness.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brillig It's hard to beat the entertainment value of Whackjob Wednesdays.

It was a joke. Do you not watch the Boondocks?

But I really would like Ice Melee. Nothing says 'Stalker' more than assassinating a Boss while his minions snooze.

Except assassinating a boss while his minions cower in fear. DM FTW.