The short answer is yes, it is quite skippable. It has occasional uses for aggro management and certain rare situations but for the most part I doubt you'll miss it.
Given the changes that are on beta, Placate is a mild survival convenience for most powersets, and rarely useful. Depending on the powersets you chose, it's possible to help your damage but very unlikely to do so - you'd get as much (or more) help just from slotting the Stalker ATO enhancement proc in Assassin's Strike and using it as it recharged.
If you want to skip it, I doubt you'll miss it.
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Especially with the stalker changes on test ... you can work an out-of-hide AS into your attack chain just fine and get the new bonus damage, without ever touching Placate.
Siolfir did all the work for us in regards to powers benefiting from the use of Placate during battle. It can be found here:
http://coh103.gtm.cityofheroes.com/s...d.php?t=278783
I like Placate, it's pretty unique and one of the powers that makes stalkers stand out from the rest IMO. But sad to say, it is skippable for most of the primaries. The only ones that may want to keep it is Kinetic Melee, to try to get a insta-Build Up recharge from Concentrated Strike; Dual Blades if you want the Empower combo; Street Justice, to try to get a BU'd, Combat Level 3, critical Crushing Uppercut. Possibly some others I can't think of. I am not really sure how Placate affects AoE attacks, decreased chance to critical or same?
The only other uses I can think of for Placate is to shed aggro. Use it on an enemy closest to a glowie before clicking to help ensure you are not seen. If you die near an enemy, use a wakie/breakfree + Placate and toggle up freely.
Is it very skippable? No. But do you need more than one slot? No.
Placate can be somewhat useful on certain sets. On my Street Justice, I do use Placate with combo 3 Crushing Uppercut because it gives me another "Assassin strike" like damage. I love burst damage. It just feels so good to kill off Night Widow in one hit or finish off a boss before he/she gets into god-mode.
Placate + a decent ST or AoE can be good.
Placate + Assassin Strike is not so good unless you solo.
I like a guaranteed critical damage. It is a tactical advantage that every stalker should use. Yes, by dpsing, you may not miss Placate that much but you do save some endurance if you use it with a heavy attack.
Sets that benefit from Placate greatly:
1. SJ's Crushing Uppercut
2. Kinetic's Bulid Up refresh and Pbaoe Burst's 100% critical chance
3. Spines and Claw's Throw Spine and Shockwave
4. Martial Arts' Eagle Claw still hits like a truck.
Is there a power that you think is way better than Placate? If so, take it. Placate is not the cornerstone power in AT. Assassin Strike and Build Up are.
What's left is to normalize all Assassin Strikes and improve Stalker's old sets (Claw, MA and EM)! You don't need to bring back the missing PbAoE attack. You just need to make the existing ones better! For example, make Slice a WIDER and LONGER cone.
The animation time of the placate doesn't usually equate to enough additional damage to justify it's use. A lot of the time you'd have been just fine if not better off continuing to attack. That's, of course, assuming you aren't knocked out of hide before you can capitalize from it.
Personally, I haven't been using Placate for awhile and this new update to Stalkers only continues to further my justification for that decision.
I'm not sure I even consider it a very good mitigation tool. It only gets rid of one enemy, and only for a little bit. If I'm getting mobbed, placating one enemy isn't going to matter. If I'm only fighting one enemy, most of the time I could just as easily run away in the time it takes to placate one guy. The only situation I could see it being useful is against a single strong opponent in a crowded/small room in which there is no good way to escape. That's far too specialized of a circumstance for me to warrant picking the power.
Also I just don't think it melds with a lot of my Stalker concepts. It doesn't make sense to me that my natural assassin can just whip out a jedi mind trick. That's not really a mechanical reason though, it just bugs me.
The only skills that I will use Placate on after issue 22 are Throw Spines and Burst (assuming Burst still has an automatic critical, which it may not).
My highest lv stalker (38) did quite well without placate for a long time. Even now that I have it, the fear effect from AS means that I don't have to use it that offen.
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As far as damage is concerned, you can probably do better, but my Stalker often used Placate in the late 30s and "early" 50s (before I finished IO'ing her) when fighting EBs and AVs from late game content. I haven't used it much since (nearly) finishing my build and getting iPowers, though...
Yep.
Rarely use it. I find it's best use is to send that boss to attack someone else when I just need a moment's time to recover my health. Beyond that, it's better to just keep attacking mid combat.
And since I usually play my Stalkers on teams who usually fight x4 or x6 or higher, trying to use Placate + AS almost always fails anyways. I've found that even when soft capped, 'something' will nearly always find a way to hit me and it's better not to waste my time, especially when the DPA is generally higher by simply continually attacking anyways.
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If Placate could Critical Hit for a "Contagious Placate" sort of effect, similar to the Contagious Confusion effect from the Coercive Persuasion purple Confuse IO Set ... then it would be a much harder decision as to whether or not Placate was "worth it" or not.
Hmmm ... maybe I should mention that in the Beta Forum Feedback on Stalkers ... 
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It's the end. But the moment has been prepared for ...
Thanks for the feedback, all. My stalker is km/ice, so I'm gonna have to look at the build again and see where I can squeeze it in.
I normally pick up Placate at lvl 49 if I can squeeze it in because it does not require heavy slotting. It is not needed, but can help out when in a pinch.
Proton Sentry Peacebringer:lvl 50+++ - Human Build / Triform Build
Quasar Sentry Warshade:lvl 50+- Human Build / Triform Build
Red Katipo Arachnos Soldier:lvl 50+++ - Crab Build / Bane Build
Black Katipo Arachnos Widowlvl 50+++ - Fortunata Build / Night Widow Build
I dropped it from my i22 beta build, and that will be my standard build once the issue goes live. I do have it on my current live build, but I admit I don't use it all that often. I do pop it during fights with heavies because electric melee is pretty wimpy on single target damage, and it at least appears to help (may not with the over long animation). Once i22 is live that excuse will vanish, and the utility of the power will not be great enough to justify it in the face of alternatives.
Too many alts to list.
Placate ise useful for chaining hidden aoes.
That's it.
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I ran the numbers once, and placate + AS is still pretty good damage, and the demoralize terror and -tohit really helps on small teams.
Definitely skippable though, especially if you have the new ATO proc.
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I would not remove it from my Street Justice build, but that's the only Stalker I've played.
CoH
Cathodian (50 Rad/Rad)
Archanix (50 Ill/FF)
Dr. Deadface (Current: 40 Rad/MM)
I took Soul Mastery on my stalker and when I solo I've found that a Placate/Soul Storm combo on two other foes after the initial AS can really give me some breathing room to scrap my way through a mob.
Before I22 debatable. After I22, highly likely.
I am leaning towards not having it frankly, but I can change my mind on it seeing it doesn't require slot investment.
I'm playing my 1st stalker (past the teens) and having a fun time with it. I have a fairly basic question re: Placate. I see that it offers a chance for a 2nd crit, and I'm wondering how useful that is... given the cast time of placate, wouldn't I be better of dps-wise to just continue dealing dmg? Is there something else I'm missing? I guess it could be useful to keep an EB off me while I trash his minions, are there other applications I haven't thought of? Or is this power skippable? My proposed build is pretty tight for power selections.