I22 Stalkers make me smile wide!

I know this is probably redundant and I know other people have probably "scooped" me, but I honestly can't remember the last time I had this much fun just PLAYING the damn game that I feel compelled to talk about it. I knew just from the patch notes and what was being discussed that the Stalker changes were going to be good for the AT. Originally, I'd intended to wait until some time after I22 to try the changes, but my impatience got the better of me, so I played an old Stalker for around two days prior to the Issue launch.

And the difference could not be more pronounced. I'm not sure if there's an actual practical increase in numerical performance, even if I suppose there is, but what really changed about Stalkers to me is the whole "feel" of the AT. Before, the Stalker was the articulated lorry of melee ATs, and that's saying something when you consider Tankers and Brutes from a cold start. Stalkers were always capable of good performance, but doing so required very slow, very cumbersome tactics which were prone to very easy failure that wasted even more time, effort and energy. The Stalkers of old were the guys who take AAAGES to set up, but then would finish a battle quickly, before the engineered flaws of the AT really had time to shine through. They were, to me, an unwieldy AT that either worked GREAT or pissed me the hell off, with no middle ground.

What I feel playing my Stalkers now is precisely the reverse. All of a sudden, with the change to all of ONE power, the AT now feels imminently, instantly and explosively dangerous, a wild card capable of turning a battle at the drop of a hat. Not only that, but this has turned my Stalkers into devilishly fast combatants. No longer is the bulk of my damage gated behind three different layers of encumbering limitations, requiring me to run away or hope I don't get cut by a wayward swipe. Right now, my Stalkers can pounce the MOMENT I spot the opportunity to do so, turning them into exactly the kind of character you do NOT want to turn your back to.

I know some worried that the out-of-hide Assassin's Strike might replace the hidden one, but for me, that hasn't been the case. There is little encumbered that a Stalker faces before a fight starts, since mine are usually already invisible and thus ready to pounce. That has never been a problem. It's what happens AFTER this opening kill has occurred that underwent a massive improvement. I still prefer to use my Assassin's Strike while hidden. It's much easier to guarantee a critical, I like the Demoralisation debuff and I like getting the Empower and Sweep Dual Blades combos. Just 'cause.

I really feel the process of acquiring a guaranteed Assassin's Focus critical has been nailed right in the bullseye. Assassin's Focus is incredibly dangerous when it's available, but each power has only a chance to apply it, and each stack of Assassin's Focus has its own timer. In reality, the three-stack window of opportunity is pretty short, extending from when the third stack starts to when the first stack ends, and that can easily be as short as a second or two. And even then, the Assassin's Focus critical deals so much damage I can't just waste it on that minion with a third health left, oh no! I have to think on my feet and pick on someone with more health. Obviously. What this means is I need to coordinate the Assassin's Critical window, the power's recharge and my own action's opportunity cost, and this is something I honestly don't remember the game ever offering me before.

Normally, I might be annoyed at such a fiddly mechanic, but in this case, it's all squarely under my control, so if I mess up, it's my own damn fault. Inversely, if I succeed, it's my own sweet success! And I have to say - landing an Assassin's Focus critical is a sweet success indeed. The alluring ring of light around Assassin's Strike when three stacks of Focus are achieved is like siren's song for my brain. Every time it lights up, my eye glints and my character leaps at the nearest vulnerable target as if on her own accord, without me having any real memory of asking her to do that. In as few as five missions or so, this already feels both pleasant and natural, and I honestly can't remember the last time I felt that way.

If I had to have one complaint (and I do, it's in my custom version of the EULA), it's that Assassin's Focus has the exact same colour ring as the Dual Blades combos, so I can never tell if Assassin's Strike is flashing because it's under Focus conditions or if it's flashing because it's the next attack in a combo I'm performing. That, and even with a unique and distinguishable icon, Assassin's Focus levels are still hard to track, forcing me to spend a lot of my fighting with my eyes glued to my instruments, defeating the point of a heads-up display. Some form of a visual, on-character indication of Assassin's Focus might be nice to have, even if it just flashes once upon reaching three levels.

But that's nit-picky stuff. Right now, I'm in hog heaven. I can't remember when I've been this giddy to play this game, but it can't have been for years now.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

Isn't it awesome? These last couple of months I've had to stop playing my Stalker on live because I kept trying to fight like I22 was already here.

This change is going to make me place less importance on Placate. Not much less, mind, as I was mostly using it for damage mitigation.

The difference is really impressive. I knew about it already, having played my one level 50 Stalker extensively on beta, but I took it for a spin today on my lunch break to refresh my memory. I took my Stalker into

My L50 Stalker is a MA/Regen. Stalker MA is, of course, completely single-target. Regen, is, of course, one of several Stalker secondaries that is easily broken out of hide. Now, to help offset that, my Stalker is also T4 Incarnate and heavily IO'd. I took her into a Grandville paper mission: rob the LSSL. This is a somewhat painful mission for old Stalkers, because the end of the mission is six ambushes.

I ran it on +4/x6.

Even IO'd and Incarnate, +3 Arachnos are not a walk in the park. You frequently get a Tarantula Mistress in a x6 spawn, who can tear down my lovely IO defenses and then some.

I... didn't care. I was crushing those +3 LTs with abandon. I could Placate an annoying one (like a Mistress) and tear down the others, or do that in reverse (placate a damage dealer and crush the Mistress who would enable them). Even with single-target attacks, judicious target switching let me go from beating up my current target to abruptly crushing a different one with AS. While I occasionally was so badly debuffed I had to retreat, it was usually more because I was having trouble hitting foes, not because I was about to die. Against Arachnos, I think it was fantastic performance for MA/Regen. Anecdotal to be sure, but I really enjoyed it.

I cannot wait to take my Stalker on content where tearing down hard targets is really useful, like Hamidon raids or iTrials. (I may not need the iProgress, but I'll still do it just for the giggles.)

They are a lot better, most definetly. They are still perhaps the most selfish AT (which they should be) and don't multiple team performance like buff/debuff ATs (which again, they shouldn't), but they fill their self-sufficient single target DPS role a lot better now without being out classed by everything else anymore.

If I have always disliked the placate and assassin strike mechanics, is there a reason to give stalkers another go? Or are the changes mainky geared towards people who already enjoyed them?

Thanks,

Lewis

Stalkers as a concept have been one of my favorite ATs, but for most of the reasons of old that you listed, Sam, I have not been able to get behind one just because, after that initial strike, I felt like the "silent, fast killer" aspect disappeared. I am logging onto the game in just a few moments, and I can't wait to try out a completely new stalker with these changes.

Now, if only they would release Staff Fighting soon...

The difference is scarily night and day. And I love it. My stalker went from what felt to me like an anemic scrapper, and with the changes and the ATO proc slapped in AS, I'm suddenly slipping in and out of Hide mid-fight, critting people with impunity. Numerically it's extremely impressive, but more importantly, it feels ridiculously fun.

Was playing my stalker.

I think Stalkers will finally be invited to teams now that they can burst out some good damage. Scrappers and Brutes and probably Banes too laughed at stalkers and their gimpy oh-so-easily interrupted and long charging melee snipe that became weaker and less useful (teamwise) the higher level you went.

Also made a new StJ one just for the fun of getting to juggle two different +damage counters. Follow that AS up with a crushing blow for an arcadey combo hit

Hopped on my 50 stalker. Yeesh. I didn't realize they were changing AS cast time out of hide to like what... Nothing? That's nuts! My only gripes is that the animation itself looks a little funky, at least KM's. Really stoked about these changes and may end up giving my crab a break to fully incarnate my stalker.

Bummed that Fireball no longer has a 100% crit from hide buuuut I understand.

I'm enjoying it on a very psychological level.

1. Joe and Bob attack my stalker.
2. My stalker starts beating up Joe.
3. Bob is happily taking pot shots at me without a care in the world.
4. Before Joe is dead, my stalker turns around, looks at Bob, and one shots him.
5. No one saw the attack.
6. Then he calmly returns to finish off Joe.

It's not bad to start off with Assassin Strike. I tend to let the guide be...am I rehidden when I get to next spawn? If so...AS! If not! Continue attacking!

Placate still has (for most sets) an attack it can combo with for more damage (like Crushing Uppercut).

Stalker ATO Proc makes Stalkers even better!

I was able to get in a radio mish and a half with my stalker before I got fed-up with hotel wi-fi disconnects.

Let's just say I can't wait to get back home and get in some real mishes with him. Stalker were awesome before. Now they're glorious.

I agree about the KM AS animation -- the shortened version makes it look like I just do a little pushing gesture toward the enemy and most of his health bar suddenly disappears. It doesn't look like I even touch him. On the other hand, the NB version looks just fine.

And that's pretty much the only complaint I have. I've always loved stalkers and this has me wanting to make even more.

I'm also kinda meh about Kin Melee's short A.S. Specially with all the hand waves Kin Melee does. Though I choose to see it as a very calm, very vicious, "I'm just going to drop a tiny nuclear explosion right here in your heart."

It will be hard to wait until staff fighting hits to play a stalker again. For the moment I'm playing around with all sorts of variant ideas for Darkness control/affinity/assault.

For all of you who are learning to enjoy your stalkers again, when staff fighting hits, you'll be swimming in pure joy.

AS from hide still has plenty of uses. On those rare occasions where my Stalker has to tank for the team, it is a blessing. The -7.5% unresisted BTH on the entire group works great with IO defenses, and the 25% chance for mag 5 terror fragments alpha so even the squishy stalkers can take it. The fight doesn't technically start until someone draws alpha, so the 2 second windup is negligible in those cases. With a lot of players slotting the ATO proc into AS, it recharges in, like, 7 seconds anyway, so by the time you would've built up enough focus to get a critical hit AS is there and waiting. The proc also works most of the time in AS, so you don't "lose" your hide to the attack, and the enemy response is long enough to allow you to use another power before their attacks break hidden status. Then there is the benefit to outright killing an LT (or boss if you have enough following AoE from the team) with one attack; enemies are fighting you the whole time you build up focus.


My biggest gripe with the new system is that I constantly feel like I have to babysit assassin's focus to get the most out of it. I often find myself using attacks I shouldn't or delaying attacks just to build up focus. This causes my attack chain to shatter, and then my offense becomes a mishmash of different moves strung together in a random fashion, where any combinations I would have with the ATO proc and AS itself falls apart. The alternative seems to be to ignore the focus mechanic, but even though the math says it still has higher DPS than AS from hide, it seems highly inefficient and bugs my neurosis to no end. This is a hurdle that I'll have to climb over eventually.


With that said, I currently am running a Kinetic Melee stalker, and AS in that set is wicked scary. Half the time I don't even see it. No exaggeration there; the action is so quick that I don't see it. Using AS in a chain is so fast it's like I didn't use a power at all, and I have to race to click another power. The damage from this output is Gary Busey insane: My current set up does 626 damage from critical (ignoring global +dmg), and with a 0.67 second activation time and 0.8 second w/ arcanatime this attack does 919 DPS and 770 DPS respectively!

I don't turn off AVs when solo for my stalker anymore. He bulldozes right through them. The speed and subtlety in which AS fires off adds to the gaming experience. It's like "I'm going to go fight this lolstalker and why is there a gaping hole in my chest?". I also have the ATO proc + 4 set pieces in AS, so this lets me pull off some righteous combos since it procs most of the time. I can follow through with burst and have it auto-critical from hide, killing minions instantly. I can also follow through Concentrated Strike, which recharges Build Up instantly (NOTE: there was a hidden update that displays when build up recharges now). I probably had used Build up before AS, since it adds 111 damage 222 on critical, and thus pays for itself instantly in a DPS chain, leaving 9.2 seconds of "bonus time" in which I just increase my damage output. 19.2 seconds if I used concentrated strike and got another buildup.

BTW there is a gaping hole in your chest.