Is placate useful anymore?

The title says it all, with the new way assassin's strike is used, the placate power seems to have lost it's charm. Sure, assassin's stike will still do a crap-ton of damage, but having to throw placate, wait to hide, then AS again seems to not have the same amount of DPS as just continuing to lay on the damage anymore.

Is Placate really worth the slot anymore, or should stalkers start respecing out that power?

I think it is still good..but as you say..it has lost a bit of sparkle. If you just consider stalkers with the change, yeah it is still very nice. But with the ato proc..going off every time, not using a power pic or slots..

The bonus crit is definitely diminished in usefulness now that we can do the same thing with the ATO proc. KM maybe gets a little more use out of it, since it has Burst and Concentrated Strike competing for "use me when hidden!"

It's as useful as ever for making a boss stop attacking, but overall it is at least as skippable as it was before.

I think the new change just proves that the old method of Placate + wait + Interruptable AS is not a good way to be a good assassin in such fast pace game. There are plenty of counters against that method.

The new AS change doesn't make Placate less useful. You now just have more options. If 3-stack Focus is up, use Assassin Strike. If you have an aoe or a heavy hitter like Eagle Claw or Uppercut, use Placate and get a chance to score Double Critical. If you need some breathing room, use Placate to blind that target.

The options are still there. The change did not take them away from you.

You don't have to take Placate as soon as it's available. I often don't take Placate until after 30s anyway because some sets don't have a good aoe or heavy hitter until 32. You also don't need to slot more than one recharge. I used to slot 3 recharge but found that to be overkill.