Do stalkers have a place in the world?

Hey just returning to CoX!

For a looong time scrappers out did stalkers pretty much in everyway, how is it now ? Are there any reason at all to roll a stalker these days and why? Both pve and pvp wise..

Yes, they're quite fun to play.

I have precisely zero PvP experience, so the following comments are regarding PvE only:

Stalkers have just recently received huge buffs. For one thing the HP cap was raised, which is nice for sets with +hp powers, but moreover Assassin Strikes now activate very quickly when not Hidden, and your other attacks grant stacks of Assassin's Focus, which gives +33% crit chance to Assassin Strike per stack. In other words, you have fast-activating 600+ damage crits on command even when not hidden.

The Stalker's Guile proc is cool, too.

All in all, Stalkers are incredibly awesome now, and have a strong single-target niche where they rival or surpass Scrappers.

Cool sound like they got a well deserved buff.. Do you know if the Assassins focus work in PvP at all ?

I would assume so, but like I said, precisely zero PvP experience, so take that with a grain of salt.

Do any Stalkers have any good AOE options? I seem to remember that maybe Elec Melee gets lightning rod, which seems unfairly sick compared to what other stalkers get (in terms of AOE). My friend made Elec/ for some reason, I havent asked him why he went with Elec/ but as a min/maxer, I assume he picked Elec/ because lf the AOE.

Anyway, I am just wondering if any other sets posess any nice AOE?

Thanks,

Lewis

ELM,Spines,Dual Blades,Street Justice, and when it comes out in April Staff Fighting.

Currently stalkers have very high burst damage and single target damage. The biggest changes from the past are the ATO procs and the assassins focus.

Assassins focus takes assassin strike and gives it a DPS higher than old school energy transfer. In certain cases, nearly twice as high. The ATO proc makes it so you can go into hide immediately after using an attack, which gives you the hide benefits of whatever attack you want to use. Because of this, you'll want to have a stalker pretty much any time you'll be fighting an AV, or an enemy group that naturally comes with EBs.

Thanks for the replies.

I want to make a Stalker, but I am not sure what to make. If I dont make Electric Melee, then I will have AOE envy. But if I do make Electric Melee, then I sm stuck with Electric Melee. Basically, I hate the set other than Lightning Rod.

Anyway, I normally dont like weapon sets on melee characters, though I have a few. But for a Stalker, it makes sense. Dual Blades fits. I also like Street Justice, conceptually. I just need a secondary. I would be tempted to do Dark Armor, but I hear there is some tedious juggling of the stun toggle with placate. If anyone even uses Placate anymore, I have no clue. I would consider Super Reflexes, except that I already have a level 50 Dual Blades / SR scrapper, and a level 34 SJ/SR scrappet.

Oh well.

Thanks!

Lewis

Than try out /nin or /ice as Nin is currently a Stalker Exclusive set, and /Ice is only available to Tankers and Stalkers


Either of those will give you a unique experience that can't be replicated.Both are also really good sets.

I dont know that I like /nin conceptually. I thought /Ice had more toggle-juggling, due to CE?

Lewis

well /ice only has CE with that juggling problem and quite frankly as a Stalker(especially now) you can very easily skip the power and not hurt your survivability.

Alternatively you can try /EA, I think Disrupt also has that toggle problem but again the power is easily skipable without being harmful.

So did you guys check to see if the patch really did fix the ato proc with CE? I love CE, but not enough to lose my criticals.

Ya I have the proc in AS and have for a while, but have only gotten the status to work about 5 times in 10 levels because of CE.

I'm playing a DB/ELEC stalkers (concept reasons) and I'm pleasantly surprised. I lucked into 4-pieces of the Stalker ATO set, including the hide proc. I slotted them in my assassins strike. The hide goes off enough to grant regular critical strikes.

My new stalker is only level 18, but things I've noticed.
- Seems much more durable than past Stalkers I've played.
- Dishes out a lot more damage than I'd expected.
- The Hide proc is probably the best paired +proc among the various ATO sets. It very much fits the play-style of the set.
- For the first time, I've skipped placate. I might pick it up later, but I didn't feel forced to take it.

Scrappers and Stalkers seem very much evenly matched now. At least in terms of PvE, I don't PvP much so I can't speak to that area of the game. I've played the game for a while, and this seems to be a very well-thought out AT revamp. On par with the Dominator revamp a few issues back.