Stalker's Guile and Ninja Blade

So I put up bids for the full set of Stalker ATIOs, got five of them already, and I'm just waiting for the final one. Might have lowballed that one a bit, but it should go through within a day or two, I think.

But then it hit me, I don't actually know where to slot these things. All in one power, I got it that much, but what power do I put them in?

First thought is Assassin's Blade. Seems like the smart thing to do. Build up for an AS critical, proc hide, hit Soaring Dragon. Repeat. Is that a good plan? The other idea was slotting it in Gambler's Cut or Soaring Dragon, but I think the hide proc is more useful in Assassin's Blade, isn't it?

I don't know, not quite sure what to make of these IOs, but now that I have them, I want to use them. How do you turn them into the upgraded version, by the way?

I think it depends on play style. I stuck mine in Gamblers Cut, and it seems to proc a lot. in AS it is 100%, but then I have to wait for AS to recharge, and that is just not how I wanted to play the character.

I think stalkers are going to run into an old style of play, and a new style of play because of the buffs. I just played a MA/SR from 1-50 in under a week, and really did some serious face to face fighting with it. It was nothing like I would have played a stalker before i22.

Yeah, I'm trying to figure out how my Stalker plays now. Placate has become much less important, for instance, since I can get a decent critical by building up stocks.

She's still level 26, so there's a way to go yet. The single target attack chain I was thinking of was, starting from Hide: Spring Attack, Soaring Dragon Critical, Divine Avalanche, Gambler's Cut, Golden Dragonfly, Assassin's Blade Quick, Soaring Dragon Critical, Divine Avalanche... You get the idea.

I haven't tried this out in practice yet, and I suspect I'll have to substitute in a Gambler's Cut for Golden Dragonfly in a few iterations, but that's the idea. And, of course, using Flashing Steel when there are multiple targets. I'll figure out where to put Build Up with a bit of practice, and when I get the epic attacks if any of those could be useful. It's a work in progress so far. Plus, I need to remember to leave small gaps for Kuji-In Rin to trigger on auto.

i have it in AS on my kin melee/ninjitsu stalker

on kin melee very convenient to have it in AS because my usual fight goes BU+CS, body blow, BU+AS, then either the ranged attack or hopefully CS if its rech for another BU

So, I think what I'm getting from all this is that this is still uncharted territory with both the Stalker changes and the ATIOs. In other words, no one has the answer yet. At least not for Ninja Blade.

Well, I'll go ahead and try it out myself. I got a pile of unclaimed Enhancement Unslotters lying around anyway, so I can take it back if it's wrong. I'll put all six in Assassin's Blade.

By the way, how do you upgrade the ATIOs into their superior forms?

the other day actually i used my kin melee ninjitsu stalker to solo a lvl 39 AV (even con at the time), even with no debuffs i was doing enough dps to almost kill him within like 5 min

Yeah, the damage my Ninja Blade Stalker can do even at level 26 is just... amusing. I have caught myself thinking "That was a tough lieutenant." and then looking to see it was a boss. Elite Bosses are easy pickings, too, most of the time.

If there's one downside, it's the endurance cost. Since the old Placate, AS loop is out, there's no gap in end use, meaning the blue bar drains very, very fast. Something that will require a bit of power and slotting stunts to correct on my Nin/Nin. Should probably get a Miracle for Health and a Performance Shifter proc for Stamina. I was planning on taking some Leadership powers, but until I got the end use under control, they'll have to wait.

Stalker's Guile as a full set has quite a bit of recharge value, and has global recharge bonus to boot. Add that with your other global recharge and Assassin's Strike, if slotted into that power, should recharge pretty quickly.

Of course, this playstyle generally means you'll be wanting to use Assassin's Strike outside of hide more often than not to take advantage of the proc (start off AS in hidden, it procs and you go hidden again, use Soaring Dragon for hidden crit, follow up with attack and Golden Dragonfly, if AS is recharged by then, use it with assassin's focus x3 to crit, go hidden again, etc...)

Yeah, I'm using AS outside Hide a lot more now. The quick critical is good enough for most fights, I just use the big hit of a hidden AS to open against bosses and the like when solo. It's just dirty to follow up Assassin's Blade with a Soaring Dragon critical. By which I mean I like it.

The best place to put full set of ATO is still in Assassin Strike. Gambler Cuts already has fast enough recharge so the amazing +recharge from the full set won't benefit Gambler Cuts that much and besides, once your Assassin Strike has good enough, you may end up using an interruptable version of AS during your attack chain.

One thing to look at when working out your chain. The ATO proc does not proc again if you reuse the power it's slotted in within 10.25 seconds. If you monitor your buffs, when it procs, there's a white/gray buff you get as well as going hidden. If you use the power again while that buff is still up, the proc doesn't activate (you don't get the hidden effect and the buff is not renewed). After 10.25 seconds, the buff goes away and you can use the power and it will proc at it's normal %.

I still think AS is the best place to put it... but don't plan on it proc'ing 2 times in under 10 seconds. There's no way to make that happen no matter what it's slotted in.