Resistance Based Stalkers--How do they fair in the Modern CoX?
By
Blood Red Arachnid,
Posted on: 2012-04-02 11:13 in Stalkers
Was just about to ask for any critiques on my build and i saw this post and i thought i would tell my experience with resist based stalker 
I rolled a Dark/Dark Stalker just before stalker changes... and i havnt played anything else since... its my first toon to get +3 and i love it...
Before IOs i felt a bit squishy at times but now im running +4/x4 np at all i can run +4/x8 aswell no matter what type of foe i meet, havnt tried Malta tho...
GMs cant kill me, tested every gm i could find iTrial is no problem.
close to 70% s/l resist and other resists is darn great as well imo if you look at the build
about 36% def s/l/n/e
with my barrier and cloak of fear im *def capped* for normal content. And even tho claok of fear dont really have any effect on AVs and GMs they cant kill me
End havnt been a problem either as Dark armor when i got alpha, as dark stalker lacks the end consume
I might be blind cus i love this toon so much and have adapted my playstyle to it...
As said its the only toon i can play atm
Heres my build if any interest'
Code:
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I run a KM/ElecArmr stalker, and they are essentially squishie unless you IO them out for defense or if you have liberal use of purple inspirations. If you do that, though, then they become incredibly tough. I don't turn AVs off anymore for my stalker, and he only has around 30% defense for Melee/S/L.
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I have a lvl 50 Kin/Dark who took both Weave/Tough. His survival is not bad. I think it's good enough in most cases.
The thing with Stalker is that you are never going to be the main focus on a team. If you are soloing, you have enough burst damage to receive less damage.
I am going to try out Electricity Armor. I think resistance-based sets work well when you have good defensive set bonuses to back up.
One thing I've noticed with DA content is that mobs there have very high chance to hit and they deal a lot of "exotic" damage. My Ice Armor has good S/L defense but when I fought some of the mobs there, they cut through me like butter. 
I wish I had more resistance.
I think resistance based sets are a bit more favored in itrials/DA.
PS: If you want to try a resistance-based, I would choose Elec Armor over Dark Armor. The reason is that Elec Armor has 20% +recharge and it has endurance management. Dark Armor is an endurance hog until you have good set bonuses and unique and procs. With the new Assassin Strike, endurance management needs to be taken into consideration. In that regard, I think I'll favor Elec Armor over Dark Armor. I also hate carrying Acrobatic and one -kb proc is not good enough against some knock back attacks (IE: Pylon!!!). The knock back hole in Dark Armor makes soloing pylon annoying.
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.
Elec armor. If I am taking CJ, Skipping Grounded possible?
I don't need it to cap my energy resistance.
My stalker will be flying.
When something good happens to me, I can never enjoy it....
I am always too busy looking for the inevitable punchline...
BEHOLD THE POWER OF CHEESE!
Quote:
If you are happy filling in your -KB with just a 4 point IO in CJ, then you are fine. I am generally good with that much on all the sets with KB holes until I decide to start running trials - then the amount of KB above 4 goes up a lot and you will either want to squeeze in grounded or bump your -KB IO's up to 3 for 12 points of protection. I imagine its not as big a deal on a stalker as a brute but my I found my ss/fire brute getting tossed around like crazy in trials until I got to the -12 KB point.
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Originally Posted by Test_Rat
Elec armor. If I am taking CJ, Skipping Grounded possible?
I don't need it to cap my energy resistance. My stalker will be flying. |
Globals: @Midnight Mystique/@Magik13
Grounded is also a great place to put the Steadfast +3% def IO. I don't bother adding any slots to it.
The main things being anything but Defense-based costs you are (a) ease of access to the softcap and (b) high confidence you will stay hidden if you rehide in combat.
Obviously (a) has lots of importance for those used to softcapping defense sets, but even if you can't softcap them, the resist sets are fairly tough, and if you can use IOs to layer 30-35% defense, you're unlikely to hate the result in most content.
Part (b) likely mattered more before I22. Now that AS is so deadly even without placating anything, about the only time a Stalker needs to worry they'll lose hidden status in a fracas is when they're using the ATE proc, which of course suffers far less from animation time issues than using Placate.
Overall, I'd say I22's change made playing resist sets a lot less unattractive just due to the change to AS making us less reliant on Placate for offense.
Blue
American Steele: 50 BS/Inv
Nightfall: 50 DDD
Sable Slayer: 50 DM/Rgn
Fortune's Shadow: 50 Dark/Psi
WinterStrike: 47 Ice/Dev
Quantum Well: 43 Inv/EM
Twilit Destiny: 43 MA/DA
Red
Shadowslip: 50 DDC
Final Rest: 50 MA/Rgn
Abyssal Frost: 50 Ice/Dark
Golden Ember: 50 SM/FA
Quote:
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Originally Posted by UberGuy
The main things being anything but Defense-based costs you are (a) ease of access to the softcap and (b) high confidence you will stay hidden if you rehide in combat.
Obviously (a) has lots of importance for those used to softcapping defense sets, but even if you can't softcap them, the resist sets are fairly tough, and if you can use IOs to layer 30-35% defense, you're unlikely to hate the result in most content. Part (b) likely mattered more before I22. Now that AS is so deadly even without placating anything, about the only time a Stalker needs to worry they'll lose hidden status in a fracas is when they're using the ATE proc, which of course suffers far less from animation time issues than using Placate. Overall, I'd say I22's change made playing resist sets a lot less unattractive just due to the change to AS making us less reliant on Placate for offense. |
Have you tried your defensive based Stalker in DA? I am not sure what the "Modern" day CoX mean but I guess it has something to do with itrials? If so, I feel resistance based sets with good set bonuses (good is the key!!) fairs better than defensive sets. There are a lot of "auto damage" in itrial.
However, if we are not talking about itrials, then defensive sets are better for Stalker.
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.
Quote:
I do not have a Defense-based Stalker to take to DA, but I have taken Defense-based characters of other kinds to DA and of course on iTrials. How they do depends a lot on how close you can get them to the Incarnate softcap. Even resist oriented characters can be torn up by the foes in DA. On top of their "native" +14% toHit, BP and KoV both have foes with -defense, and then have liberal amounts of Psi and Toxic damage, respectively. Dark Armor, for example, will do well against Psi, but not so much Toxic. Electric Armor won't really do well against either unless they're running Power Surge.|
Originally Posted by Jibikao
Have you tried your defensive based Stalker in DA? I am not sure what the "Modern" day CoX mean but I guess it has something to do with itrials? If so, I feel resistance based sets with good set bonuses (good is the key!!) fairs better than defensive sets. There are a lot of "auto damage" in itrial.
However, if we are not talking about itrials, then defensive sets are better for Stalker. |
Some of the stuff in DA is just bad mojo.
Blue
American Steele: 50 BS/Inv
Nightfall: 50 DDD
Sable Slayer: 50 DM/Rgn
Fortune's Shadow: 50 Dark/Psi
WinterStrike: 47 Ice/Dev
Quantum Well: 43 Inv/EM
Twilit Destiny: 43 MA/DA
Red
Shadowslip: 50 DDC
Final Rest: 50 MA/Rgn
Abyssal Frost: 50 Ice/Dark
Golden Ember: 50 SM/FA
Quote:
Havign Psi Resist, why would ELA do well against the PSI famage?
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Originally Posted by UberGuy
I do not have a Defense-based Stalker to take to DA, but I have taken Defense-based characters of other kinds to DA and of course on iTrials. How they do depends a lot on how close you can get them to the Incarnate softcap. Even resist oriented characters can be torn up by the foes in DA. On top of their "native" +14% toHit, BP and KoV both have foes with -defense, and then have liberal amounts of Psi and Toxic damage, respectively. Dark Armor, for example, will do well against Psi, but not so much Toxic. Electric Armor won't really do well against either unless they're running Power Surge.
Some of the stuff in DA is just bad mojo. |
BrandX Future Staff Fighter
The BrandX Collection
Quote:
I have a 50+3 dark armor stalker I have been playing a lot recently, so maybe I can help.|
Originally Posted by Jibikao
Have you tried your defensive based Stalker in DA? I am not sure what the "Modern" day CoX mean but I guess it has something to do with itrials? If so, I feel resistance based sets with good set bonuses (good is the key!!) fairs better than defensive sets. There are a lot of "auto damage" in itrial.
However, if we are not talking about itrials, then defensive sets are better for Stalker. |
My defenses are 40%, not quite softcapped, but combined with the -tohit from cloak of fear, it is more than enough for practical purposes. My resists are something like 55% S/L, 40% neg, 35% fire/cold, 50% psi, 20% energy. For a stalker, it is surprisingly resilient. The recent buff to HP values helped a lot in this area. I can charge into groups of enemies in itrials or x8 missions in astoria and usually stand up nearly as well as the brutes and to a lesser extent tankers around me.
The big problem for dark armor though, and most non-def specific sets, is that endgame mobs in astoria can absolutely trash your defenses. Nearly every enemy has some sort of stupid -def debuff, half of which are auto hit, and most of which stack many, many times. Without the resistance to def debuffs that are inherent to ninjutsu or super reflexes, my defenses will drop extremely rapidly against certain enemies. For dark armor specifically, the ancients or elders of sorrow of the pantheon are especially brutal, because their radiation blast attacks have massive def debuff numbers and dark is already pretty weak against energy in general. I can roll through x8 missions in astoria with ease until I run into a group with 2 or more ancients of sorrow, and then I get flattened in seconds when they land their lame -20% defense debuffs. I imagine electric armor would have a MUCH easier time with this.
Plus dark regen on stalkers takes a stupidly long time to activate, seriously, the ingame tooltip, mids, and everywhere else says 1.17seconds, but it is NOWHERE near this fast. It is closer to 3 seconds, which I'm not sure is a bug or not. I could swear that the same exact power on my elec/dark brute casts in LESS than half the time, but I digress.
As far as itrials go, resists make you a lot tougher when half of the enemies have 70% hitrates vs. 45% defense. Unfortunately, a very large portion of these enemies hit with energy damage, which is dark armor's big weakness.
Anyway, to summarize - resist based stalkers are pretty good now, I would say they are tougher in general than def based stalkers, assuming you can softcap defenses on top of your resists, but if you want to roll one, I would recommend electric armor if only because of how much endgame content has enemies which do energy damage.
Dark Armor and Electric Armor, don't seem to be talked about much.
I can get great performance out of these two sets on paper with softcapped defenses (Standard 45%) and decent to high levels of global recharge.
Can some of you folks who have made resist stalkers recently provide some of your thoughts on how things are looking these days?
When something good happens to me, I can never enjoy it....
I am always too busy looking for the inevitable punchline...
BEHOLD THE POWER OF CHEESE!