NB/DA Stalker - Question regarding Attacks, Placate, KD Protection
By
DaemonDivinity,
Posted on: 2012-07-17 06:55 in Stalkers
SD and GD are two of the stronger attacks in the set. I would take them both. Also Gambler's Cut has better DPS than SotW. I would only keep DA if I can not softcap lethal defense through power picks/IOs. I am not a fan of FS but keep it if you are yearning for that little bit of AoE.
Placate does a little more than what the ATO proc does. The ATO proc puts a stalker in Hide allowing the following attack to critical. Placate tricks a foe stop attacking you and also puts a stalker in Hide allowing the following attack to critical. It can be useful at low levels if you are getting your butt handed to you but highly skippable later.
Four KB protection is good for most content. My Spines/DA currently has 4 and it is tolerable but since dropping down to 4, I have not done many missions where KB is rampant except the Katie Hannon TF. My character was being skipped like a rock on a pond, 50 yards into other enemy groups. There are several enemies that will cause you problems like Rikti Pylons, Fake Nemesis, Rularuu Brutes etc.
Thanks for the advice. I reviewed the numbers for GC versus SotW which told me something I should have noticed in the first place: GC has a similar DPE and better DPS, DPAT, and lower activation. So picking SotW isn't like picking Smite over Shadow Punch, it's like picking Charged Brawl over Havoc Punch (which I did on my Brute, another oops). So yeah, definitely going to swap that out on next respec.
I will not be dropping DA. It's not cutting a critical attack from my build, and it's too much an asset (and I don't have the billions of influence to get soft-capped without it).
I have taken your input on Placate, as well as the usefulness of having more than 4 KB Protection. Considering that I've already seen 4 Immobilize Protection seems insufficient as well, I will probably swap Shadow Dweller and Placate to fit CJ and Acrobatics. The latter two may fit in at the end of the build, if at all.
So, in short:
1. Definitely take SD and GD.
2. Replace SotW with GC.
3. Replace Placate and Shadow Dweller with Combat Jumping and Acrobatics.
I have another question.
Does Cloak of Fear conflict with Hide? As in, will Cloak of Fear automatically fire, generate aggro, and turn off Hide? Does it suppress when Hide is active? And is there a +MAG proc for CoF?
Quote:
When ever you are in a hidden state as in you see it says hidden on the screen, your fear aura will not be effecting anything....however due to its duration of effect after it hits something...then you could cause something to be effected by fear then go to a hidden status then becuase of the fear effect they would then attack you after they come out of it.|
Originally Posted by DaemonDivinity
I have another question.
Does Cloak of Fear conflict with Hide? As in, will Cloak of Fear automatically fire, generate aggro, and turn off Hide? Does it suppress when Hide is active? And is there a +MAG proc for CoF? |
Thats partialy the reason i dont really like the mechanic they did by putting a fear effect on assassin strike...as it will automaticaly tell everything around your target even if you are behind a column that you are there.
So to answer the questions:
So does it conflict?....kind of....i only say this becasue if you have a long enough duration from the cloak of fear it will make things come and attack you, even while hidden, and depending onthe target you feared sometimes they will surprisingly show up when you are some where else fairly distant and attack you....though this usualy doesnt happen much...becasue most users of cloak of fear kill everything..thus...its not something that happens much.
Will it generate aggro and turn off hide?...it can but not normaly...ie it will generate aggro from its status effect staying on the target.....but here is an interesting thing....if you placate the target or remove aggro while its under a fear effect....ie. if the target is under your fear effect still...it will literally stay feared but for some reason the effect no longer makes the target come after you....i dont know if that makes sense....so for an example...if you attack something and happen to fear some minion....he can be sitting their terrorized....you can then placate him while it is terroized which pulls it out from the terrorized effect but for some reason that target will no longer have aggro on you and will start running around most of the time...ie i assume the ai makes the target affraid but since it has no target to be affraid of it simply makes it run randomly....again this doesnt happen much...as most users with cloak of fear kill the targets that are effected.
Does it supress when hide is active?...yes it does..you can easily test this with attacking some targets...running off....going to hide mode....and running through other targets....notice the new targets dont attack you...but that might not stop the original ones from continualy going after you....and again....probably not something to worry about as like i said you will probably kill the feared targets anywise.
Is there a +mag proc for cloak of fear?.....that i dont know....i dont think their is an increase fear manitude proc. in the game...maybe for controllers their own special archtype enhancements might have something like that but not for stalkers.
So I was persuaded recently to roll up my first Stalker since I first tried, and hated them back in I7. And I'm having an absolute blast with it. NB/DA seems to have a respectable damage output and is quite durable, and I'm not really having endurance problems outside of endurance-draining opponents.
Mind you, I'm only level 23 now, and have much more slotting in my offense than defense.
Q1: I noticed that my current attacks (SotW, FS, AB, DA) seem to basically be up whenever necessary (without any +rech other than from the Stalker ATO set). The only gaps in my attack chain are when I'm under a recharge debuff. I still have SD and GD ahead of me. Should I still bother to get them both?
Q2: Is Placate worthwhile? I have it and it never seems to do much. In fact, I'm usually doing better waiting for Assassin's Focus to go AB and follow with the (Stalker ATO Proc-enabled) SotW. Am I missing something here?
Q3: I haven't taken Acrobatics, and was intending to just slot GD (or some other attack) with a full Overwhelming Force set for KB protection. Is this going to be sufficient, or is more than 4 points really necessary?
Thanks in advance.