Wow Stalkers have been improved a LOT.

So I haven't played a Stalker in years maybe since like slightly after Issue 6. This was back when their criticals only occurred on Sleep / Held mobs. They have definitely been improved a ton since then and I am surprised there aren't more.

1) Are all their AOE's critical hit from hide now? I am not sure if its just the powerset I tried out but they used to be like 33% or 50% I believe chance to crit from hide.

2) AS is just plain awesome now. It feels like the old energy transfer. The extra side effects from hide are nice too.

3) Placate I almost feel like I don't need anymore. Used to be the only way to control criticals but with the Scrapper ATO you hit AS then you get a guaranteed critical.

Overall they definitely seem like a lot more fun to play and deal some serious damage.

No, I think only Burst from KM crits from hide 100%. All other are 50%.

But yea, Stalkers are great now.

Placate is useful solo, where it can be used for a quick breather during a prolonged fight (Elite boss, for example). but in team situations, nope. Never really see a use. But it's become a much more situational power with the changes, certainly.

What's even better is that Lightning Rod does not take you out of hide. So you start with that, AS some one with the Stalker ATO to hide you again, then use another power for crit damage. Yea, electric stalkers are fun .

I liked my ele/ele stalker before the changes, but after them, YES, he's so much more fun!!

Placate is worthless for me. So is Overload (I think that's the T9 armor)....I dunno if it's because I have barrier up all the time, and if I need to use Overload, it's already too late or won't help much-- or what.

However, the T9 armor is sorta worthless in the current incarnated state of the game. If I need it, I'm gonna die anyway. I'm not sure if this is "fixable," or just an unfortunate consequence of incarnate powers that shouldn't be fixed.

I'd almost argue Overload needs a strong regenerative component for me to even see it being able to save my life. Or, perhaps, the T9s should allow you to bump up over the caps on def/res. As it stands, Overload probably adds a few more points to my lesser protected stats and I get stomped anyway.

Not that I'm saying I should be able to withstand anything thrown at me and be like a tank, I'm just saying: it makes NO noticable difference for me when I need to use it-- and in a few minutes, I'm going to be drained of all my END and most of my health and my shields will drop to boot. That is the definition of a power I won't use, and therefore, isn't worth taking. If you waste one of my power options on a power as such, it should actually do something for me.

This is my first real "melee character".....so, i'm not up to speed on def/res armors. Maybe there's something I'm missing here.

I thought that bug was being considered a feature since Burst is the only AoE in the set?

On the plus side the Concentrated Strike Crit from Hidden was confirmed to be WAI

I think it was Issue 22 where they went through all the AoE powers and set their critical hit from Hide chances to 50% across the board, save for Burst, which got missed and will be set to 50% when they swing back around to it.

Stalkers are 1000% more fun to play with the new, this time actually improved, Assassin's Strike.

But, just not for farming with such minimal AoE that's a noway nohow. And with that one good awesome 100% crit from hide AoE they get being slated to be nerfed eventually, too--my KM stalker would probably drop Burst as well once it loses that perk. Can always flip out and double that build-up with Conc Strike leading into a insta-AS while the rest of the team splash damages everything else to the ground.

One of the first informative videos I did were on the stalker changes - although I should probably remake that thing sometime.