Machariel

I took a quick look, the first thing that jumped out at me was that you should put the performance shifter procs into your body mastery powers. However, I don't think you really need those powers at all as Energy Aura is very efficient at keeping you fed on endurance. So if I were looking to optimize (for damage output) I'd swap up those power pools and start moving slots around. This build will certainly be functional and survivable as-is.

This is pretty much the philosophy I used on my Kinetic Melee/Energy Aura, and it's one of my favorite builds. We all know by now that Concentrated Strike is bad, but if you find yourself wanting to use it and really enjoying the build up mechanic, it's also an excellent place for damage procs (ez 90% proc rate) which at least helps you feel better about it not getting critical hits.

Kinetic melee does absolutely slap on stalkers, but it's less because of concentrated strike and more because their assassin's strike casts in like 0.66 seconds or something insane. In the time it takes you to cast CS you can almost use your t1+t2+t3 attacks which will do the same damage, plus the possibility of critical hits, plus a decent shot of recharging build up for free, PLUS you build up more stacks of assassin's focus so you can get back to assassin's strike. That said build up is definitely better than power siphon so if you're into the minigame of casting build up as often as possible stalkers are 100% the best archetype to do it, and if you're the type of player who enjoys using placate this will definitely be up your alley. (I always skip placate because it's more damage to just keep attacking)

I think the only people I have on my ignore list are randos who said mean/vulgar things to me when I was on task forces (usually playing late at night and a few drinks in, so playing, shall we say, 'loose'). There's probably only 1 or 2.

Slots/Enhancements -> Slots -> Auto-Arrange All Slots is what I use when Mids starts acting finicky and not letting me do what I want. 👍

Personally I quite like the momentum mechanic, it's punishing when you miss but rewarding when you combo out and nuke stuff. I went Titan Weapons for my 'magical sword' character because the Excalibur model is badass. Broadsword is not a great set and it's one of the least powerful options for Stalkers. Yeah, you can control your crits and get disembowel criticals on demand (head splitter is only a 50% chance even from hide because it's technically an AoE), and Hack is pretty good, but its Assassin's Strike is very slow. It also has some of the worst AoE for stalkers since your only options are Slice (bad cone) and Head Splitter (again, only technically an AoE). On Stalkers, you trade Whirling Sword (not a great attack) for Assassin's Strike (again, one of the worst AS available to stalkers). What Broad Sword does bring to the table is the ability to slot defense debuff procs in all its attacks (achilles heel / lady grey), some damage mitigation in Parry and the knockback/knockup of Disembowel and Head Splitter, and pretty consistent damage as all of its attacks have about the same DPA. Overall I think it's pretty agnostic to which secondary you pick although I'd recommend one that brings some added damage and preferably AoE damage to the table to help make up for Broad Sword's weaknesses. These would be Shield, Bio, Radiation, and I guess - technically - Fire. Alternatively, you could go for a damage proc heavy build in which case you want to pick a secondary that will give you some +recharge and probably help cover your endurance (proc slotting usually means you skimp on end redux) in which case Energy or Electric are good choices. I will again recommend @Croax's excellent guide to stalkers and particularly this post covering their secondary powers as it's an excellent resource...

👀 hey u (its rdum) There's lots of ways to build fortunatas and there's no clear line between "improving a build" and "changing the concept" - that said I see a number of places where slots could be put to better use: - IMO Combat Training: Offensive can be skipped - between mind link, TT: leadership, set bonuses, and standard accuracy slotting, this power is probably unnecessary - You can save a slot in Hasten by using 2 50+5 IOs - Dominate is best slotted IMO with 5-6 damage procs (last slot acc/dam or acc/mez) - Mask Presence doesn't have a very large defense bonus or endurance cost so I'd 1 slot it with LoTG and call it a day - Tough could actually use some more res slotting - Weave you can probably also get by with a single LoTG or drop completely - Vengeance doesn't need 5 slots (again I'd do LoTG and call it a day) - You don't need the 5% melee defense from the expensive winter set in Psi Wail and the rest of the bonuses aren't so hot - this could be Armageddon w/ the fury of the gladiator -res proc - Similarly 6-slotting TT:leadership to get the 2.5% def to all is not the best return on investment since you have defense to spare - id' go gaussian proc and a tohit/end - Dark Obliteration should probably be 6 slotted - IMO darkest night is unnecessary given that you're already bringing +30% defense (TT:maneuvers + mind link) but maybe it's there for concept - Mental Blast is not a great place for the decimation proc since it has such a short cooldown - pretty low proc chance What could you do with the powers and slots that you free up? many options, some good ones IMO would be... - combat jumping - travel power - subdue to fill out your ST attack chain (and subdue rocks) - gloom to fill out your ST attack chain (gloom also rocks) the good news is that you've got defense and recharge to spare (permahasten and perma mind link and excellent defenses even without incarnate powers) so you've got a lot of room to play with

hey you! 👀 i've been playing overwatch, starcraft, and destiny mostly. and a lot of Jackbox games over discord which has been great keeping up with my friends

Sure, why not: Blightfire - 50+3 Plant/Fire Dominator, my original main back on live. A mutant who's life and powers were irrevocably altered by a Crey plot to kill her mother during the Rikti War. First Impressions - 50+3 AR/Traps Corruptor, a sharpshooting mechanical engineer and the project lead on a cancelled Vanguard power armor project. They let her keep the prototype. Talavera - 50+3 Fortunata [claws-focused], who eschewed all 4 of the Arachnos patrons and defected for reasons unknown. Novaclipse - 50+3 Tri-form Warshade. No special backstory, just a regular Warshade. Phaseskipper - 50+3 Beam/Temporal Blaster, a time-traveling do-gooder searching throughout time and space for more of the crystals that power her laser and armor. Misgivings - 50+3 Arachnos Huntsman, a mercenary selling her services to the highest bidder. Defected from Arachnos when they brought out the Crab arms. Synthwaves - 50+3 Kinetic/Energy Stalker, borne of a bizarre accident involving cybernetic implants, a coma patient, and a 10-hour Youtube music video. Synthblades - 50+3 Dual Blades/Energy Stalker. Alternate power set for Synthwaves. Crusader's Heart - 50+3 Titan/Bio Scrapper, an avatar of the thrill of combat. Curiously fond of the mundane world and a big fan of Meat Loaf. Neutron Drive - 50+3 Street Justice/Rad Stalker, former Terra Volta technician nearly killed in a Freakshow attack. Copper skin. Radioactive. Sylvan Sentinel - 50+3 Dual Blades/Ninjutsu Stalker. Literally a D&D character come to life, and a tireless guardian of the wood. Mydknyght - 50+3 Broad Sword/Shield Stalker. An archaeology student who's ancestor forged an enchanted sword and shield. Best MAGI research collaboration ever. I need more support characters and fewer stalkers. 😅

If anything at 50+ content the importance of archetypes is even further reduced since IOs and incarnates flatten the differences between the ATs. I think CoH probably shouldn't have a damage meter and agree it's at odds with the much beloved "you can make anything work" mentality.

If you haven't read it yet I would highly recommend specifically this post from @Croax's guide, which runs through all of the Stalker secondaries. I think it's pretty much dead on (although I don't much like Ninjitsu). IMO the most well-rounded secondary is Energy Aura, which covers defense, healing, recharge, resistance, and endurance and still leaves a few skippable (but functional) powers. If you also want some direct offense out of your secondary then Shield and Bio are probably your best bets.

My reputation to post ratio is pretty low, so, my position is that it is a completely meaningless number 😅😆

I feel like Titan Weapons is a little bit balanced around how much it sucks to miss with your first attack and have to rebuild momentum. 😅 My pet peeve is enemies with phase shift powers. Master Illusionists aren't too bad if you can stack CC but Desdemona Diabolique lol.... >:[

The sweep combo on Stalkers has a cool positive feedback loop where the more surrounded you are, the more likely you are to reset build up and start chaining sweep combos, so it winds up being pretty decent AoE but only in those situations where you actually need sustained AoE DPS. Kind of an interesting dynamic and one of the things I enjoyed the most about my DB stalker.

I wonder if a constantly teleporting but invulnerable Sorcerer running all over creation aggroing random mobs would be really useful on, say, an asteroid farm, where the best thing a pet could do would be to indiscriminately aggro the entire map. 🤔

So there's two paths: 1) Stalkers can have pretty respectable AoE with the epic pool powers, so you can join in on the AoE fest 2) Target ONLY bosses and disregard AoE completely. AoE is for other people. Make some targeting macros and chunk down bosses so that by the time the AoE fest is over there's nothing left 8-)

Dual blades combos: build up -> Assassins blades -> ablating strike (Sweep combo) there are no other combos for stalkers :’(

I don't think I've ever retired a main, but I'd imagine I'd leave all the sets in and keep the character around just for a comfort pick. Plus, you never know how the game might change or someone might discover a new way to use the powersets that breathes new life into the character!

my first two rolls were a science warshade and technology widow 😭 i already have a warshade and a widow rip thanks for putting this together, maybe my 3rd roll will be something new!

Both of them make a huge difference. It's like stalkers get an extra 2 inherent powers. The chance to hide proc means that about half the time (ish), when you use assassin's strike (in slow or fast mode), you become hidden again and can immediately follow up with a guaranteed crit on your second strongest attack. The build up proc gives all of your powers a chance to recharge build up. It checks on each target so AoEs are pretty likely to reset it. Build Up -> AS -> free critl is really strong no matter which set you're using.

Thank you GM team for running the game so well that I've never had an issue that requires a GM! to have the game back at all is a miracle. to have it run by a competent, dedicated team - and to still be adding new content - is... ... well, a second miracle tbh.

My stalkers so far from oldest to newest: Powers Freq Rank (1-215) Comments Broad Sword / Shield 1/142 #3 i fell for the meme 🤕😅 Dual Blades / Ninjitsu 1/60 #13 Dual Blades / Energy 1/15 #93 much prefer this to DB/Nin Kinetic Melee / Energy 1/49 #22 my current favorite Street Justice / Radiation 1/20 #69 (nice) recently slotted into IOs, seems very strong Ice Melee / Radiation 1/6 #165 needs a concept, haven't played yet KM/EA is the most popular one that I actually play and I can see why. Stalker KM is both good and intuitive (outside of CS), and EA is great, low maintenance, and fixes your endurance for free. I foresee myself making more Rad Armor stalkers in the future. KM/Rad sounds very exciting and there are currently only 10 so it's pretty rare. Dark/Fire (only 2 in the game) actually sounds fun too.

I actually like the shadow shard task forces as they're the only things that really get you into the shadow shard and they reward skills/abilities that don't come up that often, like coordinating team teleports or really getting value out of fly + afterburner. Rularuu are dangerous enough to be interesting. They are long though and I certainly don't run them very frequently. I'd cut missions 4 through 7 out of Synapse.

I mean psychic scream is pretty bad so it sounds like what you're describing is a Night Widow. I think Fortunatas with the claw attacks are a fair bit stronger (mostly because of psi wail but proc'd out Dominate + Subdue are also excellent), but I certainly wouldn't describe Night Widows as 'gimped.'

"Wretch help. Wretch fight!" 🥰 🥰 🥰