Madae

Perhaps we're both just tired and letting our imaginations of our perceived hostilities get to us. I won't deny I can come off as blunt and/or terse, and I will be sarcastic about it, but my intention is not to fight with people. This is why I chose to ignore certain people in this thread rather than give in to their attempts to fence over something I don't believe is an argument that can, or needs to be won.

I suggest you read the last paragraph of the OP to understand why I decided to post this here. Further, you can't deny that getting the input of people who actively play the AT is unnecessary when asking about changes and/or feedback, especially considering the information I've received about it that lead me to believe there are several ways of going about making these changes for better or worse, as opposed to anyone who decides to stumble in and agree or disagree with something posted in the feedback forum, and whether that person comes with an "acceptable" level of experience with the AT or not. That being said, and despite the fact that you'll probably go there right after this and thumb it down (which I would find rather childish, but whatever), I posted in the feedback forum shortly after this thread started to become more active for the one specific change I think is easier to agree to, and left out the other that had much more argument about it.

It could have been worded better. The comment was intended to be a blanket statement on how I'm getting treated here by quite a few people. I tend to edit posts a lot to make sure the point I'm trying to make is getting across correctly. If you took it that way, it was not my intention to place that blame on you. This thread is 6 pages long, I've been "discussing" with people for days now. It's irritating and I'm seriously considering just leaving it where it stands. I generally have zero interest in arguing with people, hence why you appear to believe that I don't actually care about what other people have to say unless they agree, despite the fact that I asked for this discussion in the OP and readily accept disagreement (I simply don't respond to most people, including those that agree), but I've given this thread far more attention than it deserves. I really don't care in the end. I'm not all that invested in the problem, or the longevity of CoH HC, I just want to play Stalker my way and offered up a solution.

I didn't ignore it, I just chose not to comment on it. It was more of a jab at others than you personally. FYI, I addressed it in my previous post to Oyster.

The extra crit chance from stacked focus did actually slip my mind, so I can agree that an adjustment on that could be made. Hidden AS has had a variety of suggestions made for it, I don't know which I would prefer. The bottom line is that I just think it should be more attractive.

I never said you couldn't object or offer suggestions. Very few people in this thread are arguing the merit of my suggestions in favor of whining about a generalized buff, or that it just isn't necessary because reason a or b. If you want to argue the playstyle I suggest isn't necessary, fine, but offer up more than a simple disagreement and elaborate like Oysterhead did. You do nothing to change my opinion if you're not going to give me more than "no".

That was the implication of your comment, whether you know it or not. Ignorance of the argument going on here is your fault, not mine.

I'm sure it's a great build, worthy of being chiseled in stone, but this has little to do with the point I was trying to make in that post. I may try it in the future, though.

So your solution to the problem is no one should be playing Stalker unless they can slot millions worth of influence. Got it. This argument has being going on since practically the start of the thread, and tbqh, it's getting tiring. Not sure why it's so hard for some of you to accept that the changes I offered in my first post aren't game breaking, and, in fact, cater to a playstyle that none of you really have a say in telling me is the incorrect way of playing Stalker. For all intents and purposes, it has zero affect on how you decide to play, but it would have an affect on how people like me want to play, and they're not mutually exclusive. You can ignore that aspect if you prefer, since no one is forcing you to play that way. At this point, I'm going to accept the suggestion made by nihilii and change the name of this thread. Too many of you are getting caught up on the negative connotation of the word "buff", and arguing outside the context of the ideas I presented. I'm going to use this as a case study for new users entering this thread and see how the opinion of the topic changes. Maybe we'll be surprised.

I'm not asking for people to help me in game, I asked him to tell me what sets he had equipped. The point I intended to make has already been mentioned several times in this thread, though; any AT can be awesome at just about any level if you have a dozen sets thrown in it. This isn't a surprise to me, I just find some aspects of the AT questionable, could use some work and offered my suggestions for that.

I'd ask you what sets you had equipped, but I have this funny feeling you wouldn't actually tell me the truth, so I suppose I'll just take your word for it. 🙂

I made it to mid 40's or more before giving up on all of my Stalkers... basically don't know anything about how incarnates help them out, or how that high level 50 play works for them. I may be wrong, but I think you get a pretty good idea of what you'll be doing for the rest of the game by about that time, and that's usually where I figure out I'm not interested. My current Stalker, KM/Bio, is 48, slotted and may actually make it to 50 this time, but I'm wavering.

I tend to read a lot about an AT before I jump in with a build, and I've read a lot on what people have to stay about a Stalker, I'm simply not wholly convinced. There are valid points, such as older sets not being as good as newer sets, plugging that gap they've had historically, and other things mentioned in this thread. The thing I find most interesting is that I've had more fun with my Martial Arts Stalker than the others I've tried (and despite being one of the more problematic sets with heavy ST focus). Maybe it's a theme thing, or I feel like their attacks pack more of a punch, which may not even be true if you compare the numbers. I also tend to stray away from builds that I feel might be overused, simply for the fact that I would rather be something more unique, and that definitely tends to put me in a position of being less impressed with the results for sure. Lately I've been considering making an elec/elec Stalker, since my main is an elec/elec Tanker, and I really enjoy playing that AT, and I think I would be similarly impressed with a Stalker version that may or may not change some opinions I currently have... although, regardless what power set combo I choose, I would still probably gravitate towards thinking that both Assassin's Focus needs to be more consistent (my primary concern) and Assassin's Strike needs to be tweaked to be more attractive (a wishlist), neither of which I think are all that controversial in the end. I've already submitted feedback for Assassin's Focus, because I think that's, more or less, something people can more readily agree to without too much argument. Slow AS... that seems to be a more hotly debated issue. And, of course, I could just make an elec/SD and teleport bomb big groups of mobs for big damage numbers... I've never quite been a fan of punching with a shield though (not a Captain America theme fan all that much, though I like his character). I'll also add that my current Stalker is a KM/Bio build, which is ok, but does suffer from some slow animation, and I'm a bit on the fence with how much I like the Concentrated Strike/build up thing. It's the furthest I've gone with slotting a Stalker, and has full sets of both ATO's, among other things, but I'm still undecided on whether or not I enjoy it enough to keep playing it. Recently deleted my Stj/SR Stalker, too, I just didn't like the theme or the results, despite what I've read about it being one of the best combos in the late game. This isn't meant to suggest that I think these more popular builds aren't "good" overall, they're just not how I want to play a Stalker, hence the suggestions.

That's a pretty bold claim that I'm less inclined to agree with over something like "some experienced stalkers say this". There's simply no way for you, or anyone else for that matter, to know what the entire population of "experienced stalkers" thinks about this without a census and poll at the very least. Forums are not a very good place to use as a reference for "people say this", since a majority of players do not use forums, nor does your personal circle of friends and or comments you see from the random person in global chat. From what we can gather from this thread, from what I've seen in my other thread, and the arguments taking place here, we can at least determine that there are some people questioning the state of the stalker, while some clearly don't.

I suppose I do play my Stalker how I think they should play, and maybe I'm just not completely sold on the idea that I should drop/avoid/ignore the one unique aspect of the class that drew me to it in the first place for the sake of being 100% efficient, or simply be like every other AT I can play instead. But again, if we're talking about what a Stalker can potentially do, cool, but why play a Stalker when you can do that same thing on a better, more well-rounded AT? I would just assume play my Blaster for various reasons I stated in my first few posts of this thread. And arguably without the ATO's, and a lot of influence to slot yourself, Stalkers do tend to play very cautious, at least up until the point that they have the defensive powers, and correct enhancements, they need to allow them to be more flexible, but they're still rather limited depending on what power set you got suckered in to, which not every new player signing up to play a Stalker will recognize right off the bat. Ultimately, I feel like I've addressed these types of points already in the thread.