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.

Can't comment on the Stalker combo really, but I have an elec/elec Tanker and a BS/SD Stalker... Obviously Lightning Rod is a great ability, I hear it doesn't take you out of Hide, though that could be wrong? I did mess around a bit with elec/elec Stalker cause I really like my Tanker, probably the most fun I've had in this game, and I've seen the /SD combo and talk before, but I honestly wasn't all that impressed with SD as a whole. Shield Charge giving you a mass AoE ability would undoubtedly combo really well with Lightning Rod, the other major point I've seen brought up is giving Stalker Grant Cover is a bit of an oddity. Kind of a interesting tool. With my BS Stalker, Shield Charge was just ok. Unfortunately the main problem I find with the elec/SD is the complete lack of an endurance regen/recovery power (other than the capstone, and I have kind of a personal irritation with powers that exhaust you), and there are a lot of toggles and extra goodies that come with SD, making this very heavy on endurance (as my BS/SD can attest). Probably not that big of a deal if you can fund yourself with an alt and load up on the necessary enhancements early on, or if you don't mind eating blues all day, but I suppose I generally prefer something a little more sustainable without all that extra work. I can imagine it would be pretty fun though after putting enough time in it, and definitely one of the better Stalker power combos overall if that is your concern, since generally speaking you don't get this kind of thing in other Stalker sets. On a side note, Stalker Elec gets all the good stuff, so I think it would combo well with just about anything. Against all Odds in SD... I never really felt like it did anything noticeable, at least for Broadsword (which I have a really hard time liking, it just feels off).

That's quite a bit more of a far-reaching change than just changing Assassin's Strike, probably more to do with your earlier argument about the game being made harder to adjust to these "sweeping Stalker changes". Maybe if it was possible to apply a "negative defense" stat, or something else, to the strike instead that acted like this suggestion, maybe that would be better/easier, almost like an accuracy bonus, but only applying in specific circumstances or something.

That's fine a dandy, but none of that means we can't talk about it or offer suggestions. You can start by coming up with something too so we're back on topic.

I'm going to act like you no longer exist for that incredibly trollish post, Omega. Feel free to stop talking to me whenever you get tired of trying.

The problem we have here is that rather than come up with a solution, and possibly looking like a fool as people jump all over you like you're jumping all over me for merely suggesting that Stalker could have an interesting change to an interesting ability, you'd rather just avoid it and argue some other asinine point about how things can never change because "reasons". I don't care what the trend is, or what you think it is, I care about what things we can discuss to make this particular part of a Stalker fun again, and if just so happens to lead to a change, we'll all be the better for it... but, nah, let's just argue and call each other names like Omega thinks we should do.

But they haven't, because you yourself just stated you never use slow AS. Can we agree on that? Are you implying that you can't think of anything that would make you use slow AS again? Whatever point you're trying to make by dodging this question I don't really care about. What would YOU do to fix slow AS so you would use it again? That's what I want to know.

And this is why I suggested the damage be increased to something equivalent of the rotation you'd take to get a fast AS, but others had good ideas too with some sort of buff/debuff aura, among other things. The suggestion box is open for what people think would be a good change for slow AS to be interesting again (and also consider this change would "fix" placate and make it more useful, too). People would rather argue the word "buff" though, or go with this strange scheme of changing numerous power sets to include generalized powers instead of trying to find solutions to this one simple issue, and the only thing that makes Stalker unique from the rest of the pack... why would anyone want to kill this uniqueness just to make a scrapper with hide? I don't get that.

I'm glad you said this, because it emphasizes the point I've been trying to make the whole time that I think Stalkers need a buff in two particular areas; Assassin's Focus (more of consistence thing) and a more attractive Assassin's Strike. Everything else this thread has stirred up seems to be, more or less, by the fact that I mentioned "buff", without considering the context of said argument.

I'd argue this has more to do with being primarily ST with a majority of their power sets, and when they do get AoE, you're comparing it to AT's that are much better at holding aggro by virtue of having a more complete toolset, on top of Stalkers generally not being the first to hit to avoid the alpha strike that they more often than not can't survive through. Stalker is about being cautious and ambushing strong targets, not gathering up as much aggro as they can, which is less and less effective the further back in time with the power sets you go. Maybe there is a numbers game going on behind the scenes that someone has documented, or maybe it's even in the power info, I've never looked, but granting this as a "strength" of the AT seems rather silly considering how they are supposed to play. Every other AT can practically drop an aggro nuke on every single group you encounter, very few Stalker powersets can boast of the same thing.

It's fairly common, I think, for people to dip into secondaries for powers to slot Luck of the Gambler for cooldown reduction, so I guess you could consider these freebies for that. Invisibility isn't all that useless if you're trying to rush missions.