Madae

Who said anything about being right? There is no right or wrong here, it's an opinion, and so far people agree with my opinion. I could just as easily say the exact opposite of what you said, too. Conjecture is not a valid argument.

There's a notable difference between that thread and this one... people actually agree with what I've said. But maybe that doesn't matter. Maybe it's just not reasonable to question anything CoH did or HC does. We should just live with it and not ask questions or make suggestions.

Maybe they should play a Stalker... I'm sure I can't think of any reason why they wouldn't just do that...

I'm referring to the chip on your shoulder.

Can't say I'm surprised that you'd double down on that. It's probably harder to admit to the slightly insulting and patronizing tone of your post, but I guess that's just my problem, eh? At any rate, it's not a discussion that needs to be "won", especially with someone that holds your opinions that likely won't change anyway. All I cared about is hearing more about why you think the things you do, not defeating you in verbal fisticuffs, so I don't feel like I need to address it, only listen to what you have to say.

Better, but could have done without that tinge of attitude. I will consider your opinion as nothing more than that, and it appears that you've had this conversation before and need to justify it to "new people" often enough to be annoyed(?) by it, which leads me to believe it's not all that uncommon and I'm not the only one that thinks this (evidenced by some in this thread having mixed opinions about it as well). We can agree to disagree on how this topic could be addressed. I'm under no illusion that anything I think will see any actual development, but it's interesting to talk about at the very least and see what other ideas, suggestions and comments people have on it, so thanks for that at least.

This post would be better if you offered up an opinion on why you think this. It sounds oddly familiar, by the way, and isn't very helpful (see previous posts). I mean, if you don't want to have a discussion, that's fine, but it's not a convincing argument and does nothing to change opinions on the subject. I'm also very suspicious of any claims from people that apparently "enjoy the class so much" that they think absolutely nothing is wrong with it, or it couldn't be better.

It depends on the damage you're expecting them to out perform on. Stalkers should absolutely be better at single target, imo... but since the way its going, we just seem to be getting stalkers more equalized with scrappers by giving them access to the powers they didn't have in the past... instead of buffing their unique power that I think they should focus on instead. Scrappers are better, or were better, at AoE. Stalkers were designed for single target. I don't see a problem with that as long as some things change, but it is what it is.

Some really good stuff here. Sancerre really nailed down what I was trying to say, too. I think it's 10, and sure it's low, but you'll most likely be 50 by the time you slot both sets, unless you already have some alts that farmed a lot of it for you. For the new player coming in to the game and thinks "Hey, Stalker sounds cool", they will likely find themselves in a position of being extremely disappointed at how well they fare vs literally every AT they end up grouping with. It definitely takes a very specific mindset and what you want to go about doing, mostly for thematic reasons I think, that keeps a Stalker player - the type of player that cares more about how "cool" they are, versus how effective they are, and with enough work, you can get there for sure, but that's a lot of investment in comparison to other AT's. I've never quite been a fan of the argument "It's an MMO, the "real game" starts when you hit 50" - not that you're saying that, but just as an added note here - where generally I think the most fun part of MMO's is everything in between the start and finish, and this is where you see Stalker being that red-headed step-child that everyone finds tolerable, but could otherwise completely live without. That's a good point... but if we're going to play in this mess, so to speak, we should definitely be considering balance even more because of it. Also, it was possible to switch sides in launch, yeah? I never did it personally, but I wouldn't guess that you'd automatically become a scrapper if you did. I didn't really play Stalker all that much in live, because I generally found them pretty lame back then, too, so this is a long-running problem at this point.

The 3 charges in this ability should have a shared cooldown that is refreshed after every attack power until spent on an Assassin's Strike. The focus buffs are really inconsistent, and also tend to fall off just as I'm about to use my strike. I have another thread in the Stalker forum about this, among other things that I think need to change, but I think this idea by itself is not all that controversial and could be agreed upon without too much argument.

I'm not an expert, but I really like my Elec/Elec Tanker. Only have something like 78% resist and 20% defense and I don't really explode all that easily. Toxic damage is all I really have to worry about, but I'm slowly building that up with sets. You get a heal, you get a endurance clicky, you get AOE damage and resists for just about everything. Probably the most fun I've had in this game, as I tend to choose based on theme and more often than not end up with something mediocre and not all that interesting, but I have no issue with E/E at all.

Yes, the ATO's synergize well, but that is exactly the point I was making that most of the "help" Stalkers get come from outside sources, more or less a bandaid for the problems inherent in the class, and does nothing for people who don't have those things yet, ie the "level 50 stacked set OP" Stalker. The fact that their old power sets are mostly garbage and only the newer power sets are good really highlights the problem the AT faces, and if the solution to Stalker is "out with the old, in with the new", we're still not really solving the problem, you're just avoiding it and potentially limiting the pool of Stalkers to very few power sets that work instead of changing some questionable things about the AT in general... that seems like more work to me when you can just make all of their older sets viable by increasing base Stalker potential and adjust things as you go along and find out new issues with those changes. I don't really consider any of this OP territory to be honest. If they were truly OP, I would think I'd be seeing a lot more of them around, and that is simply not the case. Other classes do generally the same things, but "better" or "safer" or "consistently", however you want to put it, and this isn't even getting in to the part where AoE rules the game and AT's that everyone ends up playing because it's just more fun or more efficient or just altogether easier to accomplish and do well with, plus the other toys they generally come with compared to a very specific set of melee options + some defensive clickies and that's it for Stalker. And one other more important thing to point out I think is that if the method is adjusting their new power sets to include things that they were historically missing, you're basically just making the Stalker a Scrapper to cover it all up, only slightly worse defensively, and doesn't really do any of the unique things that Stalker comes with (see not even bothering to stealth strike since it's a waste of time). I find that an odd choice for a fix instead of trying to play to their strengths.

I don't see where anyone can come up with this. What exactly makes them OP? Is this a end game, 100 hour, set IO filled OP? Because that's pretty much every class in one way or another. Or is it the "Stj has the highest DPS on a Pylon" OP that I read somewhere? I need more info.

I definitely haven't played all Stalker combos, so maybe others, like you said, perform better than some options. I typically find that my Assassin's Strike isn't nearly as cool as I would want it to be, at any rate. It should literally be overkill: "the button", like for example I'm running +2, maybe even higher, I should have no problems at any time deleting a boss with a stealth Assassin's Strike, but as it is, results often vary from set to set, and it's most often I need a follow-up or two (or three) to finish the job on even same-level bosses sometimes (most likely a resist issue, but still), which I think defeats the purpose of a Stalker altogether. If a bunch of other AT's can have fun massacring big groups, even single targets, and have all these flashy attacks, etc, I should feel the same way about my ability to remove that single threat from the fight easily. The problem should then be about my ability to actually hit the target, whether or not I can get away without dying, or something else. The fact that a Stalker is in melee and already in danger adds to their problems, so it needs to be better offset with the strength of being an extreme glass cannon on single targets aka insta aggro, and if the mob happens to survive the hit (like an Elite Boss or Arch Villain), they are now in trouble and probably soon to be dead from retaliation, which would make the Stalker revert to the more classic damage damage damage insta combo to avoid drawing too much attention that they certainly should not be able to handle all that well.

Posted this in discord feedback, but I guess it would probably do more here... I feel like Assassin's Focus needs to have a shared timer for all 3 stacks that is refreshed when you use an ability, so when you finally choose to use your Assassin's Strike, a charge doesn't unexpectedly fall off and ruin the whole setup. It's too inconsistent, and slightly annoying, when trying to target mobs that don't need a huge burst like that and it would be better saved for something more deserving, but then misses because you took too long to act. I also think Assassin's Strike from stealth should do 5x damage instead of 3x. I find it pretty ridiculous that almost all high level Stalkers, or at least the opinion, is that they don't even utilize this class "strength" since it's so much more "efficient" to just combo up and get the instant strike instead, so it seems like, to me, it should at least do more damage than all of the strikes necessary + assassin-insta combined, and would also make placate useful again. Arguably Stalkers are already pretty terrible at everything else, so they really need some sort of change like this, imo, and on the surface, I don't think it would unbalance the game all that much, plus make them more enticing in this playing field that's completely dominated by mass AoE. Also what I've noticed is that my Blaster (Beam/Atomic Manip) can just as easily delete a single target, and perhaps even better than my Stalker, and this is not even considering the other tools they, as an AT, have (with AoE's). With the numbers crunched, maybe it is or isn't true that Stalker DPS is already very high comparable to other AT's... but that's against a single target... that also doesn't move (since everyone likes to do tests against Pylons), but let's just say, for the sake of argument, that, in general, Stalker DPS is really high... that's cool and all, but no one is lining up to play them because let's just be frank here; Stalkers are pretty plain and boring in the greater scheme of things. They have all these cool tools that differentiate them from other classes, and yet they are, as a class overall, mediocre in comparison. MAYBE with heavy set slotting, a lot of time, effort and patience, Stalkers really start to shine, but that doesn't really do anything for anyone but the most dedicated Stalker. I suppose I will probably get some arguments about this, and that's fine... tell me where I'm mistaken and we can discuss it more thoroughly, but I've tried half a dozen Stalkers since I started playing again recently, all to around 40+, and they just aren't all that they're cracked up to be. I want to like them, maybe they're just "not for me", which I think is a cop-out for their clear design problems, but maybe others can tell me different - obviously there will be people out there that have put much more time and effort (I call that pain) into this than me.

Doesn't matter really, cause the animation changes the look of the shield. I noticed when I had the Targe it didn't really stay out all that often, even when not using powers, but the cool thing about the Vanguard shield is that it does stay out in idle, so it's kinda neat to have a tiny shield on your arm all the time. When you use a shield power, it "unfolds" into a larger shield. For simplicity sake, the unanimated Vanguard shield would do just fine, maybe there could be a secondary visual option for it to not have it animate, because it does have those categories already, there's just no other options there. Including a Rapier could be trickier, especially since a few of the Broadsword animations really don't fit a finesse weapon. Ideally, Hack, Head Splitter and Disembowel would maybe have a secondary animation for something more pokey.

The Vanguard shield would actually be the perfect size, if only it didn't animate. And yeah, swapping the Rapier from Dual Blades to Broadsword doesn't seem like it would be too hard. Here's to hoping that something does get added.

Do new things get added from time to time? Had an idea for a duelist styled hero and was hoping something like a Rapier would get added for Broadsword and a smaller shield, like a buckler or forearm guard, for Shield Defense.