Riverdusk

With liberal use of kb to kd IO's you can definitely be "team friendly" and also contribute quite a bit. I like the idea @Zepp has of having two builds, one "chaos" and one "controlled", although expensive to do of course.

MM's are probably the most "different" play style possible, so I can definitely see them not clicking with some people. Have also heard according to the stats they are the AT most likely for people to start and then abandon before reaching 50. So, you aren't the only one. I think MM drawbacks are well known, but at least for me mostly it was just finding a MM combo I could make both "sturdy" (like most people I don't like having to resummon a lot), and with pets you find "cool". I just love the way grave knights whack things, even though I've tried playing a broadsword scrapper myself and didn't care for it nearly as much that way.

I'd definitely lean toward brute. Brute's have the higher resistance cap and probably just as important, a built in taunt aura to help prevent runners.

As a necro/sonic that hits both of your worsts, couldn't disagree more. One of the stronger characters I've ever played, and currently my highest in vet levels (only like vet level 8 and tier 3 of most incarnate stuff, but I alt a lot). 🙂 As to a couple of the worst sets imo: Ice control: Not that you can't make it work and it isn't absolutely terrible (unless you are trying to solo with it as a controller), but it is just so outclassed by every other control set now a days especially with the way you can IO bonfire now. Trick arrow: I hear so often from people, "trick arrow is so underrated!"....yeah, I don't see it. I even tried illusion/ta that is actually suppose to have some good synergy....couldn't stick with it and it still felt weak...and I love illusion.

Actually a lot of Malaise's attacks aren't positional at all. He has those few psi attacks that have no vector (mostly mind control set attacks). He even did a number on my SR stalker before I remembered how he works. Luckily he doesn't hit as hard as some AV's.

Never heard a dev, either live or on HC, say that was the reason. But I've heard that as a player response before to a request to give stalkers mace, "You could play a bane". They are probably just trying to give a "helpful" alternative though, not saying it shouldn't be a thing. At least I'd hope so. It really wouldn't be stepping on a bane's toes anymore than a claw stalker steps on a widow's.

Yep, Lambda is painful. BAF is fun though.

Yeah, it is very inconsistent. I had people swear /time's -regen debuffs stacked, but went on to test server to confirm they do NOT. Then I was surprised when testing /dark's twilight grasp and finding it did stack.

I haven't really done much testing on procs in tornado or water spout, but one big difference between the two to note. Tornado does knockback, water spout only does knock-up. So, I tend to skip slotting a kb to kd IO when I take water spout. I can maybe see some still taking it as the knock-up is high enough of a mag that it can still be somewhat annoying to melee when it flings them up REALLY high sometimes, but I find there are better ways to use that slot since it doesn't scatter things around nearly so much as tornado does.

I find that a little funny as if anything I tend to forget to keep the -res disruption field toggle going, but I definitely try as it is such a good power. Mostly is an issue on maps with any kind of elevators because annoyingly the toggle turns off almost every time when the team has to use one. It triggers the "target is too far away so toggle is turned off" thing that disruption field has unless you hit the elevator at almost exactly the same moment. I'm constantly casting the shields, but I'm also a MM. MM's probably actually make the most consistent buffers because we want to keep our pets alive. We just happen to hit the rest of the team in the process. 😄

Agreed. Some might say just play a bane soldier, but that just isn't the same. Could also try a WM/Ninja scrapper and I have been tempted as with ninja you still get the guaranteed crit from hide and a guaranteed crit on clobber sounds amazing, but still wouldn't be quite as nice as having it on a stalker.

I'd still like to see triage beacon (and spirit tree) have their recharge cut in half (could also cut duration in half to keep it "balanced"). That alone would make it much more useful as you could get it out more often. Most of the time a team moves on way before the duration expires anyway. Seems like an easy fix.

Wes Schnabel has been bugged for a while now, you can do a search on his name and you'll see the threads on it. Athena should be working fine. When you actually get arcs is often random and you'll sometimes have to do a lot of their non-arc missions before they'll start the arc.

Purple patch. I heard the "self cast" thing before so was thinking effectiveness of interface debuffs were not affected by level differences, but now it sounds like perhaps everything is. Would make the small -15% regen you get for each stack of diamagnetic even more tiny against the AV's you actually need it for if it is reduced by level difference as well. Easy enough to test for myself, but if you happened to already have done so...

Did you happen to test the interface procs as well? Like for example the tohit debuff and -regen of diamagnetic?

I hit up an NPC who's name starts with an "M" and checked my play time on my last couple of 50's (I only have 3 total at this time) right near when they hit level 50. I took 60 hours and 75 hours on the two to reach that level with the way I play and level up. Even shaving that down to about 50 hours per 50, and even playing 16 hours a day, it'd take me about 18 years to play all 2113 combo's to 50 with the way I like to play. I don't think I'll be trying this myself, but good luck to you @BasherBot. 😄

Yep, you'd have to click on their name to check it. There is an option to have it "Always Show" under Options-Windows-Reticle, so you'll also see it immediately if you are within sight of them. About as good as it gets for now.

Except for Vengeance, unless you're nemesis and get to cheat.

Duo MM's I think would be pretty fun and amazing, but I'm a big MM fan, so might be a bit biased. Controller wouldn't be bad either so you can lock everything down and don't have to worry about your pets chasing after runners. The new pet AI and all the slows in /time don't make that something critical to have though. Go with what seems most fun. This game is easy enough you don't have to min/max to be effective with any duo really.

To an extent I'd say yes. They don't taunt, but if you have them attack first (and especially if they are one of the sturdier combo's) it can take enough of the edge off those first strikes, as long as you aren't getting too crazy with difficulty. Sounds like you want a smooth journey on the way up, so I'd probably do something with /time which I feel is one of the strongest and easiest to use secondaries. If you stick with it, later on it can almost make you all into tanks. Almost any primary would work, thugs or bots or even beasts to stack the defense with early would probably be best.

Have to take dispute with this being a DM stalker. With the buff to shadow maul, DM's aoe is not much different than ninja blade/broadsword now, they both have one wide cone. Only real advantage is golden dragonfly's absolutely tiny cone, which in my experience isn't something you can ever count on. Could even argue that shadow maul is better than NB or BS's one wide cone as shadow maul is harder hitting and a longer recharge, so it crits harder and is more procable. Shadow maul also has a 10 target cap instead of only 5. Energy melee and martial arts are the only "real stinkers" now, as they have exactly zero aoe. That's what I put on the level as "stinker".

Agreed on this point and that @Sir Myshkin made as well. Don't have this combo on a scrapper, but on my DM/SR stalker I tried both and generally found rebirth more useful than barrier, even with siphon life. I'm thinking things like Rularuu eyeballs who just tear you up almost no matter how much defense you have, fighting AV's like Malaise that throw out a ton of non-position psi attacks....or of course a few lucky hard hits in a row against you no matter what that siphon life can't keep up with. Between rebirths huge heal and then its huge +regen (definitely go regen side), it really fills in that gap nicely against the few things that get through. You could also of course eventually get both and run barrier in i-trials if you feel the need and equip rebirth for "normal" content.

EA is overall a very well balanced set with a lot of layers. It has the 2nd highest innate defenses (only slightly behind SR, although typed instead of positional), and then also has a built in heal, endurance management, a +recharge bonus, and some basic level of resistances. Nothing wrong with shield though, I'd say shield trades some survivability for better damage. Shield has a damage bonus and an extra aoe attack. Shield is also generally going to be better against psi attacks as most psi attacks have a positional vector to them and EA doesn't have any built in psi defense. EA would have to try to get psi def/res from pools/IO's.

As mentioned, not a bug. Night Widows have smoke grenades which cause the blind effect. You can counter it by using yellow inspirations, tactics, +perc SG empowerment buff, or a +perc IO (in the tohit buff set). The SG buff and IO +perc values are rather weak though, so not entirely sure how well those work by themselves. There are other various powers that also grant +perc (a few armor powersets have them, some buff powersets, also focused accuracy in epic powerset).

Another often overlooked help is the +recovery buff you can get from a SG empowerment station. It is a 17% recovery buff (which is a bit better than having an extra Miracle slotted). It lasts for 1.5 hours at a time (despite its description saying only 1 hour), and only costs 3 pieces of cheap salvage. Also can be renewed in seconds thanks to the quick SG tp code. I use the recovery and recharge (easy +20% global recharge) SG buffs almost constantly on my characters now. Keep stacks of the salvage needed for them in a salvage storage rack right next to the buff station. I do like body master too though (focused accuracy and energy torrent are also great imo), so nothing wrong with that epic.