Without_Pause

A Stalker dictates the initial strike. This means before the battle has started, it has already moved in favor of a Stalker. It is harder, but not impossible due to ranged attacks, to do the same with a Blaster. A Stalker can do the minimum for a mission. Again, a Blaster could do the same, but it will take more effort to do so, and a Stalker can do it at level 1. Stalkers have built in mitigation. Even if a Blaster can get similar or equal amounts of mitigation in the end(Incarnates), a Stalker gets it much earlier. "What about ambushes?" And? I get what Hide offers, but considering most of the time I'm attacking isn't while in Hide, then not having it isn't a big deal. I'm more annoyed if I'm trying to Stealth for speed reasons and I'm forced to fight, but again, a Blaster doesn't have an advantage here either.

Still not the equivalent of actual taunt auras. To the topic on hand, if I want to run brain dead radios, I would bring something like Rad/stone or maybe /bio Brute, Plant/ta Controller, or a Fire/kin. At that point people are mostly there to be my audience.

Unless you took Taunt or similar power, you have no way to actually hold aggro on a Stalker, so no, you did not actually tank. You might have gone in first, but that isn't actual tanking. Hell, my support characters would be classified as tanks if all it took was going in first.

Considering how often I take Taunt, I am far closer to a Scrapper.

One of the few ATs I don't have at 50 is a Tank. Not like I haven't tried. If there is one AT I would reach for in terms of radios, a Tank ain't it. A Brute can cakewalk +4/x8 radios on a team.

Holding aggro and buffing/healing teammates tend to be different ATs. Honestly, the bar for radios is so slow I would say */*.

Better than /shield? Does /ea's 20% +recharge win out?

The answer will always be a /fire Brute as long as it can cap S/L Def/Res. I might still take it even if the numbers aren't 100% there. /dark only really offers a damage aura for added speed, so it would rank low for a set with a damage aura. /fire has that, EF and Burn, which is currently tweaked a bit too good. If not /fire, than /bio as the damage aura and Offensive Adaptation will win out versus anything else. Even /elec with it's +recharge would be better than /dark. For primaries, Rad is the current answer for as long as ideal slotting for IG can be 6 slotting procs. Saying that, having one of each at 50 and near completion: Farming: Rad/fire > * Non-Farming: Rad/bio > Rad/fire. I don't have one, but a more than good enough to farm and just one of the best overall would be Rad/stone. It might be 3rd for farming just to give a number, but it is definitely in the 'world breaker' conversation.

I would lean towards going Brute for /dark. I would do /ea or /sr for a Scrapper.

Stalker/Scrapper with /nin can work. You get added movement speed with your mezz protection. StJ would work with both as it has smooth quick cast times. For Scrappers, I would add in Kat or Claws.

I think Claws/rad is fine on a Scrapper. I can see doing it on a Brute as well. Spin has lower recharge on a Scrapper so it is definitely a case of do you want to be more offensive or sturdier?

BS on a Stalker has less AoE although you are only missing out on a cone. The advantage to Shield on a Stalker is Shield Charge doesn't break Hide so you can use it and then follow up with something else and the follow up will crit. In short, there's nothing about the combo which really swings one way or the other.

They took the best attack for Claws and removed it. They took an AoE with a long animation time and made it ST. In other words, it got rid of two AoE, but you get two high damage ST attacks and one with a long animation time. So yay? If they had switched Evis for AS, that would be easily be an S tier set and might even outdo the Scrapper version which is likely why they didn't do it, but damn, the alternative was brutal.

First of all, Croax has done a stellar job of listing out any combo and having a build for it here. Secondly, you aren't getting responses due to Claws on a Stalker being the thing that should not be. It is one of the worst conversions from other ATs this game has. /dark isn't that great either as a Stalker's lower HP mixed with a resist based set is another knock against the combo. By all means play what you want to play, BUT I would roll this for any other melee AT. I would lean on going Brute as that's a nice combo of offense and being sturdy. A fury fueled damage aura and Claws. Mmm.

*/kin. Anything with a decent amount of DoT is going to be better. I can't fathom going Kin/fire when there is a Corr option.

I get your point. I just find it to be wrong.

AE giving the same rewards as other content would be a buff to AE content. You do realize that? I mean, what specific rewards are coming from AE which aren't coming from elsewhere? If I can blow through +4/x8 content in and out of AE, how is AE specifically giving me more rewards? Hell, I can do story arcs in regular content and get Merits for it as well.

Make negative AE changes on a low pop server and see what happens? I'll tell you what happens. Nothing. As in the sample size is going to be too low to really come to any sort of logical conclusion. I mean, lets make a negative change to the game and see what happens? Me saying it would have a negative impact is "a theory?" So a negative impact is actually going to lure people back to the game? It isn't like CoH news updates are on the top of gaming news. Lets say AE is even completely removed from the game. Yay, no more farming. Except, there's literally farmable content already in the game outside of AE. That's where I and others would instantly go if AE was removed.

This would get a number of people to leave the game. Considering the current trend in population size, I don't think you want to pour gas on it.

My point still stands on it just being about damage and more damage. Oh, and if you want to complain about the lack of damage types in farms, may I present to you The Council? I did +4/x8 on them before level 50 and with a regular build. The mission wasn't even in AE.

There's so much wrong in this. Like, they aren't weakened. Capped resist and Def while not required is vastly sought after. As is enough end recovery. Attempting a farm based on sheer damage alone will leave one faceplanting. A lot.

Clearly it is over 9,000%!!!

Unless you play hardcore, there is zero risk outside of AE as well. Death is inconvenience. It is not a risk. A risk of using an awaken, having a teammate rez you, or going to the hospital? Puh lease. Level something like a blaster without 2x XP boosters. Get it in the 40s and then have it die knowing you have to delete the character as is. That's hours of play time lost.

I feel like if you are PLing a character to 50 to just see how much you like them means you don't know you can pop a build into Mid's and export that into Test. I'm glad they reverted the change. I honestly don't know how much of an impact it would have had on me. My farmer is built to do stuff outside of AE. It just seems like an odd way to go about things.