Microcosm

Agreed. When I tested a bunch of /elec stalkers, the spine one came in at avg 410 dps, which is not bad at all. It's not the top of the pack, but it's also not the bottom. That was running AS Impale Ripper with an occasional Barb Swipe.

Staff/Rad. Staff gives you +defense in a fast recharging AoE attack, +resistance from Sky Splitter at combo level 3, and the opportunity for a bunch of knockdown (drop a knockdown proc in Guarded Spin to complete the goodness). Rad gives you heals, absorb, high/even resists with the ability to cap for windows of time using one of the best two t9s available. Sprinkle in enough defense bonuses to get to s/l or melee softcap and you'll have a very sturdy character. Other contender would be Ice/any, because of Ice patch. It pairs especially well with Bio because the AoE sleep in Ice's t9 will stack with Genetic Corruption.

Sure. I used a couple slightly different builds for the stj actually depending on which chain I was testing, but I think this is the one that went with the best chain. Note that it's a small purple away from softcap. If you start the battle with Shadow Meld or proactively use DNA Siphon/Ablative/Parasitic you'll be fine. Not quite as sturdy as something like Ice or Spines which can have large area crowd control frequently, but still fine.

Good on a human form; not good on a tri. You'll be spending too much time in other forms and the retoggle time is annoying.

Bastion is the best t9 available to a melee class and is absolutely a reason to go Scrapper/Stalker over Brute/Tank for Ice Armor. Ice itself is just meh unless you really invest in it, at which point it jumps to one of the toughest sets there is (thanks mostly to Icy Bastion). You can also still get Hibernate by going with Leviathan patron pool. However, I would actually recommend switching to a Stalker for this combo, as Stalker staff is superior to every other version. This is because staff gets great utility and good AoE, but is a little light on single target damage until you throw in AS.

Trying some more bio stalkers since I ended up liking the ice/bio, procced to the gills. Stj/Bio, T4 Musc Core, T4 Ageless Core, T4 Degen Core, T4 Pyro Core, T4 Assault Core (off) AS SB SC SS AS CU SB MB (only 2 combo points for CU) 1:37 1:44 AS SC SS SB AS CU MB SB 1:30 1:32 1:43 (bad timing) 1:43 (bad timing) AS MB SS SB AS CU SC SB 1:57 terrible, guessing not all -res procs before cu AS SB SC HB AS CU SB MB 1:46 (offensive adapt was off..) 1:43 AS SB SC HB AS CU MB HB 1:48 Did not think that second chain would do the best because it's a cone after AS, but the procs change things I guess. Have to say this one was squishier than the Ice (makes sense) and has much worse AoE; not really a fan. ----------- DB/Bio, same incarnates AS AB SS DB AB AS DB SS AB DB 1:39 1:27 1:43 (bad run) 1:50 (worse run) 1:43 (ok run) AS AB SS PS (more guile procs?) 1:45 2:13 woooow bad, use other chain Much safer (better knockdowns if you can aim a cone, and able to fit genetic corruption) and the AoE is better. 1:27 is the best time I've gotten on a stalker, and it's been with this one and surprisingly the ice/bio. The damage is better than my DB/elec, but not by enough that I want to switch.

If you dislike Ripper and Impale then I don't think Spines is going to be for you. While Barb Swipe is better dpa, it's terrible for procs. The extra procs you can put in Ripper and Impale are most of what makes Spines do good damage (two different purples, a -res and a +build up).

The live one got side tracked by other characters and is still in the 20s, but I ran around rwz killing 54 Rikti when I did the Pylon tests and I really enjoyed it. I added a couple knockdown procs so pretty much every AoE caused knockdown, which made it exceedingly safe. If you're someone who dislikes cones though I would skip it.

Just a note, rad armor on stalkers doesn't have the +rech. That power was what it lost for hide. It is a good set though, and can add some AoE to a set lacking in them (like nin) if you proc its two pbaoes. Nin blade is on the higher side of damage so the s/l doesn't really hurt, and it pairs well with just about anything so go crazy. I prefer it with a resist set because if divine avalanche.

It buffs by 5% if you have boxing and another 5% if you have kick, for a total of 10%, not 100%. That's also per enemy hit though. You can also put a force feedback proc in there, though it will have a lowish chance to fire. It's a pretty good filler if you need one.

I think its likely a good pairing. Savage's blood frenzy stacks give +rech and -end cost, which are two problems Granite imposes, and Granite provides top end mitigation, which Savage lacks completely. Savage doesn't make up for the -damage, but otherwise they look like they complement each other quite well. Let us know how it goes.

In the case of a bind it executes the commands from right to left, so the above will look for a cyst first until there are none, then a void, then a quantum, and then cycle normally via the leftmost command, target_enemy_next. I believe the normal targeting starts with nearest in vision and moves outward.

I've never done Energy Aura on a stalker, but SwitchFade's reply in the other thread seems like good advice to me. For DB you have basically three options, 1) focus on combos (not great performance and will likely disappoint you with misses), 2) go full on recharge for Ablating Strike and Sweeping Strike to try to rotate these powers maximally, and 3) try to increase number of procs and proc firings by not going full recharge in Ablating and Sweeping but getting global recharge where you can. Option 3 will give you the best performance if you can pull it off, and Energy Aura is well placed for this as it gets a +rech power and enough recovery tools that you don't have to slot for endurance in your powers at all if you do it right. Electric and SR are also good secondaries for trying option 3.

If you're looking for human form information, you might want to start here: I prefer to do triform, especially for leveling, and use an alternate build for a human focus or biform focus depending on what you want once you get to a higher level. I currently have a triform main build with a human alt build, but if we ever get toggle suppression that will change to a biform alt build. I would say at least try the forms as you level (they come fairly early) and see if you like them, as you can always respec out of them too.

Dwarf resist is constant, so it should be that until light form crashes. One thing that won't be right in Mids is the Kheldian's Grace IO, if you have it slotted, shows all the bonuses regardless of what form you have turned on. So if you have the superior version of that IO slotted in Mids Dwarf (and Nova) will look like it has 5% more resistance than it will in game, as the resistance part of that IO only actually works in Human form.

I think KM with Concentrated Strike feels better than it actually is (which is probably a good thing). In practice I've gotten a best pylon time of 2:18, and usually more around the 2:36 range for KM/Rad using Concentrated Strike, which is somewhere on the lower end of the middle range for Stalkers. Sir Myshkin also has a couple posts about it in the pylon thread on page 5 where he ended up getting better numbers by ditching the whole Concentrated Strike mechanic. I like the set a lot better on Scrappers actually, even though you won't get nearly as good single target damage because it lacks AS.

Looking back at my old pylon notes, I see that I actually added a Power Slice after SS, because the recharge requirements for SS and BF are still really heavy. Just a heads up there. SR is a great choice for proccing because of the +rech and you have to invest very little to softcap it. The other notable sets are Electric, Energy and Rad, which all add +rech and +recov, with a slight nod to Bio which adds some +recov and some +tohit. Invuln won't be as helpful as those for this, but it's got its own advantages.

I have, after switching to a proc based build. In the pre-PPM version of things that BF AS SS AS chain was much better because of all the -res proc firings. But in the new world, getting to that level of recharge is detrimental to the procs actually firing, so DB got hurt a bit by PPM. You're better off doing the Empower version you've got if you want to leverage procs, though if you want to do that you'll probably want a secondary that supports that strategy with extra recharge, tohit, recovery or some mix of those.

You might get away with proccing Midnight's Grasp as well because of Ageless, but maybe not as it needs to recharge in 4.488 seconds.

Dm/rad stalker, same setup as the claws/rad above. 2:08 2:11 2:09 Dm on Stalkers is not for me for lack of any AoE other than Shadow Maul, but it was asked in the Stalker forums if anyone had tested it so I copied the claws/rad build and tweaked it for Dm.

I spun up a dm/rad and tested it, since I just did a claws/rad and couldn't sleep anyway. T4 Musc Core, T4 Ageless Core, T4 Degen Core, T4 Pyro Core, T4 Assault Core (off) 2:08 427 2:11 421 2:09 425 That's pretty solid considering it can't slot any -res procs itself outside of Waterspout and Radiation Therapy (which I did use). It's just slightly behind the claws/rad, which can slot two different -res procs and a build up proc in its chain (plus the -res in Radiation Therapy again). It's not 100% apples to apples with the other sets because the secondaries are not the same as other tests, but IMO it needs Rad to be playable for the AoE help you mentioned. A better build could be had too, because I slapped it together from the claws/rad I was working with, but you probably wouldn't get a ton more.

Ice/bio stalker, T4 Musc Core, T4 Ageless Core, T4 Degen Core, T4 Assault Core (off) 1:53 467 1:27 569 good procs? 1:47 486 1:54 464 Went with bio for the synergy of Frozen Aura's sleep with Genetic Corruption's sleep, and Ice Patch shoring up bio's otherwise weaker survivability. That plus Shadow Meld works really well. Next, Claws/Rad stalker, same incarnates, but using Water Spout 2:02 442 2:06 432 2:02 442 Picked Rad here to help with the AoE weakness of Stalker Claws, and because it's a really survivable set. Both of these two can handle a +4/x8 s/l farm with some care. For non-pylon play I would also swap to T4 Ageless Radial for extra debuff resistance.

I don't know if it's 120 seconds, but seems to behave like that with some sort of invisible triggered status on you. I know that I've slotted it several times in an AoE, gone to RWZ and started taking down Pylons for tests without that AoE and notice 0 firings. Then I'll remember, "oh I have to go trigger that", go hit a spawn with said AoE, and go back to clearing pylons. It will refresh periodically from that point. I repeat this pretty often on test with the same characters every time I log in because I forget about it.

You have to trigger the power it's in at least once per map to get it to start firing. Figured this out after a looot of Pylon tests. Pseudo pets like shield charge and waterspout will also trigger it but the flavor text will be a different color and it won't recharge the buildup, presumably because it is affecting the attack caster's buildup and the caster at that point is the pet.