Sovera

You can't, since the recharge only happens once the animation is finished. Even if it takes one second to animate and you have it down to one second to recharge you will always have one second between uses. Negative recharge is never going to happen.

Personally I'd go with War mace. It nips at TW's heels, has no awkward mechanics, and has no nerfs incoming.

Pretty much every resist based armor can reach 90% to most thanks to the ATO and Barrier. It's so easy it does not bear mentioning. Where real build-fu comes is doing 90% to all plus softcapping S/L or melee on top of getting decent recharge. Dark Armor with a lot of recharge debuff resistance is near unkillable because of Dark Regen. Something that heals 60% HP every 10 seconds on top of 90% resists is going to be near impossible to put down. It can still happen though, which is why I feel that Dark Armor/Ice Melee is one of the most OP combos. Ice Patch buys a *lot* of time and negates a lot of damage. But Rad Armor achieves near the same with Radiation Therapy being Dark Regen's little cousin, plus the absorb shield, plus the regen Rad Armor brings, plus the +recharge aura (the more targets the more recharge it gives), plus TWO endurance recovery tools (Dark Armor has a fat zero). IMO Rad Armor has moved to meta levels and even has a couple mini nukes in the set though I personally never used them. Bio Armor is a difference beast. It does not nearly have the resists of a resist based armor and at most only S/L can reach 90% (the rest reaches a 45-50%. More for toxic, less for psi). It's sole selling point is that it is an offensive set like Fire Armor. It comes with a -5% to -7.5% (if I'm reading HD correctly, I know it's 7.5% on a Scrapper) res to damage on top of a damage aura on top of 25% extra damage from Offensive Adaptation. The downside is that it does nothing well so a lot of IO (and subsequently slots) are eaten trying to reach decent numbers, which in turn makes things really tight to make a decent build that tries to place a finger on all pies. It has good elemental defenses, but almost no elemental resists, and it has good physical resists, but zero physical defenses. And to top it is has no defense debuff protection so the first whiff of a roman, Banished Pantheon or even Crey and the defense side of things gets mowed down.... which is bad for the elemental side of things. It's why many a happy OP Bio Scrapper or Brute does the ITF for the first time and hugs the ground very very fast. As I said many many months ago Bio is almost a noob trap. The 25% damage is good bait but choosing a different armor will allow more freedom in slotting which includes throwing multiple damage procs in there. Scrappers don't really mind this since they are not meant to tank things and they have Shadow Meld. They can cap themselves as they run to a spawn and spend 15 seconds with a ton of defense to their name. 15 seconds later much of the spawn is dead.

And Bio Armor.

With Radiation Therapy you should not have endurance problems. It recharges so blimmin' fast. What you probably lack is a Theft of Essence proc in it to increase your endurance gain.

I'd go with Ice Melee. Ice Patch with is radius increased with the tanker buffs would make anything not KB resistant simply flop around until it died. No need to faff around with anything and KB tends to work on everything, even AVs, and when it fails, well, taunt is a form of CC?

What I extract from this thread is that most of the people present here have some fantastically thin skins.

Damn, you're right, it was at 93% for +3 and then I messed with slotting and lost accuracy and didn't notice. I'll work on it. Edit: Fixed. 93% is good enough for +3 and I don't fight +4 under level 50.

I've already played a Kinetic Melee Stalker and Scrapper in the past but paired with Bio. The problem with KM is that it has low damage hits. Yes, I know, I can't ugh at long animations (implied: who do biggo damage) and then ugh at short animations who are light on damage. But using the T1, T2 and T3 means it's low individual hits. Bio being slot hungry to reach defense caps did not allow for frankenslotting, but this time I've decided to try a KM with minimum of three damage procs per attack (Smashing Blow has four, AS has only one since, lets face, it hits hard enough on its own and needs a lot of endurance and recharge since it is the linchpin of ST damage). This while still having enough accuracy and maxed damage, no recharge to maximize proc chance, some endurance reduction. This is all aimed at countering the low damage of the early attacks. According to HD this shows as a small progressive improvement the higher the tier: - T1 goes from 133 to 166. 22.3% chance for each proc. - T2 from 186 to 229. 35.4% chance for each proc. - T3 from 262 to 371. 47.8% for the two regular procs, 61.5% for the purple proc. Plenty decent I must say. But it's not all big improvements since the base damage is what gets multiplied by crits, not the proc damage. But since the base damage is maxed anyway it was not a matter of choosing one or the other but rather to have both. I am not a fan of Energy Aura despite the praises it gets. It feels squishy, the heal is slow thanks to the endurance recovery tax. But using Energy Aura allowed to softcap without touching the primary, nets free recharge (I'm still peeved that Rad Armor simply had the recharge ditched unlike EA and Elec Armor) and the two endurance recovery tools will help though three out of four attacks have endurance discount over 40% (the T1 has zero endurance discount, but it's purposeful since it's also the cheapest costing only 4.17 and I wanted a fourth proc as a FF despite the low odds). Burst only has 22% endurance discount though. On the subject of Burst it's already well documented how it auto-crits from hide and it's a pleasure to revisit the set and engage in Hide fishing, BU, Burst and see things explode. Depending on how clumped enemies are even if there is a boss I usually start with Burst from Hide. This works particularly well when having someone to take point and enemies flocking to that someone. I remember this weans off around Citadel where even BU + Gaussian + auto-crit no longer kills minions. Still, the fact it has the exact same recharge as AS allows to pair the two during AoE moments and keep on focusing the harder targets while religiously throwing Burst after each AS. Especially with its FF proc. Zapp is a mule, but hey, nab those "#$&/ runners on the back Hasten went from perma to down to 127 seconds the more I frankenslotted things. It can be made to go higher if people don't care about raising slow debuff resistance (currently at 95%) or adding more procs to things like Burst. It relies on FF procs to chase the perma status. The build has not been completely refined so there is still room for playing around with it. If there is a desire for it I can whip a leveling build.

Since I'm leveling one I'll relate my experiences (it's why I prefer leveling than farming one to 50 and then play the character). Positron and Synapse were a terrible slog. LotGs are not active at that level and even with Hasten and Amplifiers it's a definite no to leveling without Barb Swipe. Respec out of it by Yin if desired. The AoE isn't amazing with just Spine Burst who has a terrible toll for the huge radius it has. Without BU it does not kill gears (the little bots that spring out of defeated clockwork bosses). With BU it took about 60% of a minion's HP. By Yin the rotation was in place. AS, Impale, Lunge, has gaps as expected from low level play, but acceptable ones and I could feel the basic rotation settling in. Using just two hits before AS never builds up Focus to the max though. I picked Ripper. Absolutely loathed in with that stupid ballerina long ass animation. A FF proc in it sure helped with recharge woes though. By Moonfire I had the three AoEs but still loathing Ripper. Throw Spines is fine, doesn't do a lot of damage but the animation isn't super slow and the long range helps. While I go 'ugh, Spines feels weak' as I level I'm still doing Tanker levels of herding running around and hiding behind something to mow things down and I realize my big ugh is Ripper that is killing my buzz so I've decided to throw it away and pick Ball Lightning instead. At this point its like, well, if I am to stick with using Throw Spines, Spine Burst and Ball Lightning then why not just roll a Claws Scrapper? I'm still on the fence but the answer is radius. Spine Burst has a huge 15y radius compared to Spin's 8, Throw Spines has 30y range (just like shockwave. We save a slot on a KB>KD but lose the FF proc), and Ball Lightning also has 15y. So we can carpet bomb a spawn for a supposed sparse AoE AT and then clean what is still up. The ST damage feels acceptable with one damage proc helping things along but Impale's long ass animation doesn't feel rewarding, and like most long animations it feels terrible to do a huge wind-up and see it miss. I'm almost tempted to remove it as well but Impale is iconic. The DoT damage is tiny and nowhere near Savage Melee so it adds up when wailing on something but it will rarely kill anything if expecting the last sliver of health to be whittled off. I'll say that I was leveling an Ice Melee Stalker prior to this and it feels like night and day. We can frankenslot Frost for range since level 10 and a BU empowered Frost is a thing of beauty easily mowing down spawns at low level. I didn't get this satisfying feeling from Spine Burst. It even gets Frozen Aura at 32 which is less satisfying than Frost (for some reason, they do about the same damage and have the same animation time, but Frost just feels a lot more powerful where I sometimes hesitate to use Frozen Aura) but completes the AoE kit.

You have things surprisingly well in hand. I think you hit everything. Possibly you have too much defense depending on what you want to do, those slots could be put somewhere else I say possibly because for the regular game 45% is enough but for incarnate business 59% is where its at. Depending if you decide to solo incarnate stuff or not aiming for 59% is a consideration. I cannot answer this for you so you will have to decide. Because of this you have some extreme slotting that may or may not make sense depending on how heavily you wish to delve into end game. Regarding your questions about attunements and such I have a link in my signature that may shed light. If you still have doubts just ask.

That makes sense. The reasoning seems solid, I'mma try it. On one hand now that I am leveling one of these I feel that there ought to be more bang for my buck. Long animations should hit like a truck, and I don't feel that. Things like Impale just don't seem to hit hard with perhaps too much tax paid for the fact it is range and immobilizes having been taken from the damage part. Spine burst is the same. Amazing 15y radius, sure, but it's the sole AoE until 26 and it doesn't even kill a Gear.

Necroing this, but how did you 'feel' spines after actual playing one instead of wailing on a pylon? I've never touched a Spines before because of the long animations and mediocre ST but I'm interested since Stalker version of it seems to get the best of both worlds. It seems like when all IOed out I can get away with an ST chain of AS (4.5 recharge), Impale (2.7 animation), and Lunge (1.9) = 4.6 animation while for AoE the extremely long animation of Spine Burst allows to run Spine Burst, Ripper and Throw Spines back to back

I've ran a few tanks, but I'm definitely that sort of player who disappears mid-mission to go solo the objective, or go find the clicky, or who purposefully takes a left when everyone went to the right. I can't do that on a Tanker. A Tanker is like a parent and it does not abandon the team to go wander off so ultimately a Tanker is not fully for me. But I am super happy to play on a Scrapper who has an agro aura since I get to off tank when it's needed though, but a Scrapper without an agro aura is just a Stalker but without Hide and in that case why not Stalk? I did make a DA/MA Tanker build a couple weeks back when I 'discovered' MA. There is plenty of room to improve since I just aimed for the bare 'minimums' of 45% to melee, ranged, and AoE, while having 90% to all res with three stacks of the ATO and Barrier (it still sounds nuts when saying that out loud :p). Aiming for two stacks is ultimately better. Rad Armor for the two heals (With Radiation Therapy acting like Dark Regen's little cousin, including taking the Theft of Essence proc) would have better recharge and better debuff protection.

You've already got this min maxed to the kazoo so I don't think I can offer any improvements. The only thing that jumped to my eye was the Superior Blistering Cold and maybe cut Superior Brute's Fury in half. But since you're +5ing everything the gains are minimal as all stats are already past ED levels. You're also aiming for Fire/Cold resists which further increases the difficulty in fitting everything. I've tried mangling your build a bit but I don't think I managed to make any sort of improvement. You did get a bit of defense in Avalanche and there is a free slot in Golden Dragonfly which can be turned into a damage proc, or a FF proc if such a thing even has a use when you rely on Dark Regen and the one is up just under 10 seconds anyway. No, I think your build is squeezed to the max as it is. You love your Brute and I get it, but a Tanker would net a 20% res (plus the natural boost to defensive values they get, so even more) allowing a relaxing in the x-treme slotting choices. Picking martial arts instead of katana would be another 10% defense across the board further easing slotting (but not helping all that much against cascading failures), but with all of this it would just be another generic character and not THE Alexei you love. I also suppose soloing on a Tanker would be too easy though 😛

You'd think I'd be all over that since I was all over soloing stuff back in WoW, but I never seemed to find the same interest here. I find it too plodding and a slog, but it also helps that I never settle on a character for more than 10 minutes. Kudos Werner, and that's a bitchin' beard on that dude! I'm going to say yes on Oppressive Gloom restraining the minions, though bursting them down would have had the same effect. Some times more damage equals more survival because of things like those.

Every build has a weak spot and that guy will be yours. You can't really counter a major weakness like your whole damage type versus a particular enemy. Hopkins from the Manticore TF is another that my smash or lethal characters just whittle very very slowly. Marauder is an extreme case because he pops a big defensive move. That said your build could use with some focus like Nihili mentioned, and a whole lot of help. You have your attacks not slotted for damage. Attacks are meant to kill things. Combat jumping costs 0.04 so it's safe to say you don't need endurance reduction in it. Anyway. I tried not to make it very expensive which means there is a 'better' version of this build if you'd like to sink more money into it. If you want it I can post it. If you need some tips I have a signature on my link about money making. I saw you took Fly and I suppose that it was to get over obstacles while you ninja ran, but I took Afterburner and Hover to improve on it. If you don't want either then just remove them and pick what you'd like such as Combat Jumping and Super Jump. If you do this add a 5th Luck of the Gambler: 7.5% recharge somewhere, such as Maneuvers. Afterburner and Fly are, to me, the 5% of the time I spend outside missions going from point A to B while Hover is the best, IMO, in combat movement skill. You will have outside of Hover and Afterburner three powers and 5 slots to play with. Take your Taunt if you'd like, take Conserve Power and Physical Perfection if you'd like though mind that the endurance consumption and gain has been much improved and you might not even need them. You can further improve your endurance by obtaining the accolades. There is a guide about it here with more info in the comments. You also won't need Focused Accuracy since all attacks are made to hit +3 which is where you'll be once you reach Musculature tier 3, but, if you'd like to take Tactics to fight against debuffers or romans and their defense shouts that's an option too. I would personally pick another AoE to supplement Dragon's Tail such as Fireball (shouting FIREBALL-NO-JUTSU being perfectly optional) and use the five remain slots on it (six Bombardment will give a nice array of accuracy, recharge, slash/smash and negative/energy resists which are all things you can use). In fact, I'll just post the build with Fireball and you'll know you can remove it for something else if you'd like.

Go to options, Configuration. Effects&Maths. And over Suppression check 'hit by foe', 'attacked', and probably 'damaged'. This will give the real defense values while in combat,

After some more testing I can say this is exactly what's happening. Until I use the power that I slotted the proc into the proc does not activate at all. Also, no one mentioned Ice Melee? For shame!

- You no longer get thrown out of Hide if AS misses. - Placate nowadays is rarely advised to take as a Stalker is played like a Scrapper. - DB has some combos changed to use Placate, so it's even less of good choice than usual because of this. - The Tele-attacks do not crit, but they also do not take out of Hide. The mobs will still see you after the first attack but if you're fast you can do three AoEs in a row. Most AoEs have a 50% of crit with the exception of Kinetic Melee's who is 100%. - Willpower is ok, just squishy. The go to choice is Energy Aura with heal and endurance clicky. - I personally could not play something without AoE, but moping up with crits works as well with the rest of the team opening salvo wiping much of the pack anyway. - Buy both ATO procs and place them on the build (the chance for Hide always in AS, the other where ever) as soon as you can and work your rotation so your second hardest skill (or your AoE) is always used after AS. In my case this is AS, Siphon Life (crit if the Hide proc went off in AS), Smite, Shadow punch, AS for ST. Or Fireball, AS, Shadow Maul, Smite, Shadow Punch, AS, Shadow Maul. Outside of solo I rarely indulge in AoE other than Fireball as I'm usually busy being a ninja zooming around killing whatever has more HP left. This is usually bosses or annoying entities such as Surgeons in the ITF. I find that while it is true that AoE is important we usually have a team that does this for us and its more useful to put our strong ST focus killing what is still standing. Fireball/Ball Lightning has a wide AoE and plays well with the 50% crit chance and that's my usual choice to start the fight with. A good sleeper choice people who don't know Stalkers do not think of is Ice Melee. Frost can have its range boosted via frankenslotting and achieve an omfg 16 feet range which easily encompasses a whole spawn (double the range of shadow Maul) while the poor ST damage it has in other ATs being spacked over via AS. Freezing Touch takes -two- purple damage procs and hits even harder than AS when used in Hide. It also has a second AoE at 32.

To all eh people praising KB as an amazing thing and a supah useful tool. Whoa, calm down. For every one who uses it right there are fifteen who do not. In fact, I can't claim to particularly remember one such instance (the human mind is geared to remember the bad moments more than the good ones so take it with a grain of salt) but boy do I have the (usual) tales of Stormies using Gale for... reasons? Exploding Arrow scattering every thing. Poor kheldians just wanting to blast and wheeee off everyone goes. I, personally, don't put people who use KB on ignore (such a weird power move, but you guys do you), but I certainly don't pat them on the back either. It's a little evil. What I don't get is KB users patting themselves on the back when the mechanic has been reviled since the game's start. What is it with the aggressive-aggressive move of telling people to grow up, calling them sub-standard players, or tell them to leave and go play in another server? WTF? They solved their problem by putting people on ignore and not playing with them. Your solution is A) to insult them (lol?) and B) to tell them to leave? Double wtf. This isn't Tumbler. Calm down, Karen.

Why 'a bunch'? The only KB MA/DA has is on Crane Kick, no?

Added some more bits from questions I've answered in-game.

Tweaked a (much) cheaper version of the build. Lost 3.5% recharge and maybe some Recovery but gained some miscelania (build swims in endurance anyway) and saved about 50-70 million.

Reached 44 (slow pace for me, I know). Did an ITF. Shadow Maul starts seeing a lot less use at this high level with packs of enemies being obliterated by a few nukes or Judgements. Fortunately Ball Lightning is there to help. With the current slotting Soul Drain's damage is not inconsequential either and Soul Drain followed by Ball Lightning's fast animation and then Shadow Maul while hovering over enemies is a good tempo to keep. Mostly I just stuck to ST since that's what was needed. The build remains stupidly sturdy even fighting +3 and +4 and still half unslotted. Died to the prawn ambush in the first mission but then it was a complete party wipe, brutes and tanks and all. Did some small changes to the ordering of the powers though that remains personal taste. My personal day dream is still to have Shadow Punch, Smite and Gloom as an attack chain while saving Siphon Life for when healing is needed. 1, 1.2, 1.2 attack chain would please me. I'd need to go Brute for it though, then find the extra slots SOMEWHERE and somehow find another 15% to all res, which hints I would end up not using Shadow Punch and remove the slots. Or perhaps not use Siphon Life. After all the build has two heals already, does it really need a third? Something to consider for the future.