Lockpick

Interesting, I like it!

There is obviously an issue if this topic comes up a lot. The solution you twi are advocating is already in game and is not seen as optimal by many players, hence the suggestion. Not sure why you guys are opposed to a solution that would be more optimal. It's not like the people here are saying people with Group Fly are bad, they are just suggesting alternative solutions to going to Pocket D and Null the Gull. On another note, I'm sure a lot of people do not even know about Null the Gull. I was certainly late to knowing about it and it had to be explained to me. Now I know, but do I want to take all my characters to Null the Gull? Nope. Why not add it to the P2W vendor? I bet almost all new characters go to the P2W vendor, so this would be a good option. Pick your prestige powers, XP settings, and Null options all at the same time. Solves a lot of the problems, although as @Greycat pointed out it won't solve all the concerns.

Or maybe set the default to Group Fly not affecting others and let them opt in? I would also suggest putting tese types of settings in setting if possible. Why use Null the Gull at all?

This sounds like an indictment against balancing. Tanks were semi-okay before the HC balancing pass and now IMO they are OP. HC team changed Energy Melee and that power set went from being one of the worst to arguably the best. This is why I tend to not like balancing in general. Sure, some minor tweaks here and there are likely needed to balance, but the HC team has done massive amounts of unneeded (IMO) balancing. Replacing powers, shifting levels where powers are picked, etc. Balancing begets balancing and leads to picking winners and losers... At the end of the day, there will always be a performance stack rank of an AT / power set. All the balancing does is change the stack rank for a period of time until the next balancing pass. I've already stated my stance on the procs stuff, but will add one thing. If one AT / power set is able to perform a little better because of procs I really don't care. It doesn't affect me or my characters in the slightest. I enjoy the game for what it is and I am just as happy to play a semi-weak AT as I am to play a strong AT. I have played numerous versions of DP Blasters and had fun with all of them. I don't think anyone is calling DP OP. I was never able to play the TW/Bio scrapper that was supposed to be OP. Just wasn't fun for me. My point is that the team should focus on the fun factor as opposed to the balancing aspect. Procs are fine...

I didn't read the entire thread, so not sure what your point is. My take is simple. I don't see procs as being OP Characters that use procs may increase their damage, but lose other forms of mitigation from not having set bonuses Using procs gives more build choices and more choices are better than less choices I don't believe balancing procs should be a priority when compared to providing new content or functionality Balancing seems to work sometimes (TW) and not others (Tanks) and there will always be some ATs / Powers that are better than others and balancing just shifts the stack rank, so doesn't provide as much value as providing new shinies Just providing my opinion...

Procs are fine. IMO the devs should stop trying to "balance" the game and should focus on adding new features and content.

I do Bios for the majority of the characters that I think I will play to 50. Some characters I start with no Bio and just want to see how the characters plays and feels, so I don't take the time to make a Bio. Some characters I start with a concept and then I create a Bio early on. It just depends... I think leveling speed and character slots has a bit to do with it as well. On Live it took forever to get to 50, so I was invested deeply in the character and created a Bio and concept. There were also had limited slots, so I only played characters that I was invested in because I didn't want to waste a slot. Here I find that I have less investment in a character because I'm always creating new ones and leveling a bit.

I can't really disagree with this logic. I may actually have to go Pie > Cookies > Cake. Hmm, if you add Ice Cream to the mix though it is more like Ice Cream > Pie > Cookies > Cake.

Do you have a Psi/SD build you are willing to share?

Reminds me of the old days when the Simian Defense Force was running rampant on Infinity... Got my first 50 on Simian Stalker (who was actually a Katana / Regen scrapper. Took forever to hit 50. I was so relieved that I had finally made it. Then I was like, what do I do now?

Wait, whut!? You can add people to a TF after it has started? I didn't think that was possible...

For me it is defeating an enemy AV solo. I don't generally use anything but my powers and inspirations, but if I couldn't defeat the AV with those alone I have no issue with using temp powers, email inspirations, buffs, pets, etc.

Going to second @Veracor and @Bopper for their many contributions. Some others that stand out to me (not a full list by any means) are those that provide their time to provide information about various ATs, powers, etc. @Werner Werner rules challenges @Bill Z Bubba Claws / SR advocate @Infinitum Providing information and help on Tankers and Builds @Croax Providing information and help on Stalkers @Haijinx Providing information on Stalkers and other ATs @oldskool Providing guidance on Sentinels @Sir Myshkin Kicking off the proc monster threads / trends; awesome builds @Frosticus Great Savage Melee guidance @nihilii Crazy challenges and builds; proving Sentinels can solo TFs There are many others, but just wanted to give some props to the ones that popped in my head first...

I was playing a new stalker last night (DM/SD) mainly solo and was starting with AS from Hide on every new spawn. Probably just a phase, but that is likely where the disparity of opinions come from in this thread. Some like to just scrap it out and aren't worried about AS from Hide and some like the AS from Hide play style.

Do you have a DM/SD build you would be willing to share? Haven't got far on my DM and trying to figure the primary powers...

Got defeated twice in the first 8 minutes on my EM/EA Stalker. I thought it was going to be easy after the first group, but while working on the 2nd group I aggroed the 3rd group. That was all she wrote...

Stalkers were designed to play with the AS from Hide while Brutes were designed with Fury. The Stalker has evolved to be more of a Scrapper with limited incentive to play with AS from Hide, which was a core feature of the original design. The OP making a suggestion to have the Stalker work more as designed is somewhat different from suggesting the Brute AT play the way you want. OP is merely suggesting there should be some options to make the Stalker have a reason to AS from Hide. I actually like the suggestion because it would be nice to have equivalent options. Option 1 you do AS from Hide Option 2 you use non-AS from Hide attack chain Both options have around the equivalent damage. What is the concern? You can play your way, OP can play their way, and since they are fundamentally equivalent you can switch it up for fun. IMO, if the Live Devs saw the way the Stalker is being played today due to the ATOs I would bet money they would change the ATOs to get the AT closer to the original design or would make an adjustment to make AS from Hide relevant. Of course, this is all theorizing, I don't see it changing because even though I would prefer a change like OP mentions I think the AT is still in a good enough place. That being said, Stalker was still at the bottom of the AT (Non-HEAT/VEAT) played statistics. If Stalkers were so good they would be played more, right? There are twice as many Scrappers as Stalkers and three times as many Brutes. Brute: 178K Scrapper: 122K Tanker: 95K Stalker: 59K I'm betting that Tanker numbers have increased significantly and Stalkers have not since the last statistics.

Do you have to set your notoriety to +4/8 before setting the mission or does the mission basically do it for you?

I'm not really a Bio fan, although a lot of people love it. I did a KM/EA to 50 + incarnates and when compared to my EM/EA the KM/EA was weak. Somewhat surprised you didn't like the StJ/SR since that character performs very well for me, but if you didn't like the them it is what it is. What kind of theme do you like? Maybe we can help with a build... I am working on a MA stalker that I shelved because it felt weak, same with Ninja Blade, Staff the jury is still out. The good news is there a lot of combinations, so you will likely find something that aligns with your theme and character background and that always make a character more enjoyable for me. Stalker are very survivable. I am finding that Inv, SR, SD, and EA are very strong secondaries. I was thinking EA was top dog, but I'm starting to lean towards SD because you can soft-cap M, R, and AOE and cap S/L resistance making the character pretty survivable. Limited heal or endurance management, but can be addressed in the Epic or Incarnates.

It is probably the DB / EA build in the DB / EA thread. It is no doubt a good build that hits hard and is survivable. I'm only in the mid-30s with it and it performs well, although endurance is an issue as with most stalker builds at this point. I find that most of my stalkers perform well although some are better than others. Do I think Stalkers are OP? No, I don't. I agree with your point "hidden assassins strike is a strong identity of what a stalker was supposed to be but nobody wants to use". Not sure I agree it is trash, but I agree it is less than stellar. Even solo I am about 50/50 on whether I will open with it. If it was great I would always open with it.

There is a huge difference between providing a dissenting opinion in a civil way and being a dick about it. You were definitely one of the guys being a dick about it. It's your right to act that way, but some people are just going to tune you out. A lot of us have to deal with unsavory people in the real world. I can't imagine many of us want to deal with it in a game, where I would expect that all of us want a good experience to take us a way from reality for a bit. Haijinx has a dissenting opinion, but he is engaging in a civil manner. On another note, Madae didn't ask for a change because it would be "cool". He made some legitimate points about the way AS and focus works and provided a comparison between blaster and stalker. He also gave his take on what he thought would help. I think for the most part his concerns are legit, but I don't know that they are things I would focus on as I do think the class plays fine. Otherwise I wouldn't have so many level 50 stalkers and I wouldn't keep rolling new ones.

He clearly articulated the the challenges with AS, so he knows what he is talking about from the AS standpoint. Not knowing the aggro modifier is a minor point (which I admit I didn't know either), but that does not indicate that Madae does not understand the base game, That is a ridiculous statement to make. I've been playing the game since launch and I still learn things on a regular basis. It doesn't mean a lack of understanding of the base game. Dismissing the entire argument over a little known mechanic and replying in an uncivil manner makes it seem like you are only interested in trolling. If that is all you want to do why don't you take that shit somewhere else or just stop replying? I'm actually interested in seeing some suggestions on how to address the original points around AS.

Read through the thread and it seems this post has some people up in arms. Not sure why since it is just an opinion. You are articulating my experience with Assassin's Strike especially in teams. I wouldn't mind seeing some fix there. I don't agree that stalkers are terrible at everything else. On Live I played on Scrappers; here I am playing more Stalkers. I do think Stalkers have gaps compared to Scrappers, but I like the stealth aspect of the AT and they can be built pretty sturdy with the right investments. I don't agree with some in the thread that Stalkers are OP. I'm not seeing stalkers soloing ITF at +4/8, but definitely seeing threads with tankers doing it. I expect Brutes and Scrappers are as well.

Here are some builds I am working on, but it is mainly theory as I am only level 32 right now. I generally take the Body Mastery pool because I usually need the endurance powers. This time I have decided to go with Mu Mastery for Zapp and Ball Lightning. I will likely also look at adding Electric Shacles in a future build because I can imagine that is pretty good with procs. In both of these builds I was priortizing soft-cap defense and then S/L resistance. I would like to proc some of these powers out but unfortunately I need the set bonuses for defense. Build 1 - This seems like it might be the better of the 2 builds. I am definitely concerned about the enduance factor and am planning to close that whole with the Ageless incarante. Build 2 I hope these builds help with some ideas...

When I join a PUG for radio missions it is usually because I am trying to get a few bars to level, so I will only generally join for a mission or two. Once I get my level I move on to other things...