siolfir

So, did I miss an announcement?

After all she did for you?!

Let's not also forget lower damage caps for most of the ATs (only two original hero ATs have 500% damage caps) and no ED meaning you were closer to the damage cap on your attacks all the time anyway.

But if we try sometimes...

To add some more detail, once you get into the game you will have the chance to go back into the tutorial zones (through the Ouroboros flashback system) to get badges that are available within them, but not run the actual tutorial content itself that way. Since Warshades, Peacebringers, Arachnos Soldiers, and Arachnos Widows were all ATs that used to require you to unlock them with another character (a level 50 for most of the time, although that was lowered and eventually eliminated), it was assumed that you would have either already run the tutorial or deliberately skipped it by the time you got one. In addition to the Outbreak, Breakout, and Galaxy City tutorials there is also the Going Rogue tutorial which starts you off in Praetoria and you can choose to be either a Loyalist or Resistance; it has some newer content but is generally harder and is less populated, compounding the issues. You can also go back and run the Praetoria content (except the tutorial) through Ouroboros as well.

There are 17 Stalker primaries. 6 of them do lethal damage (Broad Sword, Claws, Dual Blades, Ninja Blade, Savage Melee, and Spines), 3 of them have no AoE to speak of (Energy, Martial Arts, and Dark counting Shadow Maul as a single target attack since it's balanced as one but has a 50% crit rate). That's over half of the available primaries right there. So it's middle of the pack, then? That's not exactly imbalanced and underperforming.

50%. Spine Burst is the only 30% crit rate from Hide.

No, people easily recognize that there are different thinking people in the world. The people that think differently are just wrong. sadly, a lot of people don't take this as a joke anymore and really think that way

There are several exceptions, but Burst is the only one that's an exception to the advantage of the Stalker.

Using your logic from the OP, it would make sense that the special AV resistance to slow movement (but not slow recharge) be removed; this would match the comparison to immobilize, where their level of protection is equal to that of a normal boss with only the additional protection offered by their active powers.

And Soul Drain is a long-duration +damage boost based on number of targets hit.

To address the questions: I don't think any of the benchmarking has been posted, merely referenced. If someone else has seen posts, please correct me. As for why increase the target cap... Quills has a better chance of hitting 16 as an 8' 360° AoE than hitting 10 with Head Splitter, Golden Dragonfly, or Cleave (10', 20° arc). It also briefly was getting the radius increase while Spine Burst wasn't, even though Spine Burst had its radius decreased to 10'. When Captain Powerhouse removed the "ignore external buffs" flag from Spine Burst, it was added to Quills, since that was supposed to have been the case all along. I would've been happy with both powers being affected, but Quills is a bigger reason for Spines' AoE performance than Spine Burst, and it was deliberately selected to be ignored because of the other AoE in the set.

No need to speculate on it: he flat out stated that was the reason in the first feedback thread. Regarding TW and Shockwave: Specifically calling out Spine Burst:

There were inconsistencies originally, where some cones had target caps of 10 and most had target caps of 5. Generally speaking (because I don't want to go power by power) attacks that had a target cap of 10 were increased to 16, and attacks that had target caps of 5 were increased to 10. So if you're seeing cones that have target caps of 16, they already had a cap of 10 before and it was increased to buff them.

My framerate fluctuated between 6 and 15 fps during the monster smashing. An amusing note is that PvP was enabled at the end: Thanks to all for the fun - and if I inadvertantly hit someone... oops?

Nitpicking a bit here, but it's 5 papers and a mayhem once you get to the 20s, although some contacts are available immediately (use the Find Contact button), and some of the newer contacts that were added introduce you to other contacts after running their first mission, bypassing the broker. I'm not against the suggestion and think it's a good idea, but I've found ways to get contacts without continuously running papers.

Nerf reading! From the first page:

Taunt aura and/or damage aura, thus the use of the plural auras. You know, something you don't have to waste animation time on. Of the two, I actually prefer the Taunt aura, so I don't have to go chasing everything with a melee AT while it's trying to run away. It just so happens that on 2 out of 3 ATs that have Energy Melee, any damage aura is also a Taunt aura, so I don't have to go running after things. Contrary to popular belief, I actually know what I want. Also contrary to popular belief, it's not running around like the first mission in the Mender Ramiel arc where nothing can touch you and everything is dead within seconds. And based on the poll results, I'd say that I'm not alone in my desire to see the fast Energy Transfer back.

A damage aura with EM would provide some AoE damage. If it's available with EM it would be available for every other set, all of which would have more AoE damage and several of which currently provide better single target damage. Also, what are Blasters currently?

Where's my Stalker with Taunt and damage auras?

Pool powers, basically. I was initially confused on this myself and thought that some Tanker powers were going to remain at the same damage as on live while others in the set would be buffed, but I was corrected on it in the first feedback thread. The "melee damage" modifier applies to all damage powers in "Melee Damage" sets - which means Brute, Scrapper, and Stalker primaries and Tanker secondaries, even if the power is a ranged power. The "ranged damage" modifier applies to all damage powers in "Ranged Damage" sets - which would be Blaster, Corruptor, and Sentinel primaries and Defender secondaries, even if the power is a melee/PBAoE power. Other set types (manipulation, assault, etc) may vary.

Hey, you never know when that Kronos Titan ambush will show up.

Assuming the diseases didn't.

Assassin's Strike is the exception and does not have a stun built in, although Stalker Energy Punch (10% mag 2), Bone Smasher (30% mag 3), and Energy Transfer (50% mag 3) have a lower chance to stun than the Brute or Tanker versions (30%, 60%, and 60% respectively).

sgnd