Any DM/DA Stalkers?

[SpidaWebz]

I recently made my first stalker, and decided to go for a Dark melee/ Dark Aura combo, for the life of me though I cant figure out a decent build style set up for him and was wondering if anyone had one or at least had some advice on the matter? Cost of enhancements doesn't matter so any kind of build/advice would be most helpful whether its crazy expensive build or a more budgeted one.

[oldskool]

So what's decent? 

General advice:

Dark Armor plays nicely with IOs and the more expensive you go the better it gets.  Dark Armor gets a little weak on Energy and Toxic resistance once you start piling on IO sets.  You can make up for that with 4x Shield Wall in defensive powers and Toxic is often paired with the rare IO sets as well as Psychic resist.  There are the two resistance unique powers too that help a bit.  Since DM has limited AoE options you're not in a great spot to add Eradication mules.  That's OK though.  Its really not that important.  Dark Armor should be capping Smashing/Lethal/Negative/Psy by accident and possibly getting close to Fire/Cold too (if not capping it).  The Rune of Protection in Sorcery is also a possible path to take for temporary increases to all resistances. 

Dark Melee on Stalkers is very limited on AoE damage having only Shadow Maul.  The single-target damage however is quite good so lean into it. 

Soft-capping all defenses is going to be a challenge but Stalker DA can get into the upper 20's to low 30's with some planning.  My Staff/DA has around 32% defense to melee/range/AoE (though AoE is a lot higher due to Hide).  If you really want more defense you can go for Shadow Meld.  The to-hit debuffs in your primary will give you stacking effects of miss chance on a target.  Touch of Fear being a pretty large debuff to a single enemy. 

You can run both Cloak of Fear and Oppressive Gloom at the same time to generate more coverage of CC effects.  You can also run neither of them if you like or just one.  Cloak of Fear inherently has synergy with Dark Melee and Touch of Fear.  Oppressive Gloom, not so much.

Edited November 19, 2019 by oldskool

[SpidaWebz]

Definitely solid advice I was looking for thank you! I've noticed as well DM doesn't have much for AoE so I was considering focusing him as a single target style DPS to focus on the tougher enemies in mobs. I was also considering skipping shadow maul since it has such a long animation for the attack, and during that time I could pop off several attacks keeping my focus on single target instead.(opinions on skipping?) 

[SpidaWebz]

Is it better in general to focus on the -to hit, rather than the fear, in some of my powers? since fear deactivates once the target is hit generally

[SpidaWebz]

My build so far; got main defenses to 40%, main resists to 75% with focus on -to hit rather than fear. end drain is 1.29 but recov is 3.64. Let me know what ya'll think

 

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Level 50 Mutation Stalker
Primary Power Set: Dark Melee
Secondary Power Set: Dark Armor
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Fighting
Ancillary Pool: Body Mastery

Villain Profile:
Level 1: Shadow Punch

• (A) Touch of Death - Accuracy/Damage
• (5) Touch of Death - Damage/Endurance
• (5) Touch of Death - Damage/Recharge
• (7) Touch of Death - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
• (7) Touch of Death - Damage/Endurance/Recharge
• (9) Touch of Death - Chance of Damage(Negative)
  

Level 1: Hide

• (A) Shield Wall - Defense/Endurance
• (23) Shield Wall - Defense/Recharge
• (23) Shield Wall - Endurance/Recharge
• (25) Shield Wall - Defense/Endurance/Recharge
• (25) Shield Wall - Defense
• (27) Shield Wall - +Res (Teleportation), +5% Res (All)
  

Level 2: Smite

• (A) Superior Assassin's Mark - Accuracy/Damage
• (9) Superior Assassin's Mark - Damage/RechargeTime
• (11) Superior Assassin's Mark - Accuracy/Damage/RechargeTime
• (11) Superior Assassin's Mark - Damage/Endurance/RechargeTime
• (13) Superior Assassin's Mark - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/RechargeTime
• (13) Superior Assassin's Mark - RechargeTime/Rchg Build Up
  

Level 4: Dark Embrace

• (A) Gladiator's Armor - Resistance
• (42) Gladiator's Armor - Resistance/Rech/End
• (43) Gladiator's Armor - End/Resist
• (43) Gladiator's Armor - TP Protection +3% Def (All)
• (43) Gladiator's Armor - Recharge/Endurance
• (46) Gladiator's Armor - Recharge/Resist
  

Level 6: Assassin's Eclipse

• (A) Superior Stalker's Guile - Accuracy/Damage
• (15) Superior Stalker's Guile - Damage/Recharge
• (15) Superior Stalker's Guile - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
• (17) Superior Stalker's Guile - Damage/Endurance/Recharge
• (17) Superior Stalker's Guile - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge
• (19) Superior Stalker's Guile - Recharge/Chance to Hide
  

Level 8: Murky Cloud

• (A) Steadfast Protection - Resistance/Endurance
• (21) Steadfast Protection - Resistance/+Def 3%
• (31) Steadfast Protection - Knockback Protection
  

Level 10: Combat Jumping

• (A) Reactive Defenses - Scaling Resist Damage
• (45) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed
  

Level 12: Build Up

• (A) Adjusted Targeting - To Hit Buff
• (19) Adjusted Targeting - To Hit Buff/Recharge
• (21) Adjusted Targeting - To Hit Buff/Endurance
  

Level 14: Shadow Dweller

• (A) Red Fortune - Defense/Endurance
• (27) Red Fortune - Defense/Recharge
• (29) Red Fortune - Endurance/Recharge
• (29) Red Fortune - Defense/Endurance/Recharge
  

Level 16: Obsidian Shield

• (A) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance/Endurance
• (46) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance
• (48) Unbreakable Guard - RechargeTime/Resistance
• (48) Unbreakable Guard - +Max HP
  

Level 18: Siphon Life

• (A) Kinetic Combat - Accuracy/Damage
• (31) Kinetic Combat - Damage/Endurance
• (31) Kinetic Combat - Damage/Recharge
• (33) Kinetic Combat - Damage/Endurance/Recharge
• (33) Preventive Medicine - Heal
• (33) Preventive Medicine - Heal/Endurance
  

Level 20: Fly

• (A) Blessing of the Zephyr - Knockback Reduction (4 points)
  

Level 22: Kick

• (A) Empty
  

Level 24: Tough

• (A) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance
• (34) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance/Endurance
• (34) Unbreakable Guard - RechargeTime/Resistance
• (36) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance/Endurance/RechargeTime
  

Level 26: Weave

• (A) Shield Wall - Defense/Recharge
• (34) Shield Wall - Defense
• (36) Shield Wall - Defense/Endurance
• (50) Shield Wall - Defense/Endurance/Recharge
  

Level 28: Cloak of Fear

• (A) Siphon Insight - ToHit Debuff
• (40) Siphon Insight - Accuracy/ToHit Debuff
• (40) Siphon Insight - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge
• (42) Siphon Insight - ToHit Debuff/Endurance/Recharge
• (50) Siphon Insight - Accuracy/Recharge
  

Level 30: Dark Regeneration

• (A) Touch of the Nictus - Healing
• (40) Touch of the Nictus - Heal/HitPoints/Regeneration/Recharge
• (42) Touch of the Nictus - Chance for Negative Energy Damage
• (45) Touch of the Nictus - Accuracy/Healing
• (46) Touch of the Nictus - Accuracy/Endurance/Heal/HitPoints/Regeneration
• (48) Touch of the Nictus - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge
  

Level 32: Touch of Fear

• (A) Glimpse of the Abyss - Chance of Damage(Psionic)
• (36) Cloud Senses - ToHit Debuff
• (50) Cloud Senses - Chance for Negative Energy Damage
  

Level 35: Midnight Grasp

• (A) Kinetic Combat - Damage/Endurance
• (37) Kinetic Combat - Damage/Recharge
• (37) Kinetic Combat - Accuracy/Damage
• (37) Kinetic Combat - Damage/Endurance/Recharge
• (39) Trap of the Hunter - Chance of Damage(Lethal)
• (39) Trap of the Hunter - Immobilize/Accuracy
  

Level 38: Soul Transfer

• (A) Preventive Medicine - Heal
• (39) Preventive Medicine - Heal/RechargeTime
  

Level 41: Superior Conditioning

• (A) Performance Shifter - Chance for +End
  

Level 44: Physical Perfection

• (A) Endurance Modification IO
• (45) Endurance Modification IO
  

Level 47: Hover

• (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed
  

Level 49: Afterburner

• (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed
  

Level 1: Assassination 

Level 1: Brawl

 

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[oldskool]

1 hour ago, SpidaWebz said:

Is it better in general to focus on the -to hit, rather than the fear, in some of my powers? since fear deactivates once the target is hit generally

In general I prefer to focus on the -to hit and that extends to every AT I can get away with doing it on.  I will consider the Fear IO set category because the bonuses are often pretty good but the duration of the CC isn't the reason.  I think most of the fear powers in the game have access to more than just the fear sets so you can usually find something more worthwhile to invest in.

[KC4800]

I had a Dark/Dark/Soul Stalker on live and it was one of my 2 or 3 favorite characters to play, period, across all Archtypes. Can't bring myself to make a new one however. Still trying to make new combos  work. Death is but a doorway, you make it work for you with this combo. 🙂