Staff/Energy Stalker

[Gizmonev]

Hello all, I am looking to start a Staff/Energy Stalker after settling on a staff user as my next character. I am coming over from the brute side of life, as such, i am looking for any build advice by anyone on this combination.

 

My brute suffered from severe endurance problems well into his incarnates,until I had started to put, maybe 100 million into his enhancements at 50, and even so if i don't pay attention he can still drop quite quickly.

 

I can say, that I am looking forward to putting endurance woes behind me!

[Exxar]

Aim to get your defenses capped without Energy Drain. /EA only gets about 60% DDR IIRC so if you plan for Energy Drain to overcap you, it will delay cascading defense failure vs cimmies and others. Slot ED for primarily for defense, end mod only if you can spare the extra slot (you likely won't have 2 slots to for end mod unless you frankenslot it). Skippable powers are Disrupt (stun is only mag 2 and you won't much care for minions) and Overload. Overload *can* serve as a panic button in case of cascading defense failure but with ED I'd take it only if I wanted to play extreeeeemly safe.

 

Guarded Spin will keep you safe while leveling, and even with your final build you can't count on it to cap your defenses because it only gives L/M defense and since /EA has typed defenses you'd have a gaping hole in place of your S defense. But you generally don't want to cap defenses with such powers anyway because they reduce your single target DPS. And when capped without them, they are an additional dose of cascading defense failure delay. You could theoretically skip Guarded Spin in your final build because you don't need it as a LotG mule due to having a defense secondary, but it helps with AoE.

 

I've recently been told that the optimal attack chain around permahaste (including a bit lower) levels of recharge is AS - SR - PS - MB. That means you can skip Sky Splitter in your final build. Don't forget that optimal slotting for the Stalker's Guile proc is in AS. Having typed defenses you'll likely want to split Stalker's Guile across two powers to get its S/L bonus twice.

 

Don't forget he usual unique enhancements: Steadfast Protection & Gladiator's Armor +3% defense, Panacea +hp/+end, Reactive Defense scaling damage resist (which at 80% life gives same resist as the Shield Wall unique and starts giving more at 70% and below), Unbreakable Guard +hp, etc. You generally won't need the Miracle and Numina's uniques for their end bonuses, but stuffing Numina's into Health will give you more hp regen than a lvl 50 healing IO. Slot Gaussian's into Buildup for a chance of double-Buildup. Stuff the Achilles' -res into Mercurial Blow.

 

You'll generally want to go with Musculature to maximize your damage. /EA should give you both enough recharge and endurance so you shouldn't need Spiritual or Cardiac. In case you won't be able to stuff enough recharge into your build for permahaste you can always go with Ageless to close that gap, otherwise I'd go with Barrier. Rebirth isn't as good on stalkers as on brutes or scrappers I think, but I'd have to take a closer look at it.

 

That's it off the top of my head. Good luck!

[PyroBeetle]

This is my take on a Staff/EA Stalker

Spoiler

http://www.cohplanner.com/mids/download.php?uc=1494&c=686&a=1372&f=HEX&dc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
EF67FDBE4ECEB

One should note that for leveling purposes I used Overwhelming Force in Mercurial Blow, Scirocco's Dervish in Eye of the Storm, Decimation in Serpent's Reach, and Positron's Blast in Exploding Shuriken

 

Final build achieves: soft cap to S/L/E/F/N, perma Hasten, and given a proc of the FF in Eye or SR perma Energize

 

Musculature Alpha, Barrier Destiny

[Haijinx]

EA is an excellent Stalker set, doesn't really give up anything vs the Scrapper version.