Branching out to Stalkers. So lots of questions

[kelika2]

Back in the before times, in the long long ago I played a Claws/Regen Stalker.  It was a rough as fuck uphill battle to level 6.  I never died so much on a new alt before and because in Issue 6 times this was all new and exploratory.  I trained [Assassin's Strike] and thought yeah, its all downhill from here.  Snake boss, readying up, sick of dying and realize this was my moment of glory building up to take down a foe stronger than I am to-

 

I missed Assassin's Strike.  I died.  I instantly deleted the alt and from issue 6 to 23 I never touched that Archetype since.

 

Until now.

 

Dual Blades:  Does this have AoE pre-26?  Seems weird for combos.  No follow up and such

Elec/Shield:  do the teleattacks crit?  same with Spring Attack while we are at it

Willpower: worth it with all the toggles and no quick recovery?

 

SInce aoe is a large part of this game even in the early levels, are the sets with no aoe until 32ish even worth it?

[Sovera]

2 hours ago, kelika2 said:

Back in the before times, in the long long ago I played a Claws/Regen Stalker.  It was a rough as fuck uphill battle to level 6.  I never died so much on a new alt before and because in Issue 6 times this was all new and exploratory.  I trained [Assassin's Strike] and thought yeah, its all downhill from here.  Snake boss, readying up, sick of dying and realize this was my moment of glory building up to take down a foe stronger than I am to-

 

I missed Assassin's Strike.  I died.  I instantly deleted the alt and from issue 6 to 23 I never touched that Archetype since.

 

Until now.

 

Dual Blades:  Does this have AoE pre-26?  Seems weird for combos.  No follow up and such

Elec/Shield:  do the teleattacks crit?  same with Spring Attack while we are at it

Willpower: worth it with all the toggles and no quick recovery?

 

SInce aoe is a large part of this game even in the early levels, are the sets with no aoe until 32ish even worth it?

- 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.

Edited April 19, 2020 by Sovera

[KelvinKole]

A LOT had changed since issue 6. There are a couple of goo guides around this forum that will help with powerset selection and enhacement choices, but to address your direct questions:

 

Dual blades isn't my cup of tea. It only has cones for Aoe and the combo system is a bit limiting for a stalker. 

 

Teleattacks don't crit, but they also don't break Hide. So you can open with them and still land a follow up critical hit Aoe or ST attack. 

 

I wouldn't suggest willpower on a stalker. Hit points are too low and it doesn't get much defense debuff resistance. 

 

For primaries, I'm a big fan of dark, ice, and elec. Savage is also very popular, along with ninja blade and broad sword in certain pairings. 

 

There are a lot of viable secondaries. Rad, Ea, nin, ice, invuln, Elec, and dark are all very strong. 

[Without_Pause]

My take is as long as a melee set doesn't lose an AoE going from scrapper to stalker than the set is worth playing. How much AoE you need in the day and age of steamrolling Incarnate death machines is up to you. I'll also point out StJ is fantastic for stalkers. 

[Riverdusk]

On 2/18/2020 at 7:28 AM, The Curator said:

 

• Stalker > Ice Melee > Frost: This power should now take range enhancements, same as other versions of Ice Melee > Frost

 

8 hours ago, Sovera said:

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.

Don't even have to frankenslot to get range in Frost now (the range boost on intuition alpha should also now work on it if you really want to max it, and intuition isn't a bad choice for ice melee.)   Ice Melee is definitely a nice set on a stalker, much more so than on any other AT.  Not to mention cold damage isn't resisted much.

[Shockacon]

I took a DB/nin to 50 and never really had an issue with the combo system. I kinda figured by the early 40s it wasn't gonna be an Incarnate character for me, but I enjoyed it well enough to 50. Working on a Sav/Bio right now which has been more enjoyable than I thought. I did go incarnate with an Elec/Shield, and I have to say, I almost made it my main by the time it got to the mid 40s. And yeah, Placate has become completely skippable, especially if you add the stalker procs into attacks. 

[kelika2]

Might have to add ice/fire stalker to my list

 

Two single target attacks pre-20 is actually pretty horrifying

Edited April 20, 2020 by kelika2
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[SwitchFade]

So.

 

First, read my posts in the other threads of people asking about dual blades. It hits around 450-480 dps. Only out done by STJ. It's very strong single target. It has 2 suprisingly good AoE. Read other threads I posted in, in this section

 

Second, stalkers are not the AT for you if you want huge AoE. If you want good AoE, huge spike ST and one shotting bosses, not to mention soloing AVs, stalkers are for you.

 

My DB, EA and BS stalkers were at +3 from lvl 25ish on, +4 from 35.

[kelika2]

5 hours ago, SwitchFade said:

Second, stalkers are not the AT for you if you want huge AoE.

True but I need SOME AoE while leveling up.  Not having any AoE at all makes low level weeklies a slog.

So I been playing fire/staff/stj past few days and loving it so far.