General stalker questions

[graeberguinn]

Rolling my first stalker. Decided on Staff/Rad. Any help appreciated. 

1st, How important is tough/weave? Are they skipable? Seems most builds I look at take them.

2nd, Since you can use other stealth powers, how beneficial would adding hide+stealth? Does that give full invisible? Is it worth the pick or Overkill?

3rd, on my Squishies for TP I usually go SJ/CJ. Is CJ needed since 2ndary gives mez protection? I like the jump control but not sure if I'd need it on this build. 

Last, was thinking about going body mastery, not sure what powers are good. Does laser beam eyes offer good def debuff and how is dmg? And how good are SC and FA? 

 

Thanks for any help and insight

 

 

 

[Darkir]

1 hour ago, graeberguinn said:

1st, How important is tough/weave? Are they skipable? Seems most builds I look at take them.

You might be able to get away with not taking then if you go SR, but I would still take them. They are great for +res, +def, and +recharge with IOs. It's a 3 power sink, but only hasten competes with their usefulness. You will want them as a /rad.

 

1 hour ago, graeberguinn said:

Since you can use other stealth powers, how beneficial would adding hide+stealth? Does that give full invisible? Is it worth the pick or Overkill?

Hide and a stealth IO in sprint is all you really need. In pvp you go for more, but I assume this is about pve.

 

1 hour ago, graeberguinn said:

on my Squishies for TP I usually go SJ/CJ. Is CJ needed since 2ndary gives mez protection? I like the jump control but not sure if I'd need it on this build. 

I would take CJ more for the extra bit of +def more than anything else as a /rad.

 

1 hour ago, graeberguinn said:

was thinking about going body mastery, not sure what powers are good. Does laser beam eyes offer good def debuff and how is dmg? And how good are SC and FA? 

I see a lot of people take laser beam eyes. Body mastery is nice for laser beam eyes and the +recov it provides. I normally go fire mastery as I like melt armor with an Achilles proc in it to feel more useful in a team.

[tidge]

10 hours ago, graeberguinn said:

Last, was thinking about going body mastery, not sure what powers are good. Does laser beam eyes offer good def debuff and how is dmg? And how good are SC and FA?

I don't have experience with Body Mastery on Stalkers, but I have used Energy Mastery on a Tanker which is similar. These are good sets for addressing Endurance issue (obviously) but the ranged attack is nothing spectacular (again, my experience is with a Tanker). As a single-target attack, I can't say that I ever really noticed the -Def effect (again, as a Tanker where I try to rotate targets for aggro management) The recharge time is very fast, so Laser Beam Eyes is not a good choice for Frankenslotting with procs. Laser Beam Eyes is a good choice to slot a full ranged attack set for extra defenses.

 

Body Mastery (for Stalkers) appears to be superior to the Tanker Energy Mastery if it has two Auto powers ... they appear to be excellent options to add procs.

[Yoru-hime]

I basically use Body Mastery as a second fitness pool so I don't have to think about Endurance. Never really looked at Laser Beam Eyes as an option, but now that tidge mentioned it I might play with it in Mids a bit. It wouldn't get a spot in the regular attack rotation, but it might work as a set mule that's also a way to snipe down those annoying runners.

 

Focused Accuracy is an Endurance hog that gives less base to-hit than Tactics at twice the cost and doesn't know how to share with teammates. It does offer some accuracy as well, but you usually shouldn't need that by the time it's available. The added perception might be useful in PvP, but I wouldn't know much about that. If you're looking at to-hit boosts, I'd take Tactics or find a spot for a Kismet proc long before I'd want to take FA.

[Bunmaster]

Tough/Weave/CJ are great for rounding out your def/resist. Even if you don't use Tough, it's a good mule. While Weave and CJ helps with softcapping, CJ is also a great place for LotG global.

 

As for Body Mastery, i took it for 2 reasons. No need to add slots and when i need Endurance. Just slot the 2 autos with Perf Shifters and call it a day. Otherwise it's Soul Mastery for Moonbeam and Shadowmeld. I only took Laser Eye Beam on my tank because she's a robot, no self respecting robot leaves out laser eyes!! 

[tidge]

11 minutes ago, Bunmaster said:

 I only took Laser Eye Beam on my tank because she's a robot, no self respecting robot leaves out laser eyes!!