Dark/Shield - Need help

[CaptainFantastic]

Haven't really played the game since before Incarnate system was ever introduced in Live.  I remember I was working on a Dark Melee/Shield scrapper at the time when I was playing last.  I've always wanted to level a Stalker since I love "stealth" classes in games, so my question is how viable would a DM/Shield Stalker be, both in solo and then in group play? It seems like Shield Charge would be the only AoE I bring to the group, but I'd at least be bringing good ST and debuffs through Dark?

 

If any of you vets could offer builds/advice/anything to help me along this route, it'd be much appreciated!  Thanks!

[DocMidknight]

  I leveled up a dark/dark stalker and I was pretty underwhelmed with it and I love the dark sets. My main issue was the loss of soul drain......this really hurts dark melee as it's on of it's best powers. Perhaps the buff shield gives may help with the loss of SD but not sure

 

[Saikochoro]

Agreed with the above. Dark/shield is one of the combos that I don’t actually play on stalkers solely because of the loss of soul drain.  If only they had kept soul drain it would be a monster of a combo on stalkers. 

[CaptainFantastic]

Is the loss of Soul Drain so big and drastic that the shield +dmg ability can't make up for it and still turn this into at least a decent group setup?  I've been gone for ages from the game, just trying to find something that's going to be viable at endgame that I won't be a burden for groups with also.

[Riverdusk]

See now, I'd disagree with the above.  I think it is a good combo and I think the loss of soul drain is overrated.  The one caveat is of course as long as you have the stalker ATO chance to recharge build up going and a guassian proc in BU itself which is going to have a lot better uptime on BU than on soul drain.  Sometimes you can even have double BU's and double gaussian procs going.  I played a Dark/SR stalker all the way up into the vet levels and had a blast.  Can't say that I was taking out a spreadsheet and tracking it, but BU was recharging often enough with the proc that I didn't feel there was really a whole lot of difference between it and soul drain.  Especially when you consider you need a big group of mobs to maximize soul drain and the animation time is pretty slow for it compared to how quick BU is to use.  BU of course is also available for your initial strike whereas soul drain is not.  

 

As to something else you mentioned, if you've been gone for a while you may not realize shadow maul got a nice buff and its cone is now pretty huge.  Shield charge really isn't the only AoE you bring to a group anymore.   On mine I also picked up energy torrent from the epic pool (and of course the incarnate nuke) and its aoe felt fine on a "normal" team.  I'd definitely aim for one of the AOE's from one of the epic pools though, there are several options.

 

Also, this may change as I believe the devs are looking at more buffs to dark melee.  Their original idea was to buff dark consumption and make it another good aoe "nuke" type power.  It was pulled.  Since stalkers don't get dark consumption that'd be a big buff to the set stalkers wouldn't get and sadly I think it would then clearly be better on other AT's and the stalker version would get left in the dust. 

 

It is why I'm still hopeful they decide to buff touch of fear instead (like changing it to a "chain" type power and add damage to it), which would help the stalker version as well.

Edited October 6, 2020 by Riverdusk

[CaptainFantastic]

Riverdusk, would you mind sharing some possible build ideas/thoughts for making DM/Shield viable? Started it last night and am enjoying it so far, but as I've been gone from the game since before Incarnate system even existed, and my brain is about as forgetful as an 80 yr old Alzheimer's patient, I could really use some advice on how to get this going.  Does travel power choice play a big key role for something like this to make sure it's optimized? I picked up that Sorcery Flight since I was always a fan of being lazy with Flight and the Sorcery one was new to me altogether.  Coming back with a friend or two, but we have nothing established here so far and our knowledge base has slipped drastically from what it once was.

[Riverdusk]

22 minutes ago, CaptainFantastic said:

Riverdusk, would you mind sharing some possible build ideas/thoughts for making DM/Shield viable? Started it last night and am enjoying it so far, but as I've been gone from the game since before Incarnate system even existed, and my brain is about as forgetful as an 80 yr old Alzheimer's patient, I could really use some advice on how to get this going.  Does travel power choice play a big key role for something like this to make sure it's optimized? I picked up that Sorcery Flight since I was always a fan of being lazy with Flight and the Sorcery one was new to me altogether.  Coming back with a friend or two, but we have nothing established here so far and our knowledge base has slipped drastically from what it once was.

Tough for me to get too specific as mine is dm/SR and I also don't use mids for my builds (I use my own custom spreadsheet).  Main thing is to make sure you get the two stalker ATO procs slotted (put the chance to hide one in your assassin strike, the "chance to recharge BU" can go anywhere).  And as mentioned the guassian chance for build up slotted into build up.  Those three procs alone make you a lot more powerful.  If you aren't familiar with the stalker ATO procs you can find them on the auction house under attuned enhancements--stalker archetype sets.  You can slot the "regular" non superior versions as early as level 10.  They do tend to cost about 7-9 million a piece though so if you are brand new it may take a while unless you want to try your hand at playing the market.

 

Travel powers are entirely up to personal preference, go with whatever is most fun for you.  Also, most don't bother with taking placate anymore thanks to that chance to hide proc being better, so placate is entirely skippable now.

 

Edit:  Funny enough I looked and remembered I took mystic flight on mine as well (been a while since I played that character and I roll a lot of alts).

Edited October 6, 2020 by Riverdusk

[DocMidknight]

@CaptainFantastic I will say even though I'm not a fan of dark melee on stalkers @Riverduskdoes provide an excellent idea with buildup and with the shield buff it should do exactly what you're looking for and make me relook at my stalker.  Main thing is to enjoy the character, if you like it and are having fun with it then that's all that matters.  

[CaptainFantastic]

Thanks to both of you for some ideas. Stalker ATO's, attuned, that's all new? to me I think.  I assume that just means Stalker versions of crafted IO's, and Attuned, not sure about those, but read some things people have said, implying they're like a special version of IO's that scale even if you are low level for content, instead of at your normal max level?

[Gulbasaur]

Attuned IOs scale with your level. The easiest (and frequently cheapest) way to get them is to just buy them from the auction house.

 

The ATOs are are two sets of specific enhancements for each archetype, each set having one "special effect" enhancement. Most are pretty good, but the stalker ones are both very strong,  adding quite substantially to the amount of damage you can do. 

[Saikochoro]

On 10/5/2020 at 5:46 PM, CaptainFantastic said:

Is the loss of Soul Drain so big and drastic that the shield +dmg ability can't make up for it and still turn this into at least a decent group setup?  I've been gone for ages from the game, just trying to find something that's going to be viable at endgame that I won't be a burden for groups with also.

You will not be a burden using the combo on a stalker. It will still be good. Stalkers in general do better damage than scrappers because they can control their crits and because they have assassins strike. 
 

There are just certain combos that shine better on scrappers than stalkers and this is one of them, in my opinion. Scrappers have better damage modifiers and soul drain lasts longer than build up. So scrappers can maintain a huge bonus to damage basically permanently. 
 

You won’t be a burden to a team using this combo on a stalker. It will still be perfectly viable. I just personally would always go scrapper with this combo because I feel that it is better on scrappers. 

[Saikochoro]

On 10/5/2020 at 8:04 PM, CaptainFantastic said:

Thanks to both of you for some ideas. Stalker ATO's, attuned, that's all new? to me I think.  I assume that just means Stalker versions of crafted IO's, and Attuned, not sure about those, but read some things people have said, implying they're like a special version of IO's that scale even if you are low level for content, instead of at your normal max level?

Just add a little more to what Gulbasaur said:

 

The attuned set IOs grow with you as you level and maintain their bonuses all the way down to their lowest effective level.  So I pretty much always go attuned.  Set IOs become attuned by adding a catalyst to them.
 

The reason it is cheaper to just look up the attuned version on the auction house and buy from there is because the auction house pools IOs. For example, say you want Crushing Impact Acc/Dam. The auction house pools all Crushing Impact Acc/Dam regardless of level and attuned status into one pot. So someone can sell a level 32 non attuned CI Acc/Dam and different person can buy that same IO attuned. Thus the attuning process is effectively free when you buy through the auction house since you don’t have to buy a catalyst to attuned it manually. 

 

ATOs are Archetype Origin Enhancements. They are attuned automatically, but a catalyst can be used on them at level 50 to turn them into the Superior version. Stalkers have the best ATOs of all archetypes. They synergize well with stalker mechanics and boost their performance by a large margin comparative to other ATO sets.
 

They can be slotted at level 10 I think. They are expensive, but are well worth it. If funds are an issue, you can always start by just buying the procs. The Stalkers Guile proc should go into assassins strike. It gives the power a chance to hide. Thus giving your highest damage power other than assassins strike to crit. The Assassins Mark proc can go anywhere as it gives all your attacks a chance to finish the cooldown on build up. These are game changers for stalkers in my opinion. 

Edited October 8, 2020 by Saikochoro

[CaptainFantastic]

@SaikochoroI really appreciate the explanation of it.  That helps!