Stalker - Boss "defeater"

[Blas]

Hey. new to the forums but, ive been playing for a month or so.

I've gone from builds that do a ton of AOE and now I think its time to get the heavy hitter out.

Last night I made three test build, none of which were what im looking for,

 

Could someone please point me in a direction for a stalker build that will hit the 1k+ crit numbers  and have enough surviveability  to take down AV's if possible?

 

Thank you

[Croax]

Nice to see more people playing my favorite AT. All Stalkers are very good Boss killers. But in some cases i like to start a fight by killing Leutenants first, depends on the enemys. Also the Build Up and Assassin Strike is on all Stalker Primaries why you can just roll what you like and still get 1k crits. If you do not want to look into each powerset, here are some suggestions:

 

Primaries:

Street Justice: Maybe the best in Single Target.

Savage Melee: The best Balance between Single Target and AoE but most of its Damage is over time

Energy Melee: On the Beta Server is the new Version of EM. After this hits life it could be the new Single Target King.

 

Notable Mention: Ice, Psi and Dual Blades are also cool.

 

Secondaries:

Bio Armor: Best for Damage

Energy Aura: Very Good Overall

 

Notable Mention: Shield and Invul are good on Stalkers

 

If you are good aware of your capabilities and know what you are doing go with StJ/Bio (EM/Bio in i27).

If you want less buttons to push go with StJ/EA (EM/EA in i27).

[Gulbasaur]

I'd recommend one of the primaries with a heal in the attack chain if you're going for a strong soloist. Rad and dark are both respectable sets that just keep on going, and both have a heal in the attack chain. If you're going to play with IOs and procs, you can plug in an IO that gives you some endurance back for some outstanding sustain. 

 

I like rad armour as well... and dark armour... both are good out of the box. If you're min-maxing for survival, a layered approach like invulnerability might be better, but it's so trivial to build in defence that I think it almost doesn't matter. Bio is still the king for damage. Shield is very good, although it sucks up endurance like you cannot imagine. 

[MoisesG]

i say make one of each 🙂

have fun, enjoy the game

[Coyote]

All Stalker builds can have enough DPS to take down AVs, but I like Savage Melee for several reasons:

1: It doesn't sacrifice AoE potential to do high single-target damage

2: It does a good amount of damage via DoTs... but while this is annoying against weaker opponents, against AVs it's not a problem

3: Its weakness is a lack of mitigation. It doesn't do much knockdown, no mezzing or defensive debuffing, etc... but AVs are resistant to all that anyhow. So again, against AVs it's not a problem.

 

For defense, especially if going with Savage, you may want to avoid strong offensive sets that may not help much on D like Fire or Bio. Go with a strong defensive set... I like Shield (and it pairs well with Savage's Endurance Reduction), Energy and Electric are also strong choices. Dark Armor and Rad Armor are also strong in non-AV fights due to having AoE life-steal powers. And they can be slotted for damage, so they will help with AoE. Both may not be that strong in an AV fight, though, since by being balanced for use against multiple opponents the heals won't be that strong in a single-target scenario.

 

[brasilgringo]

My Savage/Invlun stalker is a ton of fun and doesn't at all feel weak against bosses/AVs, and still holds his own for AOE.  Proc-slotting is helpful at least in Savage Charge.

 

That said, from what's being said on test, it sounds like EM is being buffed to be an absurdly hard-hitting single-target set, so if you're focus is really just bosses/AVs, maybe wait to see what changes make it to live for EM.

[Blas]

Thank you everyone for your input, In the coming days I'll throw some test builds together and see what happens. I had seen posts about savage melee being a very decent set, but ill tell you what...

I must be pretty bad at stalker mechanics.

 

On the test server I have a Sm/shield. I do  shield charge into the group then try to AS a boss mob then hit my savage leap. After that the DPS just stops.

It has been mentioned i should be able to stay  hidden which is true for shield charge - but my hidden never seems to proc back on so im just left there punching away building stacks not really feeling like im doing much.

 

But with that being said, im aware I just need some practice/knowledge on mechanics and hopefully then can really start to have fun on stalker AT

 

 

Thanks again

[Coyote]

1 hour ago, Blas said:

I do  shield charge into the group then try to AS a boss mob then hit my savage leap. After that the DPS just stops.

 

Savage leap works best, I think, heavily procc'd out. Procs don't care about Hidden status, so I wouldn't try to AS then Leap... AS should always lead into Hemorrhage since Hemo gets a huge damage bonus when used from Hidden status.

Also, Savage Leap does more damage and gets more stacks of Blood, up to 3, if you use it at longer ranges. I would open with that to get 3 stacks, then AS for 2 more stacks, and that sets you with 5 stacks which increases the range of Rending Flurry so you get more AoE. Open like that, follow with Shield Charge (or you could Leap-Charge and then go to AS-Hemo), and it will do a great AoE opener.

[Seigmoraig]

On 11/6/2020 at 4:35 PM, Blas said:

On the test server

Honestly your problem is right there. You said in your original post that you are new to the game and are learning the ropes. Playing at level 50 right away is far from the best way to learn how to play a certain AT, not to mention the suite of set IOs that you need to make it work. 

 

Just roll it at level 1 and level it organically, you will get much more comfortable with the set you choose and it's limitations.

Like others said in the thread (and from personal experience) any set on a Stalker will be able to do giant backstabby crits no problem, just choose whichever you think is the coolest and roll with it. Everyone gets so OP compared to the difficulty in CoH that it doesn't really matter in the end what you choose

Edited November 17, 2020 by Seigmoraig

[siolfir]

Since nobody else said it, I'll put it out: the new EM (only in beta currently) is downright silly for Stalker single target damage and - assuming a critical - includes a self-heal in your high DPS attack chain from ET. If you want to wreck one target, it's a great set to use.

 

[Saikochoro]

I’ll echo that currently I think street justice is the best boss killer for stalkers. However, once i27 goes live I am almost positive energy melee will take that crown. 

[brasilgringo]

On 11/6/2020 at 8:16 PM, Coyote said:

 

Also, Savage Leap does more damage and gets more stacks of Blood, up to 3, if you use it at longer ranges. I would open with that to get 3 stacks, then AS for 2 more stacks, and that sets you with 5 stacks which increases the range of Rending Flurry so you get more AoE. Open like that, follow with Shield Charge (or you could Leap-Charge and then go to AS-Hemo), and it will do a great AoE opener.

100% this.

[Croax]

14 hours ago, siolfir said:

Since nobody else said it, I'll put it out: the new EM (only in beta currently) is downright silly for Stalker single target damage and - assuming a critical - includes a self-heal in your high DPS attack chain from ET. If you want to wreck one target, it's a great set to use.

 

I said that. In the first post after the OP.

 

Also you will more likly use Stalkers Guile proccs for TF to get 2 EF stacks. That way you will have a lot of fast cast ET which will not allways crit. Energy Melee is heavy on your healthbar. You do not crit often enough to compensate. In a high recharge build you will need some other source of healing. Either all the passive IOs, Inspirations or straight healing abilities like Energize or DNA Siphon.

[siolfir]

8 hours ago, Croax said:

I said that. In the first post after the OP.

 

Also you will more likly use Stalkers Guile proccs for TF to get 2 EF stacks. That way you will have a lot of fast cast ET which will not allways crit. Energy Melee is heavy on your healthbar. You do not crit often enough to compensate. In a high recharge build you will need some other source of healing. Either all the passive IOs, Inspirations or straight healing abilities like Energize or DNA Siphon.

Fair enough, I missed the line where it was included, but AS recharges faster than Total Focus and the new ET recharges faster than either (plus the i27 version has critical damage as well as the self heal) so you could probably lead into both powers with it (no, I haven't tried to come up with attack chains based on this).

[SwitchFade]

*cough* DB...

 

You might take a peek at the guide I posted in a thread up there. 😉