Broadsword/Shields - The Thing that should not be.

[Gobbledygook]

Every time I see the title to this thread, it makes me want to go and listen to Metallica!!!

[BurtHutt]

Great thread. I'm new to stalkers and never got into them but I've gone through all other ATs so it's time for giving stalkers a chance. This combo looks deadly but I am told ELE/SHIELD is the way to go. Can anyone comment? Is broadsword better than electric?

 

I was messing with Pine's but it seems to be buggy for me (I can't move IO slots around with ease right now for some reason).

 

Anyway, thoughts?

 

[Zerethon]

Great thread. I'm new to stalkers and never got into them but I've gone through all other ATs so it's time for giving stalkers a chance. This combo looks deadly but I am told ELE/SHIELD is the way to go. Can anyone comment? Is broadsword better than electric?

 

I was messing with Pine's but it seems to be buggy for me (I can't move IO slots around with ease right now for some reason).

 

Anyway, thoughts?

 

Elec/Shield is another way to build something like this, you get 2 TP attacks that don't unhide you and set you up for AOE's or spikes and it can be built similarly

 

A Tip, Skip Jacobs ladder (Or shadow maul/Proton wave/whatevertheheck) because it's cone is tiny, it's range is garbage, and the animation is like 2 years long.

 

The downside is you lose the big single target spikes, so it's a crowd-clearer but struggles on bosses and endurance a little worse.

[Kaboom009]

Would chance for build up proc work well in shield charge since it does not break hide? Something like shield charge >as?

[Sovera]

 

Elec/Shield is another way to build something like this, you get 2 TP attacks that don't unhide you and set you up for AOE's or spikes and it can be built similarly

 

A Tip, Skip Jacobs ladder (Or shadow maul/Proton wave/whatevertheheck) because it's cone is tiny, it's range is garbage, and the animation is like 2 years long.

 

The downside is you lose the big single target spikes, so it's a crowd-clearer but struggles on bosses and endurance a little worse.

 

I was on the same boat regarding Jacob's Ladder, but:

 

- Charged Brawl, Chain Induction and AS are a bit tight for a ST attack chain. Current Pine numbers: Charged Brawl 1 second animation, 1 second recharge. Chain Induction animates in 1.2 seconds, recharges in 3.8. Assassin's Shock animates in 1.2 seconds and recharges in 4 seconds. AS, Chain Induction, Charged Brawl. Now we are twiddling our thumbs. AS, Charged Brawl, Chain induction, Charged Brawl sort of works with a small gap, but now the Hide procs from the ATO in AS are consumed by Charged Brawl, our weakest skill. Perhaps Charged Brawl would work better for the ATO Hide proc.

 

- Jacob's Ladder takes a -res proc which powers the rest of the ST chain, and by the Pylon tests -res procs really are a big thing. Perhaps not so much when in group.

 

 

That said Charged Brawl, Chain Induction and AS are such beautifully fast animations that it makes me sad to include the slow paced 1.9 seconds animation Jacob's Ladder in there.

[Zerethon]

 

That said Charged Brawl, Chain Induction and AS are such beautifully fast animations that it makes me sad to include the slow paced 1.9 seconds animation Jacob's Ladder in there.

 

I'd much rather just throw a thunderstrike in there, honestly, or moonbeam if your acc is high enough to make it instant. And -res proc is good, but -res and +dot on everything is better (Reactive interface)

 

So effectively, even the -res proc isn't a good enough reason to take the janky & slow BS that is jacobs ladder when i can put that effect on everything and get a burn proc too. Or use the -Max HP one to increase clear speeds

[Sovera]

Moonbeam, now that was a great idea. I can fit it in and it does not require a pre-power. Unfortunately I can only use it during Build-up, but not bad at all.

[Zerethon]

Moonbeam, now that was a great idea. I can fit it in and it does not require a phttps://forums.homecomingservers.com/index.php/topic,2932.msg58014.html#newre-power. Unfortunately I can only use it during Build-up, but not bad at all.

 

Never forget teams, if you have a soldier/widow or people with boosted leadership or buffs, it can be instant without buildup

 

Also, Stalker snipes can crit from hide/hide proc which makes them do an insane amount of damage for an instant power

[Taemeluch]

I saw this post and instantly made one. I LOVE IT.

[Cjmatro]

What alpha and hybrid are you using? Im stuck between cardiac and agility.

[Zerethon]

What alpha and hybrid are you using? Im stuck between cardiac and agility.

 

Musculature Alpha, Assault Hybrid. More damage is best damage

[Frostweaver]

Moonbeam, now that was a great idea. I can fit it in and it does not require a phttps://forums.homecomingservers.com/index.php/topic,2932.msg58014.html#newre-power. Unfortunately I can only use it during Build-up, but not bad at all.

 

Never forget teams, if you have a soldier/widow or people with boosted leadership or buffs, it can be instant without buildup

 

Also, Stalker snipes can crit from hide/hide proc which makes them do an insane amount of damage for an instant power

 

What's funny is that I play my stalker a lot more like a high-damage scrapper... but if you finish one group and immediately launch the snipe at one of the next group, the animation finishes just as 'hidden' pops up... a nice 600 point crit usually is a decent fight starter.

[Cjmatro]

What alpha and hybrid are you using? Im stuck between cardiac and agility.

 

Musculature Alpha, Assault Hybrid. More damage is best damage

How do you deal with end drain?

[Zerethon]

What alpha and hybrid are you using? Im stuck between cardiac and agility.

 

Musculature Alpha, Assault Hybrid. More damage is best damage

How do you deal with end drain?

 

Ageless Invocation does wonders at 50, otherwise just blues occasionally in long fights.

[Taemeluch]

Quick questions about this build. Are the chance to placate and other chance (cant remember which it is) worth getting?

Also, how do you slot build up?

I made this character and in +4 teams, I 2 shot reds and telenuke to AS bosses. 

[Gulbasaur]

15 hours ago, Taemeluch said:

Quick questions about this build. Are the chance to placate and other chance (cant remember which it is) worth getting?

Also, how do you slot build up?

I made this character and in +4 teams, I 2 shot reds and telenuke to AS bosses. 

Do you mean the ATOs? If so, the Chance to Hide one is one of the best ATOs out there and the other one is... good, I guess. Build Up is always a bonus so having it up more is useful. Being able to make two out of three hits a crit with the Chance to Hide is outstanding, though.

[Kruunch]

On 7/14/2019 at 10:32 AM, Kaboom009 said:

Would chance for build up proc work well in shield charge since it does not break hide? Something like shield charge >as?

Yes.

 

Either that or Lightning Rod (if Elec Melee). A lot of times my build up is up multiple times in the same pack.

[Kruunch]

21 hours ago, Taemeluch said:

Quick questions about this build. Are the chance to placate and other chance (cant remember which it is) worth getting?

Also, how do you slot build up?

I made this character and in +4 teams, I 2 shot reds and telenuke to AS bosses. 

Yes both ATO procs (and the whole sets) are worth getting and fairly pivotal to this (any?) Stalker build.

 

I slot Build Up with one Gaussian's Chance for Build Up. It has an insanely high proc rate and with the Stalker ATO for Build Up refresh, it's generally up multiple times per fight.

[Gulbasaur]

7 hours ago, Kruunch said:

Yes both ATO procs (and the whole sets) are worth getting and fairly pivotal to this (any?) Stalker build.

 

I slot Build Up with one Gaussian's Chance for Build Up. It has an insanely high proc rate and with the Stalker ATO for Build Up refresh, it's generally up multiple times per fight.

I slotted my sword and board stalker up like this yesterday - it's complete loophole abuse by circumventing the recharge rate for a fairly reliable +160% damage boost proc; I was critting for over 700 damage two or three times a fight.

 

The two ATOs and chance for Build Up are a really good combination which is utterly ridiculous on The Thing That Should Not Be as it has two big hitters which can basically crit on demand. It's not 100% reliable, but they're all powers you should be using anyway, so it takes something good and makes it better. 

 

Tip: if you do this, bind Build Up to Crtl+1 or something so you don't have to click it. It'll go off about about two or three times a minute so you want it accessible quickly. 

[Scrapulous]

On 7/26/2019 at 12:08 AM, Gulbasaur said:

The two ATOs and chance for Build Up are a really good combination which is utterly ridiculous on The Thing That Should Not Be as it has two big hitters which can basically crit on demand. It's not 100% reliable, but they're all powers you should be using anyway, so it takes something good and makes it better. 

 

Do you feel that this is not true of other stalker sets? I'm not quite certain what's exceptional about Broadsword in this analysis, especially when I compare broadsword's numbers on its two big attacks to the numbers on other sets, which mostly appear to come out ahead of BS.

[Gulbasaur]

7 hours ago, Scrapulous said:

 

Do you feel that this is not true of other stalker sets? I'm not quite certain what's exceptional about Broadsword in this analysis, especially when I compare broadsword's numbers on its two big attacks to the numbers on other sets, which mostly appear to come out ahead of BS.

No, I said it was good and this makes it better. I said that slotting the Build Up proc in Build up was loophole abuse.

 

Saying something is good doesn't mean you think everything else is bad. Anyway, it's a good combination for any stalker but this thread is about BS/Shield so I mentioned it in the context of BS/Shield. I didn't say "it's great on energy melee/rad" because that's not what this thread is about.

 

As an aside, I experimented with the ranged attack Chance for Build Up proc and it doesn't go off enough to really be worth considering for real gameplay, sadly. I'm still enjoying my sword and board stalker - the fact that the shield-o-port attack doesn't break stealth means you can immediately follow it up with an AoE like fireball from the epic pool for a double AoE crit. Marvellous stuff.

[Zerethon]

As a note, Shield charge (Any any other teleport attack like Lightning rod) Doesn't crit

It doesn't unhide you because you -don't- deal the damage, it's a funky thing in the way it's programmed, but also since you don't deal the damage it can't crit

And in my experience "On paper" numbers mean absolutely nothing, something can do 999999999dps on paper but good luck getting that perfect situation where you can attack one enemy that long without moving for it to work

EG: Kinetic melee is absolutely mad on paper, in practice however it's not nearly as scary, Even dark melee is completely murderous....if you stay at 10 stacks of siphon and never have to stop hitting something

Broadsword is scary because the DPA (Damage per activation) is EXTREMELY high especially on crits, so it's DPS Trends higher in a stick&move fight and it's in-place DPS isn't shabby either

The ATO's drive this point too, BS Can get the build up proc, but lose almost no damage if you have to hop away before popping it and jumping in again (EG: To dodge a big AOE) Placate -> jump back -> Jump back in w/ Build up -> Crit/AOE

More or less, one crit from Broadsword is a crit and another attack or 2 from some other sets, THAT is the major factor at play in actual practice

[KaizenSoze]

On 7/3/2019 at 7:31 PM, Machariel said:

6) Hover/Fly/Afterburner

- I'm not a fan of super jump and being able to hover over my teammates to move into position would be pretty sweet.  Maybe I won't care about this once I have access to Shield Charge and can yeet into spawns.

Late to the party, but hover on stalkers is such a boom in group melee. Every power, BS/SD, works in hover.

 

My character is a tiny pixie, so flying around the top of the battle lopping heads off works perfectly.

[KaizenSoze]

Finally got shield charge and some slots. It is the bomb.

 

Hover over the group for optimal placement. Build up... boom!

 

My biggest problem was been end, so until I hit 50 and get ageless. I am taking the two Body Mastery end powers.

 

They might not be the greatest powers, but they should get me over the hump.

[Gulbasaur]

19 hours ago, KaizenSoze said:

 My biggest problem was been end, so until I hit 50 and get ageless. I am taking the two Body Mastery end powers.

  

They might not be the greatest powers, but they should get me over the hump.

It'll get you there. Ageless is a very useful addition - when you hit about 10% endurance, hit Ageless and it rockets back up. The usual performance shifter and panacea combo is also very helpful. I'm a real fan of blaze mastery's fireball for the epic choice... there's something about coming out of stealth with a large explosion that's just very satisfying, especially when you can Shield Charge in right after. For added fun, take pyronic judgement to continue the Very Stealthy Explosions theme (sadly, it doesn't crit but is obscenely powerful anyway).

 

For the alpha I took Cardiac for a bit then changed my mind and went for Musculature, which covers a multitude of cheap IO sins.