Stalker brethren?

[Justisaur]

Disregard the earlier post I made.  Friendship ended with BS/Regen, now Elec/Shield is my best friend.

 

The phrase "Shield Stalker" is so absolutely cursed it's funny.

 

Hey, hiding behind a shield is much easier.  No... that's just a shield lying over there, nothing unusual at all.

[Zumberge]

Disregard the earlier post I made.  Friendship ended with BS/Regen, now Elec/Shield is my best friend.

 

The phrase "Shield Stalker" is so absolutely cursed it's funny.

 

Hey, hiding behind a shield is much easier.  No... that's just a shield lying over there, nothing unusual at all.

 

Even better: When you're hidden, Grant Cover gives nearby teammates stealth.  Just get everyone to line up behind the Stalker and they can sneak up on people.

[McJigg]

I started an Ice/Shield stalker this morning. If Grant Cover also grants stealth then that's a huge bonus.

 

I'm used to sets with some sort of heal or self recovery though, just watching my HP fall and hoping the enemy's falls faster is a change I'm not fully comfortable with yet. Maybe all the +def will allow use of Aid Self once I get some IOs.

[Cutter]

None yet, but I'm looking at rolling up a Rad/Bio tonight. I want to do something with StJ and Kin too.

[siolfir]

I'm also wondering about dark or energy melee sets, I think I tried them in live and didn't like them though, but energy transfer looks insane, I think it'd do more damage from hidden than the assassinate - the question is how to get past the look of pom-poms of death.

To get past the pom-poms, use power customization - you can't get rid of them but you can just make it look like your hands are glowing with the right colors.

 

That said, don't bother with EM if the idea is critical damage from Energy Transfer: it doesn't do extra damage, it just doesn't do the self-damage when it crits. Until Crushing Uppercut, there was a design concept from Cryptic/Paragon that seemed to be to prevent anything from doing more than an Assassin's Strike crit from hidden status, so hard hitters from other sets had reduced damage criticals just to keep them less than AS. Energy Melee has two of those powers that had their criticals reduced: Total Focus (where a crit does ET damage) and Energy Transfer (no self-damage).

 

[marcussmythe]

I'm also wondering about dark or energy melee sets, I think I tried them in live and didn't like them though, but energy transfer looks insane, I think it'd do more damage from hidden than the assassinate - the question is how to get past the look of pom-poms of death.

To get past the pom-poms, use power customization - you can't get rid of them but you can just make it look like your hands are glowing with the right colors.

 

That said, don't bother with EM if the idea is critical damage from Energy Transfer: it doesn't do extra damage, it just doesn't do the self-damage when it crits. Until Crushing Uppercut, there was a design concept from Cryptic/Paragon that seemed to be to prevent anything from doing more than an Assassin's Strike crit from hidden status, so hard hitters from other sets had reduced damage criticals just to keep them less than AS. Energy Melee has two of those powers that had their criticals reduced: Total Focus (where a crit does ET damage) and Energy Transfer (no self-damage).

 

I did not know those for the specific reasons.  I wonder, would a crittable Energy Transfer, at its original animation times, make the set appealing?

[Zumberge]

I'm also wondering about dark or energy melee sets, I think I tried them in live and didn't like them though, but energy transfer looks insane, I think it'd do more damage from hidden than the assassinate - the question is how to get past the look of pom-poms of death.

To get past the pom-poms, use power customization - you can't get rid of them but you can just make it look like your hands are glowing with the right colors.

 

That said, don't bother with EM if the idea is critical damage from Energy Transfer: it doesn't do extra damage, it just doesn't do the self-damage when it crits. Until Crushing Uppercut, there was a design concept from Cryptic/Paragon that seemed to be to prevent anything from doing more than an Assassin's Strike crit from hidden status, so hard hitters from other sets had reduced damage criticals just to keep them less than AS. Energy Melee has two of those powers that had their criticals reduced: Total Focus (where a crit does ET damage) and Energy Transfer (no self-damage).

 

I did not know those for the specific reasons.  I wonder, would a crittable Energy Transfer, at its original animation times, make the set appealing?

 

"Energy Melee but with ET that's a quick bop that crits for full critical damage?" That's basically what Energy Melee was for Stalkers at CoV launch, along with a Total Focus that also crit for full crit damage.  For what it's worth people knew it was good, and EM/Ninjitsu was a positively endemic FotM build because of it.

 

It was also Very Fun And Interactive in PvP.

[siolfir]

"Energy Melee but with ET that's a quick bop that crits for full critical damage?" That's basically what Energy Melee was for Stalkers at CoV launch, along with a Total Focus that also crit for full crit damage.  For what it's worth people knew it was good, and EM/Ninjitsu was a positively endemic FotM build because of it.

 

It was also Very Fun And Interactive in PvP.

I started with i7, so can't speak for what it was at CoV launch; both have had the reduced/no-damage critical for as long as I've played. On top of that, Stalkers got a version of EM with nerfed stun percentages compared to every other version. It was just much better for Brutes, where Fury meant that ET was hitting nearly as hard as an AS crit anyway, plus you had more hp (and the higher regen that comes with more hp) to absorb the self-damage, and you could stack stuns easily.

 

But to answer the question about the set being appealing... with the old animation and no critical damage, I enjoyed EM on both ATs because the set hit fast (outside of TF, which I rarely used), and hit hard. There was just something satisfying about "push button, kill mob".

 

[Zep]

Elec/Elec I am rebuilding from live.

 

He was mostly solo - ppl would be super surprised when I teamed, since there was a big 'thing' that stalkers 'sucked' back then. I guess lightning rod is just that flashy :)

 

Might be interested in leveling up another with a different feel to the play style.

[Troo]

Energy Melee / Regen forever.

With insta Assassin's Strike out of hide = yummy.

If the old ET animation time was returned, well that would be the dream, wouldn't it?

[Ariamaki]

Electrical / Reflexes, first time playing a Stalker since live. So far so good! Definitely still need some work put in on the build, but the rotation is fun and aggressive.

[Cix]

One of my 50s back on live was DB/En.  Here I have an Elec/Regen who does pretty well, a Broadsword/WP that's kinda meh, and a Nin/Bio that feels ridiculously easy compared to my other characters.  I do play a lot of dominators, though.