secondaries The Best Secondary - VOTE!!

[Purrfekshawn]

A while ago l decided to make actual Stalker toon, that would have Psionic Primary, so it could penetrate certain enemies' DCD's, but then l have certain questions:

Stalker ATO - l believe l read somewhere that there's some trick as something would better go with Highest Hitter or something - can u suggest Me how to slot Primary Powers?

 

And more importantly what to pair it With? l looked at certain Sets, but as far as l can understand it - those buff +DEF are far, far more desirable, especially in Solo Play than +RES, because.

1. When enemy notices a player, players +STEALTH radius means Absolutely nothing, as Enemy'll continue to see player magically.

2. Enemy can attack player, and if player gets hit, the player'll be unstealthed & Assassin-something Attack is going to be interrupted.

 

That narrows the choice, but what set exactly is considered to be the best?

 

l looked @ certain possibilities:

Ninjitsu - upsides - has Flashbang Power, which can Placate Multiple enemies. Have no idea how AoE placate is useful RN. Is it VERY good or moderaltly good or poor? Has selfheal power. Besides that it has pretty poor stats & may require unwanted IO to cap all Positional Defenses, click Antimez power, and Caltrops would be good AoE, but it causes enemy to have clucked. Many skippable powers in a set in general.

Super Reflexes - upsides - it caps Positional Defenses pretty easily, defensively increases +RES's depending on HP, offensively +20% Recharge. Downside - click antimez power, no selfheal.

Shield Defense - upsides - it has extra Splash that spawns Pseudopet and doesn't break Stealth, has some +RES and +HP besides DEF. Downside that on stalker its +DMG when hidden probably would work wonky, click antimez power, no selfheal.

Energy Aura - upsides - it has Great Typed +DEF stats, which are easily capped, also portion of +RES and SelfHeal. Has an Endurance Draining power that buffs DEF. Also +20% to Recharge, toggle Antimez power. Downside is its PSI and TOX hole because of no Positional Melee/Ranged defenses, that means these enemies can interrupt character! Disrupt and T9 are likely skippable, or that Mez won't be excessive?

Ice Armor - upsides - it has decent S/L/E/Ne Typed Defenses, but Fire/Ice powers can interrupt. Fire powers are usually AoE though, so hide's +37.5% AoE DEF is going to cap DEF to e.g. Council Flamethrower. Has Selfheal, +END and DEF buff and Amazing T9 Res Button. Aura deals -DAMAGE. Toggle Antimez Power. Plenties of defenses, no extra Offense though, PSI/TOX hole is like previous one.

Bio Armor - upsides - it has Capped F/C/E/Ne and partially PSI +DEF (EDIT: slightly better than INV), a lot of offensive buffs such as +DMG and +ToHit. Obvious downside - Smashing/Lethal Attacks are going to interrupt Main attack, thus maybe great in Teams, but lackluster in Solo. Haven't tried though, so dunno reilly.

Willpower - upsides +END, Capped Environmental and PSI +DEF (EDIT: even worse than INV). Downside is - and very big - Smashing/Lethal Attacks interrupt. Thus don't think it's going to work well.

Invulnerability - VERY TOUGH to cap S/L/E/Ne/F/C Typed +DEF, but doable from what it looks and tons of +RES, debuff resistances and Heal/HP on top of that. No extra offenses though... So l think besides survivability it isn't brilliant anywhere - and payoff for that may become quite crippling and fatal for the build. Has PSI/TOX hole, so these damage types may interrupt.

 

So, what do you think - what Secondary to Choose?

Edited January 25, 2021 by Purrfekshawn

[Purrfekshawn]

Would like to get some answer!

 

The SECONDARY question is the most sensible, because unlike slotting, Epic/Patron, Incarnates, character appearance it cannot be respecced out and changed after the toon gets established and in upgrading stage, it has to be chosen when toon is being created, then set in a stone, so to speak!

Edited January 24, 2021 by Purrfekshawn

[Haijinx]

For Stalker?  Energy Aura has to be a strong contender 

[SuperPlyx]

Hmm, I got my Invuln to over cap S/L/F/C/E/N it's  great armor

[Mr. Vee]

I have an invuln, a shield and an ice and like all three. I was surprised at how good invuln is on stalker. It's hard to comment though given that your descriptions suggest you're playing stalker with the hidden AS style which I never do anymore. I've not played enough of the armors on HC to really pick a favorite either.

[Frosticus]

I'm a fan of shield. I think defense works best on stalkers, but shield still offers some decent resists and +hp on top of that.

The set doesn't have much in the way of holes you need to plug.

Shield charge offers a bit of aoe to an AT that is often sorely lacking in that department.

[SeraphimKensai]

 

I have the following fully IO'ed incarnate stalkers:

1. Psi/SR

2. Elec/Bio

3. BS/SD

 

They all work extremely well. I would recommend defense based stalkers, with the exception that bio armor shines on everything. Reason being softcap percentage is universal, and resistance based toons that are non tanks/brutes/Kheldians only go to 75%. 

 

All the above toons work really well and are extremely hard to kill, but that might be more so how I build my toons in the first place. Psi does great damage on all except robots, robots it's a little lacking, but most mobs in the game aren't robots so it's a good choice.

 

I would look at Psi/Shield or Psi/Bio as they seem interesting and I don't think I've actually played with anyone with those sets together.

 

That said, EA, Ninjistu, Ice all can be well built as well. Maybe give them all a try? I mean we have a thousand slots and can get more with multiple accounts.

 

[kelika2]

I voted Nin only because Fiery Aura was not available.  protip the initial burn damage can crit

[Purrfekshawn]

3 hours ago, kelika2 said:

I voted Nin only because Fiery Aura was not available.  protip the initial burn damage can crit

But it's Resistance-based Set, not Defense-based. This is going to catch Loads of Interrupts!

 

Generally Shield Defense/Bio Armor are notably strong for Scrappers. Titan Weapon/Bio Armor Scrapper was the Meme for long time, and even required nerfhammer smash. l believe probably even more powerful Titan Weapon/Shield Defense Scrapper would have been, but that combo was (and is) NOT allowed. Scrappers do NOT have Interruptable attacks though, so Bio Armor's Smash/Lethal +RES instead of +DEF possibly caps to 75% with Tough, which could make decent protection even if S/L defense is below the Cap, and thus generally acceptable, so Willpower is...

 

For Stalker as far as l remember Shield Defense +DMG suppresses when hidden, causing no +DMG buff, while Bio Armor is interrupted with Smashing/Lethal Damage. If there's a Tank or Brute player in the team, and that player is near enemy - that's not questioned usually, because Hide also gives AoE +DEF, but in Soloplay enemies see through hide & issue their Single Target attacks, whose have fair chance to Interrupt. +also Bio may be kinda unwanted VFX-wise, so Shield could be, but it's all depending on Toon's Theme of course.

 

Vote for more, make this poll decently Representative PLZ!!

Edited January 25, 2021 by Purrfekshawn

[Frosticus]

I don't think interuptable AS matters. Most people don't use hidden AS very often because it is slow as molasses.

Stalkers are generally best served by playing a lot more like scrappers these days. Albeit with more controlled crits at the cost of some upper level freakish performance.

 

There is nothing wrong with resistance based sets on stalkers either. Not on an AT that has access to shadow meld. 

Radiation armor can be set up to greatly improve a stalker's aoe damage (large area too), while easily being "tough enough" for most content.

 

I also find more teams offer +def buffs than +res buffs. The former tends to benefit a resistance based set more than someone already running on a softcapped def set. 

[Nemu]

35 minutes ago, Purrfekshawn said:

But it's Resistance-based Set, not Defense-based. This is going to catch Loads of Interrupts!

I have a staff/fire stalker. It's not a big deal. Resist sets doesn't mean

1 - you can't build for defense or pair a primary that augments defense

2 - mob attacks don't have cooldowns.

You'll still crit. And double build up burn crit will make you giddy.

 

Fire armor is better than most people give it credit for. Decent resists including toxic, semi-fast heal, burn. Just build for defense and plug up the slow/-recharge hole and it'll perform fine. I paired it with staff because

1 - AoE

2 - FF procs

3 - +def boost

It's the perfect pairing IMO.

 

Also not voting cuz Fire Armor is not on the list.

Edited January 25, 2021 by Nemu

[Haijinx]

41 minutes ago, Frosticus said:

I don't think interuptable AS matters. Most people don't use hidden AS very often because it is slow as molasses.

 

Yeah why bother with the slow ass AS?

 

Hit your big hitter, a couple other attacks then fast AS when you have a guaranteed crit. 

 

Then you have a decent chance to hide AGAIN  -- and hit your big hitter again. 

[Purrfekshawn]

Well, right now EnA is leading, what l thought of selection it before, but... Let the move Votes come!

 

l kinda had a toon "Laleila" which was built as something resembling Staff Fighting/Dark Armor Stalker, but didn't like that Dark Armor is +RES based & thus became quite interruptable. Maybe l shud just had to rethink Mah rotation! U probably have met "Laleila" in SWTOR universe. If you have ever been there, l believe name "Laleila" should associate with sentence "outstanding, amazing, extremely nice, magnificent and excellent girlie n.n".

 

Well, whateva, it's not the PSI damage ayway. Also can ayone give some build & explanation of how to use Rotation at bosses and adds?

[Crysis]

I assumed since this was in the Stalker forums the question was directed at Stalker secondaries.

 

I’ve played /Regen, /Shield, /Nin, /Ea, /Bio and /SR.  It’s very hard for me to imagine any set that’s even a close second place to /EA.  However, the primary does impact this as some of the primaries offer significant synergy with the chosen secondary.  For example, Parry from Broadsword on a high recharge build is easy to keep double stacked and that’s almost as much +DEF as some toggles provide in entire secondary sets..

 

But if suddenly the game forced me to just choose one, it would have to be /EA.

[Machariel]

There are a lot of great things to say about a lot of Stalker secondary power sets but EA is my pick for overall best.

 

while it’s not quite as defensively strong as /Invuln (especially on the resist side) it’s still quite durable and comes with a lot of other perks on top of its great Defense :

-toggle mez protection, not a clicky like SR or SD

- 20% recharge bonus to boost your offense

- amazing endurance management 

- 2-3 skippable powers

- decent heal (albeit on a long cooldown)

- looks cool 😎 

 

Very tough to go wrong with EA. The only thing it doesn’t have, which other stalker secondary sets bring to the table, is a source of AOE damage like /Fire, /Shield, or - my pick for best AOE from a secondary- /Radiation.

 

Ice is similar to EA but more endurance heavy (no energize) and no recharge bonus, but with imo the best defensive T9, Icy Bastion. 

[Frosticus]

Something most people don't look deeply in to is the t9's. Probably because most are skippable.

But you can set up some stalkers to be incredibly survivable on the sets with soft crash t9's.

 

I recently did a respec on my sav/shield (cause hemo nerf took the wind out of my sails for single target damage) that cycles:

rune, one w/ shield, rune, melee hybrid - repeat. Minimal slotting investment needed on rune/owts.  No downtime, always running very good resistance on top of softcapped def and capped ddr (ageless radial plus 2x active defense). 

 

ice, rad, willpower can all do similar setups that let you comfortably run just about all content confidently. 

 

 

[Saikochoro]

I voted energy aura as I believe it to be the best all round armor set. I also love both shield and Bio on stalkers. Both of those have more offensive potential than energy aura, but aren’t as well rounded in my opinion. 
 

Energy aura has healing, defense, resists, endurance management, and offense (+rech) covered. My energy aura characters never die even in psi heavy mobs. I’m never hurting for health or endurance. And I get to attack fast. Slotting is loose and easy enabling procs where I want them. It also allows me to build without incarnates in mind. 
 

Shield and Bio both have great offensive potential and can certainly be built tough (especially shield). They do however have tighter builds in my opinion. I always have a harder time allocating slots between set set bonuses needed for softcap vs rech and procs. It can be done, it’s just a lot tighter.  Shield definitely has offense covered and even supplements AoE damage with shield charge.  I actually think shield can be built tougher than energy aura, but it is pretty tight and might result in lower recharge. If shield had healing and endurance management covered I would rate it higher than energy aura, but you do have to get both of those via the attack set, IOs, or incarnates. 
 

Bio is great and fun. More click heavy than energy aura or shield, but very rewarding to play. In my experience it is the least sturdy of my top three, but still sturdy enough. It does however have the best offensive potential without having to need mobs surround me. It also has all areas covered (defense, resist, offense, healing, and endurance management). I think building bio can lead to traps though. Since it is possible to softcap all types (except psi) I think a lot of people try to do so, but it requires very tight slotting to do so. This leads to low recharge and little to no procs, which defeats the offensive advantage. When you build to bios strengths however it is amazing, just not quite as durable as shield or energy aura.

 

Although I voted energy aura as the best, I like energy aura, shield, and bio all fairly equally. Shield and bio are super awesome, I just think energy aura edges them out all things considered. 

[Carnifax]

I voted Shield because it's the only one I have. Great fun but Endurance management can be irksome.

 

I did do a Mids build for a Staff/Inv and the numbers were very silly.

 

EA is very easy to build for defense to silly levels too and has nice End management tools and a self heal (eventually).

[Coyote]

I voted Bio, but Shield and Rad came close.

I think that Stalkers can really use help with AoE damage in most cases, so I like a secondary that helps with AoE damage. Of those, Bio, Shield, and Rad are the strongest defensively. Fire and Dark also help with AoE damage, but are clearly behind the earlier three in durability.

[drgantz]

According to the poll and many comments, EA is the big winner.  Bio is second.

My problem is that I like Natural Origin, and EA and Bio don't have invisible effects.

I usually play SR for this reason.  I've read many good things about SR Stalkers. 
I like WP on Scrappers, but I've read that it isn't good on Stalkers, and got Zero votes.
I've thought of Ninj, but it has lesser def and more clickie than SR.

[Carnifax]

3 hours ago, drgantz said:

According to the poll and many comments, EA is the big winner.  Bio is second.

My problem is that I like Natural Origin, and EA and Bio don't have invisible effects.

I usually play SR for this reason.  I've read many good things about SR Stalkers. 
I like WP on Scrappers, but I've read that it isn't good on Stalkers, and got Zero votes.
I've thought of Ninj, but it has lesser def and more clickie than SR.

Inv can be made very tough, has few clickies and has decent NoFX options. That's what my natural Staff/Inv runs as. 

 

Because it's a bit of a hybrid it gives you a nice all-round base to layer Pool powers and IO bonuses on top of. It especially likes the Typed defenses and the resistances the Winters sets offers.

[Mezmera]

I have an Invuln, SR and Ice stalker. 

 

SR is nice because it's cheap on the slots, take all of the powers except elude and build it halfway decent and you have an easy to make positional defense capped stalker and the +recharge power is nice as well.  I took Run of Protection on this one to pair great resists with those defenses and it does quite well for this one, the only thing I'm left longing for is a heal.  

 

Ice is real nice in that it has pretty much every tool in the kit.  Strong defenses and Icy Bastion is a fantastic power plus it has endurance management and a heal.  The unique ability to this one is that pbaoe debuff -dmg and -rech, this sucker is real nice.  It's harder to build a real good ice stalker, there's a lot you can boost but you kind of find yourself chasing too many things and wanting to rely on Icy Bastion more than you'll be used to because of the stigma that it's a quasi t9.  Ice is a savants stalker.  

 

Invuln is fantastic on stalkers.  Tankiest stalker I have easily.  I'm able to cap melee and aoe defenses along with all elementals except for psi.  I have decent ranged defense and psi defense but low psi resists so if there's any avenue to kill this sucker it'd have to be some pretty good rolls on ranged psi attacks.  Even then you still have the heal which is kind of a defense to psi.  I took the t9 as a mule for steadfast and any real emergency should I for certain need to cap every resist aside from psi.  I've not had to use it but maybe once and other times for giggles.  Unreal resists and defenses paired with EM's burst damage, it's by far my favorite stalker.  

 

I was choosing between EA and Invuln when I went and made the Invuln.  They seem pretty similar except EA forfeits a bit extra in the resistance department for +recharge and endurance management.  Also Invulns t9 seems like it'd be more useful if you ever need to max out your resists, EA's t9 seems a waste since you're likely already defense capped.  

 

I think there's like 4 at the top that boil down to playstyle and creativity to shore up shortcomings.  

Edited February 24, 2021 by Mezmera

[Haijinx]

4 hours ago, drgantz said:

According to the poll and many comments, EA is the big winner.  Bio is second.

My problem is that I like Natural Origin, and EA and Bio don't have invisible effects.

I usually play SR for this reason.  I've read many good things about SR Stalkers. 
I like WP on Scrappers, but I've read that it isn't good on Stalkers, and got Zero votes.
I've thought of Ninj, but it has lesser def and more clickie than SR.

The natural type effects thing is already sort of ruined for Stalkers since they all have to be invisible. 

[Hjarki]

2 minutes ago, Haijinx said:

The natural type effects thing is already sort of ruined for Stalkers since they all have to be invisible. 

No one is forcing you to use Hide.

[Troo]

um,, regeneration