Stalkers suck precisely at level 24

[DougGraves]

Or that is when all of your enhancements suddenly turn red.

 

That upgrade button on enhancements is a fantastic improvement in the game.  I just upgraded and continued my mission.

[nihilii]

It's hard to overstate just how much quality of life the upgrade button added to traditional leveling. I don't think I've used/crafted a common IO under level 50 anymore. It's so simple to just slot SOs once right as you level up, then upgrade them all the way.

[Shred Monkey]

I totally agree.  There was always a big sticking point for me when I'm level 18 or 19 and I haven't invested in any enhancements yet because I just ran DFB a bunch of times.  and basically didn't need enhancements.  I don't want to invest in level 20 IOs or DOs because they'll get replaced in like an hour of playtime when I hit level 22.... but that hour feels like days.   I have to fight +0s in small groups, and I have to run away and/or rest frequently.  

 

Now I have +3 SOs through to level 22 and it goes much much smoother. 

 

At 22 I pretty much always do a respec and load myself out with level 25 IOs from my stockpile.  But if I didn't have those available for free, I'd just keep going with SOs.

 

[Snarky]

I spent so many game hours placing bids on odd level SOs back on live pre 25.  Just anything to walk me in, anything.  Especially pre inherent fitness it was POWERGAMING to have SOs slotted after 15!

[Bill Z Bubba]

I came into this thread planning to state that the title has 4 too many words.

 

Instead, yea, the upgrade button is nice. Soloing a new brute redside and click it often.

[Heraclea]

It's also a big inf sink, especially if you have slotted many dropped or boughten SOs while levelling and don't want them to die.  A character slotted with many SOs can cost a full million inf to level in that slog between 37 and 47. 

[EmperorSteele]

Yeah, I'm doing this in my new-ish Stalker, too! Of course, I have to bankroll him with my mains, because as a Stalker, I'm fighting as few mobs as possible, which means less drops and inf... but that's ok. A part of this feature is being an inf sink, and it wouldn't work if the game dropped a ton more money than it costs to upgrade every other level (which it still does if you get some rare drips to sell).

 

The fact that SOs are so much better (stats wise) than basic IOs up until level 30ish is just icing on the cake!

Edited February 12, 2021 by EmperorSteele

[Rejolt]

I've played characters unleveled from 9 on so two things happen:

1 The survival/offensive/defensive hourly buffs are still cheap (Yes, I see the irony in spending 100s of thousands in influence on SO upgrades and trying to save on the hourly buffs)

2 The early level origin power keeps it's bonus damage

 

So yes, the upgrade button is awesome. I also throw the early-level prestige attuned Ios in for a a bit of recharge, damage and the proc to save some money on the upgrades but after 1 acc, 1 dmg, 1-2 rech in things like Hasten or Build up, maybe the Inherent Fitness slots...

 

… not having to stop as a lowbee to level 10-12 times on a run of TFs with vets is amazing.

 

To the Original thread: If you come to grips that by level 12 you have a functioning ST combo and survival set of tools (plus inspirations), a stalker should be hunting +2 and +3 boss mobs.

Edited February 12, 2021 by Rejolt

[RikOz]

On 2/11/2021 at 11:13 PM, Bill Z Bubba said:

I came into this thread planning to state that the title has 4 too many words.

You know how, when you're doing a Freakshow mission, you end up waiting around for a bit after defeating each spawn, just in case one or more of them come popping back up?

 

Stalkers waiting for Hide to kick back in after combat makes every enemy group as tedious as Freaks!

[siolfir]

7 hours ago, RikOz said:

You know how, when you're doing a Freakshow mission, you end up waiting around for a bit after defeating each spawn, just in case one or more of them come popping back up?

 

Stalkers waiting for Hide to kick back in after combat makes every enemy group as tedious as Freaks!

That's why you just don't wait for it to kick in unless you really need the help surviving or just prefer to go slowly. They scrap just fine, and the ATO procs alleviate any offensive need to wait - if you're hiding because you don't want to get hit on the way in, then that's a clue to slot your secondary better, and if you need more endurance you'd be waiting anyway.

[Bill Z Bubba]

33 minutes ago, siolfir said:

That's why you just don't wait for it to kick in unless you really need the help surviving or just prefer to go slowly. They scrap just fine, and the ATO procs alleviate any offensive need to wait - if you're hiding because you don't want to get hit on the way in, then that's a clue to slot your secondary better, and if you need more endurance you'd be waiting anyway.

Does the AT IO proc that puts you back into hide function if you don't have the Hide power toggled on? If so, build to cover the non-hidden defense values lost and then just remove it from your tray and never bother with it again. I've been thinking about doing that just so I could have a stalker in my stable.

[RikOz]

36 minutes ago, siolfir said:

That's why you just don't wait for it to kick in unless you really need the help surviving or just prefer to go slowly. They scrap just fine, and the ATO procs alleviate any offensive need to wait - if you're hiding because you don't want to get hit on the way in, then that's a clue to slot your secondary better, and if you need more endurance you'd be waiting anyway.

At lower levels, you likely don't have that proc available yet, and in any case, it seems to me that half the fun of playing a stalker is sneaking up and one-shotting the first mob in a spawn. And yeah, to some people I probably "go slowly", since I like to do full clears of every map. I've heard several people mention stealthing all the way to the end of the map to just defeat the boss or click the glowie, but for me that would defeat the purpose. Aside from all the XP you're missing by doing that, it feels too much like the "go-go-go" mentality in WoW. 

 

This is one area, though, where I'll say that a WoW rogue's stealth is superior. It's manually activated, so you make your first attack from stealth, kill whatever you need to, and then as soon as you're out of combat you hit the button again and instantly re-stealth. 

[THEDarkTyger]

Came here expecting to have to be outraged at Stalker bashing. Was pleasantly surprised and agree.

[Clave Dark 5]

On 2/11/2021 at 5:04 AM, nihilii said:

I don't think I've used/crafted a common IO under level 50 anymore. It's so simple to just slot SOs once right as you level up, then upgrade them all the way.

I do because I tend to play under level sometimes and I don't want to lose my jump range or whatever.  But that's just my play style.

[siolfir]

On 2/13/2021 at 12:40 PM, RikOz said:

At lower levels, you likely don't have that proc available yet, and in any case, it seems to me that half the fun of playing a stalker is sneaking up and one-shotting the first mob in a spawn. And yeah, to some people I probably "go slowly", since I like to do full clears of every map. I've heard several people mention stealthing all the way to the end of the map to just defeat the boss or click the glowie, but for me that would defeat the purpose. Aside from all the XP you're missing by doing that, it feels too much like the "go-go-go" mentality in WoW. 

You can still do that, though the size of the mob you can one-shot is likely smaller if you're using Assassin's Focus criticals on Assassin's Strike instead of the slow version (it's better DPA but less actual burst damage). As for having the proc available... eh. If you have a lot of alts and are trying to fund them, or if your Stalker is your first character I can see the price tag being out of reach, but you can slot it at level 7.

 

But I was specifically addressing what seemed to be your complaint about the "tedious" nature of waiting after the end of combat - at least for Stalkers hidden status suppresses for less time than the other stealth powers, and for defense sets you can move on and get hidden status while you're positioning yourself in the next spawn (especially once IO'd out). The worst case scenario is that you don't have focus charges because you just used AS to finish the last spawn and the other spawn is just outside of aggro range... in that case you can play as a Scrapper and be none the worse for wear because AS isn't recharged to use immediately regardless, wait out the 8 seconds of suppression and move into place while AS recharges, pause for just a few seconds picking a target if you want to get your critical and move towards them during the 8 seconds of suppression with the attack queued, or if you have the proc slotted in AS you'll most likely already be hidden.

 

If you don't want to wait, you don't have to. Stalkers give you options, and (after the many rounds of buffs) most of them work well.

 

On 2/13/2021 at 12:20 PM, Bill Z Bubba said:

Does the AT IO proc that puts you back into hide function if you don't have the Hide power toggled on?

Honestly I use it for criticals, stealth suppresses when attacking, and Hide is a 0 cost toggle that provides defense so don't pay attention to if the proc lasts long enough to apply a stealth. If someone else knows the answer they can chime in, but I don't think it's just going to assign a long-duration suppressed stealth that will let you take Hide out of the tray.