Fire Melee or Street Justice for a /EnA stalker

[Mezegis]

While the obvious answer in City of Alts is both, I'm looking for opinions on which is a better/more enjoyable set as I've never played either.

 

Both seem to have good t9 attacks, ok AoE, decent ST attack chain.  Even numbers wise they seem close.  Is the combo system cumbersome to deal with?  Do the attacks in FM not feel satisfying?

 

I'm a player that likes staff and dual pistols because the animations are fun and hate moves like Midnight grasp because as amazing as it might be, the animation kills me (to the point I refuse to play DM)

 

Thanks in advance!

[Carnifax]

I'm guessing if animations are a draw then Street Justice hands down.

 

Fire Melee is old school : elemental swords + vague hand gestures.

 

Street Justice is newer and like DP and Staff got proper animation tlc as part of development.

[DreadShinobi]

Fiery Melee isn't so hot for stalkers. Fiery Melee also has *opinions* the absolute ugliest and laziest of the assassin strike animations. When they ported FM to stalkers they gave the AS a melee version of blazing bolt animation, and numbers aside, made me hate and delete my fire melee stalker. Then there is the part where fiery melee trades out having any knockdowns, stuns, debuffs, ranged attack, defense buff, self heal, or additional proc options for..... a dps advantage that doesn't exist. .... ...... ........ Fiery Melee secondary effect of burn damage does not put it in the same place that Fire Blasting does in comparison to other blast sets.

 

Also, please correct me if I am wrong, but I believe the fire damage over time secondary effect is not calculated into your critical bonus damage. Critical hits increase your base damage before burn damage. Very unfortunate for stalkers.

 

 

StJ/EA is fantastic. One of my favorite characters. If you would like me to provide a build for you to look at just tag me and ask for it 🙂

[Linea]

I would definitely say StJ.

 

 

Rotating T9 build.  Rune/Hybrid combined with Overload ... Energize and Phase right before the crash, toggle back up, Demonic, edge into the fight, then repeat.  This the build I currenty use to run the harder 801 missions.

StJ Ena ShadowMeld Stalker - 801 - Recharge-T9 ver 1c - [i25].mxd

 

Proc-ed Offense Build, I think I hit 635 dps or there abouts testing this one.  Build primarily influenced by Nihilli, as well as others.

StJ Ena Stalker - Nih 2a - [i27].mxd

 

More traditional overall build combining standard non-proc offense, as well as plenty of armor and T9 options.

StJ Ena WaterSpout Stalker - Alpha T3 - [i25].mxd

[Without_Pause]

Being similar to the OP, my vote is StJ/ea as I have a level 50, and it is one of my favorites to play. 

[Haijinx]

Fire, though super stealthy being you know literally FIRE ...

 

is kind of pathetic. 

 

Street Justice is one of the best Stalker Primaries.  And of course looks snazzy. 

[Chelsea Rorec]

I'll probably be the weird one but i got a street justice toon to 50 recently and found it all rather meh.

It felt like it had 1 power that actually did anything and only then with 3 stacks of Combo.

So if you don't mind waiting for 3 stacks of combo before you see any real damage then give it a shot.

I'd rather stick pins in my eyes.

[DreadShinobi]

On 9/25/2021 at 2:47 PM, Chelsea Rorec said:

I'll probably be the weird one but i got a street justice toon to 50 recently and found it all rather meh.

It felt like it had 1 power that actually did anything and only then with 3 stacks of Combo.

So if you don't mind waiting for 3 stacks of combo before you see any real damage then give it a shot.

I'd rather stick pins in my eyes.

Questions to be had.

Did you actually put IOs in the character? My StJ/EA has CU on a 5.97s cd, capped at 5s cd during forcefeedback procs. 

Did you notice that Shin Breaker is actually a great proc loaded ability? Not including hecatomb proc, it can take 5 dmg procs or 4 dmg procs+achilles proc. 

Do you have zapp/ball lightning in your build and how much global recharge do you have to supplement their usage?

Did you notice how much having a level 3 combo stack actually changes CU damage and did you notice your crit damage is not modified by your combo level?

 

My StJ/EA slots CU 5 hecatomb with proc and unbreakable constraint proc.

Base = 694.9 dmg (18% global dmg buff + musculature)

lvl 3 combo = 809 dmg  (~16% increase)

Base + Crit = 1151.4 dmg

Base/crit/combo3 = 1265.5 dmg (~10% increase)

 

 

You certainly do not need 3 stacks of combo, however stalkers set up the lvl 3 combo easier than ever because AS gives 2 stacks, so there really isn't any reason that should be difficult, or even something you need to wait for. 

 

[Without_Pause]

I do believe until EM's rework StJ was the pylon king for Stalkers. Note, I'm not saying that measurement is the end all be all because it isn't, but it is still noteworthy.