Kinda new to stalkers

[subbacultchas]

I've played one or two to 50, but never really got into them much. A couple of live friends want to play minus the p2w stuff, no sending money, travels at 14, capes at 20 and all that kinda like we used to. So I rolled a Stone/EA stalker to run around and abuse the hollows with.

What is my goal with sets here, as a stalker? On my melees I try to softcap whatever defense or res they have, or fill holes they might have in each, then +hp/recharge/dam or enhance whatever else they may be good at. What should my priorities as a stalker be?

[SeraphimKensai]

A stalker is a scrapper that's better. You have huge burst, can control your crits, great survivability, can stealth missions, so if you have an extra power you can take teleport target and be a taxi cab for your team as well.

[Hew]

2 hours ago, SeraphimKensai said:

A stalker is a scrapper that's better. You have huge burst, can control your crits, great survivability, can stealth missions, so if you have an extra power you can take teleport target and be a taxi cab for your team as well.

Quote for extreme emphasis (excluding some cases where the primary has moar aoez), but even the aoe hole is fixed by running combos like x/stone, or stone/x, or x/rad or x/bio.

 

x/rad and stone/stone are stupid crazy with the high damage and aoes.

[Without_Pause]

One post below this is Croax's build thread where he covers a build for every combo before Stone was released so I would take a look there to gather ideas. Basically /ea wants type based def. Stone will want recharge, and you'll want "enough" end to run it all, but /ea makes that easier. I one slot ED with a LotG +Recharge.

 

EDIT: Get what resist you can. S/L is at 69% on my StJ/ea, most other things are in the 20s.

Edited December 15, 2021 by Without_Pause

[subbacultchas]

Right on. First time playing EA, so will check out Croax's build. It seem solid so far, waiting on that end power and heal pretty badly though. I'd already leaned into teleport other, unsure if I'll mess with rest of it. Thought the mass mob pull seems fun, just not sure its something a 3 man team sans a tanker wants haha.

[Saikochoro]

EA is a fantastic armor set, but it can be pretty hungry until you get energize to manage your endurance.  So I suggest slotting you stamina and endurance reduction at least in the early levels. 
 

As other said, you’ll want to focus on typed defenses for any defense bonuses you are shooting for as opposed to positional. I also like to build up my resistances on my EA characters. EA provides endurance management, healing, a great start on typed defenses, and + rech so it really opens up power picks and slots. Due to that I have always like taking rune of protection as a nice emergency click to beef up my resistances. 
 

I haven’t played stone melee on stalker yet, but have on brutes. I suspect you will be pleased with the single target damage, but I won’t really comment deeply on the set as I haven’t played it on stalkers. 

[Hew]

stone melee is fantastic on stalkers. 🙂

[subbacultchas]

So far I actually really enjoy it. Bit of an end hog, but my the damage is great and constant knockdown gives more survivability. Fault is a fantastic power early on, seriously considering slotting it with some procs in addition to the ff +recharge.

[subbacultchas]

I wish I'd bitten down on EA a bit earlier. I had no clue how good it was, and I'm loving it on stalker. I may have to roll a something/EA brute now, just because I like it so damned much. Easy to softcap, good heal/regen, and amazing recovery all around. It reminds me of Ice a bit, which I also enjoy.

[Without_Pause]

16 hours ago, subbacultchas said:

I wish I'd bitten down on EA a bit earlier. I had no clue how good it was, and I'm loving it on stalker. I may have to roll a something/EA brute now, just because I like it so damned much. Easy to softcap, good heal/regen, and amazing recovery all around. It reminds me of Ice a bit, which I also enjoy.

For brutes, min/max picks would be EM for ST or Rad for AoE. I know it is better on a Stalker, but I still love how StJ flows so that's up there for me. Claws is always good outside of a Stalker. Again, not as good on a Stalker, but Ice is really solid. Adding Ice Patch to EA's defenses just makes it a really sturdy build. Dark offers perma Soul Drain and two ways for end recovery and to heal.