Top-tier Stalkers

[honoroit]

if i had to snap pick top tier stalkers, for primarily grouping:

 

ice/bio/the-epic-that-gets-moonbeam-and-def-press

- the foot stomp and the cone, its cold damage.

 

spines/bio/same

- ranged stuff, toxic dots, skip the flippy one (too slow/small)

Edited July 2, 2023 by honoroit

[PyroBeetle]

I ran a StJ/SR stalker, very effective

[Kaika]

As far as top tier stalker sets IMO:

In no particular order

Primary

EM: King of ST damage and honestly not that bad outside of it. Power crash gets a HEFTY buff compared to other versions of EM making it's AoE manageable.

 

Ice: Great all around DPS, exotic damage type, LOTS of control, great AoE, it lacks a little in ST damage but that can easily be patched with moonbeam or zapp which turns that around completely.

 

Dual Blades: I think people sleep on this one, my main is DB and let me tell you the ST damage it can pump out is nearing EM levels and the AoE is hard to beat. The Sweep combo fits snugly into your single target rotation and add a large AoE to one of your main attacks, the two cones you get are also very powerful and not that hard to line up, Sweeping strike in particular has AMAZING DPA for a single target attack let alone a AoE.

 

Savage: Not sure why we stopped seeing as much after the hemo changes, it's still a power house. It's ST damage didn't need hemo to compete really, and a snipe can be used to fill the force crit spot, but it also comes with rather insane AoE, and is one of the few primary's that can help with endurance useage, which stalker often struggle with.

 

Secondary:

 

Bio: Insanely survivable, and with offensive benefits for days there is a reason this thing is at the top of most list.

 

SR: No major weak points, effective immunity to the scariest de-buff in the game, with some nice extra recharge too boot, only thing it really lacks is a heal which isn't a huge deal

 

EA: Like SR, though can have weak points but with a very strong heal, much more resistances and the ability to actually manage its end

 

Shield: Again like SR, but with more offense and a extra attack in exchange for some DDR and slightly harder to reach soft caps.

 

Rad armor: This one I'm probably gonna see people disagreeing with this as "It's a res set" but the absolute offense that this set provides is just silly. Radiation therapy can be proced out to be one of the most devastating AoEs in the game DPS wise, often beating out power single target options in average DPA, Ground Zero has a target cap of 30, which can more then make up for it's meh DPA and both these proc BU reset on almost every use in groups. Meltdown is IMO the best T9 in the game hands down, TONS of res, Ton of Recovery and a 33% damage buff, with good slotting this is up about half the time, oh and no crash(it has one, I just never noticed XD). I seriously think this is the most slept on stalker set in the game.

 

I spoke more about DB and Rad but that's only because I rarely see anyone talking about them, Honorable mentions to StJ I just think it's AoE is a bit lacking to make it too top teir, but for me it just sorta barely misses this list. Same with Ele but from the other end, I think its ST is still a tiny bit lacking for stalker.

Edited July 21, 2023 by Riot Siren

[ZeroSaint]

On 7/2/2023 at 11:48 AM, Riot Siren said:

 

Dual Blades: I think people sleep on this one, my main is DB and let me tell you the ST damage it can pump out is nearing EM levels and the AoE is hard to beat. The Sweep combo fits snugly into your single target rotation and add a large AoE to one of your main attacks, the two cones you get are also very powerful and not that hard to line up, Sweeping strike in particular has AMAZING DPA for a single target attack let alone a AoE.

 

 

 

This so so so much.   My DB/EA stalker is a straight murder machine.   I found an old post that I worked with to just really make this my favorite toon.  (The old post is a wild one too because the OP actually deleted all references to the build, it was by the grace of someone quoting them that I found it at all).  TLDR:  I ❤️ MY Dual Blades Stalker.

[macskull]

Here's a weird one that I think is pretty uncommon: EM/Fire. It's not nearly as good as it was before Burn got nerfed but even after the change Burn reliably procs the hide ATO which lets you do an attack chain like Burn -> TF -> fast ET -> snipe -> fast ET -> rinse and repeat. Burn + an epic AoE make up for the relative lack of AoE in EM. It is squishier than almost any other melee character I've played outside of Barrier or team buffs, but insta-deleting things with a bunch of fast-activating powers is nice.

[StrikerFox]

StJ/SR, NB/Regen, Sav/ElM and Staff/Stone all seem pretty top tier to me.

[Without_Pause]

With many sets yet to play, I find Croax's ranking rather accurate and a good place to start for those looking at making a genuine S tier Stalker. 

[nihilii]

On 7/2/2023 at 8:48 PM, Riot Siren said:

oh and no crash

 

It crashes your recovery for 10 seconds, this has led me to detoggle a shameful amount of times!

[SwitchFade]

21 hours ago, ZeroSaint said:

 

This so so so much.   My DB/EA stalker is a straight murder machine.   I found an old post that I worked with to just really make this my favorite toon.  (The old post is a wild one too because the OP actually deleted all references to the build, it was by the grace of someone quoting them that I found it at all).  TLDR:  I ❤️ MY Dual Blades Stalker.

You're welcome. That version is not the highest DPS and most survivable one, as it has been improved, hehe 🤗

Edited July 20, 2023 by SwitchFade

[ZeroSaint]

22 hours ago, SwitchFade said:

You're welcome. That version is not the highest DPS and most survivable one, as it has been improved, hehe 🤗

 

Thank you so much for that-  It took me a long time to parse it out and I have to admit that I'm playing the "Poor Man's Version" of it, but it really is my favorite character I've made since my original scrapper at launch.

[Kaika]

On 7/20/2023 at 1:58 PM, nihilii said:

 

It crashes your recovery for 10 seconds, this has led me to detoggle a shameful amount of times!

Huh you're right, somehow I hadn't noticed, the set has quite alot of recovery and +end so I never found it a issue or even noticed, good to know though.