MA Ideas

[drgantz]

I've read several posts in which people said not to play MA Stalkers, but I had some ideas.

Since they don't get AOE, I was thinking that Cross Punch from the fighting pool might give a good AOE.

 

I read in Homecoming Wiki that Eagle's Claw gets some bonuses for Stalker.  I didn't understand it well.  I believe that Stalkers get an AOE disorient when  using Eagle's Claw.

 

Does anyone think that an MA Stalker might be a good idea, or should I stick with StJ Stalker?

[serxiom]

My main was MA/Ninj before the game shutdown. MA is a ST oriented power set mostly with the disorient inherent in some powers. Many people will recommend you not to play it beacause the set is a Smash/lethal damage the more resisted in game and add that you Stalker MA version doesnt have Dragon Tail (AoE sweep) as a crowd control. 

However MA is very powerfull for stalkers. DPS is high coming from hide and you will not have issues soloing +4 bosses by your own. The knockback in Crane Kick will provide you some "control" if you are overwhelmed by any NPCs and you were correct Eagle Claw has a chance to disorient besides the extreme damage. 

The set is fun and has some good tools built in to enjoy the game. Is not the best or most OP set for stalkers but still very enjoyable.  My next character will be a MA/Fire Scrapper.

[StrikerFox]

Eagles Claw has a higher chance to crit (I believe +33%) and also provides the attack immediately following a bonus crit chance. Pretty sure EC's disorient is not an AoE.

 

I'm not a fan of Cross Punch. More because of the extra power picks to make it effective but if you can spare the picks and slots, go for it. Taking Boxing and Kick will make CP pretty equal to StJ's Sweeping Cross. 7' range, 50⁰ arc, 170ish base damage.

 

My main gripe with MA is it's all ST attacks but still does not produce a top ST attack chain. Other primaries with AoE does better ST damage. But MA still has some of the best attack animations imo. I could Crane Kick and EC all day.

 

 

 

[aethereal]

Okay guys, let's talk Eagle's Claw, because you all are killin' me here:

 

https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=stalker_melee.martial_arts.eagles_claw&at=stalker

 

It has three effect group blocks: one PvE, one PvP, and one any.  The "any" is just to add a stack of assassin's focus (100% chance).

 

The PvE and PvP blocks are quite similar, just with the fundamental differences to PvE/PvP.

 

Basic PvE effects:  100% chance of 162ish smashing damage and a 9.5 second mag 3 stun.

Two child PvE effects:  Crit-from-hide (doubles the damage, 100% chance, if hidden), and Crit-from-not-hide (doubles the damage, 15% chance + 3% per member of your team (including yourself)).

 

Basic PvP effects:  158ish smashing damage and a 2.0 second mag 2 stun.

Two child PvP effects:  Crit-from-hide and crit-when-not-hidden-but-target-is-held-or-sleeping, both doubling the damage, both 100%.

 

So, to sum up:

Eagle's Claw ALWAYS does a stun, but the stun is NOT AoE

Eagle's Claw has an 8% higher chance to crit than normal stalker attacks

[drgantz]

Thank you everyone for your responses.  I wanted to make a Natural Stalker, who got all of his abiliities from training.  I was planning on making an StJ/SR Stalker, but preferred the MA animations, so was thinking of this idea for an MA.
After reading your responses, I decided to go with the StJ.

[MistressOhm]

Loved my MA/Nin from Live, recreated on HC.

 

You get much less "Jackie Chan Street Fight" (staff fighting and Street justice) and more "Chuck Norris Karate Movie" flavor.  Altho with /Nin as the secondary, your 'tricks' tend to be AoE and cone based gadgets along with SR-lite "disciplines", whereas with SR, it's all about avoiding getting hit.

 

Eagle's Claw is always good to smash someone upside the head if they didn't get Feared by your AS.  Unlike Staff or Dual Blades, there is no real 'rotation' you have to adhere to with MA.  Obviously putting the 'chance to hide' Stalker proc into the Assassin's Strike is a given, drops you right back into stealth on a hit.  

 

Word to the wise on /Nin's "smoke flash" AoE placate - beware of what you slot this with, anything that debuffs the spawn's damage will also aggro them, which... defeats the placate.  This is all due to Placate now taking Taunt Enhancements as "Reverse Taunts".    It's been noted with other placate powers, that some of the Taunt sets (designed for Tankers and Brutes) also apply a -Damage, don't use them on a Stalker.

[Cherrie Bomb]

I hope someday you try MA/SR. i have not kept up on the changes from when the game was live but as a MA/SR Stalker I had a lot of fun on Liberty in PvE and PvP.

 

 

[pearbear]

Here is another neat aspect about a Stalker's Martial Arts that I don't see mentioned: it's Tier 9 (Eagle's Claws) is one of the very few Stalker abilities that are buffed relative to Scrappers.

 

Most Stalker attacks are 11% weaker than their Scrapper equivalents because of the difference in archetype damage scales (1.000 for Stalkers vs. 1.125 for Scrappers), and in some cases the Tier 9 abilities are even weaker (for example, Midnight Grasp from Dark Melee is 11% weaker on a Stalker only when it is a critical hit, otherwise it is 28% weaker).

 

A Stalker's Eagle's Claw is nearly 14% better than the Scrapper equivalent and it retains the 15% critical chance bump that Scrappers get rather than defaulting to the 7% chance for Stalkers.

[MoonSheep]

On 11/16/2022 at 5:05 PM, aethereal said:

Okay guys, let's talk Eagle's Claw, because you all are killin' me here:

 

https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=stalker_melee.martial_arts.eagles_claw&at=stalker

 

It has three effect group blocks: one PvE, one PvP, and one any.  The "any" is just to add a stack of assassin's focus (100% chance).

 

The PvE and PvP blocks are quite similar, just with the fundamental differences to PvE/PvP.

 

Basic PvE effects:  100% chance of 162ish smashing damage and a 9.5 second mag 3 stun.

Two child PvE effects:  Crit-from-hide (doubles the damage, 100% chance, if hidden), and Crit-from-not-hide (doubles the damage, 15% chance + 3% per member of your team (including yourself)).

 

Basic PvP effects:  158ish smashing damage and a 2.0 second mag 2 stun.

Two child PvP effects:  Crit-from-hide and crit-when-not-hidden-but-target-is-held-or-sleeping, both doubling the damage, both 100%.

 

So, to sum up:

Eagle's Claw ALWAYS does a stun, but the stun is NOT AoE

Eagle's Claw has an 8% higher chance to crit than normal stalker attacks

 

this is an interesting read

 

i notice attacks on my elec/shield stalker sometimes crit without hide (not AS), do you know what the standard crit chance is and does that also increase with team size?

 

edit: doh, looks like @pearbear had already answered the crit percentage above

Edited January 23, 2023 by MoonSheep

[aethereal]

25 minutes ago, MoonSheep said:

 

this is an interesting read

 

i notice attacks on my elec/shield stalker sometimes crit without hide (not AS), do you know what the standard crit chance is and does that also increase with team size?

 

edit: doh, looks like @pearbear had already answered the crit percentage above

Stalkers usually crit at 10% solo plus 3% per team member.  The way the game expresses that is "7% plus 3% per team member," but it's important to understand that you count yourself as a team member.

Edited January 23, 2023 by aethereal

[MoonSheep]

2 hours ago, aethereal said:

Stalkers usually crit at 10% solo plus 3% per team member.  The way the game expresses that is "7% plus 3% per team member," but it's important to understand that you count yourself as a team member.

 

wow, a 31% chance in a team of 8? that is great!

[aethereal]

59 minutes ago, MoonSheep said:

 

wow, a 31% chance in a team of 8? that is great!

 

Yep!  I believe the thought is that this compensates for inability to use slow assassin's strike effectively/general lower value of ST/higher value of AoE, allowing Stalkers to usefully contribute on a large team.

 

Note that Assassin's Strike has no chance to crit "naturally," no matter team size, you need to use Assassin's Focus to make it crit.

[Hjarki]

Most sets get 'key features' - reasons people play the set. Martial Arts has two:

• The +def Storm Kick
• The rapid-activating, Force Feedback-proc'ing Dragon's Tail

Stalkers get neither of these keys features.

 

There's also a good reason to play a set as a Stalker: to bolster single target damage in an otherwise lacking set, especially one that is short on such powers or has a heavy-hitting power that works well with the Stalker's critical strike structure. This describes few sets so poorly as Martial Arts.

 

I guess you can look at building a Martial Arts Stalker as an intellectual exercise, but Martial Arts just really isn't a Stalker-friendly set.

[Clave Dark 5]

On 11/15/2022 at 4:20 PM, drgantz said:

people said not to play MA Stalkers

People say a lot of things, play what you want.  Seriously though, min/maxxers will say anything that's not top-tier is the worst insulting garbage upon the face of the earth, or at least strenuously imply it.  I do listen to them say this stuff and then look into why they say it and sometimes agree with them.  But then sometimes I do what I want anyway.