What Stalker would you make ??

[smnolimits43]

Not really sure where i'm going with this post.  I want to make a MA or Energy stalker.  At first i was thinking Brute.  But i have yet to lvl a 50 Stalker.  I have a ton of Invulnerability Scrappers and Tanks.  I'm actually thinking of Energy/Energy.  In fact i would like to base the character on a female Super Saiyan, but evil.

[biostem]

I have a 50 en/en stalker, and she's quite good.

[Clave Dark 5]

I believe Energy Aura has a good rep on Stalkers.  I have one with it and he did play pretty well, so you'd be off to a good start with that choice I think. 

[Oysterhead]

Croax has and maintains the tier list of stalker sets: 

Are you going for theme (I know you've been doing your christmas characters) or effeciency? Energy Melee is one of the best attack sets and MA is pretty well at the bottom. Stalkers have the worst iteration of MA. Ice is also near the top, as stalkers have one of the best iterations of that, if that fits for christmas stuff.

Energy Aura is an excellent armor set. So En/En would do great. 

[BrandX]

You know, Energy Aura on a Stalker sounds so much better than it is on Melee, considering it doesn't have a taunt aura tied to it's mez resist.

 

Not sure I'd go Energy Melee on Stalker with no PBAOE attack, but on the other hand, I love the pom pom effect.

[smnolimits43]

i have a character called pinkpompomsofdeath, or something like that, i haven't played her in awhile

 

i just want you guys to know, that i appreciate your feedback.  Oh and an Early Merry Christmas to all and to all a goodnight.

 

[smnolimits43]

ok instead of making another post, i thought i would add this here.  I'm gonna be making two characters.  Should i roll 2 Stalkers, or a Stalker and something as backup, like a defender or controller ?? 

[smnolimits43]

lets say corruptor, since i've never played one of those before??

[Clave Dark 5]

I don't mind playing support, and like to make changes, so I'd say a not-stalker, just to keep things fresh.

[drgantz]

I'm trying to decide between StJ/SR and StJ/EA. 

[Troo]

On 12/24/2022 at 11:43 PM, smnolimits43 said:

lets say corruptor, since i've never played one of those before??

 

My mains are an energy melee / regeneration stalker & a radiation / dark corruptor. they are awesome., though better choices may exist.

 

I'd suggest:

Energy Melee / Energy Aura Stalker

Fire Blast / Dark Miasma Corruptor

[smnolimits43]

i've tried Dark Miasma a few times now, its just not for me.

[Troo]

11 hours ago, smnolimits43 said:

i've tried Dark Miasma a few times now, its just not for me.

 

Ah okay.. good luck. I only suggested it because of how epic it is combined with Corruptor's scourge.

"the teacher will appear when then student is ready"

[Heatstroke]

Stalkers Ive made

 

Energy/Energy. Very good. Hard hitting, SIngle target monster... run in.. take out the toughest or most annoying target.

 

Ice/Ice Unbelievably good. Ice Armor is very underrated on Stalkers. Between Hoarfrost, Icy Bastion and I took Hibernate from Mako as my Ancillary pool.. excellent survival skills.

 

Electric/Shield... something feels extremely wrong about this toon... like im going to get nerfed any second..  You want AoE.. well this is it... Shield Charge and Lightning Rod dont break hide. so.. Shield Charge.. whap still hidden, Lighthing Rod. zapp still hidden... ThunderStrike.. WHAP.. ok NOW you can see me..

 

I also have a Staff/SR in the works.. and I am thinking Shield/Savage as well

 

 

 

[Koda651]

I have a StJ/Stone and Elec/EA stalker both at 50, and they're probably my all-time favorite characters in CoH.

 

StJ on a stalker produces an extremely satisfying attack chain between the combo system in the set and the Assassin's Focus inherent.  They play off of each other so smoothly, it feels like it was designed that way.  And the animations are satisfyingly "bone crunchy."  Pretty sure StJ is a close second on single-target damage for stalkers; the only drawback to this set is its mediocre AoE.

 

Electric melee is, of course, electric melee.  Shield Defense is a more popular pairing for the dual hide-friendly tele-nukes, but I enjoy Energy Aura more overall as a secondary.  No tele-nuke synergy here, just a solid AoE primary (the best AoE stalkers can get) with a secondary that guarantees you survive the resulting aggro.

 

Both Stone Armor and Energy Aura have built-in recharge bonuses (15% and 20%, respectively).  Stone has endurance recovery (20%, just slightly weaker than an extra copy of Stamina) in one of its main toggles, and Energy has Energy Drain and Energize.  The latter can provide a ~60% energy discount (along with high health regen) and can be up constantly with an aggressive recharge build (aided along by the 20% included in the set itself).

 

They team well and also have a pretty fun time going toe-to-toe with +4 AVs.  I try other builds and other ATs sometimes, but I always go back to these two.

[tidge]

On 1/9/2023 at 11:33 PM, drgantz said:

I'm trying to decide between StJ/SR and StJ/EA. 

 

I have a StJ/SR scrapper and I wanted to see how the combo would play as a StJ/SR Stalker. Each is very satisfying, but I felt like the Stalker was a smoother leveling experience, This was all before the shift in the level of available powers. They were not radically different with complete builds. Each was satisfying to play.

[Mezmera]

11 hours ago, tidge said:

 

I have a StJ/SR scrapper and I wanted to see how the combo would play as a StJ/SR Stalker. Each is very satisfying, but I felt like the Stalker was a smoother leveling experience, This was all before the shift in the level of available powers. They were not radically different with complete builds. Each was satisfying to play.

 

I have a StJ/SR stalker too.  I haven't really touched her much since the Energy Melee revamp where I made my EM/Invuln.  StJ was king ST damage before the revamp and still is great with a bit better pbaoe potential but if I'm hopping on a stalker I'm doing it to kill the hardest target so either I find myself on the EM or going to my Elec Melee stalker if I want to add to the aoe mix.  

 

StJ is a good set.  If I had to redo her it'd be more of a tossup between EA or Invuln.  Invuln you can build into a quite tanky armor it just takes more devotion of slots and being aware of building of elemental defenses or certain positionals where EA seems a little easier to build for a bunch of stuff.  

 

On my SR I took Rune though since resists are lacking.  

[InvaderStych]

On 1/13/2023 at 12:54 PM, Koda651 said:

I have a StJ/Stone

 

/Stone on Stalkers is the figurative Business.

 

EE is weird, I sort of think the numbers need a tune.  You hit well over the HP cap with it barely enhanced after accolades, but the heal is of very low value at that level of enhancement.  It is more of a +HP/Toxic Resist power than Heal.  Which, I guess maybe that is what it always was?  Only played /Stone experimentally during the revamp before this character.

 

Good Regen, Good Recovery, Mag 30 Confuse Protection, and Brimstone DoT damage getting fat Critical Hits.

 

Highly recommend having at least one.

Edited January 20, 2023 by InvaderStych

[biostem]

39 minutes ago, InvaderStych said:

/Stone on Stalkers is the figurative Business.

I don't want to derail things too much, but this piqued my interest - what primaries do you find excel with stone armor?  Thanks!

[InvaderStych]

4 hours ago, biostem said:

I don't want to derail things too much, but this piqued my interest - what primaries do you find excel with stone armor?  Thanks!

 

I think we're On Topic Adjacent enough to indulge a little. 😀

 

/Stone is a little bit of a kitchen sink.  Typed defenses are solid except for the F/C hole which is easy to fill.  Base resists in SS are ok, but other than F/C gotta build in some more to truly layer up. Extra Regen, Recovery, Recharge, Damage, HP, etc.  It is the kind of armor where anything from going purely for theme to picking a known top-tier primary and it would be a solid fit.  Kinda makes picking a definitive pairing difficult in all the good ways.

 

There are a few notes though:

 

While Brimstone's damage is based on activation time, Devs did a very good job of balancing it out so that fast sets like Claws/DB/Nin aren't getting shafted out of their output compared to sets with slow/big hitters.  Actually DB/ could be excellent with /Stone if it is as good on a Stalker as it is on a Scrapper.

 

Those being all Lethal sets (see also the smashing in the StJ/Stone referenced above) I think they benefit from the additional damage type (fire) enough to be on the short-list for pairings. Of course I did nothing of the sort and went Fire/Stone/Blaze, so just fire on fire on fire, typical. 😄

 

Ranged attacks get a much lower base value to work from, so powers like Impale get less out it.  On the other hand since Stalker Spines and Radiation don't have the damage auras, there's no worry about the fact that auras (including Mud Pots where applicable in its own set, not relevant to Stalkers, but figured good to know) do not trigger Brimstone's DoT.

 

Savage Leap and Lightning Rod don't trigger Brimstone's DoT for [REASONS].  I've heard excellent things from folks running these combos on various ATs, so if that's not a deal-breaker (the sort of thing that once I know it, it bothers me more than it should, lol) then no worries there.

 

So, I'm not sure that helps narrow it down. 🤣

[biostem]

29 minutes ago, InvaderStych said:

So, I'm not sure that helps narrow it down. 🤣

"Narrow it down" may not be the correct phrase to use, but it certainly gave me something to think about.  Thanks!

[InvaderStych]

10 hours ago, biostem said:

"Narrow it down" may not be the correct phrase to use, but it certainly gave me something to think about. 

 

Heh, yeah. Sort of rambled/waxed there for a bit.  Been trying to think of specific synergies. KB/KU/KD in a primary is good mitigation for anything, but particularly any click-heavy defenses. /Stone isn't really that.

 

On a Scrapper Dark Melee had interesting synergy, but Stalkers lose Soul Drain for BU, combined with lack of DC and a stalker would be spreading less Brimstone and losing the longer damage buff window of SD to keep the fire proc boosted longer.

 

Crystal Armor gives extra recovery, but it is still murderous on the blue bar with all of the toggles. Endo-light sets like Claws might be worth considering ...

 

... crap, I'm doing it again, lol.

[Koda651]

One of the reasons I paired StJ with SA — along with its satisfying attack chain and amazing DPS — is that its AoE works so well with Brimstone and procs for precisely the same reason it's generally underwhelming as an AoE: it's tiny.  While Lightning Rod doesn't set enemies on fire AT ALL, Spinning Strike does it pretty well, especially considering its short CD.  Also, what is with that crazy-long first sentence?  Forty-two words?  Geez.

[biostem]

3 hours ago, InvaderStych said:

... crap, I'm doing it again, lol.

It's all good!  I rolled a stone/stone but am still pretty low level, so will see how it goes.  Thanks again!

[JStacy337]

I'll always be partial to my Kin/Energy Stalker, but Savage/Stone has been a surprisingly fun pairing