Which Alpha?

[drgantz]

My stalker is a new Lvl 50, and I'm trying to choose an  Alpha.  The toon is an StJ/SR Stalker.  My main choices are Agility and Musculature. 

I mostly think of Musc because the extra dmg would be good,  and Stalkers are primarily damage dealers.  The problem is that some abilities such as Immob, would be wasted.

I also think that Agil would be good, and I don't think that any abilities would be wasted, but it wouldn't be increased dmg.  The extra rech would help dmg somewhat.

[Nyghtmaire]

Agility adds recharge to each power. For attacks, this will reduce the chance for any procs slotted in those attacks to fire. Avoid local recharge; musculature!
That’s assuming you’re building to maximize damage through proc slotting in your attacks. Check @Ston’s testing for examples of this. Essentially, slotting follows 2 A/D and 4 procs, assuming musculature core to cap damage. 

 

In addition, most if not all of the defense in Agility would be wasted as SR can reach regular softcap by sneezing twice. That really leaves endurance modification (not terrible but meh) and maybe some movement increase, something SR already has covered. 

[StrikerFox]

Go Muscular Core or Radial (If the extra end is needed). SR can hit softcap pretty easy and Quickness provides +20% recharge. Getting perma-Hasten and enough +rech to run some of the best attack chains can be achieved with IO set bonuses.

[Kaika]

Yeah on stalker I basically always take musculature, the damage is just too good, not to mention the proc issue the recharge creates. Don't worry about trying to find something you can use all the benefits of, its pretty normal to not utilize all the benefits of a Alpha slot. the +end mod from radial is also very nice for stalker as they tend to absolutely chew through end, but this isn't really necessary if you take ageless or just have good end management.

 

Another less known benefit of Musculature is that it actually boost the damage of your judgement incarnate power, but a very significant margin as well, further assisting in your ability to deal damage.

 

This is not to say Agility can't be good on stalker, but generally you would take it more for the defensive benefits. I have both on my main, but I very rarely use agility, and when I do it's only in situations where I will known I need the extra +Def it offers. These situations tend to be rare outside of solo challenge stuff though, or in my case, fire farming on a invun stalker for funnsies. On teams you will rarely be the main damage taker and even in those cases you will likely have buffs supporting you much more then agility would.

[drgantz]

Thank  you everyone for your advice.  You've all agreed on Musculature, making this an  easy choice.