honoroitisfantastic POLL: Stalker - best of AT 2023

[honoroit]

POLL: Stalker - best of AT

 

- best primary

 

- best secondary

 

- best epic power pool

 

¡you can choose however you like!

• Most Effective Tactic Available
• My favorite
• My desert island power picks
• If there could be only 1

[honoroit]

stone melee - smash!

shield def - party utility, positional, def based, a tp attack that doesn't break hide

soul - snipe on negative dmg, and shadow meld

[Groovy_Ghoul]

Ice Melee - exotic damage type, frozen aura (ice melee's foot stomp, great aoe), frost (large cone), freezing touch (high dot hold) and ice patch

Stone Armor - arguably the best armor for Stalkers type due to defense, resist, regen and a self-heal (it's really all that and a bag of chips)

Weapon Mastery - Stalker has best version with physical perfection (only AT which two options of acquiring it) and exploding shuriken (a very underutilized attack)

[Kaika]

Primary- Savage

though this is more theoretical for me since I haven't actually played the set on stalker, the large amount of good AoE, gives it good mobbing tools along with easy access to build up reset via the ATO, along with solid single target options really looks like this one is currently being slept on. Though I feel like Ice, EM, Fire, and DB are all situationaly better, and could easily be argued for this spot. Honestly I feel like this is the hardest spot to pick a definite "best" awnser, as they tend to all excel in slightly differing situations.

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Secondary- Rad

I've been trying to make a case for rad being extremely underrated lately and I'll make it here again. I think people really seem to dismiss Rad due to it being a res set, but to do so is to ignore everything else it has to offer, as rad is arguably the best offensive set in the game for stalker IMO. Radiation therapy when procced out becomes a absolute nuke of a power, effortlessly hitting the target cap, while still offering sustainability in both end and HP. It does enough damage to be worth using in single target, let alone AoE, and provides another outlet to basically guarantee a build reset Via the ATO. Seriously I don't think alot of people realize just how silly you can get when having multiple large AoEs capable of all but guaranteeing Build up reset procs as, as long as it isn't a chain or pesudo pet (most teleport attacks), the chance seems to be ON HIT, not on use. On that note, rad also comes with a massive 30 TARGET CAP AoE, which can also be procc bombed if you like, and also is effectively a build up reset 95% of the time. Remember this is on top of any AoEs in you primary, it can lead to a Build up between every attack, and those stack.  On my fire/rad its not only possible, but common I reach the damage when fighting x8 mobs SOLO, and even stay there for a while.

 

"But stalker is a single target AT" you may say, and you will be glad to hear that Rad is ALSO good at that as well. While it may not be as good as Bio or Stone on that front, with their bonus damage proccs, it certainly does not fall behind. As mentioned earlier Radiation Therapy, when fully procced, hits hard enough to be used as a single target attack, but more importantly, also inflicts a decent bit of -regen, which is very valuable when dealing with AVs or GM. If that's not enough Meltdown provides 30% damage on a 50% uptime, which isn't massive but its still really nice to have. For sure I think it falls behind bio and stone here, but only by a small amount.

 

"What worth is this if you're dead" I hear the theoretical representation of "you" ask, and I'm glad "you" asked. For one, rad is not really just a "Res" set, its more of a hybrid set, with it's Absorbs, regen, and self healing, while also being able to capp just about all resistances. It's lack of def can be made up via IOs, on my Fire/Rad I was able to cap all res but negative and psychic (both around the 40s) while also having my Smashing/lethal and melee def at 45%+ and most others at least in the 30% range, and this is without things like shadow meld, which I honestly avoid. For sure -def can still be a issue, but that is for most secondary and rad has many powerful tools to fall back on in that situation, and can snugly fit barrier into their incarnate line up to stop any -def build up in its tracks.

 

Lets talk about end for a second, something that alot of stalkers struggle with due to very high overall cost and quick attacks. Rad is quite possibly the best secondary for end management, outside of Bio in hybrid adaptation (which is sub-optimal). You basically are running anywhere from 5-8 "Staminas" worth of +recovery at a time with Gamma Boost (worth 4-1) particle shielding (2 and effortlessly perma) and Meltdown (1 up 50% of the time), on top of Radiation Therapy giving at least 2.5 per hit. It can yoyo a bit with meltdown having a 50% end crash, but with active use of your tools, and some built in end drain res, this is rarely a real issue. This can help open up builds and incarnates quite a bit, as they are often used to cover for end issues I find.

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Epic: Mu

 

Mu has two powers that are just hard to beat for both usage and accessibility: Zapp and Ball Lightning. Zapp is a snipe, which can be a extremely powerful and versatile tool in any stalkers line up, and can even turn around the single target of entire sets with just its presence. It's often used in high end builds as a main part of the attack chain, and sometimes the hide proc follow up due to its heavy damage. Even if you don't need it to fill out your attack chain it also has value just as a powerful ranged option or as a long range pulling/initiation tool. Ball lighting is honestly one of the best AoEs stalker has available, period. It's DPA rivals fire ball but is obtainable much easier and with lower power investment, as I mention when talking about Rad, this power also is VERY GOOD for resetting Build up and skyrocketing your +DMG to the moon. Now I would say fire and even weapons mastery are all just about as good, depending on the build. Fire can be better if the power investment isn't a issue and even comes with a -res, and weapons can be very good for those builds that can also stand the investment but could use more endurance management. Both of these also come with just as powerful AoEs in Fire Ball and Exploding Shurikan, but I think Mu wins out just due to the shear accessibility and power of both options most would take, making it a good option in almost any build.

 

Edited September 17, 2023 by Riot Siren

[JStacy337]

Zoom-Melee! Kin/EnA/Body was my first re-roll from Live and I will always stand by that pairing. -Damage from the attacks combined with a +Defense set means that any hits that do make it through are not hitting for much at all

 

That and the animations are not as long as people assume they are

[Elementfury323]

My favorite stalker is my Spines/Bio. Not the best but it’s the character I have the most fun with. Very hard to die because bio is awesome. Throw Spines and Spine Burst trigger build up all the time, Assassin Strike and Moonbeam for hard hitting single targeting. His spines are crystallized elements! 
 

Opinion incoming:

Best Single target is Energy Melee not sure about AoE maybe Savage Melee.

Best Secondary Energy Aura is probably the best overall but my Stone/Stone stalker feels unkillable.

Best Epic Pool depends on what your build needs.

 

Edit: Changed best primary AoE from Electric to Savage

Edited September 24, 2023 by Elementfury323

[nihilii]

Went with the meta choices if not always for meta reasons:

- EM, ridiculous ST power + boosted Power Crash + Frosticus' recent tips on making good use of nuPlacate to boost up energy focus charges

- EA, excellent all around, and mostly for me has a fantastic Elude-like T9. EA also faces less competition than on other ATs, i.e. stalker /nin is less powerful than scrapper/sentinel /nin
Stone Armor is probably #1 if you don't like T9s and can live with the GFX and SFX

- Soul, here it's the usual Moonbeam + Shadow Meld combo, and once again it faces less competition as stalker Body Mastery doesn't get Conserve Power

[Frosticus]

8 hours ago, nihilii said:

- EA, excellent all around, and mostly for me has a fantastic Elude-like T9. EA also faces less competition than on other ATs, i.e. stalker /nin is less powerful than scrapper/sentinel /nin

I've always felt EA is overrated. I still feel that way in general as the holes are glaring. But Overload an amazing power. It should be called Overlord because it is a literal godmode. It plugs the holes and puts your stalker in the HP zone of a meaty well-built scrapper, but with stalker tools.

 

With built in conserve power, power drain and placate at your disposal there is no reason not to spend as much time as possible in the t9. 

For late game ageless radial works really well for me. Bringing up the moderate debuff protections to excellent levels, cycling overload more often and it costs 0 end to activate, so seamlessly gets you through the crash. 

 

EA was an easy #1 pick for me.

 

[Without_Pause]

On 9/17/2023 at 2:24 PM, JStacy337 said:

That and the animations are not as long as people assume they are

CS has a 3.036 Arcana Time. Burst is 2.904, so yes they are. 

1 hour ago, Frosticus said:

I've always felt EA is overrated. I still feel that way in general as the holes are glaring. But Overload an amazing power. It should be called Overlord because it is a literal godmode. It plugs the holes and puts your stalker in the HP zone of a meaty well-built scrapper, but with stalker tools.

 

With built in conserve power, power drain and placate at your disposal there is no reason not to spend as much time as possible in the t9. 

For late game ageless radial works really well for me. Bringing up the moderate debuff protections to excellent levels, cycling overload more often and it costs 0 end to activate, so seamlessly gets you through the crash. 

 

EA was an easy #1 pick for me.

 

I continue to never take Overload, and I am near having four Level 50 EA builds across all of the ATs which get it. EA is still one of my favorite armors in the game. It is that or Stone.