EM/Rad

[WuTang]

Ugh!!!

 

Alts....more ALTS!!

Not complaining.... just shouting from the rooftops.

 

Any who, this time my altoholism has brought me back to another Stalker. I think I put together a good build, it seems to tick all the boxes, just wouldn't mind an extra set (or two) of eyes on it. I've ran both sets on different ATs, so I think I've got a decent grasp of them. 

 

My only worry is exemp'ing down without Tough. My S/L resist slips to 57%, but I don't know what else to switch out to the end of the build and still be balanced between kill'em all and not getting killed when I exemp. I think I'd be OK sliding Power Crash to the end, but what else? I generally don't exemp below 20ish on the reg. Run Yin alot and some of the other 20 TFs quite often.

 

Actually, having looked it over, I wonder if dropping Power Crash for Barrage would be better...

 

The reason I went this route was because I'd read that EM was brutal ST on a Stalker, but I know Stalkers lack AOE....so Rad Armor fills that hole plus many others. Personally, it's prob my favorite resist set.

 

Incarnates: Alpha: Resilient Radial, Destiny: Ageless Radial, Interface: Reactive Rad

 

Thanks!

 

-WT

 

Stalker (Energy Melee - Radiation Armor).mbd

Edited March 17 by WuTang
screen shot wasn't right

[Uun]

3 hours ago, WuTang said:

My only worry is exemp'ing down without Tough. My S/L resist slips to 57%, but I don't know what else to switch out to the end of the build and still be balanced between kill'em all and not getting killed when I exemp. I think I'd be OK sliding Power Crash to the end, but what else?

Move Boxing and Tough to lvl 30 and 32 and Combat Teleport and Combat Jumping to 41 and 44. Drop Physical Protection entirely - Rad Armor doesn't need it. You'd be better off taking Meltdown. It's one of the better T9s and the crash is minimal.

 

3 hours ago, WuTang said:

Actually, having looked it over, I wonder if dropping Power Crash for Barrage would be better...

No it wouldn't. Even against 1 target, Power Crash has higher DPA than Barrage. It's a pretty wide cone and with Energy Focus active your target cap increases from 5 to 10.

 

Not sure why it doesn't show up in Mid's, but Ground Zero needs accuracy. You might be OK with global acc plus FA, but I'd replace one of the procs with an acc IO or an acc/dmg HO.

[WuTang]

42 minutes ago, Uun said:

Not sure why it doesn't show up in Mid's, but Ground Zero needs accuracy.

Yeah I thought that too, figured it might just be the Stalker version.

[Uun]

1 hour ago, WuTang said:

Yeah I thought that too, figured it might just be the Stalker version.

Base accuracy of 1.2. Only the heal is autohit.

https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=stalker_defense.radiation_armor.ground_zero&at=stalker

[Championess]

On my EM / Bio and Shield stalkers I get all the aoe I'd ever need from DNA Siphon and Shield Charge with Fireball.  I think Rad has a similar type of pbaoe damaging power so you're good there.  Getting AS in your already beefy ST chain is just nasty for EM.  

 

Honestly I'd focus TF, ET and AS.  You get two stacks of Energy Release for your fast ET on stalkers when you crit out of TF.  I end up slotting full sets into ET to bring its recharge down so I can machinegun those double stacks out.  

 

You'll get far more impactful aoe from I believe Irradiated Ground along with Fireball and Judgements. Plus the chance for +BU proc benefits from big aoe counts so you can expect BU to insta recharge lots this way.

 

Generally my EM stalkers end up with Energy Punch, AS, BU, TF, ET and I find I'm liking Placate nowadays with the tweaks to it.  Also if I'm needing a 4th ST attack filler I dont usually use punch, I'd have something like proc'd Char, Zapp or Moonbeam.

Edited March 18 by Championess

[WuTang]

11 hours ago, Championess said:

+BU proc benefits from big aoe counts so you can expect BU to insta recharge lots this way.

So slot the BU proc in one of my AOEs?

[Championess]

6 hours ago, WuTang said:

So slot the BU proc in one of my AOEs?

 

No it doesn't work like that.  All it needs to do is be slotted into a power you activated in the instance to get the ball rolling.  Your aoes will do the work thereafter. 

 

I believe that set you need all 6 slotted for the +rech bonus.  I'd either slot it in your first attack you'll just have to remember to use that attack every once in a while.  Or you could put it into ET.  I end up procing AS and TF well.

 

Yeah I put that full set into ET.  The 5 leftovers of the other ATO set I mule into the first attack and put that +hide proc into AS.  Or if you take Placate it'll give you some leeway to maybe move the +hide proc to TF if you prefer.  I actually like it more in TF for the crit follow up ETs so I can manage to hide with Placate just before I use TF again to get those hidden crit double stack energy releases.

Edited March 19 by Championess

[Championess]

Another thing.  Depending if you're planning to run with kins a lot or find you're near damage cap lots already.  I like to slot 3 of the Gaussian set with the unique into BU.  If you're getting BU insta recharging lots, that unique also gets to ride along.  You'll be getting lots of damage boosting on your own.

 

*oh I guess you do have the unique there.  BU just looks so bare bones to me with just the one slot 😛

Edited March 19 by Championess

[Spaghetti Betty]

Hey, I have one of these! I don't particularly like playing Stalkers, because the combo of no taunt aura and very little AoE is pretty annoying! I guess it makes sense that of the three stalkers I play, two are /Rad!

 

The Lasagna Tanya - Stalker (Energy Melee - Radiation Armor).mbd

[WuTang]

14 hours ago, Spaghetti Betty said:

Hey, I have one of these! I don't particularly like playing Stalkers, because the combo of no taunt aura and very little AoE is pretty annoying! I guess it makes sense that of the three stalkers I play, two are /Rad!

 

The Lasagna Tanya - Stalker (Energy Melee - Radiation Armor).mbd 42.47 kB · 2 downloads

I like that your builds always scare me a bit, but I know they work

 

Somehow you find that razor thin edge of staying alive well enough to do max damage.

[Maelwys]

1 hour ago, WuTang said:

I like that your builds always scare me a bit, but I know they work

 

Somehow you find that razor thin edge of staying alive well enough to do max damage.

I especially love taking Soul Mastery but ignoring Shadow Meld; because obviously it doesn't embiggen the red numbers... 😜

The closest I have in my stable is a EM/Rad Scrapper. They can just about survive indefinitely at +4x8 with the higher MaxHP pool and at-will Defense softcapping plus the enhanceable +100% Regen buff to self in their version of Radiation Therapy that none of the other ATs get. I occasionally break them out for active AE farming just to see the expression on people's faces. No FF Proc though 😭
Scrapper - EM - RA (Moonbeam).mbd
 

Edited Thursday at 12:39 PM by Maelwys

[WuTang]

21 minutes ago, Maelwys said:

I especially love taking Soul Mastery but ignoring Shadow Meld; because obviously it doesn't embiggen the red numbers... 😜

The closest I have in my stable is a EM/Rad Scrapper. They can just about survive indefinitely at +4x8 with the higher MaxHP pool and at-will Defense softcapping plus the enhanceable +100% Regen buff to self in their version of Radiation Therapy that none of the other ATs get. I occasionally break them out for active AE farming just to see the expression on people's faces. No FF Proc though 😭
Scrapper - EM - RA (Moonbeam).mbd
 

Dude that is NOT fair. Scrapper Barrage gets a -100% regen debuff?? And it's the only AT that gets it....

[Maelwys]

47 minutes ago, WuTang said:

Dude that is NOT fair. Scrapper Barrage gets a -100% regen debuff?? And it's the only AT that gets it....

Barrage gets the regen debuff in all the ATs I think?
Certainly present on the Stalker version (near the bottom, "-100% Regeneration (all affected targets) for 15s" with the "EnergyRelease" prerequisite!) 

https://cod.uberguy.net./html/power.html?power=stalker_melee.energy_melee.barrage&at=stalker
I mean, in practice it's decidedly meh on everything except a low-level GM. Archvillain Resistance and Purple Patch and all that.

No, the really "not fair" thing is this

Even if it doesn't possess the "Does not scale with enemy level" flag, which makes it vary depending on what foes you're fighting and results in this sort of messiness!

[Spaghetti Betty]

7 hours ago, Maelwys said:

especially love taking Soul Mastery but ignoring Shadow Meld; because obviously it doesn't embiggen the red numbers... 😜

Defense, schmefense! Who cares about Shadow Meld when you have Hide, absorb, and two nukes?

[WuTang]

21 hours ago, Spaghetti Betty said:

Defense, schmefense! Who cares about Shadow Meld when you have Hide, absorb, and two nukes?

Meep!

[WuTang]

I've got a general question about Stalkers. Debuff resistance...is it that important, when on a team? Do the majority of debuffs come from AOE or ST attacks? My thought is that on a team and without an aggro aura and punchvoke then would Stalkers really be the target of the debuffs?

[Spaghetti Betty]

On 3/21/2025 at 12:50 PM, WuTang said:

I've got a general question about Stalkers. Debuff resistance...is it that important, when on a team? Do the majority of debuffs come from AOE or ST attacks? My thought is that on a team and without an aggro aura and punchvoke then would Stalkers really be the target of the debuffs?

Largely, no! In a team, support sets will provide a large majority of your debuff protection. You'll just see me (and others) training things like Slow RES and -Tohit RES to smooth out a solo experience!

Edited Monday at 09:22 AM by Spaghetti Betty

[WuTang]

On 3/21/2025 at 6:58 PM, Spaghetti Betty said:

Largely, no! In a team, support sets will provide a large majority of your debuff protection. You'll just see me (and others) training things like Slow RES and -Tohit RES to smooth out a solo experience!

I tend to lean into the debuff resists even though I never really solo. But most of my toons are Brutes so as a tank I don't want to let the team down by being less effective. Then I got to thinking that I seldomly ever care about debuffs when on any of my range, often I have 0% to all. And Stalkers not having any form of an aggro modifier, would I really be targeted outside of splash... I can attest to, at least anecdotally, that even on a team with no tank, which I seemed to be signing up for alot this weekend, the debuffs didn't appear to be that bad. Unless I attacked a mob solo, they seldomly all targeted me, if at all, and chose instead to scatter - I can only assume my awesomeness was too much for'em. I will add, that Combat Teleport is a must on a Stalker, for me, from now on due to that lil problem.

 

Gots another Stalker question. The ATO with BU recharge in it. It states a 5% chance, is that calculated differently, in-game, than PPM? I mean, does recharge affect its proc rate? I currently have it in the T2 attack, but it does not proc very often at all.

[Maelwys]

1 hour ago, WuTang said:

Gots another Stalker question. The ATO with BU recharge in it. It states a 5% chance, is that calculated differently, in-game, than PPM? I mean, does recharge affect its proc rate? I currently have it in the T2 attack, but it does not proc very often at all.

That one works as a set bonus; it's a 5% chance for ANY attack to recharge Build Up; not just the attack that it's slotted in.
And no, it's a flat 5% chance not a PPM-linked chance so recharge rate has zero effect.

Though IIRC you may need to use the attack it's slotted in once per map before the set bonus will actually kick in and start operating.
 

Edited Monday at 12:46 PM by Maelwys

[Championess]

6 hours ago, WuTang said:

Gots another Stalker question. The ATO with BU recharge in it. It states a 5% chance, is that calculated differently, in-game, than PPM? I mean, does recharge affect its proc rate? I currently have it in the T2 attack, but it does not proc very often at all.

 

It's a global bonus lets say that takes effect on each target you hit with an attack.  It sets in motion once the power it is slotted in gets activated in the instance you loaded.  Thereafter all attacks have that effect.  So something like Fireball has a 5% chance per target hit per the 16 targets or the 40 from a Judgement.  That proc works wonders from aoes and can be slotted in any attack to kick start it. 

 

I tend to like putting it in a ST attack I know I'll use and am targeting enhancing stats of the power rather than procing out since you need the full set for the +rech bonus.  But yeah ST attacks are hardly gonna see it fire just by the nature of its rules.

Edited Monday at 04:56 PM by Championess