My first stalker...help please.

[Gobbledygook]

As the thread title states, this will be my first serious attempt at a Stalker. I tried one when they first released on CoV, but I wasn't a fan of the playstyle. As I understand it, there have been some changes to how they are played, mostly due to ATO's? Is that right?

Anyway, I wanna give it a real go this time. I love Brutes and Scrappers, I wanna like Stalkers to.

 

So, where do I begin, what do I think is fun in this game?

I mostly run with PuG's and do TF's. I like trying to solo AV's. I've never really enjoyed PvP, but my only experience with that was as a Scrapper or Brute in Zone PvP. Not fun at all.

 

Which powersets to choose from? I don't really have a preference. I know I'd like to have some AoE capability. I already have an Elec/Sd Scrapper, but as I understand it, Stalkers have a superior ST chain, so I may be open to that combo again.

Only thing I'd like to try and stay away from would be Regen and Bio.

 

Any tips for building a Stalker I should know? Take tp so I'm helpful on teams? What about stealth, I've seen some stalker builds with it here in the forums, is it necessary to stack stealth with hide?

 

[Gone]

If you aren't going to PVP, you don't need stealth.  Hide is enough, you can put a +stealth IO in sprint if you want.

 

Don't take recall friend unless you really want to.  Taking teleport was a way to get teams to take old style stalkers, you don't need that anymore, you're better than a scrapper now.  They need you for your DPS.

 

Stalkers don't have a lot of AoE options.  Elec is great, and the single target chain is better (Assassin Strike in place of the Clap power) and the other AoE's are intact.  Spines has two AoE's in Burst and Throw.  Otherwise, most other sets have one AoE and usually small radius, so if AoE is your thing, I think Elec or Spines is your best option. Street justice is a standout for single target damage but minimal AoE.

 

Secondary doesn't matter much if you plan to build with IO sets, you can make any of them work.  Resist sets you build to softcap S/L defense (or positional if you can), defense sets you get to softcap and then build for additional resists (S/L first). Secondaries with a recharge boost built in are probably best (Energy, Elec, SR,) followed closely by those with damage boosts (Shield, Rad), and the rest are just 'fine'.  Not mentioning Bio, of course, since you don't want Bio.

 

Use Assassin Strike from hide only when there's obviously enough time to do so, otherwise start with a heavy hitting fast attack for the crit in teams, otherwise you're wasting DPS.

 

You can skip Placate if you have a tight build, it is a waste of time usually and is relegated to just a minor useful tool occasionally now.

 

Plan to take combat jumping, tough and weave and possibly maneuvers to either strengthen your resists or defense as needed.

 

Slot your ATO's as early as you can, they're great.

[Gobbledygook]

Thanks for the reply.

What are the best powers to slot the ATO in?

I believe I read in here that the Stalkers Guile should go in Assassins Strike? Is that right? What about the other set, another longish recharge that the recharge makes better? Say original cool down was 12 seconds, but with global cool down (hasten, sets) it's down to 6 seconds?

[macskull]

My Stalker builds have been doing 6 slots of Superior Stalker's Guile in AS. I almost never use AS while hidden - it's either an AoE or my other single-target heavy hitter so I'm not wasting time waiting for AS to wind up. I'll use AS to fill in gaps in my attack chain, or when it's got the orange ring (guaranteed crit), so that's a great time for the chance to hide proc to fire off and let me drop another AoE out of hide. The Assassin's Mark proc isn't a typical proc, per se, it just adds a global flat rate chance to recharge Build Up whenever you use an attack, so it doesn't really matter where you slot it. The builds I've been using have it 6-slotted in my tier 2 melee power (I don't take the tier 1) and it's really random though very useful. I've managed to get a lucky roll a few times and get Build Up triple-stacked for a brief moment, which is even more ridiculous if you have the chance for build up proc slotted in Build Up.

[Gobbledygook]

Thanks for the reply, I've been holding off until I was more clear on this. I appreciate it.

[Johnny Velocity]

Good thread.  I'm exploring the new stalkerness myself.

[macskull]

There's still some amount of Stalker hate but I think part of that is because the Stalker buffs happened near the end of the game's life and people either didn't know or forgot. Stalkers went from an AT with okay AoE and occasionally good single-target to an AT that can do both pretty well. Basically, the buffs were a game-changer, and now the ATO procs are another game-changer.

[Machariel]

Thanks for the reply.

What are the best powers to slot the ATO in?

I believe I read in here that the Stalkers Guile should go in Assassins Strike? Is that right? What about the other set, another longish recharge that the recharge makes better? Say original cool down was 12 seconds, but with global cool down (hasten, sets) it's down to 6 seconds?

Stalker's Guile should definitely go into Assassin's Strike, because if you put it into any other power then you'll use the power, go into hide, and then not want to AS because you'd get stuck with the long animation.  Conversely, if you put it into AS, you can AS from hide, immediately go back into hide, and get a free crit with your next-best hitting power.  This is Pretty Great .

 

The other set (i forget what it's called) can actually go into any power, since the proc gives ALL of your powers a chance to recharge build up for free (!). 

 

The Stalker ATOs are both completely insane.