BrandX

Originally Posted by Chase_Arcanum

I think there's a distinction here that needs to be made, and thats whether the "A" or the "THE" is directly tied to the lore.

When you tie yourself to the lore with a "The" ("the" scientist that discovered Portal technology) you add two risks:
- the devs may introduce new lore data that conflicts with your story.
- other players may choose backstories that directly conflict with your story. You can't both be "THE" scientist that discovered portal technology.

Compare that to if use an "A" ("A" scientist on the team that discovered Portal technology).
- now, if the devs introduce "Dr. Jackson" as the scientist behind the lore, you can now just flesh out your story with this "team leader" added.
- if you encounter another roleplayer who is also "a" scientist on that team, you can immediately play long-separated colleagues that once worked on the team together.

You can still be a "THE"-- just create the event that you're the "THE" of. You were THE scientist that refused to evacuate during the 1999 "Portal Surge" crisis. You were THE one that realized that the danger threatened not just the city, but the whole earth, so you stayed behind and saved the world.
- In this game world, extinction-level incidents seem to be an almost an annual thing, so there's very little the devs can add that would contradict this (aside from saying that portal has a "spotless safety record" and that can be written off as good PR and/or a coverup.)
- It isn't THAT much of an imposition on other players- the incident is your creation, so its unlikely to step on their toes (unless they claim to be the Portal Corps safety officer in 1999 that was responsible for their spotless safety record.

A little more trouble would be to be THE scientist that operated the portal console for the Omega team as they left for the Rikti world. On the surface, it seems similar to the previous one (scientist during a major portal event) but you can kinda see how being THE last person to see any Omega team member before they left could have a higher risk of conflict. Its an official-lore event and you've made yourself the sole critical actor in it. Being "A" scientist in that room at that moment leaves a lot more flexibility.

Originally Posted by Lucky666

Some people slotted AS with 3 damage/acc HOs and 3 damage procs since it was very situational power recharge and end were never a big concern now they are.

I don't really care personally about the freespecs myself i have 4 vetspecs on every toon I make now so meh.

Originally Posted by Hockeytown

Oh LOL! I made elec last night. Wish I had another slot on that server to try energy. Maybe I'll make on another server and transfer if I like it.

Originally Posted by Blue_Centurion

So the entire way Stalkers run does not count as a massive change?

Here is the massive change that does count, the massive amount of $Change$ they are gonna get in microtransactions selling Respecs.

yeah, I feel jipped. I hoard my vet respecs, and delete characters (50s) that I start to use them on.

Originally Posted by Scythus

What's hard to grasp about it is that the evidence that he was ever heroic is lacking.

Originally Posted by Hockeytown

Sounds like fun. I'll give it a shot. Thanks BrandX.

Originally Posted by Hockeytown

Thanks for the thoughts you two. I was looking on the servers I play tonight, and it seems the variations of my chosen name are already taken. I suppose when I made Captain Morgan back in 2004/5 it may have been original, but no longer (my costume then was pretty dang acurate, I must admit.) Oh well.

I guess now I'm wondering if there's a primary that's particularly good for assassin type play, and if there's one that's particularly good for sustained dps. Perhaps one that can excel at both dependent on the build? I played a rogue on wow for a while, and had different builds for 1on1 quick kills or stun locking, and one for sustained dps. Anything something like that for CoH?

Originally Posted by Ragnarok_NA

Ah my bad. In my experience when someone says "It did okay" or something like that it usually means they are actually trying to say "I wouldn't do that." But then again i tend to be pessimistic lol. I ended up going with Elec/Nin anyways because I was having way too much fun with it to drop the toon. My only question now is is it worth it to take the fighting pool for the extra S/L resistance and Defense? Normally I would take it on any brute I play but with the new stalker changes i am finding my stalker to be an end hog at times, just curious if the extra protection would be worth the extra endurance issue

Originally Posted by Winterminal

Thanks for the responses!



I am typically a single target oriented player. I actually prefer to take targets on one at a time, rather than destroying them all at once with AoE attacks (I know, I am in the minority). With that said, does MA become any more worthwhile?

While I am fine with playing Ninjitsu, would the one missing passive make that big of a difference? obviously it would where resistance to Toxic and Psionic is concerned, but are the DEF Debuff Res. numbers that different?



With both of you emphasizing the value of Healing powers, do you find that to be a necessity on Stalkers? I can see where they would be a boon in the past, do you think their value will continue to be that high with the changes that were released yesterday?

Originally Posted by Leo_G

I'm not sure if I find these statements extremely hilarious because of how hypocritical they are or just really annoyed because I had been saying similar before the changes happened but probably the same people would say the exact opposite. Using AS from hide hasn't changed...and yet, it's somehow no longer a waste of endurance to try to use it despite the seemingly impossible feat of not being interrupted? Or when trying to point out the reason to use the tactic, only *NOW* is demoralize worth considering despite it not being changed either? Wow, you guys must be conveniently hand waving all those old arguments away now because nothing has come about to make those arguments any different.

I wouldn't go suggesting to new/returning Stalkers to use hidden AS anymore unless they just want to...only in the low lvls when it's your highest fastest hitting ST attack and/or if you wanted to make *sure* the target is hit. To tell someone to use outdated tactics to preserve some unanimously unfavorable aberration is just spreading more false information.



Because you have an AoE attack that can soften up a larger group. Or you have a faster animating high-tier power that will do quite a bit of damage while building up 1 shot of focus practically guaranteed...and AS will be sure to be recharged when you first get 3.



Yeah, same specialness as my fully slotted snipe being used to finish off the last runner with a high powered ranged critical...it's a novelty. The old Stalker always was just a novelty, and new Stalker is just a Scrapper

Originally Posted by Lothic

The only difference this time is that FOX finally cancelled a show that deserved to be cancelled.
I'm not exactly sure if this should be considered good news for FOX or not...

Originally Posted by MrCaptainMan

I played the hell out of the I22 DA content on Beta so although it's v v cool indeed (apart from idrop rates), it going live hasn't excited me a load because of that. I was however looking forward to Beast Mastery and Staff Fighting, so hopefully they'll arrive soonish.

Overall, though, it's a pretty cool issue.

Eco

Originally Posted by Winterminal

Hey Stalker enthusiasts.

With i22's changes, it looks like Stalkers are going to play how I hoped they would play since I started the game (silent, fast, hard-hitting melee combatants without a ton of fortitude). That being the case, I have two character ideas in mind, but I am going back and forth between the power sets.

For primaries, I am looking at Martial Arts and (though it is still unreleased) Staff Fighting.

For secondaries, I am considering Ninjitsu and Super Reflexes.

(I am leaning toward MA/Ninjitsu and Staff/SR, but I can be swayed.)

For those of you with experience with the sets on Stalkers, would you mind just dropping a few tips and/or recommendations? I am not looking for a ton of detail, since I have always been a fan of "discovering as I go," but just a couple words of wisdom about whether or not certain combos tend to work, which powers you have found totally not worth it, etc., would be greatly appreciated.

Originally Posted by Ragnarok_NA

Thats what I was afraid of. I knew /Nin had a lot going for it from 1-50 in terms of having some tricks in a bag for survival which was one of the biggest draws to me, but wasn't sure how the defense held up after hitting 50 and you started to do much harder content. Would /Will or /Elec be a better secondary in that case? It seems with the HP buff both would benifit from the stalker changes and Elec would benefit from most of the iTrials dishing out energy dmg.