Bright

I just PMed Ocho with links to the threads and a quick summary of our problem... Here's hoping for a solution. Or at least some kind of response.

As Code Monkey said in the other thread, I'd already submitted this as a bug. I just went and filed a support ticket on the subject as well.

Here's hoping we can poke them enough to get something done about it sooner rather than later... If I end up losing Solace's name over this, I'm going to be a very unhappy camper.

Edit to Add: 'Just PMed Ocho, too. Is that all the bases covered?

Yep... As FCM said, I also have three deleted Liberty toons currently in limbo.

I'd really like to have those guys back in their spiffy, new Praetorian incarnations some time soon.

[Monty Burns]Exxxcellent...[/Monty Burns]

I suspect Code Monkey and I will be there, as usual. I'm likely to stick with Suzume (bird-girl FF Defender). 'No clue who he'll bring.

Maybe he'll bring Sequester again and we'll have another ohmygodthebubbles-fest. There were what? Four of us slinging those things at everybody last week?

The issue of solo vs. team pace is a good one to keep in mind, I think... I have several Stalkers and I've had fun with them in a lot of different situations (I've even taken one of them Mothership-raiding. ), but the way they run as solo toons is a very different beast from the way they typically have to be played on a team.

No team is going to stand around waiting for you to get in position, line up your attack and go through the entire slower-than-Christmas animation cycle before they move in and start busting heads. They just won't.

If you're lucky, you'll almost have enough time to get in there and get a shot off on something before the whole mob's dead. Even doing that much can be difficult, though. I can't begin to count the number of times I've had my Hide broken by AoEs triggered by my team-mates' attacks, or how many times my Assassin's Strikes have been interrupted before the attack could go off due to my Stalker being bumped by another toon or someone's pets or special effects.

Given that, what's left for us to do in a group but scouting the map and pretending to be Scraps? Which, for reasons that have already been mentioned (low HP, etc-) upthread, we're not all good at.

When you're solo, on the other hand, you don't have to worry about impatient team-mates or unexpected interruptions. It's very easy to play your Stalker the way I suspect the devs intended them to be played all along... As very deliberate, very careful stealth hunters. That role, I think, they handle perfectly well as-is. I don't think they need much to be fine on their own.

So, the question as far as I'm concerned is how can Stalkers be made more effective/useful in the context of an average group? What can be done to make their solo hunting style more friendly with grouping? I'd say removing possibility of interruption from AS would be an excellent start. Making the AS animation shorter might also help, since any reduction in "set-up time" equals more of a chance to get the shot off before the team moves in and all hell breaks loose.

I'm very, very wary of any of the suggestions tied to Placate, though. As others have pointed out, even the current, controllable version can get fragile team-mates in trouble. An uncontrolled, random Placate effect would likely result in no one ever letting any of us anywhere near their teams ever again! ...That would sort-of defeat the purpose of making the change, right?

Very tempting.
Very tempting indeed.

Pally still needs all four of those.

I love "drive-by buffers"... Defenders who'll randomly throw a speed boost, or a set of force fields or the like on people as they pass... and I always try to return the favor by doing the same when I'm on Suzume, my own Force Fielder. It's just always seemed like a nice thing to do.

It's also fun sometimes to stop and debuff something, or to heal someone, or just stand there and taunt a mob for a lower-level player to kill... But I'm more cautious about doing that, even if they look like they could really use the help. There's a fine line between being helpful and being annoying, and not everyone draws it at the same point.

The idea is really cute... but I still wish we had a few more choices. 'Can't say any of my toons are that interested in War Witch.

A few of the canon guys, though... That's a different matter entirely.