ClawsandEffect

I disagree with this.

In my opinion the safest blaster is Sonic/Devices.

Why?

A) It's the only secondary that lets you have full invisibility while hovering, without running Super Speed or dipping into the concealment pool. Just take Cloaking Device and slot a +Stealth IO in Hover (the Freebird +Stealth is usually cheaper than the jumping or running ones because it is less popular)

B) You get Siren's Song very early. When the whole spawn is sleeping you can pick them off one at a time quite easily.

C) You can stack Screech and Taser to stun bosses, or alternate them to wake up single sleeping targets. If you wake them up with a stun they still won't be able to attack, leaving you free to kill them with impunity.

If you get a decent amount of ranged defense you will be extremely safe, because you can choose your fights and open with an AoE control power to make sure you retain the upper hand, and Siren's Song is able to be permanent out of the box. Played right you have a blaster that is never attacked, let alone killed.

It is primarily a single target combination, with very little AoE potential, but it can be extremely safe to play.

Sonic/Energy ranks a close second for me.

Yer doin' it wrong

You should be able to click on the DataLink to open Mid's up with the build already loaded. Pretty sure mine works (It did for me at least, I check them after I post to make sure). If you're having problems with it I can post the Data chunk when I get home from work.

Neither one of which are going to one-shot a boss. The blaster loses their end bar, and can't attack right away, and the Shield Charger has to swing a few more times to drop it.

Shield Charge will do 504 damage MAXIMUM, no matter how much damage buff you put on it. A boss has just a few more HP than that.

My stalker reliably kills bosses in 3 hits, some take 4-5 if they heavily resist negative energy. Freak tanks take a bit more killing because they tend to heal before I drop them. But he kills them faster than anything else I have in my roster, and I'm not some newb who doesn't know how to build a character either.

In answer to a previous question about my claim, my stalker and my brute are both Dark Melee, and they are slotted more or less the same. Even though my stalker has a bit of a disadvantage because he is 6 levels lower than the brute, he still kills bosses faster.

Besides, that's all kind of moot anyway. The question asked is "What changes are needed to make a stalker an acceptable addition to a team?"

The answer is none, because whether or not a stalker is acceptable has more to do with the teams definition of "acceptable" than it does anything concerning the stalker.

If your definition of acceptable is "must put out above 200 AoE DPS" then not much at all will fit that criteria. If your definition is "fights along with everyone else and doesn't cause teamwipes" you'll find that suddenly your number of potential teammates skyrocketed.

The game is NOT so difficult that you need to min/max the composition of the team to succeed. Insisting that every character on the team be capable of ridiculous amounts of AoE damage is needlessly narrow-minded. A stalker can shine in just about any team setting outside of farming....but since no one ever seems to invite them no one knows it. If you're running a Strike Force, you're going to fight something at the end or it that a stalker's single target DPS will come in handy for. And the stalker will get his kills throughout it as well.

So, no, stalkers don't need to be changed to be an acceptable teammate, team leaders just need to lighten the hell up on their requirements to invite people.

He bid $2.50, so he's probably joking.

Though technically he won the bid because $2.50 has real value and any amount of inf. you care to name does not (meaning you can go to McDonalds and buy a couple double cheeseburgers with $2.50, they do not accept influence as legal tender there)

He has a point, applying a serial code is part of the process of opening a new account. It won't let you use the serial code from the copy already purchased as it has already been used.

It's not that bad. I took it because I needed a power that didn't need any slots in it to work, and I kill fast enough that they don't wander very far before they die. Doesn't bother me to run a few feet or make a short hop to get my next kill. But as with all things, YMMV.

Of course, because a set's performance is the only criteria that matters. A character can't be fun unless you hit a certain amount of damage dealt per minute.

Pffft.

My /Devices blaster is one of my favorite characters to play, even including my scrappers and brutes who are damn near indestructible. I know I could be doing more damage and my kill speed could be a little higher.....but I don't care.

I'm well aware that the numbers say /Devices is underperforming, but it offers a playstyle not available to any other blaster secondary. And when you get right down to it, my enjoyment of a character is FAR more important to me than what the forum collective thinks of it's secondary.

I like powers that the majority of the people in this thread seem to think are worse than useless, and I hate the one power everyone likes. (Caltrops) I have a /Devices blaster that literally never dies, and my kill speed isn't that much slower than some other blasters. There's something to be said for any secondary that allows you to build a character that rarely even takes damage, much less actually gets defeated.

I was just explaining why I chose positional over typed for Sword/Dark.

With typed you end up with more holes in your defense than with positional.

As I said before, I have at least 35% to all positions. With typed defense, I have never seen anyone get all types over 35%, at least not on a Dark Armor scrapper. Most builds I have seen that focus on typed defense have a pretty significant hole to Fire and Cold ranged and AoE attacks. I also haven't seen too many that top 35% to energy and negative energy.

I have at least 35% defense to melee, ranged, and AoE that covers: smashing, lethal, energy, negative, fire, cold, psionic, and toxic. I've never seen a typed defense build that can do better. Most of them have a Fire/Cold hole that I lack by covering it positionally. And a typed defense build has no defense to a pure toxic attack at all, all toxic attacks have a positional component, so I have that covered.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a big advocate for typed defense, except in the case of Broadsword or Katana paired with Dark Armor. Any other primary I would be suggesting typed myself. Even for Sword/Dark typed defense will be functional, just that positional defense leaves fewer holes.

And you're STILL forced into Super Speed if you want full invisibility. Which costs endurance to run as well. A hoverblaster has no use for Super Speed.

If I skip Cloaking Device and want to toe-bomb, I must take Smoke Grenade (which is even MORE useless than you're saying Cloaking Device is) or Super Speed (which requires me to drop other powers, as my blaster does not have Hasten in his build already)

So, I can take Cloaking Device and stack it with a Stealth IO for full invisibility while hovering -OR- I can change my entire build around to pick up A) A pool that I don't need, or B) a gimped, largely useless power.

I'll stick with Cloaking Device thanks.

You keep going on like EVERYONE plays /Devices exactly like you do, and therefore your point of view is how everyone sees it. It's not.

I find Cloaking Device fits my playstyle much better than a Stealth IO + Super Speed or Smoke Grenade.

I also like Taser.

And I despise Caltrops (apparently I'm the only person that does.)

I'm not trying to be argumentive about it, I'm just pointing out that not everyone thinks those powers are as useless as you do, and that needs to be taken into account before any changes are discussed. I happen to like Devices exactly as it is, if it were changed to the point that it forced a change in my playstyle with it I would be highly annoyed.

I play a Sonic/Devices, and for me Devices works perfectly just as it is.

I went with positional due to some very simple math. DA/Parry covers twice as many positions as it does types. DA/Parry covers 1/3rd of the positions, while only covering 1/6th of the types.

You said it would leave you open to ranged/smashing? Well, it would also leave you open to E/N/F/C ranged and AoE. You'll be softcapped to melee and lethal, but if you're slotting in order to cap them with only one application, you're taking up slot space that could be used for E/N/F/C defense. In essence, the more S/L defense you get, the less you will be able to acquire of the other types.

I have a cheap build that softcaps melee with 2 applications of Parry, and has 35%+ to ranged and AoE. I'm also over softcap on lethal damage, so the most common defense debuff in the game (machine guns) will not be hitting me very often. If you can do better than that with typed defense, go for it, but I haven't seen anyone pull it off yet.

Cloaking Device gives you a place to slot things like: LotG 7.5% Recharge, Kismet 6% Acc, Karma KB Protection, a full set of Red Fortune if you're chasing ranged defense.

What does a Stealth IO let you slot? Oh yeah...it's an IO itself so it doesn't give you a place to slot anything at all.

Also, Cloaking Device DOES provide some defense, which, even when suppressed will get you closer to softcapping. Stealth IOs only provide stealth, no defense at all.

So, no, a single IO did NOT replace a power. Far from it in fact. A stealth IO gives you stealth, that's it. Cloaking Device provides much more than just stealth.

The only way a stealth IO replaces Cloaking Device is if you're a goober that ignores everything else about it and views it as JUST a stealth power.

Divine Avalanche will NOT cap smashing and lethal defense, it provides MELEE and lethal, it gives you ZERO smashing defense. That's why my Broadsword/Dark Armor scrapper is built using positional. Even after the BotZ nerf I'm sitting at 34% to ranged and AoE, and melee is well beyond softcap with double stacked Parry.

Ninja Run.

An SR with Quickness, Ninja Run, and Hurdle is just as fast as a Super Jumper and doesn't NEED a travel power.

You really don't need all the combos. Late in the game you'll find that Empower and Weaken are almost never used. I'd just go with Attack Vitals and Sweep. Blinding Feint + Attack Vitals combo is one of the better DPS chains for a Dual Blades scrapper, and it doesn't require a whole lot of recharge to keep it going without gaps. If you insist on having all 4 combos you'll find that you're making your build tighter than it really needs to be.

After softcapping you can skip Elude, and you only need 7 powers out of Dual Blades, so losing a couple combos loosens the build up some. That's the other reason Lillika's build skis a travel power, SR doesn't really need one and not taking one frees up space to take other things instead.

See, I have to disagree with this completely.

A +Stealth IO gives you the same amount of stealth as Cloaking Device, that much is true. But, if you skip Claoking Device and want full invisibility you are forced into taking Super Speed. What if you don't want to take Super Speed? My Sonic/Devices is a hoverblaster, so Super Speed A) makes no sense, and B) is a wasted power pick for him because he spends 99% of the time in the air. If I were to take your advice, I would be left without any ability to toe-bomb because I'd lack the amount of stealth necessary to pull it off.

Taser is also extremely useful for me. I use Siren's Song on a spawn, and stun any bosses with a combination of Screech+Taser. When there aren't any bosses I wake up the spawn one at a time alternating between Screech and Taser to kill it in perfect safety.

Not everyone looks at Devices the same way. I find powers useful beyond "situational" that you gave 0 stars to. I'd be willing to bet that my Devices build would be just as survivable as yours, and would kill just as fast. In fact it may even be MORE survivable, because I have gone several missions in a row without even being attacked, much less killed.

I also hate Caltrops with a passion. It constantly damages the spawn, making it completely useless for my playstyle. Since I use an AoE sleep to open fights (from stealth, so they don't agro on me before I sleep them) Caltrops would just sit in my tray and never be used, because I don't need to slow them down, they aren't going anywhere in the first place.

I love Webnade. It keeps those damn flying Freakshow out of melee with me.

I like Time Bomb, it's a fun power, but I don't use it enough to justify keeping it.

Any Devices blaster can do the same by going with Munitions and taking Sleep Grenade, I just happen to have an AoE sleep in my primary, so I can take any APP I see fit (I went with Force for added AoE when teaming via Repulsion Bomb)

If that happened, you'd have a new Claws and Effect, and I would be gone.

The day I'm forced to change anything about the way I play for someone else's convenience is the day I no longer play. They can play the way they choose to, and I can play the way I choose to. Don't make me change the way I choose to play so the way they choose to play can be made easier.

There are a significant number of people that feel the same as me. Merging servers would be a bad business move for NCSoft. The remaining servers would be more populous, but the game as a whole would have fewer subscribers.