Jibikao

Putting ATO proc in Assassin Strike is the only and best idea because if you don't, you may end up using an interruptable AS during your normal attack chain when you don't want to.

Putting in AS means your next attack won't be another AS (unless you feel like waiting for it to recharge).

AS's base recharge is 15s, which already makes the proc happen 100% of the time. There is no need to upgrade to superior unless you want superior bonuses.

Has anyone noticed anything different with Superior proc?

Oh, which reminds me that if you put +defense in Lion, it shows that its base defense has increased but in reality, it hasn't. The +defense, I believe, only enhances Roar.

I already checked in-game value to see if +defense improves Lion's innate defense from 11.50% but it does not. It is a display value.

I need to check to see if +defense improves Roar though.

I've tried mostly Clockwork and Vanguard.

Clockwork does not have good aoe. In fact, the only good aoe is that narrow Chest Beam attack. Either the boss or lt pet may have a cone attack but I don't recall being it good. What Clockwork is good for is that they are all ranged and they have -defense in their attacks. If you have no +tohit buff for them, they are pretty good at dealing dps on their own.



Vanguard has more aoe. I am not sure if it's the best but Sorcerer has two sphere aoe and Lt has one too. I like Vanguard a lot because Sorcerer always stands far from the action. She just stands far and shoots with her staff. The Lt pet actually dies often because he always goes in to use Bayonet (which has -lethal resistance).

What other ATs do you usually play? Killing a dark red or purple boss within 12-15s is pretty good IMO.

You can do even better with Musculature with +1 but at that point, just about everything is god-like. lol


Do you have the Stalker Guile proc? If you do, you can bypass Placate and deliver BU + AS + Uppercut smoother. I like using Placate as SJ because nothing is more beautiful to see Double Critical Uppercut. The damage is beyond massive!

The new Assassin Strike doesn't really help the initial burst damage in the first 10s as much but it certainly will allow Stalker to match that 10/10 melee rating ability in extended fight. You no only have to use Placate and suffer a chance to get interrupted. You have a super high damage and fast ST attack that allows you to take down trouble enemy. A trouble enemy may not always be a Boss. I love killing off Night Widow whenever I see her because she has low health and she is more annoying than most bosses.

If I team with MMs and we fight against Circle of Thorn. I always kill off the lieuts that use fireball and fire breath first because they deal the most damage to MM's pets.

The key to play Stalker well is to know which targets to eliminate quicker that can benefit the team the most. It's not always the bosses.

I'll reserve my opinion after I am lvl 35. I need more pets to stack more PMs and I need to see how Dire Wolf performs.

So far at lvl 23 Beast/Time, I feel their own survival is kind of low because I still constantly need to heal. It will get better once I have Power Boost + Farsighted.

Yes, Beast pets have more S/L resistance but in reality, they get hit even more because they always run in. An enemy only shoots you at range but once you get close, he also punches or kicks you! Those melee attacks usually do a lot more damage than their range attacks. At the end of the day, melee pets need to survive a lot better to get the better Risk VS Reward balance.



I am more impressed by /Time than Beast atm but I love pets so I love the set.

With the proc, you at least get a 100% critical when you do BU + AS + Eagle to start the fight. You no longer need to do BU + AS + Placate + Eagle. That's two very high critical damage attacks.

Once the fight starts, you'll need to count after 10s and land an AS and then follow up with another Eagle. I find it tough to do because I have good recharge and I tend to use AS as soon as it's available, which means it's less than 10s... which also means I get Stalker's Guile every other AS and the following attack may not be an Eagle.


In the end, I gave up trying to care that much. If it happens, it happens.

Good to have more old players back! The Stalker buff is very fun.

Don't forget to try some of the new sets like Street Justice. You may like it more than EM. :P

ATO proc lasts 10s but you never know when the 10s duration starts. It acts as an "auto buff" power. The way Synapse explained to me is that Stalker should get a critical within 11-15s depending on when the attack chain starts and whether you land a hit or not. I really try not to think too much about it. I know we get more critical chance with the proc and that's good enough for me.

It needed to get fixed because it caused AS in regular attack chain to be interruptable. To give you an example, I joined a team in DA to kill the very last Elite boss. During that fight, I had 4 freaking Interruptable AS. That's how bad the procs were stacking and causing problems.

If Mastermind is the true 10/10 Pet Class, he should have access to all the Pet sets.

The argument that Pet Recharge doesn't benefit MM's pets as much (since +recharge doesn't affect pets) is false because Command of Mastermind has -recharge. So obviously the dev have no problem putting -recharge in Pet sets.

So why restricting Pet Recharge sets to some primaries? I don't get it.

Actually, Dark Blast and Gloom are two of the best range attacks available to MM pets. I like it when Grave Knights use them because that also means GKs are not in much danger. Grave Knights, surprisingly, have no S/L resistance. GK isn't exactly built for melee except for their occasional sword attacks.

I have a lot of ideas that can improve Necro and the easiest ones are:

1. Siphon Life needs to be either reduced recharge down to 12-16s (currently 30s is way too freaking long) or increased in damage to match other Siphon Life. It makes no sense that Zombie's Siphon Life recharges in 30s when other minions get an aoe that only recharge in 16s. Siphon Life's damage is only as good as their Slap. This change will benefit Grave Knights as well.

Personally, I would rather they reduce recharge because Necro set is more about doing -tohit and life leeching than just simple burst damage. Ninja can have the burst damage.


2. Necro set needs more good aoe damage. The majority of aoe comes from 3 fragile minions and that's not good. Lich's Torrent should deal similar damage as Blaster's Torrent and Lich's Life Drain should either do more damage like Blaster's version or reduced recharge down to 8s (instead of 15s).


3. Give Accurate Tohit Debuff sets to Grave Knights!!!

Grave Knights do plenty of damage. Yes, sometimes they don't go in but that could be a good thing. You can try to force them in by goto them. They may not cycle the two strong sword attacks but they have plenty of attacks to use. Dark Blast and Gloom have very good DPA.

I would much rather they give all primary sets access to Pet Recharge sets so we can get 4 sets of unique. Why should Necro, Thug and Demon have access to two more unique?

I find Command of the Mastermind set really lacking. The aoe defense is nice but if you are not a demon, necro or thug, you'll have to sacrifice one more slot for it.

The first set bonus is retarded. I am sorry but damage buff on an AT with the LOWEST damage modifier makes so little sense to me. Give me +endurance, defense, resistance or hell even +speed is better than +damage.

I won't slot the whole set for sure because I need rooms to put two other pet unique sets in primary and some damage procs.

MM's ATO is the worst IMO. Only the aoe defense is worth it.

I like Force Field a lot on Ninja and I think Force Field should work well with Necro too. I see a lot of Robot/Force.

I don't like Sonic even on my Corruptor.

Sonic probably works better with Demon, Thug and Beast. I don't think Sonic would work well with Ninja because they have like almost no resistance to stack with, even though they are melee-oriented.

I think Spine/Ice has great potential. That's a massive amount of -slow debuff.

I received a Fortune the other day and saw Dragon Tail animation... lol

Damn, you got my excited for a while.

At level 22, I feel /Time and /Dark are equally as strong. Time Stop is useful because if the boss suffers from Time Crawl, you can hold him in one hit. That's a mag 4 hold!

Time Stop is the best secondary hold in the game IMO. It even has -regen. /Dark's ST hold is crappy but it's useful.

I find myself taking all /Time's powers.

/Dark at least has one power that I'll never take - Blackhole!