Jibikao

So who will lead the Heroes and be the poster boy?

I know they already got rid of Lord Recluse on the front page banner!

15.85Damage for Dominators, 9.18Damage for Controllers (18.36 if Impact benefits from Containment, which I doubt).

Blah..that doesn't sound a lot. Only 9.18 extra damage for Controller at lvl 50?? We'll find out once the change is in beta.

I've played my Incarnate Stalkers quite a bit and I can tell you why the dev eventually decided to make Assassin Strike uninterruptable outside of Hide.

Interruption in a situation where there is auto damage, burning patches, higher accuracy mobs and simply faster pace is just not reliable and efficient enough, even with 0.5s interruption.

I think the dev has finally decided that the typical "Stalk and Assassinate" gameplay is just not enough. The change didn't take it away completely. You can still hide and set up AS but what's more is you can scrap out better than other 3 Melee ATs, which is what it's SUPPOSED to be.

This game's pace has dramatically increased especially in +50 content.

There are several things I don't really like in your ideas:
1. Critical Rate granting Assassin Focus. This just means that sometimes you get more and sometimes you don't and Team Critical radius isn't exactly large and if you are soloing, your critical chance is a lot less. Stalker shouldn't rely on a "team" to do good damage. Stalker should do better damage even on his own and that's what Assassin is like. (I've said it before that I've always thought Scrapper should have Team Critical for better team-play, and Stalker should have Enemy Rank Critical for better soloing and target-specific elimination. I think they reversed it!)

2. There's been quite a few discussions on Snipe. I want the snipe to be good but Snipe is just a patron attack. I really don't think a Stalker's inherent should only benefit 3 patron sets. What about the other 5? They should, however, lower Snipe's casting time to 4s like other snipes. 7.1s is ridiculous.
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Some people feel the new change makes Stalker too "Scrapper" like. Well, the same can be said about how similar Brute and Scrapper are. Both of them basically run in and smash. Hell, even Tanker is similar too!

The new change does not take away Stalker's "Stalker and Prey" style. It's just that after you reveal yourself, your DPS is much improved through Focus and new Uninterruptable Assassin Strike. What is so bad about this? For a melee AT with the fewest Hit Points, shouldn't Stalker do better ST DPS and Burst damage? Don't forget even with the new change, Stalker won't out-perform AoE damage since Stalker doesn't have /Fiery and /Shield.


I like your idea of suppressing PToD with an old fashion Assassin Strike (hit from hidden). They need to improve Placate somehow to make it worth it. The current Placate has a lot of down sides. One thing they should do is to grant +10% Tohit buff just like Bane's Placate. This will make Placate a useful tool to take down targets that have very high defense.


I think the dev' idea is a simple way to make Stalker better. I don't know how it affects pvp though. Maybe they do this specifically so it doesn't affect PvP much? If they somehow reduce Build Up recharge (so Stalker has access to burst damage faster) or increase Stalker's base damage scale, those changes will have more impact in pvp. (I really don't care about pvp in this game but the dev do)


Some of you also think the change shouldn't focus on Assassin Strike that much. Well, think again! This Assassin Strike is in EVERY PRIMARY and it replaces many precious pbaoe attack. The current Assassin Strike is super unreliable and inefficient. This is the power they should make it better. I really do try to enjoy the current AS but it is just a lot of hassle to use it. Assassin Strike only seems "godly" at lvl 6 when nobody else has access to such high damage attack.

Edited: Perhaps the new change will make all four Melee ATs too similar?

Ice Armor can be good. It has interesting aoe slow plus damage debuff and it is a mix of defense and some resistance. Stalker is better off on a defensive set. The lvl 38 power looks very interesting too.

Now, as for primary, Kinetic Melee and Ice Armor can produce a lot of -damage but there is one draw back, Chilling Embrace. CE is so good that you want to run it all the time if you can but it can also interrupt your Placate + Concentrated Strike for build up refresh. I've been playing my SJ and you can get off an attack before you get interrupted but CE's debuff tics a lot more frequent than Dark Armor's offensive toggles. I think Kin/Ice is a natural good combo.

SJ/Ice is not bad either because SJ's pbaoe is kind of small and it is nice to have CE to keep the mobs together.

I also think Ninja and Broadsword / Ice can be really good because you have Parry to improve your defense even higher.

Patron set depends on your primary. If you are MA/EM, you definitely want a patron/epic with good aoe.

I am all for improving Snipes but your idea only works for 4 out of 8 Epic/Patron sets. What about Epic sets that don't have Snipes?

In fact, they better fix Critical in Weapon, Body and Darkness epics in Issue 22!

And I also agree that "hidden" AS needs to be more attractive. It is hard because the "slowness, interruptable" AS is exactly the reason why many people hate. I know I am one of them.

I was on TNP trial and I was assigned to take out Telepaths since the leader said "no aoe and no pets" and I told him I am MA and I don't really have aoe. Well, in that situation, they certainly added many things that interrupt hide!! There's FREQUENT auto damage as soon as you are within Telepath's range. The damage isn't high but it's constant and it's impossible to set up Assassin Strike (which is supposedly our bread-and-butter ST-elimination tool). And then the NPCs would throw bombs that also have "burning patches".

They certainly don't shy away from adding things that make this Interruptable, Slow Assassin Strike useful. It's to the point that why bother using an interruptable attack when you can just BU + other attacks?

In fact, can anyone do a quick math on 10s attack chain between BU + Hidden AS + remaining hits VS BU + Heavy Hitter Eagle Claw + two other hits + unhidden Critical AS? I have a feeling not using BU + Hidden is going to produce more DPS because you can hit at least two more times during AS' old casting time.


The way I see it is this:

1. BU + Hidden AS still has an advantage in a way that you can take out an enemy before it hits you and you get Demoralize. This advantage gradually fades away when you team but at least there is still an advantage. Maybe they can improve Demoralize somehow. Make the fear duration longer?

2. They need to make Placate more attractive. Placate + AS will be pretty sucky. Placate + AoE is more attractive but we already have this now. They need to speed up Placate.

As a fan of Stalker, I am used to mostly Single Target damage and I can tell you Beam Rifle Blaster does a lot of ST damage at range. Besides the first 10s, Beam Rifle Blaster can easily out-damage most Stalker in ST department IMO.

The AoE potential is kinda weak and I hate the weapon redraw when I use secondary. I chose Beam/Fire but I really don't like /Fire much. I would have preferred /Energy because I believe Power Boost can enhance -regen effect? That will make Beam even more attractive.

Other than that, the lvl 32 nuke is great.

The set is slow though. If you are used to blasting with Fire, you may not like Beam.

Beam Rifle is definitely a great set to take down AVs.

Hawk answered.

Singy will not have Impact bonus because that will also affect NPC Singys as well. However, he said he is going to look at Singy's casting time.

The Impact bonus damage is currently at .3 scale. How much is that anyway in real number? .3 scale for Controller and Dominator are different?

This is one of the few famous games that allow multiple buffs/debuffs stack. I agree that they should stack but maybe they should have more limitations/restrictions so the ATs that don't have good buffs/debuffs (like Stalkers who are not particularly good at tanking) don't feel like they are not adding much to the team.

Bosses can still be a threat. You just need to turn up the slider. Bosses only seem like weak-sauce once you have tons of set bonuses. A regular +3 or +4 boss can still kill certain squishy in one hit, which includes Stalker. It is not uncommon that a +3 Freakshow tanker boss kills a defense-based Stalker in one hit.


At least we can all agree that Assassin Strike needs help. This attack replaces many precious pbaoe attacks in the sets but its usefulness greatly reduces after you have strong attacks, faster recharge and now in many incarnate trials there are auto damage that will get you out of hidden frequently (IE: TNP!!!).

Stalker is known for his burst damage. The buffs will allow Stalker to have access to that burst damage more often than before. Since they refuse to increase Build Up's effectiveness (either by making it 100% or shortening its recharge), Assassin Focus mechanics will allow Stalker to have a good burst damage once every 15s or less. This makes Stalker both the King of ST DPS and the King of Melee Burst Damage. Unlike some of you, I think ST damage still has its place in this game because if you are on a large team with abundance of aoe, you don't need to throw another aoe to overkill.

This game is constantly changing so the way they need to buff Stalkers need to change too. I don't remember if there's incarnate trials when Castle was still here but I honestly feel Assassin Strike serves almost no purpose in level-50 content itrials. In fact, I find it hard to use in BAF (those burning patches), TNP (constantly auto damage around Telepaths), Lamba (where the boss super jumps with many mobs around him), Apex (blue flame surrounds the AV), Keyes (the final AV flies and constants moves away with high damage nuke).



One thing they should add is giving -Maxhp debuff in Assassin Strike using from hidden so it makes using Placate + AS more attractive. Not that I'll use that often but at least it's more attractive if it has good -Maxhp debuff. Tanker has Brusing and Stalker has -Maxhp debuff.


You are right that it is the same that makes this whole Stalker AT less important. From the get go, they should have only allowed Stalker to have access to Stealth.

Should they make Bosses harder? Maybe. It will have a global effect that has a negative impact on new players who are not familiar with this game.