Jibikao

I am all for making each AT more unique but knowing that Stalker's Street Justice doesn't have Rib Cracker (which offers debuff on resistance and damage!), I think the idea of making Stalker debuff stronger is just not going to happen.

We've had many many many discussions on how to improve Stalkers in this forum and the only thing the dev wants to do (or have the time to do) is to increase Stalker's damage potential because at the end of the day, Stalker's role is to kill, not to debuff. Debuff/Control are just secondary.

The fear effect from Assassin Strike is a lot better in beta because you can still fear if the target is dead in one hit. This means if you know you are not going to kill a boss in time and you want to offer Fear for the team, you can start the fight by killing a Minion first. It's at least an option if you want "control" oriented stalker.


I know Castle was pretty much done with Stalker AT. Maybe we can talk to Synapse and see what he thinks of it. With Freedom coming out, I really doubt they have time to balance the "old" stuff.

PS: I've have sent at least 4 Bug Reports on 3 Epic sets not doing Critical damage. The amount of attention Stalker gets is pretty pathetic. Didn't they fix Containment problem for patron sets so fast? Funny how other ATs get fixed so soon while Stalker's Epic problem is over looked again, again and again. It's either Epic not being able to critical at all or all of them critical. It makes no sense that only Heat mastery can critical.

In my many many experiences, Assassin Strike is hit-miss and its purpose is a lot worse in late-games.

To quantify the effect of Assassin Strike, we also need to see what Stalker loses in order to get it. In many old sets, they lose one precious pbaoe and in two sets, they have ZERO aoe. That's just too much loss in exchange for a SLOW ST attack that requires setup time and has interruption.

Stalker's ST damage is only impressive when teammates are around you. Scrapper can already do impressive ST damage on his own.


I do agree Scrapper's survival is a little bit overrated but in terms of teaming, if you are not holding aggro, then you better offer superior dps for the team. Stalker is stuck in a situation where he is terrible at being the main tank (yes yes yes, I know Stalker can be meatshield with outside buffs but that's not the point) and not being able to do damage quicker than other ATs like Blaster, Scrapper, dominator and SoA.

Stalker is very playable and that's it. And the newer sets are better for teaming.

LOL good one.

Sadly I agree. :P Night Widow and Bane with stealth are superior Stalker. They offer great burst damage while having very good team buffs.

You can easily replace Stalker's sneaky style in this game for sure. Hell, I think even my Blaster/device can sneak around pretty well. :P Assassin-mage? lol

I have a feeling the new power team may take another direction for Stalker if we bring up the issues enough. Castle thought Stalker is as good as it gets but I sense that other dev feel a bit differently.

There is a post about ranking your favorite ATs and Stalker ranks at the bottom of the barrel easily. lol No surprise there. Stalker's current mechanism just isn't very "assassin-like" in this game. Stalker isn't the only AT that can stealth. In other games, stealth powers are a lot more restricted to certain class only. In this game? Anyone can get stealth and perform relatively well. So if you hate Stalkers but you like stealthing, you are more than welcome to pick Scrapper with stealth powers/set.

Exactly. I did, however, bring up the fact 3 out of 4 Epic powers cannot critical for Stalker. I PM Synapse about this. He said they only have time to work on whatever they are testing in beta forum. Everything else will have to wait. This is like the biggest issue ever?

(Synapse did an internal test and he said none of epic powers are labeled as "critical". I find that a bit strange.... this is why we need to keep bringing up the issues because we think they know all the bugs, but they don't. I've tested Epic power again recently and only Fire mastery can critical and critical too much! I think they spend most of the time testing "newer" stuff. The old stuff? Not so much.)

Mmmm, Brute's Cloaking costs /.26s and so is Bane's. Most stealth type of power gives at least 3.75% defense. Blaster's Cloaking is only 1.75%??

If Blaster's defense is lower, they should pay a bit less endurance as well. I just don't see why Blaster needs to pay the full endurance cost when it's not as good, defense wise. That's all.

Brute's Cloaking is 3500% stealth and Blaster's is 1500% and 2000%. Don't know why Blaster has two numbers.

I've tested not using Genins at all before the Force Field group buffs. Yeah, I, too, found it very annoying to keep them alive. I also didn't try Power Boost with FF.

It was ok. The "fun" factor was there 'cause the pets don't die as much but the damage output isn't that good.


With the Group buff change, I think you should try to keep Genins. They also reduce two upgrades' endurance cost by half. It doesn't cost nearly as much to re-summon, re-upgrade and bubble each minion. You now have saved more than 50% of endurance cost...if not more than 50% what you were spending.

I've never joined any Beta test until recently.

This is the first time for me. I was curious to see what a Beta looks like. I was determined to find out if Stalker's Street Justice is a watered down version just because Stalker fans are not voicing their concerns.

I have to say the dev do pay attention to beta testing, but I also want to say if you don't voice your concerns HARD AND LOUD, they may not know what's not working or what's really pissing people off.

We tend to think dev knows everything but from my recent experiences, they actually don't. You need to constantly REMIND them and keep bringing up the issues. You may be surprised by how useful that one Private Message to a dev can do! Believe me. :P

Stalker's SJ may get something due to the lack of Rib Cracker.