Jibikao

(Ugh!!! I typed a pretty long reply but the forum asked me to sign in again..oh I hate that!!!)

Yes, I don't want my Stalker to be another Scrapper but I truly believe Stalker should to do the best ST damage of all melee ATs. When it comes to eliminating a "hard" target (not some minions or lieuts) like an AV, Stalker needs to do more.

I actually don't have any problem with my Stalker's survival because I simply don't attract that much aggro. I can understand the frustration in Regen as it hits the HP Cap too soon (should have more +regen or +resistance to offset the loss of HP cap benefits).

To simply put, if they do these two things: 1. improve Assassin Strike by making it activate faster, less interrupt and less endurance cost. 2. Get rid of 30' radius on Team Critical Buff, then I think Stalker AT is probably as good as it gets. We'll never get those AoE attacks back anyway and I think the core problem is with some of the sets themselves: IE Marital Arts and Energy Melee having zero aoe.

LOL.. that may be nice.

Oh? mmmmm, 30% on Defender.... ok, that's not very high then but the +recharge is pretty strong and yet +recharge doesn't affect pets.

I can tell you that my Ninja/ff has soloed Black Scorpian AV and Pylon. I would never have thought Ninja/FF could do it 'cause Ninjas usually die in one hit and I won't have enough endurance to keep resummoning, upgrading and re-bubbling each one.

The new change makes Ninja/FF a lot more powerful. I don't play Robot and Thug much so maybe I just don't know what a super powerful MM is. I do know that Ninja/FF is powerful enough and if anything that is powerful than this, it's pretty much "over-powering". :P

One tip, you definitely want Mace mastery and Power Boost. It makes a world of difference on Genin's survival. The reason Force Field works well on Ninja is that the defense stacks and shield defense "stays" on them. I've tried Ninja/Trap and it is really hard to keep Ninjas within FFG 'cause they simply run too fast and usually that split second means live/death for Genin. Ninjas run and chase because they have two caltrops and one rain of fire. Hello?? Fear much?! LOL It's like they are designed to scatter the mobs and chase them.

Ninja/Dark has much better healing now but your Genin could die within 3s before the healing even kicks in.

Besides Ninja/FF, I may try Ninja/Dark and Ninja/Storm.

Well, if I want to choose between "boring" or "frustrating", I think I'll choose boring. I've tried Ninja with other secondaries and it's quite frustrating as the Ninjas die so easily.

With Ninja/FF, I don't need to babysit them as much. I cast force field twice (what a buff!!!!!!) and only use aid other when needed. The rest of time I am just throwing smoke flash and veteran staff attack and replusion bomb. It's not as "boring" as it used to be because I used to bubble 6x2.

I read Positron's interview the other day and I don't think we'll see Time Control set because Time Manipulation started out as Time Control set idea. Later they've decided to turn it into buff/debuff/control set.

If there was a Time Control, don't you think it makes sense to create Time Control with Time Manipulation so Dominator can have something new when everyone has like 2-3 new sets? At this rate, Dominator won't have anything new until probably next year.... T_T

I just wish they could reduce the first attack's activation time from 1.5s to 1s. For a very fast recharging attack, it sure has pretty long activation time.

One of the reasons why I respec out Human is that I can't use Solar Flare in air and I planned my PB Human as aerial combat just like the enemy. I'll need to test it out on beta to see how aerial solar flare works.

Sometimes you just need to fight and forget about hide.

You are dark melee so your aoe potential is limited. If you are patient, you can lure them to a corner or let them come to you so your Shadow Maul can hit 2-3 targets.

I find it best to kill minions first then lieut. Dark Melee has touch of fear. You can BU + AS a lieut to death and then quickly kill a minion with Grasp. Save placate when next Grasp is recharged on the last minion if you find yourself getting interrupted all the time. Midnight Grasp hits hard enough that you really don't need to wait for Placate + Assassin Strike.

Oh and take a patron aoe attack. A lot of people are using Fireball because it has 100 critical but this means you need to wait until lvl 47. I mostly take Ball of Lightning.

Other stalkers have more ways.

On my MA/Will, I usually only do +3 or +4 x 1. MA is much better against a small but harder group than a large group.

Oh please give me a break on "theme" reasons. How come when it comes to Stalkers, the dev care so much for "theme" all of sudden?!!!

I actually don't even remember that willpower in Brute/Scrapper have +recovery. lol That's how little I play them.


You know what's really not meeting the "Theme" Standard? Stalker SUCKS as an Assassin. Yup, that's the truth. I said it. Assassin Strike has interruption, it's slow and its damage isn't scaling high enough against AV/Giants.

I don't think my /Wp Stalker needs +recovery but I find the removal not justified either if the real reason behind it is "theme" reason.

This will be a great way to start. I never understand why only 30' radius. They try to "encourage" Stalkers to fight along side with teammates rather than "hit and run"? 30' radius is really not that big in most pve content.

Yeah, my first feeling (before any testing) is that Human form with Light Form is going to be a lot more superior than Nova. Dwarf form is still going to tank better but White Dwarf's damage potential is way lower than Black Dwarf.

Human form still allows you to cast Photon, Glowing Touch and even run leadership toggles to benefit the whole team.

Nova form should excel in both ST and AoE damage because you lose all the versaltilities. The only thing you have is those 4 attacks!

Is this with Inner Light (72% for 10s and then 28% for 20s) or with regular Build Up?

I didn't read the whole thread but are you not happy with Light Form's change or the change is not enough? Or both? :P

The new changes just make me want to play Human form more, although I can see the benefit of using Inner Light and change to Nova/Dwarf. This just means I need to change out to human while getting hit/mezzed and try to use Inner Light and then go back to Dwarf/Nova again. ugh..such hassel.

To be honest, I would even vote for no knock backs at all for Solar Flare. I just want the damage and don't want to position myself every time I use this attack. PB already has enough knock backs.

Yup, yup. I learned about it last week. lol

I kinda figured. I was wondering why there isn't more talkings about all the new changes.