Lord Mayhem

For PvE, especially on big teams, I think Fire/Fire kicks out the most damage of any brute, because of Fire Sword Circle's area damage combined with high Fury and both damage buffs (Build-Up & Fiery Embrace) - then you have Blazing Aura to mop up any minions/lieuts that manage to survive. So Fire/Fire is fun if you like seeing lots of orange numbers on your screen and enjoy being the centre of attention (getting aggro in a team is no problem, hehe) - and being able to survive it!

But I'm under no illusions that Energy/* and Stone/* kick out much bigger damage numbers on single targets, and that */Dark and */Stone have better resists. Fire/Fire is probably rubbish for PvP too (AEs, fire/smash/lethal damage, no status effects on fire attacks).

I think you can find good things about all the brute powersets - there is no ultimate brute, just some powersets that are better in certain situations than others. I'd be playing a Stone/* or Energy/* next, probably with */Dark, if Electric/Electric wasn't on the way

Well I’ve played a Fire/Fire brute to L40. I held out as long as possible, but finally took Stamina at L30 because I badly needed it...

At L22 when I got SOs I could run both Fire/Plasma shields (3xDamage Resist - I feel End Reducers would be a waste of slots as the shields aren’t too demanding), Combat Jumping (1xJump) and Acrobatics (1xEnd Reducer), without any endurance reducers in attacks, and was fine with just Consume (3xRecharge to make it available when needed, 1xAccuracy so I could use it solo, as each hit = 25% End refilled, if you don’t slot End Mods). I still struggled to run Blazing Aura for long (didn’t have it slotted then) and I occasionally needed to rest when solo if I had no blue insps, but I could keep up with teams so generally it was fine.

From L26 onwards what stressed out my endurance efficiency was Fire Sword Circle (high End cost, but astonishingly good with high Fury + Build-Up + Fiery Embrace), Greater Fire Sword (best single target attack), Tough (a noticeable addition to damage mitigation) and my wanting to run Blazing Aura continuously (to mop up the minions FSCircle didn’t kill). They all eat Endurance. If you avoid most of them, and other End-hungry toggles, then you’d be ok with just Consume. Personally I think area damage is the main advantage Fire/Fire has over other brutes, and I wanted the best damage and mitigation I could get, so I took them all.

My attacks were all slotted 2xAcc, 3xDmg, 1xRchg, but I changed to 1xAcc, 3xDmg, 1xEndReduc, 1xRchg which dramatically reduced my Endurance problems and allowed me to run both Tough (3xDamage Resist, 1xEndReduc) and Blazing Aura (1xAcc, 2xEndReduc) constantly. I did notice a slight drop in Accuracy in PvE, though fortunately I don’t PvP much. But I think slotting an End Reducer in each attack will help you more than slotting your shields for End Reduction.

At L40 I have a build that can do newspaper missions solo without resting and copes easily with the continuous mass-ambushes and AV/hero fights in big teams on some L35+ missions. I have a full attack chain of fast-animating attacks that I can use without worrying about End usage, and which build Fury fast when solo. I can also run all my toggles constantly (Fire shield, Plasma shield, Combat Jumping, Acrobatics with 1xEndRdx, Tough with 1xEndRdx, Blazing Aura with 2xEndRdx) - I couldn’t without Stamina.

Maybe my End regen is too good now - I don’t need to use Consume that often, just for the occasional top-up (reduces my need for blue insps, so I can carry more greens and Lucks, plus Break Frees for all the Confuse/Terrify effects I have no protection against) - I could probably drop one or two recharges from Consume, but there are still isolated occasions when its useful to have it recharge quickly such as against massed Mu Mystics (they drain endurance), for long AV/hero fights (when they have/summon minions I can drain) and the constant ambush missions.

I didn’t/don't have Hasten on my brute, so I can’t speak about that. I question why you run Stealth in combat on a brute as the +def is minimal and aggro-lowering is counter-productive (in teams I generally want aggro, it’s the main way I build Fury and keep my squishy team-mates alive), unless you're talking about PvP instead of PvE - and I wouldn’t think Endurance issues are such a factor in the sporadic fights in PvP.

Personally if you want a no-Stamina character then I’d advise a Mastermind or maybe a Stalker. Most Brutes seem very endurance-hungry and the drive to maintain Fury just exacerbates that, even with /Fire which is supposed to be the most end-efficient secondary.

I’ll post my build if you want, but I’m not sure it will be much use past L22 if you’re set on avoiding Stamina.

I have a L14 Broadsword/Regen scrapper which admittedly I don’t play as often as I’d like to (because all my friends are in CoV). I’m planning to take everything from my primary except Confront and everything from my secondary except Revive (I may not get MoG either - not decided yet - and not sure if Resilence is worth it for stun resist or not). I’ll get Stamina later if I need it, but with Quick Recovery I don’t have any endurance issues at the moment, even when using Hasten.

So far I’ve taken:
01) Slash
01) Fast Healing
02) Slice
04) Quick Recovery
06) Hasten
08) Parry
10) Dull Pain
12) Combat Jumping
14) Super Jump

I mainly took Slash instead of Hack at L1 for the faster recharge - some guides say that's a mistake, but I hate having to wait around for attacks to come up in the early game - stuff like this can always be dropped later in respecs if you stop needing/using it.

I took Slice because its a cone - I didn’t want a cone attack for my brute in CoV (because time spent repositioning means wasting Fury), but for my scrapper hitting more enemies means more chance of a big critical so I find it worthwhile to herd the enemies into a clump so the cone can hit them all - hitting 3-4 enemies and getting crits on a couple of them is great fun (effective too!). So Slice is something for you to consider.

With Hasten running I have a full attack chain, but I wish I’d skipped it and taken Hack instead (I may use my I6 respec to correct that). At the moment I really miss Hasten when it’s down, whereas with Hack/Slash/Slice/Parry I’d have an almost continuous chain. Also being able to slot Recharge Reducer SOs from L22 onwards will make Hasten even more redundant (I doubt we’ll need Endurance Reducers in attacks, especially if we take Stamina as well), plus we get extra big attacks at L26 and L32 plus an AE at L18. I can only see Hasten being necessary for Instant Healing at L28 and maybe Moment of Glory at L38 - I don’t recommend taking it at lower levels.

I use Parry as my auto-power to try and keep the defence buff double-stacked - solo it makes a MASSIVE difference to survivability, even unslotted. Parry will be the first power I stick SOs in at L22 (2 Accuracy, 1 Damage, 3 Defence Buff). I HIGHLY recommend Parry as your L8 choice.

Dull Pain (L10) does a great job of keeping me alive when I get in trouble - I have no experience with Reconstruction, but I may take that eventually, like you have - I want to see what difference Integration will make first (expecting great things from it) - having both Reconstruction and Dull Pain after that might be overkill.

Then you’d have to think about travel powers for L12 & L14 - I went with Super Jump because it’s so much fun and fast too (I find Fly a bit slow) - I guess if I’d gone SuperSpeed then I wouldn’t feel so bad about having Hasten, but I wanted some vertical movement for The Hollows (and for later zones that I’ve heard are tricky), so I think I’d find SS too restrictive/annoying.

I’m getting Integration at L16 and probably Whirling Sword at L18 and I still need to fit in Build-Up too!

So far both Broadsword and Regen are great sets - lots of useful things to take (too much choice! hehe), no downtime issues and it feels quite powerful (I can take on as many enemies as my fire/fire brute could at this level, with equal survivability). So I don’t think you can go too far wrong with your power picks (as long as you don’t go too crazy on power pools), because "almost" everything in Broadsword and Regen looks useful, and you can grab most powers as they become available because there’s no rush to get Fitness pool.

Good luck with it.

Ok here's my proposed build so far. My Stalker is currently L6 - I made him ages ago (used bio & costume from my deleted CoH Inv/EM tanker - figured I might be rare concept-wise, having a stalker that isn't a ninja and is "huge" to boot ) - he has Barrage instead of Kinetic Shield, but I don't want to delete and re-make as he has the Christmas badges so I'll respec to Kinetic Shield later. Otherwise anything past L6 can be changed as need be.

---------------------------------------------
Exported from Ver: 1.7.5.0 of the CoH_CoV Character Builder
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Name: Stalker - EnergyM + EnergyA (to L40)
Level: 40
Archetype: Stalker
Primary: Energy Melee
Secondary: Energy Aura
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Energy Punch==> Acc(1)Acc(3)Dmg(3)Dmg(5)Dmg(9)EndRdx(29)
01) --> Hide==> DefBuf(1)
02) --> Bone Smasher==> Acc(2)Acc(5)Dmg(7)Dmg(7)Dmg(9)EndRdx(15)
04) --> Kinetic Shield==> DefBuf(4)
06) --> Assassin's Strike==> Acc(6)Acc(11)Dmg(11)Dmg(13)Dmg(13)EndRdx(15)
08) --> Build Up==> Rechg(8)Rechg(17)Rechg(17)TH_Buf(27)TH_Buf(34)TH_Buf(37)
10) --> Hasten==> Rechg(10)Rechg(21)Rechg(21)
12) --> Placate==> Rechg(12)Rechg(23)Rechg(23)
14) --> Super Speed==> Run(14)
16) --> Entropy Shield==> EndRdx(16)
18) --> Stun==> Acc(18)Acc(19)DisDur(19)Rechg(27)
20) --> Teleport Foe==> Acc(20)Acc(25)
22) --> Air Superiority==> Acc(22)Acc(25)
24) --> Stealth==> DefBuf(24)
26) --> Energy Transfer==> Acc(26)Acc(29)Dmg(31)Dmg(31)Dmg(33)EndRdx(33)
28) --> Energy Drain==> EndMod(28)EndMod(31)Rechg(33)
30) --> Hover==> Fly(30)Fly(34)Fly(39)
32) --> Total Focus==> Acc(32)Acc(34)Dmg(36)Dmg(36)Dmg(36)EndRdx(37)
35) --> Conserve Power==> Rechg(35)Rechg(37)Rechg(39)
38) --> Overload==> DefBuf(38)DefBuf(39)DefBuf(40)Rechg(40)Rechg(40)
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Power Slide==> Run(1)
01) --> Power Quick==> Run(1)
01) --> Sprint==> Run(1)
01) --> Brawl==> Acc(1)
02) --> Rest==> Rechg(2)
01) --> Assassination==> Empty(1)
---------------------------------------------

Ignore the level numbers on the slots - in game I always tend to slot things when I feel its necessary, just using my plan to make sure I don’t exceed the total number of slots assigned in the final build.

A few notes:

Air Superiority / Stun / Teleport Foe: In PvP I’m hoping all three of these powers would be helpful to prevent someone running away straight after the AS (e.g. if they were very alert). Also if I have to scrap to finish off a single opponent, in PvE or PvP (assuming its not too dangerous to stick around), then I’d rather they were disoriented or lying on the ground while I finish them. Also I wanted a -fly power so Air Sup gives me that.

I can potentially see some tactical combinations, e.g. using TP Foe on a flyer, knocking them down with Air Sup, Stunning them, Placating them then AS’ing them and finishing off with ET/TF while they're still affected by the disorient. Or maybe I’m just day-dreaming and not being realistic. I just like the tactical possibilities of all 3 of these powers and if it turns out they don’t mesh with my needs then the 1st respec won’t be far away. At these levels I’d also have all three of them, plus Stealth, in time for Siren’s Call.

Hover: Filling the only gap I have from L26-40 (all the other powers are taken at the earliest possible level I could get them). I don’t like the slow speed of hover (got it 3-slotted on a CoH alt), but it does give me some much needed vertical movement capability and the possibility of AS’ing hovering enemies in both PvP and PvE.

I toyed with the idea of getting Fly, but the endurance drain would be too heavy with my other toggles on, plus I’ve read that the momentum makes it very hard to AS hovering foes. I also thought about getting Teleport just for escape/travel purposes, but without Stamina and heavy slotting I fear that would be painful to use, and I doubt it’s accurate enough for mid-air interceptions in PvP (never used it - assume it always TP’s you the max range if you don’t have a patch of ground to aim at?).

Energy Drain / Conserve Power: I have to wait a while to get them, but hoping that these will be able to free me from the burden of taking 2 powers I don’t want/need in order to get Stamina. I think they should do in conjunction with the EndRdx in my attacks. I had to do a lot of End-tweaking on my brute re toggles and slotting and hope this won’t prove as tricky (less toggles on Stalker but no stamina).

Overload: Panic-button power, both for PvE and PvP. Activation time is faster than Phase Shift (which I was considering, back when I was going to take Invis), lasts longer (though protection isn’t as good) and I assume you can still fight while it’s on. If you can, then I guess it could be one solution to being able to AS through PBAE toggle effects in PvP. I just have no idea if it’s as good as it appears to be on the planner. Opinions?


I don’t think I’ve missed anything, except utility/luxuries like Teleport/Fly, Recall Friend (for PvE teaming) or a self-heal (I certainly don’t have space for the Medicine pool - green insps will have to do).

Question: just noticed that my planner says you can slot Sprint with Jump enhancements. I assume that only affects distance and not height? If it affects height then I may slot Jump in there as I know having a decent jump can be useful to super-speeders.

[ QUOTE ]
Trust me, it'll serve you in PvE as well.

Nothing more humilating, and dangerous, than missing your Assassin Strike against a Boss mob. The "eheheh, hi..." feeling just before you get squished is something you want to avoid.

[/ QUOTE ]
Getting squished after your biggest attack goes wrong is something I'm well acquainted with - with my Fire/Fire Brute that usually involves Fire Sword Circle and a big spawn of Mu Stalkers Playing a Stalker should fit perfectly into my ethos of risking my neck in the hunt for "big orange numbers"

[ QUOTE ]
1) Stealth / Invisibility -

You cannot attack while you run invisibility, thats pretty much the problem.

2) Power/Kinetic Shields -
Do what everybody else does. Leave the tanks if they are running pbaoes. Try eating purples before you attack, that the best strategy.

3) To Stamina, or not to Stamina and 4)]Slotting
I would prolly leave stamina. I would slot my attacks 2 acc, 3 dam ,1 end, but find room for hasten.

SLOT BUILD UP! with tohit buffs. Thats how you cure your acc problems.
So 2 acc in your attacks and 2-3 tohit buffs in build up. Thats a
pretty good combo.

[/ QUOTE ]
Thank you, that's pretty much everything I needed to know

I'm not so worried about the AoE defence stalking anymore - realised the power/kinetic shields are pretty poor anyway, when a single purple Luck insp would be so much better than both shields IF I wanted to attack through a PBAE toggle effect (I was thinking more about defenders/controllers with those effects up, than tankers). I'll probably take un-slotted Kinetic Shield though, because it will help a little in normal gameplay and because if I didn't take a shield I'd have to take Barrage, and that seems pointless as I wouldn't slot it.

I've had Hasten and Build-Up in my planned build since the start, both with 3 Recharge Reducers. I'm guessing the 3xToHit enhs you suggest for build-up is for PvP - I'm going to try and free up slots to do that. I'm also going to slot my attacks 2xAcc, 3xDmg, 1xEndRed now because having 3xAcc does seem like overkill, and the End Reduction will help as I still think I can get away without needing stamina.

Going to tweak the slotting a bit then I'll post my proposed build here for comment.

[ QUOTE ]
Boxing is like a slightly more damaging, slower recharge version of jab. It is a nice fury builder. Tough spoilt my wonderfully planned low end consuming build, I'm hoping that consume will fix it.

[/ QUOTE ]
Consume should fix it. Without EndMod SOs Consume will get back 25% of your Endurance for every enemy you hit with it, and it's a wide area AE, so against four or more enemies you're pretty much guaranteed full Endurance, especially if you slot one Accuracy SO to make sure, like I did. It recharges in 3 minutes, but I slotted 3 Recharge SOs and its up every 90secs or so. The damage is minimal, even with high Fury and Build-Up/Fiery Embrace so I wouldn’t bother slotting for damage.

Tough
Someone mentioned to me that most of the character planners are wrong about Tough's End usage as it was changed to cost almost double. That certainly seems plausible as I dropped an End Reducer SO in Tough and it made a noticeable difference.

Endurance problems
On my Fire/Fire Brute I took Consume at L20 and managed to hold off from getting Stamina til L28, but getting Tough at L35 stressed my End usage again. To fix it I reluctantly put an End reducer in each of my attacks. I had been running 3xDmg, 2xAcc, 1xRchg in all of my attacks to that point - so I dropped an Accuracy SO to slot the End Reducer SO - I miss slightly more often in PvE, its noticeable against reds and purples (especially when further -acc debuffed, e.g. by Nerva Spectrals), and if I was serious about PvP at the moment I'd probably reverse that decision, but I can cope with a few extra misses better in PvE as its not costing me so much Endurance anymore. Also I really hope one of the Ancillary/Epic pools at L41+ has Focused Accuracy like in CoH, but then again it would be another toggle to run.

But my slotting worked - my brute has so much End now that the only time his Endurance bar drops significantly is against mobs that drain End, like Mu Stalkers. Otherwise I can just keep fighting continuously and occasionally use Consume to top up my bar if it falls below 25%. That's very handy for the missions with constant ambushes, notably the Arachnos one on the ship (forget the name) and Technician Naylor's final mission in the shadow shard which gets very hectic (and fun!), especially in an 8 person team. It’s also handy against tough Heroes/AVs when you tend to run low on Endurance over the long fight, especially if they summon like Infernal does, then you can Consume the summoned demons to top up your End.

I can even run Blazing Aura constantly now (Accuracy, 2 End Reducers - yes the Accuracy in it makes a big difference) and not notice the extra drain. My other toggles are Fire Shield, Plasma Shield, Acrobatics (1 End Red), Combat Jumping and Tough (1 End Red). And I use Fire Sword Circle (a high damage AE attack, quite costly in End terms) pretty much every 15secs - when I had to be careful about using it before, because of the End cost, but now I can just fire off whichever attack I need without worrying about my End bar.

Fury & pool attacks
To get my Fury high in teams I often take the enemy's alpha-strike by jumping in amongst them and using Fire Sword Circle (after triggering Build Up and Fiery Embrace so I get +200% damage). It's a job that few are willing to volunteer for

That does three things:
1) it makes the enemies all go for me, so they are nicely grouped for Corruptors and Dominators to drop their AE debuffs/holds, and for my Blazing Aura to hit them too,
2) it does tons of damage, especially if I have Fury left from the last fight, leaving most of the minions very close to death - then you can easily clear them up by having another AE build, like a Fire Corruptor, drop an AE attack soon afterwards, (or we can just ignore the minions and Blazing Aura will mop up most of them)
3) all the enemies attack me, so my Fury bar rises VERY quickly.

Then I just have to survive the aggro, but Healing Flames (3xHeal, 2xRchg) helps there, along with my great resists and the occasional green or orange insp. Sure I die occasionally, but all those big orange numbers look so good I don't mind The only time I make a point of avoiding the alpha is against CoT if the enemy group has more than 3 Nerva Spectrals - all that cold damage can make a real mess of a fire brute - that's when I'd ask a Mastermind to sacrifice one of their pets to take the alpha, or any player with Phase Shift

I use Boxing as my auto-power - the rest of my attack chain consists of Greater Fire Sword, Fire Sword, Cremate and Air Superiority. I have no problems building Fury solo because I can just cycle Boxing, Air Superiority and Brawl on the first group of enemies to get full Fury, then go through the rest of the mission with my normal attack chain. It's probably not necessary but I have one recharge in Brawl, as I only use it briefly when solo for Fury building - it used to have an Accuracy SO but you don't need to hit to get Fury up, you just need to attack, and Brawl does poor damage anyway so I don’t care if it hits or not.

Fiery Melee isn't as quick as some of the primaries (Super Strength, Energy), but I'm much quicker since I respecced out of Scorch and Incinerate (animation time seemed slow) in favour of Air Superiority and Cremate. Boxing and Air Superiority are really nice pool attacks - fast animation and quick recharge (good for Fury), and despite poor damage (another reason I dropped Scorch) they have nice secondary effects: Air Supe's great knockdown, and Boxing's disorient (which seems to take effect once every 4 or 5 hits for me). Both should work great in any Brute build - I have them fully slotted and I highly recommend them.


So in teams I mostly depend on being hit for my Fury, but solo I mostly depend on my own hits. And I kick out some serious damage in PvE with full Fury (though I realise Fire/Fire is probably not so hot in PvP, excuse the pun) - the main reason I went Fiery/Fiery was for AE damage but also Endurance efficiency (/Fiery has less toggles than /Dark) and with full Fury the carnage is wondrous to behold - I'm a walking inferno of death that doesn't burn out too quickly

Hope some of that helps.

[ QUOTE ]
You cant attack while invis'd I learned this to my cost and it took another respec to sort my defender out

[/ QUOTE ]
Ahh that answers the question - I figured it would be just like Grant Invisibility (that you could attack to break out of the invis), except in personal toggle form, but obviously it isn't. I'll just take Stealth then - saves me a power slot

As for Stamina, my Brute needed it eventually because I run so many toggles, but even without it I could still get through several fights before needing to rest (took it mainly so I could do whole missions without pause, to keep Fury high, and so I don't hold fast teams back). On paper the Stalker doesn't seem nearly as bad for End usage, especially if I only run Hide and Entropy Shield for PvE. In PvP sure I'd have more toggles running (Stealth, travel power) but surely just playing hit-and-fade you're not going to be in a situation where you run out of End while fighting, as long as your toggles don't add up to more than your base end recovery (and End Reducer SOs can make certain of that).

So I'm going to try and do without Stamina.

Thanks for answering my questions so promptly guys.

If an /EA stalker sees this post I'd still like to know if the def from Kinetic/Power shields stacks on top of Hide's great AE defence (like I think the minor def boost from Stealth will).

I may post up a potential build later, if I can get it to a point I'm happy with.

Thanks for the great feedback guys. Plenty there for me to think about.

But what about Invisibility & Hide? Do they stack? Or will Hide only stack with Stealth?

And will the /EA shields stack their supposedly damage-typed defence on top of Hide's positional-typed defence?

My Brute is almost L40 so I’m considering which AT to give my full attention to next. I had no trouble coming up with potential builds for my Corruptor, Dominator and Mastermind alts, but while much of my Stalker's build is obvious for the early levels there are some things I’m not sure about. And that might deter me from playing the Stalker next, so I need some advice.

I’ve decided to go Energy Melee & Energy Aura, for character concept reasons as much as EM’s effectiveness. The Stalker I have in mind is a hit-and-run build for solo PvE/PvP, but would also be teaming. Much of my info comes from SherkSilver’s planner - I can’t play a character without planning it first. I’ve also been looking at what powers the Stalkers I’ve teamed with have taken.


1) Stealth / Invisibility - a lot of Stalkers take Stealth, to overlap with Hide in PvP for further protection against +perception buffs and yellow insps, but I haven’t seen any Stalkers taking Invisibility for even better concealment.

Question: Do Stalkers avoid Invisibility because it would cost another power choice (either Grant Invis or Stealth), or are Hide and Invisibility mutually exclusive so they can’t stack?


2) Power/Kinetic Shields - Energy Aura seems light on damage defence (although Overload looks great as a “panic button” power), but extremely good for status resists, plus it has some nice utility (Conserve Power, Energy Drain). I’ll probably take Kinetic Shield or Power Shield at L4, because Barrage looks worthless for a Stalker and I’m forced to take one of those three (will have Energy Punch and BoneSmasher at L1 & L2).

I’ve also been thinking about PvP against enemies with PBAE toggles running (to disrupt Assassin’s Strike and/or Hide). Many are elemental based (like Blazing Aura) so might Power Shield be more useful for PvP? Also I’m wondering if debuff toggles are resist-typed, even if they don’t do damage e.g. does Storm’s Hurricane count as cold based? Admittedly the shield will give a small bonus (I won’t slot it) and there’s always purple insps in situations like that, but still

Question: Power Shield or Kinetic Shield, and will they stack with the AE defence from Hide?


3) To Stamina, or not to Stamina - Hit & run = not so dependant on endurance for long fights, and in PvE I’d only have a few toggles (Hide, Entropy Shield, Kin/Pow Shield), so will I even need Stamina? Ok I’ll be scrapping a little in a team situation, but Stamina needs a lot of power choices in a tight AT build like the Stalker (and while Hurdle might be handy to me, Swift and Health won’t add much). Also Energy Aura gets the aforementioned Conserve Power and Energy Drain, albeit not until L28+ ... although my Brute was ok without Stamina until L28 due to FA’s Consume power (like Energy Drain but with minor damage) and I wouldn’t expect my Stalker to scrap that much. Also perhaps blue insps could cover the gap in the mid 20s.

Question: Stamina necessary for /EA? Does Energy Drain cause much aggro? (I would think not, as it does no damage) Might it be worth slotting Rest for Recharge Reducers to cut downtime instead?


4) Slotting - My Brute had all attacks slotted 2xAcc, 3xDmg, 1xRchg until recently, when I acquired another toggle and had endurance problems so I dropped an Accuracy SO in favour of an Endurance Reducer in each attack (and now I have more End than I know what to do with, hehe), but I really noticed my hit-rate drop in PvE (can live with it, but it was noticeable - I know for serious PvP I’d have to drop the End Reducer for an Accuracy) - he doesn’t have Hasten.

For the Stalker I would think that missing your target would potentially be more fatal, as you don’t have good resists and lots of health to fall back on like a brute does during a protracted fight. Also accuracy debuffs would be a killer (they’re bad enough for my brute). Plus it’s harder to hit in PvP so more Accuracy would be essential. The Stalker will have Hasten, so I’m not planning to take Recharge Reducer SOs on the attacks. I don’t plan on being around scrapping long enough to run out of Endurance (except maybe when teaming), so don’t need Endurance Reducers. So I was thinking of slotting 3xDmg and 3xAcc in my attacks. Probably overkill by one Acc SO for PvE, but perhaps not for PvP.

Question: Is slotting 3xDmg and 3xAcc in all attacks (incl. Assassin’s Strike) feasible, or is it overkill?


I have other crazy ideas, such as taking Air Superiority for a knockdown (for when Stun runs out, if I’m forced to scrap down a single target), and as pre-cursor to getting Fly - because I can foresee my chosen travel power SuperSpeed being hellish to use in Nerva’s Primeva, plus Fly could be handy for killing hoverers in PvP (and if momentum is too much for AS to cope with, I’d have to settle for an Energy Transfer in passing ). And also using TP Foe and/or Stun to stop anyone running if they survived the AS.

But that’s probably enough questions to be going on with. I’d post my potential build, but until I know the answers to these questions I don’t want anyone laughing at it

I play a Brute, not a Stalker, but the tactic I use against Elite Bosses is to stock up on Purple "Luck" inspirations - 4 of those give you +100% defence, so you're a lot less likely to be hit (depending on the level of the enemy - and I think everyone has at least a 5% chance to hit, regardless of everything else). When Ballistas used to drop toggles it was the only way I could fight one without dying - less lethal now, but of course they still hit hard. At L39 you would be able to carry 12 Lucks, so would have 3 minutes to kill the boss, or you may wish to use just 3 Lucks at a time because your regen powers could probably heal up whatever else got through, then you could potentially carry 15 Lucks, enough for 5 mins.

I have a low-level Scrapper with Regeneration, and while I have no experience of using Moment of Glory I do know that it gives you incredible defence and resists for 2 minutes, but during that time your hit points are reduced to one quarter of their usual amount - with Stalkers having much lower hit-points than Scrappers I'd think it would be a gamble to use it - if any hits get through they will probably kill you. But the chances of a hit getting through would be slight... the same as using 4 Luck insps.

I guess using Luck insps for 3-5 mins then using MoG for 2 mins would give you 5-7 mins to kill the Ballista

They should definitely add a Monkey powerset for Masterminds - the models for monkeys are already in the game so that's half the work done