StratoNexus

I think I would recommend slotting Terrify as an attack, maybe Posi's Blasts? That lets you keep the recharge bonus.

Yes, there has been talk. I am going to go out on a limb and say that only Blast sets tier 1 and tier 2 powers will ever be truly standard. As much as I have complained about animation times, it is unnecessary and likely too restrictive on the animators to insist that the animation times be exact. Based on some comments Castle has made regarding Repulsing Torrent, they do have guidelines for animation times and ranges of acceptable. My experience in game tells me their ranges work fine and that sometimes we gripe over nothing (although I still weep frequently when I activate Fire Sword Circle on my blaster).

The scrapper/brute/tanker balance issue was, IMO, a simpler concern.

The last time they tweaked stalkers, it is true they increased the damage mod. They also added an AoE debuff/control to AS, made Hide come back after eight seconds instead of ten, removed the end cost from the Hide toggle altogether, and altered how stalker criticals worked in an intriguing way. If they ever tweak stalkers again, I hope its more stuff like the last four, rather than the first one. The devs have showed a willingness and ability to do interesting things. If a numbers tweak was all they were looking at, I don't think the devs would be delaying it so much.

Frozen Aura does not get enhanced by pet sets. The accuracy of the power remains at 85% (base + Supremacy) vs. even cons. The damage is consistent with just getting the Supremacy bonus as well.

I bugged it in game; hopefully, it gets fixed.

I'd rather have them as two different sets, but that is because I'd rather have two new options. I can definitely see melding MA and KM into one blaster secondary, but it would make me sad that we could have had two cool manipulations, but instead got one.

Outside of AoEs, are you sure? Even including AoEs, if you use a good stalker AoE set, it might not be as cut and dry as you make it. Assassin's Strike and guaranteed crits from hide and a higher AoE crit rate from hide are not insignificant.

I am not saying that stalkers out damage scrappers solo. I am saying it is not self-evident nor assured that scrappers out damage stalkers. I am also saying that it does not matter either way.

Even if it was cut and dry that stalkers beat out scrappers, even if we raise the stalker damage mod to something like 1.25, stalkers will still be scoffed at by many. Give them AoE buffs, debuffs, and controls, and they will be much more appreciated.

You state that stalkers may out damage scrappers, but then you say even if that is true, it doesn't matter because scrapper base damage is higher. That is kind of a goofy thing to say. If stalkers out damage scrappers thanks to the higher crit rate in combination with some guaranteed crits, then the fact that the scrapper AT mod is a bit higher is irrelevant.

The reason I feel that simply upping stalker damage is a bad idea is because it does not change anything important. Even if we can say, "stalkers definitely deal more damage than scrappers," most people will still retort with, "So what?" Scrappers and Brutes deal plenty of damage, are more survivable, have more AoE effects, and can hold aggro better.

Direct damage is not what stalkers need, IMO. They should get nifty thief/assassin tricks to weaken the enemies or place their allies in advantageous position. In this game, that translates into buffs, debuffs, and controls. They have some, but should have more.

It is hard to say how much we can follow CoD. Demon Summoning just barely made it onto that site before it went into maintenance only mode. CE on the Prince is still listed as a toggle and Frozen Aura is not a low damage attack, the damage value on CoD is incorrect. However, it may be flagged incorrectly anyway, so it is probably worth checking into that.

If the damage of the Frozen Aura is affected by pet sets, is that a sign that the end cost is also likely affected?

On a Dominator, it is very skippable. On a controller, I've never skipped it, although I could see skipping it, I doubt I ever would.

As far as I know, you cannot get rid of those. If you can, it would likely be a setting under Menu - Options.

Do you mean the gray numbers that fly up above the enemy's head?

I have Summon Demons slotted with 6 Blood Mandates (I really want that juicy +defense bonus for myself). At my current level of enhancers this gives me 58% end reduction. My Ember will often get to half end and occasionally drops to one quarter with a rare few times of going lower. There must be a mitigation difference between our secondaries or how we are using them. I assume my Ember does not heal as much as yours. Is there something you may be able to do in order to prevent you pets from taking so much damage in the first place? It might alleviate your Ember demon end issues.

Interesting. This is probably my problem, as I also have Blood Mandates slotted in the Prince. If that is true though, it would seem to me that only Shiver should be negatively affected by this. Chilling Embrace is an auto power that uses no endurance. Ice Blast, Ice Sword, Ice Slash, Frozen Aura, and Block of Ice all deal damage, and I would think should be affected by the Pet damage set?

I will admit to having been on fast moving teams where it often felt like the rad debuffs were less than useful. That being said, it can be hard to notice that the alpha was massively mitigated because the toggle got activated. How long does the toggle actually need to be active? After all, if we had a click power with a 10 second recharge that debuffed the to-hit of all foes in a 25 foot radius by 30% for 6 seconds, I don't think most people would consider that useless.

The damage output of stalkers looks very good to me. The only reason I would think of scrappers or brutes as outdoing stalkers is due to AoE damage on top of aggro control. There is probably room to further increase stalker damage, but my preference lies in increasing them in other ways, as I have mentioned.

Caltrops for all!

Thank you for the replies. With two other people having the exact same experiences with similar slotting, I feel comfortable that I will just move forward and make dropping blues on the Prince part of my routine (which is what I have already done, but now I feel better that I am doing the right thing and not missing out on an easier way).

Teams care about mitigation. Especially early fight mitigation, where most of the danger lies. Damage is not all teams care about. Teams like Radiation Infection and Enervating Field. I doubt they would like them as much if they were not AoEs. When AS was just single target damage, it was a nice gimmick, but hardly useful on teams. The demoralize effect, IMO, is a large benefit to teams and I have not found anyone who disagrees with that (it does not seem like you disagree, although it does seem like you are trying to say that no one else would think demoralize is useful).

I understand your words fine, you seem to have trouble understanding yourself or deciding what it is you want to say (or maybe your are simply thinking more stuff in your head and failing to type it).

Early on in the thread your position was that stalkers lack AoE, saying, "the vast majority of stalker melee sets have zero ability to damage multiple targets at a time." Now that it has been pointed out you were mistaken, you are changing your meaning. It is a good thing that you want to alter your position now that you can see you were in error. It is not a good thing that you claim I failed to understand you, especially since one can simply go back and read what you wrote and see how much different it is from your current position.

I am glad to see that you have been dissuaded of your false notions. I am glad you have changed your position a bit. I actually agree with the statement that stalkers are, in general, more single target focused than other armored ATs. I do not agree that it is solely due to the lack of AoE damage powers. That is a contributing factor only, and one that can be easily worked around by taking the sets that do not lack AoE attacks.

I do believe that a single target focus is a "bad" thing (and when I speak of AoEs, they do not need to be just damage powers), although I feel the game has room for that variety, but it should be a small minority of sets (which seems to hold true for all the ATs except stalkers, where it is about even, maybe slightly in favor of a low amount of AoE effects).

I believe that most stalker combinations could use more AoE effects in order to allow them to be more interesting on teams. Those effects can be enemy focused or ally focused. They can be added to current primary or secondary powers or something can have a small revamp (such as the suggestion to make Hide inherent and then adding something).

For slightly more detail:
Ninjitsu and DA are decent representations of sets with some nice AoE effects.
Regen and SR are good representations of sets that lack AoE effects outright.
Energy is a good middle of the road set.
Electric, IMO, lost out on a lot when it was designed for stalkers, the damage aura also aids in keeping enemy end drained after a Power Sink (as well as encouraging them not to attack others on your team).
Willpower, IMO, lost out less than Electric overall, but lost any ability to affect in an AoE.

Three of seven sets have no AoEs. One has only one AoE and Power Sink without Lightning Field is actually not all that great as an AoE effect, and instead functions more as just an end recovery tool. Energy Aura has two AoEs, but Energy Drain suffers the same problem as Power Sink, which only leaves Repulse. In the end, only two out of seven stalker secondaries have a nice variety of AoE effects, with a third having a modest contribution from a KB toggle (which is an AoE at first, but becomes much more likely to be a single target power after use).

Electric and Spines have a good amount of AoE attacks.
Dual Blades has a good amount when you include combos.
Broadsword, Ninja Blade, Claws, Dark, and Kinetic have a small amount of AoE.
MA and Energy have just demoralize.
Three of ten sets with good AoE. Two of ten with bad AoE. Five that fall in between somewhere, but definitely closer to the lower end of AoE effects. Not a terrible representation across the range from single target to AoE, but I do feel it is weighted too far on the low end. That does not mean I think the attack sets should be changed, it is just further demonstration that as a whole, the AT is low on AoE effects.

Whatever happens, if anything changes, I hope it does not end up being just add more damage, as that is the least interesting of adjustments, IMO.

It is possible that the Prince was designed to need some blues even with 60% end reduction slotting. My interest is to make sure others have the same limitation and it is not just me doing something wrong.

So far it would seem that after level 32, the Prince has end issues. Slotting does not appear to make those issues go away and I have to make sure I am aware and keep some blues in my tray.

I have been meaning to come back to this for awhile now.

After I got my level 32 upgrade, the Ember started using more end, but I have found it to still be manageable. I do have 58.6% end reduction slotted in Summon Demons.

The Prince, OTOH, has serious issues. I have 60.7% end reduction slotted in Summon Demon Prince, which seems to me to be a generous amount. However, he still seems to run low quite frequently and I find myself feeding him blues. This experience is not fighting any mobs that have special end drain. Mostly lvl 30s CoT, Longbow, Rikti, Wailers, Nemesis, and Council. I have fought Carnies, but I expect to have occasional issues (although O2 Boost is likely helping me some (I wish it had a longer duration)).

Is anyone else experiencing this with the Prince?

If players with strong armors/mitigation and mez protection start whining because a blaster can swing a katana, the issue is not with blasters gaining a powerset.

After all, blasters can already punch, burn, and shock, swing swords of ice and fire, as well as run damage auras. Blasters currently have tons of melee options, adding some more is not a change in the status quo.

It does not need to be damage to be very useful to a team. Do I think the Demoralize effect is enough debuff/control? Not for the AT as a whole, but it is enough for that power and it is potent and it makes that attack an AoE power (I do think it needs to happen even when you kill the target, they really should fix that). Killing things is important. Helping the team kill things can be just as important. Stalkers, IMO, are close to a good spot. Close enough to no longer be a laughing stock and with some sets actually very excellent. I think they still need a bit more in general, but not in the direct damage area.

You should really stop typing as if you know what you are talking about and more in a questioning, desire to learn manner. It is apparent you know very little about the stalker AT. If you must continue to type, you really should check into the facts about what you type.

We will start with MA. True, scrappers get one AoE attack that stalkers do not get. OTOH, stalkers get the AoE debuff/control of Demoralize.

ElM is where you just typed stuff because you really want to believe you are right without actually looking at the facts. This is the second post where I had to point that out to you, so I want to make sure it is emphasized (I am trying to show you that your broad generalizations and beliefs about the AT are mistaken and that you need to reassess your position by actually looking at the state of the AT as it exists now and with all the powerset options that exist now, as opposed to the history of the AT). Now onto the facts. ElM for stalkers has ALL of the damage AoEs that ElM for scrappers, tankers, and brutes get. Stalkers lost Lightning Clap (much to my personal sadness, but I admit I am likely in the minority here), an AoE control. Stalkers gain Demoralize, an AoE control/debuff. Stalker ElM can be just as AoE focused as all the other ElM.

Repulsing Torrent. Of course that power has other things going for it (as well as other strikes against it). Also, Stalkers do not get it. Although I don't think AS gets the damage debuff, so maybe that is what you were referring to? Though, none of the Assassin's moves get the signature secondary effect of their set (DM kind of does, but only by coincidence).

Energy Transfer is not a 100% chance to stun, it is only 50%. KM has a lot of things going for it over EnM, I do not think CS needs to have the 100% chance to stun that TF gets.

Assassin's Strike/Slash/Blow/whatever. It is the power the devs changed to help alleviate the single target slant. The AoE portion of that power is an enormous benefit, solo and teamed. And it is not a small AoE.

I find it hard to point at an attack that has a 30 foot radius, 16 target cap effect and use that as evidence that the AT has a single target slant.

Caltrops are pretty awesome, but I'd rather have more variety.

Make Hide inherent (but still slottable). Replace it in each set with an AoE something.

DA - Premonition of Doom - 30' radius, 16 target, -10% to-hit debuff for 8 seconds, -40% perception for 8 seconds, does not alert enemies and does not break stealth, 40 second recharge, 1 to 2 second cast time. (accepts to-hit debuff and accurate to-hit debuff sets)

ElA - Unseen Leech - 30' radius, 16 target, -15 end, 60% chance of -100% recovery for 8 seconds, does not alert enemies and does not break stealth, 60 second recharge, 1 to 2 second cast time. (accepts end mod sets)

EnA - Kinetic Trip - 30' radius, 16 target, -10 end, 80% chance of 0.67 KB, 50% chance of 5 second placate, 4 second delay and then another 80% chance of 0.67 KB, does not break stealth, 60 second recharge, 1.5 to 2.5 second cast time. (accepts end mod and KB sets).

Nin - Poison Blossoms, 30' radius, 16 target, -12% damage, -40% move speed, -30% recharge for 10 seconds, does not alert enemies and does not break stealth, 60 second recharge, 1 to 2 second cast time. (accepts slow sets)

Reg - Glory for All - 30' radius ally buff, +50% regen, +20% recovery, +50% stun resistance for 30 seconds, 1.5 to 2.5 second cast time, recharge 120 seconds. (accepts healing and end mod sets)

SR - Who, Where, Huh? - pet summon. You are so agile, it seems like there are many of you. 3 or 4 second cast time. Summons 3 indestructible pets (that can be walked through, like Singularity), with a 10 second duration. Each pet has a 10 foot taunt aura that hits up to 5 people. The pets have one brawl attack that deals no (or very low) damage. Does not break stealth for the stalker, 90 second recharge. (accepts pet recharge sets)

WP - We Shall Overcome - 30' radius ally buff, +10% to hit, +30% damage, +15% resist to all for 20 seconds, 1.5 to 2.5 second cast time, recharge 120 seconds. (accepts to-hit buff and resist sets)

Are you talking to me? Is it your suggestion that AS is proof that Stalkers are single target focused?