CoV PVP

[Valmorian]

Having played a stalker a little in beta I'd have to say that if you didn't get AS off, you were in a less-then-50% situation.  Unless it's changed, if you aren't hidden you can't get AS off.  Which means that if someone can see you, they can/should attack, which detoggles hide, and then you can't get AS off.

And if they don't notice you in time, perhaps busy with another opponent, then your hide isn't detoggled and you can get AS off.  All this also ignores Placate, which puts you into hide even if they can see you and you cannot be attacked during that time, allowing for an AS.

Probably a better comparison would be a power which anyone can choose that doesn't allow a blaster to attack at range.

That would be slightly closer, but then the blaster would also have to have a power that lets them attack at range for a few moments as well.

I think this is the way that stealth works, but I may be thinking of invisibility.  Either way, there is a pickable-by-anyone power in the game which makes it so that blasters can't attack from range (can't attack what you can't see)... unless the blaster takes an additional power himself, which is likely due to the need to protect themselves against stealthers... where am I going with this?

Heh, beats me, looks like you're defeating your ClydeJr's argument here by using Invisibility.

[Llava]

Having played a stalker a little in beta I'd have to say that if you didn't get AS off, you were in a less-then-50% situation.  Unless it's changed, if you aren't hidden you can't get AS off.  Which means that if someone can see you, they can/should attack, which detoggles hide, and then you can't get AS off.

And if they don't notice you in time, perhaps busy with another opponent, then your hide isn't detoggled and you can get AS off.  All this also ignores Placate, which puts you into hide even if they can see you and you cannot be attacked during that time, allowing for an AS.

Close.

You can't be attacked by the Placated target.  Anyone else is free to attack you, breaking your Hide and interrupting your AS.

Remember- popping an Insight adds to Perception.

[Xanthippe]

What exactly is Placate, who gets it, and what is the counter?

[Typhon]

Stalkers get Placate.  Time is the target's counter (it only lasts a short while, if I remember correctly).  As mentioned, other folks can still attack the stalker, just not the target of placate.

[Alkiera]

Stalkers get Placate.  Time is the target's counter (it only lasts a short while, if I remember correctly).  As mentioned, other folks can still attack the stalker, just not the target of placate.

10 seconds, according to my stalker-playing buddy.

Alkiera

[Typhon]

Heh, beats me, looks like you're defeating your ClydeJr's argument here by using Invisibility.

That's where I was going, but I ended up somewhere else.  I was going to give cudo's to Cryptic for having a nice bit of balance (and say that Perception being a pool power is fair, because anyone could take a pool power that would nullify blaster's range advantage).

Then I got around to thinking about how many blasters would take a pool power that boosted preception versus folks taking stealth and I stopped to think a bit more.  I started to think that it would be a 'must have' power, but then I realized for the same reason stealth would be a must have power, then I started to think about how many pool powers you can take...

In a weird way, I like it.  Blasters need perception to not get ganked by stalkers.  Melee needs stealth to not get kited by blasters, or they can take tp other, but that is balanced by Luck(s).  You can't take all these pool powers and still have travel powers and the epic pool (if you want that).  Nothing wrong with meaningful choices, IMO.

[Zetor]

Breakfrees break placate, iirc. So do aoes (which most blasters do have). Ice tankers and storm controllers/defenders are pretty much impossible to land an AS on.

PvPing as a brute is mostly meh, due to Fury being impossible to build in pvp.. at least you can build the domination bar by doing stuff to NPCs at hotspots. If I try doing anything to NPCs at hotspots, the next thing I know, the entire zerg is focusing on me.
If I get lucky and get a stun on my total focus (assuming it doesn't miss), I can bring the enemy down to 20% health at most before they fly/port away and then proceed to debuff, kite (even scrappers, especially regen) and otherwise wtfpwn. Sure, I'm not too easy to kill either, but a single ice/energy FOTM blaster can wreck me in melee range easy even if I get the jump on him with a TF. And yeah, I'm aware of the silly build-90%-fury-on-the-level-20-clockworks-near-the-hotspot trick, but... no.

It's a bit better with a group, with some healing power to back me up, though. And I kinda prefer Bloody Bay, the one-shot factor isn't as prevalent there. (Warburg, on the other hand, is pretty darn unfun)


-- Z.

[Llava]

Stalkers get Placate.  Time is the target's counter (it only lasts a short while, if I remember correctly).  As mentioned, other folks can still attack the stalker, just not the target of placate.

10 seconds, according to my stalker-playing buddy.

Alkiera

And, at least in PvE, if the Stalker attacks the target of the Placate before those 10 seconds are up, the Placate is broken.

I assume the same is true of PvP.  It's intended to give you a chance to land another Assassin Strike.

Something a lot of people don't know: If a Stalker starts an AS on you, and you manage to get "out of view" before it goes off, it won't hit you.  This is how it works in PvE, anyways, so I assume the same is true of PvP.  Duck behind something.  The Stalker can't move, or it'll interrupt it.  He will remain hidden, but your intestines are still where they belong.

[Valmorian]

Close.

You can't be attacked by the Placated target.  Anyone else is free to attack you, breaking your Hide and interrupting your AS.

Remember- popping an Insight adds to Perception.

Edit: I read this wrong. 

Well yeah, but if you're attacking a group of people solo, you kinda SHOULD have problems surviving.

[Llava]

Naturally.

I just wanted to point that out, because "After Placating, you cannot be attacked" was a bit misleading.

(Also, for what it's worth, if you're in a full group of 8 people and your team attacks a full hero team, you can still end up with a broken Placate.  So it's in a Stalker's interest to pick off the people too far away to call for help.)