Stalkers have had a rough history. All the way leading up to issue 22, their position as a skirmisher could be seen as dubious due to how unwieldy they could be. They required a lot of prepositioning. Their signature attack, the Assassin's Strike (AS), had a long wind up and wasn't adviced to be used outside of hide.
Then issue 22 dropped. This issue added Assassin's Focus to the game and let AS be instantly cast with no interruptable period outside of stealth.
This guide will go over Focus, what it is, how to use it, and the Hide ATO with its plethora of new options added. We will also briefly cover placate.
This guide will not cover any powersets, nor any major builds. This guide is about the techniques you can use as a Stalker in the modern age with the tools most any Stalker can achieve.
Focus
Assassin's Focus is a stacking critical chance buff that is granted to the Stalker after every non-AS attack. Each stack is 33 percent chance. Allowing you to achieve a good chance of critical at 2 stacks and guaranteeing a critical hit at 3 stacks. The icon will be highlighted in Orange once you have 3 stacks of focus.
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With this tool, surely you should be dropping it on your target all the time, right? Perhaps. Boss hunting is the prime directive of a Stalker in a team with good AoE. The fast nature of AS with Focus allows for another thing to be done. Deleting minions.
A critical AS derived from Focus deals a great amount of damage to whatever you use it on and is such a fast animating attack that it might be better used to simply target a healthy minion and.. erase them. It's quick speed also allows it to potentially be used on the move. Good for repositioning in a fight. This attribute comes into play with another tool added to your arsenal should you come across one.
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Stalker's Guile - Chance to Hide
This ATO, when slotted into an attack, gives the attack a chance to put you into a Hidden state. This state guarantees a critical hit on your next Single Target attack or a 50 percent chance on all AoE targets. It is advised this live in your AS to maintain a fast flow of combat once the scrapping starts, offers a strong burst on your opener, and the quick animation speed of the fast AS allows one to utilize a few techniques.
I call these techniques
Cut Twice
Cut Wide
and Cut and Run
These all refer to things you can do with the Hidden state achieved from using AS both as a full AS and as a critical AS with Focus. I'll explain
Cut Twice refers to using AS then using your strongest available attack on either your current target or on a healthy minion for colatteral. If you're scrapping with a boss, this is what you'll probably use to down them or to keep yourself free of nuisances while you fight them.
Cut Wide refers to using the hidden state's 50 percent chance to critical hit with AoE to use an AoE move. This is to help assist your team or yourselves with dealing with groups of mobs should you lack AoE firepower. Coupled with being able to delete minions with quick AS with focus stacks, you can become a decent minion cleaner in your own regard.
Cut and Run refers to using the Hidden state achieved from a Quick AS with or without Focus to quickly position in the next group for a Full AS. This technique assumes you're in a team and can leave them to clean up the last one or two minions or LTs. The best way I've found to cut and run is to use your strike on the healtiest minion or LT you can find as you are running past them into the next room. Be sure to check if the Hide proc actually procced. Done correctly, you will already be Hidden and ready to move into the next group. This can significantly reduce the wait time between groups as you wait for Hidden to reapply.
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Placate's place in the modern age is the same as it was during live. Placate allows* one to completely reset their states and perform a full AS. If one has the Stalker's Guile ATO, this also means a potential followup application of an attack of your choice. This allows you to unleash a devastating burst if you are able to be unmoved for 4 seconds. Usually, you will just cut an AV with this as there are few mobs that may be fought long enough for this technique to considered.
*There is a catch however. At time of writing, Placate has an issue in which it's hidden state will not apply when used against mobs significantly higher level than you. This includes level shifts. It still retains its use as a disengagement tool however.
These techniques should allow a stalker that is able to see past the red haze of scrapperlock to be flexible with how they can apply damage to things.
