Morning!
My global handle is @Thilenium and my ingame characters start with or contain 'Thile' in their name - no exception. So far I have played and equipped about 20 characters. ten of which I took through the incarnate stuff. Others I 'swiped left'.
I have tested a lot of Archetypes and Builds and Stalkers never really appealed to me. I am not much of a PvP-guy and where else would you use a Stalker? But since i like creating Builds i did one, tested it and approved of it. Single target damage is awsome and outside of that it is simply fun zooming around any content unseen. So, are there better Archetypes? Sure. *cough Brute *cough. But is this Build fun? Yes, it is! The build represents the current status of my gear and also my zillion hours of experience in improving and reviewing on character builds (tailored to my tastes - sure. and that is where we might not find common ground. but see for yourself).
all the best, Thilenium
Summary Stalker (Ice Melee - Willpower)
+ performs good during any stage of the game
+ great bursty damage, single target
+ ok damage, area of effect, with the right kind of crowd control (from lvl 32 onward)
+ sufficiently tanky
+ chill and smooth to play
+ if you choose to, no one will ever know that you were there
+ lots of utility for situational content
- probably not a good starting character
- usually lacks in the area of effect department
- not suited for tanking
Contents
a) The role of a Stalker
b) Willpower as Secondary
c) Ice Melee as Primary
d) Utility through Power Pools
e) Attack chains, single target and area of effect
f) Genesis Incarnate Power and helpful keybinds and macros
a) The role of a Stalker
Probably best described as single target extermination and scouting. While your team offloads all the area of effects on enemy groups, you concentrate on the bosses.
b) Willpower as Secondary
Willpower is one of the most well rounded Secondaries out there. I took the easy route with this one and never looked at anything else.
c) Ice Melee as Primary
Now this one is actually on purpose. The activation times for all skills are great. But there is more to it. The unique mechanic to Stalkers called 'Assassination' allows for a critical strike after a few skills hit and for a higher chance at critical strike on targets affected by sleep or hold. The single target skill 'Freezing touch' has a chance to put an enemy in a hold and so does the set used in 'Frozen Fists'. The area of effect skill at level 32 has a chance to put targets to sleep. Do you see where this is going? Also every attack from being hidden is an automatic critical strike. Every 5th attack against single targets is the 'Assassin's Icicle' which, through its set, has a chance to hide you and make the next skill a critical strike. You usually want to open while hidden with 'Assassin's Icicle' against single targets or 'Frozen Aura' against groups.
d) Utility through Power Pools
In the beginning I mentioned that there is also a lot of utility in this build.
+ You have a area of effect damage and sleep which helps managing party content.
+ You have a self-heal and a self-rez.
+ This build does not require 'Invisibility'. This skill is build in. Also included a stealth proc on 'Combat Jumping' making you even stealthier. Also also included 'Super Speed' reducing your Threat-Level. You may not have heard of it, but there is a thing called Threat-Level. It supposedly increases the likelyhood of getting the attention of enemy NPCs while attacking, or in this case reduces it. Let those arrogant Corrptors be beaten up.
+ 'Super Jump' lacks vertical movement. Say hello to 'Hover'. Where does 'Hover' come in handy? some missions have literally no bottom, some are fought in the air (Hamidon). and they will be extremely annoying to anyone without flight powers. Activating 'Hover' does not cancel any other toggles.
- This build lacks a ranged attack for pulling enemies and has to use something like 'Nemesis Staff' for it. but the number of cases where I needed to do that is effectively zero (ITF - pulling the endboss from the topfloor in the third mission), so you can ignore it too, I guess.
e) Attack chains for single target and area of effect
I use the keyboard keys '1', '2' (both macros, see below) and '3' 'Assassin's Icicle' for single target. Being the fifth attack it critical strikes. There is also a visual indicator for it: the Icon gets an orange border. '4' 'Frozen Aura' for area of effect. Key 'f' for closing in on mobs (see keybind below). 'WASD' and mouse to move around.
f) Genesis Incarnate Power and helpful keybinds and macros
Genesis Incarnate Power:
Socket Radial Flawless Genesis
>> usually i take the other one, but the damage part breaks your stealth i fear. Still the boost to hitpoints and endurance is to valuable to entirely pass over. Not to mention the higher chance of proccing your regular Interface proc.
Helpful macros and keybinds:
/bind f "target_enemy_near$$follow"
>> autofollow nearest enemy
/macro INC "windowtoggle Incarnate"
>> Open the Incarnate window
/macro M1 "powexec_name Ice Sword$$follow$$powexec_auto Frozen Aura$$powexec_auto Frozen Fists"
>> use two melee skills in succession
/macro M2 "powexec_name Freezing Touch$$follow$$powexec_auto Frozen Aura$$powexec_auto Greater Ice Sword"
>> use two melee skills in succession
/macro XX "powexec_name Assassin's Icicle$$face$$powexec_auto Frozen Aura$$powexec_auto Resurgence"
>> prepares for the primary attack and disables the auto-attack (so that you do not accidently break your stealth). This is an important thing to keep in mind when using these kinds of macros.
Using Mids import the following using Menu: Build Sharing/Import DataChunk
|MBD;25628;1589;2120;BASE64;|
|GxtkAJwFdiybxmI0MKWR+TqnrFQevVxaoJ/Sy4ybO7UmUx6NAoRpkua/B+N23w2MxEC|
|VHmnjA7TkJ1R+UzWr6nVf565ZXD2gpYlNgKYMkkr29b+WNYuwJxxOTROyUBg7PR2oHl|
|IOf8PsEJKK6uSVJ5VPSdrDnUU6ukn9vrqQhKRQx8j1ChxIIGQsvT7se+3WBhojaIzsW|
|fLCsUj+UiFe3Yu47xY2HfnvLWZyXQOZ39HC/ZmnHibAEWlPC4v5oyeQ71p9C96PtwuX|
|+SCluz2PA6j20tbHi9FFuZfRIJLSHS3kak0D/7NNF712mYuhU/Gy8W9fuFxhPdSATD3|
|OeWNl64tzfwI2GrlV58uK5lTdp0jpfJWV2dLmnNZM2zyvzIDjX5Rb/bg1rlg2OUvp3Y|
|G8tW+XvXQh3tLujzbw7cpE3NbiSKtjhqX3c9+BOmvNSP+ezTE/6bBmZSvZPDM1r/6JJ|
|fKC6G3fY/bBuntuxq0tG0Nf0YoPyk8Gvd7Gvy3/k+P+Xr12GVf/4Muo0FSC5ZVnZS9N|
|R/uS145UsY5Th/GtfBWiajkHYJrF0XwTOG1Y+pg55qV30tkvvVtW87K2+z5w3jMqtSm|
|f9FvjPacl+MAfsOl9c0giTdyKH7LHIjgmKCKWguMkbuN2S81Jk+bObX6ooTUkpzHkUR|
|xwUpb1p9/1/0kMuXZjlPFFxI7gErcBCugFTEBz/LOTcvqZ6zoaecElSfMf5yPXrcF/H|
|9CiKt/gERkFCD5GCUpymzMTo8K3ugRtF+WbZA6fUyOGa5Ly7g+XO4tzLI5DTetDY+tf|
|nWY6pcL9jhGJoY8ySTWqdsOmWMBFBKRFU+aeRqZkqieqa7f6sZAWrhvVjRA7UGe8kiX|
|GUptiF80DiultqcQ6gCGxFawLRnKGQo+PE7uo45jGEO82FHfrB9d525BLTp9B3yG7VY|
|wlMRCt3uJSwwDh4kzoLWNs1yexWrdHuhFBPXMLENXq0Qt/3LZKvcN6/mTXdzNSn89Ix|
|fWgvOYIMq/9IzivXeo2HURfgQmznG3ez3KIgXBLuVHENDbv+1PzYtmzmMgtr6jtaN89|
|B7vit1GTH1NTBmwS9tJFJxfTFAHK5Wg3fKRGMdNdySvglcAI0QrIjIgjy8e8tJqV8hR|
|q6YAbZrvC1s9K9D0Z/+VmQj4OetugC+DrQEdG4CXhXT3ZvaF527XZCgsDRDWLhEUBk4|
|gaJmyyspCcN+NsGE3MsNmrfRyN/1j7acx4+pCVqeKJ/vBOGZ3zyQFrcA2GgHigyiinD|
|rFJHSKU0uL32RuOVS4xmv6asEoNk4i+gIyDag2tnAuZu9KT+QpsuHWDiduD2WNg4WCc|
|j+Cn+oF44/QVuCnf9Yz41ckA5R6peGzKBCr0vfwd6wRGxEY4TwJSlem2JQuTYuqH/QR|
|emF0Hoz5h4YuG1AmJSG77roJBCwWfmF7DeFyMoOBWcqMk07/CI4+O4hEiOscKMXfAJG|
|EujgiJU8nGmI7QZCouDBDXTBImBUwibhlxRe2xueKgd1ou4KLl6+yoribthWNe85vOD|
|XkSi5/oUVJYdKR4JhiG6FCuT5S/C4hPldmU4azwe0ys1RftyeM01najizIekoVgdc1r|
|eKx0yDV/zIm7Md9nX/RhZ+lOjVPnraRcdz3mOs4jsmn1Iqe/4WEyVGpGIuKad8ULdvY|
|v5UnkIeH5E+1TaQNfMStTZ8ms96OG0JJFPli8ff0SNo8Ltk86I+Q1VQHOY6mWr3i284|
|7k+RmV7lzMGwH0LdbVueV8P2VlRQzvq4gRR/+zRf9s+6WPChxm1yHo68tLskLPFcOY9|
|LrInj/+mBSrk7jJr2cXl05pL9Y2XnQ5FZD0v857XeqS4PSnGJPeKfatzU4PYNOQbqIi|
|SFWrdZdc6pJoyPQc/RzwKnTo5akELRcbJYmAwMHUntElXIrbH7fmI5XX0tLpWDJUDLu|
|EHEu08Ypmhbd/15r1Utn6wPvAGYRNXsZMfF2o8rJazN4Qy6Hz/Ic0WN55VbRVeet9in|
|+kY+fHHjq2zrFa4duXa59DL3rd2r5h5DhlTu7e3/s0GcwNMxzl6E19U0ctakD2ND5W2|
|3kG85w28lA9y58yGHKbXpH4nYo2k2u340qERszj4h0=|
