Not A Bad Scrapper

It's long since been possible to roll any non-epic archetype on either side, but I still think of them as specifically hero or villain archetypes.

When City of Villains launched it did so with five new archetypes, and whilst it is possible to see each of these as mirroring one of the hero archetypes it's not quite as simple as that. Certainly the Corruptor and Dominator are redside's equivalent to Defenders and Controllers respectively, albeit with a greater emphasis on damage dealing and a reduction in their support capabilities and team synergy, but it's the others where the match ups are slightly less obvious, and as I've mentioned before there's always been debate about whether Brutes or Masterminds are the Tankers of redside.

(The correct answer remains both/neither.)

So far as Stalkers are concerned the answer should be obvious – given that the share the same primary/secondary powerset combinations as Scrappers then they are the redside Scrappers, right?

Nope. Stalkers aren't Scrappers, they're Blasters.

Stalkers differ from Scrappers in a few important ways. They have access to the almost all of the same powersets, but not the exact same powers; their Hide ability means they get one less defensive power, and get those later than their heroic sort-of-counterparts; their signature attack – Assassinate – likewise replaces one of the primary attacks, invariably an AoE. The Stalker is therefore somewhat squishier and a lot more single-target oriented than the Scrapper.

Assassinate is a single target attack that takes several seconds to line up and can be interrupted, but does extremely high damage when it hits. It can also be fired off mid-fight as a quicker version which does less damage. 'Less' being a relative term here because it still hits very hard. It's basically identical to the Blaster's Snipe, only melee not ranged, and gets used in exactly the same way – to either one shot a troublesome minion or lieutenant before the fight starts, or to take off half the boss's health. That's important, because whilst a Stalker isn't as squishy as a Blaster (not much is) they're not quite as comfortable in prolonged brawls as the other melee classes. As with the Blaster, a Stalker's best defense is a great offense.

I've always been impressed by how characters in this game can play differently, even within the same archetype, depending on power choices. That Stalkers differ from Scrappers despite sharing their power combos is another brilliant illustration of the amount of variety built into CoH's archetype design. It's no wonder that alts are the norm rather than the exception when there's so many different experiences to be had.

Having come to the end of this run my lasting impression is just how much better Stalkers are than I remember. Whenever I've touched on the subject of the best archetypes for soloing in the past they've gone unmentioned next to Brutes, Scrappers and Masterminds, but Eliminatrix has exceeded expectations. She's not been as quick off the blocks as American Nightmare or Tempter, but is catching up fast.

Claws and Invulnerability are two powersets I do have fairly extensive prior experience of – my original level 50 Hero was a Claws/Super Reflexes Scrapper, and I also took a Super Strength/Invulnerability Brute into the 40s back on Live. I've played both of these before, just not in combo and not in this archetype.

Claws is a favorite of mine. It's fast and satisfying to play, and while most of the attacks aren't particularly hard hitting on their own they do add up to a nice rotation with essentially no down time, even if it does sometimes feel that the lion's share of my damage is coming from Assassin's Claw. This powerset is also fairly light on end usage, and I went through the dreaded late 10s/early 20s with no issues.

Invulnerability is a fire-and-forget defensive set. To date I only have one active power, and even that – a hit point boost, not a heal – is one I'll use when it's up rather than at specific times in combat. Unsurprisingly I don't feel as tanky on this character as I did on my SS/Inv Brute back in the day, but it does the job reasonably well.

I finished up at level 23 (yet again!) but with less than half the defeats of Bad Girl, my previous best. That I attribute entirely to the fact that with Hide I'm almost never running into an unexpectedly high mob spawn, and with Placate I've got a fairly reliable get-out-of-here button if I truly need it.

All in all, another great run of City of Heroes.