Suggestions To Make The Stalker A Challenge, Not A Cheat.

[DarknightK]

As evidenced from many people in the two "Stalker Hax" topics trending right now, a lot of people dislike the unbalanced changes the stalker has received. This topic is to propose gameplay changes to the Stalker in hopes that DE will praise our screaming and make suitable changes VERY soon.

 

Stats:

Due to the lack of a Codex entry, I can't say what stat changes are to be made to Stalker from the existing ones as of now. However, I would like to suggest that the Stalker should have 100 armor, and a healthy amount of Health and Shields. This is open to suggestion. Additionally, a heavy reduction in Stalker's fixed level of 45 (which is roughly about Level 90 in 1.0, which the Stalker was NEVER at, even at low levels) would alleviate some of the stat scaling. I propose that Stalker should spawn at a minimum level of 15 and cap at 45.

 

Before I forget, GIVE STALKER AN ENERGY POOL (About 200-250 energy?).

 

Due to Stalker's depleting energy pool, Stalker will occasionally maneuver to nearby energy orbs and use them in order to restore his energy. This prevents other players from using energy orbs. Player's can effectively keep Stalker in check if the team has enough energy to counteract Stalker's abilities.

 

Abilities:

Listed are the Stalker's current known abilities (Please tell me if I left out some!)

 

Slash Dash

Pull

Teleport (Stalker to Player and Player to Stalker)

Absorb

Dispell

 

Proposed Changes:

 

Phase: This Move is a way for Stalker to move closer to his opponents and avoid gunfire. Replacing Pull and Teleport, this move allows Stalker to phase closer to his enemies, or allows him to strafe to a nearby location while being attacked from multiple sources. There will be Black Afterimages of Stalker while he preforms this move. Out of all his abilities, this costs the least amount of energy (about 10).

 

Smog: Stalker releases several canisters full of toxic smog, which have a high chance to induce a Viral effect on his enemies. The Energy cost for this is not too large, but not too little, I'm thinking about 50-75?

 

Black Hole: This ability is similar to Vauban's old Vortex, except that Stalker's version is mainly purposed for attracting in enemies instead of Vortex's damaging aspect. This is one of Stalker's medium-tier moves. (75-100)?

 

Absorb: Basically, keep the move the way it is now, except allow Stalker to be damaged while using this move, at the cost of making his attack more powerful. Any damage that Stalker receives while in Absorb will be mitigated to Absorb's power strength by 70%, thus he only receives 30% of incoming damage. This costs the same amount of Energy as Black Hole (75-100?)

P.S. Add an Energy effect to Absorb!

 

Purge (Dispel 2.0): This new version of Dispel is designed to be less OP. Purge will now stagger players only if it is successful. That's right, 50% chance of dispelling Warframe abilities. This gives the more squishier frames a chance to fight Stalker, and in a way, evens the fight a bit. This is Stalker's ultimate, and will put his abilities on lockdown for 10 seconds. (100-150?)

 

Once Stalker is out of energy, he will resort to parkour and Melee.

 

Weapons: Aside from Stalker's ridiculous damage output with his weapons, all I can say is to have them nerfed, and significantly reduce the stagger chance. A Stalker with fine damage is okay, a Stalker with stunlock is not. Also, turn off Stalker's aimbot, that's really annoying.

 

Also, tone down the Bleed damage for Stalker. His Dread, if it manages to score a proc (which it almost always does), will deal around 100-120 Bleed damage. This was tested on a Rhino with Iron skin, and the Bleed Damage killed me within 5 seconds. Tone. It. Down.

 

Learning AI

Stalker is now a more dynamic enemy, continuously learning a player's tactics and strategies every time he is defeated, and adapting to outperform the players. This stays consistent to his lore, and will tone down some of his difficulty curve, but will force players to keep a fresh mindset whenever they face-off against Stalker, and be able to quickly examine his new tactics every time in order to counterattack him.

 

In Solo play, the first encounter with Stalker will have somewhat of an Advanced AI system, but other than that, Stalker will be more or less comparable to Standard enemies. Upon subsequent defeats, Stalker will build on his AI strategies to find holes in the player's tactics.

 

For Example: Let's have Little Billy here as a test subject. Billy has just killed Vor and is playing another mission, which has a 100% to spawn Stalker for the first time.

Billy: "Oh lewk another enemy with fanceh text lololol imma shoot it."

Billy just slams the payload onto Stalker, and since Stalker's stats are majorly affected by Conclave rating, Billy has a somewhat easy time getting rid of Stalker. Stalker moves similarly to the average enemy AI, however is noticeably a little more faster. Stalker manages to stay out of melee range, but close enough to accurately use Dread and Despair.

 

Billy encounters Stalker again, who utilizes more mobility and a few powers in order to exploit Billy's previous method of just standing and shooting at him

 

Billy: "Waow, he iz gud, but I still beet him lolz"

Billy manages to give Stalker the upper hand, but notices that Stalker has some new acrobatic tactics, and is significantly harder to track due to this. Stalker prepares for his next encounter by combining more acrobatic moves, powers, and now, attempting to close the range between him and Billy.

 

Billy: "Lol Stalkur get me, ded."

Stalker surprised Billy by moving into melee range very quickly and fluidly, not what Billy was expecting at all. Stalker does not change his tactics for the next encounter, for he believes that Billy will surely fall for the same gameplan again. Little does he know...

This AI rework is to again, make Stalker seem more of a formidable advisary while not empowering him too much over the capacity of ONE player. And while Billy is implied to be a beginning player, Stalker can sharply spike in learning capacity should player's show a high understanding of gameplay mechanics and planning.

 

In Team Play, Stalker's AI would be set to be highly combat reactive, having a pre-made set of skills and tactics (about the same as his current AI, minus the terribad pathfinding) that would compile the longer he faces off against players. In relation to his Stats, which depend on the total of all the Player's Conclave ratings, the fight should be notably lengthy, but nothing too difficult.

 

EDIT: Added stuff to Powers and tweaked some stuff around the post.

Edited December 25, 2013 by DarknightK

[R3leaZ]

Add the ability for him to teleport the player towards the Stalker's position since he actually can do that.

[spysweeper242]

You forgot shuriken and replace that with a ability like radial javelin except a single javelin that homes doing slash

[DarknightK]

Updated the topic with some more stuff, having faced the Stalker recently, all of the points made in the original post still apply for discussion.

[flaicher]

I've faced stalker three times after U11, I've lost every time because of his 100% accuracy and insane damage output.

I might aswell just stop and wait for him to kill my frame to get rid of him a bit faster instead of evading and postponing the inevitable death.

[RazorTip]

I agree with this thread, he's ridiculous to fight against. You can only win by either possessing high end gear and weapons or by exploiting his questionable AI. 

If neither of those two options are available, you get dunked.

[Stuifiee]

What's the problem with the stalker? I used to think he was hard when I didn't encounter him for a month. Yesterday I saw him 3x and killed him twice. I did it with a Dread bow.

 

I don't see how he's OP, he's a challenge, that's all.

[Leuca]

What's the problem with the stalker? I used to think he was hard when I didn't encounter him for a month. Yesterday I saw him 3x and killed him twice. I did it with a Dread bow.

 

I don't see how he's OP, he's a challenge, that's all.

You got lucky with his AI. He spammed Pull on me until I was dead last time I saw him. I was completely CC locked and unable to do anything. The time before that he literally teleported on top of me from behind a wall and I was dead. There was no attack animation or anything. The time before that I somehow managed to kill him by getting lucky against his AI.

[DarknightK]

Ditto, I've gotten lucky against his AI two times in a row, although that's only because he wasn't targeting me.

 

It's easy if he's not after you, and your with a team.

The opposite applies if your the target, and your alone.