Okay, Stalker Is Ridiculous (Ranty)

[Michelozzo]

As the title of the forum thread says, I think the Stalker is a rather ridiculous encounter that could do with some tinkering to make it a challenge rather than a complete hit or miss / save or die type encounter that just ends up frustrating when you lose and 'that's it?' when you win.

 

The first problem is that he's completely immune to Warframe Powers. Period. That seems a little ridiculous, to put it bluntly. I can understand him having boss-like-immunity to stuff that would CC him and make the fight way too easy, but it completely takes the strategy of your 'frame out of the picture, and just makes it a test of twitch reflexes and raw numbers. You should at -least- be able to shoot him with fireballs/lightning bolts/whatever your frame shoots at people. The fact that your entire power arsenal is pointless makes a good number of frames completely useless against him and some that should be useful because of buff powers aren't because of Dispel. Is that entirely necessary? I don't think so.

 

The second problem is that he does incredibly stupid amounts of damage. Now, I understand the power of his bow, I use it myself from time to time and red crits are fun. But the fact that his entire load out seems to do that much damage is kinda silly, especially Hate. Hate being able to chain that kind of nigh insta-death damage while stunning you if you parry (you know, one of the only things you can do to block damage, and not even all of it) is very overkill I find. Dread should be the high damage if-you-get-hit-with-this-its-your-own-fault slow move, Despair should be his rapid fire move for when you're twitchy, and Hate should be parry breaking but not as damaging as it is now. You end up with this kind of tempo where you dodge Dread, parry Despair, and get an opening when he tries to break your guard with Hate. Just a thought.

 

And to preempt any 'you can one shot stalker with X weapon' or 'you can own him with Y weapon' - those are all well and good arguments...when I have said weapons equipped. As I've mentioned I have his bow and have used it to beat him once and I beat him with a Soma. But what if I'm leveling a different Primary? I've also beaten him with my Dragon Nikana, but what if I want to level a different melee weapon?  I don't think I should be so screwed out of options - one of the things I think this game does very well over most games claiming to have loads of options and really not having any at all - just because I killed a boss? AKA a mandatory activity to open up the start chart and get new frames for more of those lovely options?

 

I dunno, TLDR Stalker owned me recently, I feel he's unfair, needed to get it off my chest, would like to see a re-balanced stalker that's more fun and rewarding to fight instead of fuster cluck of damage and BS immunities.

[Archistopheles]

If I'm soloing, I always have one weapon with high radiation and viral damage. Those two combined destroy stalker everytime.

 

If you're leveling 3 weapons, then you should group up for safety.

[Krion112]

Whether you win or lose, the encounter with Stalker does always feels lackluster. He is already in the pipe for revamp, and supposedly the next huge update is going to include a rework for him, along with the new Orokin Moon tileset and the new quest. Hopefully, he get's remade into something more enjoyable for the player, rather than just a cheap encounter.

[Fluttershy93]

You only have yourself to blame if you go 100% levling gear, i for one always have a max formad weapon on me for when hunter packs and Stalker comes after me. Did you get killed while having 100% levling gear then went on a rant on the forums? Well tough, the one you can blame for this is only yourself. I've had it happen a few times, it's not fun but we're the ones putting ourselves in that position when being greedy in terms of levling.

[AdunSaveMe]

He doesn't need a nerf so much as he needs general equalizing. The problem is that his scaling is stupid, so you either kill him instantly or he kills you instantly. There's no middle ground, and it certainly doesn't make for an interesting encounter.

You only have yourself to blame if you go 100% levling gear, i for one always have a max formad weapon on me for when hunter packs and Stalker comes after me. Did you get killed while having 100% levling gear then went on a rant on the forums? Well tough, the one you can blame for this is only yourself. I've had it happen a few times, it's not fun but we're the ones putting ourselves in that position when being greedy in terms of levling.

Sorry, but that's silly.

You're basically saying it's our fault that RNG decided to punish us for doing something that is core to the game.

[-.SP.-G43riel]

He doesn't need a nerf so much as he needs general equalizing. The problem is that his scaling is stupid, so you either kill him instantly or he kills you instantly. There's no middle ground, and it certainly doesn't make for an interesting encounter.

Sorry, but that's silly.

You're basically saying it's our fault that RNG decided to punish us for doing something that is core to the game.

Well it's indeed YOUR FAULT if you're not prepared for it

you can't go around levling  Your frame + all weapons + sentinel weapon/ Kubrow all at the same time and expect that the game goes easy on you because you were not prepared with at least some way to fight back in case things go wrong

Sorry but Life isn't Fair mate 

[RafaelFuchs]

He doesn't need a nerf so much as he needs general equalizing. The problem is that his scaling is stupid, so you either kill him instantly or he kills you instantly. There's no middle ground, and it certainly doesn't make for an interesting encounter.

I think of it like this: It's just like pvp. Someone dies in 10s or less.

[AdunSaveMe]

Well it's indeed YOUR FAULT if you're not prepared for it

you can't go around levling  Your frame + all weapons + sentinel weapon/ Kubrow all at the same time and expect that the game goes easy on you because you were not prepared with at least some way to fight back in case things go wrong

Sorry but Life isn't Fair mate 

You don't have to be leveling everything at once for the stalker to appear and screw you over.

 

What's life got to do with it? This is a videogame.

[Michelozzo]

If I'm soloing, I always have one weapon with high radiation and viral damage. Those two combined destroy stalker everytime.

 

If you're leveling 3 weapons, then you should group up for safety.

 

No, I actually had a full loadout. I just got instagibbed because I didn't have godlike reflexes at all times. While also trying to keep infested from chewing my ankles off. And was Nyx because I was using chaos to keep said infested off me before stalker showed up.

 

Whether you win or lose, the encounter with Stalker does always feels lackluster. He is already in the pipe for revamp, and supposedly the next huge update is going to include a rework for him, along with the new Orokin Moon tileset and the new quest. Hopefully, he get's remade into something more enjoyable for the player, rather than just a cheap encounter.

 

Here here, and glad to hear he's supposidly getting some kind of revamp. Honestly I'd be okay with him being super tanky and immune to stuff somewhat like he is now, but without the ridiculous damage unless you screw up aka let him headshot you with Dread or something. Would make him a bit like Resident Evil 3: Nemesis's title baddie.

 

You only have yourself to blame if you go 100% levling gear, i for one always have a max formad weapon on me for when hunter packs and Stalker comes after me. Did you get killed while having 100% levling gear then went on a rant on the forums? Well tough, the one you can blame for this is only yourself. I've had it happen a few times, it's not fun but we're the ones putting ourselves in that position when being greedy in terms of levling.

 

I agree with you there, which is why I normally don't got solo nothing but unleveled stuff. But you do want to carry less stuff for better exp splitting. Maybe if rank 30 things didn't soak EXP uselessly (Yes I know syndicate mods are a thing, they don't actually take affinity to power so shoosh) it'd be easier to carry a weapon that isn't maxxed to while its 'older siblings' carry it.

 

He doesn't need a nerf so much as he needs general equalizing. The problem is that his scaling is stupid, so you either kill him instantly or he kills you instantly. There's no middle ground, and it certainly doesn't make for an interesting encounter.

Again, agreed. Far too binary an encounter, especially considering he shows up so infrequently. I'd almost (key word, *almost*) be okay with him as he is if he was a more frequent encounter or a static encounter somewhere. But the fact he's also an invasion boss makes it truly frustrating.

[XenosInfinity]

Well it's indeed YOUR FAULT if you're not prepared for it

you can't go around levling  Your frame + all weapons + sentinel weapon/ Kubrow all at the same time and expect that the game goes easy on you because you were not prepared with at least some way to fight back in case things go wrong

Sorry but Life isn't Fair mate 

 

Traditionally speaking, people don't get assassinated on the first day at their new job with tools they've never used before just because it's the first day at their new job with tools they've never used before.

 

Yes, you can level whatever you want. The Stalker is an RNG element and totally impossible to predict, it's not a case of the game going easy on you or not.

 

I still wish they'd make him shut off all the lights on the level until he's killed. Our damage at endgame is so high that trying to make him durable is an exercise in futility if you still want him to be mortal, so he needs to be able to fight tactically to some degree.

[Michelozzo]

Traditionally speaking, people don't get assassinated on the first day at their new job with tools they've never used before just because it's the first day at their new job with tools they've never used before.

 

Yes, you can level whatever you want. The Stalker is an RNG element and totally impossible to predict, it's not a case of the game going easy on you or not.

 

I still wish they'd make him shut off all the lights on the level until he's killed. Our damage at endgame is so high that trying to make him durable is an exercise in futility if you still want him to be mortal, so he needs to be able to fight tactically to some degree.

 

Its not even that he's RNG, although he is. Its that he's like, literally 1 in 100 odds of happening kind of RNG you're a paranoid fool to be always waiting for him, and you're SOL if you're not. He'd almost be better if he showed up more often and was basically a side effect of killing bosses that you could legitimately prepare for. Heck, if he showed up on the mission you killed the boss on it could be even more interesting. I dunno, there's a lot of ways they could do it, and how they are doing it is a bit ridiculously heavy handed IMHO.

[LifeNine]

I would like to see the Stalker get reworked at some point because it's a fairly boring encounter.

 

Yes, he's hard to kill without a decked out weapon, but I've killed him once or twice using level 30 no potato, no forma weapons. So if you have a half level weapon with a potato in it you should still be ok. It just takes a long time, and he keeps teleporting or going invisible, which is annoying.

[Michelozzo]

I would like to see the Stalker get reworked at some point because it's a fairly boring encounter.

 

Yes, he's hard to kill without a decked out weapon, but I've killed him once or twice using level 30 no potato, no forma weapons. So if you have a half level weapon with a potato in it you should still be ok. It just takes a long time, and he keeps teleporting or going invisible, which is annoying.

 

Frustrating if you lose, 'that's it?' if you win. Kinda sums it up nicely.

[(PSN)PillarOfWar]

Frustrating if you lose, 'that's it?' if you win. Kinda sums it up nicely.

Yup

[(PSN)VariantX7]

The issue with the stalker with me is that its just an unfun encounter. None of your abilities come into play and it all boils down to whether or not you're  carrying something that can kill him in 1-2 hits. Who cares if you win, the whole fight is boring if you win, annoying if you don't bring something that can kill him instantly and he kills you. Its a battle that's fought in your loadout screen before you even set foot in the map.
, 

[Michelozzo]

The issue with the stalker with me is that its just an unfun encounter. None of your abilities come into play and it all boils down to whether or not you're  carrying something that can kill him in 1-2 hits. Who cares if you win, the whole fight is boring if you win, annoying if you don't bring something that can kill him instantly and he kills you. Its a battle that's fought in your loadout screen before you even set foot in the map.

, 

The tension of an unknown foe entering your game and coming specifically for you has its appeal, speaking as someone whose played his fair share of the souls games, but yeah having the battle be in the loadout screen rather than the actual battlefield is irksome. To go to the souls analogy, he honestly feels like someone lazily hacking a very large amount of health and resistances but not pure god mode - beatable, but like punching a brick wall if you didn't bring your sledgehammer, so to speak.