[Suggestion] Save The Stalker

[9Hopper]

pic cred http://panzerthetank.deviantart.com/

 

"There is a dark presence hunting down Tenno who have brought death to our enemies. It has a misguided sense of justice and sympathizes with those who seek to destroy our society. Its powers are those of our own and the armor it wears is cloaked in shadow - it must be destroyed."

 

I've always loved the notion of there being a hunter, a sole unit who's out to gun you down, an embodiment of true terror, one you can't fight on equal footing whatsoever, like the Hunters from MPH or the Dahaka. And that was what the Stalker was originally touted as, a monster that you don't fight for benefits; but one that you fend off just to survive. But let's be real; is he anything like that now? 

 

Here is how we view him as a community on large:

a) a spiteful farmable commodity

b) the terror of low level equipment grinds

c) the boxhumper and other misc names related to his constant glitching tendencies

The gear he drops matches up to or acts as a crutch for endgame, and with what a joke he is right now, it just doesn't seem right.

So here are some possible changes I'm proposing:

 

the mild: 

give the stalker immunity to non player damage

give the stalker zero unit collision

cause the room of his spawn to be completely locked

 

the drastic:

give the stalker the Pull ability 

give him an Invisibility ability

give him stealth detection (where is your god now Shade)

when encountered in groups, make him spawn clones like Vay Heks, except visually identical and with roughly the same statistics

he despawns immediately after killing his target rather than waiting for them to revive (this was the original intent but it seems bugged at times)

 

the insane:

make him actually USE his ranged equipment, and make it hurt (possibly make it apply DoTs or an amped TBolt)

add a multiplier to his spawning rate on nightmare modes (pray you don't get him on vamp)

DoT or ability damage Immunity

give him pre nerf iron skin

 

Now I know this might fall on deaf ears to people who have already accquired  all his BPs and don't see merit in killing him anymore, so here is my second proposal. Your reason for killing the Stalker will now be twofold:

1. So he doesn't murder you

2. the potential for Stalker specific mods

I'm talking mods specific for his group of weapon types: The bow, the thrown sidearms, and the scythes. Majority opinion seems to be that while melee isn't viable endgame, Scythes are still lacking next to the other heavies and require constant reevaluation (I'm looking at you Reaper Prime). Something like a flat increase to scythes charge damage (Scythe specific melee channel anyone?) or a secondary swing per charge, a reallocation of thunderbolt to even out defence loot tables, venom dipped arrows, maybe even an upgraded seeker mod, many possibilities could open up. If not, bump up Hate's charge damage up to 250 and i'll be a happy camper. You might say these will make the already strong weapons stronger, but considering the newly nuanced difficulty it seems par for the course. Could just be capped at Scythe mods for the eccentric if it gets out of hand. Of course, i'm not saying to raise or lower the current drop rates, but this will provide incentive, when he drops one or the other, as opposed to having stacks of his BPs gathering dust.

 

TLDR; I'm proposing we turn the adorable-yet-fun-to-kick stalker puppy back into a veritable monster that makes us go wee wee when the lights go out

Edited July 20, 2013 by 9Hopper

[Funky_Dunky_]

i like the idea of locking the room. maybe could turn all the lights off as well so that you only have your torch.

[Tsoe]

+100000

 

 

stalker: a Tenno squad....

 

stalker: kage bushin no jutsu

 

....

....

....

....

Stalker1 : mhmm

 

Stalker4: they aint drop anything

 

Stalker3 : Lowlife Tenno

 

Stalker2 : guys, they were not 3 only cause i ve spawned, one must hide somewhere...

 

(hiden Tenno): -_-  FML

Edited July 20, 2013 by Tsoe

[KaoKill123]

give stalker double/triple ability damage.and other kinds of ability.

give stalker Orgis/Topid weapon.

[Rynax15]

i was actually thinking about changing the stalker's skill set to make him an actual threat. so what at first I though about since he was a rogue tenno of sorts he also has 4 abilities like other warframes which is what i'm basing this idea off of while also coming up with relevant names for them (i will put this out there right now... I'm terrible with names. takes me hours to get a "good" name going)

 

1 Pain - the stalker teleports to your location kinda like old vor did and does a sort of charge attack (has it's own damage rather than using the hate's damage)

 

2 Suffering - this is going off the assumption that the stalker also uses energy for his abilities. A % damage the stalker causes is turned into energy for himself.

 

3 Doom - the stalker turns invisible and gains a backstab bonus. so basically when the stalker uses this he will attempt to get behind you and backstab.

 

4 Execute - being his final skill (and the fact that if you let him aquire this much energy) ofc this is gonna be an ultimate and a strong one at that. everyone's screen goes black (all lights are destroyed) and are stunned for maybe 2 sec. When their vision is restored, the stalker appears behind his target and attempts a stealth attack/execution at this point that target has a very brief moment where they can get away otherwise you're screwed.

 

The next bit was the stats of these abilities: so i tried to do it like if the stalker was a regular warframe:

 

1 Pain - starts out at 100 dmg then get to 250 damage

 

2 Suffering - converts 10% of his damage dealt to energy up to 40% (like the rage mod)

 

3 Doom - backstab damage bounus (this counts the hate's charge damage of 200 points) starts at 150% to 375% for 750 backstab damage.

 

4 Execute - 1000 armor ignoring, damage mitigation ignoring damage the only way you can survive is with raw shields and hp or quick reflexes

 

This is mainly an idea and not to be used as is. if anyone can modify it to be better go ahead this is my just input.

[Phaenur]

I definitely agree on the stealth detection.  It was completely jarring (if a huge relief) to be able to take Stalker down from full to gone in a single cycle of Loki's cloak with the Dark Sword whenever he popped up during a solo run, and he only gets away nowadays if he lucks out and nails his target on the first Slash Dash.  As creepily awesome as his current weapon set is, it isn't built for killing off multiple Tenno (plus he only uses the Hate anyway) - the old Vandal kit was actually better at that and he used everything pretty reliably.  I strongly support most of the ideas on here, especially stealth detection, automatic lockdown, and killing the lights in the room.  Heck, between those three he probably wouldn't need a combat buff to wreck half the players he came across.

[AbathurX]

Stalker needs a buff,  I agree with locking the room, making everything dark, I pity him when I rape him using Ash... stalker goes : wut

[Heptimus]

Instantly locks the room his target is in (cannot be opened until target or stalker is dead), all lights and electonic equipment goes dark (including flashlights). But most important; stalker appears instantly, instead of slowly getting up from a cloud of smoke (maybe he could teleport on his target)

[Pekku]

I really like the idea of the room he spawns in getting locked and all the lights turned off, save for your flashlight.

[Tsoe]

Instantly locks the room his target is in (cannot be opened until target or stalker is dead), all lights and electonic equipment goes dark (including flashlights). But most important; stalker appears instantly, instead of slowly getting up from a cloud of smoke (maybe he could teleport on his target)

 

 

sure give him ash teleport

like this he will come to die faster XD

 

(loki swap would have been good for stalker)

Edited July 21, 2013 by Tsoe

[Rhekinos]

I'd like him to play an animation if he kills his target. Something brutal like sticking his scythe through your chest from behind (maybe in slo-mo?) then pulling it back out and poofing away. More incentives to not get killed (if you needed more that is :P)

 

EDIT: By the way, the dark room idea is good but it wouldn't really make much of a difference to people like me who set brightness to max :p

Edited July 21, 2013 by Rhekinos

[VeronikaStripper]

I support this thread!

 

 

The first time I encountered the stalker about 3-4 months ago... he demolished my entire crew. I thought that was amazing...  I use to tremble a bit, and my forehead would sweat.. when I saw those lights flicker..... I would yell at my crew to GROUP UP!!! STALKER IS COMING! and we would stand... back to back to back to back... guns pointed in all directions... to spot him and fight for our very existence.

 

 

Now when I see the lights flicker.. I get all giddy and can't wait to beat a loot pinata.... but I feel sad.. because it's not a challenge...

 

I don't get that adrenaline rush.. like I did the first time I encountered the stalker.. and he stayed on my teammate like white on rice at a full sprint, with the stalker's braton planted against the back of my teammates skull and just laid copious amounts of rounds to the back of his head.. and dropped him...

 

At first I thought it was my teammates just being silly and firing bullets at each other... until one died... and the second teammate started to get rocked that I jumped into the fray.. and started attempting to fire on the stalker.... teammate 2 down... and then he comes for me... and makes very short order of me. I was completely surrounded by infested at the time, something I did not realise that teammate 3 brought with him.. showing up like? lol noobs why you dead? but ya.. he died too....   That was one of the most amazing feelings I have ever had in a game.. completely unexpected and awesome!

 

I still got a good adrenaline rush for some time during his visits.. until after a patch... I dropped him with a clip of my boltor.... sad day. :/

Edited July 21, 2013 by valdrak

[X3Evanescence]

Stalker needs a buff period. NAO!

[Rhekinos]

Also, maybe give him the ability spy drones had: the mini map scrambling when he's nearby. That should mess with the players...

[RavenOfTheFlock]

I agree with this thread in it's entirety. But to be fair to lower level players who have the misfortune of encountering him, maybe have his ability scale with the player rather than the level? So for instance, Mastery 0: level 10-15 Mastery 1: Level 16-21 Mastery 2: Level 22-27 Mastery 3: Level 27-45 Mastery 4: Level 45+, or have it work based on how powerful the TOTAL level of your three weapons so if the total is 90 (primary, secondary, melee) spawn him at 65+ if it's 60 spawm him at <64 and so on.

I used to always get all "OMG, Stalker is gonna get me, I'm so screwed!" when I saw the stalker. Now, I tell everyone to relax, and in a few shots, he's dead lol. I definitely agree that he should be exhilarating to fight. As well as dropping a few nice things (rare mods, random rare materials, or BP's)

 

i was actually thinking about changing the stalker's skill set to make him an actual threat. so what at first I though about since he was a rogue tenno of sorts he also has 4 abilities like other warframes which is what i'm basing this idea off of while also coming up with relevant names for them (i will put this out there right now... I'm terrible with names. takes me hours to get a "good" name going)

 

1 Pain - the stalker teleports to your location kinda like old vor did and does a sort of charge attack (has it's own damage rather than using the hate's damage)

 

2 Suffering - this is going off the assumption that the stalker also uses energy for his abilities. A % damage the stalker causes is turned into energy for himself.

 

3 Doom - the stalker turns invisible and gains a backstab bonus. so basically when the stalker uses this he will attempt to get behind you and backstab.

 

4 Execute - being his final skill (and the fact that if you let him aquire this much energy) ofc this is gonna be an ultimate and a strong one at that. everyone's screen goes black (all lights are destroyed) and are stunned for maybe 2 sec. When their vision is restored, the stalker appears behind his target and attempts a stealth attack/execution at this point that target has a very brief moment where they can get away otherwise you're screwed.

 

The next bit was the stats of these abilities: so i tried to do it like if the stalker was a regular warframe:

 

1 Pain - starts out at 100 dmg then get to 250 damage

 

2 Suffering - converts 10% of his damage dealt to energy up to 40% (like the rage mod)

 

3 Doom - backstab damage bounus (this counts the hate's charge damage of 200 points) starts at 150% to 375% for 750 backstab damage.

 

4 Execute - 1000 armor ignoring, damage mitigation ignoring damage the only way you can survive is with raw shields and hp or quick reflexes

 

This is mainly an idea and not to be used as is. if anyone can modify it to be better go ahead this is my just input.

 

I love the idea of this, except when I think of Pain, and Doom, I think of Final Fantasy, Anyone remember Doom on FF? It would set a timer on the enemy that lasted around 20 seconds. When the timer his zero, it would deal HEAVY damage on the enemy, killing them instantly.

As for Pain, its effects varied vastly, but always involved heavily handicapping the target .

So the way Pain COULD work on him is it randomly removes the ability to cast one of your skills for a short period of time as well as dealing 100-250 Poison damage, and making your vision unclear for a short period. Idk, I guess I've always loved FF lol. Just some thoughts lol.

[KaoKill123]

why not make the flash permanent untill the stalker dies? i mean u still can see your surroundings only a few meters. and the rest are pure darkness.

stalker need a moving/attacking decoy to survive longer. which does no dmg.

stalker need loki' 2nd ability or ash' smokescreen, feels better when your hunter is not in sight but near you. make him immune to aoe/ environment dmg.

stalker need to do a slash/melee attack right after using teleport...

as for ulti/ 4th skill, he needs something to be a real threat... max rank armor ignore CRUSH with max stretch ??