Advice for a Night Warrior Unarmed Stalker build

jonandre1

Like many people, I played on City of Villains. My favorite character was a martial arts stalker. When I found out that Night Warrior lets you play a stalker, boy was I happy at this.

Well, I'm running into problems. Energy generation is a huge concern. After I use my shadow strike, I'm out of energy and need to use my energy builder. I know having some INT in my stats would be useful, but I can't fit it in right now.

Here's my current build. Now, I'm only level 25, so the build is incomplete. I also started this character before understanding some things about the way powers work, so it's not all that efficient.

PowerHouse (Link to this build)

Name: Agent Effective

Archetype: Freeform

Super Stats:
Level 6: Dexterity (Primary)
Level 10: Constitution (Secondary)
Level 15: Strength (Secondary)

Talents:
Level 1: The Master
Level 6: Acrobat
Level 9: Martial Focus
Level 12: Physical Conditioning
Level 15: Boundless Reserves
Level 18: Accurate
Level 21: Coordinated

Powers:
Level 1: Vicious Strikes
Level 1: Thundering Kicks (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 6: Thunderbolt Lunge
Level 8: Night Warrior (Rank 2, Silent Running)
Level 11: Form of the Master (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 14: Dragon Kick (Rank 2)
Level 17: Bountiful Chi Resurgence (Resurgent Reiki)
Level 20: Parry (The Elusive Monk)
Level 23: Ego Placate
Level 26:
Level 29:
Level 32:
Level 35:
Level 38:

Travel Powers:
Level 6: Mach Speed (Rank 2)
Level 35:

Specializations:
Dexterity: Combat Training (3/3)
Dexterity: Gear Utilization (2/3)
Dexterity: Deadly Aim (2/3)
Dexterity: Quick Reflexes (3/3)
Warden: Slaughter (3/3)
Warden: Ruthless (2/2)
Warden: The Best Defense (1/3)

One thing to note is that the Agent practices a form of martial arts he calls "My-foot-to-your-face-fu", so kicks are the primary way I want to attack. All the unarmed builds I've seen tend to ignore Thundering Kicks, and I really like Thundering Kicks, so it's going to stay in the build.

Also, the Agent has low-level telepathy as part of his concept, so I'll be picking up some Telepathy powers for diversity. Here's the new build, using what I know now:

PowerHouse (Link to this build)

Name: Agent Effective

Archetype: Freeform

Super Stats:
Level 6: Dexterity (Primary)
Level 10: Strength (Secondary)
Level 15: Constitution (Secondary)

Talents:
Level 1: The Master
Level 6: Martial Focus
Level 9: Physical Conditioning
Level 12: Acrobat
Level 15: Body and Mind
Level 18: Healthy Mind
Level 21: Coordinated

Powers:
Level 1: Vicious Strikes
Level 1: Thundering Kicks (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 6: Thunderbolt Lunge (Nailed to the Ground)
Level 8: Night Warrior (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 11: Form of the Master (Storm's Eye Prana)
Level 14: Dragon Kick (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 17: Inexorable Tides (Rank 2)
Level 20: Parry (The Elusive Monk)
Level 23: Bountiful Chi Resurgence (Rank 2, Resurgent Reiki)
Level 26: Ego Placate (Svengali's Guile)
Level 29: Ego Surge (Nimble Mind)
Level 32: Masterful Dodge
Level 35: Ego Sprites (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 38: Ego Storm

Travel Powers:
Level 6: Mach Speed (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 35: Teleportation

Specializations:
Dexterity: Combat Training (3/3)
Dexterity: Gear Utilization (2/3)
Dexterity: Deadly Aim (3/3)
Dexterity: Quick Reflexes (2/3)
Vindicator: Aggressive Stance (2/2)
Vindicator: Merciless (3/3)
Vindicator: Focused Strikes (3/3)
Vindicator: Modified Gear (2/2)
Warden: Fortified Gear (3/3)
Warden: Slaughter (3/3)
Warden: Ruthless (1/2)
Warden: The Best Defense (3/3)
Mastery: Dexterity Mastery (1/1)

I'm not so sure about the new build, as I haven't seen it in action. Still a DEX/STR/CON build, so it'll be energy-poor, but I couldn't find an energy unlock that would help (MSA was the nearest, and this build doesn't have any cooldowns except Ego Placate, which means MSA would only proc every 30 seconds).

Is there something I could be doing better within the concept, or is the concept flawed within the mechanics of the game? (It seems to me that the Unarmed tree is lacking in solo-ability; looks more like it's designed for single target DPS, not for handling groups.)

keikomyst

Thundering Kicks is really good, but if you want a good AoE you're going to need to grab 100 Hands. My own pure Martial Arts character can tear through mobs using 100 Hands. Thundering Kicks also boosts Dodge when you finish its combo.

Form of the Master is not good unless you have lots of dodge. I recommend Form of the Tempest instead. It gives you stacks of Focus (free energy + more damage) on crit, and if you're Primary Dex you're going to have at least a passable amount of crit chance.

I'm not experienced with Telepathy at all, but Telepathy doesn't mesh well with Martial Arts. Ego Sleep + Shadow Strike, however, is a great combo to use. Ego Sleep doesn't break stealth, so you can hit a guy with it and Shadow Strike him to death with ease. Ego Sprites isn't much of a help, and Ego Storm got absolutely murdered a while back. Might I recommend picking up another heal (Conviction from Celestial is very nice and will proc MSA nicely if you choose to get that). Also, your lunge will proc MSA too. You only need about 100 Int at level 40 to get it to work well for you.

I also recommend going Str-Con-Int or Dex-Con-Int with statted-in Str.
Other good SSes:
Str-Rec-Con w/ Crit Gear
Dex-Rec-Con + Str

By the way, Shadow Strike is designed to eat your energy when you use it. Keep that in mind.

shadowzero66

Shadow Strike's base cost is equal to 2/3 of your current energy. Thus you'll always have the energy to use it, but it'll leave you with little energy afterwards. Easiest way around this is to swap out STR for INT as a superstat and use Thunderbolt Lunge afterwards (it costs very little energy, especially due to INT) to fuel Molecular Self Assembly. You can also get creative by using a power with a cooldown beforehand and time it so the cooldown comes off around the time you use Shadow Strike. Evasive Maneuvers, Conviction, Bountiful Chi Resurgence, and the on-next hit powers (Sonic Device, Toxic Nanites, and Miniaturization Drive) are good candidates.

jamesbonnell

Yeah - having played stalkers, you'd think Strength would be an SS... but... Str gets you +melee damage (some, tops out around 70 before starting in on diminishing returns), and knockback resist.

Since you are running Night Warrior, ideally, you should not have tank levels of agro, although an agro dump or two would help (e.g. Evasive Maneuvers with Sleight of Mind).

At 40, you would definitely be better off running INT on a PSS Dex build in my experience.

Dex, Int, Con - maybe a splash of Str from gear/talents. I think ~50 Str has been sufficient to be knocked around somewhat less than Str 10 in playtesting. 70 to high the "magic number" for buffing melee damage before gettinginto DR.

Or as Keiko suggested, Dex/Rec/Con.

I also personally stack enough Rec at 40 to ensure that the highest-level attack that I want to use up-front is covered from starting out of combat.

I think you're on the right track with both Ego Sleep and Ego Placate. Just bear in mind that without any Presence, you're going to have relatively short durations on CC effects. Ego Sleep is fairly good without any buffs, though.

Although the benefit of Ego Sprites is that it doesn't break sleep. I've seen several builds where you just sleep + sprites the bad guys to death. In a team, it's probably irrelevant since almost everyone else will have AOEs - solo - it's very safe.

tdits

Ooh, I had one of these. It was pretty fun, but don't take FotM, you should not be the guy with aggro.

Here are some minor tweaks. Sonic Device + Thunderbolt Lunge is awesome* (it might work well with Shadow Strike too) so you could take R3 for Sonic Device, but if you want to spread it around with Dragon Kick then you could take Deafening Dissolution instead.

You could also go with STR primary and Juggernaut if you wanted; the only one of your super stats that wouldn't work well for you as a primary is CON (and even that would be sort of okayish). Everything else is basically up to preference.

PowerHouse (Link to this build)

Name: Agent Effective

Archetype: Freeform

Super Stats:
Level 6: Dexterity (Primary)
Level 10: Constitution (Secondary)
Level 15: Strength (Secondary)

Talents:
Level 1: The Master
Level 6: Acrobat
Level 9: Martial Focus
Level 12: Physical Conditioning
Level 15: Quick Recovery
Level 18: Impresario
Level 21: Relentless

Powers:
Level 1: Vicious Strikes
Level 1: Thundering Kicks (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 6: Thunderbolt Lunge (Nailed to the Ground)
Level 8: Night Warrior (Rank 2, Rank 3, Silent Running)
Level 11: Form of the Tempest
Level 14: Dragon Kick (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 17: Bountiful Chi Resurgence (Resurgent Reiki)
Level 20: Parry (The Elusive Monk)
Level 23: Ego Placate
Level 26: Sonic Device (Rank 2)
Level 29: Ego Surge (Nimble Mind)
Level 32: Masterful Dodge
Level 35:
Level 38:

Travel Powers:
Level 6: Mach Speed (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 35:

Specializations:
Dexterity: Combat Training (3/3)
Dexterity: Gear Utilization (2/3)
Dexterity: Deadly Aim (2/3)
Dexterity: Quick Reflexes (3/3)
Warden: Slaughter (3/3)
Warden: Ruthless (2/2)
Warden: The Best Defense (1/3)

*Rider Kick!

PS. Don't listen to this 70 STR baloney, the knockback resist is always nice and it still gives you extra damage even if it starts getting less efficient after 70.