Hello Stalker-Fans. Due to the Misery coming out, I decided to work myself through Stalkers and am looking at various builds in Smurfy's and the forum. Now my question in general, does it make sense to try and pilot a Stalker as a brawler, meaning with 3-5 SRM6s for example? Or is a Stalker just too sluggish to make the best use out of it?
The biggest problem the stalker has in the brawl is that it doesn't really have shield arms. However, it just means you're going to have all your weapons when you get cored CT in today's world of Sniper Online and CT-seeking missiles. What the stalker lacks in in it's ability to move its arms, it makes up for in hardpoints. This mech tends to focus on alpha strikes; without a ballistic slot (and Misery fixes this a bit) it tends to run a little low on either maximum or sustained DPS compared to an Atlas. However, where the Atlas generally has balanced builds, it can't boat to the extent a Stalker can. 4 or 5 SRM6s backed by MLs is no joke in the brawl. A LL or LPL boat can also do quite a bit of damage up close. Even post-missile-nerf, I've seen the SRM volley unleash devastating effects on the enemy. When BAP change hits, 4-5 SSRMs will make better work of lights than anything but a Streakapult, and this is with lasers backing them up. Stalkers can definitely be brawlers. It's my favorite use for them. As a side note, the Atlas is supposed to be the scariest thing on the battlefield. When you see a D-DC with 2xLL, 2xLBX, and 3xSRMs, it certainly makes you a little scared. But that is nothing next to the fear you see when people see a Stalker with a weapon list so long it goes beyond the paperdoll.
I love brawling with my Stalker, in fact I put it back into a brawler build inspite of the current meta of all Large Lasers or all PPCs. I'm currently running 2 Large Lasers, 4 Medium Lasers, and 20 SRM tubes on a standard 275. Its pretty solid, punchy out to a decent range with the large lasers and just gets deadlier the closer you get. So, yeah, I love brawling in my Stalker. I actually find it to be better at the brawl then my Atlas as the Atlas losses the AC torso way to easily and the Stalker can easily spread damage over all three torso areas.
Agreed. While the Stalker does come across as very ponderous, and does wonders as a fire-support platform, the sheer number of weapons slots compared to most other mechs allows you to put a large number of weapons on board to provide a fairly balanced loadout, either "boating" with energy weapons, or a more diverse mix to handle all ranges. My highest scoring mech is a 5M Stalker carrying LRMs w/Artemis, medium lasers, and streaks which allows me to both provide fire support and give a decent account of myself in a brawl, while also carrying a standard engine for better survivability.
