Introduction

First off a little about me, I've been playing MMOs for 10+ years, I have played every type of class and spec there is but always find myself coming back to tanking. I'm an experienced guild, raid, and pvp group leader who enjoys theory-crafting and designing efficient play-styles. Most of this build has come from me searching the web, theory-crafting, and testing on my own character.

In this guide I'm going to cover how I use my abilities and tanking style. The only thing I've not created myself here that you'll see me talk about below is "Dash Synergy" (Thanks to Kaevus and his stalker guide on this site! :p) So without further ado, let's get to it!


NOTE: I understand this is getting a lot of controversy due to the fact that I use an assault ability for tanking. Let me put that to rest here, this build has been tested and works extremely well for threat gen and mitigation, I've been told by multiple healers that my HP stays solid and steady and I'm not unpredictably squishy at any point during fights. Also this build is not a requirement, if you don't like it don't use it. If you want to offer any helpful criticism then please by all means comment or PM me. I just get tired of hearing that this build is trash with no better reasons as to why besides that I use punish.

Level 50 Abilities/AMPs(No Gems)

This Chapter is basically going into why I use the abilities I do before I had any gems spent into upping my abilities or AMPs

(MORE COMING SOON!)

Full Abilities

Something new about wildstar that WoW tried to do but not well, Abilities are always in flux. Because of this I have in this build change recommendations depending on the group build and the fight itself.

- {base} Main purpose is for interruptions and the stun can be used for CC when soloing.

- {Base} Bring your foes together against you while shedding their iArmor(I'm Anti-MAC ;) )

- {Tier 4} The tooltip on this site doesn't tell you that the base of this ability only gets the suit power gain if you're below 35 suit power already. Really good for damage and thus, threat. But ONLY use this when you're below 35 Suit power! I use Aura Mastery Addon to help keep up with this. Also your DPS will love you for the T4 Physical Damage Debuff!

- {Tier 8} Does really good damage for a tank, and with it's threat being 50% more effective this makes it an awesome ability to keep up. This is a channel but it can be canceled or interrupted by the use of another ability and you can move while using it, so don't hesitate to tap something else when it procs.

- {Tier 4} When you're out of SP and you don't have any procs (decimate, punish) spam this. Try to put one in-between every possible ability to help keep your dash regen strong for that Synergy

- {Base} 1 of only 2 CD's you have as a tank (weird I know). I don't boost this because although the extra deflect is nice the T4 rank is blah since the CD on this ability is short anyway and the T8 just makes this ability trash IMO. I generally try to keep this on CD just because it's useful for forcing a

- {Tier 8} Yet another Debuff to put on targets! This not only helps you stay alive but give your more SP for use with , and ups your Support Power for a larger threat pool! KEEP ON CD!

Full AMPs

Stalkers are meant to be unseen and un-hitable, so they naturally boast a high crit and deflect rate. Using AMPs to encourage this makes them a great tank for the game, if a little bit complex.

Dash Synergy:
The idea behind this is to KEEP DASHING! You're going to be doing this anyway while tanking so why not use the extra benefits provided? "Dash for heals" and "Avoidance Mastery" Increase your healing provided as well as reduce the damage done for short periods of time, realistically you should be able to keep both of those buffs up at a constant rate throughout the fight.

Tech Mastery over Support Mastery. Although Support gives you more numbers it has a much lower chance of procing than Tech, therefore Tech > Support.

Empowered Attack Mastery gives you a nice boost to the shield regen considering how much you're going to be hitting things. Most of your attacks are ranged out to hit multiple things as well as hit multiple times so it makes a nice fit for good shield regen. Plus I've not found any better arguments for other AMPs of it's tier.

Riptose is there for the weak geared, if you can't get your strikethrough up where you need it to start this helps.

I won't bother explaining the T3 support rank (including and why I didn't use it) because quite frankly, if you can't figure out why it's bad then move to a different class.

Change Recommendations

8th ability:
Use it for whatever the party needs, While soloing I generally use for a 3rd anti-iArmor, but you can also get or for taunts or whatever else your feel like would most beneficial to the group.

If you have another Stalker in your party:
Change from T4 to Base and from T4 to T8 - Still use punish to help with SP gain, this makes that extra in-between every possible ability not only help the dash regen, but also helps the SP regen.

Adjust in playstyle(I have actually found this to be better but will update the guide later):
If you don't like the not having T8 buff from then I'd recommend changing to T4 and keeping T4 Mainly because only gives the debuff while channeling and therefore won't offer the constant dps increase for everyone.


AMPs:
Further end game I can see making the change to do away with Riptose and Lifesteal to get Quick Reboot, I currently use Riptose to help with the lack of quality of gear (reaching the strikethrough rating needed) and Lifesteal is just good filler for the last 2 points, but once I no longer need that strikethrough rating I'll likely change over to Quick Reboot because who doesn't want faster shields!?

Note: More to come as I find them.

Usage

This is a rough guideline for the ability usage, feel free to play with it all as most of this changes based on fight and instance.

Dash(refresh CDs) / Steadfast > Punish(Below 35SP) > Decimate > Frenzy > Whiplash.

Above should give a decent explanation of when to use abilities for fights, again use your own judgement for these.

Gear:

This is subject to change but I like it so far as it fits for what's needed. I've not included any Primary stats to the list due to all they affect is secondary stats. And all in game math is based on secondary stats unless specifically stated. Keep Milestones in mind however when looking at gear. Just because one piece says 700 base health doesn't make it better than 40 grit IF that 40 is going to get you a milestone (MATH: 40 grit = 560HP + (1 milestone = 150HP) = 710HP) < This may be a minimalist example but you get the idea.

Critical Deflect Chance to 15% > Support Power > Armor > Max Health / Shield Capacity > Deflect > Strikethrough > Crit > All Else

FIN

Basically this is my guide, please feel free to comment on it or ask questions! I'm always open to more theory, and willing to look into anything extra for the sake of efficiency. I'll try to make sure this guide stays up to date as I find changes or more things I think could be useful. Also expect a DPS guide in the next upcoming month or so.