Author's Note: Due to the character limit, I will be replying to my own post a few times to get the whole review up. On paper, it's just shy of 30,000 Characters, so bear with me and read to the end. Please leave your comments as replies. Edit: Wow. This post is getting a lot of attention on the sudden. Thank you for bumping this thread and leaving your feedback. I really do appreciate it! Going into TTK, It was pretty much a no-brainer that my Hunter was going to become my most active character for the first time since I first hit the level cap in vanilla. I had fallen out of love with my hunter, not so much because I was inexperienced with the nature of hunter classes despite the fact I had been a hunter since launch, but more from the fact that the hunter’s innate abilities demanded more skill than I had yet acquired. Once I saw TTK trailers that previewed the new Nightstalker class, I brushed the dust off my hunter and actively set out to acquire the skills I didn’t yet have in preparation. Gunslingers enjoy the thrill of danger, putting down tough enemies with precision hits with their knives and Golden Gun. Bladedancers deceive their enemies to lower their guard and then ambush them, laying waste to their foes and immediately removing themselves from the danger. Both of these subclasses have an underlying core mechanic to them that helps them to be unique. Nightstalker borrows from these ideas and moves in a completely different direction: Full on support of their allies. They inherited a mixture of the Gunslinger’s precision and the Bladedancer’s deception and somehow made it entirely their own thing. Let’s examine what this class offers and figure out how well it holds up in the current meta. -Grenades- The Nightstalker borrows Spike Grenades from Defenders and Vortex Grenades from Warlocks. Both of these are useful in their own ways, what with Spike Grenades being able to lockout hallways by placing grenades on walls and Vortex Grenades forcing enemies out of open spaces with their large area of effect. They also bring their own grenade, the Voidwall Grenade, into the mix. Out of these options, I have to say the Voidwall grenade is my least favorite. Being able to deploy a long wall of void fire is awesome and one of the few grenades that can accurately flush enemies from around corners or out of cover. However, this wall is always generated to the left and right of where-ever you put it, making how and where you place it far more important than anything else. It does stop advancing enemies (Sword Vandals, Captains, Thralls) more effectively than a Vortex or Spike Grenade, but it is far less effective in the general scheme of things due to an incredible reliance on the exact orientation of the grenade when it detonates. Add to this the fact that enemy AI always forces enemies to move in the shortest path to get out of the effect and you have a grenade that doesn't get to deal much damage due to the narrow design of the wall. Those people familiar with the Vortex Grenade from Warlock will find that this is probably the best grenade in Nightstalker’s arsenal. It affects a good sized area and does reliable damage, can still lock out advancing enemies with careful placement, and can damage pesky enemies in cover or around corners. The voidwall grenade does the latter two things more effectively, but the Vortex Grenade is simply better in the all-around category because you can always get it roughly where you want and achieve the same end effect. If you’re someone who like excellent damage potential, the Spike Grenade has the voidwall and vortex grenade beat in spades. This comes as a rather hefty cost as it affects a much smaller area and has limited reach. It can still lock out enemies advancing enemies in tight spaces, but is generally better used on those slow-moving, larger targets since they are the most likely to stand in the affected area for the full duration. Unlike the voidwall and vortex grenades, the Spike grenade is a rather terrible option for flushing out enemies in cover due to its small effective area and is better suited for enclosed environments where wall placement is available. Verdict: 7/10. The end result of these options is a clear emphasis on exploiting the enemy’s biggest defense: Cover. All three of these grenades can force enemies from cover and most do it really effectively. They all deal respectable damage and have long durations to go with them. The nightstalker can bolster their grenades by doubling the duration with Lockdown, making their area control second to none. These all work well in the design of Nightstalker as a Support Class as controlling a zone and forcing enemies from cover make enemies easy targets for fireteam members.The three grenades create a very diverse feel, giving each one a situation in which it will be stronger than the others. Of the hunter subclasses, the Nightstalker Grenades appear to have been given careful thought and consideration since they all work within the class design. However, Spike Grenade remains the red-headed step child due to its reliance on tight quarters to really shine. -Melee- The traditional formula of the melee attack being this close range attack has been abandoned in favor of a more interesting idea: A smoke bomb. Why is this interesting? It’s a fricken smoke bomb. It is a mid-ranged, multi-function ability that occupies the Melee Skill Slot. It blinds enemies, leaving them helpless and staggering (in PvE) or just shooting blindly while they retreat (PvP), has a respectable duration and deals damage over time, even if only a little bit. The initial explosion of the bomb even deals damage to enemies, which is a nice touch. This doesn’t really have an effect on Ultras, so don’t count on it to save you against them. Options for these smoke bombs are Envenomed, Snare, or Vanish in Smoke. Each has a clever use that helps to really vary how this skill functions. Unlike the melee attacks for Gunslinger and Bladedancer, the options for smoke completely alter how it works and all of them for the better. Envenomed adds a poison element to the smoke bomb, which heavily ramps up the damage output to levels that rival a proper grenade. Each second that an enemy remains in the smoke, they will take damage equal to the initial damage caused by the smoke bomb. This is probably one of the most potent abilities in the Nightstalker’s arsenal, especially since the enemies in PvE will just helplessly wobble around in the smoke as the poison eats away at their health. In PvP, this perk is less useful since players will actively retreat out of smoke if they are affected, or they are more likely already gunned down by the nightstalker or a nearby ally. Vanish in Smoke is easily my favorite perk to use with Smoke. Any allies caught in the smoke turn invisible for about 4 to 5 seconds, which is pretty handy at getting out of sticky spots or trying to avoid attention so you/an ally can revive someone. There are some pretty heavy limitations that go along with this, like how the effective range of the smoke cloud is reduced, the effect no longer blinding enemies, and how it no longer lingers like it normally would. It may also be my perception of this particular effect, but it seems that the radius of the smoke cloud is also about 30% smaller than with any other perk. I take comfort in knowing I have an on-demand stealth skill that I can use to drop attention to myself when I need to, so it definitely a strong support perk. It does take away from the field support aspect of this skill, so it is something to keep in mind. The last perk in the tree is called Snare. Honestly, this is really the least useful of the perks for Smoke. It lets you place your smoke bomb on walls and floors where it effectively becomes a proximity mine, triggering when an enemy gets close enough. You can think of this as a sort of modified Tripmine Grenade from the Gunslinger tree but far less potent. While this perk has some PvP potential, it is less a support skill and more a personal one. Like tripmine, people can see them and detonate them with a well-placed shot, but unlike trip mine, they have little to no lethality other than being a bit annoying and taking minor damage if someone happens to wander into them. It has its place in PvP, but Envenomed is a far stronger perk for both PvP and PvE. If you are a fan of tripmine, you will like this skill but be prepared to supplement it somehow. Verdict: 9/10. Part of me feels that this high ranking is somewhat undeserved and granted only because of the range and scope of smoke. In reality, it is easily the best ‘melee’ skill in the game since it has reach well beyond the melee skills of all the subclasses in the game, in addition to being an Area of Effect. It has very potent damage, the ability to briefly disorient enemies, and a nightstalker has the ability to completely forgo combat use with this skill in favor of turning the entire fireteam invisible. There are two reasons why I can’t give this a verdict of 10/10. The first being Snare, which has its uses in PvP but is generally far too weak by comparison to Vanish in Smoke and Envenomed in every way. The second reason is that Smoke is actually too flexible. To move from a potent ranged attack to a mildly potent stealth skill is a drastic shift in function and it comes with its own set of downsides, like a smaller affected area, the loss of enemy disorientation, and a rather limited duration. Given this, it wouldn’t be fair for me to give this skill a 10/10.