I didn't want to make a thread untill I'd hit cap and done everything I wanted to with the class, so i'm making one now. There are a few threads which complain about the class in general but are really only focused on a particular aspect of gameplay, so I'm going to try and break it down and be more specific, doing this in sections:

PvE Assault Levelling

The changes to suit power, Tac Strike and Neutralize feel really good, getting rid of cooldowns on those abilities and allowing us to burst with a full bar feels much more assassin-archetype-like, and really works well with the new MOO mechanic. I had fun levelling the class and the way damage dealing abilities work together is a lot more satisfying than it was last build. Tac Strike now feels like it hurts. In terms of potency I felt strong through all of the levelling content, open world mobs were dying extremely quickly and were a little too trivial, but my experience with other classes suggests this is not a Stalker problem. After level 25 TTK on pretty much every solo mob was 6 seconds - 1 second waiting for the MOO, and a kill before the MOO expires.

PvE Assault Group Content

As the group content involves the new improved Assault damage skills, dealing damage in dungeons and adventures felt good. Comparing against other classes it would seem that our single target DPS is satisfyingly high when we are able to stay on the back of a mob, most likely the highest in the game, however very few encounters allow for this as most of the group content is outright hostile towards melee DPS. With plenty of mobs that use PBAoE's our uptime on bosses is far lower than the ranged class's uptime, and a few encounters seem like they were designed by people who exclusively play Spellslinger. (Last boss in Riot in the Void? Who designed that?).

Suit Power initially feels too scarce in group fights, meaning that the amount of time spent pressing only Quick Strike is too high, however after the T4 bonuses come into play and we pick up Punish this sorts itself out. By the time I reached Skullcano abilities flowed nicely into eachother, Suit Power felt just about right and the gameplay was enjoyable. I see from the ability list that at higher levels we get a reduction in cost for Tac Strike as well as bonus regen on Quick Strike, and AMPs also hint that they may increase available Suit Power.... This concerns me a bit. Suit Power is supposed to be a limit resource, that's why there's a bar for it, the bar currently offers a lot of interesting gameplay relating to storing and releasing burst damage, if you make Suit Power too abundant then you break that gameplay. Please try not to go overboard on the SP regen, Tactical Strike should feel both expensive and powerful, that is only possible if its use is limited in some way. If SP regen reaches the level where we're pressing TS every other second then it ceases to be a powerful burst skill, and just becomes the baseline amount of damage that we expect to do all the time.

The 15SP regen on QuickStrike when below 25% SP is probably a bad idea, as it is likely to change gameplay significantly, encouraging Stalker to keep their SP as low as possible and use abilities as soon as they become available in order to benefit, rather than using them at the correct time when they can get behind something. I'd rethink that one.

PvE Tank Group Content

Stalker tank has issues. At least in the lv15-20 content they are practically unusuable, taking significantly more damage than the heavy armour classes. I have full tanking gear including some Skullcano blues and the full set of tanking skills, and when downscaling to 20 for Kel Vorath I am still less sturdy than an Engineer with zero tanking equipment. Having killed myself repeatedly against trash with a combat log open in both Standard and Evasive stances i'm confident in saying that the Evasive stance Deflect bonus does not work, it is not simply a visual issue. However I also think this is only part of the problem, as the 2nd boss in Kel Voreth is white hitting me for 3k against an 8k health pool. Relying on RNG Deflect against a boss that takes over a 3rd of my life per hit does not sound like a good idea, class does not function as a tank for this lv20 content. I'm not sure how much of the problem is Stalker and how much of it is just excessive white damage in this dungeon, but i've had Engies and Warriors with no tank gear take over for me on this dungeon and do better at staying alive.

On a brighter note, I had no issues tanking Skullcano with a properly geared healer at 35, even without the Deflect bonus. To some degree I think this is because Skullcano damage is tuned very differently and white damage is much less significant at the scaling level, it doesn't seem to be a particularly difficult dungeon. Deflect is a bonus that will scale up well, but the lower level content/Stalker tanking needs looking at.

Questing in the open world with Support skills is now completely out of the question as the damage has been crippled from the last build, so I gave up on that immediately and won't both mentioning it further. As for the design of the support skills, tanking is a little dull in terms of ability use and feels a bit like cooldown whack-a-mole at the moment. I'd love to imagine a design that mirrors the Assault design where we can spend SP constantly for sustained mitigation, or pool SP for some significant active defense when we think we need it. Instead Steadfast seems like a button you just want to hit whenever it lights up, doesn't seem like I have enough control over it.

PvP

Right.. So Assault Stalker in PvP feels good, in terms of how the class plays, but feels bad in the sense that it's incredibly ineffective at the types of PvP being offered right now. BGs are dominated by ranged AoE and even 1on1 or world PvP is not exactly a Stalker's strength, as the long cooldown innate abilities of other classes dominate these fights. Stalker can hurt, their single target damage when they can get behind something is very significant, but they have an absolute mare of a time sticking to anything in PvP, and the role of 'Melee class who deals single target damage while wearing cloth-equivalent armour' is not so much a role as it is a list of shortcomings.

I said that the class feels good in terms of how it plays, and by that I mean that trying to get ontop of people and stick to targets is enjoyable precisely because it is really challenging. Being a mobile class with the shortest range in the game trying to bounce after people and making full use of the game's excellent movement is very satisfying, and I have a lot more fun doing that than standing 30 yards away AoE'ing everything with Wild Barrage or Bird Strike.The high mobility requirement exists because Stalker CC is not very potent at this level, they don't have much that will give them an easy time melee'ing a target. Even Tether which is their strongest lockdown allows for a lot of movement that can dodge their short ranged melee. With their main PvP impact coming from a fairly small positional cone Stalker lacks the faceroll friendly damage of say, Warrior Spin to Win, they have to work for it. This is great, I would prefer not to have this changed.

I'd rather not make their CC any more powerful, as chasing things is fun. I don't think their damage is lacking at all once they get on a target, and they might be in danger of 2-3 shotting cloth at 35 if damage were to be boosted significantly, which isn't a good idea. Their reach is terrible but it's also part of what makes the class fun and challenging to use, so i'd like to keep that. Instead my suggestions would be to increase the availability, but not the potency of their control, and maybe look at their armour as well (They don't exactly have a lot of advantages that justify their low mitigation).

Looking at the later game upgrades that we do not yet have, it seems as if the intention is for Stalker CC to become far more powerful late game. Upgraded Collapse roots, Cripple roots, Pounce if it ever hits something roots, Tether hits 2 targets, Clone snares, there is an AMP that implies we'll be able to root people just by dashing... I'm not sure I like this. Roots all over the place removes the challenge of chasing and trying to connect with short ranged melee, root in general seems to be an overly powerful CC right now that has no breakout, and i'm not fond of it at all. I would feel much better if PvP were kept as mobile as it is at this level. To that end i'd prefer if these bonuses focused on reducing the cost and cooldown of Stalker abilities so that they are able to use them more often, rather than just turning them into very powerful CC.

I quite like the unusual role reversal Wildstar has played with the archetype, usually this is the class that relies on having big cooldowns up to win fights that they pick on their own terms with stealth, but in Wildstar it's the other classes that have long powerful cooldowns, and the Stalker is good to go whenever. This flips the world PvP gank scenario around and i'm interested to see how that plays out. How about we go all the way with this theme and reduce the medium duration cooldowns of things like False Retreat and Pounce? Lower cooldowns make the LAS feel less restrictive, we've already improved things a lot by taking the cooldown off Tac Strike and Neut, I would love to see a class with a full bar's worth of buttons that are regularly available but only situationally useful.