The heat cost is only lowered so long as the one "cell" is used (I forget the name but it gives us the armor penetration). When I turned that cell off my heat cost for Tracer Missle jumped up to 19 heat. Not sure if that is an undocumented change to Tracer Missle's heat cost or what exactly but the talent itself does reduce the heat cost.

Here are a few ideas I think would help our class, and overall class balance. 1. Slows need to be more normalized, they should slow for roughly the same percentage and have roughly the same amount of uptime (ie. marauders do not need a 12 sec slow with no CD for 2 rage, basically perma-slow) 2. Why on earth we are the only class with a single buff (tracer lock) that can do one of two effects is beyond me, other classes just get a brand new proc, they don't have to choose between dmg and healing. 3. Rocket punch is not (I.M.O.) a mercenary ability, give it to powertechs and replace those talents with useful stuff like a short-ranged root/slow or both (obviously if we get this we wouldn't need a slow on unload anymore). 4. Rocket boost could have a second or three shaved from its CD, if it provided a short (2 sec) immunity to leaps, pulls, etc. that would be great. 5. "cast" abilities have an increbile weakness in terms of PVP play which causes lots of balancing issues. When you rely on cast abilites and you are constantly interuppted through the various stuns knockbacks and interrupts in the game you can get completely shut down with little to no skill. It isnt fun at all, especially when 99% of melee stuff thrown at you is not interruptable. I would remove interrupts from the game (pvpers can still use their stuns knockbacks etc for interrupts) and move abilities towards instant abilites with short CDs. You can still leave a few channeled abilities. Anytime I come across a commando/merc type elite in PVE I laugh the whole fight cause half their damage fizzles out against my interrupts, they are cakewalks. Ive tried multiple classes in this game and the most fun ive yet had as a dps is my madness sorc because I love being ranged and I hate being interrputed all the time (all I really worry about with him is his channeled lightning). 6. Obviously if #5 is implemented (which I doubt, but hey I can dream) ability damage would have to be tweaked again to get it back in line, as would some boss encounters but I feel the result would be worth it.

Ok so Tracer Missile is essentially a replacement ability for power shot, much like the 31 pointer in our shared tree is a replacement for explosive dart. So why is it that the damage dealt by Tracer Missle is less than Power Shot damage. (Yes I understand Power Shot doesn't grant me all my buffs and all that stuff.) I'm just wondering why an ability that I have spend a talent point on does less damage than a base ability.

I recently picked up my lvl 27 Sorcerer from pre-launch, respecced him madness and have been subsequently dominating warzones left and right. Bottom line here is I have fun with my Sorcerer. Previously he was lightning and wasn't nearly as much fun. I am posting this here because my Merc (arsenal) actually has a decent collection of PVP gear (neither top-of-the-line nor worst of the worst) and he is utter crap, I feel like a walking target wearing no armor and my damage output is horrendous. 1v1 against anything I barely scratch them, healers laugh in-between healing themselves (literally....). Maybe it isn't the class and I just suck at playing a Merc, otherwise I just don't understand how I can dominate battlegrounds with my madness Sorc or my Healing Operative. TLDR I have alot of fun AND do very well in Warzones on both my Operative (Heals) and my Sorcerer (Madness), why is playing my Bounty Hunter(Arsenal) like beating my head against the wall repeatedly... I greatly enjoyed leveling him throughout the game and damage was never a problem, as soon as I went to Warzones though it became painful for me, I don't even want to log onto him anymore. Here is hoping Bioware will show some love to Arsenal in the PVP area, maybe Arsenals with maxed out expertise ratings are doing fine but w/o it we are suffering.

I could easily see the sheild going down to 8 heat (or alternatively costing a few stacks,6-10, of supercharged gas perhaps?). As an arsenal merc I would love to see some additional ways to vent heat during my rotation, examples would be talents that vent heat automatically every x seconds (like the pyro tree), rapid shots has a 33% chance to vent 2 heat, change our existing talents to all missle hits have a x% chance to vent 8 heat instead of crits have a 100% chance, or even remove the 3 sec CD on that talent.

On your point #2, Heat signatures on your target also leave them vulnerable to rail shot.

I have been using the tatooine commendation pistols for my Merc since I got them. They remind me of the pistol Han Solo uses and if i was going to be duel-wielding pistols I wanted them to match each other.