Of course you are doing well in the lowbie bracket. You are in the 40's. Any class will do well when you are in the 40's. Get back to us when you get in the 50's bracket. You cannot make any conclusions in lowbie pvp.

Well, it is 16% per blaster bolt. So a thing like rapid shots will be around 64-96% (depending on misses and defenses). Certainly not 100%, but not as bad as 16%.

Misses are just that, misses. Your offhand attack is below 100% and will miss even with 0 defensive capabilities. When an ability does not hit due to a player's defenses you will see deflect or dodge (there is also absorb, but that is due to shields), not miss.

You can level anything, and pyro is effective. Where pyro falls short are drawn out boss battles in ops (which is really just end game stuff). In that situation arsenal is far superior (assuming they fix heatseekers). Yet for leveling, pyro is perfectly fine and a much better pvp spec.

You will still want the set piece bonuses, so you will be stuck with getting them initially unless you are fine with the battlemaster armor mods. Then you need to work on getting pieces that fit what you want. For the most part eliminator gear is poorly developed. So you will have to grind even more gear to make it the way you want.

Nope, both use incendiary missile. The only other dot a merc will use is fusion missle, and that is very rare since it's a really high heat ability.

I know it builds resolve. I am guessing a full resolve bar would also ignore it.

There is so much wrong there I don't even know where to start. railshot procs for pyro mercs. Pyro mercs don't put heat sigs on a target, arsenal does. Next, railshot does not ignore the GCD. On the other hand, retaliation does for marauders. Heatseekers and railshot cannot hit at the same time (unless it takes 1.5 seconds for heatseekers to reach the target). The only reason people talk about railshot as a burst ability is it is an instacast and hits right away. No waiting for a channel. Yet it does not ignore the GCD. Mercs still have to wait 1.5 seconds for the next ability. As for heatseekers, it gets a 5% buff per heat sig. The problem was Bioware had a bug where it took into account all heat signatures. So if a person was getting hit by two mercs using tracer, it would buff heatseekers more than the max 25%. Yet when they fixed it they removed the buff completely. So now heatseekers get zero buff, which is a huge nerf. As for the whole maraduer thing, you can't simply look at what was buffed. You have to realize multiple classes got hit with a nerf bat while marauder didn't change much. That in essence took a class that was already at or near the top in dps, along with a crazy amount of defensive cooldowns, and buffed them in comparison to most other classes. The classes that were left mostly untouched ended up getting a buff. Hence why everyone is pretty much rerolling marauder or assassin or powertech. Everyone knows they are the most effective dps classes now, and dps rules warzones post 1.2.

I have stated this many times along with the fact systems calibrations and improved vents should be swapped. It makes too much sense I guess.

Yep, sadly I did the same thing. It's really poor in a game like this where it takes forever to build up a character to BiS gear only to have it nerfed to the point of being a liability. BTW...my other character I had well geared was a sorc healer. Yeah, I got destroyed by the nerf bat (although sorc healer was op).

It's not about mobility, it's the fact you put out more damage thanks to abilities in your trees. Doesn't really matter as any merc doing PVE should be running arsenal anyway.

I see what you are doing. You are throwing in a worthless powershot. Railshot should be used right after incendiary. Then unload. Then railshot. I am sorry, but you are gimping yourself. Powershot is a horrible attack if you are not using it to get another possible railshot. BTW, you cannot go back to TD at that point. You are at 10.5 seconds. It's a 15 second cooldown. You have 3 more attacks to fill in. I understand what you are trying to say, but it does not work out well in theory. If you hit railshot first and then go unload you will hit for more damage in 3 seconds than powershot then railshot (the first 1 seconds of unload is as powerful as your powershot). You might hit for more for 1 second or so. Yet you have also pushed back your procs on railshot, which is hurting you in a fight that lasts longer. You are gimping your damage on a target in hopes for the rare time you might actually kill someone with that first railshot and that 1 second or so saves your life (it's not upping your damage since you still have to wait on the GCD from railshot). That is a very, very rare occurance for which you are gimping your rotation. On top of that, you may have just wasted a railshot proc. Powershot is not a priority attack and should not take precedence over unload and especially not over railshot. If you really need that burst to finish someone off at that exact point and it will save your life, simply cancel the unload channel and hit your railshot. As for not using AOE, um, why? You have some good AOE attacks. Use them. They are not simply "hey I want extra damage" abilities. Your DFA will hit harder on even a single target than most of your abilities. Fusion missile is one of the hardest hitting attacks you have (heat is the issue here, so thermal sensor override used with it is a plus). Not using AOE is not being a team player. Honestly, it's just plain lazy. AOE's have major roles to play and should never be ignored.

First of all, PVE or PVP? It looks like PVP since you took pinning fire (pretty much useless in PVE). In that case, you want afterburners and finish out barrage in the next 3 levels. Get rid of med tech and put that one and next 2 in hired muscle. Then there is not much to choose from that is that great. Take advanced targeting and then endurance. I prefer all of that over med tech. Your ability to heal is minimal, and in battle you will probably only get off 1 heal with an instacast (anything else is a waste). The rare times you use it more than once where you are technically in battle but not fighting will be rare. If you are PVE you don't want pinning fire, jet escape, or afterburners. As for your rotation, it's pretty simple although pvp throws a wrench in the works due to interrupts. Anyway, the base rotation is... tracer, tracer, tracer, unload (even if barrage is not proc'd), heatseekers, tracer, tracer, railshot. After your first unload you will want to use unload any time it procs (ribbons around your body). It hits hard and keeps heat down due to being a 3 second channel. You can also use fusion missile combined with thermal sensor override when that is up (2 min cooldown). The rest of the time it's all tracer and then heatseekers or railshot when they come off cooldown. Now, pvp is the big problem due to interrupts. Let me know if you are PVP or PVE.

One note on your rotation...you might want to save fusion missile for later in your rotation. Burnout allows elemental dots to hit harder (30% buff) when the target is below 30% health. Since fusion missile's dot only lasts 6 seconds you will want to use it later in your rotation for it to hit maximum damage. Of course you can use it early if the target is near others to get the benefit of the fusion missile aoe. Yet if you are only on a single target, it's best to save it for when the target is lower on health (around 40-50% since the initial hit will take them into or near the burnout range and then your dot hits harder while you finish them off).

You cannot replace accuracy with power on the enhancements, so you cannot swap them. You can swap out accuracy with surge or alacrity. Healers already get alacrity instead of accuracy, and I am not a fan of alacrity (some arsenal mercs think it's good, but I don't). So you are left with surge. See above for that.

is stupid. No terminal velocity = idiotic for arsenal. Might as well go pyro since the main plus to arsenal is sustained damage. Without terminal velocity, arsenal mercs run into heat issues big time. Keep in mind you are agreeing with a guy who swears up and down arsenal cannot use railshot on a target unless he is burning or incapacitated. Meaning he is either a terrible arsenal merc or doesn't even play one. I would be wary of agreeing with anything he says.

I read a while ago one of the devs responding to why some classes have accuracy stacked on their gear. The reason he gave is they want the class to be a tank killer, and more accuracy negates defensive abilities of tanks. As we all know, in practice, this is rather poor. The extra few percentage points of accuracy makes little difference in getting through the defensive cooldowns from some classes. Heck, I have ran with really high accuracy and I still see deflects of railshot from sorcs (which only have 5% defense chance and no cooldown that would increase their deflection chance). I mention railshot since offhand attacks are still below 100% accuracy, but railshot is a special ranged attack and I have it at 115%. So the reduction in a classes defense rating certainly does not work well if someone with a 5% defense chance can still deflect something with 115% accuracy. On top of that, stacking for only tanks (which are a low percentage in PVP) is kind of stupid. The main question is how many more attacks hit with the offhand, and is that offhand damage (which is minimal in comparison to the mainhand) worth the loss in damage you get across the board on crits with surge. IMO, get all the war hero gear. Then replace a few enhancements with power/surge enhancements from other classes until you get over 70% surge. From there it's debatable if more surge is worth it. Certainly once you reach 75% surge there is no point in any more since it takes a ton to even move it up a little bit. Anyway, once you hit 70% surge you should be good and then let the rest be accuracy. The accuracy percentage that leaves you at I forget, but it should be above 100% for ranged (110% for special ranged and tech) assuming you have a couple points in advanced targeting. BTW...for pyro mercs, accuracy is slightly more important since they use offhand attacks more often.

Yup. I replied but missed yours. Not using high velocity gas cylinder with arsenal is beyond stupid. The main reason is heat. You have to have HVGC in order to get the benefit from terminal velocity. I have accidentally ran with the wrong cylinder from time to time since I switch back and forth between arsenal and pyro (arsenal for PVE, pyro for PVP). Heat is awful on arsenal without using HVGC.

You are wrong, plain and simple. as long as a player has a heat signature on them (applied by tracer) you can use railshot on them. You need to look at the tracer missile skill in the arsenal skill tree. and I quote... "Heat signatures leave the target vulnerable to railshot" The tracer missile skill, granted by specing into it (something all arsenal mercs do), allows railshot to be used on any target that has been hit once by a tracer.

That makes no sense at all. First of all, unload is way better than powershot. You should use it before any powershot. Second, unload has a better proc percentage to railshot and proc's it right away instead of at the end (which mean if interrupted it's not as big of a deal). Third, what does aoe have to do with any of that? Unload and powershot are not aoe attacks. Finally, you just ruined your unload proc (which is the higher percentage) if you indeed did proc with powershot. Powershot proc's at the end. So railshot uses 1 global, and then you channel unload. It won't proc railshot since you are not at 6 seconds from the last proc, so your rotation is impossible. The best thing is to use unload, then railshot, then rapid shots, then powershot. That powershot will have a chance to proc railshot (I throw in the rapid shots since a powershot at that point cannot proc railshot and it keep heat down).

Pyro are not difficult to keep the heat down and is much more effective than arsenal. First of all, use thermal sensor override every time it's up (the cooldown is lowered by a skill in the tree). I have it marco'd to incendiary missile on my keyboard. Next, you can spec into reduced heat when stunned or incapacitated. Happens all the time in PVP. Finally, rapid shots for pyro are very effective. It's pretty much the best pvp spec. Sadly Powertech pyros are better (I won't go into it all since I have done so in many other threads) and merc pyros are certainly not the best dps in the game. Yet it can still be an effective class.

For marauders, if they use their 30m jump on you knockback right away. Only rage spec has another jump, and that is only 10m. He will be slowed, and he will have little raged built. In that time incendiary missile, TD, and railshot while moving further away from him. At best he will get in a saber throw or obliterate if he is rage spec (10m jump). Then he won't have any rage. So probably either a rage builder or ravage is next. If ravage, get the heck away if possible (it's their only channel and lasts 3 seconds, easy to recognize). Now it's a dps race where he has a huge advantage, but he will also be really low health wise. You should be able to get him to the point of using undying rage. Electro dart, move away, and then finish off with rapid shots. That is the best I can tell you, and that will win you some. On the other hand if he has built up fury (which they have a cooldown that can do that instantly), was able to get on you without using their 30m jump, or jet boost is on cooldown you are pretty much screwed. Run, hope to get help, and maybe pray. Those are pretty much your options at that point. They of course can also use 1 of their seemingly 100 defensive cooldowns to make the fight even tougher. Cloak of pain really sucks for pyros since dots refresh it. That whole ability is completely OP. There is also saber ward (although that at least is a 3 min cooldown), obfuscate which lower your ranged accuracy 90%, force camo, and of course undying rage as mentioned (they always use it right before they die since it takes half their health). Assassins you have to watch for them glowing. Don't use stun or knockback at that point. I don't know assassins as much, but that is the #1 thing to do. Also, if they are deception (I think that is the spec name) and knock you down coming out of stealth, don't waste your cc breaker. Lie there and take it (just like you should do with ops). Get in a knockback if they are not glowing. Again, kite while they are slowed (of course they have force sprint or might pull you). Marauders, assassins, and powertechs are going to be really tough to beat 1v1. Those are pretty much the flavor of the month classes. Everyone is pretty much rolling those 3 classes now.

Who the heck uses powershot instead of unload? That would be idiotic. Power shot is only used when left alone and everything else is on cooldown. Even then it's just in hopes of procing another railshot, not for the dps. Plus the person you are responding to was comparing powertech pyro to merc pyro. Powertech pyro is superior, and much of that has to do with the skill tree setup. They get an extra 60% armor pen to railshot, and they don't have to choose between freaking accuracy and alacrity at the bottom of their tree (they do have endurance). They actually get rather useful things, like 100% proc of CGC with flame burst and added damage from rocket punch. A few things would really help pyro mercs. First of all, move improved vents to the pyro tree and alacrity to the healing tree (I have no idea why the trees are set up that way, completely idiotic). Next, either give mercs more armor pen on railshot or give us back our 3% crit. Completely unnecessary nerf that made no sense. Finally, reduce the knockback on powershot with one of the skills in the tree. Those things could bring mercs back in line and not game breaking in any way.

it's fun and much better than arsenal. The only thing that ticks me off is powertech pyro is better. Yet merc pyro is still an effective class.

If you are using that gear in pvp you will get destroyed. No expertise on your gear = death in a few globals (the cooldown to all your abilities, 1.5 seconds, is called a global cooldown or just global). So your gear is mainly for PVE. In PVE you have to watch your aggro, or in other words who the enemy decides to attack. The role of a tank is to get aggro, not you. So never attack first, let your tank do that and he will build aggro. Sometimes you can hit so hard that your aggro will overtake the tank, but a good tank should taunt at that point and quickly gain back the lead in aggro. You may have heavy armor, but your defensive abilities and cooldowns are minimal in comparison to tanks. So you will die quick if you get boss aggro. Just an fyi, you are dps and arsenal spec. You don't really want to take every ability in the tree, but if you do it won't kill you. For PVE your tree should look like this... http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#300McZMIkrRMdokfzZcM.1 Also make sure you have high velocity cylinder selected (you have 3 choices, the other two are for the other trees). As for DPS, your role is to do damage and take as little as possible. If any boss gets on you pop your shield and use your chaff flares if you have to. That will be enough to survive and let the tank get aggro back. You also should use a simple rotation in case you are not already... tracer, tracer, tracer, unload, heatseekers, tracer, tracer, railshot (use unload anytime is procs....which is when you get those yellow ribbons around your body). Procs mean your ability is reset and often buffed. Tracer and powershot (powershot really shouldn't use in PVE) can proc unload. Use that rotation to start. Then it's simple. When off cooldown use heatseekers and railshot. Use unload everytime it's proc'd. Every other time use tracer. You will have to watch heat. I normally let the first one build up and then just vent heat. After that keep heat at 40 or below (that is for max heat reduction) until vent heat is off cooldown. You do that by using rapid shots instead of the other abilities. You can also use thermal sensor override for things like heatseekers or unload to keep heat down. That is a quick and dirty guide for a newbie. There is probably a much better guide on this forum somewhere. I suggest you read it or find one on the internet. There are a ton of them. BTW...figure what truly is the best gear. I don't know if you bought lvl 49 purples, but if you did that gear is not the best. Modded orange gear with high end mods are much better, and of course the gear you get from flashpoints and ops are better than the purples you can get off the GTN (Galactic Trade Network).