Hi Allison and Co, Will we get any sort of comment from the devs in regards to current class balance? Are classes currently considered to be performing to target metrics? any comment would be appreciated whether it be, working as intended/no news but looking into it or yes we are planning some class tweaks in the near future. Specifically Mercs/Commando's current pvp player base opinion of it being somewhat not performing as intended. Is this opinion shared by the devs? or are Mercs/Commando's currently working as intended in the pvp environment. I look forward to your reply. Cheers.

totally awesome you guys have started talking to us.. might even resub after it runs out on the 22nd now just would love a response to class balance issues in pvp.. but I wont push my luck.

welcome back, yep what you see is all we seem we will get. Devs have either left the building or are waiting to loose every remaining sub before getting off their butts. either try and find a reason to enjoy playing saber weilders or get use to getting close to killing someone only for them to hit their "sorry I can't loose" button. you will still beat poorly played sents/maraurders and powertechs but any half decent/geared will simply tear you up. If i had a dollar for every sent i get to 30% hp only for them to ignore any further damage and either finish me off easily or vanish.. I could probably pay a Dev to comment in these forums.

I have offered to duel you before.. your yet to take me up on the offer

unload is your friend. pyro to proc free rail shot arsenal for tonnes of damage.. arsenal- TM to proc free unload>unload>HSM and rail shot on the move. Pyro- Incendary missile> rail shot > thermal detonator> rapid shots on the move, only stand still for unload.. keep moving /pillar humping. only stat to stack is AIM. currently buffed I'm at 42% crit, 72% surge. purely from eliminator set and aim augs as pyro. get your WH weapons pronto as these will make a big difference from being a pest to being a pest with a sting.

exactly, instead of letting the player base settle into the game before swinging the nerf bat around they listened to the QQers far too early on and mucked up what was IMHO a pretty balanced game. Now it appears these changes should be reverted yet no action has even been mentioned they are looking into. which is the biggest issue and the reason GW2 is appealing to many, players will accept bugs, issues that require attention with communications from devs that they are working to give us a possibly great game to look forward to playing in a year from now.. But as i said above, the lights are on but no one is there to listen or respond.

unfortunately the only people either reading these forums or interested in investing time or effort to improve this game are the players.. Bioware has left the building. please feel free to spend your 15 bucks a month, they will take what they can get.

dear Bioware, I cannot believe as a melee destroyer it should take more than 4 globals to kill any caster, should he be fortunate enough to knock me away, I then have to press an extra button before i get to stomp him. PLEASE FIX THIS.. IT'S JUST SO UNFAIR.

it appears to me that BW has since left the building, leaving there bank account open to funnel what subscriptions they have remaining.. I seriously doubt they will spend another dime on this game. No feed back, No communication and No response to the player base.. Sad really as I enjoyed this game greatly.

Because it is given to you when you ding 50, the other 7 people on your team are there to have fun and hopefully win. you are essentially leaving them 1 man short and while you are still in group you cannot be replaced with a player capable of contributing.

C'mon guys, All the community wants is to know you lot are still there and are working on improving this game. Q&A each week seems to get shorter and less meaningful questions answered. Put a human face and personality to these forums and drop in a bit more often, even just to say Hi and we are here listening.

1. How do you think your Mercenary spec is perceived by other classes? 2. How do you perceive your own spec? Answer 1. crystal pee shooter. 2. fun crystal pee shooter.

In discussing class balance "metrics" are often referred to, could the community please be made aware of these metrics you use to substantiate class balance?

I am from the same guild as Henu and he plays his Merc well above it's potential and that's awesome... BUT the class has issues that L2P will not solve, so I can't agree with him there. I play my Merc usually as Pyro but have switched over to Arsenal occasionally. Mercs can do decent damage yes, but every other class has either extreme output or great survival.. or in the case of Sents/Maraurders both.. Mercs have lower than average output (in pvp) and almost no survival. I can kite a Sent all day long keeping him at range yet still inside the leap minimum distance so he just keeps throwing his sabers hitting me for anything up to 2k.. now i rapid shot to keep him slowed (500 damage a pop if it crits) rail shot on cooldown (maybe 3k on a crit) and TD.. MY 31 pt supposed heavy hitter in TD hits him for 1200 non crit and maybe 3k crit due to all his defensive cooldowns. the issue is Mercs NEED to either have survivability or output equal to our supposed Best defense is a good offence MOTO. currently we have neither. melee should be exactly that, and ranged should be able to do more damage at range than melee can especially since our only real gap opener is usually countered immediately with 1 of the countless gap closers so many melee come equipped with. Saber throw in NO way should hit for more than rapid shots (that is just plain retarded) and classes that have excellent survival should NOT be capable of doing more damage than a class with little to no survival. PT's pyros by all means should be capable of good damage (although maybe not quite as good) as they have no survival but Sents/Shadows either need to trade the survival or the damage, you can't have both if you want balance. I am hoping BW are taking class feedback seriously this time and correct the imbalance in PVP very soon. As my Sorc healer main has lost all appeal with the target marker persisting through death thing making warzone healing like peeing razor blades and my only other 50 being my Merc Fun and great play style but so much inferior to every other AC in the game ATM.

Mercenary If the best defense is a good offense, the Mercenary’s got the most intimidating defense in the galaxy. Heavily-modded blasters and deadly heatseeking missiles make the Mercenary a mobile heavy weapons platform. There’s no problem extra firepower can’t solve, and no one who knows what he’s doing gets between a Mercenary and his target. I linked this in the PVP forum as well but it applies to this thread more so. This is Bioware's Class Synopsis from the Holonet. quite simply heatseeking missiles or thermal detonator are not what Bioware intended them to be i.e deadly.

Mercenary If the best defense is a good offense, the Mercenary’s got the most intimidating defense in the galaxy. Heavily-modded blasters and deadly heatseeking missiles make the Mercenary a mobile heavy weapons platform. There’s no problem extra firepower can’t solve, and no one who knows what he’s doing gets between a Mercenary and his target. this is the Class synopsis from the holonet. see the issue? sure our best defense should be our offense, but we have not the burst potential to be able to hit and run. easiest fix for Mercs is to make the 31pt talent in each tree mean a damn. I wouldn't have an issue being squishy or immobile if I played my class well enough i had the means to kill someone quickly.

Having played all 3 trees in the Merc AC I will comment on all. PVE.. Bodyguard, I haven't healed since 1.2 as heat was stressful enough in Large AOE damage situations prior to the heat managment nerfs made it "UN" fun. both Arsenal and Pyro are great fun and solid performers for raiding, no complaints from me here. PVP.. This is where the issues are for this AC. Arsenal needs to build stacks to get HSM to hit hard enough to make a difference which is fine, but if a Merc is played well enough to get those stacks up then HSM should hit harder than it does. Arsenal having the ability to talent into the second Knockback is great but with no effective way to keep enemies at Bay means nothing as we just get jumped to or harpooned back into the fray again. In dire need of a better kiting mechanic, such as a slow attached to rapid shot or something. Pyro in pvp is more user friendly having CGC proc from rapid shots but again it's not 100% chance, if we spec as pyro we have no option to pickup the extra Knockback or power barrier meaning we not only do less damage as pyro than we would as arsenal but are far more easily killed, quite simply pyro needs to either have option to pickup some sort of damage reduction or do more damage with thermal detonator as it hits considerably less than HSM does. Pyro has the ability to stay away from enemies but is not capable of finishing off anyone in a reasonably short time frame. Arsenal has the ability to effectively kill enemies but is not capable of keeping anyone at a distance. Address these and it's would be balanced with any other AC in the game IMHO.

LMAO they could have at least bought you a drink first

SSSHHhhhhhhhh Henu.. then everyone will get on the bandwagon and sents/marauders will be call to Nerf Mercs.

LOL ... Nerf Cake I say. Carthy and Co are all excellent at what they do /thread.

yeah I gave it a try on the lvl 50 combat target on Ziost, heat was a real issue as well as pretty intense micro managment. trying to keep 5 stacks of heat sigs up as well as IM and CGC was not what i would call practicle for PVP.. I doubt the benefit would be enough to warrant the effort, that said i was pretty surprised at the damage from unload when all the planets aligned. In all but 2 pieces recruit gear each tick from unload hitting around 1200 mark. also regarding dropping TM and target tracking for burnout, i agree with dropping TM now since trying it out but for a PVP scenario burnout has little benefit that i can see.. PVE when your target has 100k + HP yes awesome talent but when your target has 20k burnout doesn't kick in till your opponent drops to around 6K hp by which time the extra DOT damage will have little benefit as TD or rail shot will finish them off before any real bonus output from burnout, of course you will take burnout in order to get TD but not for the measily bounus dot damage at 30% hp.

feedback on this build please.. would this be viable in PVP centering around buffing rail shot and grabbing a second knock back to help keep all those melee at bay. http://db.darthhater.com/skill_calc/bounty_hunter/mercenary/#::f23efef4e2f3efefe9f4e2fef2e i realise giving up thermal detonator maybe too much of a trade off but any feedback would be appreciated.

are you still arsenal spec Kript? and was that Rail shot or HSM/TD?

big enough to have something to use as LOS and only get punted if you get yourself in a bad position against someone with a KB. ( and given you need to get LOS to pull or leap you need to get near the edge so you have to control your platform first.) not only will it take a solid team to win but each player individually has to be on their game to control a passage up. if your team mates drop down to double or triple team the opposition on 1 platform then they give away the higher ground advantage of the platform above as well as no one left to pass to or leap to etc.

Perhaps a verticle huttball map.. a series of platforms you have to fight your way to the top to plant the ball. the only way up is to be pulled, leap or pass the ball. A slow moving elevator up the middle only non ball carriers can take and only takes players up. It would take plenty of strategy as well as excellent pvp play to control a passage of platforms in order to get the ball to the top.