Honestly, I don't. Through much trial and error, I have found a spec/equipment/play-style that works best for me. If I had to play the same spec, with the same equipment and push the same buttons as everyone else... I woulda quit this game a long time ago. After getting my face ripped off too many times I tried a more defensive style. Mercs can not out-damage hardly any class so it seemed stupid to keep trying. I know they say we are a DPS class but that only fools the silly people who die a lot. My set bonuses are the 3 sec shield extension and the shorter cooldown on the escape. I spec for accy and alac so I removed some of that from the pieces and added power/crit/surge. Some people say I'm dumb but I've cut my death rate from 6-10 a WZ down to 0-6. I am getting the same or better damage because I don't spend as much time in lockup. I also use a defensive relic proc and a defensive adrenal proc. IT IS REALLY GONNA SUCK TO LOSE THESE IN 1.3 maybe so much so that I really will unsub. These are the only chance I have to live against the tank classes and PTs that out-DPS me.

I'm guessing you are Republic? If so, is your site just low on Republic player or Empire players or both. On Dath Bandon we have a good group of Empire players but would welcome more Republic players. If you could get a group of 7 or more Republic player to transfer and Q with, you would be cycling through ranked WZ quite quickly.

You have to be an Arsen spec to get 2 knockbacks. As a Pyro or Guard, you only get 1.

AGREED... In fact, I've suggested that before. It is not so powerful that it overcomes our weakness against tanks because RP doesn't push them vary far or even knock them down. They just jump back on us or quickly move back to melee on us. It also doesn't give us any additional utility or power at range so it doesn't make us OP or unbalanced. I would rather has this than the interrupt people keep yelling about. It isn't as strong as an interrupt but still useful. It would be better if they made it a class level trainable, but probably more realistic for people to choose whether to spec into it. Although, I like CES and would prefer to loose the option of Stabilizers.

Dual Wield Mastery is already a 2 point tier-1 skill for the Marauder/Carnage tree that gives 12/24% offhand weapon damage

I don't think BW will ever put us on par with the PTs for damage (even though we are DPS). I believe that they made this change as a reaction to our complaints about PTs being better because... What I'm hoping for is some ideas that would make us better but not OP. Ideas that would give us unique skills that differentiate us and make us balanced with them. We have 7 tier 1 choices while most others have 8. Some options to drop that to seven would be: Make the new AT a 15/30% armor penetration This would seem like the better cost for the tier/benefit Make ICP a 2/4% increase to Endurance They want us to be less damage and more defensive... Insulated armor reduces elemental damage by 15/30% If they can lock us down and burn us up, at least this will let us live longer Increase the damage dealt by all ranged attacks by 4/8% Arsen is the missile class so we can be the ranged class Bring afterburners to our tier 1 slot At least make it an option that pyros can side spec in. Certainly some of you have other ideas that can be better/different than what we got...

Same as above except: I liked the AFTERBURNERS ability from Arsen when I played that spec. I think it would go a long way towards balancing the Merc class if they included for all Mercs.

I wish people would stop asking for an interrupt! We have plenty of control abilities and don't need another. I do not want every class to have the same abilities. And PLEASE stop telling other Mercs how to use our highest damage/heat missile effectively. All we need is a better chance to gain and keep range to help us with tank classes. And yes, I know how to play a Merc/Pyro effectively as I'm over 80 valor and gotten better with time. I can beat an arrogant PT 1v1 if they don't watch themselves, but the ones who know me have learned.

Let us all list the things we would like better than the new Advanced Targeting... I can think of 2 right off the bat 1.) Dual Wield Mastery - 12/24% bonus damage to offhand weapon from Sith Marader tree. I would even be as happy with an 8/16% bonus. My offhand weapon hits for between 10% and 20% of the damage of my main-hand in simulations. I have 2 WH pistol with same damage output. I know they say offhand damage is 30% but I have not seen it. 2.) Keep it the same old way except make it 2/4/6% for ranged and 1/2/3% for tech accuracy. Everyone says accuracy sucks but I have already pulled most of the mods from my armor. Now they want me to spend time and credits to try and bring it back up. Even with 100% ranged accy, my offhand misses about 20% of the time. We are dual wield and should get some benefit from having a 2nd pistol. Post what you would rather have... or comment on mine. EDIT: PLEASE! No more requests for interrupts in this thread. I do not need one or want one. They will only remove something that we would probably all cry about later.

I have had to grind 2 sets at EVERY level! 1 for the set bonus and 1 for the mods benefits. For a Merc/Pyro, all 4 sets suck. They seem to be specifically designed for the 4 special classes without any consideration to my class. I end up with 2 pieces from 1 set and 2 from another with the 5th not mattering. It also sucks to have some blue and some green armor pieces. The ability to have your pieces match your chest work better for some combinations than others. The fact that the armoring holds the set bonus now helps some but I still need to pieces to make 1.

There are already like 4 threads with this discussion... please do not respond to this one.

I didn't say that Biochem needed a huge advantage. I said that it needed SOME advantage. It sounds like they are trying to force players away from this crafting skills and into others by eliminating ALL advantages. I don't think it makes for a better match if everyone is EXACTLY equal. What I want is for people to have to choose between one advantage OR another one. Then try and leverage that advantage to their benefit. If I wanted to play mindless games, I would not be paying a subscription fee for the variables that a PVP environment should have. I would instead play solitaire with a deck of 51 until it was time to eat my pudding and go to sleep.

Bioware has determined that the reason some people are unhappy with PVP is that they sometimes die! In an effort to improve those peoples happiness with the game: Damage will be nerfed and damage reduction will be increased until the dieing stops. They should have simply changed the stacking and diminishing returns to allow some burst but not allowing it get get over a reasonable level. Knowing when to pop timers and when to save them are one of the few things that separate the good players from the bad. As a Merc/Pyro DoT class, I need burst damage to kill people. There are times now when I go through full rotations and max heat without being able to kill people. I end up running around trying in vain to have an impact on the outcome for my team until someone takes notice of me and rips my face off. I'm afraid that I am just going to be a stat-padder for the healers and tanks after this patch. If they have limited burst then the non-OP classes could actually have a chance against the real burst classes. Everyone has access to stims and everyone has access to relics. If you are not smart enough to know how to use them then you deserve to die.

Bioware has determined that the reason people arer unhappy with PVP is that they sometimes die! In an effort to improve those peoples happiness with the game: Damage will be nerfed and damage reduction will be increased until the dieing stops. In all seriousness... There needs to be some advantage to have Biochem even in [gasp] PVP. I will wait to lay praise or unsubscribe until after I actually play it on live servers.

Bioware has determined that the reason people arer unhappy with PVP is that they sometimes die! In an effort to improve those peoples happiness with the game: Damage will be nerfed and damage reduction will be increased until the dieing stops. In all seriousness... There needs to be some advantage to have Biochem even in, gasp, PVP. I will wait to lay praise or unsubscribe until after I actually play it on live servers.

Republic has better healers than Empire. A good DPS in front of a good healer is awesome. Maybe that is why u feel your van is better?

As a Merc/Pyro I can definitely say that the CGC proc is NOT 70%. IN FACT, the proc rate need to be increased to help the Merc class out. AND, the flame burst proc needs changed to hinder the PT class some. The majority of the Merc needs a buff threads and the PT needs a nerf threads are because of this proc rate. For Merc Raise the base proc for CGC to 15% from 10% (could be anywhere from 15% to 30%) Raise the SHG bonus to trigger CGC to 3/6/9% from 2/4/6% (could be 4/8/12% or even better 5/10%) For PT Remove the CGC proc from Flame Burst and instead just give it a 2-4 second slow. Put it on a 12-20 second timer and it should probably have cost increased to 25 heat.

Sorry if this has already been suggested but thread is too long to fully read... Make skill do full damage at the new diameter and half damage out to the old diameter. It will still do enough damage in PVE to kill grouped mobs and grab aggro at full area. It will also serve as area denial in PVP that makes it at least useable.

From a Merc/Pyro standpoint... If they made our slow a little easier to proc (say 20% base instead of 10% and a 2 point skill bonus to 10% instead of 3 points for 6%) and make the slow a little bit longer (3 or 4 seconds instead of 2 seconds), we would probably be OK. Of course, that is assuming that they are really gonna give us back some of our DPS. Right now, it takes 5 skill points to get a 16% chance to proc a 2 second slow. Really??? It SHOULD be better.

On Darth Bandon, it seems that Empire rules population wise. When the good Pub side players log in... they normally wipe us WHEN they start server merges... They should try and take population from each side into account. It would be nice to merge our server with one that is Pub heavy for good population balance. THEN take ranked WZ numbers into account so noobs are not always put up against strong premades. There is room here to balance things out and make PVP fun again but it needs to happen soon!

I don't want to give away any of my play-style secrets, but a "Rapid Fire Pyro" was my favorite Merc to play. Combine our alac bonus and the one in Guard with some equipment mods and you could cycle through Rapid Fire, Unload and Power Shot pretty well. Add in the insta missles/darts and it was the only Merc setup that could effectively kite. Alas, that option is dead. Killed by the 1.2 patch. I still hope it comes back as an option (SOON). That is the kind of options that a tree should have. Some people think that a skill is useless while others find a strategy that makes use of it. That way we don't all end up playing the same cookie-cutter classes that people grow tired of. It would be better to change ICP to a 2 point [2 / 4]% skill that would be useful and more cost effective for someone like you while keeping the Sys Cal option available for someone like me. You only need to use 5 skill points per tier after all.

Nothing personal here, Many Pyros comment on changing alacrity. Remember to take all trees into account when making recommendations... I would actually say take all seven into account (3 full tree specs with 10 optional, 3 of the 2 tree hybrids, and the all 3 tree hybrid). The 1st tier and even the second tier has to have some utility across all trees. Alacrity is there more for Guard and Arsen than for us. Just as crit option is there for us in guard and aim/missle damage in Arsen. I have many recommendations but am currently trying to evaluate the whole picture and figure out the best way to present them.

The reason new level 50s get pawned is that they are often in pug groups against premades. What would fix this is by allowing solo q WZs. Of course, this can not happen until they implement cross server ques! Or, merge low pop servers! Some of the best players on my server will only q in a group... I have NO respect for them at all. I am Valor 83 and rarely q in a group (<5%).

One reason why Mercs complain about PTs being OP... Flameburst is 100% to activate CGC. Sage has spammable slow as well. Not sure about sniper... It isn't really kiting though in the traditional sense. I mean they don't have to run in circles and use ground clutter to keep range. Heck, PTs want U close. As a Merc/Pyro pre 1.2 I was able to kite melee and win 40% of the time. That sounds low but it was better than most and the melee classes would often give me props for being able to do it. The KEY was being able to get CGC to proc (only 16% chance for Merc but 100% chance for PT). It is only a 2 sec slow but it mattered. Also knowing when to use your 1 knockback and 1 stun was important. Post 1.2 I could not kite even a *******. PTs just spam flameburst out to 10 meters and glowstickers must have 12 foot long weapons. After getting tired of being jumped to or pulled from 30 meters and getting my face burned off, I switched over to Bomber spec. At least now i don't waste all my time in the restart zone. I just bomb and run, bomb and run.... It sucks to play this style. I h8t it but have no viable alternative. BW really ****ed Merc with double nerf. No burst damage and no battle healing. I've still got time on my account but may not re-up if they don't fix this?

Now - Yes... Before - Maybe... If I was limited on time and it was a sure loss when we needed 3 wins to get daily I would bail. It wasn't my fight and I didn't get to have an impact from the beginning. If I had finished my daily and still had time, I would jump in and try to turn the tide. It is truly satisfying help the underdogs pull one out. Specially if it is close. Under the new daily requirements. Absolutely. No disadvantage for staying. Grab what you can then re-Que. BIOWARE GETS PROPS FOR DOING SOMETHING RIGHT HERE!!!