Agreed.

I know anecdotal evidence is anecdotal, random drops are random and RNG is RNG but I have also experienced an issue similar to the OPs. A guild static i was running with recently was setup BHx2 (tank, dps), SW (dps), SI (heals). EVERYTHING was SW loot. Over the course of about 2 weeks, we ran every hardmode daily to gear up. By the end of that 2 weeks, the SW was 5/5 on his columi dps set and 4/5 on his tanking set. The rest of us had 1-2 pieces at most, none of us had 3 (I think the SI's IA companion was 5/5 also).

This is definitely a system that needs to be changed for the reasons stated above. It seems unnecessarily difficult to gear up 1 or 2 new guys in a group of geared players with the current system. Allow players some way to decide how their loot will be distributed in normal ops. The current random loot system is very player-unfriendly and needlessly obstructive to guild progression. Random drops are still fine (another issue entirely) but random distribution only hurts the players who need to gear up most.

This. Even at the bare minimum for gear, none of the current HMs should be taking anyone more than an hour, absolute max - possibly less. Factor in finding a group though, and who knows how long a stretch you're looking at?

Signing off on this. CC from strongest to weakest. Kill from weakest to strongest.

Please dont change any essential mechanics based on PvP, with no parsing or combat log in place. Please dont.

I actually like Skadge, hes just a b*stard and is completely unapologetic about it. You gotta respect that. All of the BH crew is cool in some way.

Not only does it happen to me pretty frequently (recharge and reload or attacking another target fixes it), but just as often I have people comment 'haha youre still shooting it' or something similar, when on my screen, I'm not.

Not crazy about the animation, but you gotta admit its not terrible either. We've all seen worse I'm sure. I also would prefer if Tracer Missile and Heat Seeker Missile switched animations but I also believe that both of the animations seem pretty fluid, dynamic and appropriate for the type of attack they're depicting. I, too, would love to see this. How about dual wrist-mounted weapons being fired simultaneously? They could make that look cool, I bet.

So I got my 4-peice Columi set bonus, which makes Rail Shot cost 0 heat. That alone helped immensely with my heat issues on single-target encounters. However, it also feels like such an essential mechanic that I'm amazed its a set bonus and not a talent. Its still possible to cap heat out quickly with bad RNG when Terminal Velocity doesn't proc, but a heat-free Rail Shot (actually a heat dump since its a GCD with no heat generation) is a huge help. There is still a lot of room IMO for heat to be a more engaging and compelling mechanic than simply a restrictive one but with the 4pc set bonus at least i feel like i have a bit more than 40 heat to use.

It almost seems like occasionally a big chunk of heat generates out of nowhere, or an ability generates double its heat cost. I wish there were some kind of target dummy so this could be tested.

hour-long boring gameplay experience culminated in a crippling bug? Working as intended.

Preach it brother. 3-5 zones between planets is asinine.

based on what, i wonder? There are no numbers...

Powertechs have many more ways to vent and dump heat than Mercenaries. They're not really comparable whatsoever in terms of heat management. If you're a powertech then you really have the better deal. It's interesting that some people actually enjoy restrictive game play. The only comment I can make on that is that heat isn't as much of a DPS issue (we cant tell dps now anyway) as it is a fluidity issue: The game play simply isn't compelling when you can only use 40% of your resource pool under threat of crippling lockout, and its not balanced for the same throughput as SIs or SWs. If the variable regen went away and was replaced with static regen and a shorter Vent Heat CD, that would work wonders. I fully expect to see some beneficial adjustments made to the heat system when parsing is available. BH Merc DPS just isnt that great for heat to be as restrictive as it is. PvP doesn't count.

Yes, heat is absolutely killing me now. Even doing my dailies I'm suddenly heat capped after 3 attacks. 40-60 should be 4, at least that way it wouldnt be so crippling to go over 40 heat.

So I ran my first hardmode EV tonight (i know, I'm a scrub for taking this long to get there). First boss, I was absolutely STRANGLED by heat and felt that my contribution was severely limited. It was tremendously difficult to AoE the adds then switch back to the turrets and maintain any heat leeway. There just isnt enough room to use the abilities you need to, as quickly as you need to. Gharj was a bit better because most of the fight is single target, and because of the movement phases that gave a few seconds for heat to dissipate. Even then, I found myself heat capped very quickly when i tried to burst. Regardless of whether or not the dps output of an Arsenal Merc justifies the terrible resource longevity, the painfully slow pacing required to properly manage heat isnt particularly fun, at least for me.

The problem with heat isnt that its completely untenable, it IS workable if you just accept the fact that you really only have 40 heat. The issue with heat is that when encounter mechanics call for max burst or quick response to multiple events, it severely limits what youre able to do. Heat-users need to be able to hit the abilities required by encounters without locking themselves out of their resource. The system just needs more wiggle room than it has currently. It doesnt need a complete overhaul but it needs to be streamlined. agreed on all points, an excellent post.

Isnt the purpose of any essential resource like Heat, Energy, Force or Rage to facilitate engaging, dynamic, responsive and fluid combat? I don't know that resources are there to actively prevent the player from playing, that would be a counter-intuitive system much like we have with heat right now. Not true, any discussion where ideas are being exchanged is far from pointless. This is my experience also. On fights where you absolutely HAVE to crank out max dps for 3:00 or everyone dies, heat just strangles you. There arent enough passive heat dumps and our only active one has too long of a cooldown. Fights where you have to switch targets frequently (and build tracer locks and heat signatures back up) are also tough on heat use. I'm not sure if every spec seems as tight as Arsenal does. On pretty much every hardmode flashpoint and operation boss fight you're dealing with an enrage timer that necessitates max DPS for the duration of the encounter. You don't really have the option of doing less damage than possible. In fact, I'd even argue that a system where it was preferable to do less damage than possible because of the crippling effects of variable regeneration is poorly designed in the first place. Oh, that would be an awesome idea. Some attacks generate heat, which you then use to fuel other attacks, which will dissipate that heat. Sounds interesting.

My main is a modestly-geared BH arsenal merc. After a couple weeks at 50, raiding and spamming hardmodes, I have to say that the heat system just feels too restrictive. I do have 2/5 columi Eliminator set, so my tracer missile crit chance is around 48%. Crits with this ability will bleed 8 heat every 6 seconds, which helps. Performing a standard tank-n-spank dps priority is ok in terms of heat management, but there are a couple issues: - Some abilities are just too expensive. Tracer Missile, Fusion Missile, Death from Above and Sweeping Blasters come to mind. - Heat's limitations become very apparent in encounters where a Bounty Hunter MUST deal with multiple events simultaneously. The more you try to do with your heat, the less you CAN do with it, creating a counter-intuitive system which punishes the player for using their secondary resource. - Encounters with short enrage timers can also be problematic if the mechanics that allow you to dump heat dont proc. - Variable regeneration creates situations where available heat isn't being used because using it now will prevent you from using it later. - Its possible that the BH heat system (and the AI energy system as well) isn't balanced properly. Sorcerers, for example, have a static regen rate which can only increase, based on the advanced class and spec. Considering these issues, there are a couple possible workarounds. Any or all of these suggestions could go a long way towards making the heat system much more flexible while still allowing heat management to be a primary concern for BH players. This is just what I thought of, I'm sure someone could come up with more creative solutions: - Reduce the heat cost of all abilities and allow a BH to do more with their heat; a 15%-20% decrease would be wonderful. - Implement static regen. A static regeneration system would no longer punish players for using their heat, like the current system does. - Allow Rapid Shots to dump heat, instead of simply not generating any. - Lower the cooldown of Vent Heat, to 45s or 60s. - Increase the amount of head vented by the Terminal Velocity talent and/or eliminate the internal cooldown. Now granted, I realize this is all based on anecdotal evidence about how the advanced class 'feels' and how heat regen 'seems', but thats all we have at the moment. All comments are welcome, thanks for reading.

Chiss female body type 2. She generally looks pretty awesome in the armor, with a single exception - her head is GIGANTIC. If you look at the 40+ BH helmets and compare males and females of the same body type, its pretty obvious the fem heads are just way too large and out of proportion with the rest of the body.

It seems buggy. On extended boss fights where I use it early and on cooldown it seems to help, but when you already have threat and youre trying to lose it, it seems to be a lot less effective. WAI maybe?

OP has an excellent and MUCH needed idea. Add some functionality to display hardmode lockouts, so that the people doing the inviting will know what you can run and what you can't, and its perfect.

Signing off on this, please change it to a single knockback. The last couple of times i ran this (guild and pickup), we had to get on someone's vent for the fight so we could have a countdown and time the KBs perfectly. Perhaps the 2 KB mechanic wouldn't be so unappealing if the timing between them was loosed up a bit; as is it requires pretty precise coordination. The better idea would probably be to just require a single knockback.