In a Hutball match yesterday before match starts. I explain I'm a merc and will help hold middle. Teammate: the middle is useless, we need to hold their goal line. /facepalm

Good stuff. I'm glad to see you finally acknowledging some of the many inadequacies of the Merc versus other classes. Prior to this thread, your typical post was: "Mercs are fine, l2p, here's a screenshot of 500,000 damage." I agree with a lot of your points, you are very correct, and as expected, you seem to know all classes very well. The lack of utility for the Merc class just kills me. Edit, to add something constructive, the idea of a an interrupt and even a minor heal debuff would be huge for Pyro. That still wouldn't do much for Arsenal being the laughing stock of the melee community, aka, free kills.

I wouldn't bother trying to bring any sort of intelligence to these boards. You will be disappointed. I understand this is not constructive feedback but this is fine, I received a warning last time I added constructive feedback and my thoughts on a matter.

If you visit the homepage of SWTOR, http://www.swtor.com, there is no link to dev tracker. Furthermore, a find (ctrl-f) on that page for the word "transfer" returns nothing. I found devtracker on the community page. I went to the devtracker page, and did a "ctrl-f" for 'transfer' and "ctrl-f" for '12th'. The most I could find regarding them providing some detailed information was the following: "We do have more information about character transfers coming, and we'll post a detailed FAQ that will answer many specific questions" This does not include answers to my question nor does it mention anything aboput a FAQ being released on the 12th as suggested by previous poster. But, that's not the point, I spent 10 minutes trying to find this information that is "so easy to find" and was unsuccessful. Perhaps I'm bad at the internet, but since I've worked in IT for 15 years, I doubt that to be the case. Back to my original point, which I think we all agree with, they need to provide us more information!

I guess I did overlook some obscure post. That's quite possible. I also guess, that as a paying customer, I should have the information I need presented to me in an "easy to find" manner, for example, this sticky thread that I have bookmarked. But hey, I guess that's too much to ask.

Well, since today is the 11th and we still haven't heard a word aside from "expect them on the 12th," I'm skeptical that this is even going to happen, at this rate. They need to give us something about how this process will work or I'm forced to believe they still haven't figured it out themselves. No offense here, just honest concern.

I love the idea of a heal debuff. Seems pretty strong though. I would settle for an interrupt. Can kite melee but with CGC being so sketchy on rapid shots it can get tense. Yes, damage takes time to ramp up, it sucks. I pick up both heat reducing talents and "blow my load" every time It's up. We can do a lot of damage but it's not all single target and a lot of it is DOT damage, not burst, which is very weak for PvP. I also like the idea of giving us flame burst, another alternative would be to reduce the heat cost of missile blast and give it a high change to proc CGC, maybe 75%? Another good recommendation I heard was instant cast power shot. It really doesn't do that much damage and standing there casting it will get you killed. This would bring it more in line with rocket punch, which PTs get to abuse whereas Mercs rarely even get to use it; it would allow for moving PPA proc which would help kiting. As a final thought, kiting is challenging and it's difficult to keep up strong DPS while doing so, especially if TD is on CD. Running around spamming rapid shots for 6 seconds trying to kite sucks.

I actually just switched back to Arsenal for fun. It was fun to be doing that much more burst and single target damage. I was still plagued with being interrupted and melee tearing me up. It was frustrating to not be able to kite like I can on Pyro. I do pretty well 1v1 on Pyro but as Arsenal, it's very frustrating as soon as melee is on you. I think Arsenal is very good if you're in a premade with VC and have someone to peel. If you're solo queueing, I much prefer Pyro and I will probably spec back to home row (pyro) tonight or tomorrow.

Somehow, I don't think removing relics and adrenals will double the TTK.

1 - I just dropped Cybertech and power leveled Biochem/Bioanalysis - it took about 8 hours and cost about 100,000 credits. Not that big a deal. 2 - Anyone who drops Biochem and goes Cybertech just because of this change made a poor decision. This coming from a Grenade junky. The 3 minute CD is not practical for such a minimal benefit. The reusable medpacs, stims, and defensive adrenals (1.3) will still be far superior.

I've been playing computer games forever and have been PvPing in MMO since UO. I've always had my S key bound to back pedal but never use it. I understand the important of strafing versus back pedaling and I agree that you can do anything with strafe that you can do w/ back pedal, faster. Perhaps it's my experience with computers but I was able to train myself to not use the 's' key, but still leave it keybound (so I thought). Yesterday, I put myself to the test. I unbound my 's' key to see if I ever use it w/o noticing. I found that I do use it for one purpose: To stop auto running I found it very annoying to have to click both of my mouse keys at once to stop moving, however, this is a minor detail and I can just learn otherwise. Other than that for express purpose, I would have to agree that there is no other reason to ever back pedal. However, I really don't see an issue in having the key bound since I've had it bound for years and only use it to stop auto running. But, whatever, if people want to back pedal, let them?

Prior to these changes, the Combat Tech mainhand is better than the Eliminator mainhand because it had surge instead of accuracy (I believe). Point is, it has less accuracy. Same goes for ear, I believe. If they change this, then we will need the accuracy. This means we will have regrind a BM Eliminator mainhand, then grind enough comms to trade for a WH Eliminators. He has a completely valid point and I'm in the same boat. No mods need to removed. That's just how the BH gear is itemized, I believe. I'm not in full WH but I know for sure about the Combat Tech mainhand as I also have the same one (surge instead of accuracy).

Exactly correct. I've been Cybertech since launch and I'm finally leveling my biochem. Hah, bad timing. Anyway, I'll still take the defense adrenal, stim, and healthpack over my grenades. The stun ones are effected by resolve so their uses are limited. Still useful but you can craft low level AOE stun ones on an alt. I'm fine with the tradeoff for stim/medpac. The only thing I'll really miss is my 70% 8 second snare from my sludge grenade. I love throwing it on a group of enemies right after the doors drop in Voidstar. Or throwing it on a group of enemies crossing a fire trap in Hutball.

As a Pyro Merc with an 18 second DOT, I can absolutely say with 100% certainty that this is not true. Countless times, I have respawned and had to wait over 15 seconds to go out of combat due to my incendiary missile still ticking away out there somewhere. As mentioned, if it is 8 seconds, it rarely works and they need to fix it.

I think another good example of PT vs Merc that people over look is rocket punch. That is an extra instant cast ability that can do some serious damage on a crit. This really helps their burst. Merc can line up a IM, TD, power shot, railshot, unload, railshot you can do some good burst. A PT, however, can line up an IM, TD, railshot, flameburst to proc PPS, railshot, followed by a rocket punch. That's a substantial difference because you get: 1 - A guaranteed CGC proc on top of it 2 - A rocket punch at the end because you're usually in melee range 3 - Railshots ignore 100% armor, I believe, so they hit a for a good deal more This adds up to a lot more burst potential. Furthermore, the consistent use of rocket punch add up as an extra instant cast ability that we rarely get take advantage of cause we're ranged. Edit: Before you flame you, I don't want to be melee. I enjoy playing ranged. I do not envy having to be in melee range. Also, I don't play a PT, so this is my understanding of what I believe to be a substantial difference. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. Rocket punch is on a very short cooldown and being able to use is freely is pretty substantial.

That was hilarious.

He's a Mara: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=4361113#post4361113 Edit: In fact, he's playing a Mara and Assassin. LOL. I'm sure his opinion on balance isn't skewed in any way.

Edit: Cleaned up post to make my two questions more concise. 1 - For War Hero, because all stats and set bonuses are carried over w/ mods, is there any reason a heavy armor user can't wear light crafted armor w/ augment and not lose any stats or set bonuses? 2 - Pre-70, for Battlemaster augmented gear, I have my head slot and the set bonus isn't counting. I was under the impression that the crafted augmented Battlemaster gear had set bonus. This means that you can only wear one piece of crafted augmented Battlemaster gear before losing your set bonus? Can anyone answer either one of these questions? Because ripping out mods is expensive I want to make sure I have a clear path planned out.

Yah, I'm sure they'll have a crack development team handle this emergency feature. Also, I've never seen anything but a healer marked.

Oh snap

Gunnery will not do well against Marauder because you can't kite. The only way you can beat one 1v1 would probably be assault spec cause you can dot and kite; due to the mobility of assault spec which is a result of 80% of your commonly used abilities being instant cast.

I'm so sick of hearing this tired argument. My Pyro Merc has 22 class abilities hot keyed that I use regularly. I have a total of 36 hot keys that I use regularly including this grenades, adrenals, relics, medpacs, etc.

Derp. Okay guys, in that case, because all Mezzes are broken so easily and systematically, lets just increase all Mezzes to five minutes. Why not, since they are all always broken two seconds in anyway, right? How long a mezz lasts and it being interrupted by PUGs are two entirely separate things with absolutely no relation to the other. The reasoning skills of some of you makes me question the future of humanity.

You're right, then they might actually have to fix something and we all know that's not gonna happen. The game had just started 4v8. It's okay though, those same clowns can enjoy their even longer queue times because they will have one less Merc queuing with them. I have to head to work but I think I made my point and I hope somehow, someway, someone at BW sees this and realizes they have failed their community. If you don't think they have failed their community then you are in denial and will be in for a rude awakening when GW2 launches.

Why should I wait in queue for 30-45 minutes to be talked down to while playing 5v8? That is my fault? Do you also blame r4pe victims? Edit: To be clear, that game was an instant pop, as I described. The average wait time on POTF is pretty long. I might be running my gripes together. Doesn't really change my point.