[Your PvP Confessions]

1) Civil war match and losing. Pro player on my team accuses everyone else of being bad and generally throwing names around. I see him getting beaten up by two opposing players and watch as he makes a break for a medpack. He would have have made it if I hadn't casually slow walked into it on full health. I laughed as I watched him die while /dance.

2) I like to mark and hunt Snave and advise anyone else on my team to do so. For many reasons, one being he owns a mug with the words "The Boss" on it. Must be tricky to drink out of a mug when your jaws been broken by a rocket punch.

[Over 57 Million Characters Created in Star Wars: The Old Republic!]

1.7 billion pvp kills and they show a picture of a mara killing a merc. How apt.

[2.7 changes bring new Era to PvP.]

Are 2.7 changes significant? Outside of rage changes no. Contrary to the believe, ops healer will still be the strongest, but mercs now r within close range and sorc still very weak for competitve PvP. Sorc still has on viable tree, madness, juggernauts r completely unviable dps, as they always are. Ops dps will be better, but not competitive. Mercs dps still suck.

 

It will be interesting to see how snipers will perform after 2.7. I am suspecting that lethality will be so insanely powerful. As for aoe damage, put ap pt instead of smasher. Wzs will be dominated by pts as they are the only available aoe damage and one of the strongest single target damage.

 

For arenas, rage was already a dying bread, and it will never be played after 2.7. We will see a bit more merc healers and leathality snipers, but nothing else would change.

 

Mercs dps doesn't suck but we could use a better disengage ability.

[Need a tatics against stealther (Arsenal)]

Generally they'll pop up behind you, stun you and start their burst. Here's what I do:

 

CC break

Jetboost

Unload (with pinning fire)

PS>EN>TM>HSM>ED>TM>RS

 

They'll probably be on you by this time and/or they may have popped back into stealth:

 

Def cd's + Stun

Unload

Rocket Punch (with root)

Hydraulic Overrides

Rapid shots on the move

TM and pray for an Unload Proc

 

They should be pretty messed up by now if not dead. If they are still up just keep moving, hitting ED and HSM + Rapid shots, knocking them back/rooting when you can.

 

I love fighting sins/shdws 1v1 as good ones stretch your abilities s a Arsenal Merc.

 

Hope this helps!

 

ps Find a good sin to duel against for practise

[Did i hear right?]

@Mandoforlife

 

Yup, you've got it spot on (bit noobish on the forums hence the copy and paste of your post!).

 

I've been playing merc since launch and love the class. It's the only one that feels like the right fit for my style of play.

I will try to hold back on raging further about the PT pyro nerfs and how they will affect mercs until I have had a chance to play for myself, but I will be utterly disappointed if my favourite class hasn't been improved (especially as the changes that are needed and the short comings of the class are so glaringly obvious!)

[Did i hear right?]

Thanks for the reply AP.

The news about unload is greatly appreciated. Any explanation for what I read elsewhere about pyro spec for Mercs and what the Powertech nerfs meant for us?

 

"Pyro is going to be pretty bad for PvP now. Arsenal is going to be our best option, due to these changes:

 

CGC DoT: Bioware increased the proc rate to 50%. That means that you're almost always going to proc cgc with rapid shots. This not only makes the missile salvo cgc application pointless, but to compensate for the increase, the dot's damage was almost cut in half. On live, I have my cgc crit for 1k on application. That's not going to happen in 2.0, and that's a significant nerf to our sustained damage.

 

Thermal Det: Thermal det now applies a 12sec dot upon exploding. That would be good, but they nerfed TD's upfront damage, thus ruining the burst that this ability gave us. Now, it hits for about the same damage as Powershot. This was the nail in to coffin for pyro as a viable PvP spec.

 

It was great on the PTS before the CGC and Thermal Det changes. It had good utility, with Cure reducing the damage of remaining DoTs, Chaff Flare releasing us of movement impairing effects (PTs SO didn't need this, but BW gave it to them anyways- way to take away from merc uniqueness), damage reducing the CD on Jet Boost, and Energy Shield reciprocating damage to our attacker. All that made it a GREAT PvP spec, with good mobility. But then BW threw us the nerfs that were meant for PTs."

[Did i hear right?]

If I 'm not mistaken, the Rain of Fire talent in the pyro tree will no longer affect unload (reducing it's bonus damage on burning targets).