Merc does not need more damage, but i disagree on your assessment. Look at the ranked standings for mercs and that will tell you all you need to know. There are 8 with over a 1400 rating compared to 30-60 for all the other classes. This shows there is an extreme imbalance in pvp where they are so bad they are causing the entire group to lose.

I agree. I get destroyed within a few seconds of the match then I get rage whispers. You can just go into general chat and hear people complaining about mercs being in their ranked matches which equates to a loss. I have PVPed since EQ1 and this is my worst experience so far. I'm not enjoying the PVP, thats for certain.

I got tired of all the rage whispers on my merc, so i quit playing him. I raged so much that I deleted swtor off my pc. Lol. They are good in regular WZs, but shouldn't even step into a ranked WZ. The fac tis look at the leader boards. 50 marauders over 1400 and like 7 mercs. You notice those mercs haven't played many games either.

He is right. It is terrible. Something has to be done about merc defense.

You thinking healing is bad in ranked. Try playing an Arsenal Merc. Good times.

This guy hit it 100% on the head. Look at the Merc/Commando ranked standings. Very few are doing well and those that are sure and heck aren't from the DPS trees. We are always the first to die in ranked. I now run with endurance augs and stims and I still die way too quick. We have some huge problems with this class in RWZs. They need to make major changes to our defense. I'm ok with the offense. I agree also that DPS sorcs have it rough, but not as bad as the merc.

Kolto Overload needs to be improved. I use my powersurge/tech override to heal because I'm burst down so quick. If you do ranked you are dead in the first 5-10 seconds of engagement as a merc against an average team. Its not balanced when snipers have so much more utility, survivability and damage compared to Mercenaries. It is not fun at all! I have to hit an adrenal, kolto overload, chaffe flare, and shield at the very beginning. Thats 4 defensive abilities compared to the marauders 1. That is cooky IMO. This below addresses my only serious problem with Arsenal Mercenary and i agree with your annalysis: However, this does not mean that we should ignore Mercenary/Commando (or any classes, for that matter) cooldowns. We might consider lengthening the duration of the Health Monitor/Fired Up effect provided by Kolto Overload/Adrenaline Rush and maybe even not put the ability on cooldown unless the effect actually triggers Kolto Overload/Adrenaline Rush before it expires. It might be safe to shorten the cooldown on Power Surge/Tech Override or maybe even allow it to affect two abilities baseline. Our concern with Thermal Sensor Override/Reserve Powercell is that the ability only exists to mitigate the frustration caused by an unforgiving resource system, and we would prefer to fix the resource system rather than give players additional buttons or shorter cooldowns to fight against their obstinate resources. Electro Net is a powerful, strategic ability that we feel has an appropriate strength with an appropriate cooldown length, so we probably will not be making any changes to it.

Kolto Overload - Improved for quality of life. In ranked you are dead before you can apply it at times. It needs to be similiar to the ward that Sorcerers have. It also needs to heal in larger incraments. Its not very fun if you always die when the ranked match just begins. Other than a few small defensive quality of life improvements I find Arsenal well balanced. Not a Jug/Marauder/PT/Assasi/Smuggler for pvp, but not bad at all either. This person below hit it on the head in his post: Defensive Cooldowns: This one is fairly blatant, exaggerated even more so in warzone arenas. Spiking is the most effective way to dps in pvp(combining several dps to one target). Mercs get Energy shield(a mere 25% dr) and kolto overload(which doesn't even heal half of what your average player is able to dish out and isn't very effective against spiking by its design). Chaff flare gives +25% defense chance when spec'd into, but even so all defensive cooldowns combined on the merc will do very little to keep an enemy team from spiking the merc down. To make matters worse, these take a total of 3 global cooldowns to apply what in aggregate is weaker and less effective than a single GCD use ability of pretty much every

My Lightning Sorce is now beast in pvp 2.0. Not sure what you are talking about honestly. Healing is even better. The only thing that could use a tweak is how quick they die once targeted.

I understand yoru frustration, but come on. lol

I actually have a descent chance in 2.0 killing non ranged classes, but unfortunately it is only ever 1min and 30seconds (electronet). Cooldown should have been brought down on this for the class to be viable at all in 1v1 situations.

Thanks for all the great communication! Deadlines can be tough! Power Surge cooldown change to 1 min would have been a better idea IMO. Either way mercs shouldn't have to spam TMs to get what other classes get with one ability aka 20% debuff. Electronet being on a 60 second cooldown would have also been great for all the Mercenary trees, since they are all lacking a tad atm.

Thanks for all of the feedback for the Mercs. I'm going to wait and see how the changes pan out. I definately think that electronet CD should have been cut down even further. The change where net is instant should have been like that from its origin, so that isn't an improvement, but rather a problem fix. I personally like the change, but honestly Mercs should have never had to cast TM over and over just to get what snipers do with one shot the 20% debuff. Power surge should have probably been on a lower cooldown, but with 1:30 seconds it isn't as bad as 2 min.

Shoot my merc just destroyed a Jug in a 1v1. I forgot to mention he was a fresh 50 with recruit gear and had 850 expertise. It was a close fight! I'm sure glad that I got all of this fancy EWH gear! Man my merc felt beast. Oh well back to reality!

I have to admit the Dev Slap is a pretty funny ability.