^^ Right on, this is B.S.

No, it's not. Played for 4 months, but now I'm out. Suib ends tomorrow, so long crappy game and unresponsive devs. Enjoy your unemployment.

Well, never, ever, ever thought I'd do it, but I renewed by WoW subscription. Jumped on MMO-Champion and was seduced by the sheer volume of information on the new expansion and additions to the game since I left in March. Although I cringe at the outdated graphics engine and character models I must admit both the pve and pvp are still very enjoyable. I guess I'll be fighting Kung Fu Pandas (God damn the guy who decided to add pandas to WoW). But I'll also be seeing several new areas, new levels, abilities, pets, quests, raids, etc. Cancelled my SWTOR accounts, 2 weeks left, see you guys when it goes F2P. Take care.

^^ all too true.

I've gone biochem just for the perma-stim. The reusable stim stat boost does not drop when you die, so you have a permanent stat boost in pvp. As far as I know, no other craft gives you a stat boost that you can't get or buy some other way. So I stick with biochem for pvp.

I would love for you to show some proof of this meta average "theory". I think it's a bunch of hogwash. Good and bad players leave when a class sucks, not just the bad. Hell, I can give a pretty good argument on why more good players leave and bad players stay than vice versa. So I don't believe for one second your silly meta average argument, you're just pulling it out of your rear.

Got it.

Damn, we could be related. I've got 3 kids and a busy job/home life. Merc has 6 pieces of WH but I'm leveling my 42 Sniper (sooooooo much better as a ranged pvp class). But I know that the leveling is the easy part. Once I hit 50 I'll have the same gear grind for BM, WH and soon Elite WH. It only gets worse as you go up in tier and I dread starting the process all over again. This may be the time to quit. Either try GW2, WoW expansion, or take a break and wait for the next fotm game. I'm trying to hold on until F2P kicks in to see what changes are made, but damn, it's hard.

I have to agree with you. I leveled as Arsenal and really enjoy the play style, animations, and feeling of doing some damage with the rocket explosions, etc. I don't get the same "feel" when I play Pyro and have dots and TD. At this point I've decided I just won't pvp on my Merc. Going to put the 6 pieces of WH on the shelf, re-gear with pve Rakata gear, and use my Merc solely for farming credits in Dailies and the occasional Flashpoint. My Sniper is now my main and I'll level him up to 50 and start the WH grind all over again. Only doing this once, so if this game takes another wrong turn, I'm out. Hopefully the changes that come with the Free to Play option will give me a reason to continue playing.

Seems odd that shared abilities will be different based on AC. Why even have shared trees? Is it working this way on the test server now?

So, if I read this right, several of the pyro tree abilities have had their range reduced to 10m, including Incendiary Missile and Thermal Detonator. So, if you were playing pyro Merc, you now have to get within 10m to use Incendiary Missile, which is required for any pyro build. Really? So they have totally screwed the only viable Merc pvp build in order to force PTs into melee, without thinking of the consequences for Mercs? Really? Are they that stupid?

Unfortunately they nerfed Merc pyro build with 1.4, so the only viable Merc build is now also $h1t.

Thanks, you confirmed what I already experienced. I want to pvp with my Merc, but damn, they are making it hard. Some matches I'll stay under the radar and do ok. Others, I'll have a Marauder or 2 that decide they want the easy Merc kills and chase me the entire battle. All I ask is for a little more defense, maybe a quick invis that let's me escape or a reliable cc. Oh well, back to my sniper.

Yes, you need the WH shells to purchase the new Enhanced WH weapons. Shell plus another 3,425 rated commendations. Let the grind resume.

Man, you really suck. I'd quit the game if I was you.

It took Blizzard 8 years to figure this out for their WoW Hunter class. Same issue. For 8 years they have screwed around and tried to make Hunters viable in melee, when in reality it was futile. I hope BW gets a clue a little sooner.

I have to agree, the interrupt is nice especially against healers and the change to rocket punch will help in some situations, but our dps is still low. When I play my merc, either as arsenal or pyro, I keep thinking how little burst I have, as compared to my sniper, who can take almost any character from 50% to dead very quickly thanks to instant abilities, some of which become available when the target is low health. Mercs need a similar "closer" that allows us to finish the job with a big hit. Maybe if Heatseeker didn't hit like a wet noodle we'd actually keep up with the other classes. As it is, my Sniper's Instant Lazed Snipe, Ambush, Followthrough, Head Shot, Series of Shots, Takedown, etc, just own.

No. And please stop posting this nonsense. Your poll is insignificant and your opinion is not shared by the majority of the merc class. Please go away.

^ this.

Lvl 14, wow, you're a real veteran. "We got nerfed shock"? Yup, I guess that's it. Such insight. Have fun staying positive while you're getting your *** kicked.

OK, babble was probably a bit harsh, but I agree with the above. I still see plenty of Mercs, mostly casual players, even in level 50 wzs. I also see many more PTs than I used to, which tells me that the players that care to be competitive have re-rolled. So the "only the cream of the crop players are still Mercs" seems to be obviously false to me. People like the lore and look of Mercs. Heck, my 11 year old son knows nothing about SW, yet he rolled a Merc because he liked the armor and jet pack. It reminds me of the hunter class in WoW. Very popular due to ranged attacks and cool pets, but known as the noob class. I think we've found the SWTOR hunter class.

I've seen this babble before and don't buy it for a second. In my experience, the hard core players are the "first" to abandon a broken class because they feel they can no longer compete at the highest level. I know plenty of WH geared Mercs that have benched their characters and switched to PT, Marauder or Sniper. Many new, casual and less skilled players either don't know about class imbalance issues, or don't care because they are not planning to run ranked wz. They continue to play the class because they enjoy it; the storyline, lore, look, playstyle, etc. So please save us from your misguided hypotheses. If you have the numbers to prove your theory, please share them with us. But since you're basing your theory on your own subjective assessment of player "skill", you have no way to measure or prove your statements. It does make for good reading, until you realize the logical fallacies in your argument.

Yeah, 5 pc WH set, but no desire to grind the rest. Every time I get owned 1v1 by a melee class I just want to delete the toon. Leveling a Sniper now. Just as squishy, but much better tools for keeping melee at bay and even escaping when necessary. Plus, much to my surprise, Snipers have several melee instant attacks that do very nice damage to add to their excellent ranged attacks. Even if a melee gets in my face, I have a stun, blind, root and push back with root.

So, what's the current thinking on the best Merc pyro build that combines dps with survivability and utility? It may not exist, but what's the best we can do?

Dude, seriously? Good luck at level 50.