I would say that a DPS Jugg can take more than a Merc and survive longer and that your perception is off because the Merc can avoid AOE placement that the Jugg must stand in and can employ escape abilities, heal up and go back in with much less downtime. I am only going by my experience though and will differ my opinion to any valid evidence provided to the contrary.

I give joy to the world by playing my merc. When I do get killed in a Reg, all those Juggs that have be chasing me round for the last 5 minutes feel better about the life choices. Oh yeah, that and the premade group of Sents that join WZ's and hunt me down time and time again. I make their lives better too. I wonder if they sit on their Mics saying, "Lets kill that guy for playing a Merc." Sometimes they ignore me though and just go and get the ball and score. I wonder if I have done something wrong on those days. I think that BW should nerf premades and force everyone to PUG.

What evidence are you basing the "population problem" on (it might just be these forums but I am interested either way) Them darn snipers too eh, they should get a nerf, they gots them shields and stuffs. You know, to hek and all fire with it, I can jump on a bandwagon with the best of them, lets just all play Marauders and peacefully protest on fleet until our voice is heard.

Consistently being top DPS in an 8v8 Reg WZ doesn’t make you OP, if you are concentrating too much on how much damage you are putting out instead of objectives you should really be playing a Mara. Now if the Merc could run to a node and cap it whilst ignoring a barrage of damage for several players directly targeting him. Or run into a 3 v 1 and win every time (I can 2 v 1 in the right situation against the right type of player on a couple of classes) then that would be OP. Also being the most played class doesn’t make that class OP, that’s just silly and in my limited experience Sorcs are still the most played class. I got pulled up by someone on my previous post about taking excessive healing away from an Arsenal Merc. I think that this should be a small tweak and that DPS Sorcs and Op’s (and their rep counterparts) are fine with their level of healing as they lack some of the other benefits that a Merc has. *sigh* haters gonna hate right 

lol, Bioware doesn't tell me what I am allowed to play.

I don’t know how damage is recorded really, if you don’t take it through an absorb or negate of some kind does it still register as damage in the scoreboard at the end of the WZ? To address the point, A Jugg/Guard probably has the same amount of DCD’s and a Mara/Sent must be pretty close although they don’t negate damage in the same way (obvious differences between a Merc and a Mara/Jugg I know). I think that the issue is not in the DCD’s alone. Most people (I am assuming) are in 230’s without a full set bonus right now and so go high crit and as more and more people start to gear up that may become the meta, it may change. Right now with that sort of set up a Merc gets a 20 second CD on a 15 – 20k (crit) insta heal and a 2k heal on a GCD with enough escape mechanics to almost always be able to get away to use them. On top of that a lot of players are guarding and so are probably taunting more too all that DR adds up. Not strictly a DPS class but something to lead me onto the next point, I have played a Tank Jugg with DPS gear and a Shield off hand in Regs and I feel more sturdy than I do on a Merc and can do solid (burst) damage in the right situations. The thing about Arsenal Mercs (being specific) is that no other class has the same combination of abilities, Powerful DCD’s, Strong Healing, Range, High Mobility, High Burst DPS, Little Channelling. Look at any of the other classes and you can take 1 or 2 or more of those things off the list. In the past I have advocated Mercs and felt that the people complaining are doing so because they have lost their “easy kills” more likely the aggressive nerf merc campaigners are in that category. Having played it a bit in regs and having had a sit down and thing about it the problem is fixed by removing healing from Arsenal Mercs. I do see alot of Mercs in Regs at the moment though (going back to the topic)

Mercs are certainly tough to kill and DCD’s are arguably over tuned. That said one the best ways to spot a reroll to FOTM, those that jumped on the band wagon is to see a Merc that has taken 450,000 damage in a WZ. Any good merc, one that has played through 4.X and even longer has learnt how to kite and would not take anywhere near that much damage.

Salty forum is salty

Having removed expertise I don't think that they can do this anymore.

I like the new system, it has brought me back to SWTOR from ESO which had gone very stale for me. Opening the crates is like a little Xmas present, sometimes I am disappointed but if I am I get to smash it up, which I am not allowed to do in real life, there I am forced to grin and say thank you. In both cases I am always looking forward to the next box. If I do regs or ranked or ops or fps (read group play) I can get 3 levels in a night, if I do h2’s the bar barely moves but H2’s are good for credits and vanity armour so I just grind out what I want that day which is quite a nice balance. PvP also appears to have some measure of balance and perhaps the most that we can/should expect. I don’t think mercs are that tough to kill, it just better timing than it did before. It seems to me that they have been brought up to the level of other classes. The story was a good length, just enough running for me to appreciate when I got to where I was going and it was well told. Once was enough but I enjoyed it. All in all I can see the attempt to cater for the entire player base, people are “forced” into all aspects and levels of group play that they wouldn’t normally do increasing the pop rate for those that actually want to do it. The only issue I have, which has been mentioned before, is the fact that I am forced at the moment into play one toon. In the future I will be able to afford crafted entry level gear on the GTN but right now that option is not possible. The only suggestion I have to overcome that is to allow me to decide on if I want tank, dps or healer gear to spawn from the boxes that I am opening. That way I could use my main toon to gear up in other roles available to that class without having to swap disciplines. At the same time some of those duplicate items could spill over into my other characters.

Sorry for this but I cant seem to find it although I know it was discussed. Can you please remind me on the Alacrity sweet spot for arsenal in pve so that it does not interfere with the rotation. I have 535 or something like that?

Its a trap

I have no doubt that you are well researched before posting dude. My point is that I just dont get it, are BW testing their changes before they release them or are they asking us to do it for them. I dont remember getting paid to do anything for Bioware. The only reason I can think of them changing FoTM (for those that indulge in that kind of thing) every 3 patches is that is exactly how long it takes to fully gear 224. I would say you have 2 Months of Merc being top of the charts before they decide it’s time for someone else. Perhaps it’s the only way that they can keep the majority from clearing NiM, it’s a delaying tactic. The Bioware board meeting minutes go thus… “We got no raids what can we do boss” “Make a cool story” “We did that, it was cleared in 3 hours by Tommy no hands, everyone else did it in 2, whats next boss” “Change the raids that we already have” “We did that,we upped the damage on a couple the people have already cleared all the HM Ops, even the PUGS are doing it boss” “We are losing subscribers boss” “Promise something quick” “What boss, what?” “Give them some ****** gifts” “We already promised them some boss, were in trouble here” “Right I got it, keep Fekking with the classes, keep em quessing, that’s worth a couple of months of raging at us before anyone else quits” “Genius, that’s why you’re the boss boss” “Good, now stop bothering me while I am playing WoW” Get geared, get bent, change your class, and remember choices matter.

I wonder with all the feedback they get they will make another chapter and release it early. That should do it.

That, my friend, is wishful thinking, you have more chance of the dataminers being 100% correct and that they just didn't miss the Merc nerf than you have of Bioware not smashing the bat over your tin can heads Unless Bioware just missed them through incompetence....hmmmm...