It's almost like you can have decent experience with the class by playing against it, who knew? I don't need to be an expert with the class to have an opinion about it. You are, so why not critique what I suggested or provide your own? You making a stupid remark about my little experience driving the class does nothing to add to the conversation.

With a .5 second nerf to Roll immunity, why not give them something to compensate? Every other class now has a longer damage window against them. Giving them increased passive healing and freeing up a TA will allow them to focus on DPS more, I think. I only have a low level Operative so my experience with the class is not much but everyone is calling for a class re-work or major changes when small incremental changes (buff and nerfs) might bring them in-line to where they ought to be. The current iteration is working less than ideal. This is just my opinion. One thing I hate doing and seeing is complaining about something with no suggestion or solution for the problem. Complaining with no solution does nothing. Bring forward your complaint and suggestions for change and maybe they will get heard.

I've been hearing people claim this but never any proof. Do you have any?

You've been posting this around in other places. Can you provide proof instead of saying "Go check for yourself"? Otherwise, you are full of it.

Nerf: Reduce Roll immunity to 1.0 seconds from 1.5 seconds. Reduce healing from Kolto Infusion by x%. Buff: Increase Diagnostic Scan healing x% over the channel duration. Increase either Kolto Probe stacks to 3 or Kolto Probe healing by x%. I'm specifically targeting Concealment with these suggestions. I don't know how Medicine or Lethality would be affected.

But they are so, do one or the other. You'd rather be locked into Tacticals as well? Your "4v4 meta" does not happen every time in Solo Ranked. I'm willing to bet the percentage of "4v4 meta" matches is pretty small compared to 4DPS or 3DPS + 1Support. There is a separate mode for that. If the system for Solo Ranked changed to 3v3, deny 2 healers or 2 tanks from being on the same team. Okay, so put something in place as a band-aid fix and see if it works. There is currently no mitigation for losses due to these things. I don't remember any Ranked rewards being Cartel Market items. I just remember them being very desirable because they were exclusive to Ranked content. Can you provide some examples?

When you say infinitely more resources, they aren't drawing from the same resource pool. Force Bound only requires the credits while other non-craftable sets require credits and Tech Fragments. Everyone had to start with 0 Tech Fragments. No one started with 0 credits. You can insta-buy the FB set if you already have the capital, which requires almost zero time investment, assuming the entire set is available. With credit totals reaching into the billions for some players, a small percentage of their purse goes to buying the set. The other sets require you to put in significantly more time into the game or to get lucky. Time may be more of a resource investment to some people as opposed to credits. Most veteran players probably will have no problem coming up with that amount of credits but forcing them to play content that they do not like is a huge burden. No PvPer wants to grind Hammer Station FP for an entire day. A valid argument can be made that Tech fragments require more resource investment and a valid argument can be made that credits require more resource investment. Differences aside, why does one set get a pass while the other does not?

Wishlist for deaf ears: 1. Allow utility changes before timer starts. Do I need to play defensive or offensive based on the enemy team composition? Tacticals are changeable and they are just an extension of the utility system anyway. 2. Shrink Solo Ranked to 3v3. The population just isn't there to support consistent 8-man matches. Also, since the burst is currently really high, this will alleviate an additional source of burst pressure the focus target has to survive through. 3. For Solo Ranked, allow only 1 "support" class (heals/tanks) to be on a team with 2 others required to be DPS. Compositions consist of 1 Healer + 2 DPS or 1 Tank + 2 DPS. One DPS is not enough to kill through Guard and Healing. No one wants to fight 2 tanks or 2 healers. 4. A gear requirement of 306 for both Solo Ranked and Group Ranked. I believe they have had a similar policy in place before some expansions ago. You could not queue unless you had all 2018 expertise rating, iirc. 5. Change the ELO rating system. Bonus points for a winning streak and a decreasing point loss for losing streaks. More reward for winning and less punishing for unfortunate losses due to throwing, wintrading, cheating, etc. This might actually cause more wintrading in Grouped Ranked but might work for Solo Ranked. 6. Set aside some new Cartel Market items for Ranked rewards. I suspect a lot of people save their monthly CC stipend for cool CM items and don't actually buy CC directly. Keeping us chasing the "carrot on a stick" gear rewards will keep us subscribed and shift new cosmetics away from the CM and into actual game content. No thoughts on Group Ranked nor how the above changes would affect it.

It's a 4-piece set. I'm afraid nerfed CF will still be the best armor you can get.

Also, you have to finish the channel of BB to get 4 stacks. Each tick gives a stack. For PvP, I start combat with BB -> (buffed) Priming Shot -> (instant) Tracer Missile -> BB -> go from there. For Primed Ignition Tactical, Priming Shot (applies DoT even if it misses) -> BB -> (instant) Tracer Missile -> BB -> HSM -> TM -> Rail Shot. That should all fit into the Priming Shot DoT if you don't get interrupted.

Can you provide link or source?

I was referring to the amount of time and cost of getting the set takes, just like any other non-craftables. Force Bound's only restriction is not having enough credits to buy it from crafters. Other BiS sets require credits as well as Tech Fragments, which painstakingly take forever to get through PvP. You are forced to do PvE content in order to actually even get the set in a timely manner. The incoming nerf pretty much kills the DPS specs from being mid-tier to bottom of the barrel probably. There are no other good Mercenary sets, like at all. At least Jugg has another decent set or two. My point is, the mere excuse of not nerfing or removing a particular set because of time and resource investment from players should be applied across the board.

*laughs in Concentrated Fire

What set will now be the best set for DPS or Healing? With all the mercenary sets being lackluster in general, will the non-spec sets see some use or is Concentrated Fire still the best set to use? Does anyone know how much shield Squad Leader set gives to allies?

If you are playing Mercenary, the root on Missile Blast helps to put damage on target. You root and apply some burst. Try to mentally keep track of the internal cooldown of the root and repeat. Coupled with hardstun and net, roll does not frustrate me as much. Operative can easily sustain through IO damage and I don't think Arsenal burst is high enough to overpower the Operative if the above tactics are used. At that point, it turns into a war of attrition which the Operative usually has a higher chance of winning.

I have not tried Continuous Fire yet but the other two IO tacticals are pretty uninteresting. Something about having to use Sweeping Blasters constantly to refresh DoTs is not appealing to me. IO really got some horrible tacticals compared to Arsenal. I feel like they could have come up with some better ones that synergize better with the spec. For example: Thermal Detonator deals 75% of normal damage but now also deals 50% of normal damage in an 8m radius. Full Auto increases all Damage over Time effects by 100% and ticks their damage while channeling on the target. This can only occur once every 30 seconds. Fusion Missile is now an instant cast and does 50% increased damage. I really wish there was an Energy Shield tactical. Energy Shield's damage reduction increased to 50% but only lasts 6 seconds. Energy Shield's damage reduction decreased to 15% but increases all damage by 25%. Energy Shield's cooldown increased by 45 seconds but can be used while stunned and removes incapacitating effects. Tacticals are basically another utility attached to an item. BW really missed the mark by not giving some specs cool and interactive ones but subpar mediocre ones, initially at least. Hopefully, the next round of them will be more interesting.

In my opinion, the 4 tacticals you should ever use on Arsenal Merc is Primed Ignition, Burning Bright, Life Warden, and Running Rapid Restoration. I usually use a different rotation based on what tactical I am using. Primed Ignition: Priming Shot > Blazing Bolts > Instant Tracer Missile > Blazing Bolts (reset) > Heatseeker Missile > Tracer Missile > Rail Shot. This all fits within one duration of Primed Ignition DoT which all ticks its damage. Burning Bright: Blazing Bolts > Priming Shot > varies Again, rotation is less important in PvP and always subject to change because you get CC'ed, interrupted, or enemy uses Defensive CD's.

If you're interested in Arsenal PvP gameplay, you can check out my YT channel. It's mostly Arsenal and IO Mercenary PvP gameplay. I don't really have a guide. I usually alternate between Burning Bright and Primed Ignition tacticals while still collecting my Concentrated Fire set bonus. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdYrALX70uf4_3czGZK-B0g Also, the Mercenary/Commando class forum section has some PvP related insight.

I'm disappointed with the set pieces in general. All 2-piece bonuses are boring stat bumps and you cannot mix any 4 or 6 piece sets to receive bonuses from different sets. I think they should have made the generic sets have a 2 piece bonus that makes a small change to a base class ability, i.e. Energy shield cooldown reduced by 15 seconds, Hydraulic Override lasts an additional 2 seconds. Sets that give stat increases in their 2/4/6 bonuses are extremely boring. Since tacticals are just an extension of Utilities in item form, why not make sets do the same instead of just boost stats.

From what I hear, Merc healer is currently the best in PvP. Sorc healers got nerfed recently and Mercs have become more mobile healers with a certain tactical.

Yes, it is its own DoT and other abilities will tick its damage. It will break "soft" CC, i.e. Concussion Round.

I think this is a major factor causing the alleged abuse/exploitation of the vote kick system. The ranked playerbase isn't large enough to foster a healthy environment. New or unexperienced players get opposed by or teamed up with the more skilled players and not 7 other players of the same skill level. Said player dies 20 seconds into the match and gets griefed by their teammates. The skilled players want to play matches where everyone knows exactly what to do, when to do it, how to do it, 100% of the time. If a single thing doesn't go the way they expected, the less skilled player must be punished. Instead of guiding and teaching new players about how to play in the Ranked environment, "leet" players just want to kick people out hoping for better results in the next match.You would think that the dwindling ranked population would rather just play whatever match they can get then waiting 30 minutes for a queue to pop.

I think the best time to swap targets is when Full Auto, Thermal Detonator, and Mag shot reset are all off cooldown. It's still pretty mediocre swap damage compare to Arsenal. I haven't had much luck with IO in Ranked since I keep getting focused (probably because I'm rusty and bad) and I dare not try Arsenal in Ranked under the same circumstances.

<Lukewarm Tauntauns> <Wookies and Milk> Always thought those 2 were very clever.

Not even that. Hammer Station is all you get. I only do PvP but am forced to do FP's to catch up. All I ever get is Hammer Station. I had an Ilum Master Mode once out of 30+ attempts.