Why do mercs need an actual interrupt that isn't depending on stunning or knockback? Oh i don't know maybe because of flashpoints like false emperor where if the merc is the last one to doubt you have to lay off dps so Malgus doesn't do unlimited power and kill the whole group because the merc doesn't have an interrupt. Or maybe because you are running lost island and the tank misses his interrupt on incinerate, the healer is to worried about keeping the tank alive, and the melee dps (if you have one) is killing adds or avoiding bubbles? The most frustrating thing as a merc is watching a cast go by that could have been interrupted if you had one, and the group wiping because of it.

In group pvp the team that wins is the team that works together, in 1v1 pvp the class that wins is the class with the most tricks up their sleeves and the class that knows how to use them. The reason arsenal mercs fit the glass cannon bill, despite heavy armor, is a lack of mobility. To get maximum burst damage we need 4.5 seconds spread across 3 different locations, a time that gives melee plenty of time to close in and ranged plenty of time to los, leave range during a cast. The fact that arsenal mercs have one "oh look im about to destroy your face" skill with a very obvious 1.5 sec cast makes them even more fragile because of getting attention. If a merc destroyed you with tracer missiles there are only a few options. 1) you suck at pvp and he literally spammed your face in. 2) it wasn't actually a 1v1 but the explosion was the one you remember. 2) it was a merc who knew how to play his class better than you know how to play yours, or had the situational upperhand.

learn to fake a TM cast, watch the interrupt hit nothing, and procede to destroy your astounded target with tracer->instant FM->heatseek->rail->unload

what are your stats? and is that with relics/adrenals?

im curious what is your critical multiplier? Becuase if it is near mine that I used for the calculations that damage is still way off of what the skill says it does.

Please try not to take pvp damage numbers into the calculation because of varying expertise and gear differences between players, thanks!

Yes but if you are specced right that number is low, if the damage hit is 1760 normal and you heat sig a stack of 5, there is 25% extra damage. Now critical and lets use my characters 86% crit multiplier and you should crit for 4092k, minimum damage against a target equal to your level without dmg reduction. Now throw in the 30% critical damage and you get three options as I am currently unsure of when damage is increased. First is the whole critical is 30% greater giving you a 5319 hit. Second is the 30% increases that attacks surge giving you a 4752 hit. Third option is the critical damage is raised by 30% resulting in a 4659 hit. All against pve mobs of same level without damage reduction at the average base damage of the skill and much greater than your crits.

I was wondering if any other mercenaries, specifically of max level, have noticed that heatseeker missiles do not do the damage the skill states? The skill itself hits like a TM when no heat signatures are up, but each heat signature applied is supposed to up the damage of the heatseeker missile by 5% with up o 5 signatures, so 25%. However this doesn't seem to be the case, from my perspective either the skill description or the skill itself is bugged. If an attack does on average 1000 damage then on average being increased by 25% the damage would be 1250. Yet my heatseekers hit an average of 1760 on mobs without heat signatures and on the same mobs with 5 stacks of heat signatures hit for 1800-1950 damage. The problem is that a 25% increase to 1769 damage is approx 2200. Just wondering if anybody else has noticed this as well.

1. They had the same champion gear before. 2. They were not shielded. 3. See 1. 4. 1v1 no guard on and no option to obtain it during the fight. 5. Gear at full i pay very good attention to its quality. 6. See above.

then how are my tracer missiles doing 800 less dmg in pvp buffed then they did unbuffed the day before against the same players?

As a level 50 Arsenal Merc I have no problem with the heat system if you place the talent points to increase the heat vented by 16. In hardmodes and raids there is plenty of time on the bosses to max single target dps throughout 2 full heat bars, as vent heat essentially drops your heat low enough for procs to zero it out. The only issue is when dpsing groups of mobs with high hp, such as the new flashpoint. When there is a group of 9 mobs on my tank and healer each with 16k hp, single target dps based off a 1.5 sec cast is to slow, in that instance the most powerful ability is sweeping blasters as it has no cooldown, but thermal sensor override only allows you about 3 uses before you need to hit single target dps to manage the heat. Simply a faster cooldown on TSO would solve most of the heat problems in pve, and in pvp it is difficult to have encounters that last long enough to run two heat bars before you can recharge and reload for 2 seconds and lose your heat.