I can't 1v1 - lament of a Pyro

[MajorRedux]

Up until now I've put it down to gear but I've just completed my Champion set and it's still happening.

 

I'm a pyro merc.

 

I can't 1v1 any other class in the game except other mercs. When nobody is shooting me things are fine, but once someone sets their eyes on me it's game over.

 

Sorcs/Sages - Let's not even go there. Bubble, spam their instants, interrupt my casts. Even if I catch them at 2% hp, they just bubble, heal, and then kill me. As a pyro I feel I just don't do enough damage to burst through their bubble and their heal. I also feel that for any of their specs they don't sacrifice any damage for superior survivablity. In any 1v1 case - I can't win.

 

Sins/Shadows - Same issue with Sorc/Sage. Their survivability is just huge and I'm getting hit by insane 5k bursts. Even when I knock them back, slow them down, it's still gg, they are just back onto me so fast.

 

Jugs/Knights - Either they are tank spec... and we just get bored of each other, or they tear me to pieces with 6k smash crit.

 

Mara/Sent - Just pop their survival abilities and gg. Doesn't matter that I can heal - they will just dps through it.

 

Op/Scoundrel - Sneak attack I'm dead in 5 seconds. If I see them first they'll just close in and kill me. I can do a decent amount of damage but usually won't last long enough to kill them.

 

Sniper/Gunslinger - Probably the only class next other mercs that I can take - but it's still a challenge.

 

Van/Tech - Too tough - too much damage. Nuff' said.

 

Merc/Commando - Merc I can handle, commando is a challenge (supposed to be mirrors right?). Seems like they just hit harder than me and heal up twice as fast.

 

 

In all these situations I think the primary issues as a Pyro merc are

- Damage over time: I do more damage than arsenal, but it takes more time. Targets that can heal up or mitigate can just shrug it off like nothing. A possible solution to this would be a healing debuff if they are burning.

- Pushback/Casts: There is a distinct lack of 'immune to interrupt' talents for critical merc abilities like tracer/powershot that other classes get. The pushback talents for powershot are also too deep into the arsenal tree that you just can't realistically spec into them.

- Not enough/poor defensive abilities: Other classes get some pretty darn awesome defensive abilities. 50% defense, 2.5k damage shield, vanish, and so on. All I get is ... a pushback and a 20% damage reduction for 12 seconds. I think making healing scan an instant cast with a shield component could go a long way but there are still some serious issues with our defensive capabilities. Kolto overload is also a pretty sad ability - 15% of hp over 10 seconds... give me a break...

- Needless complexity: Abilities like vent heat, thermal sensor override, and power surge are just cluttering up my hotbar. These abilities can easily be incorporated into the talents trees as passives or procs. The arsenal tree already has vent heat partially incorporated (arsenal heat management is awesome) and I think TSO and PS should get the same treatment.

- Heat management: It's a neat system but it compared to Inquisitor and Agent energy it's far more restrictive. These classes can go balls to the walls with their abilities without worrying, but as a pyro merc you will hit max heat pretty quickly (pumping out all those dots). Pyro mercs are just way to heat heavy with their dots.

 

 

Possible solutions:

- Increase damage: This would fix the problem of burst but probably make pyro mercs do too much damage.

- Increase defense: There are a lot of useless talents in the pyro tree and a passive shield, periodic heal or 20% defense increase could easily fix a pyro mercs survivability issues.

- Heat management: Reducing heat costs on dots would help.

- Dot stacking: Could also increase our damage output on a single target - but could easily become OP.

- Defensive buffs from combustion cylinder: Like tech ion gas cylinder combustion cylinder could get an armour/healing buff or a healing debuff.

 

 

Anyone other Pyros out there running into the same issues. Do you feel too squishy? Does your damage just take too long to tick or can other classes just heal through it?

Edited February 2, 2012 by MajorRedux

[Yazule]

nevermind i was an idiot and thought this was on the wrong board. Edited February 2, 2012 by Yazule

[dreadkhan]

I dont even play a merc, but this whole post reeks of low skill.

[MajorRedux]

I dont even play a merc

 

Thank you for your constructive contribution.

 

I've been playing MMOs for 7 years now, and I have other 50s including my pyro merc.

 

My Jugger doesn't have these issues - he has other issues but he is not quite as squishy as my pyro merc.

 

My Bodyguard and Arsenal merc don't have these problems. That is specifically why I am making this thread - and it is also something I think you completely missed.

[Halifax]

I would just like one interrupt. Thanks. It's not fun being killed by people spamming one button when I should have an interrupt that can stop that one button spam and lock that skill out for a period of time.

[dreadkhan]

Thank you for your constructive contribution.

 

I've been playing MMOs for 7 years now, and I have other 50s including my pyro merc.

 

My Jugger doesn't have these issues - he has other issues but he is not quite as squishy as my pyro merc.

 

My Bodyguard and Arsenal merc don't have these problems. That is specifically why I am making this thread - and it is also something I think you completely missed.

 

boo hoo

 

If the rest of the forums are flooded with people bragging/crying about how solid mercs are and you cant kill anyone i am prone to think you need a seminar.

[Redmyst]

i have been playing my merc pyro and have no issues with 1v1 with any class.

 

its all rotation and knowing when to hit your next skill. Kiting works great against melee, use your push backs. electro dart, gain some distance between you and them

 

I have 1v1 on ilum and in wz's i win some, lose some. but it is never lopsided in anyone's favor.

 

what rotation are you using, I have some battlemaster gear now but also have 2 pieces of centurion gear, the rest is champion gear.

 

I open with TD, then IM, then railshot, then missile blast, then rapid shot. I will sometimes use unload if they are ranged or cycle back to TD if off cool down. dont forget to hit your shields and kolto heal, its a nice HOT for a short time.

 

while pyro is a nice dot class, it is very useful in 1v1 and doing burst damage, just the burst is about 6 seconds into the fight, not right off the bat. Its a wonderful thing watching TD explode and then you hit them with railshot. those two right there can give you over 5k in damage dealt.

 

good luck in getting your rotation down and what works for you, but I am enjoying pyro in pvp way more than the arsenal spec i had.

[Yazule]

boo hoo

 

If the rest of the forums are flooded with people bragging/crying about how solid mercs are and you cant kill anyone i am prone to think you need a seminar.

 

those people are idiots fyi and he is talking about a non tracer missile using class, i have never seen a nerf post about pyro merc

[Angryorc]

It sounds to me like you're trying to play your pyro merc the same way you do with an arsenal merc...

 

Which is inevitably where you're doing it wrong.

 

Different specs, different play styles.

[Morbidar]

I can tell you with certainty playing a 50 pyrotech powertech that my Quell (interrupt every 8 seconds) is HUGE in my ability to basically lay waste to sorcs and sages. Without that I'd have to make sure my carbonize, grapple, and electro dart is off CD to win.

 

Thankfully the powertech has a lot more abilities to stop casting and it's how I wipe the floor with arsenal mercs too.

 

I'm not sure how you'd win straight up against a sorc or sage as Pyro unless you got the jump. I can see you fighting toe to toe on damage; I guess because you have a base heal like them you can go neck and neck. I just see eventually you guys having heat mgmt issues without the lucky RANDOM rail shot proc with no interrupts handy.

[Kunovega]

I can tell you with certainty playing a 50 pyrotech powertech that my Quell (interrupt every 8 seconds) is HUGE in my ability to basically lay waste to sorcs and sages. Without that I'd have to make sure my carbonize, grapple, and electro dart is off CD to win.

 

Thankfully the powertech has a lot more abilities to stop casting and it's how I wipe the floor with arsenal mercs too.

 

I'm not sure how you'd win straight up against a sorc or sage as Pyro unless you got the jump. I can see you fighting toe to toe on damage; I guess because you have a base heal like them you can go neck and neck. I just see eventually you guys having heat mgmt issues without the lucky RANDOM rail shot proc with no interrupts handy.

 

a pyro powertech is a completely different animal

 

most of the problems for pyro are as merc, merc lacks much the basic skills a powertech would use for escaping the situations he is describing

 

remember pyro is on both advance classes, but powertech pyro > merc pyro by a wide margin

 

this is a subtlety anyone that hasnt played both will miss

 

this is the merc forum, his problems are as a merc pyro, they do not have carb, quell, grapple, etc. imagine if your entire non dps toolkit consisted of only: electro dart

Edited February 3, 2012 by Kunovega

[Najagiwanda]

I can definitely agree with this post. Pyrotech mercs need some love. Give me a Healer, and I can duo against any other dps class + healer, and usually win in the long run.

 

But for 1v1, it is VERY difficult to win against any other class in the game besides other pyromercs and maybe snipers. And this is highly dependant on LoS availability and terraine features/Smart knockback use.

[truffle_shuffle]

My 1v1 strategy with merc pyro is as follows, if melee kite them and lol. If ranged dps, find a pillar, pop out dot +thermal detonator then LOS. If healer, burn em down asap unless they are a sorc, if its a sorc apply pressure till they start spam healing themselves then run away.

[DrekorSilverfang]

Do the following:

 

Add missile blast to muzzle fluting.

Switch a talent in first tier of pyro to grant 100% chance to proc CGC.

Add missile blast to prototype particle accelerator and rain of fire.

 

There you go, pyro fixed... sort of. It could still use a 3rd DoT to overload dispels like PT Pyro's can but oh well.

[Qurons]

You can run away from melees while spamming Rapid Shots, hopefully proccing CGS and slowing the target. Throw in a Rail Shot when off cooldown and Thermal Detonator. Works many times, depending on proc rate, other cooldowns like Energy Shield and the enemies cooldowns.

 

Have yet to beat a PT Pyro though