Mercs need a small buff

[Luckorforever]

What Mercs need are MORE USEFUL ABILITIES. Right now if I interrupt a merc's tracer missle they stand there confused for 4 seconds waiting for it to become ready to use again.. There is a 1-2 second delay and then they realize the button they are spamming to 5 stacks suddenly isn't working and they hit aoe pushback. Then go back to pressing their button: 1,1,1,1,1,2!!

 

I really feel bad for them because they are just as the OP said, bad class. BioWare needs to "buff you" by not making your build such an easy predictable damage rotation.

 

Although I hated troopers for awhile leveling.. now interrupt the grav round spam or the healing droid and watch them aoe push and shield until it becomes available again.

 

I Agree, mercs need more abilities...

 

Imagine this: You have Unload on Cooldown, Cooldown of Unload can only be resettet by Tracer Missles if Lucky. So you have Heatseeker (15 sec cooldown) if not on cooldown and Railshot if not on cooldown, without at least 5 heat signatures both of them do very low damage and if used you've not much left to do Damage. Railshot needs 5 Tracers for max dmg.

 

To have a Chance you need your heat signatures, so as soon as Tracers are available ure gonna use em at least 3 times.

 

Without the heatsignatures Merc does very low Damage, thats the Problem and thats why you have to "spam" Tracers, even if you don't want it.

Edited February 6, 2012 by Luckorforever

[Labradoraki]

Ok, so lets say tracer does not get that armor pen, does not matter, its a tech attack and by pass's all def/shielding stats, this makes up for that. Plus 35% armor pen amounts to maybe a 5% more damage, 10% at the very most. Which still does not put powershot in the range of tracer missles base damage.

 

Now with the rail shot, you get 30% base damage on it from tracer, that means your crits hit harder too. so 30% base damage > 30% crit damage. Plus demo round does get a 30% crit bonus to boot, which has a much higher base damage then railshot, and its a tech attack to boot.

 

So All you are doing is making a subpar build compaired to a tracer missle setup.

 

powershot does more damage than tracer, it gets 10% from flame target, it gets 35% PENETRATION , the damage is more than enough for the single weakness of being deflected also an that build also gives 30% CRIT which means it does double damage compared to your 1.7!

[Cerralian]

I play a Merc Healer but in the past I did use Arsenal spec then onto Pyro spec and its true that when you get silenced majority of Tracer spammers will stand there and do nothing. What is wrong with Rapid Shots till tracer comes back?

[Luckorforever]

powershot does more damage than tracer, it gets 10% from flame target, it gets 35% PENETRATION , the damage is more than enough for the single weakness of being deflected also an that build also gives 30% CRIT which means it does double damage compared to your 1.7!

 

Maybe you should show us here: http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#300.1

 

of what Kind of Build ure Talking about, so we all can see what ure talking about.

[Osskscosco]

I Agree, mercs need more abilities...

 

Imagine this: You have Unload on Cooldown, Cooldown of Unload can only be resettet by Tracer Missles if Lucky. So you have Heatseeker (15 sec cooldown) if not on cooldown and Railshot if not on cooldown, without at least 5 heat signatures both of them do very low damage and if used you've not much left to do Damage. Railshot needs 5 Tracers for max dmg.

 

To have a Chance you need your heat signatures, so as soon as Tracers are available ure gonna use em at least 3 times.

 

Without the heatsignatures Merc does very low Damage, thats the Problem and thats why you have to "spam" Tracers, even if you don't want it.

2 stuns, jet boost, rocket punch, i think they cover more than 4 secs then you can go back and spam your tracer lol.

[Luckorforever]

I play a Merc Healer but in the past I did use Arsenal spec then onto Pyro spec and its true that when you get silenced majority of Tracer spammers will stand there and do nothing. What is wrong with Rapid Shots till tracer comes back?

 

Sure, you can make rapid shots, this will make maybe 1000 Damage in 4 Seconds, while using Heatseeker + Railshot u get at least 2500-3000 without heatsignatures, its a waste to use those skills without tracers, but it at least does some damage.

 

As soon as traceris available againyou willhave to use tracers / unload till heatseeker and railshot are available again.

[DamienStark]

So what i propose is a SMALL buff to mercs, a very small one so they can kill someone fast enough before we die... Increase the damage of tracer missile or powershot so we can kill someone fast enough BEFORE WE GO OOM and before we die because we are pretty much a turret that has 0 mobility

 

Dude.

I do have a lv 50 Merc, recently re-spec to hybrid Arsenal/Bodyguard after a long time pure Arsenal.

 

I have some sympathy for you, I'm not one of the "tracer spam OP LOLOL" people, but seriously - your complaint is that we have to sit there as an interruptable turret spamming one ability, and your suggested fix is... buff that one ability?

 

IF there's any buff to be done to Merc (and I won't wade into whether or not Merc is UP/OP needs nerf/buff, let's just say IF they're getting buffed) then it should be to address the issues you named. Mercs need another ability that's as compelling/effective as tracer/power-shot, which could be used while moving.

 

Whenever I have to chase someone, I've got Explosive Dart (if on cooldown, and damage isn't that impressive as minor AOE isn't what you need when chasing someone) or Rail Shot (IF it's on cooldown, and IF they're vulnerable). That's it, so I spend lots of time in Huttball spamming Rapid Shots.

 

If you feel the need to "fix" Merc, that's what you fix, not "Tracer and Power Shot don't do enough damage".

 

Meanwhile, if we're trading something away to get this new buff, how about a small minimum range on Tracer Missle (and PS), so you can't just keep spamming it when a guy is right up in your face with a lightsaber?

[MadcatGTs]

powershot does more damage than tracer, it gets 10% from flame target, it gets 35% PENETRATION , the damage is more than enough for the single weakness of being deflected also an that build also gives 30% CRIT which means it does double damage compared to your 1.7!

 

powershot does less damage then tracer, its why people use tracer over powershot. You get 9% hitting burning targets, and 35% penetration, so you remove 35% of their armor stat, which then lowers their damage reduction by 5-10%.

 

you may get a minor increase in damage from railshot every 2 to 3 shots, but it still does not compare to getting demo round. which is a tech attack, gets +30% damage and +30% crit damage

[XearoBadlag]

sorry but that build does as much damage as a powershot build and has even better heat control. Also both arsenal and powershot build needs a small buff because like others said when we get silenced its over.... we have 0 mobility and are DEAD!

 

You've got two wasted points in the bodyguard tree. You spent them on Med Tech. Do yourself a favor and spend those two point in arsenal and get tracer missile. It's not going to be the best because you'll only be applying one heat signature at a time, but every time you hit with tracer it's -4% armor rating that stacks to -20%.

 

Not to mention you've basically screwed yourself out of all the classes best abilities (tracer, thermal detonator, heatseeker missiles) by spreading yourself too thin. These trees aren't designed to do everything mediocre. They're designed to to one thing effectively. You're failing at all of the above.

[Luckorforever]

2 stuns, jet boost, rocket punch, i think they cover more than 4 secs then you can go back and spam your tracer lol.

 

Rocket punch is useless if not skilled and not worth skilling. Both Stuns have a 1 Minute Cooldown, one breaks on Damage and has a 2 sec cast time, which is useless cause every melee will interrupt it easily. Yeah, you can use the knockback, and that's it. As you should know you will nearly never have all skills available.

 

It wont even be the problem that i dont have skills for 4 seconds without tracer, the problem will be when its interrupted a second time ... then all my skills will be on cooldown.

[cashogy]

this has to be a troll. the build you posted is terrible. power shot is never, and will never be a "god weapon". it occasionally hits really hard, but it is a filler. most times it will hit from 1.5-2k.

 

i suggest you stop posting

[Osskscosco]

Rocket punch is useless if not skilled and not worth skilling. Both Stuns have a 1 Minute Cooldown, one breaks on Damage and has a 2 sec cast time, which is useless cause every melee will interrupt it easily. Yeah, you can use the knockback, and that's it. As you should know you will nearly never have all skills available.

 

It wont even be the problem that i dont have skills for 4 seconds without tracer, the problem will be when its interrupted a second time ... then all my skills will be on cooldown.

 

Learn to run? Play in a team? Use stims?

 

Or if you dont like that your abilities are on CD then just stay away for a few secs from the combat.

[Luckorforever]

Learn to run? Play in a team? Use stims?

 

Or if you dont like that your abilities are on CD then just stay away for a few secs from the combat.

 

So how shall i stay away from combat when a melee jumps at me? Ask him to wait till my skills are all ready? Might work ...

 

 

Btw: I've never said that Mercs need a Buff, just to make that clear.

I would even agree with a nerf of tracers if they gave us other skills that do less damage then tracer but give heat signatures too, but i guess thats to much work for BW, or they just like the tracer-spam.

[DamienStark]

Rocket punch is useless if not skilled and not worth skilling. Both Stuns have a 1 Minute Cooldown, one breaks on Damage and has a 2 sec cast time, which is useless cause every melee will interrupt it easily. Yeah, you can use the knockback, and that's it. As you should know you will nearly never have all skills available.

 

It wont even be the problem that i dont have skills for 4 seconds without tracer, the problem will be when its interrupted a second time ... then all my skills will be on cooldown.

 

Disagree on Rocket punch, at least for PVP. Functions as a sort of "melee interrupt", plus in Warzones any sort of knockback is great for knocking people into hazards/pits or off Voidstar bridges, etc.

 

Agree with the rest though. I won't say Mercs are underpowered, but people foucs on the Tracer spam and ignore the limited CC, limited mobility, and no proper interrupt. 4 second stun on 60 second cooldown isn't that special, and the sleep is great for PVE but in PVP it's just a gift to your opponent (fills resolve bar then breaks on damage).

[Labradoraki]

Disagree on Rocket punch, at least for PVP. Functions as a sort of "melee interrupt", plus in Warzones any sort of knockback is great for knocking people into hazards/pits or off Voidstar bridges, etc.

 

Agree with the rest though. I won't say Mercs are underpowered, but people foucs on the Tracer spam and ignore the limited CC, limited mobility, and no proper interrupt. 4 second stun on 60 second cooldown isn't that special, and the sleep is great for PVE but in PVP it's just a gift to your opponent (fills resolve bar then breaks on damage).

 

+1, we dont need a serious buff, just something to give us some utility and mobility... have no interrupt is very hard though too

[Xaradus]

I got crit for a 6.5k medical probe... should really nerf that

[Noviru]

Hello everyone,

 

This is a heads up that we recently had to remove several posts from this thread. A reminder that regardless of the topic, it is part of our Rules of Conduct that:

• 
  
• Never insult another member of the community.
  
• Respect other community members, whether they agree with you or not.
  
• Flag, don't fight. Use the "flag" feature to report posts to our Community Team if you see someone breaking the rules – don't respond to them!
  
• Don't make spam posts like "first," "in before the lock," or "bump."
  
• Make constructive, on-topic posts that add to the discussion.
  

Thank you for understanding.

[Yazule]

OK listen, we are talking about 50 pvp now so if you ont have 50 mercenary people dont talk because we know that they are op at 1-49 but in 50 its a different story...

 

NOTE:50 PVP HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH 1-49 PVP!!

 

anyway, into the main subject currently there is a new very broken build http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#300rcZMIzZfcbMdGhM.1 which makes powershot a godweapon that has 35% armor penetration and 10% more damage on flamed targets plus a good fast vent heat and free railshot with huge crit...

 

now arsenal compared to that might be good but the moment we are silenced we are dead... WE HAVE ABSOLUTELY NOTHING OTHER THAN TRACER MISSILE/POWERSHOT that does good damage and most of our good skills have a big cooldown. So the only thing we can do is run around while having other classses anihilate us fast since we got silenced and are now useless....plus we got 0 MOBILITY

 

So what i propose is a SMALL buff to mercs, a very small one so they can kill someone fast enough before we die... Increase the damage of tracer missile or powershot so we can kill someone fast enough BEFORE WE GO OOM and before we die because we are pretty much a turret that has 0 mobility

 

the fact that you do not mention our biggest hitting attack (unload) proves you have just given us a load.

[Cegenaus]

his anti TM posts on the pvp board are very entertaining

[smokeylemons]

this title says noob all over it. I'm a arsenal merc, and we're pretty damn mobile. Its all bout position yourself every couple seconds, but itd be nice to have a workin jetpack move....

And tracer isnt our hardest hittin ability, im pretty sure unload is...i use HSM/rapid shots/tracer/unload more than tracer.

[Osskscosco]

So how shall i stay away from combat when a melee jumps at me? Ask him to wait till my skills are all ready? Might work ...

 

 

Btw: I've never said that Mercs need a Buff, just to make that clear.

I would even agree with a nerf of tracers if they gave us other skills that do less damage then tracer but give heat signatures too, but i guess thats to much work for BW, or they just like the tracer-spam.

 

Jet boost with set bonus is almost always ready and it pushes enemies very far with a slow debuff. What else do you need? Stun him after he lands if you are so afraid to fight. If you want a superior 1v1 class then go powertech.

[Gaidax]

Arsenal is a n00b-killing spec, really. It's only saving grace is the fact that that there are too many idiots running around trying to burn tanks instead of a guy who actually kills them.

 

And honestly, pyro is not that amazing either.