Mercenaries Get Nothing: Ability Boredom

[Pawstruck]

The purpose of this thread is to both state an opinion--namely, that many of the Mercenary's abilities are uninteresting or poorly designed--and to get feedback/information on the possibility that that opinion is wrong.

 

First, let me define "interesting" in a semi-objective sense:

 

An ability is interesting if it has any combination of the following:

• A place in a rotation.
  
• A crowd controll effect
  
• A utility effect (speed boost, cover, etc).
  
• A combo.
  
• A finishing move with a pre-requisite (<30% health, activatable after dodging, etc.)
  
• GENERALLY ANYTHING OTHER THAN 'DOES X AMOUNT OF DAMAGE."
  

 

Mercs get very little to none of these. Our "rotation" involves 2 abilities--Tracer Missile and Rail Shot. Crowd control is laughably lacking, and this is PAINFULLY obvious in PVP scenarios. We have 2 tools to keep people off of us: Electro Dart and Jet Boost. We have ZERO utility effects, NO combo-able moves, and NO finishers or pre-req-requiring spells.

 

Read through our tooltips: Most of them describe simple damage. Not even a "Consumes Flame Shock to auto-crit" type damage. Just flat, "which move does the most DPS?" damage.

 

Is this as true as I feel it is? I rolled a Mercenary primarily to heal and sometimes DPS, but the healing tree isn't much better. The most interesting healing spell we have is an Earth-Shield copypaste from WoW.

 

If this class is as poorly designed as I feel it is--plate-wearing battle mage with no defenses, CC, or interesting damage abilities--then I feel Bioware really dropped the ball here. This is really sad to me, as Bounty Hunters are very attractive to me thematically, as are healers.

 

Furthermore, since Operatives are broken to crap in healing, the only option is Sorcerer. Welcome to World of Sorccraft. Thanks, Bioware.

 

Thoughts?

[Celerian]

I can't help but think you're trolling or you haven't actually looked at the class's abilities and talents. Or both.

 

I got your crowd control right here.

 

Also, TM combos nicely with Rail Shot, Unload, and Heatseeker Missiles.

[Yazule]

The purpose of this thread is to both state an opinion--namely, that many of the Mercenary's abilities are uninteresting or poorly designed--and to get feedback/information on the possibility that that opinion is wrong.

 

First, let me define "interesting" in a semi-objective sense:

 

An ability is interesting if it has any combination of the following:

• A place in a rotation.
  
• A crowd controll effect
  
• A utility effect (speed boost, cover, etc).
  
• A combo.
  
• A finishing move with a pre-requisite (<30% health, activatable after dodging, etc.)
  
• GENERALLY ANYTHING OTHER THAN 'DOES X AMOUNT OF DAMAGE."
  

 

Mercs get very little to none of these. Our "rotation" involves 2 abilities--Tracer Missile and Rail Shot. Crowd control is laughably lacking, and this is PAINFULLY obvious in PVP scenarios. We have 2 tools to keep people off of us: Electro Dart and Jet Boost. We have ZERO utility effects, NO combo-able moves, and NO finishers or pre-req-requiring spells.

 

Read through our tooltips: Most of them describe simple damage. Not even a "Consumes Flame Shock to auto-crit" type damage. Just flat, "which move does the most DPS?" damage.

 

Is this as true as I feel it is? I rolled a Mercenary primarily to heal and sometimes DPS, but the healing tree isn't much better. The most interesting healing spell we have is an Earth-Shield copypaste from WoW.

 

If this class is as poorly designed as I feel it is--plate-wearing battle mage with no defenses, CC, or interesting damage abilities--then I feel Bioware really dropped the ball here. This is really sad to me, as Bounty Hunters are very attractive to me thematically, as are healers.

 

Furthermore, since Operatives are broken to crap in healing, the only option is Sorcerer. Welcome to World of Sorccraft. Thanks, Bioware.

 

Thoughts?

 

the fact that you think our rotation only has two abilities means either

 

1) you do not have a bounty hunter

or

2) you should re-roll to another class

 

fyi once i saw that you think our rotation had only 2 abilities I stopped reading for fear that my IQ would go down.

[AAmedeo]

What lvl are u?

 

Tracer combos with Rail Shot, Overload and Heatseeker.

 

CC you did not mention our best, on a 30 cd with an effect that lasts 60, called Concussion Missile.

[Ocili]

Don't forget Shoulder Slam

[oldshatterhand]

Tracer pairs with Heatseeker, Railshot and Unload. Let me guess, you don't play a merc.

 

What lvl are u?

CC you did not mention our best, on a 30 cd with an effect that lasts 60, called Concussion Missile.

 

It's 45 sec if talented and useless in PvP since it brakes on damage and has 2 second cast time.

Edited February 17, 2012 by oldshatterhand

[The_Duck]

Don't forget Shoulder Slam

 

ugh ... not usable in 90% of end game content or any pvp

[rotatorkuf]

bunch of cool kids in here

 

i agree with OP, in regards to pvping we're pretty much useless when it comes to CC

 

for those of you that say "you don't play bounty hunter", based on your ******* comments, makes me think you actually don't play bounty hunter

 

fact of the matter is, to be substantial dps in pvp, you need to use tracer missle a whole lot

 

bounty hunter's are very close to 1-2 button wonders

 

pyrotech tree is garbage in pvp (imo of course), it doesn't have any burst damage and instead relies on a lot of burning dots, which is okay if you're in a group, but chances are the target will already be dead before your dots can do anything meaningful

 

arsenal spec, spam tracer, get a heat sig, spam rail, hit unload to vent heat (if you're specced right)...if you spec all the way up to heatseeker, then yeah, you can do tracer > rail > heat > unload....

 

nothing magical, nothing that requires a whole of thinking

 

as for CC in PVP

 

man, don't even get me started on how useless Merc healers can be with all the damn interrupts, force chokes, stuns, the resolve bar is garbage....i've been stun/cc locked at times where i couldn't do **** and bam i'm dead, granted there was like 4 or 5 dudes that had to kill me...but i should be able to make an attempt to run away instead of just sitting there taking the damage

 

interrupt are the most annoying thing in this game, especially for merc healers (yeah yeah, energy shield on a 2 min cd), don't know about other healing classes, but i'll be damned if you're not about to pop a heal and you get interrupted and can't use it for the next 5 seconds, and there's no cooldown on this garbage, nor does it add to your resolve bar

 

and where's our interrupt? oh we can punt/knockback, whoopedeedo, we're a ranged class that needs to be in melee range in order to recreate a ghetto interrupt that is nothing compared to other classes

 

yes i'm qqing, but i have a basis for it and it cannot be denied

 

other than this, merc healers can bust out some really good heals when not part of the cc garbage

Edited February 17, 2012 by rotatorkuf

[Mythicrose]

I can't help but think you're trolling or you haven't actually looked at the class's abilities and talents. Or both.

 

I got your crowd control right here.

 

Also, TM combos nicely with Rail Shot, Unload, and Heatseeker Missiles.

 

Shhh... all he needs is auto attack until TM.

[Celerian]

Shhh... all he needs is auto attack until TM.

Funny part is I don't play a merc, I play a PT.

[Iserath]

interupt... STUN..(trinket)...interupt 10 seconds later im at, well, dead...

 

1 insta cast from our level 50 ability??? while powertechs get 15 seconds of 25% crit??? we should get like as many casts as possible for free... or what about making unload proc insta cast tracer? or like 10% chance when causing damage to get instant cast abilities like Sorc has.... can channel an at least 3 second ability while moving all the time.. or maybe let us cast and move? i dunno.. just dont tell me i need to L2P unless you play as an arsenal merc at 50.. below 50 yeah they are good i know.... FIX TRACER or at least give us an un-interrupter buff or i dunno it just gets old dying without firing off a shot... and we dont even get a true interrupt =(

[Genjuros]

bunch of cool kids in here

 

i agree with OP, in regards to pvping we're pretty much useless when it comes to CC

 

for those of you that say "you don't play bounty hunter", based on your ******* comments, makes me think you actually don't play bounty hunter

 

fact of the matter is, to be substantial dps in pvp, you need to use tracer missle a whole lot

 

bounty hunter's are very close to 1-2 button wonders

 

pyrotech tree is garbage in pvp (imo of course), it doesn't have any burst damage and instead relies on a lot of burning dots, which is okay if you're in a group, but chances are the target will already be dead before your dots can do anything meaningful

 

arsenal spec, spam tracer, get a heat sig, spam rail, hit unload to vent heat (if you're specced right)...if you spec all the way up to heatseeker, then yeah, you can do tracer > rail > heat > unload....

 

nothing magical, nothing that requires a whole of thinking

 

as for CC in PVP

 

man, don't even get me started on how useless Merc healers can be with all the damn interrupts, force chokes, stuns, the resolve bar is garbage....i've been stun/cc locked at times where i couldn't do **** and bam i'm dead, granted there was like 4 or 5 dudes that had to kill me...but i should be able to make an attempt to run away instead of just sitting there taking the damage

 

interrupt are the most annoying thing in this game, especially for merc healers (yeah yeah, energy shield on a 2 min cd), don't know about other healing classes, but i'll be damned if you're not about to pop a heal and you get interrupted and can't use it for the next 5 seconds, and there's no cooldown on this garbage, nor does it add to your resolve bar

 

and where's our interrupt? oh we can punt/knockback, whoopedeedo, we're a ranged class that needs to be in melee range in order to recreate a ghetto interrupt that is nothing compared to other classes

 

yes i'm qqing, but i have a basis for it and it cannot be denied

 

other than this, merc healers can bust out some really good heals when not part of the cc garbage

 

My pyro merch would like to have a word with you, just to see if the "dots" dont kill you before you can spam 3 of your precious missiles

[Iserath]

i posted this in the pvp forum... sums up how i feel...

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=2937811#post2937811

[Monkfishysnow]

Set all keybindings to tracermissile except 3 for railshot, unload and heatseeker missile. Faceroll. Laugh. Repeat.

[oldshatterhand]

Set all keybindings to tracermissile except 3 for railshot, unload and heatseeker missile. Faceroll. Laugh. Repeat.

 

That might work for 1-49, good luck doing it at 50. I had a big shock when I dinged 50 and did my first warzones, in the 10-49 bracket I was dominating usually being the first or in top 3 with 8+ medals, but at 50 until I got champion gear I was constantly getting my *** kicked, barely making 3-4 medals/wz.

[Shinavast]

What on earth makes you think our rotation has only 2 abilities ?

 

 

I use 6 abilities for dps, about 12-13 all told depending on the fight.

 

 

Every time i hear this 2 button nonsense all i can think of is "this person doesn't play a merc".

[Pawstruck]

I simply cannot believe the replies I am reading here. Ignoring the obvious troll/flaming stupidity, there seem to be people who think Mercenaries are well-designed. They aren't.

 

Are you people actually considering Concussion Missile a CC? It's got a 2-second cast time, breaks on damage, and has a long cooldown. Those factors make it useless in any PVP situation.

 

It seems like they gave all the CC in this game to Sorcerers, Assassins, Warriors, and Operatives... and even THEY don't have much in the way of interesting abilities. SWTOR is really lacking in this area.

 

Where are our Blinks?

Our roots?

Stance-dancing?

Totems?

Immunity Bubbles? (not just our "reduces incoming damage" crap)

 

These are the kinds of abilities that create INTEREST... I am very bored of WoW, but comparatively it looks like a much more well-designed experience at this point. I'd really like to see Bioware address this very soon. But my hopes are not high.

[LastSurvivor]

Don't forget Shoulder Slam

 

If only it worked in pvp....

 

...nah, it would still suck.

[MaroBaro]

Dont play arsena until it gets nerfed, pyto is awesome. u dont kill with dots.

[darkonnis]

Mercs do alot of damage, you want CC, utility and defensive power ups to go with this?

I smell a troll.

[Pawstruck]

Mercs do alot of damage, you want CC, utility and defensive power ups to go with this?

I smell a troll.

 

Really?

 

Because I smell Sorcerers.

 

You know, that one class that makes up 50% of every battleground population. The one that can do the most DPS in the game, has the best heals, the most utility, and the most/best CC. Yeah, I'm toooootally trolling by asking for Mercs to get something exciting.

[Pwny_Express]

Tracer pairs with Heatseeker, Railshot and Unload. Let me guess, you don't play a merc.

 

 

 

It's 45 sec if talented and useless in PvP since it brakes on damage and has 2 second cast time.

 

Wrong. Aside from being good for slowing down runners for a couple seconds so your group can pounce on them it also has other uses if you're smart about it.

 

When in trouble or when trying to help someone cap an objective do this:

 

Electro-dart on enemy. If they sit there to take the damage then save concussion and use unload to slow them (assuming you have pinning fire; you should). If, however, they use a CC break on electro-dart (this is most of the time) then you cast Concussion (use power surge and thermal override if you have them for instant, heat free cast) and now they are stuck in CC for 8 seconds with no way to break out. Just long enough to capture an object, run to hide/heal, or sit there and heal up near full so they have to try to kill you all over again from scratch.

[_droider_]

the fact that you think our rotation only has two abilities means either

 

1) you do not have a bounty hunter

or

2) you should re-roll to another class

 

fyi once i saw that you think our rotation had only 2 abilities I stopped reading for fear that my IQ would go down.

 

Did the same thing. Anyone know what the rest of the post said?

[_droider_]

Whine, whine...2 ability rotation...rest

 

tl;dr;

 

I have no idea what I'm talking about.

 

Fixed.

[Pawstruck]

Wow.

 

Looks like the trolls and idiots from World of Warcraft migrated to these forums.

 

What's wrong morons? Posting "QQ L2P nub" and "Stopped reading at _______ [point at which I disagree]" got boring with a black and red background, so you thought you'd come over here and give it a try?

 

Pathetic.