Is there something I'm missing?

[Areaz]

I've been an Arsenal Merc for PvE for some time now. Pre 1.2 and combat logs, I never really paid much attention to individual DPS as long as things died. Post 1.2 however, as I try and perfect my character and collaborate with guildies to see who does the best DPS, I'm noticing something weird.

 

Even pre-HSM fix, my DPS was never as high as our Marauder/Snipers were. We all tested extensively on dummies, and The marauder would always be around 1600, Sniper around 1500, and myself floating around 1350. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't beat them.

 

Then a gold name posted and said the dummies weren't deflecting/avoiding properly, so I was like cool, that must be the disparity, because a lot of Mara/Sniper dmg is white.

 

While progressing through EC, we've often compared DPS and I'm still not anywhere close to them. My rotation is flawless (as every Mercs should be lol, it's so easy) yet I find myself out DPS'd by just about everything but our Sorcs, and even they give me a run for the money quite often.

 

I don't understand how things like this pass by the devs. In 1.2, our HSM supposedly got a damage buff, yet in the most recent hotfix, we got a 25% damage nerf, since apparently we were registering double stacks of Heat Signatures on the target for our HSMs. So post-1.2, we're actually at a 15% damage nerf on HSM, a 10% damage nerf on Tracer Missile, and more Unload procs. When every other class except maybe Operatives/hybrid Sorcs (sorry guys) has gotten a DPS increase, we have been nerfed even more, when we weren't even on par with Marauders/Snipers in the first place. Why would my raid bring me over an equally skilled Marauder or Sniper? They both have insanely more utility than me (raid-wide heals for the Marauder and an AoE bubble for the Sniper) and do more damage.

[Vulgarr]

i have always been arsenal.

 

they screwed up arsenal in 1.2

 

things they screwed up:

 

1. we can no longer use rail shot on targets that have been snared (the whole purpose of taking the unload causes a two second snare on opponent talent.

2. the only abilities we have as asrsenal that we can actually use railshot are fusion missile which has a 30 second cooldown and elctro dart, which has a 1 minute cooldown. so now we absolutely HAVE to use combustible gas cylinder, to be able to use railshot. THIS MAKES IT WAY TO RANDOM TO HAVE TO RELY ON. (10 percent chance to cause a dot, screws up the rotation.)

3. heatseaker missile is NOT accounting for ANY heat signatures.

4. they nerfed the damage to ALL our main abilities (tracer missile, unload, heatseaker, railshot)

 

 

in warzones, arsenal bounty hunters have ALWAYS have been middle of the road in DPS. I was in full BM gear pre 1.2 and NEVER was in the top 3 to 5 overall DPS. never saw over 200k dps. while other classes were getting 300k to 500k easily.

 

the purpose of using arsenal WAS NOT for overall dps. it has always been for BURST. now its too random to rely on. and they completely took our burst away by nerfing all our main burst abilities.

[VenWolf]

On your point #2, Heat signatures on your target also leave them vulnerable to rail shot.

[bahdasz]

To compare prof's DPS you have to take every single thing into consideration. What are you stacking vs what are they stacking? If you opted for say more endurance than aim vs them deciding to stack more cunning than endurance, it will make a noticeable difference. If you stack alacrity and they stack power, if they have a better barrel, lots of stuff make a big difference. I have a Merc Pyro with one suit that's all lvl 51 "commando" barrels and armoring and one suit that's all lvl 51 "reflex" barrels and armoring, both with otherwise the same mods, enhancements, augments and crystals... and I can see a noticeable difference in the damage I do just from that., and those are all the same stats, just different amounts.

 

Don't get me wrong, I'm not making any judgment about your abilities or knowledge, just pointing that out in case you hadn't though of it. If they decided to concentrate on spiking someone to death before they had time to get killed themselves and you decided to sacrifice a bit of aim or power for something else, that could be it.

Edited April 22, 2012 by bahdasz

[BraaxusKun]

i have always been arsenal.

 

they screwed up arsenal in 1.2

 

things they screwed up:

 

1. we can no longer use rail shot on targets that have been snared (the whole purpose of taking the unload causes a two second snare on opponent talent.

2. the only abilities we have as asrsenal that we can actually use railshot are fusion missile which has a 30 second cooldown and elctro dart, which has a 1 minute cooldown. so now we absolutely HAVE to use combustible gas cylinder, to be able to use railshot. THIS MAKES IT WAY TO RANDOM TO HAVE TO RELY ON. (10 percent chance to cause a dot, screws up the rotation.)

3. heatseaker missile is NOT accounting for ANY heat signatures.

4. they nerfed the damage to ALL our main abilities (tracer missile, unload, heatseaker, railshot)

 

 

in warzones, arsenal bounty hunters have ALWAYS have been middle of the road in DPS. I was in full BM gear pre 1.2 and NEVER was in the top 3 to 5 overall DPS. never saw over 200k dps. while other classes were getting 300k to 500k easily.

 

the purpose of using arsenal WAS NOT for overall dps. it has always been for BURST. now its too random to rely on. and they completely took our burst away by nerfing all our main burst abilities.

 

I get some of the highest dmg in warzones and I'm merc lol

[Areaz]

To compare prof's DPS you have to take every single thing into consideration. What are you stacking vs what are they stacking? If you opted for say more endurance than aim vs them deciding to stack more cunning than endurance, it will make a noticeable difference. If you stack alacrity and they stack power, if they have a better barrel, lots of stuff make a big difference. I have a Merc Pyro with one suit that's all lvl 51 "commando" barrels and armoring and one suit that's all lvl 51 "reflex" barrels and armoring, both with otherwise the same mods, enhancements, augments and crystals... and I can see a noticeable difference in the damage I do just from that., and those are all the same stats, just different amounts.

 

Don't get me wrong, I'm not making any judgment about your abilities or knowledge, just pointing that out in case you hadn't though of it. If they decided to concentrate on spiking someone to death before they had time to get killed themselves and you decided to sacrifice a bit of aim or power for something else, that could be it.

 

All of my rakata gear has been reitemized for maximum DPS. Every armoring/barrel is 61 aim, I took out all the 55 aim ones. I have never touched alacrity (lol) and don't stack endurance (lol). I even have a full set of augmented gear waiting for the campaign stuff. Although I do use augmented pants/blasters because I can give up one set piece since I only need 4.

 

My sniper friend and I have compared power/bonus damage scaling between our characters and he even gets more bonus damage from power. I don't understand why they would make classes scale differently, but since he hits harder than me, it doesn't make sense that he would scale better with gear. Before, when HSM hit harder than anything he had, it made sense, since it would be dumb for me to scale better AND hit harder.

[stephenalandavie]

All of my rakata gear has been reitemized for maximum DPS. Every armoring/barrel is 61 aim, I took out all the 55 aim ones. I have never touched alacrity (lol) and don't stack endurance (lol). I even have a full set of augmented gear waiting for the campaign stuff. Although I do use augmented pants/blasters because I can give up one set piece since I only need 4.

 

My sniper friend and I have compared power/bonus damage scaling between our characters and he even gets more bonus damage from power. I don't understand why they would make classes scale differently, but since he hits harder than me, it doesn't make sense that he would scale better with gear. Before, when HSM hit harder than anything he had, it made sense, since it would be dumb for me to scale better AND hit harder.

 

I am a pyro merc and i dont ever have a problem taking out snipers in Wzs

[Craixis]

I get some of the highest dmg in warzones and I'm merc lol

 

Are you Pyro? If not then the only edge you have as Arsenal was "I'm in a really good position not to get focused right now and can free fire on my enemies".

Arsenal is waaaaay too stationary for my taste (Reason I played heavy Pyro or Bodyguard, pre 1.2 I was still mobile enough to do objectives and hit "average" marks for Damage Done and healing at around 300k, no idea how I'll fair now though).

Arsenal "should" have a higher damage output because of their lack of mobility, but as every decent PvPer and their dog knows you interrupt their Tracer Missile before they get more then 1 off and they're generally wrecked as far as rotation goes (if they wanted to force a change in rotation, they needed to add heat signatures from other abilities. Though I honestly have no idea what the "rotation" is for Arsenal currently).

 

Of course as a Mercenary Pyrotech, Arsenal specced Mercs are my most hated enemies... #%$in' tracer missile spam. (Hell even as Bodyguards, I @#%$in' hate Arsenal).

Edited April 28, 2012 by Craixis

[Mrazable]

If we talk bout pre 1.2 I as ars merc was almost always top 1 on dps chart. Played a lot of games solo. And never had probs with killing and staying alive. There were a lot of games when i outdpsed 2nd in chart by 200k. Mercs dmg pre 1.2 was insane. After 1.2 i was not happy bout alll those changes, but we still could burst healers to death with those nice crits from buffed HSM. And i still was in top dps but it was alot harder to get there with those nerfs . But after they killed HSM Im rly sad how things are for us mercs. Our dmg atm is crap. I see more and more ppl outdps me and i feel my self more and more useless. It makes me a sad panda. rly like my merc 82 valor atm, so many time spent on this char and when rated WZ come i rly dont want to take place in that premade coz atm there are alot more useful classes then merc.

 

Btw bout healing mercs . Some time pre 1.2 was running bodyguard just for fun. And i can say that in that way they were in 1.2 it was rly OP ( i talk only bout pvp). Got some screens from those times when on civil war i did 600+k healing. They needed a nerf but what BW did to them is not fun same as arsenal.