MrSIlverSurfing Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 If so what are your thoughts on the Mercenary Arsenal changes? Especially regarding burst DPS, sustained DPS, and heat management. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrooperSev Posted June 7, 2012 Share Posted June 7, 2012 I only did one ops fight on the pts so I can't really be certain for too much, but heat management over sustained dmg was not a worry at all. I never saw my heat go over 40 and I never had to throw in a rapid shots. The reasoning I deducted from this is that because of channel times and the 8 heat tied to a timer and not crits, I would lose a lot of heat during channel times instead of after. Seems confusing, but you'll understand when you try it. The rs buff is actually pretty good as I was able to get to 5 stacks much quicker and was able to throw in abilites that weren't part of my normal rotation. Now, I'll have to check dps logs, but it seems like a great adjustment. I think this is what the devs wanted back in 1.2 as now I feel like tracer missle is no longer the go to ability and I actually won't be gimping myself if I use other abilities as filler. Now, they just need to give us back some of our dmg and I'll be happy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acnoj Posted June 7, 2012 Share Posted June 7, 2012 Now, they just need to give us back some of our dmg and I'll be happy. They're not going to though, they seem pretty happy with out DPS. These 1.3 changes are a small DPS increase, and if they've fixed Target Tracking for Unload that's another small boost....and that's as good as we're likely to get. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrSIlverSurfing Posted June 7, 2012 Author Share Posted June 7, 2012 I'm on test with a few friends and the changes aren't very good. No real change for the Mercenary AC. Powertechs are performing extremely well. If you were a Mercenary who went Rakata to help balance your class back out you are going to really hate 1.3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrSIlverSurfing Posted June 7, 2012 Author Share Posted June 7, 2012 (edited) I just talked with every 50 Mercenary on PTS. Everyone seems to not be happy with the 1.3 Mercenary changes. There is no improvement to PVP performance for the Mercenary class. The accuracy loss seems to negate quite a bit of the 30% increase in armor reduction for the two abilities. There does seem to be an improvement in heat management for longer PVE fights, but this doesn't benefit pvp since most fights are shorter in nature. I'm uncertain why the vanguards received a pvp increase? Possibly the 30% armor penetration in the pyro tree benefited them as well. Every PT/Vanguard that I talked with on test was elated with their class in 1.3. Feedback from Assassins doesn't seem to be too bad. Most notice a very small difference in damage taken in pvp, so no substantial change here even though the patch notes make it sound worse than it actually is. In all there are no real improvements in class balance in pvp, especially for commandos/mercenaries. Edited June 7, 2012 by MrSIlverSurfing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StewieMcScotty Posted June 7, 2012 Share Posted June 7, 2012 Just FYI you did not talk to all the mercs on pts because i never got a tell. That being said I am happy overall with the changes yes there is a dps increase it is minor but very noticeable heat management is even easier then before. Some things i am not happy about is that there is still no interrupt for mercs, the arsenal rotation is pretty much the same- yes you can throw some other abilities into it now but they offer no real benefit and sometimes are a hindrance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aerro Posted June 7, 2012 Share Posted June 7, 2012 (edited) My name is unknown on the PTS so I am not bombarded with messages, however, let me talk about my thoughts on these changes. Currently, most of us *should* be using the Alacrity build. With that in mind, heat management (with the changes) seems to still not be an issue. As for my DPS, I am still able to sustain ~1700 DPS on a Target Dummy over a 5+ minute period. Its not that much of an improvement over before, but my gear didn't fully transfer over to the PTS. With the change to how HVGC is specced, we can now focus on even more power. I will be dropping ~5% crit as soon as 1.3 goes live, and gaining a ton of power in return. 35% will be our new cap, since Tracer will sit at 50% and our heat return won't be crit based. Overall I like these changes. I do not believe we need our abilities amped up (for PvE that is) since a geared and skilled Merc will be topping the meters regardless. If anything, I think Assassins should be looked at- not us. Edit: For those who are saying they can now look at other abilities for fillers since Tracer Lock stacks up faster... that is incorrect. The vast majority of your overall damage will be coming from Tracer Missile and Unload. If HSM and Rail Shot are on cooldown and Barrage is not procced... you *will* be spamming Tracer Missile. There is no other filler ability you will be using. Ever. Edited June 7, 2012 by Aerro Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrSIlverSurfing Posted June 7, 2012 Author Share Posted June 7, 2012 (edited) Just FYI you did not talk to all the mercs on pts because i never got a tell. That being said I am happy overall with the changes yes there is a dps increase it is minor but very noticeable heat management is even easier then before. Some things i am not happy about is that there is still no interrupt for mercs, the arsenal rotation is pretty much the same- yes you can throw some other abilities into it now but they offer no real benefit and sometimes are a hindrance. Yes just after posting this I literally talked to every level 50 Merc on test at the time I was logged on. I also talked with every vanguard and Commando that were online. There were around 11 50 Mercs, 5 50 Vanguards and 4 Commandos. Edited June 7, 2012 by MrSIlverSurfing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillEdwardz Posted June 7, 2012 Share Posted June 7, 2012 I think the update is great. The fact that I don't have to worry about having a lot of crit bonus (to proc terminal velocity) in my gear as I do currently, allows me to focus more on power. The extra stack for rail shot is great too. I'd say the new rotation would be: Unload>TM>TM>TM>Unload>Railshot>HSM The passive heat loss gain is great too as a lot of the mechanics in Operations require us to move around a lot and as a merc its hard to get TM and Unload off while moving (for the current Terminal Velocity proc) to drop heat. I'd say they did a decent job toning down the TM spamming finally since it drops the rotation for full stacks from 5 TMs to 3. My toons name on PTS is Amp copied over from Darth Malak. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillEdwardz Posted June 7, 2012 Share Posted June 7, 2012 (edited) Forgot to mention the the armour pen skill also. It does actually provide slightly noticably higher numbers from the ticks on unload and about an extra 100-200 from railshot. All you really have to do is mod your gear to compensate for the accuracy loss. I brang my surge down from 75.8 down to 73 to get my ranged accuracy back to 100. I've yet to check a parser but again I am noticing slightly higher numbers from the armour pen. Edited June 7, 2012 by BillEdwardz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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