update on opinion of merc status (pvp wise at least)

[rotatorkuf]

this is NOT a qq post, it's an honest opinion/analysis from a 77 mercenary who also plays a 64 sintank, 50 marauder and 50 operative

 

to whomever this may concern (hopefully someone at the bioware dev departmant can use this input)

 

Arsenal

• beast mode spec for pve dps, just get your rotation right
  
• more often than not, garbage in pvp, most especially if you're solo queing and no one is healing you, interrupts/LOS just eliminate anything you can do
  
• i personally hate this spec in pvp due to the fact that you're standing still and usually easy pickings
  
• only really works when you're not being hit by anyone or in a group that can heal you, i've gotten top dps in these situations
  

 

Pyrotech

• beast spec for pvp dps, can 1v1 a lot of other classes/players (but this is NOT a 1v1 game)
  
• utterly lacking in comparison to powertech pyro (but being helped, enough i think, in patch 1.3, with rail shot increased armor ignore and unload armor ignore)
  
• adding to previous point, i personally think pyrotech for mercs is fine considering all the other crap we can do (aoe knockback, heal)
  
• don't think it's unfair or would cause any imbalance to add a snare immunity to the energy shield talent, a simple 3 second immunity would do, most other classes have zero problems getting rid of snares, mercs on the other hand are in constant snare
  

 

Bodyguard

• healing and heat management is FINE, i have zero problems, people that complain just need to realize you can't be god mode in pvp (excluding OPeratives, for the luls?)...my tips are the following: time your free insta cast heal right, use more rapid shots, cancel heals when you see that an ally is already at full health or close to full health, use rapid shots instead (to prevent overheating), and most importantly, DO NOT SPAM Rapid Scan
  
• now, in comparison to my operative healer, i also rarely ever have a problem with energy, due to the nice ability called Stim Boost (look it up), it recovers 3 energy every 3 seconds for 45 seconds, unfortunately we don't have anything like this, the closest thing is Supercharged Gas (which was nerfed for whatever reason, i think this is dumb and should be reverted back to releasing 16 heat)
  
• keep in mind rapid shots is free, casts fast enough and heals for around 800-1000+, no other healing class gets something like this
  
• operatives also get a practically identical Vent Heat ability to accompany ability mentioned above
  
• at the end of the day, i don't think Bodyguard mercs don't need any "fixing" other than reverting Supercharged Gas, i'm almost always top heals and keep most of my groups alive....on the other hand, when i started getting focused by 2 or 3 people, and no one comes to help, i'm pretty much dead...i'm fine with this and so should you, you shouldn't be able to 1v2 or 1v3
  
• slightly off track, i think operatives could use a nerf to their healing, especially not having a cooldown on their free insta cast heal (ours has a 20s CD by default, they can pretty much spam it as long as they have tactical advantage up, which is easy to maintain with Kolto Probes)
  

 

General

[*]MERCS NEED AN INTERRUPT (cannot stress this enough, especially when fights are often dependen on your target being interrupted), no ifs, ands or buts about this, every class has one, every healer has one (even sorc with aoe knockback to 'ghetto interrupt'), there is absolutely NO reason why mercs should not get an interrupt, NONE, i am just not sure what this says about bioware's design that they haven't done anything about this, especially considering how much can go against you when our fake interrupts revolve around our target not having full resolve....i don't know, i just don't know lol

[*] fun class to play when you're playing with your friends/good group, not a great solo class if you're playing arsenal

[*]all in all, i think there's only 2 real things that would bring the merc up to "par with other class efficiency/viability" - i.e. interrupt, and supercharged gas to be reverted back to releasing 16 heat, or at the very least 12 heat

[/LiST]

 

non ragey opinions/analysis welcome, in fact i encourage it!

[azhrione]

Pretty much sums it up entirely.

 

I think some minor tweaks are needed, and link to the thread about it in my sig.

 

Irony is that for all the faults that Merc has in PVP, the fixes are fairly simple. Some shuffling of talents and a handful of improvements to quality of life.

 

I am really concerned about Assault, because it is a ranged spec that does melee dps numbers in PVP, it might be too strong with the new Armor Pen changes. I have a feeling it'll get nerfed after the QQ starts in 1.3. The biggest complaint is that they didn't fix the right ability. Merc/Commando did not need better Armor Pen, what we needed was a 100% proc rate for Power Shot/Charged Bolts to eliminate the RNG dependence of the spec. What we got was more bursty damage with the RNG remaining the key to success/failure with the rotation.

[MadBernieSkills]

this is NOT a qq post, it's an honest opinion/analysis from a 77 mercenary who also plays a 64 sintank, 50 marauder and 50 operative

 

to whomever this may concern (hopefully someone at the bioware dev departmant can use this input)

 

 

Bodyguard

• healing and heat management is FINE, i have zero problems, people that complain just need to realize you can't be god mode in pvp (excluding OPeratives, for the luls?)...my tips are the following: time your free insta cast heal right, use more rapid shots, cancel heals when you see that an ally is already at full health or close to full health, use rapid shots instead (to prevent overheating), and most importantly, DO NOT SPAM Rapid Scan
  
• now, in comparison to my operative healer, i also rarely ever have a problem with energy, due to the nice ability called Stim Boost (look it up), it recovers 3 energy every 3 seconds for 45 seconds, unfortunately we don't have anything like this, the closest thing is Supercharged Gas (which was nerfed for whatever reason, i think this is dumb and should be reverted back to releasing 16 heat)
  
• keep in mind rapid shots is free, casts fast enough and heals for around 800-1000+, no other healing class gets something like this
  
• operatives also get a practically identical Vent Heat ability to accompany ability mentioned above
  
• at the end of the day, i don't think Bodyguard mercs don't need any "fixing" other than reverting Supercharged Gas, i'm almost always top heals and keep most of my groups alive....on the other hand, when i started getting focused by 2 or 3 people, and no one comes to help, i'm pretty much dead...i'm fine with this and so should you, you shouldn't be able to 1v2 or 1v3
  
• slightly off track, i think operatives could use a nerf to their healing, especially not having a cooldown on their free insta cast heal (ours has a 20s CD by default, they can pretty much spam it as long as they have tactical advantage up, which is easy to maintain with Kolto Probes)
  

 

General

[*]MERCS NEED AN INTERRUPT (cannot stress this enough, especially when fights are often dependen on your target being interrupted), no ifs, ands or buts about this, every class has one, every healer has one (even sorc with aoe knockback to 'ghetto interrupt'), there is absolutely NO reason why mercs should not get an interrupt, NONE, i am just not sure what this says about bioware's design that they haven't done anything about this, especially considering how much can go against you when our fake interrupts revolve around our target not having full resolve....i don't know, i just don't know lol

[*] fun class to play when you're playing with your friends/good group, not a great solo class if you're playing arsenal

[*]all in all, i think there's only 2 real things that would bring the merc up to "par with other class efficiency/viability" - i.e. interrupt, and supercharged gas to be reverted back to releasing 16 heat, or at the very least 12 heat

[/LiST]

 

non ragey opinions/analysis welcome, in fact i encourage it!

 

I think you are fairly accurate. I have a 49 healing OP and a 42 healing merc. I think I did better on the OP at first, but once I hit about level 40 it evened out. I usually do about the same with each class now. I never ran out of energy with my OP because of the free insta-cast. My merc does fine with heat until I need to put out damage. That burns me up.

With a good team, I think they are even. I think the OP is better when your team is bad though.

 

I have to disagree about your opinion on rapid shots. Whenever you use them, you paint a huge target on your head that says "kill me first please". When I don't use them, I survive, when I use them, I'm dead. So I suggest never using it except in emergency. You really need to fly under the radar.