toomanyluigis Posted July 3, 2012 Share Posted July 3, 2012 Ok I know there are hundreds of these threads but i think this idea could work well without OP the arsenal spec for mercs. As many of you know Tracer Missile is our main skill in the arsenal spec, without it your doing little damage and during pvp, once its interuppted, you are dead in the water. Current TM: 2 second cast time (1.5 with Muzzle Fluting talent) There is our problem right there, its casted. Making it interruptable and effectivly shutting us down. The changes I suggest: New TM: Instant Cast with 2 second cooldown (1.5 with Muzzle Fluting talent) A simple change without changing anything But seriously this could do the merc a lot of justice. TM cant be interrupted, and it no longer makes us a turret, effectively making us more mobile. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swaggz Posted July 3, 2012 Share Posted July 3, 2012 Having a completly mobile, instant cast class would be a bit much. Unload would be the only ability we'd have to sit and turret for. Now making TM instant, and only applying Heat Sigs and procing barrage and moving Tracer Lock to Power Shot (as well as giving PS a chance to proc Barrage) would probably be a bit more balanced. Granted we'd have to make the decision of which debuff to apply first. It would make the class a bit more interesting since we'd be more mobile, yet would also have to sit and cast PS to get our Tracer Lock debuffs up on target. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moonrover Posted July 4, 2012 Share Posted July 4, 2012 Might as well play pyrotech Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dyrankor Posted July 4, 2012 Share Posted July 4, 2012 (edited) I don't mean this to sound overly-aggressive, and it's certainly not a personal attack. Sorry, but if having your Tracer Missile interrupted means you're "effectively shut down" you need to re-evaluate your playstyle. Yes, it is one of the hallmarks of the Arsenal spec, but that in no way means you can't use your other damaging abilities. Arsenal mercs have a whole range of versatile abilities - two pushbacks, two stuns, numerous (other) DPS abilities, not to mention heals (which, if your TM was just interrupted, cannot be interrupted, unless you're being focused by multiple interrupting classes like Vanguards or you get stunned). Arsenal Merc is probably my favorite class and spec, and even post-1.2 I still see people spamming TM and Grav Rounds like it's their only ability. There are other ways to make people vulnerable to Rail Shot (stuns, teamwork), and even if Target Tracking doesn't work as intended, Unload still deals a significant amount of damage. Heatseekers (even without the proc from TM), Explosive Dart and Rocket Blast (too much heat generation IMO) are instant use and can be shot on the run. EDIT -> I forgot the ability Power Shot, which if TM is unusable, can be used in its place. Power Shot will feel just like using TM but without the proc to Rail Shot or Heatseekers, though I believe it does slightly less damage than TM. EDIT #2 -> Also, Fusion Missile is awesome, but is on a longer cooldown. I wish they hadn't swapped the animations for Tracer and Fusion.. I preferred it the way they had it originally :< Edited July 4, 2012 by Dyrankor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RendValor Posted July 5, 2012 Share Posted July 5, 2012 Might as well play pyrotech This. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Choffware Posted July 5, 2012 Share Posted July 5, 2012 Explosive Dart and Rocket Blast (too much heat generation IMO) are instant use and can be shot on the run. < You had some solid tips in your post but I just wanted to point out that although ED and RB are heat monsters you save TSO and heat dump for the situations where you are getting interrupted or someone turns on you. plus weave in rapid shots. People are very hesitant to use these skills because of the heat cost but for kiting they actually can be effective if you are good at saving TSO and Heat dump when you have to kite. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dyrankor Posted July 5, 2012 Share Posted July 5, 2012 (edited) Thank you! Yes -I should have mentioned Rapid Shots. I assume (probably mistakenly) that people are using that whenever they can. More often than not, I queue up a TM and have Rapid Shots right behind them to maximize heat dissipation, but still ensure the target is being damaged. Another fun thing to do is to hit someone with an Explosive Dart, use a Tracer Missile for target lock, then a Rail Shot. Great bursty damage, and even if it doesn't kill the target, they'll see their health drop so severely that more often than not they'll be removed from the fight for a few seconds as they figure out *** to do. Edited July 5, 2012 by Dyrankor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeVans_ Posted July 6, 2012 Share Posted July 6, 2012 Having a completly mobile, instant cast class would be a bit much. Unload would be the only ability we'd have to sit and turret for. Now making TM instant, and only applying Heat Sigs and procing barrage and moving Tracer Lock to Power Shot (as well as giving PS a chance to proc Barrage) would probably be a bit more balanced. Granted we'd have to make the decision of which debuff to apply first. It would make the class a bit more interesting since we'd be more mobile, yet would also have to sit and cast PS to get our Tracer Lock debuffs up on target. I don't mean to sound like a troll, but aren't pyro powertechs completely mobile, instant cast spam monkeys? Bioware obviously think they are balanced! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Choffware Posted July 6, 2012 Share Posted July 6, 2012 (edited) Yeah I would agree that powertechs are spam monkeys and that mercs would not be imbalanced if they were also ... The problem is they would be the same as powertechs with range. I don't have a problem with the cast times... but what I have a problem with is limited ability to keep the target at range. Other range classes have the tools to counter the abilities melee class have for closing the gap. I think the Merc needs better abilities either for escape or keeping a single target at range. The knock backs that we have simply are not far enough and don't have a snare or root so players just charge back at you. I would love one more reliable snare or root and 4 seconds isn't enough. Electo dart is the only thing reliable enough to help you escape. We are not strong enough or have high enough dps to outlast a slug fest and other classes can easily close the gap on us. So I think they either have to improve our ability to stay at range or improve our defense if they want to keep us different than the powertech. Edited July 6, 2012 by Choffware Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soljin Posted July 6, 2012 Share Posted July 6, 2012 Ok I know there are hundreds of these threads but i think this idea could work well without OP the arsenal spec for mercs. As many of you know Tracer Missile is our main skill in the arsenal spec, without it your doing little damage and during pvp, once its interuppted, you are dead in the water. Current TM: 2 second cast time (1.5 with Muzzle Fluting talent) There is our problem right there, its casted. Making it interruptable and effectivly shutting us down. The changes I suggest: New TM: Instant Cast with 2 second cooldown (1.5 with Muzzle Fluting talent) A simple change without changing anything But seriously this could do the merc a lot of justice. TM cant be interrupted, and it no longer makes us a turret, effectively making us more mobile. I was fine with TM being casted pre 1.2 when I could use high ground and push out the hurt then retreat and pop a heal which is great, not to mention we had a 10% dmg mitigation (now 5%) from our talents which allowed for a little more time to stand and get off some casts... Problem now is they reduced TM dmg, reduced our survivabilty as well longer CD on KB, Less dmg mitigation, higher heat costs splashed in here and there. People see heavy armor and heal ability and think we should be penalized for that....Heavy armor is less then 5% mitigation above medium, and healing is something that costs alot of heat for a DPS, and means your potentially just prolonging your own death really. Arse DMG output in PvP is generally less then Merc Pyro although a little better for single target focus..Contrary to common belief a Merc cannot heal tank dmg at all...Your better off trying to out DPS your enemy, and if they are dumb enough to trinket your short CC you can instant concussion and heal up...But thats sunject to you fighting an inexperienced player, and you having the CD up. Mercs are just bad compared to other classes at high levels currently..its going to be proven fact soon as people are gathering data and releasing more samples daily...cant wait to here Biowares results as they are sure to see the same data shoowing Merc DPS the lowest dmg and least represented class in RWZ. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeVans_ Posted July 6, 2012 Share Posted July 6, 2012 (edited) Yeah I would agree that powertechs are spam monkeys and that mercs would not be imbalanced if they were also ... The problem is they would be the same as powertechs with range. I believe that if tracer missile (and for the record power shot, for pyros) was instant cast (with a short cd) it would still leave mercs behind powertechs in overall damage and usefullness, due to one important difference between an arsenal (or even pyro) merc and a powertech - Flameburst deals elemental damage whereas Tracer missile is Kinetic damage (power shot is white damage for a pyro). A powertech can spam a skill that is close to being un-mitigated in damage, applies an ELEMENTAL dot every time it is cast etc etc.. weve heard it all before. The point is, tracer missile and power shot don't even come close in damage to Flameburst, hence why I think that maybe.... mercs wouldn't be overpowered if tracer/powershot were instacast, they would just become a lot more competative! So I think they either have to improve our ability to stay at range or improve our defense if they want to keep us different than the powertech. I agree that mercs need something doing about their defence (as well as their offence), sorcerers get everything pretty much on instant cast, or channeled cast for force lightning, as WELL as having extremely strong (lets be honest the best) kiting skill set, and a ton of gap-wideners. I am in no way suggesting sorcs are overpowered, just stating that they have far superior tools for dealing with melle in pvp, than us mercs. I think that if bioware gave our knockbacks additional slows or roots it would solve these issues, and for god's sake give pyro mercs the option of extra knockbacks without having to gimp the entire spec. Edited July 6, 2012 by HeVans_ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sookster Posted July 7, 2012 Share Posted July 7, 2012 Whenever I get bored of pyro I spec arsenal for a change for a while, I rarely spam tracer more than twice since I can get it down to 1.3 second cast (and yes that DOES affect GCD) so I cast it twice at range, toss an explosive dart for the final stack of HS and go with my rotation, if I cast TM once and then I get hounded on, I power surge + TM then explosive dart and deal with the mob that's on me. Don't just stand there like a brainless turret, make use of it and stay mobile, it's possible even as arsenal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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