Ask a Mercenary thread 2.0

[ryokojr]

Hello mercs,

I am a fresh level 13 merc and just got my second cylinder. I am speccing in arsenal ATM and am just wondering what is the best cylinder for that specific spec. Also I always have mako doing pure heals, and was wondering if arsenal is the best leveling spec

[Daedricshots]

Hello mercs,

I am a fresh level 13 merc and just got my second cylinder. I am speccing in arsenal ATM and am just wondering what is the best cylinder for that specific spec. Also I always have mako doing pure heals, and was wondering if arsenal is the best leveling spec

 

combustible gas cylinder is good. Arsenal is a good tree to level with.

[Crotach]

If you're Arsenal then High Velocity Gas Cylinder is your choice. Combustible is for Pyro.

as for the Rail Shot, you can use it as soon as you land one Tracer Missile so you don't need the proc from Combustible Gas Cylinder.

 

If you don't have Tracer yet, you could play with Combustible until you level enough to get it.

[MillianXXX]

Hello fellow mercs!

 

Just turned 50 and respecced to a hybrid build (about the same posted by Werdan).

 

After some PvP I finally got my first pieces of champion gear. But what should I take? Well I have already taken the first eliminator piece. Was between that and the combat medic set. But I am unsure about the alacrity stat.

 

Just curious what set you guys pick? For healing would you go with the combat medic set? As a hybrid, what set would you choose?

 

Regards.

[Sharad_Hett]

Hi guys can anyone tell me what the go to set for PvP is? Is it a mix of the PvE-PvP set bonuses ? Are many mods changed/switched. I'll be dinging 50 this weekend so very interested.

 

Cheers!

[tconeal]

Hello fellow mercs!

 

Just turned 50 and respecced to a hybrid build (about the same posted by Werdan).

 

After some PvP I finally got my first pieces of champion gear. But what should I take? Well I have already taken the first eliminator piece. Was between that and the combat medic set. But I am unsure about the alacrity stat.

 

Just curious what set you guys pick? For healing would you go with the combat medic set? As a hybrid, what set would you choose?

 

Regards.

 

Hybrid specs are extremely bad for bounty hunters. Our trees aren't designed for it. Stay away from them....

[Sinsavz]

Hi guys can anyone tell me what the go to set for PvP is? Is it a mix of the PvE-PvP set bonuses ? Are many mods changed/switched. I'll be dinging 50 this weekend so very interested.

 

Cheers!

 

Well it depends on what spec you are, for a full arsenal spec it's 3 pieces of pvp eliminator gear and 2 pieces of eliminator pve gear, because the set bonus is 15% tracer crit which is absolutely incredible and worth sacrificing 2 chunks of expertise. Some of the combat medic implants/weapons are good too, and they don't contribute towards the set bonus so you can play around with those as you see fit. (I personally have the rakata medic implants cus they have crit and surge, which I love)

[Sharad_Hett]

Well it depends on what spec you are, for a full arsenal spec it's 3 pieces of pvp eliminator gear and 2 pieces of eliminator pve gear, because the set bonus is 15% tracer crit which is absolutely incredible and worth sacrificing 2 chunks of expertise. Some of the combat medic implants/weapons are good too, and they don't contribute towards the set bonus so you can play around with those as you see fit. (I personally have the rakata medic implants cus they have crit and surge, which I love)

 

Awesome this is exactly what I was after, thanks!

[Kourage]

I'm looking for stat rankings. I saw somewhere that Power was the best secondary stat, after you had enough Accuracy (whatever that may be).

 

 

I'm just trying to see if Im hurting myself buying enhancements with crit instead of power.

[Slurpee]

Hey there guys just hit 50 and was wanting to get stuck into PVP and I was just wondering what a good spec is? I've PVPed as arsenal most of the time since I was that spec for leveling but it seems like you get screwed over really easily.

 

Am I just not doing something right or are the Bodyguard and Pyrotech trees better?

 

Thanks in advance!

[Maisen]

I've PVPed as arsenal most of the time since I was that spec for leveling but it seems like you get screwed over really easily.

 

It's not your fault, this game is heavily item based so hitting 50 you fight too many people with high level pvp gear with 50% more hp that 3 shot you. Things will be better when you will upgrade your items.

Mercs are one of the few balanced classes in this game, we have many weak points and huge dps, the problem is that the other classes are way too more things and comparable DPS, I hope in the future the things will be equal for every classes.

 

To me, arsenal is a good choice during the equipping stage in PVP, after I will switch to pyrotech because it's a different gameplay, more mobile, less boring than arsenal. You can try the hybrid of the OP if you care to be an healer and do some DPS (I am too selfish )

 

Good luck!!

[Slurpee]

It's not your fault, this game is heavily item based so hitting 50 you fight too many people with high level pvp gear with 50% more hp that 3 shot you. Things will be better when you will upgrade your items.

Mercs are one of the few balanced classes in this game, we have many weak points and huge dps, the problem is that the other classes are way too more things and comparable DPS, I hope in the future the things will be equal for every classes.

 

To me, arsenal is a good choice during the equipping stage in PVP, after I will switch to pyrotech because it's a different gameplay, more mobile, less boring than arsenal. You can try the hybrid of the OP if you care to be an healer and do some DPS (I am too selfish )

 

Good luck!!

 

Thanks man! yeah I guess you're right about not having any pvp gear being a big hurdle. Guess I just have to keep at it till i get some gear!

[Omeqa]

My question revolves around the basic mechanic differences between sorcerers and merc's regarding PvP.

 

I by no means want this to devolve into a nerf/buff debate because they always end in L2P being thrown around for pages and pages which accomplishes nothing.

 

Preamble:

I play a healing Sorc now. Fully specced into healing. Currently level 49. I enjoy my Sorcerer a lot; largely because of the resource system which allows me to heal for extended periods without ever having to worry about my focus as long as I'm not spamming the most focus intensive abilities on my bars. It feels atleast to me like I have two modes to my healing; heal with everything I have regardless of cost, and conservation/regeneration mode which allows me to heal a moderate amount while regaining focus in preparation for another phase of using whatever abilities I want and screw the cost.

My one real drawback is that I am EXTREMELY squishy to any melee dps. One decent melee dps will tear through me. Healing through this is not an option. My defenses revolve around running/kiting/los'ing/relying on my team. I'm fine with this but I'd much rather be the tank that can stand there and take a beating while healing. For this reason I've started a Merc alt to level for healing and see how I like it and if heavy armour really does make the difference I'm looking for.

 

The questions:

Is Merc healing at 50 entirely governed by energy management? Is the class balanced around this as the limiting factor? I'm used to always being able to use a global on something useful; do Merc's feel the same? Or is rapid shots a staple in every situation (im implying that RS is useless, is this so @ 50? How much will RS heal for on a geared 50 or even sub 50 with the warzone buff?).

Do you Merc healers out there who PvP regularly feel like tanks? Can you reliably tank 1 or 2 DPS in your face while still healing a group or keeping up one other person?

 

Hopefully that wall of text wasn't so big as to scare off you guys.

 

TL;DR: I'm not interested in which healer is better in PvP. I'm basically asking which (sorc or merc) can take more of a beating? If this is Merc's then are they boring to heal with, with many 'wasted' globals on rapid shots for heat management or is there more to the class than this?

Edited January 30, 2012 by Omeqa

[Ivaed]

My question revolves around the basic mechanic differences between sorcerers and merc's regarding PvP.

 

I by no means want this to devolve into a nerf/buff debate because they always end in L2P being thrown around for pages and pages which accomplishes nothing.

 

Preamble:

I play a healing Sorc now. Fully specced into healing. Currently level 49. I enjoy my Sorcerer a lot; largely because of the resource system which allows me to heal for extended periods without ever having to worry about my focus as long as I'm not spamming the most focus intensive abilities on my bars. It feels atleast to me like I have two modes to my healing; heal with everything I have regardless of cost, and conservation/regeneration mode which allows me to heal a moderate amount while regaining focus in preparation for another phase of using whatever abilities I want and screw the cost.

My one real drawback is that I am EXTREMELY squishy to any melee dps. One decent melee dps will tear through me. Healing through this is not an option. My defenses revolve around running/kiting/los'ing/relying on my team. I'm fine with this but I'd much rather be the tank that can stand there and take a beating while healing. For this reason I've started a Merc alt to level for healing and see how I like it and if heavy armour really does make the difference I'm looking for.

 

The questions:

Is Merc healing at 50 entirely governed by energy management? Is the class balanced around this as the limiting factor? I'm used to always being able to use a global on something useful; do Merc's feel the same? Or is rapid shots a staple in every situation (im implying that RS is useless, is this so @ 50? How much will RS heal for on a geared 50 or even sub 50 with the warzone buff?).

Do you Merc healers out there who PvP regularly feel like tanks? Can you reliably tank 1 or 2 DPS in your face while still healing a group or keeping up one other person?

 

Hopefully that wall of text wasn't so big as to scare off you guys.

 

TL;DR: I'm not interested in which healer is better in PvP. I'm basically asking which (sorc or merc) can take more of a beating? If this is Merc's then are they boring to heal with, with many 'wasted' globals on rapid shots for heat management or is there more to the class than this?

 

From what I have seen Merc healing is very largely based on energy management, yes. My heals still hit almost as hard when I am full Arsenal spec. I would say that the most useful ability for turning us into main healers is Critical Efficiency. It is a talent that reduces our heat costs by a very large margin on our biggest spot heal (Rapid Scan) when our smaller faster heal (Healing Scan) is cast first. The only talent that actually increases our healing magnitude by a significant margin is Warden which increases our critical heals by 15% when fully talented.

 

It seems like the main focus within the bodyguard tree is to allow us to use our heals more often via reduced heat and Supercharged Gas. The latter being an ability that removes the cool down on our smaller heal that in turn allows us to spam our big heal more often. The two talents combo very well to give us very large bursts of healing whenever we need it. It all comes down to managing the heat costs on our Rapid Scan (big heal).

 

We have a few things that help in small ways like Kolto Shell, Kolto Missile and Proactive Medicine/Armor, but they are minuscule effects when you compare them to the raw outhealing gained by the heat management talents in the tree.

 

As to your second thought, I very much feel like a very effective off-tank when I am hybrid spec. There have been many fights where I DPS almost the entire fight and when the tank dies I am first to grab aggro, pop my bubble and self heal like crazy until the boss dies or tank gets rezzed. I don't think I could see a Sorc doing that quite so well as we do it. (I could be wrong)

 

IMO from what I have seen Merc healer self survivability is much greater than Sorc, even though sorc is a much better healer when they don't have aggro. My personal opinion is that we are sort of a tankier healer (Paladin of sorts) and we can take more of a beating since we have the heavy armor proficiency. Although, this largely remains guesswork based on personal observations since we don't have a combat log to get some real figures...

[Omeqa]

Thanks Ivaed. That's enough to spur me onto leveling my Merc a bit to see what he's like in PvP later on.

 

Looks like my Sorc will sit at 49 for a while longer lolol.

[Dramion]

Hello,

 

As a Arsenal spec what is the go to stat? Does crit have some type of diminishing return? How much crit do you want to aim for before getting surge?

[Redial]

Hello,

 

As a Arsenal spec what is the go to stat? Does crit have some type of diminishing return? How much crit do you want to aim for before getting surge?

 

crits help you vent heat as arsenal, so i would stack crit so you can dps longer before you overheat

[Dramion]

crits help you vent heat as arsenal, so i would stack crit so you can dps longer before you overheat

 

Isn't there some type of diminishing returns though with to much crit?

[Chorusgirl]

Isn't there some type of diminishing returns though with to much crit?

 

30% I believe I also heard about there being a crit cap with buffs that one of the arsenal mercs in my guild hit, but every where i've read it's 30% is the number you want to be at

[Frankee]

I would really like to see some better info on crit caps cause I read somewhere, maybe even this thread, that it was a soft cap 40 hard cap 45, I wrote it down when I saw it. Also that it was soft 90 for surge. But lately I'm seeing smaller numbers talked about.

If it was actually 30 I would be happy because I can stop worrying about it and start stacking some power. Right now I believe I'm at 36 crit 84 surge.

 

The other day I made a 355 people reuseable power adrenal thing because I was thinking I had too much crit after seeing people talk about 30%

Edited February 1, 2012 by Frankee

[Chorusgirl]

I would really like to see some better info on crit caps cause I read somewhere, maybe even this thread, that it was a soft cap 40 hard cap 45, I wrote it down when I saw it. Also that it was soft 90 for surge. But lately I'm seeing smaller numbers talked about.

If it was actually 30 I would be happy because I can stop worrying about it and start stacking some power. Right now I believe I'm at 36 crit 84 surge.

 

The other day I made a 355 people reuseable power adrenal thing because I was thinking I had too much crit after seeing people talk about 30%

 

soft cap is actually where you should be before buffs. Here's a graph i found not sure how accurate it is but who ever made it seemed to put a good deal of time into it

 

http://img202.imageshack.us/img202/47/statscalingdr.png

[SonnenKonig]

Heya Merc population i got a question about Fusion Missile .

I'm leveling as a merc pyro tech and i wonder if Fusion Missile is viable in my rotation,

if yes how could i use it effeciently , if not well end if.

 

I apologize if my english is hard to read :S

[Chorusgirl]

Heya Merc population i got a question about Fusion Missile .

I'm leveling as a merc pyro tech and i wonder if Fusion Missile is viable in my rotation,

if yes how could i use it effeciently , if not well end if.

 

I apologize if my english is hard to read :S

 

It's only viable if you are aoe'ing

[Talon_Starfire]

Why Ironsights before Mandalorian Iron Warheads?

Thanks

[Werdan]

Why Ironsights before Mandalorian Iron Warheads?

Thanks

 

9% aim is the best start a Merc can have as it boosts ALL damage, crit chance, and tech.

 

Sorry I haven't updated this thread. It's good to see that others have taken the reigns and helped out here. I honestly haven't played my BH much in the last 3-4 weeks due to how badly Ilum, open world PvP, and warzone issues have been handled recently by the dev team. I've since leveled a Marauder to level 50 and stopped playing it as well due to the level 50 bracket being such a mess for fresh 50's. I'm now leveling a Trooper Commando (L42 so far) and having a blast (pun intended) in the lower level brackets. As much as they have in common with each other, Trooper suffers from some animation issues that make playing a BH much better/easier. That said, depending on how the rest of our guild feels about the game in the coming weeks, I may not play as much. While I subbed for 6 months, I can't see myself making alts for the remainder of my time.

 

If high level PvP continues to run the current course, and BW allows server transfers, I might just move to a PvE server until my sub runs out. It's been a pleasure helping you guys out and I wish you all the best of luck. I'll try and pop in from time to time but for the most part I think some of the other veterans here can do just as much good.

 

Peace,

Trace