Tracer missile easily countered?

[Elendanis]

me, chillin, mid fight trying to throw down tracer missile, when I realize that the cast time is long enough for anyone/everyone to interrupt it.

 

I'm sure it's been posted before, and I understand the cast time, I just feel very vulnerable and sad because it's our bread and butter.

[Choffware]

Yes that's our weakness. TM is easily countered with an interrupt. Other classes have interrupt protection spells but bioware chose not to give it to the mercs. I guess to give a class a different wrinkle. So in pvp your whole strategy centers around not getting interrupted and when you do figuring out how to get around it.

 

Bioware gave us some more tools to manage interrupts but haven't eliminated the problem. The new TM only requires 1 to get the full HSM bonus and they buffed HSM. So now you can fire one and then HSM and get a pretty big result. So if a player is not attacking you then cast TM and HSM... But if the player is attacking you and is a rdps.. they can interrupt you at range so use PS that gives you 2 instant TMs or a TM and FM combo then HSM then use rapid shots, missile salvo, rail shot, and sticky dart while retreating. If they are melee you can use TM and Unload after you have gotten range with root or jet boost or HO... But not while they are with in 10m of you.

 

Edit: Oh yeah...

Forgot to add use the Power Shot fake. Use Power shot on ranged players until they interrupt you then use TM. That's a trick that people use and I have yet to master myself. I haven't played arsenal in a while and I have to start practicing myself.

Edited April 30, 2013 by Choffware

[TyrellJonez]

Double power surge not good enough for you? Can't remember the last time TM got interupted unless i was badly outnumbered or REALLY intoxicated while playing.

 

Save Power Surge for those situations and you should be fine.

[Gyronamics]

Edit: Oh yeah...

Forgot to add use the Power Shot fake. Use Power shot on ranged players until they interrupt you then use TM. That's a trick that people use and I have yet to master myself. I haven't played arsenal in a while and I have to start practicing myself.

 

While you're doing that you might want to know that PS increased in cost in 2.0

 

The only way to have a normal cost is to go all the way up Pyro.

[Macroeconomics]

The PowerShot fake is dubious IMO. People seem to think that if he interrupts your PowerShot that is a good thing. It isn't. You just handed your opponent a free GCD. So he did damage to you and you did nothing to him. And then when you try to use TracerMissile, he just uses a mezz such as Intimidating Roar on you. Which sets him up to get the first strike on you once again. People on this forum consistently underestimate the tools that a good melee toon has. Probably because there are so many mediocre melee out there.

 

But I do think that 2.0 has greatly lessened the issues with getting off your TM. It's not even Power Surge so much as the 45 sec debuff window. The big remaining issue now is Unload. The majority of the time you can get off a TM on your target. The problem is that after your initial volley of abilities you are stuck needing to use Unload and proc Unload. With two static casts in a row, the chances someone will stop your process is very high.

[DarthBloodloss]

What makes it worst is that there are very few abilities that are vulnerable to being interrupted. Sure, all classes have interuptable stuff...but no one uses them if they can help it (or if someone is attacking them). So this makes people's Interrupt usually ready to use.

 

Main times I use an interrupt:

1) On a healer

2) On a tracer missile

 

If I'm not attacking a healer, my interrupt is probably available. Then when I change targets to an Arsenal Merc....BAM - interrupt them. No other class gets screwed so bad by an interrupt.

[Macroeconomics]

The point of relative comparison for being prone to interrupted is a Sorc dps. The Sorc dps is also ranged, also can do a butt load of damage if left alone (far more than the Arsenal in fact), and also needs to cast. But look at the Sorc's abilities. He isn't as reliant on a single cast ability. And his "move away from the enemy so I can cast" ability has a lower CD and gives him bigger separation from his pursuer than does HO.

[Choffware]

While you're doing that you might want to know that PS increased in cost in 2.0

 

The only way to have a normal cost is to go all the way up Pyro.

 

Ok then... that makes it even less likely that i'll try to work that in.

[Choffware]

The point of relative comparison for being prone to interrupted is a Sorc dps. The Sorc dps is also ranged, also can do a butt load of damage if left alone (far more than the Arsenal in fact), and also needs to cast. But look at the Sorc's abilities. He isn't as reliant on a single cast ability. And his "move away from the enemy so I can cast" ability has a lower CD and gives him bigger separation from his pursuer than does HO.

 

I don't know if that extra damage is really useful damage. Most sorcs seem to be spaming affliction on everyone to get the high dps numbers. But you're right about the interrupt... it's not as big of a factor at all for a sorc.

[Macroeconomics]

I don't know if that extra damage is really useful damage. Most sorcs seem to be spaming affliction on everyone to get the high dps numbers. But you're right about the interrupt... it's not as big of a factor at all for a sorc.

 

C'mon, really? You can't honestly be saying that a Sorc dps is a bad single target attacker can you? Sorc dps is currently THE ONLY dps that has any chance of killing good healer 1v1.

[Omophorus]

C'mon, really? You can't honestly be saying that a Sorc dps is a bad single target attacker can you? Sorc dps is currently THE ONLY dps that has any chance of killing good healer 1v1.

 

Marauder and Assassin can both manage it easily, as can a competent Sniper. Sniper is more vulnerable to LoS, but Mara and Sin both have enough control, lockdown, and burst to murder a healer if they're not braindead.

 

That said, Sorc is in a good place right now if left to freecast, and very squishy if focused. Identical to Merc, really. Both are entirely workable in regular WZs, and neither is going to be setting the world on fire in RWZ.

[Macroeconomics]

Marauder and Assassin can both manage it easily, as can a competent Sniper.

 

No way. Unless the healer stands still like an idiot, the Marauder and Sniper will lose every 1v1 vs. a healer and the Assassin can avoid death but he can't get a kill.

[Philastra]

Double power surge not good enough for you? Can't remember the last time TM got interupted unless i was badly outnumbered or REALLY intoxicated while playing.

 

Save Power Surge for those situations and you should be fine.

 

You can't spec into that until your over half way through lvling. To the op Merc gets better the closer you get to 55 so stick with it. But the cast/channel times is this classes downfall for sure albeit better in 2.0 than it was, still not quite up to par with other rangedDPS due to this fact.

[Omophorus]

No way. Unless the healer stands still like an idiot, the Marauder and Sniper will lose every 1v1 vs. a healer and the Assassin can avoid death but he can't get a kill.

 

With some lucky crits, Assassin can put out over 25k of damage in 4 GCDs (Maul > Recklessness + Discharge > Shock > Maul, all of which can be executed on a stun-locked target, which will put any healer under 30% and into Assassinate range), which certainly won't happen every time by a long shot, but there is nothing in the game right now, not even Sniper or Operative, that can drop a single target faster when the stars align. If the healer blows their stun break, you can just combat stealth, wait off Spike's CD, and try again (assuming we're just talking a pure 1v1 here).

 

Carnage and Rage are both nearly un-kiteable if played well. With enough time, they can take a Sorc or a Merc. A very good Sorc or Merc isn't worth trying to 1v1 in a WZ, because they'll certainly get help before they die, but in the abstract it's certainly not a slam-dunk win for the healer. A very good healer will have an easier time with Carnage than Rage since Gore is predictable, but it's a question of skill either way.

 

Nothing in the game right now 1v1s a competent Operative healer, they're simply too hard to lock down, have too much throughput with just instant heals, and have too many escapes.

Edited May 11, 2013 by Omophorus

[Macroeconomics]

Carnage and Rage are both nearly un-kiteable if played well. With enough time, they can take a Sorc or a Merc.

 

Well, we disagree. The lack of self heals on those characters means that a healer only needs to marginal damage while staying upright in order to win - a lengthy one though it may be. In a 1v1, I think Anni/Watchman is better vs. a healer simply because the healer actually needs to allocate a meaningful % of his GCDs to attacking. Which in turn makes him vulnerable.

 

But we are digressing. W.r.t. Tracer Missile, yes it is easily countered if the enemy is paying attention. But that's the catch. In a large scale furball, the Arsenal will have plenty of opportunities to sneak in a TM vs. a preoccupied enemy. And then the Arsenal can deal some pain. And so that IMO is one of the aspects that Arsenal players need to be aware of - you get your best bang for the buck by attacking someone who is already being attacked by one of your teammates. You share your armor debuff, you have less chance of being interrupted, etc.

[TrooperSev]

If I play my arsenal merc in pvp, I realize that my abilities allow me to be an amazing support nuker class. I try my hardest to make sure I'm never alone so I don't end up in 1v1 situations. Mercs can and are destroyed in that scenario. Just make sure you're playing your class the best you can and you'll rarely run into problems.

[MystbladeWA]

Main times I use an interrupt:

1) On a healer

2) On a tracer missile

 

3. Thundering Blast/Turbulence.

[Ansalem]

odd I dont have trouble killing good healers 1 v 1. occassionally mine gets interupted so I end up using whatever is available whether its UL, HSM, RS, FM, hell even missile blast X2. the recovery from the interupt is so small that it really doesnt do much to affect me.

[Macroeconomics]

odd I dont have trouble killing good healers 1 v 1.

 

Then they aren't good healers. A good healer knows right off the bat that the antidote to being targeted by an Arsenal Merc is to break LoS. And for the two most common healing subclasses, their sprint/roll mechanic is fast enough to achieve an LoS break before you can finish a TM cast. Once you have an LoS break, the Arsenal is screwed because it is so ill adapted to pursuit. This gets back to what I was saying in another thread - the key for the Arsenal is to target an enemy whom is unaware that you have targeted them. Either because they are not facing you or because they are preoccupied with an engagement vs. one of your teammates. If you can get off three casts against such an opponent, then they are in serious trouble - it basically forces them to relocate or die.