Mercenary Changes Brainstorming

[DarthBloodloss]

Some recent posts reminded me of these, so I'll throw more random opinions out there:

 

Power Shot: Only useful when someone interrupts Tracer.....but if someone is interrupting Tracer then I'm probably about to run away. I think I have used Power Shot twice in the last couple months, even though I have it bound for easy use.

 

Pinning Fire from Unload: The numbers suggest it is a decent ability, but in practical useage I don't ever feel it helps. I'm not sure if I'm simply using it when they have CDs up or not, but I would expect a more noticeable effect from an alleged 70% snare. Like I said, maybe its just me. I'm not saying its bugged, but it feels lackluster and I don't usually take the skill box anymore (even in PvP).

 

Missile Blast: Probably under-used by a lot of Mercs. We try to stay away from it due to heat cost, and then forget to use it when needed because we are used to NOT using it. Its only good as a finisher on someone who's at the verge of death. But spamming 3 of these screws you up for the next short time due to heat. It could use a slight heat reduction, or even a damage boost and "finisher" requirements where they need to be under 30% health.

 

Concussion Missile: Would be nice if it could be insta-cast without forcing us to waste a Power Surge. Maybe it could be instant cast if PS or TSO is active, but it would not use a charge. (I realize TSO is non related to cast time, but it might be cool if it could be triggered as instant in some way other than a PS charge.) For example (not an actual suggestion, just a random example), Rocket Punch makes next Concussion Missile instant cast if used in the next 4 seconds. Just ANYTHING to make it instant without Power Surge.

 

Sweeping Blasters: Remove the delay before the first damage tick. It used to instantly do damage and would be nice if it was reverted.

 

30m Electro Dart: This could possibly hurt Mercs because when we use Hydraulic Overrides, no one can snare, root, or stun us (due to range). But if other Mercs had 30m stun, we would have our Hydraulic Overrides wasted sometimes because we would get stunned from 25m away, when currently thats not possible. Getting stunned during HO frequently results in a death, because we wait til things get out of control before using HO. I feel this could hurt us more than help us, similarly to the situation with Sorc DoT cleanse changes.

 

Heal Spec Rapid Shots on Self: This should be allowed and the animation could just be that the BH uses his wrist display (like a Predator from the movies), similar to when you use Power Surge. No reason to not allow self healing.

 

Thermal Detonator should be uncleansable.

 

Add a tier 1 skill box to give Rocket Punch a KB instead of a root, so people have a choice of which they want.

Edited October 29, 2013 by DarthBloodloss

[Hell_Kaiser_Fett]

The issue is not with our damage, and its not even with our burst. When I play merc dps in pvp, I always wonder why I'm not playing another of my characters(I play my merc because it was my main for pve and my first char, so it has all my stuff on it). I don't think any player should get the feeling of, "Why am I playing this class?" for either pvp or pve.

 

That is exactly how I feel down to the letter. My Merc is my first and my main, and has many many more hours invested than any other class. I agree mostly with what you said, however, I also would like if they gave us something to make us more valuable for an op raid, give a group a reason to consider taking a dps Merc over a Mara or Sniper.

 

Aside from our dps not being able to compete with some of the other classes, we also seem to be more fragile than them as well. So somehow we deal less and can take less than the others, which to me seems messed up. I doubt Bioware meant for it to be that way, but thats how it is. While I have no problem dealing damage in raids and such, I also take more damage too, although that could just be my healers not healing me as frequently.

 

I also like the idea of a jet pack induced "escape" tactic we can use to increase survivability. My idea would be that it would be an instant cast, and upon activation it would stun, knock back, or slow all enemies within a 5m radius, and either deal X tech damage to them, or even better yet, affect the targets with a DoT burn effect similar to Incendiary Missile, dealing X burn damage over Y seconds, and finally launching the user back 30m and reducing your threat count by X amount. Maybe give it a 1 minute cooldown. The reason behind it working this way would be if you are dpsing and putting out more aggro than your tank, causing enemies to swarm and attack you, it not only gives you a way to escape from being eaten alive, but it also lowers your threat while your tank attempts to regain aggro from you.

Edited October 29, 2013 by Hell_Kaiser_Fett

[DkSharktooth]

Eric, the Merc Top 3 Answers thread had alot of the suggestions you are looking for:

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=684660

Edited October 29, 2013 by DkSharktooth

[swtorsaber]

Hello,

 

I’ve been playing as a mercenary healer exclusively in PVP since early access. I also have an operative and sage healer that I’ve been playing for a very long time as well.

 

My mercenary is my favorite of the three healing classes but it’s also the most frustrating, both because of how easily it’s shut down and how at the end of a match even if you've done your very best and it was an excellent game there’s typically a scoundrel/operative or sage/sorcerer that did much more healing just because of the class difference.

 

I believe the main problem with the class is its reliance on the two casted abilities and its weakness to interrupts. In PVP, Energy Shield is really only useful for its interrupt immunity when your resolve is full, otherwise you’re just wasting it being stunned and even then you've been more or less waiting in between stuns and interrupts for short moments of time to just be able to use a few casts.

 

An idea I think may fit the mercenary style of play may be to let Supercharge Gas grant interrupt immunity. How much healing is done during this time-frame could be adjusted by the length of Supercharge Gas and whether both Healing Scan and Rapid Scan are both granted interrupt immunity and the values of their healing with this change in mind.

 

Another point of frustration in PVP is the use of the free attack/healing ability rapid shots. You really want to use this for the free healing to balance out the heat costs and build stacks of Supercharge Gas, but you also don’t want to draw a giant line with lights and sounds exactly to where you are. A change that may alleviate this may be to have Kolto Missile/Emergency Scan build stacks of Supercharge Gas.

 

Thank you for reading.

Edited October 29, 2013 by swtorsaber

[Winteroreo]

I really like the idea of having another jetpack ability.(the backwards jump thing sounds good.) other than that I think we should get some help with our heat system.

[Phrase]

 

I believe the main problem with the class is its reliance on ... casted abilities and its weakness to interrupts. In PVP, Energy Shield is really only useful for its interrupt immunity when your resolve is full, otherwise you’re just wasting it being stunned and even then you've been more or less waiting in between stuns and interrupts for short moments of time to just be able to use a few casts.

 

 

This sums up the class problems in pvp in a nutshell.

[fujeo-finel]

The talent Power Overrides should be buffed to reduce the cooldown of Concussion Charge by 100%. Only one target can be CC'ed with Concussion Missile at a time.

 

Change Barrage to give Tracer Missile a 33%/66%/100% chance to lower Unload's cooldown by 5 seconds and it's channel time by 0.5 seconds. Stacks 3 times.

 

The talent Pinning Fire should be changed to give Heatseeker Missiles a 50%/100% chance to slow the target's movement speed by 50% for 5 seconds. A snare on HSM would be much more useful than on Unload.

 

The talent Power Barrier should be buffed to 4% less damage taken per stack, maxing at 20%, as well as lowering the lockout duration of interrupted abilities by 10% per stack, maxing at 50%.

 

Heatseeker Missiles and Rail Shot should have their cooldowns lowered to 10 seconds.

 

Not essential, but I wouldn't mind seeing a talent in the Arsenal tree that increases the damage of Rail Shot on targets at or below 20% health, turning it into an execute.

 

Allow the option to pick which animation Tracer Missile uses by choosing the right chest piece.

Allow the option to buy the old animation with cartel coins.

Edited October 29, 2013 by fujeo-finel

[demonolithic]

Sorry if this has already been suggested but:

 

Give Mercs an execute! Low heat, 6 sec CD.

[ThePedigree]

Hello,

 

I believe the main problem with the class is its reliance on the two casted abilities and its weakness to interrupts. In PVP, Energy Shield is really only useful for its interrupt immunity when your resolve is full, otherwise you’re just wasting it being stunned and even then you've been more or less waiting in between stuns and interrupts for short moments of time to just be able to use a few casts.

 

I concur with this. The class is way to easily shut down in pvp. Some form of interrupt immunity and stronger defensive cds are needed.

 

Even with hydraulic overides being class-wide, mobility still seems like a problem compared to every other class. My suggestion would be an ability like Heroic leap that lets you jump to a specific location (target area, not player). Also,BH's could finally use their jet pack for something other than Death From Above.

[kennethdale]

First and foremost, lets look at what made Mercs temporarily balanced in DPS: Rail Shot venting 16 heat versus 8 heat. That is a pretty clear indication that its not the resource management system that is broken. Its also pretty clear that its not the amount of damage we can output. It is solely and entirely the costs. You want to "fix" mercs/mandos? Fix the costs. The biggest complaint that I have when I heal is heat; you can't chain big heals without getting completely screwed whereas Sorcs and Ops can. They pay a price, true, but neither as high as Merc/Mandos. Add to that that if Healing Scan gets interrupted in PvP we are completely SoL and things get more bleak.

 

This all stems from a bad assumption that Merc/Mandos are on the brink of being OP which is completely backwards. We're on the brink of being completely broken. As I said, its not the system thats broken, its the costs. We need the costs reduced and it needs to be dramatic. Using our no cost filler should not be a designated portion of our rotation and Vent Heat should be a way to handle bad situations not a necessary part of our priority list. It is massively important that this is understood: FIX THE COSTS NOT THE SYSTEM.

 

One other major issue is that all of our specs rely heavily on one ability (Healing Scan+SCG for Combat Medic, Tracer Missile for Arsenal, Power Shot for Pyro) that are too easily shut down. Either diversify this and give us more options to rely on or give us more interrupt immunity. Plain and simple.

 

As for the Cooldowns thought, I tend to agree. We need a way out of bad situations that is either slightly better than Hydraulic Override with a similar CD and that focuses entirely on escape (not just the tiny speed boost HO gives) or a much longer CD and be significantly better. Like the disengage that puts us out of leap range because as it stands getting more than 1 smasher on you is guaranteed death. You can Jet Boost and delay it but even popping every CD right then and there isn't going to keep you alive longer than 10 seconds. Power Surge and TSO are on far too long of CDs.

 

Finally, Fusion Missile. It does far too little damage for such a high cost/long CD. I would favor significantly boosting its damage to make it something to fear (to give us something else that people are aiming to interrupt) or reduce its heat/CD significantly.

[NogueiraA]

Some simple Ideas:

Arsenal - Procced Unload is free/no energy cost.

Pyrotech - Procced Railshot has 15% chance to crit.

- Crit dot from your incediady missile restore 2 heat.

 

Heals - Rapid Shots on someone restore 2 heat per tick.

- 1 more tick on the AOE heal.

- While supercharged gas is active, emergency scan has 100% critical chance.

- Heal scan leaves a hot on the target, tick every second for 9 seconds.

[FelixxUk]

ideas for healing.

 

-Rapid shots helps with heat management like operatives diagnostic scan

-Make unload heal like rapid shots does, usable when target is at 30% hp or below

-Kolto shell on more than 1 target

Edited October 29, 2013 by FelixxUk

[GNWP]

All specs:

Utilities:

• Give to Commando/Merc baseline ability to place on their allies analogue of Hold the Line/Hydraulic Override. Operatives/Scoundrels has Smuggle/Infiltrate, Sages/Sorcs has Rescue/Extrication. Commando/Merc has NOTHING as soon as it comes to utility skills! So do it! Give it to them!
   
  

  Combat Medic/Bodyguard

  
  Utilities:

  
  

• I think there's too much tied on Reactive Shield/Energy Shield in Combat Medic/Bodyguard tree, Devs need to separate immunity to interrunts to another new ability. So if I just want immunity to interrupts I use only one major cooldown instead of two. And when I want to survive I use Reactive Shield only, and again it would be only one major cooldown. And if I want both, I use both. Simple!
  
• Also, Kolto Residue movement slow effect need to stay longer, at least up to 6 seconds, so Combat Medic could actually escape melee instead of beeing target dummy for them.
  

 

Survivability of Combat Medic/Bodyguard:

• Also it would be nice to increase survivablity and of Combat Medic by adding, for example, a talent which decreases cooldown time on Reactive Shield/Energy Shield while taking damage.
  
• Also it would be awesome to give Commandos/Mercs some instant "self-only" heal or something. While Scoundrel/Operative healer can basically just spam Emergency Medpac/Surgical Probe(No energy cost!) all day, Commando/Merc healer can only use Medical Probe/Rapid Scan + Tech Override/Power Surge (2 minutes cooldown!), Bacta Infusion/Emergency Scan with 18 seconds cooldown, then Kolto Bomb/Kolto Missile which heals like one tick of Operative's HoTs and has 6 seconds cooldown, put Trauma Probe/Kolto Shell on yourself and spam Hammer Shot/Rapid Shots at the enemy hoping for the best.
  

Healing and energy management:

• Remove Bacta Infusion/Emergency Scan cooldown BUT make them place on the target debuff similar to Sages/Sorcs debuff after they put Shield on an ally, so next 15-18 seconds target couldn't healed with Bacta Infusion/Emergency Scan untill debuff goes off. Other too healing specialization in the game has instant spammable heal. Sages/Sorcs - Force Armor/Static Barrier, Scoundrels/Operatives - Emergency Medpac/Surgical Probe. Why don't bring a Commandos/Mercs-healers up to other two healing specialization?
  

Edited October 30, 2013 by GNWP

[Dritescythe]

Because of the large number of heat reducing abilities, an optimal rotation for mercenary should be slightly leaky. Unless you purposely lower your APM, even in an optimal rotation you'll start running into energy problems around the 90 to 100 second mark. A small reduction of 15 seconds on Vent Heat's cool down would go a decent way to solve many of the class problems heat issues without terribly increasing burst HPS or burst DPS, and it should have almost no impact on PVP. This should keep much of the important feel of the class, including the somewhat hectic and enjoyable feeling of "oh I'm almost out of energy", but reducing the feelbadness of how long it is until the next vent heat.

[DarthCasus]

In Terms of PVP,

 

The Mercenary community has been asking for a disengage ability for quite some time now. The ability to use my jetpack to put some extra distance between myself and a opponent would be nice. Many of our opponents have better escape abilities than we do such as stealth/vanishing moves. Plus the bounty hunters have a jetpack that is hardly even used. Having this ability or seeing the return of the knockback effect on Rocket punch would be greatly appreciated.

 

This.

[TarristerWelm]

Eric, the Merc Top 3 Answers thread had alot of the suggestions you are looking for:

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=684660

 

Why do we need yet another thread for suggestions? What exactly was the point of class reps if we are not going to use the system that the mods/devs put in place?

 

This feels like a move to appease us and make us feel like we are being taken seriously. Distract, diversion, and divide (why do we need to separate the ac's threads?), useful tactics those, kudos eric.

 

We have a Top three questions and answers thread, for each class, for a reason. This is horse sh.... and just divides the suggestions into more threads. Why not merge the new threads to the aforementioned class rep threads?

I have an idea as to why...

[Ottoattack]

Pretty much all the changes I would like to see were already mentioned, so I'll only say one:

 

Change Terminal Velocity as you have changed Prototype Cylinder Ventilation for Powertechs. Instead of venting 8 heat every 6 seconds, vent 2 heat every 1.5 seconds. It would still have the same effect but in smaller increments which would be immensely helpful. It would be like getting our free Rail Shot back.

 

I have limited experience with arsenal merc, but the above would be a great QOL improvement, that does not fundamentally change how the class operates. Also, as mentioned in class questions discussion, probably making RS cost no energy with 5 lock down stacks will decrease merc heat management issues significantly. Power surge can go on slightly lower CD as well.

[MrSIlverSurfing]

Kolto Overload - Improved for quality of life. In ranked you are dead before you can apply it at times. It needs to be similiar to the ward that Sorcerers have. It also needs to heal in larger incraments. Its not very fun if you always die when the ranked match just begins. Other than a few small defensive quality of life improvements I find Arsenal well balanced. Not a Jug/Marauder/PT/Assasi/Smuggler for pvp, but not bad at all either.

 

This person below hit it on the head in his post:

 

Defensive Cooldowns:

 

This one is fairly blatant, exaggerated even more so in warzone arenas. Spiking is the most effective way to dps in pvp(combining several dps to one target). Mercs get Energy shield(a mere 25% dr) and kolto overload(which doesn't even heal half of what your average player is able to dish out and isn't very effective against spiking by its design). Chaff flare gives +25% defense chance when spec'd into, but even so all defensive cooldowns combined on the merc will do very little to keep an enemy team from spiking the merc down. To make matters worse, these take a total of 3 global cooldowns to apply what in aggregate is weaker and less effective than a single GCD use ability of pretty much every

Edited October 29, 2013 by MrSIlverSurfing

[Hell_Kaiser_Fett]

Maybe they could at least increase the damage reduction of Energy Shield, maybe even adjust when we can use Kolto Overload. To me it seems like we should be able to take a little more damage. Since BHs are solo rogues anyways, you would think we would have more defensive abilities/tech, aside from heavy armor, since BHs are usually outnumbered and are to be geared for any situation. This is speaking lore-wise of course, but it still makes sense for the class as a whole.

[NucleusTRV]

As a Arsenal Merc I'd be glad to get back the old Railshot Set-Bonus.

[Capt_Beers]

Sorry but I don't feel like changing all the terms. Here is my post form the Mando thread, if you need a clarification just ask.

 

Combat Medic

 

- Ammo management is very unforgiving. This was brought up and agreed upon in the Merc Rep questions.

 

- A possible solution that I believe would improve ammo management would be for charges of CSC to increase ammo regen as well. Charges of CSC would have to be gained from more abilities as the ramp up can take a while.

 

- Super Charge Cells should be made slightly stronger to compensate for the loss of ammo regen when burning your charges. This gives the spec an added dimension and increases skill cap without decreasing effectiveness.

 

- Deciding when to burn your extra ammo regen thus hurting sustained healing to gain burst healing would be an easy to learn, difficult to master skill, a concept that has been brought up by the devs as being a good thing.

 

- Taruma Probe should be one of the showcase abilities for the Commando healer.

 

- The decision needs to be made whether or not it should remain as a single target only or if it will be changed to be allowed multiple simultaneous targets.

 

- Should it remain a single application ability I believe it should also act as a sort of healing buff on the target. Increased healing on the target, chance at ammo refund, chance to proc tick of Trauma Probe without consuming/refunding the used charge when a heal lands (sort of like Chain Shock but for a heal) or procing a small AoE heal similar to Kolto Bomb when a heal lands on an affected target are all the sort of thing I would like to see added to Trauma Probe.

 

It's a unique ability as it basically assigns a little healer bot to follow around the target. This bot needs an upgrade in my opinion. Obviously not all of the above mentioned effects should be added but that's the kind of functionality I want to see; when you decide who needs the most help you pop your TP on them, and go to work. If it stays single application the ammo cost should be removed again as to be most effective you would need to reapply it quite often in PvP. In PvE I doubt it matters as basically it would just stay on the tank.

 

- If it's allowed to be placed on multiple targets I think it's fine the way it is but it might be a little costly if we wanted to be able to spread it around. An ammo cost reduction should probably come with a slight nerf to it's output.

 

- Frontline Medic needs to go. Nice try but Hammer Shots needs be able to be used on ourselves. To compensate for the fact it is a free, mobile heal it would be understandable if it didn't build charges of CSC. But if building charges was possible with other heals outside of HS and MP, Kolto Bomb I'm looking at you, this would be a negligible trade off.

 

Gunnery

 

- Overall in a good spot damage wise. Although it does suffer from some ammo management problems. Sometimes you have to dip in to the lesser regen areas and it's very hard to recover if Recharge Cells is on CD.

 

- A mid range root would be a huge boon to this spec. I can see the reasoning that it doesn't have a 30m root but the melee root just isn't enough most of the time. Adding a 10m root or putting the KB back on Stock Strike with the added root would be great as well.

 

- A way to reduce the active CD on Tech Override would very helpful as well. Crits on Full Auto reducing the active CD are the first thing that comes to mind.

 

- On the move DPS is non existent. A buff that reduces the ammo of Explosive Round while HtL is active would aid this without overpowering the spec.

 

Assault Specialist

 

- I haven't played this spec enough to comment extensively on it.

[Faltun]

Hey everyone,

 

As you are no doubt aware, we are being careful in how fast and how drastic we make Class changes. Although we are starting that journey in Game Update 2.5, that is certainly not all of the changes that will happen in the future. As a part of that, one of the things we agree on is that Mercenaries could use a little bit of love.

 

The reason I am making this thread, is that we are curious on what your ideas might be for your class! This is for all specs. What changes would you like to see to those specs to give them a little bit of help in PvE and PvP.

 

I am going to be combing through this thread and passing your feedback on to the Combat team.

 

I do want to add a disclaimer to this. Just because a suggestion is made in this thread, or even agreed on by multiple posters, in no way implies it will be put into the game. The purpose of this is to share ideas. At the end of the day it will still come down to the decisions of the Combat Team! This is just an opportunity to add some player insight to the discussion.

 

If you are more of the Commando persuasion, there is a separate thread for that, here.

 

-eric

 

i feel we need more slow or root pvp wise or lower the cd of electro net and lower its damage. the healer spec is just bad. i love the feeling of the class but i like more complicated characters so it could be a bit harder to play more complicated. need some crit bonus on both dps spec or some auto crit like almost every classes have, the class depends on luck i mean if you crit you win if not you lose on both spec(i have 2 set of gear 1 with so much crit 1 with full power but sometimes i can crit more with the full power gear). i prefer pyro i know almost every merc prefer arsenal but please care about both spec.

Edited October 29, 2013 by Faltun

[Winteroreo]

Id like to add to the idea of making kolto shell go on multiple targets. The only person I saw complain about this said that it would decrease the hps for a single target. So I though what if it was made to heal multiple people but decrease the amount healed. Maybe increase the healing of it more too. I don't know if anyone else has thought of this but I just thought Id add it since this is a brainstorming thread.

[Winteroreo]

Id like to add to the idea of making kolto shell go on multiple targets. The only person I saw complain about this said that it would decrease the hps for a single target. So I though what if it was made to heal multiple people but decrease the amount healed. Maybe increase the healing of it more too. I don't know if anyone else has thought of this but I just thought Id add it since this is a brainstorming thread.

just to clarify I meant it should do more healing if its on one person but less healing when you add more people

 

Im bad at talking:(

[Krusched]

Merc Changes:

Heat System

-As it stand the heat system is very punishing if you do not keep your heat inside a certain range where it still vents at a reasonable rate.

-Maybe creating or changing a current skill so your heat dissipation is increased by x amount over a period of time, allowing you to burn a target while maintaining constant heat reduction.

 

Defensive Cooldowns

-Kolto Overloads: While it seems great to other it just simply does not do anything when you are focused. Any good dps can easily smash through the healing it provides and at under 35% you are in range of every execute in the game. Lastly this cooldown can be completely wasted if a healer throws one heal at you and pops you above 35% health, making overload go on cooldown.

-Energy Shield: Nothing terrible here, maybe increased damage reduction at the cost of a shorter duration, IE: 50% reduction for 6 seconds instead of 12. Also for the ability Pyro Shield maybe it could reflect damage instead of dealing it to attackers, more like saber ward or saber reflect.

 

Buffs

-Tracer Lock: Instead of the added cooldown on healing scan make tracer lock increase the range of Heatseeker Missiles, Rail Shot and Unload by 1 Meter per stack, up to 5 stacks. This would allow for a “range execute” of sorts making it harder for someone like an op healer to roll right out of range of your finishing blow.

 

Pyro Tree

-Incindiary Missile: While it was nice that the heat cost was reduced I would love to see this ability changed into some kind of debuff making the enemy vulnerable to rail shot. It seems very strange that a class reliant on rail shot has to hope they proc rail shots and combustible gas cylinder in order to use the ability. A possible solution could be called something like “Overheated” which increases the damage done by rail shot by x %, and lasts for 45 seconds.

-Suit FOE: It is understandable that mercs have the capability to cure unlike powertechs but mercs also have to use some of their heat in order to gain this buff whish powertechs get for free and is passive too. Maybe increase the duration of the ability so that it can effectively be used instead of having to spam it as you walk away from your opponent, praying he doesn’t make chase.

 

Animations

-While the merc class has some of the coolest animations in the game they can be unnecessary and annoying in warzones. For instance the delay on jet boosts blowback, and the character leaving the ground is unneeded. Make it more like the commando where he stays planted, but base it off of fusion missile so you crouch and blast your jetpack, blowing enemies back.

 

These are just some of my ideas that I have not seen so if you have a better idea please tell the devs here so they can see what we want changed. You don’t have to be specific just give the Combat Team an idea to base their plan off of.

 

YES THERE ARE MULTIPLE THINGS I LEFT OUT OF THIS, I HAVE READ ALMOST EVERY THREAD AND POST FOR MERC CHANGES AND I HAVE SEEN MANY OTHER GREAT IDEAS, THESE ARE JUST A FEW OF MY OWN.