How is Merc healing/dps compared to Agent?

[Lecaja]

I know there is a leaderboard but I ignore that for the simple reason the players who are on the board are literary the best players in the world. Their prodigious skill cancels any and all class inequality issues which is why they all score the same. Despite my six months of experience I am always in the upper tier of dps but never at the top which highlights my medicaoirty because the classes I pick are suppose to top out on any dps list. So being an average player I am wondering how to two ranged classes stack up to each other.

[Mastershroom]

As far as healing goes, Mercs are better at focusing on a single target (e.g. the main tank in a raid), while their AoE/group heals suffer somewhat compared to Operative healing. Merc healers tend to do best when paired with a Sorc or Op, rather than another Merc. So overall, I'd say they're not really any better or worse in absolute terms, but they have strengths and weaknesses.

 

For DPS, Mercs can be very competitive. I think Snipers can put out more damage overall, but not to a hugely significant degree. And Mercs can also throw out some off heals in a pinch, something Snipers can't do. Arsenal seems to be the "standard" Merc DPS build in PvE. It's a pretty simple rotation, and its only real flaw is the apparent unreliability of the Barrage proc. I personally use a hybrid Pyro spec (almost all the way up the Pyro tree without Thermal Detonator, and extra points into Unload crit bonus damage in Arsenal), and on dummy parses, I generally do just as well as I do with Arsenal. I personally don't like full Pyro, but plenty of people do.

 

If Mercs lack in one area, it's PvP. As healers, Mercs are very reliant on abilities with activation timers, and the instant heals they do have are on decently long cooldowns. They are very susceptible to interrupts and pushback from being focused on. Merc DPS has many of the same issues; most of the hard hitting damage abilities require the ability to cast uninterrupted. And having to stay still for most abilities makes them easy to kite. And apart from Hydraulic Override, Mercs lack mobility, either for closing the gap with an enemy, or retreating.

 

tl;dr - they're solid for both heals and DPS in raids, but are somewhat lacking for PvP.