Mercenary Changes Coming in 2.7

[AMightyKnight]

Was expecting at least 9 secs, nice.

[MillionsKNives]

Just as a heads up, the Barrage proc can only occur once every 8 seconds. I forgot to mention that in the original post.

 

-eric

 

Well that certainly expands the rotation more than my initial thought was. I didn't quite like the idea that the rotation would end up being almost nothing but a cycle of TM and UL with a single filler in between. I also like that the 8 seconds isn't a direct multiple of the GCD, so that you're not punished by having small amounts of alacrity (I usually take the 2% from the tree).

[Krozis]

PVP:

Really? You guys are looking under the wrong hood. WE ARE FINE in DPS (arsenal). WE need better DEFENSIVE abilites. Dont touch things that are not broken. I really thought we were getting better evasive/defensive abilities. We do good dps in pvp but our heavy armor is useless and even popping shield and Kolto Overload does not help to survive the endless stuns, mauls, smash, and lightning. Seems I just wasted my time even waiting.

 

PVE:

We are fine how we are.

 

You have a 961 solo rank and you think the only problem is defensive abilities? Think of it this way... this class has the cooldowns relative to Powertechs.... so what is the difference? An AOE freeze? Do you think that would fix things? Sure it would help, but really think about this..... Why does a Powertech survive a situation the Merc cannot?

 

It is because you (on your merc) can be shut down. Sorry, I'm not trying to be negative, but these are changes I've followed from day one, and I'm a little tired of the way they've treated the class going back to 'No interrupts for Mercs', and silly stuff like.... they couldn't figure out why Mercs were hitting so hard in PVP and realized it was an error in the way multiple tracers were being applied to Heatseeker... or something like that. But do you think they removed the nerfs applied along the way in order to figure the true cause out?

 

Powerbarrier has been nerfed, so I'll tell you right now, that is a strong indicator that BW think we have survivability. (Also I notice they put high value in heavy armor. Jugg/ Marauder is an EXCELLENT example of their value of armour over CD's. This has been backwards for a looong time.)

 

I can't talk for PVE but PVP wise the class is still far too reliant on Tracer to proc other things. This means you are an interrupt away from being denied the following:

- A stack (or 5) of increasing Rail Shot Damage

- A decrease in casting a heal

- A stack (or 5) of Barrier, a damage resist at 1% per stack. Now this is defensive, but triggered only by offensive moves.

-This is also our armor break move.

 

The cost of tracer missile is the cast. The cast roots, and penalizes inherently. You shouldn't be further punished by being interrupted. You're okay with this? No other class has this penalty (IE Reliance) tied to one ability. (Not lightning sorcs, nor Snipers, etc, etc.)

 

I don't like the change to Unload, and it seems unnecessary. When you (Bioware) decided to make Ravage a guaranteed proc, you didn't nerf the damage on Ravage as a result. Why do it to Mercs? It's still white damage, interruptable, certainly not empowered by anything like... I dunno.... "Unstoppable".... why nerf it. The dual pistol damage is one of my favorite parts of Merc. I'm really, really hoping you reconsider this change.

 

Trying not to be negative here, the greatest thing that happened to the class is the net. Where I once felt I was done, this is a 'once in a while- get out of jail' card.

 

Pyro in Merc...Meh... it is so clunky compared to Powertech. I guess it's good in PVE? PVP wise it's blah to me. I still think Thermal Detonator should have its damage buffed in Warzones.

 

Just to make sure I understand this:

 

Unload is getting a damage decrease with an unchanged channel time?

Barrage is guaranteed now, but happens every 8 seconds rather than every 6 seconds (RNG)?

 

Not liking this at all.... unless I'm missing something????

Edited February 26, 2014 by Krozis

[Ottoattack]

You have a 961 solo rank and you think the only problem is defensive abilities? Think of it this way... this class has the cooldowns relative to Powertechs.... so what is the difference? An AOE freeze? Do you think that would fix things? Sure it would help, but really think about this..... Why does a Powertech survive a situation the Merc cannot?

 

It is because you (on your merc) can be shut down. Sorry, I'm not trying to be negative, but these are changes I've followed from day one, and I'm a little tired of the way they've treated the class going back to 'No interrupts for Mercs', and silly stuff like.... they couldn't figure out why Mercs were hitting so hard in PVP and realized it was an error in the way multiple tracers were being applied to Heatseeker... or something like that. But do you think they removed the nerfs applied along the way in order to figure the true cause out?

 

Powerbarrier has been nerfed, so I'll tell you right now, that is a strong indicator that BW think we have survivability. (Also I notice they put high value in heavy armor. Jugg/ Marauder is an EXCELLENT example of their value of armour over CD's. This has been backwards for a looong time.)

 

I can't talk for PVE but PVP wise the class is still far too reliant on Tracer to proc other things. This means you are an interrupt away from being denied the following:

- A stack (or 5) of increasing Rail Shot Damage

- A decrease in casting a heal

- A stack (or 5) of Barrier, a damage resist at 1% per stack. Now this is defensive, but triggered only by offensive moves.

-This is also our armor break move.

 

The cost of tracer missile is the cast. The cast roots, and penalizes inherently. You shouldn't be further punished by being interrupted. You're okay with this? No other class has this penalty (IE Reliance) tied to one ability. (Not lightning sorcs, nor Snipers, etc, etc.)

 

I don't like the change to Unload, and it seems unnecessary. When you (Bioware) decided to make Ravage a guaranteed proc, you didn't nerf the damage on Ravage as a result. Why do it to Mercs? It's still white damage, interruptable, certainly not empowered by anything like... I dunno.... "Unstoppable".... why nerf it. The dual pistol damage is one of my favorite parts of Merc. I'm really, really hoping you reconsider this change.

 

Trying not to be negative here, the greatest thing that happened to the class is the net. Where I once felt I was done, this is a 'once in a while- get out of jail' card.

 

Pyro in Merc...Meh... it is so clunky compared to Powertech. I guess it's good in PVE? PVP wise it's blah to me. I still think Thermal Detonator should have its damage buffed in Warzones.

 

Just to make sure I understand this:

 

Unload is getting a damage decrease with an unchanged channel time?

Barrage is guaranteed now, but happens every 8 seconds rather than every 6 seconds (RNG)?

 

Not liking this at all.... unless I'm missing something????

 

The devs overvalue three things for all classes and specs: range, off healing and armor. The problem is merc has all of the above, so the devs always assumed that mercs are a reckoning force in PvP, which is of course far from it (I said assumed, because we already know they never monitored 8v8 ranked as they said. I do not know if they monitor 4v4).

 

I am in favor of having interrupt protection, but these changes should make the gap much closer.

 

On another note, PT has better survivability, which is needed considering the range options.

[Helmholtzz]

Just as a heads up, the Barrage proc can only occur once every 8 seconds. I forgot to mention that in the original post.

 

-eric

 

Ok this make more sense. Now we won't end up with an over-buffed spec.

[Rambeezy]

That's healing in general, for all three classes. Most abilities get to pick two out of the three.

 

Instant, big heal, long cooldown: Emergency Scan, Healing Scan

Instant, small heal, no cooldown: Rapid Shots

HoT, big heal, no cooldown: Kolto Shell

All three: Rapid Scan

 

Sorry, I'm so confused. Can you please spell out what is wrong with what I said or what exactly your point was. All I see is a chart that seems to think healing scan and rapid scan are instant casts.......

[OmenQ]

Just to make sure I understand this:

 

Unload is getting a damage decrease with an unchanged channel time?

Barrage is guaranteed now, but happens every 8 seconds rather than every 6 seconds (RNG)?

 

Not liking this at all.... unless I'm missing something????

 

Unload's damage is unchanged. What changed is that it's now 4 ticks instead of 3, with the first tick hitting immediately on cast.

[ML_DoubleTap]

Unload is getting a damage decrease with an unchanged channel time?

Barrage is guaranteed now, but happens every 8 seconds rather than every 6 seconds (RNG)?

 

Not liking this at all.... unless I'm missing something????

 

You are missing something. The damage is the same on Unload but now it's first tick of damage happens at activation rather than the 1st second of the cast. So, if you get interrupted prior to 1sec into the cast you'll still get .25 of the total damage rather than none.

 

Removing the RNG is a great change, and it's balanced by adding the 2sec. Sure there were (few) times it would happen right away after it's internal cooldown, but there were more times I'd go 3 or 4 TM before getting the proc.

[LordKantner]

Ok this make more sense. Now we won't end up with an over-buffed spec.

 

Have you mercs not figured out the OP hybrid spec yet? Why don't you check the Mando forum...

[AMightyKnight]

Why bother? Itll get nerfed anyway.

[odawgg]

The day has come!!!! I'm sooooo happy our voices were heard from our class questions in regards to Arsenal anyway. Thanks Eric for the update and thanks to all you mercs and mandos that contributed to the questions back in September (I think it was around then)

 

Arsenal reborn!

Edited February 26, 2014 by odawgg

[cashogy_reborn]

Hey folks,

 

Here is a list of the currently planned changes for the Mercenary in 2.7:

 

General

• Power Surge now has a base cooldown of 60 seconds.
  
• Unload will now deal 4 ticks of damage instead of 3, with the first tick of damage occurring at ability activation. The total damage of the ability is unchanged, so each new tick of damage will do slightly less than before.
  

 

Bodyguard

• Power Shields is now a Tier 2 Skill.
  
• Heat Dampening is now a Tier 3 Skill.
  

 

Arsenal

• Power Overrides now reduces the cooldown of Power Surge/Tech Override by 7.5/15.
  
• Stabilizers now prevents 50%/100% of pushbacks towards Unload, Power Shots and Tracer Missiles.
  
• Barrage now has a 33%/67%/100% chance to occur when using Tracer Missile or Power Shot.
  
• Upgraded Arsenal will now reduce the cost of Rail Shot by 3/6/9 Heat while in High Velocity Gas Cylinder.
  

Thanks everyone, see you on PTS!

 

-eric

 

This all looks pretty good. Looking forward to testing it out. I appreciate that you guys actually seemed to have finally listened to our feedback with some of these changes.

[Helmholtzz]

Have you mercs not figured out the OP hybrid spec yet? Why don't you check the Mando forum...

 

I had the same idea but decided not to post without any data. The OPness is a speculation. I'll wait till i can test things

[venomlash]

Sorry, I'm so confused. Can you please spell out what is wrong with what I said or what exactly your point was. All I see is a chart that seems to think healing scan and rapid scan are instant casts.......

 

I thought you were talking about heals being applied at cast, rather than being strung out in a HoT. If you're talking about instant heals (no cast time), no class has any heal abilities that are truly instant, without cooldown, and put up big numbers.

[Rambeezy]

I thought you were talking about heals being applied at cast, rather than being strung out in a HoT. If you're talking about instant heals (no cast time), no class has any heal abilities that are truly instant, without cooldown, and put up big numbers.

 

I wasn't talking about any of that.

 

I was talking about moves without cooldowns. And from a certain POV, we only have 1 move without a cooldown. Nothing in what I said, has anything to do with instant casts.

Edited February 26, 2014 by Rambeezy

[cxten]

Please stop removing RNG from every spec in the game!

 

You can buff classes without removing RNG. So far you've boosted the dps of Vigilance, Scrapper, TK & Balance Sage, and now Gunnery, which is fine, but you did it by dumbing them down. That wasn't necessary.

 

A suggestion, to show one way you might do this:

 

Have Curtain of Fire have a 50% chance to proc, and if it does not proc, it grants 1 stack. At 2 stacks, you get the effect anyway (i.e. reset Full Auto etc.).

 

(So it's sort of like augmentation kits: if your crafted gear doesn't crit and get an augment, just craft more and you're guaranteed the ability to augment it at some point. Same here.)

 

This isn't quite as good as what you have, of course, so change the lockout timer back to 6, or increase some tooltip damage, to make up the difference. Just don't gut the RNG from every single spec. Please.

Edited February 26, 2014 by cxten

[cashogy_reborn]

Nothing in it for pvp. What good will Barrage do when you're not going to cast or channel anything? At least the dummy will get a beating now!

 

Uh.... did you read the same notes that I did?

 

Please stop removing RNG from every spec in the game!

 

You can buff classes without removing RNG. So far you've boosted the dps of Vigilance, Scrapper, TK & Balance Sage, and now Gunnery, which is fine, but you did it by dumbing them down. That wasn't necessary.

 

A suggestion, to show one way you might do this:

 

Have Curtain of Fire have a 50% chance to proc, and if it does not proc, it grants 1 stack. At 2 stacks, you get the effect anyway (i.e. reset Full Auto etc.).

 

This isn't quite as good as what you have, of course, so change the lockout timer back to 6, or increase some tooltip damage, to make up the difference. Just don't gut the RNG from every single spec. Please.

 

RNG is bad. End of story.

Edited February 26, 2014 by cashogy_reborn

[Gyronamics]

Nothing in it for pvp. What good will Barrage do when you're not going to cast or channel anything? At least the dummy will get a beating now!

 

Read every bit not just the bit listed under the DPS section.

 

Power Shields is now a Tier 2 Skill.

 

Arsenal can reach that.

 

Pyro can't without issues like... giving up 9% aim and 6% ranged crit...

Edited February 26, 2014 by Gyronamics

[WrykilX]

Have you mercs not figured out the OP hybrid spec yet? Why don't you check the Mando forum...

 

I would, if I didn't feel that PvE was a complete waste of time...

[Ottoattack]

Please stop removing RNG from every spec in the game!

 

You can buff classes without removing RNG. So far you've boosted the dps of Vigilance, Scrapper, TK & Balance Sage, and now Gunnery, which is fine, but you did it by dumbing them down. That wasn't necessary.

 

A suggestion, to show one way you might do this:

 

Have Curtain of Fire have a 50% chance to proc, and if it does not proc, it grants 1 stack. At 2 stacks, you get the effect anyway (i.e. reset Full Auto etc.).

 

(So it's sort of like augmentation kits: if your crafted gear doesn't crit and get an augment, just craft more and you're guaranteed the ability to augment it at some point. Same here.)

 

This isn't quite as good as what you have, of course, so change the lockout timer back to 6, or increase some tooltip damage, to make up the difference. Just don't gut the RNG from every single spec. Please.

 

What? Last I checked RNG = random number generator. Why do you want your damage and somewhat your resource management be tied to luck?

[phat_maban]

Some nice balances that really are going to help.

 

The extra tick on unload is designed to give some kind of dmg on target if we get interrupted.

 

And removing rng from barrage is great. I dont think I read a change to the channel time so if that is the case then awesome.

 

This will be very interesting to try out and will be looking at this on the pts

[midianlord]

Hey folks,

 

Here is a list of the currently planned changes for the Mercenary in 2.7:

 

General

• Power Surge now has a base cooldown of 60 seconds.
  
• Unload will now deal 4 ticks of damage instead of 3, with the first tick of damage occurring at ability activation. The total damage of the ability is unchanged, so each new tick of damage will do slightly less than before.
  

 

Bodyguard

• Power Shields is now a Tier 2 Skill.
  
• Heat Dampening is now a Tier 3 Skill.
  

 

Arsenal

• Power Overrides now reduces the cooldown of Power Surge/Tech Override by 7.5/15.
  
• Stabilizers now prevents 50%/100% of pushbacks towards Unload, Power Shots and Tracer Missiles.
  
• Barrage now has a 33%/67%/100% chance to occur when using Tracer Missile or Power Shot.
  
• Upgraded Arsenal will now reduce the cost of Rail Shot by 3/6/9 Heat while in High Velocity Gas Cylinder.
  

Thanks everyone, see you on PTS!

 

-eric

 

/Me giggles madly...

 

Yes.

 

YES!!!!

 

I dual-blastorz you'ze to death naow!

 

(ElectroDart/Cryo Grenade back to 30/30+ metres please.)

Edited February 26, 2014 by midianlord

[Dedrayge]

I agree with the last part, but left that off in order to have it be cyclical.

 

 

 

I'm not going to claim to be an expert player, but I use unload a lot to proc rail shot in PVP. It effectively works as an instant ability to get the proc, since like you said it procs right at the beginning, so it doesn't matter if the whole channel goes off or not. The alternative would be the 1.5s cast of power shot, which will often be interrupted in some form or another.

 

Same here...plus unload has a 75% chance to process rail shot and does a decent amount of damage...Not sure why people wouldn't use unload...At least for mercs...PTs it's pointless to use unload...

 

 

Rail Shot only procs at the beginning of Unload channel, not for every tick. So its not a buff. And no one uses unload to proc rail shot.

 

Oh...the tool tip isn't really clear on that.

[midianlord]

Have you mercs not figured out the OP hybrid spec yet? Why don't you check the Mando forum...

 

Do you mean something like this (with combustion cylinder loaded, natch):

 

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#300ZrfcRrzRkfZcGMrzo.3

 

Guaranteed Barrage + burn-effect + two trees' worth of boosts to a reliable RailShot (pretty much whenever you want it, in effective terms) sounds lots of fun, but I still wouldn't want to give up either damage-tree's cap-stone, especially HeatSeeker.

 

E:

 

To the person a few posts above:

 

Removing RNG is not "dumbing things down." Relying entirely on RNG is what's beyond merely "dumb."

 

Just lazy, lazy design, and the fact that they seem to want to move away from it tells me --I think, I hope, I pray-- that finally, finally, someone in that studio has found enough of a spine to at least try and innovate in the face of EA.

 

Let's hope they get to keep their position for a good, long time.

 

E2:

 

Regarding the possible hybrid:

 

Eric/Tait, I think that given that possible reality --unless you guys have changed your stance on hybrids?-- maybe now is the time to buff both HeatSeeker and ThermalDet to a point that dis-incentives hybridisation?

 

Maybe re-do Energy Rebounder --a thoroughly useless skill, IMHO-- by tying it to Barrage such that when ER procs, it makes HSM an auto-crit, and do the same for Pyro ---> Thermal Detonator with Jet Rebounder (another useless skill goven the absurdly over-long cooldown on the shield)?

Edited February 26, 2014 by midianlord

[idnewton]

• Unload will now deal 4 ticks of damage instead of 3, with the first tick of damage occurring at ability activation. The total damage of the ability is unchanged, so each new tick of damage will do slightly less than before.

 

It's about time.