NogueiraA Posted February 27, 2014 Share Posted February 27, 2014 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 Hello Eric, how about when you proc Unload, your next Unload cost no energy? This would make Mercenary more like Sniper, because Sniper DON'T need to auto-shot, their energy regen is unbeliavable better than Mercenary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cashogy_reborn Posted February 27, 2014 Share Posted February 27, 2014 Hello Eric, how about when you proc Unload, your next Unload cost no energy? This would make Mercenary more like Sniper, because Sniper DON'T need to auto-shot, their energy regen is unbeliavable better than Mercenary. No need for that, the combined changes to Rail Shot heat cost and Unload mechanics will result in improved ammo management for Arsenal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cxten Posted February 27, 2014 Share Posted February 27, 2014 What? Last I checked RNG = random number generator. Why do you want your damage and somewhat your resource management be tied to luck? Having the rotation be interesting makes doing dps more fun, I think. Some examples would be complicated timing or interaction of abilities or resource management. But another good source of interest comes from not knowing what's going to happen next. Especially with gunnery, a spec with few moving parts and no dots, the majority of the interest was in dealing with the proc and resource management. Now how interesting will gunnery be? --- To be clear: I'm not objecting to higher dps for gunnery (it seems good in fact). But you can do that and keep some randomness. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gyronamics Posted February 27, 2014 Share Posted February 27, 2014 The skill will be the same as with Pyro, you know how it works, now show you can actually make it work at its best. Well, Pyro is less obvious since you create your own regen with that but it's a similar process. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NucleusTRV Posted February 27, 2014 Share Posted February 27, 2014 Hey, that sounds nice! I will give it a try once it goes live. Maybe I'll respecc my Pyro-Merc to Arsenal afterwards Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krozis Posted February 27, 2014 Share Posted February 27, 2014 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. Thanks for filling in the blanks for me.... I guess it sounds okay? I mean damage and duration are unchanged... but the damage is spread out more through out the channel. I still think arsenal is my favorite spec in the game. Has been for years.... and from a purely PVP perspective I'd trade all of this for some un-interuptable ability and (Sorry to sound like a broken record) less reliance in the tree off of Tracer. The people that are saying Pyro is in a good spot... are we talking about PVE or PVP? PVP-wise, personally as dynamic as it can be, it still seems to be a "B" variant of the Powertech version. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lafay Posted February 27, 2014 Share Posted February 27, 2014 (edited) and from a purely PVP perspective I'd trade all of this for some un-interuptable ability. bodyguard tree, 2nd tier power shield, there ya go. spend points, its yours. Edited February 27, 2014 by Lafay Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MVaglin Posted February 27, 2014 Share Posted February 27, 2014 The people that are saying Pyro is in a good spot... are we talking about PVE or PVP? PVP-wise, personally as dynamic as it can be, it still seems to be a "B" variant of the Powertech version. PvE. Pyrotech is the highest parsing sustained damage spec in the game right now (together with concealment operatives maybe). So while a bit lackluster in PvP, any changes they receive will have to not increase their damage output (and possibly even lower it a bit). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krozis Posted February 27, 2014 Share Posted February 27, 2014 bodyguard tree, 2nd tier power shield, there ya go. spend points, its yours. Wow nice. I didn't really read bodyguard changes.... So I guess I need to start putting... 6 pts on there. At most I typically put about half of that in there so it will be a squeeze for me, but the payoff could be great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krozis Posted February 27, 2014 Share Posted February 27, 2014 PvE. Pyrotech is the highest parsing sustained damage spec in the game right now (together with concealment operatives maybe). So while a bit lackluster in PvP, any changes they receive will have to not increase their damage output (and possibly even lower it a bit). A little off topic here but I've started dabbling in PVE higher end stuff with my guild. I just ran in pure Arsenal. I am recalling back with Sithwarrior.com was math-hammering all the rotations out and I believe at the time Arsenal was the PVE spec of choice. What happened that changed that? Is there a recommended guide for PVE Pyro? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobaFaceroll Posted February 27, 2014 Share Posted February 27, 2014 A little off topic here but I've started dabbling in PVE higher end stuff with my guild. I just ran in pure Arsenal. I am recalling back with Sithwarrior.com was math-hammering all the rotations out and I believe at the time Arsenal was the PVE spec of choice. What happened that changed that? Is there a recommended guide for PVE Pyro? Top of the forums, read Odawgg's guide. There's good info in the Commando forums (Assault spec) as well. As to what changed...it doesn't really matter as the class is getting changes shortly. Pyro is the stronger PvE spec right now, but the coming changes should definitely close the gap. We shall see how they truly compare if they ever get the 2.7 build on the PTS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MVaglin Posted February 27, 2014 Share Posted February 27, 2014 A little off topic here but I've started dabbling in PVE higher end stuff with my guild. I just ran in pure Arsenal. I am recalling back with Sithwarrior.com was math-hammering all the rotations out and I believe at the time Arsenal was the PVE spec of choice. What happened that changed that? Is there a recommended guide for PVE Pyro? There were a few slight buffs, but the main change is that people started experimenting and pushing the spec a lot more than before. I suppose the main reason people started pushing it was due to a bug that caused rail shot to vent heat twice for mercenaries, making the spec completely busted. And once that was fixed, people found that the lack of randomness was still a very good thing and managed to push the spec further and further. As for guides, odawgg's guide is indeed excellent. I also like my own of course (in my signature). They basically talk about the same things, just differently structured. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krozis Posted February 27, 2014 Share Posted February 27, 2014 Thank you for your responses. For DPS I typically bounce between my Powertech and Merc. I don't know why I've always enjoyed Merc a little more. I think I'll read those guides and see about more PVE content in my playtime as it always seems to be about 90% PVP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArchangelLBC Posted February 27, 2014 Share Posted February 27, 2014 Having the rotation be interesting makes doing dps more fun, I think. Some examples would be complicated timing or interaction of abilities or resource management. But another good source of interest comes from not knowing what's going to happen next. Especially with gunnery, a spec with few moving parts and no dots, the majority of the interest was in dealing with the proc and resource management. Now how interesting will gunnery be? --- To be clear: I'm not objecting to higher dps for gunnery (it seems good in fact). But you can do that and keep some randomness. Randomness is all well and good when it can do nothing but help you, or it has such a high chance of happening that you never really find yourself proc fishing. When your DPS and your energy management are so very dependent on a major proc, and not getting that proc cripples your DPS and your energy (which of course further cripples your DPS), then it's not fun anymore. It's just frustrating, and it needs to go. It was the same exact thing with Veng Jugg and the FL proc for Lightning Sorcs (never played madness much so couldn't comment on that one). It doesn't get much more deterministic than MM Sniper and I love the hell out of that spec. I honestly couldn't be much happier about these changes. Perfect imo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MillionsKNives Posted February 27, 2014 Share Posted February 27, 2014 Randomness is all well and good when it can do nothing but help you, or it has such a high chance of happening that you never really find yourself proc fishing. When your DPS and your energy management are so very dependent on a major proc, and not getting that proc cripples your DPS and your energy (which of course further cripples your DPS), then it's not fun anymore. It's just frustrating, and it needs to go. It was the same exact thing with Veng Jugg and the FL proc for Lightning Sorcs (never played madness much so couldn't comment on that one). It doesn't get much more deterministic than MM Sniper and I love the hell out of that spec. I honestly couldn't be much happier about these changes. Perfect imo. Not that I'm particularly against the changes (I'd still like to try them out though), but I think the issue has more to do with our current heat management being poor than the proc chance itself. Something as simple as reverting our rail shot to being completely free would have also gone a long way to making our heat more manageable. I still don't know what they were thinking when they changed that despite concerns from pretty much day one (2.0 launch on PTS) on our heat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArchangelLBC Posted February 27, 2014 Share Posted February 27, 2014 Not that I'm particularly against the changes (I'd still like to try them out though), but I think the issue has more to do with our current heat management being poor than the proc chance itself. Something as simple as reverting our rail shot to being completely free would have also gone a long way to making our heat more manageable. I still don't know what they were thinking when they changed that despite concerns from pretty much day one (2.0 launch on PTS) on our heat. That would have helped our heat management, but the DPS issue would still have been present. Look at any parse from the spec and look at what a significant portion of our damage is done by Unload/Full Auto. But yes ammo management was a huge part of it. However lets be honest that the 2.0 set bonus change at least made a lot of sense for helping it be appealing for both DPS specs. I wish they'd also just made HiB free in Gunnery though, because between that and massive streakiness of our only ammo neutral ability, that was what crippled our energy management. So I'll take these changes all day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MillionsKNives Posted February 27, 2014 Share Posted February 27, 2014 That would have helped our heat management, but the DPS issue would still have been present. Look at any parse from the spec and look at what a significant portion of our damage is done by Unload/Full Auto. But yes ammo management was a huge part of it. However lets be honest that the 2.0 set bonus change at least made a lot of sense for helping it be appealing for both DPS specs. I wish they'd also just made HiB free in Gunnery though, because between that and massive streakiness of our only ammo neutral ability, that was what crippled our energy management. So I'll take these changes all day. I should be more clear, that my comment was mainly addressing the concern of RNG being good or bad for the spec. On the whole I agree with you, I'm happy that this should considerably improve heat management as well as give a boost to DPS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
odawgg Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 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 looking like some alacrity will be beneficial now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gyronamics Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 looking like some alacrity will be beneficial now Half a second will amusingly be enough to make a set for one tree incompatible for the other. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
odawgg Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 Half a second will amusingly be enough to make a set for one tree incompatible for the other. Gonna be spending dem credits if you want to use both trees lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TACeMossie Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 Half a second will amusingly be enough to make a set for one tree incompatible for the other. Hey, if you've got a medic set that has some alacrity, you can just swap 1-2 pieces for some surge from your dps set and theres your gunnery set (so long as the alacrity isn't on one of the pieces you use for the DPS set bonus) In fact, you can get up to 12.5% alacrity before it starts screwing with ya, and with the 7% that people will typically sit on if they are specced right for arsenal, then you can grab up to 410 alacrity on your gear before it starts hurting you. Sort of. Still gonna be problems with the Rail Shot and HSM cooldowns there though... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
odawgg Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 Still gonna be problems with the Rail Shot and HSM cooldowns there though... Not if we're making them wait anyway to proc barrage Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AgustusCaesar Posted March 3, 2014 Share Posted March 3, 2014 Ok, So we know they are going to change pyro. Are they really going to make us wait till the PTS drops to see what those changes are.? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobaFaceroll Posted March 3, 2014 Share Posted March 3, 2014 (edited) Ok, So we know they are going to change pyro. We do? Edited March 3, 2014 by BobaFaceroll Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AgustusCaesar Posted March 3, 2014 Share Posted March 3, 2014 We do? Yes we all know the rng is not working as described in the tool bar, It is broken. There is a change coming they are just with holding what that change is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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