aune Posted December 30, 2011 Share Posted December 30, 2011 Okay, just a little warning at the top.. I may be biased and there may contain some rants in this post. There, I said it. I'm level 47 now and "enjoying" the game. Without going too much into detail about the game itself, I wanna ask for help and tell you my problems with bounty hunter/mercenary. I'd say up to level 40 or so, I was kicking *** pretty nicely. After I got to Voss things started to get complicated. The mobs were so difficult and the PvP is no better. I'm losing to mobs and players that never seem to be a threat before. I've experimented with different talent specs and different companions, and I've reached some pretty devastating conclusion. My only regret is it took me 47 levels to realise this: Bounty Hunter is a pretty ok class, it looks cool and has some cool spells.. but all in all, they are not very good to be honest. I did well in PvE for ONE SINGLE REASON: MAKO. Without Mako, I am totally unable to do anything useful. I go down faster than you can say "HEAL ****". I some of the best gear available to my level, so it's not that. I tried speccing healer and soloing, with a superbly geared Gault as my sidekick. That sucked major banta poto. Without any specific detail, it sucked. Hard. So I went back to Arsenal. Bending over... sending those missiles... standing still... overheating... *god* Is this really my future? To be bent over with overheating issues? I don't know how it feels to everyone else but at the levels 44+ my Mercenary went from being pretty awesome to complete crap and a total drag to play. Is this my future? Bent over sending tracer missile? I'm starting to feel like I've made a big mistake spending christmas time leveling this toon... What can you guys tell me? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TempestasSilva Posted December 30, 2011 Share Posted December 30, 2011 Use your CC. Use Mako. Take down all the easy mobs first so there are less people beating on you. Make sure you have read the Arsenal DPS rotation threads. Dont go over 40 heat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rolotomasi Posted December 30, 2011 Share Posted December 30, 2011 why don't you read some threads about rotations to manage your heat? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boomzlang Posted December 30, 2011 Share Posted December 30, 2011 You are going to see a lot more productivity from your heat if you keep it low by mixing in a basic shot as you begin to climb to the point where you only have three arrows of regen. Pile your heat up as your vent cooldown comes up. You will use less moves off the start, but get in more special attacks over time. If a fight is coming to a close dont be afraid to push your heat higher. For PvP use moves as necessary, but you have to understand you will have long periods of downtime if you push your heat to high. Use your kiting abilities to get out of range or line of sight your opponent for your heat to drop, then unload, and begin kiting again. If you cant LoS the ranged person, try to prevent them from losing you by sitting on top of them and using your stuns wisely Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aune Posted December 30, 2011 Author Share Posted December 30, 2011 All this advice doesn't really tell me anything. Why are the mobs so tough all of the sudden, and why do snipers deal twice the damage I do? Does that not seem utterly unbalanced to you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrystalVision Posted December 30, 2011 Share Posted December 30, 2011 stop crying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werdan Posted December 30, 2011 Share Posted December 30, 2011 It would be nice to know your current skill set and maybe even what stats you're stacking. Is your gear up to date? What cylinder are you using? Are your companions well geared? Do you solo queue or do you have a guild or friends to form premades with? I played about 8 hours straight today, most of that spent in warzones and I did not lose a single match all day long. I averaged about 9 medals a match and did around 300-500k combined between damage and healing. It's not the class. Trust me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shac Posted December 30, 2011 Share Posted December 30, 2011 when you keep your heat low, it regens twice as fast, the more heat you build up the slower it goes down. Be constantly spamming your free shots and use your cooldowns when they're up, just don't spam shots with no cooldown that build heat, or you'll be in trouble. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimpanzeehat Posted December 30, 2011 Share Posted December 30, 2011 There's like, 30+ threads about Arsenal rotations, read a few, it's hard to push your heat high if you manage your rotation and cooldowns correctly. Everyone hates the Tracer Missile animation, Bioware said something to the effect of "yea, we know, maybe we'll change it", and frankly, I spend next to 0 time looking at my character while I'm playing and more time looking at my cooldowns, buff bar to see what's proc'd, enemies on my screen, and like...everything that ISNT actually me, so it's not even a huge deal imo, but it would be nice to not bend over 24/7. As far as the difficulty ramping up on Voss, yea, I noticed that too, but this is an MMO, that second M stands for Multiplayer, playing with friends trivializes much of the leveling content very quickly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aune Posted December 30, 2011 Author Share Posted December 30, 2011 It would be nice to know your current skill set and maybe even what stats you're stacking. Is your gear up to date? What cylinder are you using? Are your companions well geared? Do you solo queue or do you have a guild or friends to form premades with? I played about 8 hours straight today, most of that spent in warzones and I did not lose a single match all day long. I averaged about 9 medals a match and did around 300-500k combined between damage and healing. It's not the class. Trust me. Well this is interesting to me, because the only thing about my gear that sucks is my weapons. They are level 39, but with higher level mods in them. Someone told me this doesn't matter because no abilities scale off of weapon dmg. The other gear I have is the level 40 pvp set with upgraded mods to match my level. My gear is not perfect, far from it, but it should be decent enough for my level - save the guns. Now you say you are doing 3-500k dmg in a game, I say - how the hell! I've done 180k at my best game and that was pushing it! I get what you're all saying about the overheating part and rotation etc, and I know how to keep my heat low - that was not my point. Either way, lets get specific. Someone told me rail shot does 3k+ dmg.. the most I have done with it is 1200. Why? My Tracer missile does at most 2700, snipers shoot me for 4-5k. Why? Heatseeker missile does a 3k at best shot. Why? For the record, my talents are almost everything in Arsenal, and yes I am aware of the buffs / debuffs that tracer apply... Once more I'll ask, why on earth is my damage so damned low? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irishbrewed Posted December 30, 2011 Share Posted December 30, 2011 Calm down, snipers deal more damage then anyone so join the club. Or reroll Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paynegiver Posted December 30, 2011 Share Posted December 30, 2011 Well this is interesting to me, because the only thing about my gear that sucks is my weapons. They are level 39, but with higher level mods in them. Someone told me this doesn't matter because no abilities scale off of weapon dmg. The other gear I have is the level 40 pvp set with upgraded mods to match my level. My gear is not perfect, far from it, but it should be decent enough for my level - save the guns. Now you say you are doing 3-500k dmg in a game, I say - how the hell! I've done 180k at my best game and that was pushing it! I get what you're all saying about the overheating part and rotation etc, and I know how to keep my heat low - that was not my point. Either way, lets get specific. Someone told me rail shot does 3k+ dmg.. the most I have done with it is 1200. Why? My Tracer missile does at most 2700, snipers shoot me for 4-5k. Why? Heatseeker missile does a 3k at best shot. Why? For the record, my talents are almost everything in Arsenal, and yes I am aware of the buffs / debuffs that tracer apply... Once more I'll ask, why on earth is my damage so damned low? You are right with snipers.. I cannot speak for PVP, but I have a friend who is a sniper and does FAR More damage than me. The two of us were grouping in Hoth to do a heroic 4 man. I was level 42 and he was level 39... We were both killing a 41 elite, he killed his faster than me and I was 3 levels higher... I really think that something needs to be done in order to balance the mercs. I personally do not enjoy PVP so I stick to PVE, but I may try it out... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werdan Posted December 30, 2011 Share Posted December 30, 2011 Well this is interesting to me, because the only thing about my gear that sucks is my weapons. They are level 39, but with higher level mods in them. Someone told me this doesn't matter because no abilities scale off of weapon dmg. The other gear I have is the level 40 pvp set with upgraded mods to match my level. My gear is not perfect, far from it, but it should be decent enough for my level - save the guns. Now you say you are doing 3-500k dmg in a game, I say - how the hell! I've done 180k at my best game and that was pushing it! I get what you're all saying about the overheating part and rotation etc, and I know how to keep my heat low - that was not my point. Either way, lets get specific. Someone told me rail shot does 3k+ dmg.. the most I have done with it is 1200. Why? My Tracer missile does at most 2700, snipers shoot me for 4-5k. Why? Heatseeker missile does a 3k at best shot. Why? For the record, my talents are almost everything in Arsenal, and yes I am aware of the buffs / debuffs that tracer apply... Once more I'll ask, why on earth is my damage so damned low? I assume you are level 40? if so, your weapons are fine. If you're much higher level than that, your weapons are falling far behind. As far as how weapon damage works, whoever told you damage doesn't matter, they were wrong. Pistol abilities and Rail Shot (white damage) rely on pistol damage and your bonus damage from aim. All other damage (missiles etc, ie yellow damage) rely on your pistols tech bonus as well as from aim (which also gives tech bonus). Any damage totals you're hearing is from max level players in great gear with expertise against lower level/geared players. I'm currently sitting on about 1600 aim in very good gear (champion/columi). My Tracer Missile crits for as high as 3.4k (I think I hit 3.7k once), Power Shot crits for nearly 4k at the high end, Rail Shot crits for nearly 3k. If I use my Rakata Surge stim+crit/surge relic+expertise stim I should be able to crit for 5K+ on TM or PS. Snipers are great at single target damage but I have NEVER been outdamaged (total damage) by one in a warzone. They are by far the least mobile class of them all and IMO can be killed quite easily. If anyone expects Mercs to hit that hard they are mistaken. Operatives hit way harder than that BTW. My guild leader hit someone for 7.4k today in a single hit. As to my comment on how much I do in WZ's, that total is damage and healing combined. I can do around 350k damage and 150k healing or 250k each or 150k damage 350k healing, etc. Those are on the high end and yes, I've hit some of those today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aune Posted December 30, 2011 Author Share Posted December 30, 2011 I assume you are level 40? if so, your weapons are fine. If you're much higher level than that, your weapons are falling far behind. As far as how weapon damage works, whoever told you damage doesn't matter, they were wrong. Pistol abilities and Rail Shot (white damage) rely on pistol damage and your bonus damage from aim. All other damage (missiles etc, ie yellow damage) rely on your pistols tech bonus as well as from aim (which also gives tech bonus). Any damage totals you're hearing is from max level players in great gear with expertise against lower level/geared players. I'm currently sitting on about 1600 aim in very good gear (champion/columi). My Tracer Missile crits for as high as 3.4k (I think I hit 3.7k once), Power Shot crits for nearly 4k at the high end, Rail Shot crits for nearly 3k. If I use my Rakata Surge stim+crit/surge relic+expertise stim I should be able to crit for 5K+ on TM or PS. Snipers are great at single target damage but I have NEVER been outdamaged (total damage) by one in a warzone. They are by far the least mobile class of them all and IMO can be killed quite easily. If anyone expects Mercs to hit that hard they are mistaken. Operatives hit way harder than that BTW. My guild leader hit someone for 7.4k today in a single hit. As to my comment on how much I do in WZ's, that total is damage and healing combined. I can do around 350k damage and 150k healing or 250k each or 150k damage 350k healing, etc. Those are on the high end and yes, I've hit some of those today. Thanks for your reply. This clears up a lot of things. But even with high gear, there's one problem that remains. Lack of mobility. That will never change no matter what I do. So yeah, really disappointed with this class. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frontplayer Posted December 30, 2011 Share Posted December 30, 2011 Thanks for your reply. This clears up a lot of things. But even with high gear, there's one problem that remains. Lack of mobility. That will never change no matter what I do. So yeah, really disappointed with this class. Arsenal is a stationary missile platform. Go pyro, keep running = profit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rexking Posted December 30, 2011 Share Posted December 30, 2011 Are you serious? Bounty Hunter MERC can crow control like a boss with its huge amount of stuns in PVE. And in PVP you are still a boss, it's not like you need to kill 5 players at once. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trumman Posted December 30, 2011 Share Posted December 30, 2011 I'm a lvl 50 Arsenal specced merc, just dinged a couple of hours ago. Played as Arsenal all the way to lvl 50 and I did not have any problems with mobs what so ever while leveling, I played with Gault (dps) as my companion. Dont understand what you are having problems with? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FerrusPA Posted December 31, 2011 Share Posted December 31, 2011 I'm level 35 and having the same issues the OP has. I feel very squishy, even while fighting regular mobs and my kill speed isn't exactly great either. I'm on Quesh right now so the mobs are a tiny bit over my level. Still, I doubt thats that much of a factor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seihk Posted December 31, 2011 Share Posted December 31, 2011 All this advice doesn't really tell me anything. Why are the mobs so tough all of the sudden, and why do snipers deal twice the damage I do? Does that not seem utterly unbalanced to you? You're being ridiculous. How can you possibly even KNOW that Snipers are doing twice the damage as you? To me, it sounds like you just don't understand the heat mechanic and it's finally caught up with you. Keep your heat low and you will do more damage, with less down time. Plan your moves intelligently and you won't have half the issues you're whining about. Basic shot is your friend, weave it into your spells. My typical opening rotation: Power Shot -> Unload -> BASIC SHOT -> Rail Shot -> BASIC SHOT -> Power Shot -> Power Shot. Putting those basic shots in where I do keeps me at 4 arrows and using the abilities in the order that I do them also prevents me from hitting 0 heat. Again...PLAY SMART. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OxPENGUINxO Posted January 3, 2012 Share Posted January 3, 2012 You could always do what I do on the harder mobs, which is spam with the tracer missile, you can get about 8 shots in before your heat maxes out, then you use 'vent heat' and start over again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
magiccreative Posted January 3, 2012 Share Posted January 3, 2012 try this rotation: tracer tracer tracer heatseeker railshot upload For me this keeps the heat minimum and I can keep doing that without end. Destroys mobs and players alike, never had problems near or at 50. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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