Things Bioware can do to buff Mercs/Mandos

[SentinalMasterWW]

So this is just from my experience, and possible Ideas I had for Bioware to improve these specs, Since 7.0 dropped these specs really haven't gotten much love from bioware same can be said for slingers but that is another discussion. These are just things bioware can do to help make these specs perform better in both PVP and PVE. 

General 

-Make Stealth Scan an ability this spec gets by default, The Anti-Stealth specs were nerfed and right now all the sins are running two cloaks, this is not an OP Ability but by giving this for free it means all Commandos/Mercs can use it. 

-Buff Stealth scans range, its a bit to small to be effective right now, I'd also like to make Stealth Scan act like a Electro-Nets hinder, specifically if you are popped out of stealth by Stealth Scan you are unable to Re-Cloak for like 10-15 secs, This makes it so you can't just re-cloak and run away after being popped out, it also serves as a counter to people running two cloaks in PVP. 

-Make Hold the Line actually good, Make it so its VG's Hold the line, 35 Sec Cooldown with it running 10-12 Sec's. 

-An Idea I had for making this spec useful for raids is introducing a new ability, I call it "Hardened Plates" it essentially provides a 50-60% AOE DMG Reduction for 10-15 Seconds, its basically giving them an ability similar to entrench. IDK How long the cooldown would be maybe like every 1-1 1/2 minutes. Perhaps if they did actually do this somewhere down the Skill tree, you could take a mod that makes it so Hardened Plates provides CC immunity similar to Entrench. 

Innovative Ordinance/Assault Specialist 

-Give a passive mod, that makes it so Incendiary Round and Serrated Bolt Refresh 1 Energy per Sec, This would REALLY Help with the Energy Management, its not alot but being able to passively regen Energy from your DOT's would help with some of the Energy issues this spec has. 

-A Tactical similar to Continuous fire but for single Target DMG, Energized Charges is still strong but I feel that its a shadow of what it once was, Making another single target Tactical that makes your Incendiary round and Serrated bolt Tick and Refresh would help. I'd design the tactical so that it would make it so Full Auto refreshes and Ticks your Dots. Again either a tactical like this or giving a bit of a buff to Energized Charges. 

-Buff the Impact Explosives and make it sunder the Target's Armor, It would help give this spec a bit more Armor Penetration and it would give some devastating burst windows in both PVE and PVP. 

Gunnery/Arsenal

-I've been suggesting this a lot but, Replacing the mod that just gives vortex bolt a 50% DMG increase to one that makes your Grav Round an 18 Sec DOT in addition to Sundering the Target, would help immensely in making this spec more viable for Raiding or MM flashpoints as by having a Constant DOT on the Target this Spec can keep sustained DMG while also acting as an Anti-Armor Spec. 

-Improve Boltsorms slow, I believe it only last for Two seconds, make it like Force Lighting where the target is slowed through the ENTIRE Duration, rather than just two seconds. 

-Buff Primed Ignition, the DOT is okay, but it can be better. I would buff it to make it so that Boltstorm refreshes and Tick's the DMG, I would honestly either take this or the first idea I posted for Gunnery, This spec can do decent DMG but it lacks in Sustained DMG. 

 

If anyone else has any ideas feel free to share them, this was just some ideas I had on how Bioware can make this spec a bit better and bring it up a bit as a lot of the Tech Classes need some attention. 

 

[meddani]

yes pls buff the class with the most broken dcds since 5.0 even more, the best one was the buffed slow because they really need another one of those lmao-

Edited January 7, 2023 by meddani

[Setta]

I'm going to disagree with most things you said.  The reason I say most and not all, is because I really don't play Gunnery / Arsenal, so I don't really know enough about it to make that judgement call.  However going by what you wrote, I would reckon that if I did play that spec, I would disagree with you about it too.

1) Stealth Scan as default.  Well, I will say I 100% disagree with Bioware's "ability pruning" and removing a number of baseline abilities just to put them in skill trees as an option for all classes.  That is another one of the thousand plus moronic decisions Bioware has done.  That said, since we can't change that, and everyone suffers due to these changes it is what it is. I don't feel that the options stealth scan is competing against are so good, that you can't take stealth scan if you actually want it.  Basically a slow, or a small amount of dmg reduction (that you may or may not even have during the fight).  If you really want stealth scan, taking it over other options won't make or break you.  Throwing out a random hail of bolts for a fraction of a second can also unstealth people without being a detriment to your cells / heat, so honestly meh.  There are better things for the developers to do with their time. 

2) Vanguards don't even get Hold the Line as a base, we have to spec for it, so I don't want to hear it. Our movement speed is faster, with a 10s lower cd I admit.  Making this move superior if you spec for it.  However as melee with this being our only movement ability I feel like that's a fine trade off, considering you can just burst people down from range.  Even our gap closer Storm is something we have to spec for.  Assault Specialist gets Hold the line for free, and if you spec into Tenacious Defense you get a faster knockback cd, a faster stun break, and the extra 4 seconds on Hold the Line making it 10s like the Vanguard version, minus the much faster movement speed.  You can also spec into the situational propulsion round / rocket out, and get another movement ability, and if you're good at moving the character around, you can quickly turn your character around to launch yourself forward in the direction you want, and then face the character back to where you need to go. It's actually a very useful tool.  It's just competing against some really good talents in that category.

3) No just no.  We already have a raid buff that increases alacrity by 10% for 10 seconds, you want to add an ability that has a 50 to 60% aoe dmg reduction for 10 to 15 seconds on a 1 or a 1 & 1/2 min cd are you insane? The Gunslinger's / Sniper's bubble is a 20% dmg reduction on a 3 min cd.  Way to completely destroy that ability with the introduction of this monstrosity. 

4) So you don't want to have any energy management is what I'm hearing. Also energy management isn't really a problem if you know how to play the spec.  There's a very basic rotation that if you follow it, you won't have a problem.  Even if you screw up which I have before cause I got greedy trying to fluff my parse against some people, it's still not overly difficult to get back into the rotation, just takes a little bit of adjusting, and if you really screw up your energy management, you can purge your heat or recharge your cells on a min & 20 some second cd. If that's still a problem there are 2 abilities you can still spec in to help with resource management.  They're basically training wheels but some people need em I guess. 

5) There are tacticals that refresh the duration of one of your dots on a target that other classes have, but not all of them (at least none that come to mind), which is what you're asking for.  I don't mind if we get a tactical to refresh / tick a dot.  I don't think it would be useful because it would screw up the rotation but I suppose I'm not against the idea of a single dot being refreshed if it's done right. However I'm completely against the idea of having a tactical reapply all dots after the start. 

6) We already have a pretty good burst rotation in pve / pvp.  Honestly I don't even know what you're going on about.  I would spend more time learning the class properly than asking for it to be completely broken. 

[ReKabNad]

With the game's newest content being Mando focused, I recently had an idea here that I'd like to see, which makes it a virtual certainty we WON'T see it.

But.... in the Mandalorian Areas for this new content, I'd like to see a vendor selling proper Beskar'gam Armor sets, and matching Armoring, Mods, and Enhancements to go with it, all at Current End Game Max Levels, And all superior to everything else!  And characters that are actually, officially Mandalorians within the game, which is to say Bounty Hunters that have completed the Great Hunt, would get a big discount on the in-game pricing, so that the pricing is actually REASONABLE for simple men and women just trying to make their way in the Galaxy as Bounty Hunters! 😁

So, what do I mean by proper Beskar'gam Armor?  Simple:  That legendary Beskar Steel armor that's almost indestructible, making the characters that wear it the toughest in the game!  All the armor suits, Armoring Mods, Mods, Enhancements, Implants, etc, should have the absolute highest stats in the game for Armor, Defense, Endurance, Shielding, and Absorption.  So Warding gear, and the best in the game in that regard.

The Set Bonuses for wearing multiple pieces of the set should boost Damage Reduction and those other Defensive Stats to levels unheard of on any other armor sets in the game.  Beskar'gam suits are legendary for a reason.  Mandos should be incredibly hard to take down, even for bosses like Revan and Darth Malgus.  Actually, ESPECIALLY for bosses like Revan and Darth Malgus, because the specialty of Mandos is hunting and taking down Jedi and Sith, and they're supposed to be better at it than pretty much anyone else in the Galaxy!

So, naturally, there should also be Mods and Enhancements that boost our Defense and Resistance against Force Powers, again to levels as yet unheard of in the game.

Long story short, use the opportunity presented by this new Mando focused content to give us the ability to make our Mandos PLAY like Mandos should! This is the way!

I have spoken. 

[SentinalMasterWW]

15 hours ago, ReKabNad said:

With the game's newest content being Mando focused, I recently had an idea here that I'd like to see, which makes it a virtual certainty we WON'T see it.

But.... in the Mandalorian Areas for this new content, I'd like to see a vendor selling proper Beskar'gam Armor sets, and matching Armoring, Mods, and Enhancements to go with it, all at Current End Game Max Levels, And all superior to everything else!  And characters that are actually, officially Mandalorians within the game, which is to say Bounty Hunters that have completed the Great Hunt, would get a big discount on the in-game pricing, so that the pricing is actually REASONABLE for simple men and women just trying to make their way in the Galaxy as Bounty Hunters! 😁

So, what do I mean by proper Beskar'gam Armor?  Simple:  That legendary Beskar Steel armor that's almost indestructible, making the characters that wear it the toughest in the game!  All the armor suits, Armoring Mods, Mods, Enhancements, Implants, etc, should have the absolute highest stats in the game for Armor, Defense, Endurance, Shielding, and Absorption.  So Warding gear, and the best in the game in that regard.

The Set Bonuses for wearing multiple pieces of the set should boost Damage Reduction and those other Defensive Stats to levels unheard of on any other armor sets in the game.  Beskar'gam suits are legendary for a reason.  Mandos should be incredibly hard to take down, even for bosses like Revan and Darth Malgus.  Actually, ESPECIALLY for bosses like Revan and Darth Malgus, because the specialty of Mandos is hunting and taking down Jedi and Sith, and they're supposed to be better at it than pretty much anyone else in the Galaxy!

So, naturally, there should also be Mods and Enhancements that boost our Defense and Resistance against Force Powers, again to levels as yet unheard of in the game.

Long story short, use the opportunity presented by this new Mando focused content to give us the ability to make our Mandos PLAY like Mandos should! This is the way!

I have spoken. 

You do know we are talking about Commandos and Mercenaries right? The Spec, not Mando's the people. when we Say mando when talking about classes we usally refeer to the Commando spec, it's easier to just say mando instead of commando every time. like how mercenaries are shorted to merc.

[SentinalMasterWW]

On 1/7/2023 at 4:31 PM, Setta said:

1) Stealth Scan as default.  Well, I will say I 100% disagree with Bioware's "ability pruning" and removing a number of baseline abilities just to put them in skill trees as an option for all classes.  That is another one of the thousand plus moronic decisions Bioware has done.  That said, since we can't change that, and everyone suffers due to these changes it is what it is. I don't feel that the options stealth scan is competing against are so good, that you can't take stealth scan if you actually want it.  Basically a slow, or a small amount of dmg reduction (that you may or may not even have during the fight).  If you really want stealth scan, taking it over other options won't make or break you.  Throwing out a random hail of bolts for a fraction of a second can also unstealth people without being a detriment to your cells / heat, so honestly meh.  There are better things for the developers to do with their time. 

I get it's a minor thing, but giving this spec stealth scan adds another anti-stealth spec in the game, Snipers can shoot stealthers out with spotter, but we know the current state that is in. Bioware also buffed stealth scan by giving it a 20% DMG increase on your next non-casted ability. I can see more people using stealth scan if it was given as a mainline or buffed to offer a better incentive. 

On 1/7/2023 at 4:31 PM, Setta said:

2) Vanguards don't even get Hold the Line as a base, we have to spec for it, so I don't want to hear it. Our movement speed is faster, with a 10s lower cd I admit.  Making this move superior if you spec for it.  However as melee with this being our only movement ability I feel like that's a fine trade off, considering you can just burst people down from range.  Even our gap closer Storm is something we have to spec for.  Assault Specialist gets Hold the line for free, and if you spec into Tenacious Defense you get a faster knockback cd, a faster stun break, and the extra 4 seconds on Hold the Line making it 10s like the Vanguard version, minus the much faster movement speed.  You can also spec into the situational propulsion round / rocket out, and get another movement ability, and if you're good at moving the character around, you can quickly turn your character around to launch yourself forward in the direction you want, and then face the character back to where you need to go. It's actually a very useful tool.  It's just competing against some really good talents in that category.

Fair, But VG's Storm also only has a 15 Sec Cooldown, thus they can move more efficiently by charging at enemies granted they are a melee spec. When I play VG I rarely have trouble getting around, HTL (Hold the line) is on a shorter cooldown and is far better than the version Commando's get as its shorter, last longer, and the movement speed buff is better. VG's also really don't have too many hard choices in their endgame tree, like you stated Commandos have to give up useful abilities and passives for basic movement utilities. 

On 1/7/2023 at 4:31 PM, Setta said:

3) No just no.  We already have a raid buff that increases alacrity by 10% for 10 seconds, you want to add an ability that has a 50 to 60% aoe dmg reduction for 10 to 15 seconds on a 1 or a 1 & 1/2 min cd are you insane? The Gunslinger's / Sniper's bubble is a 20% dmg reduction on a 3 min cd.  Way to completely destroy that ability with the introduction of this monstrosity. 

Entrench has multiple utilities that can be taken that let you use it quite often, Entrench also is a flat out 60% AOE DMG Reduction. Supercharged Celerity the buff you mentioned is absolute garbage, same goes for the other choice, the actual best ability in that tree is Diversion which can absorb 2 Tech and Force Attacks. The reason this spec isn't really great for endgame raids is the lack of AOE DMG Reduction, most specs have some form of AOE DMG Reduction, Merc/Mando have good direct attack defense but no AOE Defense. Entrench also has a minute long cooldown, Sure If this were actually to be implemented I'd make it around a 2 min Cooldown. Also Entrench is still better especially in PVP as you cannot be leapt to, and have CC Immunity. Your info seems more to be based on 6.0 Sniper rather than the current 7.0 era. 

 

On 1/7/2023 at 4:31 PM, Setta said:

4) So you don't want to have any energy management is what I'm hearing. Also energy management isn't really a problem if you know how to play the spec.  There's a very basic rotation that if you follow it, you won't have a problem.  Even if you screw up which I have before cause I got greedy trying to fluff my parse against some people, it's still not overly difficult to get back into the rotation, just takes a little bit of adjusting, and if you really screw up your energy management, you can purge your heat or recharge your cells on a min & 20 some second cd. If that's still a problem there are 2 abilities you can still spec in to help with resource management.  They're basically training wheels but some people need em I guess. 

Sure maybe in 6.0, but since 7.0 botched alot of the passive energy regen this spec has energy issues out the wazoo. This spec encourages an aggressive playstyle and sure you get a semi Get out of jail card, but once that is used up, your just spamming hammer shot or med shot. Also Compare this spec to Virulence Sniper, That spec IMO does way more DMG, and is WAY Easier on energy management, it has built in energy restoration in the spec and even has the option for additional energy regen not to mention the Energy Regulators package which restores 1 energy a sec. 

So one of the hardest DOT Specs performs okay but constantly runs into heat issues, but one of the easiest DOT Specs to get into beats it in DMG and is almost impossible to run out of energy. 

So its not that I don't want energy management, its that bioware botched how this class stays afloat when 7.0 launched by removing key passives from this spec. For instance I can choose a passive mod that lets me regen around 20 energy when CC'd or I can get a better passive upgrade on Reactive shield that reduces the cooldown and also gives a minor additional shield absorb.

On 1/7/2023 at 4:31 PM, Setta said:

5) There are tacticals that refresh the duration of one of your dots on a target that other classes have, but not all of them (at least none that come to mind), which is what you're asking for.  I don't mind if we get a tactical to refresh / tick a dot.  I don't think it would be useful because it would screw up the rotation but I suppose I'm not against the idea of a single dot being refreshed if it's done right. However I'm completely against the idea of having a tactical reapply all dots after the start. 

The overall Idea would to encourage players to use Full Auto in their rotation rather than just using Assault Plastique and Mag Bolt. Also there are tacticals that refresh and reapply, Agitating Energies for Marksman sniper being one of them. 

On 1/7/2023 at 4:31 PM, Setta said:

6) We already have a pretty good burst rotation in pve / pvp.  Honestly I don't even know what you're going on about.  I would spend more time learning the class properly than asking for it to be completely broken. 

I'm going to Redirect you To Madness/Balance, Good luck trying to kill 2-3 of them when they are all self healing and slowing you down in PVP. Not to mention Gearing And Bolster don't work in PVP, So your going to see a lot of ABSORBED in your burst windows. 

 

On 1/7/2023 at 4:31 PM, Setta said:

I'm going to disagree with most things you said.  The reason I say most and not all, is because I really don't play Gunnery / Arsenal, so I don't really know enough about it to make that judgement call.  However going by what you wrote, I would reckon that if I did play that spec, I would disagree with you about it too.

So you disagree on a spec you don't play, and if you did play it still disagree even though you know nothing about the spec.....

[Setta]

Quote

Fair, But VG's Storm also only has a 15 Sec Cooldown, thus they can move more efficiently by charging at enemies granted they are a melee spec.

Ding ding ding.  Melee spec needs gap closers.  Vanguards literally have to spec into it. That's why their Hold the Line (which they also have to spec into) is better.  As someone who plays both vanguard and commando regularly this is fine. 

Quote

VG's also really don't have too many hard choices in their endgame tree, like you stated Commandos have to give up useful abilities and passives for basic movement utilities. 

You get 2 propulsion rounds on 17s cds each for the cost of one 2 min defensive cd.  If you know you're in a heavy movement fight, it's worth it.  If not take the defensive cd.  It's not overly complicated. If you can quickly rotate your camera position to launch yourself backwards in the direction that you want, it's fairly strong movement utility. 

Quote

Entrench has multiple utilities that can be taken that let you use it quite often, Entrench also is a flat out 60% AOE DMG Reduction. Supercharged Celerity the buff you mentioned is absolute garbage, same goes for the other choice, the actual best ability in that tree is Diversion which can absorb 2 Tech and Force Attacks

Ok this one I will admit is my bad, I apologies. For some reason when I read your suggestion, my mind went straight to a raid wide buff of 60% aoe damage reduction. Not personal AoE dmg reduction.  Which is why I brought up Ballistic Shield / Scrambling Field (bubble).  It's also why I brought up Celertity as I was thinking that we already have a raid buff, even if it's hardly ever used.  I'm not arguing that it's garbage I was just thinking that we don't need a second raid wide buff.  But again this one is all on me, that's my F up.  So on that note, I'm not against an AoE damage reduction. I think we do have a lot of mitigation as is, but at least now this makes a lot more sense to me than originally. 

Quote

Sure maybe in 6.0, but since 7.0 botched alot of the passive energy regen this spec has energy issues out the wazoo. This spec encourages an aggressive playstyle and sure you get a semi Get out of jail card, but once that is used up, your just spamming hammer shot or med shot So one of the hardest DOT Specs performs okay but constantly runs into heat issues, but one of the easiest DOT Specs to get into beats it in DMG and is almost impossible to run out of energy. 

Sorry but energy management is just not that hard. Is it possible to screw up? Sure.  But if you need a get out of jail card more than once every 80 seconds or so, you're just doing it wrong.  As far as Virulence / Dirty Fighting doing more dmg the damage is very similar between both specs, on dummies and ops bosses.  Some bosses favor one class over another depending on mechanics, but overall they're both performing close enough to each other. 

Quote

I'm going to Redirect you To Madness/Balance, Good luck trying to kill 2-3 of them when they are all self healing and slowing you down in PVP

As someone who plays a lot of Madness in pvp I'm going to say they're in a good place right now.  Not unbeatable, but no push over either if played right.  That said in the times I actually get a 1 on 1 with them, I can burst one down and out sustain them as a merc / mando, force their bubble, or watch them scurry off with their tele.  Sometimes they beat me though, if I don't have enough of my cds up it is what it is.  You shouldn't try to theorycraft balance based off pvp, unless you're a top tier player, going up against other top tier players.  Because while everyone thinks they're good the reality is no they're not, and you have no idea just how good your opponent is either. Because most people think oh I crushed them I'm a god tier player. But when they lose, it's oh that class is broken nerf them.  Cause of course there's no way that you could be the issue (not you specifically in this case a general you.  

Quote

So you disagree on a spec you don't play, and if you did play it still disagree even though you know nothing about the spec.....

Comprehension is not your strong point my man. What I said is given the amount of things I disagreed with you on so far, if I had played the spec which I didn't comment on, I would most likely have disagreed with you again, given how many things I think you've been wrong on so far.  Now at this point I already admitted that one of your points I screwed up myself, and again my bad, I'm sorry.  But overall aside from that one thing, I stand by what I said. I don't agree with many of your points, and it's highly likely I would not have agreed with the other ones too given the current trajectory of your requested buffs. 

[ReKabNad]

14 hours ago, SentinalMasterWW said:

You do know we are talking about Commandos and Mercenaries right? The Spec, not Mando's the people. when we Say mando when talking about classes we usally refeer to the Commando spec, it's easier to just say mando instead of commando every time. like how mercenaries are shorted to merc.

That needs to be changed, in the larger Star Wars fandom as a whole, Mando is a shortened form of Mandalorian, as seen in the Disney+ series The Mandalorian, where people call Din Djarin "Mando".

So you can understand my confusion here.

[farren_whyde]

On 1/9/2023 at 10:25 PM, ReKabNad said:

That needs to be changed, in the larger Star Wars fandom as a whole, Mando is a shortened form of Mandalorian, as seen in the Disney+ series The Mandalorian, where people call Din Djarin "Mando".

So you can understand my confusion here.

This is laughable. Guess your imagination has been annexed by The Mandalorian. The way you helpfully explain where it comes from - 'as seen in...' - is hilarious.

Can understand the confusion - but it doesn't need to change at all. You're the one that needs to change, quite probably. 'Mando' and 'Merc' are terms that have been used in-game and on the forums for years. Just because you're tunnel-visioned by the TV show doesn't mean everyone else has to be so rigid!

 

[Dayshadow]

Stealth scan does need its range extended. Especially if it has to be specced into. Because you can still be stealth stunned. It needs to extend far enough where you cannot be stealth stunned if in the center. Or make anyone within its radius immune to stealth stuns.

I would also like a finisher for Innovative Ordinance/Assault Specialist. One of those attacks that only works on enemies below 30% health. Even if it's as low 10%. Anything to dispatch those guys who magically become invincible at low health. Sometimes it seems like I spend more time on that last sliver of health bar than I did getting them there. And these aren't people with any kind of shield up.

Also, I think the knockback should prevent mobility abilities for 5 secs. What is the point if they can immediately leap/teleport/roll right back to you or just range stun you negating any benefit of a knockback? Many issues I have is the fact that melee have too many closers, particularly these instant ranged attack stuns and forward propelling attacks. There is nothing keeping them off of you. And this would be fine if not for the fact that they inherently do more damage. This was understandable back in the day when their closing options were limited. But now days there is nothing stopping them from saying on top of you, yet they still have the inherent DPS buff from launch which was to compensate for their having the struggle to stay close. Now they have an unfair advantage.

I feel like Cryo Grenade should be a default ability and not require being specced. Every class should have at least 1 hard stun by default. So this isn't really a commando specific thing.

Electro Net effects should not be cancellable. Given its long CD timer you should not be able to negate any of its effects.

[Lord_Malganus]

They need to create a new category called "Okay for H2 play" for all classes that have been nerfed to death or delete all non-meta toons that are a complete waste of time to play.

[LD_Little_Dragon]

Short of NiM content, and pvp but that doesn't really matter much now, all classes are still fine.  Yeah, some are better than others, but even merc dps can perform well enough for HM stuff and for solo it's all so freaking easy that any class can do it.

[Lord_Malganus]

1 hour ago, LD_Little_Dragon said:

Short of NiM content, and pvp but that doesn't really matter much now, all classes are still fine.  Yeah, some are better than others, but even merc dps can perform well enough for HM stuff and for solo it's all so freaking easy that any class can do it.

If that is truly the case, then the game and balancing is fine.

[LD_Little_Dragon]

4 hours ago, Lord_Malganus said:

If that is truly the case, then the game and balancing is fine.

You will never have perfect balancing, unless they dumb down the game even more so all classes have the same gameplay.

They also mucked things up by making abilities work the same in pvp and pve, you just cannot balance for one without screwing up the other.

[DreadzKaiser]

I'd personally like to see the alacrity boost for Arsenal's Supercharged Gas buff get a MASSIVE increase and a a cut for Tracers activation time while it's active and for Heatseeker to get more interaction with the rest of the kit.

Arsenals Identity is basically Blazing Bolts and Missile spam, and while I'm hardly an expert, I feel like the issue with Arsenal currently is mostly a numbers one as it plays well. I feel that buffing our Arsenal gas button (that sound wrong but I refuse to rephrase it) for a proper burst would be a good way to go, like a .5 second cast time for Tracer while it's on. the idea of pumping out enough missiles to make a Macross protag say "calm down son" appeals to me as rapid fire missiles feel like a must in "the missile spec"

as for heatseeker. It always struck me as the big finisher move of arsenal. Hits the hardest, is the most visually impressive prior to Unload becoming Blazing bolts. 

But it's just kinda....there. it gets more damage when tracer is on something and that's it, just push button on CD, no further interaction with the kit. Unload/Blazing Bolts, Tracer, Rail shot and Priming shot interact more with each other and with the talent tree. 

 

[SentinalMasterWW]

I kind of want to revive this topic. 

I want to bring up something that i might make a post over on the PVP side of things, and that is the ranged meta. 

Skipping to the point, if we are taking PVP Mercenaries/Commandos are some of the easiest classes to take down as melee, yes even if they net you. Commandos are far easier to deal with. When ranged meta is brought up it should be that Snipers/Slingers are the leading cause of the ranged meta with their control and are the ones that should be adjusted. Mercs/Commandos are probably one of the most focused classes if we are taking PVP, because they are those easy kills. They have Adrenaline rush, Reflect, and shield heal. Adrenaline rush is their guaranteed heal, but ED and shield heal can be negated. Reflect is literally just don't hit into it, while shield heal can often be negated. 

Going back to the starter post I made, I suggested changes that in reality would make the Class way more OP than it needed, and it would actually be a cause for even worse ranged meta. 

On 1/6/2023 at 3:46 AM, SentinalMasterWW said:

General 

-Make Stealth Scan an ability this spec gets by default, The Anti-Stealth specs were nerfed and right now all the sins are running two cloaks, this is not an OP Ability but by giving this for free it means all Commandos/Mercs can use it. 

-Buff Stealth scans range, its a bit to small to be effective right now, I'd also like to make Stealth Scan act like a Electro-Nets hinder, specifically if you are popped out of stealth by Stealth Scan you are unable to Re-Cloak for like 10-15 secs, This makes it so you can't just re-cloak and run away after being popped out, it also serves as a counter to people running two cloaks in PVP. 

-Make Hold the Line actually good, Make it so its VG's Hold the line, 35 Sec Cooldown with it running 10-12 Sec's. 

-An Idea I had for making this spec useful for raids is introducing a new ability, I call it "Hardened Plates" it essentially provides a 50-60% AOE DMG Reduction for 10-15 Seconds, its basically giving them an ability similar to entrench. IDK How long the cooldown would be maybe like every 1-1 1/2 minutes. Perhaps if they did actually do this somewhere down the Skill tree, you could take a mod that makes it so Hardened Plates provides CC immunity similar to Entrench. 

I honestly, have no clue what most of this was lol. Hardened plates sounds interesting, but in reality all they need to do is replace the one man army with suit FOE as an option for PVE, Which was this.

Quote

Increases your steal detection level by 3, increases your melee and ranged defense by 3%, and reduces the cooldown of Stealth Scan by 5 seconds. Additionally, when you activate Field Aid on yourself, all periodic damage taken is reduced by 30% for 12 seconds.

I'd remove the Stealth detection and the cooldown on stealth scan, no point really since those are not mainline. Mainly just give 30% AOE DMG reduction, and the periodic DMG reduction by 30% after using field aid. Gives it more PVE purposes than everyone going adrenal surge. 

On 1/6/2023 at 3:46 AM, SentinalMasterWW said:

-Give a passive mod, that makes it so Incendiary Round and Serrated Bolt Refresh 1 Energy per Sec, This would REALLY Help with the Energy Management, its not alot but being able to passively regen Energy from your DOT's would help with some of the Energy issues this spec has. 

-A Tactical similar to Continuous fire but for single Target DMG, Energized Charges is still strong but I feel that its a shadow of what it once was, Making another single target Tactical that makes your Incendiary round and Serrated bolt Tick and Refresh would help. I'd design the tactical so that it would make it so Full Auto refreshes and Ticks your Dots. Again either a tactical like this or giving a bit of a buff to Energized Charges. 

I still feel like Mercenary in general does not have good tactical, Energized charges is good, but the rest are kind of meh compared to some of its peers. Magnetic Resonance is honestly a joke and I have never seen someone use it in any form of content lol. 

IO/AS are currently decent, IDK about DMG buffs, I feel like they are okay, I wouldn't complain if they got buffed a bit but currently they feel decently solid but its not end of the world if they don't. 

On 1/6/2023 at 3:46 AM, SentinalMasterWW said:

Gunnery/Arsenal

-I've been suggesting this a lot but, Replacing the mod that just gives vortex bolt a 50% DMG increase to one that makes your Grav Round an 18 Sec DOT in addition to Sundering the Target, would help immensely in making this spec more viable for Raiding or MM flashpoints as by having a Constant DOT on the Target this Spec can keep sustained DMG while also acting as an Anti-Armor Spec. 

-Improve Boltsorms slow, I believe it only last for Two seconds, make it like Force Lighting where the target is slowed through the ENTIRE Duration, rather than just two seconds. 

-Buff Primed Ignition, the DOT is okay, but it can be better. I would buff it to make it so that Boltstorm refreshes and Tick's the DMG, I would honestly either take this or the first idea I posted for Gunnery, This spec can do decent DMG but it lacks in Sustained DMG. 

I'm glad they at least changed that passive of the 50% DMG bonus to vortex bolt and added 10% to high impact bolt. But a DOT to grav round would be a bit broken considering especially in PVP considering the DOT meta. 

Boltstorm needing more slow lol, its actually quite annoying and I think overall the game needs less slows. 

Primed Ignition honestly though still needs a rework and I do stand by that it should be able to be ticked and refreshed, or at least Gunnery needs better single target sustained DMG tactical. 

On 5/22/2023 at 11:51 AM, Dayshadow said:

Stealth scan does need its range extended. Especially if it has to be specced into. Because you can still be stealth stunned. It needs to extend far enough where you cannot be stealth stunned if in the center. Or make anyone within its radius immune to stealth stuns.

The Rework to stealth scan is honestly meh compared to what VG's got with their Accuracy debuff, The stun DMG reduction would be great if it was up 24/7. But its only up when SC is out. Regarding the range its honestly pathetic and I get very few people out of stealth with it. It's mainly used for something like spamming it on doors for voidstar. 

On 5/22/2023 at 11:51 AM, Dayshadow said:

Also, I think the knockback should prevent mobility abilities for 5 secs. What is the point if they can immediately leap/teleport/roll right back to you or just range stun you negating any benefit of a knockback? Many issues I have is the fact that melee have too many closers, particularly these instant ranged attack stuns and forward propelling attacks. There is nothing keeping them off of you. And this would be fine if not for the fact that they inherently do more damage. This was understandable back in the day when their closing options were limited. But now days there is nothing stopping them from saying on top of you, yet they still have the inherent DPS buff from launch which was to compensate for their having the struggle to stay close. Now they have an unfair advantage.

I was actually looking at some things, most classes have a 30M range leap, Merc's range is 30M's. The issue is that they can always leap on you given your engagement distance, and they can camp you really easily given Mercs lack of mobility nowadays. They could rework Concussion charge, to add on the Root which would help in clearing some space. Concussive force would be great for the extra knockback along with the root on missile blast but you give up trauma stabilizers which is better for PVP and overall in general.  

On 10/30/2023 at 11:11 AM, DreadzKaiser said:

I'd personally like to see the alacrity boost for Arsenal's Supercharged Gas buff get a MASSIVE increase and a a cut for Tracers activation time while it's active and for Heatseeker to get more interaction with the rest of the kit.

Arsenals Identity is basically Blazing Bolts and Missile spam, and while I'm hardly an expert, I feel like the issue with Arsenal currently is mostly a numbers one as it plays well. I feel that buffing our Arsenal gas button (that sound wrong but I refuse to rephrase it) for a proper burst would be a good way to go, like a .5 second cast time for Tracer while it's on. the idea of pumping out enough missiles to make a Macross protag say "calm down son" appeals to me as rapid fire missiles feel like a must in "the missile spec"

as for heatseeker. It always struck me as the big finisher move of arsenal. Hits the hardest, is the most visually impressive prior to Unload becoming Blazing bolts. 

But it's just kinda....there. it gets more damage when tracer is on something and that's it, just push button on CD, no further interaction with the kit. Unload/Blazing Bolts, Tracer, Rail shot and Priming shot interact more with each other and with the talent tree. 

 

And this is generally Arsenal's biggest flaw, it relies on ticking blazing bolts and tracer missile spam. This is even more problematic in PVP, If everything is on cooldown and you are doing tracer missile filler and someone interrupts you, you literally have nothing except missiles blast and free filler shots. 

Regarding hitting gas, an interesting change they could do is that activating supercharged gas for arsenal resets all your  DMG abilities. Another is that while supercharged Gas is active, it acts as mercs polarity shift making them immune to interrupts. 

Regarding Heatseekers, They need to be able to make it proc. One way they could do this is that when using tracer missile and you are building up your stacks of charged barrel, it also affects your HS missiles as well as your rail shot and healing, and if on cooldown every so often upon reaching max stacks of charged barrel will instantly reset and proc your HS to crit. 

Overall though the biggest problem with Arsenal is that it relies on white DMG for most of its rotation with barely any opportunities for crits.

Going back to 6.0 Mercs/Commandos honestly felt like they hit the sweet spot, they were not turbo OP, but not super weak. Going into 7.0 they honestly imo have the worst trees as they lost the most. Even than much of their trees are not very good, they are not getting DMG boosts, Crits bonuses, etc. They are mainly picking what abilities they lost in the pruning. Ideally I'd like to see this class get a rework treatment for the tree.

In terms of gearing, They need to rework Targeted Eliminator implant, Straight up all healing and DMG done increased by 5% no cooldown or anything, just straight buff. Perfect for anything.

I'd also like to see the return of Apex Predator as an implant for Arsenal/Gunnery. 

In terms of abilities, Honestly all they need to do is add Propulsion round back as mainline, they can fill its old spot with smokescreen. Just being able to get out of a bad situation fast, would help this spec get away from being a static turret.

So in short 

-Rework/Buff Arsenal/Gunnery

-Rework CS Tree for Mercs/Commandos. 

-Rework Legendary Implants to be better. 

-Add Propulsion round back as mainline for spec. 

Honestly I feel this is more reasonable to ask.