At a closer glance: Commando/Mercenary

[SentinalMasterWW]

I've had this idea of a little series of posts where I take a look at a spec and give my thoughts on it as a whole. This includes its CS tree options, Tacticals, implants, and overall performance. I want to cover all the classes in the game and give my two cents on their performance for both PVE & PVP and what needs to be changed to help make them better. 

A couple disclaimers; 

1. I am not a SWTOR theory crafter, I'm not someone who knows the numbers and all the in depth knowledge they have. I have a general understanding of these specs and can generally play these classes at either an average or above average skill level. 

2. The goal with any of these changes is not to make one spec OP (I made that problem a long time ago). The goal is to identify where I think these specs are weak or to strong in and offer my two cents on what can be done to fix said issues. 

3. The real goal is to make these specs viable in both endgame PVE & PVP content.

Going into 7.0 Mercenary/Commando came in a very bad spot. Much of their class was gutted and their CS tree left much to be desired. This on top of the fact that Arsenal/Gunnery and Innovative Ordinance/ Assault Specialist were some of the lowest DPS in the game. Over the courses of many patches they did do some changes that did bring them up slightly; Forced march/Thrill of the hunt was made mainline for all the DPS specs, they have given some slight buffs to both specs DPS wise. However much of the spec today leaves much to be desired and some changes could definatly bring it up more.

Overall Changes 

When it comes to Mercenary/Commando their class tree leaves much to be desired. Much of the options comes down to picking old abilities that were given as mainline back in 6.0. While this is true for all specs, much of Mercs/Commandos tree is literally picking old abilities, they don't get the luxury some other classes get like better Crit DMG, Crit chance, etc. While the spec has great defensive cooldowns with its shield, Adrenaline rush, Chaff flares/Diversion  and the option of either Echoing Deterrence or Jet out/ Propulsion round. It's DMG output leaves much to be desired in both forms of content alongside other issues. 

The first thing I would do is make charged/Power barrier mainline by default for all the Merc/Mando specs. The 2nd thing would be mainly for IO/AS and that is making Serrated shot/Serrated bolt build a stack of Charged/Power barrier. On IO/AS it can be difficult to maintain the barrier unless you focus on a charged bolt/ Power shot heavy rotation. Adding in Ser. Shot/ Ser. Bolt makes it a bit easier to maintain the stacks of Charged/Power barrier. 

With Charged Barrier/ Power barrier given default now that frees up a slot at level 27. Level 27 would now be our utility tier. I would move Cryo gernade/ Electro dart down from level 68 to here. So the player would have the following options; 

Sticky Gernade/Dart 

Cryo Gernade/ Electro dart. 

Stealth Scan 

Stealth Scan additionally should be reworked (especially for PT's/VG's but that is for the post for them). Essentially it just needs it radius buffed for it to be useful. Too many stealth classes in PVP cheese it with how small it is.

Moving along Concussion charge/ Jet escape should be reworked from a slow to an immobilize. This change would help immensely in PVP, the slow is essentially useless in PVP because the target can just leap back on you.

The next change is swapping Hydro's/Hold the line for a reworked propulsion round/Rocket out. 

After numerous testing Propulsion round/Rocket out is not really that great, while it can get you away from most dangers. The biggest problem is the fact that it cannot be used while rooted. This is especially important in PVP because of the amount of roots and slows in PVP you essentially have to either break, Cleanse, or wait until the root is over before you can use your escape ability. 

So why swap hydros/HTL? 

The problem with hydro/HTL is that the ability does not last that long and has a long cooldown and given the amount of roots and slows in the game, being able to get out of a bad situation is important. 

My proposed rework of Propulsion round/Rocket out goes like this. 

Jet yourself backwards 20 meters and purging movement impairing effects. While Jetting your chance to dodge attacks is increased by 100%. 

To balance this out, Rocket out/Propulsion round could only be used every 20 Secs and only has one charge. With Rocket out/ Propulsion round given mainline the level 68 tree would look something like this. 

Hydraulic Override/ Hold the line 

Echoing Detterence/ Responsive Safeguards 

Smoke Screen 

The reworked smoke screen would just add pull, leap, knockback and interupt immunity. 

Last change would be that after using Field aid/Cure you gain 60% AOE DMG reduction for 12 Secs. This would help make the spec far more viable in Operations.

Arsenal/Gunnery 

Arsenal/Gunnery is currently tied with Marksman as some of the lowest DPS in the game. This quote best sums it up, 

Quote

Arsenal | Gunnery is in a bad spot. Its animations are mostly cool, and it has abilities that can hit hard, but they are inconsistent. As a burst spec, they can't reliably concentrate enough damage into a single GCD spike for PvP or deal significantly more damage over a 10s check in PvE to be competitive with other classes. At the same time, its sustained damage output is weak and its AoE potential is unremarkable.

The spec has some structural issues too. Way too much damage is distributed to its tacticals compared to other disciplines, and it hurts the spec's ability to perform. They are reliant on completing channels of Blazing Bolts | Boltstorm, but it's prone to interruption as a 3s channel. The actual ability itself is too weak and has a proc that's unnecessarily hard to track. They need to migrate half half of the damage out of those tacticals (back) into a proper proc that boosts the direct damage dealt by Blazing Bolts | Boltstorm with a duration that matches the internal cooldown of the proc.

I think these following changes would help the spec get up there a bit more. 

-Customized Warhead/ Round needs to be buffed to at least 15-20% Crit chance and DMG. 

-Proficent Gravitation/ Tracking should be reworked to the following; Increases the critical hit DMG of Grav Round/Tracer missile, Dealing DMG to a target with Grav round/Trace missile inflicts trauma to the target for 10 secs reducing all healing the target receives by 20%. 

The spec also needs some way to proc and crit with Demo Round/Heat seekers, if they can move more of the DMG out of Railshot/High Impact bolt than we should start to see some DPS improvements.

The spec needs a new better tactical, I think taking inspiration from something like shard of mortis would help. Either that or adding in Apex Predator back as an implant for the class would also help.

Innovative Ordinance/Assault Specialist 

While this spec is in a slight better spot than Arsenal/Gunnery. From my findings this spec has an issue where so much of its actual "DMG" is from supercharged burn. The other being that it runs into energy issues quite a bit if you don't adhere to a more stricter rotation. DOT DMG imo also leaves a bit to be desired. 

Here is my two cents on what I would suggest. 

-Slow burn passive needs to be reworked. It buffs the weakest DOT in the game by a small amount and in general feels pathetic. Slow burn should be doubled, 60% stronger burn and lasts for 12 Secs longer. So it would now be an 18 Sec DOT that you throw on the target. 

-Inc Round/Missil, Ser. Shot, Ser. Bolt, and Mag bolt/Round should have their DPS increased by 2-3%. 

-Incendiary ignition passive should be increased from 35% to 50%. 

Combat Medic/Bodyguard

The healing side of this spec mainly suffers from what all Healer specs suffer, they all need buffs to their healing output. This is especially prevalent in PVP where there is so much DPS output that healers cannot keep up. I find that Combat Medic/Bodyguard is a solid all round healer, just like its other healing peers its needs its healing output buffed. 

 

Overall, I tried to stick with changes that make the class stronger but I was trying not to make them OP. Even if you ignore AS/IO changes, Arsenal/gunnery are in desperate need of buffs as like Marksman/Sharpshooter they are tied with some of the lowest DPS in the game currently. 

I welcome feedback and thoughts as always. I know the Dev's will never fix their game but I think this is an interesting conversation piece.

 

 

[ThanderSnB]

I don't know much about balancing, but something that always annoys me with Arsenal/Gunnery is how long it takes to build stacks of Supercharge for the big critical. At the beginning you can pre-cast heals on self, but once the fight starts it always seems to take forever. If you're following the ideal rotation, Basic Attacks and Tracer Missile/Grav Round are only filler abilities, so it takes a while to build 10 stacks. I think you should be able to build 10 stacks within the cooldown of Rail Shot/High Impact Bolt, so every use is a big critical.

They could have Blazing Bolts/Boltstorm build stacks of Supercharge for each damage tick (4 stacks per full cast). That might be enough on its own, otherwise add stacks to some of the other abilities. They could also just give 2 stacks of SuperCharge for each Basic Attack and Tracer Missile/Grav Round. Also, they can increase the 3% critical bonus stacks (forgot the name) from Tracer Missile/Grav Round to 3 stacks per cast, so it would only take two casts to get to the max 5 stacks.

Edited June 21 by ThanderSnB

[SentinalMasterWW]

Rebumping this up as there are some things I want to add and or correct. 

Regarding PVP this spec if the most focused and controlled. It's extremely easy to shut down and lock a merc in place. Merc has okayish defensives but the problem is they don't have a "get out of jail card" so to say. Rocket out is nice if spec'd into it but you loose out on your key reflect/heal shield. Additionally merc cannot kite players at all. Concussive force passive gives the spec a root on missile blast which does help and combined with rocket out you can kite somewhat efficiently, but the issue comes that you loose 2 key defensives doing int. Trauma regulators and your ED. 

Comparing this to another class like say Rage juggernaut they only thing they give up for blade blitz is reflect and honestly they enact even more control and don't loose much on survivability. Alongside them having their hard stun and blade barrage root and its basically almost impossible for a merc to 1v1 a juggernaut head on. 

Defensives don't mean much when a melee class can just sit on you and unload DPS onto you while you cannot get away. 

On 6/13/2024 at 11:48 AM, SentinalMasterWW said:

Moving along Concussion charge/ Jet charge should be reworked from a slow to an immobilize. This change would help immensely in PVP, the slow is essentially useless in PVP because the target can just leap back on you.

 

I do still wish jet charge was an immobilize but combined with Force waves from both sin and sorc, alongside sniper pulse charge I think just the extended knockback of making concussive force mainline by default would help. 

On 6/13/2024 at 11:48 AM, SentinalMasterWW said:

My proposed rework of Propulsion round/Rocket out goes like this. 

Jet yourself backwards 20 meters and purging movement impairing effects. While Jetting your chance to dodge attacks is increased by 100%. 

To balance this out, Rocket out/Propulsion round could only be used every 20 Secs and only has one charge. With Rocket out/ Propulsion round given mainline the level 68 tree would look something like this. 

I've seen some people say this would be OP and I can see it. I thought this would just be an interesting change for an ability to make it more useful for getting out of a bad situation akin to snipers roll. 

On 6/13/2024 at 11:48 AM, SentinalMasterWW said:

Last change would be that after using Field aid/Cure you gain 60% AOE DMG reduction for 12 Secs. This would help make the spec far more viable in Operations.

Honestly the best thing to do instead would just add the old shock absorber passive back in which gave mercs straight up 30% AOE DMG reduction and 30% stun reduction. 

On 6/13/2024 at 11:48 AM, SentinalMasterWW said:

I think these following changes would help the spec get up there a bit more. 

-Customized Warhead/ Round needs to be buffed to at least 15-20% Crit chance and DMG. 

-Proficent Gravitation/ Tracking should be reworked to the following; Increases the critical hit DMG of Grav Round/Tracer missile, Dealing DMG to a target with Grav round/Trace missile inflicts trauma to the target for 10 secs reducing all healing the target receives by 20%. 

The spec also needs some way to proc and crit with Demo Round/Heat seekers, if they can move more of the DMG out of Railshot/High Impact bolt than we should start to see some DPS improvements.

The spec needs a new better tactical, I think taking inspiration from something like shard of mortis would help. Either that or adding in Apex Predator back as an implant for the class would also help.

I still believe this to be true, Arsenal cannot put out enough DPS in a 10 sec GCD period to make it really any good at all. Its why you see the spec usually a C tier for most Tier lists on youtube and such. 

On 6/13/2024 at 11:48 AM, SentinalMasterWW said:

While this spec is in a slight better spot than Arsenal/Gunnery. From my findings this spec has an issue where so much of its actual "DMG" is from supercharged burn. The other being that it runs into energy issues quite a bit if you don't adhere to a more stricter rotation. DOT DMG imo also leaves a bit to be desired. 

Here is my two cents on what I would suggest. 

Something I found mainly for PVP is that IO struggles massively when you have a high DMG burst spec run into your face so to say. The spec takes a lot of setup and the melee burst spec; say an AP PT will kill you before you can even get them halfway down. IO is also the only DOT spec to my knowledge that has a cast time on its DOT that being serrated bolt. Additonally IO from my experience and just overall feeling, is that its the weakest ranged DOT spec currently. This more so has to do with its poor burst output, long setup time to get going, weak DOT DMG, and overall just poor passives that really does not improve the spec at all. If Inc. missile had a passive that boosted periodic DMG by 5% I think the spec would be a bit better combined with the aforementioned buff to slow burn.

On 6/21/2024 at 3:43 PM, ThanderSnB said:

I don't know much about balancing, but something that always annoys me with Arsenal/Gunnery is how long it takes to build stacks of Supercharge for the big critical. At the beginning you can pre-cast heals on self, but once the fight starts it always seems to take forever. If you're following the ideal rotation, Basic Attacks and Tracer Missile/Grav Round are only filler abilities, so it takes a while to build 10 stacks. I think you should be able to build 10 stacks within the cooldown of Rail Shot/High Impact Bolt, so every use is a big critical.

They could have Blazing Bolts/Boltstorm build stacks of Supercharge for each damage tick (4 stacks per full cast). That might be enough on its own, otherwise add stacks to some of the other abilities. They could also just give 2 stacks of SuperCharge for each Basic Attack and Tracer Missile/Grav Round. Also, they can increase the 3% critical bonus stacks (forgot the name) from Tracer Missile/Grav Round to 3 stacks per cast, so it would only take two casts to get to the max 5 stacks.

And that is moreso the biggest problem with Arsenal/Gunnery, so much of its DPS is locked within that supercharged window. Alongside this though is the poor passive tree that really doesn't buff the spec in any meaningful way and the poor sustained DPS tactical primed ignition.