Hulk > Thor

In solo pvp I'm loving my merc. I also play a carnage marauder and I love the merc more. I think the merc is better at solo play. My solo rwz rank is better on my merc. I think I'm close to 1500 on the merc and only 1200-1300 on the marauder. The marauder can also be awesome sauce BUT I think he relies on support more than the merc. The merc can adapt better to random class make ups on both sides. For solo play I'm almost forced to play rage on the marauder because that spec is better in more situations and I'm seeing my rank improve. It could simply be that I'm personally better at the merc play style than the marauder... I'm only reporting what I'm personally observing. The biggest difference I found in solo play is that I have a very hard time on the marauder when I need to solo kill an OP healer. With the merc it is still difficult but because I can dps while he's stunned I have a much higher (it seems) success rate on the merc. That alone makes me like the merc more. I think there is no question that the arsenal merc is balanced now. Given the right team and strategies they can succeed. But they are not going to succeed in every situation. If you go up against a melee heavy team and neither side has a healer... well that's going to very difficult... at least for me it is.

I think I'm 30 - 10 solo rwz. If it's all dps vs dps AND the other side is all melee, I have a hard time. If there is a healer on my side, or the other side consists of a ranged dps... I do pretty well. If there is a healer on my side and they focus me, my team and I can dps someone while they try to kill me. Basically you have to be ready for the focus and get good at hit/run/heal but if they have 4 smahers or 4 assassins you're going to be toast

I went back to arsenal after a few solo rwz. Don't get me wrong I'm not claiming pyro is inferior. I just am personally much better at arsenal. I will say yes arsenal has better consistent burst. But Pyro does have those occasional burst spikes that are a HUGE rush when they happen. When it happens I'm like "wholly crap!" It doesn't happen enough for me to stick with it. But I can see that someone that masters the spec is no longer a push over.

Great point and I often do...

Originally I went long tirade with this post and I deleted it 2 times and started over. I'm going to just do what's important: I have never served in the military nor do I have any immediate family members that have. So I can never truly understand your sacrifice. But to all of you in this thread that have all I can do is thank you.

We are squishy if we are focused but so are most classes. I'd say we are middle of the pack.

Well I think some pvp'ers need to try 2.4 pyro before you judge. I'm not 100% sold on it but I was pretty shocked by the burst. I played about 7 regulars and 4 ranked (solo). A small sample size I know... but the new rail shot seems to be hitting much harder. I like the new mobility and the change to chaff is really nice.

I want to know... does it recognize a joystick or gamepad

Well he did get the second highest kills on his team. The highest on the other side was only 15. It seems to me this was healer stalemate. He also had no deaths which is pretty good also. But this is a small sample size so I wouldn't claim anything really. But I think he's doing pretty well, I might try pyro this week.

I have to echo that for solo ranked I'm also doing very well. I have over 2x as many wins as losses. If you are focused with no healer you are toast but so is almost every other class. I disagree about the low damage on kiting. You do less damage of course but it's still packs a punch. Plus if you kite properly they are doing none.

I'm not sure if this is 100% accurate... For damage it seems that expertise bonus is showing up in your stats. For my bounty hunter and marauder I can go into my character page and look at the "damage" stat for ranged, tech, melee and force respectively . For example my bounty hunter's ranged page... When I had some pve pieces mixed into my pvp set (level 66 weapons min-maxed for power surge) I could see that I had 16k expertise outside of the warzone. I zone in and my expertise went up to 19k, my total bolstered pvp damage bonus was 56%. However when I swap for the min-maxed pvp conqueror weapons while zoned in... My expertise is maxed, the pvp damage bonus goes up to 60%, but my range damage stat goes down. I think the bonus damage line that is on every page (ranged, tech, melee, and force) is also effected but nothing else changes. So if you look at the damage line on your offensive stats you can gage if a pve piece vs a pvp piece is hurting you or helping you. But you have to be zoned into a warzone to do this. It has been claimed that at level 66 pve weapons are slightly better than conqueror gear and my experiment supports this. However I have not tested it with the latest bolster or the new pvp weapons. This works for the weapons because bolster factors in weapons., relics. armor. and implants separately. It's not all inclusive. So this is a side effect. I believe people have shown that 72 + weapons get less expertise bolster and are not as good as the pvp weapons. SO what does this mean. BOLSTER IS THE MOST UNINTUITIVE system I've ever used. You have to zone into the warzone and play with equipping and unequipping gear to figure out what pieces kill your stats and what pieces help your stats.

I'm assuming the OP means well... but I don't think this will ever change. Bolster is just too un-intuitive for the casual pvp'er to understand. I still see people wearing battlemaster gear.

Actually I read your post wrong... When my brain read "cast while moving" it though it was reading "all casts are instant"... for ten seconds. I actually would be fine with what you suggested.. but I'd prefer the two insta-casts. Casting while moving is great but IMHO two instant casts are better when under melee pressure and you are trying to kite away.

With my current set up I'm still hitting 10k crits. With the level 66 ear,implants, and relics I've had 2 matches since Tuesday where my biggest hit was over 11k... So I don't think dps is a problem... my skill maybe :-) that's another problem