Greetings!

So I read a LOT about how 'bad' people say Mercs are.. But could someone tell me why?

My impression of the Merc class is that it's DPS from afar, so we go for max DPS and hope the tank keep the aggro.. Alright, I'll admit that I am just halfway to 41 on my Merc, but I honestly love it(But I have yet to reach end-game)! I just got my heatseeker missiles and I don't have any trouble in PvP nor PvE! Sure, I get powned by five people in PvP from time to time, but who doesn't?

 

I just don't understand why people in general on forums say how bad they are and that they are the worst class etc? Does it suck when you reach end-game? What makes it so bad?

 

(This topic may have been brought up many times before, so I am sorry if I am just pushing on a topic that has been cleared a long time ago. Also, if I am just getting it all wrong, please tell me so! I just hope my character won't become a gimpball when I hit level 50! )

 

PS: English is my second language, have pity on my grammar!

its not as bad as some people make it out to be, as far as dps goes ours is great! we do great in end game pve, most people will be complaining because we lack a lot of utility, the lack of an interrupt is a big thing we also bring no boost to our raid. in pre 50 pvp we do awesome but once you hit 50 we are pretty bad, our damage can be good but no where near as high as a PT or a Mara, they also have to work less to get those numbers, my main is a merc and i love it but when i pvp i get really frustrated not having an interrupt to help shut down healers or when i see an agent/smuggler casting there aoe over a node and i cant do anything. all in all i dont think its as broken as people say but definitely needs some love

Ah, thanks for such a quick reply!

I am mostly interested in PvE and some world PvP from time to time, so being suckish in the WZs isn't such a big loss to me to be honest.

yeah it is still frustrating not being able to interrupt in raids but its usually not an issue, it means we have less to worry about

I think Jake is selling Mercs/Commandos short in PvE a bit, if you've got a balanced group, us (I play a Gunnery commando, equivalent to an Arsenal Merc) not having an interrupt isn't an issue as you'll have Sentinels (Marauders?) around to deal with that & our grav round/tracer missile armour debuff frees up anyone else from having to provide a debuff (since it's an integral part of our rotation), though a Guardian (Juggernaut?) can also provide an accuracy debuff with Force Sweep/Smash (?) though that requires points in the relevant skill. While Gunslingers/Snipers will probably out DPS you on bosses, you'll still be able to put out some good DPS if you have comparable gear & know your stuff. I'm usually in the top 2-3 of my guilds DPS on raids (normal, HM & the rare nightmare mode), with our Gunslinger usually (but not always) being ahead of me.

 

PvP is a different kettle of fish. Gunnery/Arsenal can put out decent DPS, but they are lacking compared to some other classes. I'm in full BM gear & I'm in the top 3 most of the time, but if the opposing team know their stuff you can be shut down and ganked in fairly short order by a good melee player or two. My advice is to just take it on the chin & try and do as much damage as you can and try & not get ganged up on. Powertech/Assault has more mobility & fewer casting time/channeled attacks, so it's harder to shut down, but you will do less burst damage. Personally I'm too lazy/cheap to respec between Gunnery & Assault between raiding/PvE and PvP.

And now us Mercs will get interrupts in 1.4 as well!

Its like anything else, its what you make of it. Some good stuff coming in 1.4 for me though but Im heals. Personally I think the amount of tears over rocket punch is ridiculous but thats just me.

Short answer?

 

Your experiences in the 10-49 bracket are in no way representative of level 50 pvp balance.

 

Do not try and judge class balance pre-50.

Edited September 4, 2012 by Sinsavz

Short answer?

 

Your experiences in the 10-49 bracket are in no way representative of level 50 pvp balance.

 

Do not try and judge class balance pre-50.

 

He speaks the truth.

I dont think we are bad, infact i love the class and can put out 300k DPS no probs in a WZ and have hit the 600k a few times and now my PB is 760k DPS in CW.

i didnt mean to sell it short, i do love my merc, and yes there usually are marauders juggs snipers in the raid aswell to interrupt so its not game breaking but i would like to be able interrupt as well, thats changing now which i am very happy about, when i said we don't bring a buff to our raid, again its not a huge issue but having a couple of marauders with bloodthirst and predation is always nice and we can't offer anything like that, its not something that would want to make me play another class though,

 

Kript 790k is pretty beast. im not completely sure but i would say its the top merc dps on dalborra for pvp

i didnt mean to sell it short, i do love my merc, and yes there usually are marauders juggs snipers in the raid aswell to interrupt so its not game breaking but i would like to be able interrupt as well, thats changing now which i am very happy about, when i said we don't bring a buff to our raid, again its not a huge issue but having a couple of marauders with bloodthirst and predation is always nice and we can't offer anything like that, its not something that would want to make me play another class though,

 

Kript 790k is pretty beast. im not completely sure but i would say its the top merc dps on dalborra for pvp

 

760k but thanks.

In a battle between low skill players, the Merc dps actually does really well. A low skill melee dps has trouble keeping his target within his frontal arc and within 4 meters. Thus the low skill melee dps loses a lot of GCDs. In contrast the low skill Merc dps has a much easier time keeping his target in range/facing. This single factor alone accounts for most of the success low skill players have with Merc dps vs. melee dps.

 

But once you get to higher skill players the Merc dps is clearly the worst subclass in the game. Higher skill players know how to use interrupts. They know how to use their defense abilities - and every dps subclass in the game has more defensive abilities than the Merc. Simply put, once a player is able to take advantage of the full spectrum of his toon's capability, the Merc falls to the bottom of the pile. The Merc's additional abilities such as combat rez and 2 healing spells are utterly worthless in a contested PvP environment.

I'm just leveling, but I will say I leveled an assassin, sniper and marauder previously, and so far it seems clear that, compared to the other DPS classes I have, mercs only advantages are

 

heavy armor, but that is a wash given the defensive cool\downs marauder and sniper have; although snipers CDs aren't great either, but if you count entrench, that is an awesome ability.

 

more mobile at range than a sniper(if by only a little, but that is mitigated by being leaped at. and pulled .

 

As far as having the ability to heal goes, it really doesn't help if you are not specced for it as you either get in the DPS race or you try the little healing you have as a DPS to simply delay your death a couple seconds. An anni marauder has more effective healing there as they are DPSing at the same time

 

Again. I am just leveling but I am comparing to what I saw leveling the other classes so take it for what its worth.