I posted this on the class forums, but I think the larger PvP community as a whole needs to see this for themselves. I took the time going through the patch notes since release and compiled them to show what's happened to Merc Pyro's since launch. It's not like the community was so fed up and everyone was rerolling merc pyro tech because they were obviously SO overpowered. Not to mention the 4 nerf merc threads ever created were about Arsenal pre 1.2.

 

BW's history with Mercenary Pyrotechs. Note, we were fine until 1.2.

 

1.2

Power Shot has been rebalanced. It now generates 16 Heat, has a 2-second activation time, and deals approximately 10% less damage (because we were all complaining about this skill being too good )

Prototype Particle Accelerator now requires Combustible Gas Cylinder to trigger. The chance to trigger this effect has been increased significantly but cannot trigger more than once every 6 seconds. (bottle neck our procs)

 

1.3

Advanced Targeting has been redesigned and now gives Unload and Rail Shot 10% of armor penetration per point. (this is when they took away our precious 3% accuracy, making Pyros forced to make up that difference with gear just so they could buff Arsenal. 3% accuracy overall > 30% armor pen on one skill for pyros)

 

1.4

Electro Dart's range has been decreased from 30 meters to 10 meters. (Hurt ALOT, all so they could tune PT's)

Sweltering Heat's snare has been reduced to 30%. (Oh yeah because we were having such an easy time kiting )

Due to changes in the Mercenary skill trees, all Mercenaries have had their skill points refunded. (basically redesigning pyro tree to be terribad)

 

2.0

Thermal Detonator has been redesigned: The Bounty Hunter now hurls a thermal detonator that adheres to the target and detonates after several seconds, exploding for kinetic damage and burning the target for elemental damage over 12 seconds. Standard and weak enemies enter a state of panic when the explosive attaches and are knocked down when it explodes. (Made it into an incendiary missile with a CD)

 

2.2

Sweltering Heat now slows properly when Combustible Gas Cylinder is refreshed on a target. (Apparently we've been missing it for years)

 

Now let's look at the list of buffs for Pyrotech.

 

1.4

Thermal Detonator no longer shares a cooldown with Explosive Dart.

 

2.0

New Passive ability, Missile Salvo, has been added. Missile Salvo allows up to 3 weaker Missile Blasts to be fired in a row before generating heat and going on cooldown for 6 seconds. (I still don't think this is working as intended)

They also brought back our 3% accuracy that they nerfed in 1.3...

Pyro mercs are kinda gimped like madness assassins... no spike and a lot of wimpy dots with low survivability.

 

I've never seen a pyro merc perform well at all, ever.

 

I play arsenal because it's the only way to do real, measurable, useful damage on a merc and not be a liability to your team.

 

I cringe every time i see a pyro merc join a match.

 

Pyro powertech is actually useful, though, if they don't go full pyro and destroy their other trees that give much better skills and make them useful to their team.

I had to quit playing my Merc due to all the changes.

 

it's maddening the amount of nerfs this class has received in the name of not knowing how to interrupt a missile spammer (pre 1.2) and its PT/VG shared tree (pre 2.0).

 

reroll to pt mate

reroll to pt mate

 

Yeah, I just started last night. Would be nice if BW gave me a double xp weekend before 2.4. =P

Wait what? Is this an old thread? im a 51 mercenary and I pvp all the time... Im almost 450-700k dmg per WZ. and almost always #1 in dmg; and most of the time by a long shot. I LOVE my ability-arsenal and a Pyrotech Mercenary. I have great burst!!! Im not even going to explain it because I am baffled that anyone would argue this. Please explain what you are having trouble with as a pyrotech mercenary? Mine is dominant, I just wish I had a mobility-ability such as a jetpack disengage ,but besides that, hes a blast.

 

All in all im a level 51 pyrotech mercenary in the 30-54 bracket, so my experiences in the warzones may be bias.

Edited September 11, 2013 by Warlord_Maliken

w8 for 55 lvl pvp nd uw ill change to arsenal in no time

You only really saw pyro mercs because it was the only really useable/bearable dps spec for mercs in pvp before 2.0 hit, with the nerfs to pyro tree in general (mainly to nerf pts) and buffs to arsenal tree there is really no reason to run it in current climate. Edited September 11, 2013 by AngusFTW

I just got done playing the pyro and its fine. Tough to go head to head with anyone sometimes, but overall, its a very good support character.

 

Toughen yourself up a bit and learn how to play them.

While I agree merc pyro is completely gimped...its not fair to say that pt's haven't been hit with the nerf bat too Edited September 11, 2013 by ScruffyWhite

I just got done playing the pyro and its fine. Tough to go head to head with anyone sometimes, but overall, its a very good support character.

 

Toughen yourself up a bit and learn how to play them.

 

Obviously my issue is l2p. I haven't learned how to play it yet, I've just been bumbling around on it since pre-release. If you want to duel on the PTS sometime and teach me how to play just give me a time.

 

Scruffy, it's because of PT that Merc Pyro's has been hit so hard. But now they're putting it back to playable levels in 2.4. Also, since I've been leveling PT, flameburst is waaaay good. If Merc Pyro's had an ability like this for 30m, there wouldn't be any issues.

Eh....

 

All the Watchman Sentinels say hi.

I've always said that the way to fix pyro mercs and arsenal mercs is to make missile blast a spammable 16 heat ability. It should replace every single thing that power shot currently procs. Powershot "needs" to be removed from the game.

The problem with pyro is it's basically a dot class at the moment so it puts up the numbers but its not really effective dps; that and it can be hard countered by cleanses. Gunnery/Arsenal is strong in pvp at the moment so I wouldn't get my hopes up for a substantial pyro buff, just swap over specs and faceroll your way to top damage.

2.0

New Passive ability, Missile Salvo, has been added. Missile Salvo allows up to 3 weaker Missile Blasts to be fired in a row before generating heat and going on cooldown for 6 seconds. (I still don't think this is working as intended)

They also brought back our 3% accuracy that they nerfed in 1.3...

 

Don't know about the rest of your post, but this is incorrect. You have the original patch note from the PTS before they completely redesigned it. The real patch note is:

 

Mercenary: New Passive ability, Missile Salvo, has been added. Missile Salvo fires 2 weaker Missile Blasts that combine for 10% more damage. This ability is trainable at level 10.

 

Basically, it is just a 10% buff to Missile Blast. Its still a fairly weak attack. Mandelorian Iron Warheads increases the damage of this skill, but it is still weak.

 

Note that in 2.4, Merc Pyro is one of the few specs getting a buff:

Mercenary

Pyrotech

Increased Thermal Detonator explosion damage, but reduced the damage it deals over time.

Reduced the cost of Incendiary Missile to 16 heat (down from 22) and slightly reduced the damage it deals.

 

You guys could be Merc Bodyguards...

Edited September 11, 2013 by Bstr

Note that in 2.4, Merc Pyro is one of the few specs getting a buff:

 

No, PT pyro is getting a buff.... Merc pyro is getting a residual buff because they're fixing PT's.

It's all merc specs not just merc pyro that have been OVER nerfed and ignored.

 

1.2

Power Shot has been rebalanced. It now generates 16 Heat, has a 2-second activation time, and deals approximately 10% less damage (because we were all complaining about this skill being too good )

Prototype Particle Accelerator now requires Combustible Gas Cylinder to trigger. The chance to trigger this effect has been increased significantly but cannot trigger more than once every 6 seconds. (bottle neck our procs)

1) your ignoring that they did the same thing to tracer, because you could at that time spam tracer/PS and wipe out everything on the screen doing so.

2) This had to happen, remember Carolina parakeet? Hybriding with other dps trees was insanely strong (not so much for merc but still), But that change didn't effect the pyro spec in the slightest.

 

1.3

Advanced Targeting has been redesigned and now gives Unload and Rail Shot 10% of armor penetration per point. (this is when they took away our precious 3% accuracy, making Pyros forced to make up that difference with gear just so they could buff Arsenal. 3% accuracy overall > 30% armor pen on one skill for pyros)

Accuracy does not mean that much in PvP, particularly on a spec where only one of its heavy hitters is ranged. This was also before 2.0 so you didn't need much accuracy at all to reach the 95% target goal. (two enhancements would do it)

However 30% armor pen on pyro best burst ability is huge in PvP. This was a buff to merc pyro

 

1.4

Electro Dart's range has been decreased from 30 meters to 10 meters. (Hurt ALOT, all so they could tune PT's)

Sweltering Heat's snare has been reduced to 30%. (Oh yeah because we were having such an easy time kiting )

Due to changes in the Mercenary skill trees, all Mercenaries have had their skill points refunded. (basically redesigning pyro tree to be terribad)

The stun nerf was applied to every class that had a 30m instant hard stun, it had nothing to do with directly nerfing mercs.

The sweltering heat snare nerf was annoying, but its was hardly crippling.

 

2.0

Thermal Detonator has been redesigned: The Bounty Hunter now hurls a thermal detonator that adheres to the target and detonates after several seconds, exploding for kinetic damage and burning the target for elemental damage over 12 seconds. Standard and weak enemies enter a state of panic when the explosive attaches and are knocked down when it explodes. (Made it into an incendiary missile with a CD)

The TD change is honestly the first real nerf on your entire list, but you also forgot to mention mercs getting hydrolic overrides and kolto missile, and electro net.

And the TD change was hardly the worst nerf, the 50% CGC nerf was what screwed pyro

 

2.0 was not so much a nerf for merc pyro but rather pyro became obsolete compared to the new arsenal.

 

2.2

Sweltering Heat now slows properly when Combustible Gas Cylinder is refreshed on a target. (Apparently we've been missing it for years)

 

How is this even remotely a nerf? Do you want your snare to not work?

 

Now let's look at the list of buffs for Pyrotech.

 

1.4

Thermal Detonator no longer shares a cooldown with Explosive Dart.

 

2.0

New Passive ability, Missile Salvo, has been added. Missile Salvo allows up to 3 weaker Missile Blasts to be fired in a row before generating heat and going on cooldown for 6 seconds. (I still don't think this is working as intended)

They also brought back our 3% accuracy that they nerfed in 1.3...

 

Along with missile salvo came a 100% CGC proc talent for it, something merc sorely needed.

 

Personally I think Pyro needs the CGC nerf undone, which alone would puts its sustained damage at arsenal levels. Pyro should be the sustain damage spec, as its has the longer ramp up and not so much burst. Like other sustain dps specs of other classes (Lethality, Watchman)

Scrapper/Concealment nerf was the running gag for the first 6 months.

Everyone was trying to guess what they were going to nerf next for scrapper/concealment.

 

 

 

Edited September 26, 2013 by snaplemouton

It's all merc specs not just merc pyro that have been OVER nerfed and ignored.

It's not like they didn't give us HO, kolto missile, and the mother of all snares (E-net)

It's also not like HSM isn't the heaviest hitting ability in the game when they crit

 

I could make a much more convincing argument for how Shieldtech PT or Lethality operative are the most ignored specs in pvp. (honestly they probably are.)

Edited September 26, 2013 by Zoom_VI

Not that bad. Sorc was destroyed for over a year. Wait (some more months after 2.0) and the spec will be ok. Some other spec will be destroyed but that s another issue. Edited September 26, 2013 by Aetideus

Have you played Balance Shadow? Now thats lol.