Jump to content

Mercenary Ability, Tactical Item, and Set Bonus Feedback


EricMusco

Recommended Posts

Madness sorcs will literally never use volt rush if it goes live as it is now. So at least mercs have something that all specs can make use of.

 

From what I've heard, you're absolutely right...... but PTS is far from over, and you at least have an offensive weapon as a base for them to work off of. What are they going to adjust with 2 charges of Rocket out? Distance? CD? See what I mean?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 106
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Perhaps, but i think we got the long end last time, and were not getting nerfed to the stone age, so ill take it as a win win.

 

Boy I wish we got the long end last time. Our PVE DPS in OPS got nerfed hardcore, along with making heat management an actual issue again. I don't mind the heat end of things, even though it's really a nerf, but when they rebalanced the DPS output of Mercs, specifically Arsenal, they drained too much from the sustainability in long PVE fights.

 

Did you know Arsenal is dead last in dps parsing for PVE OPs boss fights? MM/NiM teams will rarely (if ever) even allow an Arsenal merc on their team, the sustainable dps is so low.

 

Maybe a Tactical concentrating specifically on % damage increase in Operations only is the answer? I don't know.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

WHOA! Wait one friken minute. Am I reading this correctly? Mercenaries and Powertechs both get (1) +2 stat increase and (2) set bonuses, whereas all other classes get (2) +2 stat increases and only (1) set bonus??!?!?!

 

For example:

 

Powertechs Explosive Yield - (2 pieces) +2 stat increase (4 pieces) Power Yield's duration is extended by 5 seconds. (6 pieces) Each time you take damage while under Power Yield, the cooldown of Explosive Fuel is reduced by 3 seconds.

 

Mercenaries Critical Charge - (2 pieces) +2 stat increase (4 pieces) Gaining a stack of Supercharge increases your critical chance by 10% for 10 seconds. This effect can only occur once every 10 seconds. (6 pieces) Doing damage or healing an ally has a 5% chance to build a Supercharge and can only happen once per 3 seconds.

 

as opposed to...

 

Sorcerers Energized Overload - (2 pieces) +2 stat increase (4 pieces) +2 stat increase (6 pieces) Overload energizes you. Volt Rush deals more damage when you are under the Energize effect.

 

Juggernauts Retaliator - (2 pieces) +2 stat increase (4 pieces) +2 stat increase (6 pieces) Taking damage during Endure Pain grants Retaliator stacks, increasing the damage of your next Retaliation by 10% per stack.

 

Snipers Lazer Focus - (2 pieces) +2 stat increase (4 pieces) +2 stat increase (6 pieces) Laze Targets gets 3 charges and its cooldown is reduced by 15 seconds.

 

This is BS!

 

I'm upset as it is losing 2 of my 3 set bonuses (+2 stat increases are not a bonus, their just lazy placeholders cause the devs couldn't come up with something new) but to know other classes only lose 1 of their 3 set bonuses. Just ain't fair nor right.

Edited by Banthabreeder
Link to comment
Share on other sites

WHOA! Wait one friken minute. Am I reading this correctly? Mercenaries and Powertechs both get (1) +2 stat increase and (2) set bonuses, whereas all other classes get (2) +2 stat increases and only (1) set bonus??!?!?!

 

For example:

 

Powertechs Explosive Yield - (2 pieces) +2 stat increase (4 pieces) Power Yield's duration is extended by 5 seconds. (6 pieces) Each time you take damage while under Power Yield, the cooldown of Explosive Fuel is reduced by 3 seconds.

 

Mercenaries Critical Charge - (2 pieces) +2 stat increase (4 pieces) Gaining a stack of Supercharge increases your critical chance by 10% for 10 seconds. This effect can only occur once every 10 seconds. (6 pieces) Doing damage or healing an ally has a 5% chance to build a Supercharge and can only happen once per 3 seconds.

 

as opposed to...

 

Sorcerers Energized Overload - (2 pieces) +2 stat increase (4 pieces) +2 stat increase (6 pieces) Overload energizes you. Volt Rush deals more damage when you are under the Energize effect.

 

Juggernauts Retaliator - (2 pieces) +2 stat increase (4 pieces) +2 stat increase (6 pieces) Taking damage during Endure Pain grants Retaliator stacks, increasing the damage of your next Retaliation by 10% per stack.

 

Snipers Lazer Focus - (2 pieces) +2 stat increase (4 pieces) +2 stat increase (6 pieces) Laze Targets gets 3 charges and its cooldown is reduced by 15 seconds.

 

This is BS!

 

I'm upset as it is losing 2 of my 3 set bonuses but to know other classes only lose 1 of their 3 set bonuses. Just ain't fair nor right.

 

I believe they made massive changes to all set bonuses to the classes. We shall see on the pts but I think all class set bonuses contain 2 piece(stats), 4 piece, 6 piece.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I believe they made massive changes to all set bonuses to the classes. We shall see on the pts but I think all class set bonuses contain 2 piece(stats), 4 piece, 6 piece.

 

Oh ok. I wasn't aware of them changing all the others when I read this. Hadn't seen anything posted. If that's the case well then I'm sorry for overreacting. My apologies.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh ok. I wasn't aware of them changing all the others when I read this. Hadn't seen anything posted. If that's the case well then I'm sorry for overreacting. My apologies.

 

 

You're good and we shall see if I'm right when they open the pts up today. I doubt they would give mercs that big of a bonus after the debacle of 5.0.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For PVE Arsenal DPS, I'd like to see the spec have a way to improve boss dps. In keeping with BW's new "play your way" mantra -- I'd be fine if that was enabled by a mix and match of tradeoffs, such as:

 

a) A tactical that Increases the resource cost of Sweeping Blasters but provides some offensive boost

b) A Tactical that allows a player to flip Kolto Overload from a defensive CD to an offensive CD

c) A two set Arsenal bonus that flips Emergency Scan from healing to dps perhaps by injecting a toxin so it does dot damage the target

 

I'll punt on PVP.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Energzier - The duration of Supercharge Gas and Supercharged Burn are doubled.

 

Just to be clear, can we use this tactical on non-IO specs? I would love it on my bodyguard, for example, especially with current +4 seconds set bonus gone.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Arsenal

  • Burning Shot - Priming Shot causes its target to burn. Blazing Bolts, Heatseeker Missiles, and Tracer Missile all tick its damage.

 

For anyone worried about Arsenal not getting a dps buff, I think you're underestimating how good this will be, especially if it's anywhere near as powerful as Stormwatch on lightning.

 

As for the other changes, these all look decent to me. I'm happy about not getting another ability, as an IO main with 35+ ability keybinds I don't really wanna add yet another one... Looking forward to testing this to see if the numbers will be good, and maybe I'll even try out Arsenal again.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Dev Post
WHOA! Wait one friken minute. Am I reading this correctly? Mercenaries and Powertechs both get (1) +2 stat increase and (2) set bonuses, whereas all other classes get (2) +2 stat increases and only (1) set bonus??!?!?!

 

Nope, we are actually rolling that change out across all classes! When PTS comes back up you will find that all classes now have set bonus effects on 4 and 6 piece bonuses as you outlined above. I will be updating the other threads with that information as soon as I can.

 

-eric

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nope, we are actually rolling that change out across all classes! When PTS comes back up you will find that all classes now have set bonus effects on 4 and 6 piece bonuses as you outlined above. I will be updating the other threads with that information as soon as I can.

 

-eric

 

That's promising and actually allows us to better customize our characters' based on our playstyle, great change. Looking forward to testing it!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Boy I wish we got the long end last time. Our PVE DPS in OPS got nerfed hardcore, along with making heat management an actual issue again. I don't mind the heat end of things, even though it's really a nerf, but when they rebalanced the DPS output of Mercs, specifically Arsenal, they drained too much from the sustainability in long PVE fights.

 

Did you know Arsenal is dead last in dps parsing for PVE OPs boss fights? MM/NiM teams will rarely (if ever) even allow an Arsenal merc on their team, the sustainable dps is so low.

 

Maybe a Tactical concentrating specifically on % damage increase in Operations only is the answer? I don't know.

 

Fair point, but not all specs can be top of the charts, if im not mistaken IO is performing rather well in that regard yes? I think some heat adjustments would help as us much as anything t o allow us to use some supplementary skills rotationally that we really cant today without heat catching up. But then admittedly im not a big raider, something i hope to change in 6.0.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For anyone worried about Arsenal not getting a dps buff, I think you're underestimating how good this will be, especially if it's anywhere near as powerful as Stormwatch on lightning.

 

I really hope you're right...... but on the surface, it's not promising. Priming Shot w/ alac buffs is on a 15.5s CD. Is adding a burn tick to something that you use every 15s going to make up 2k in missing sustainable dps? It's a stretch.

 

That being said, we got a LOT to try out, and I'm very excited for that. A lot of it screams heat issues (Surging Powers additional charge on Power Surge, Power Cycles no CD on 2 casted abilities, etc.), but the sustained 10% crit + faster supercharge building looks interesting, as does a max. 15% tracer crit buff, followed by a no heat stack drop....

 

Many things to test!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

New Ability - In lieu of a new ability, Mercenaries will now have two charges on Rocket Out

 

Play your own way, as long as it it PvP, which is the only place this is useful.

 

Add me to the "Not Happy" list.

 

I mean, how much could they really change for pve? most pve players are not doing pve because of the combat, in PVP combat and abilities really matter.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I really hope you're right...... but on the surface, it's not promising. Priming Shot w/ alac buffs is on a 15.5s CD. Is adding a burn tick to something that you use every 15s going to make up 2k in missing sustainable dps? It's a stretch.

 

That being said, we got a LOT to try out, and I'm very excited for that. A lot of it screams heat issues (Surging Powers additional charge on Power Surge, Power Cycles no CD on 2 casted abilities, etc.), but the sustained 10% crit + faster supercharge building looks interesting, as does a max. 15% tracer crit buff, followed by a no heat stack drop....

 

Many things to test!

Im curious to see how Critical Charge may help that, if im reading it right its more or less a persistent 10% crit buff since it would seem easy enough to keep up most times.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fair point, but not all specs can be top of the charts, if im not mistaken IO is performing rather well in that regard yes? I think some heat adjustments would help as us much as anything t o allow us to use some supplementary skills rotationally that we really cant today without heat catching up. But then admittedly im not a big raider, something i hope to change in 6.0.

 

Very true, and while it would be nice, I don't expect to be on top again. IO is actually in the middle of the pack, ranking around #8 spot, out of 18. Pyro is actually ranked pretty high (3rd I believe), but Mercs are middle and dead last.

 

I've been OPs raiding since launch, and have been leading different prog teams for years. All with an Arsenal Merc. But ever since that last nerf, NiM/MM w/ Arsenal is ............ difficult, to say the least.

 

I look forward to seeing you in Operations, Floplag! /salute

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Musco,

 

With regards to the Power Step set bonus, does the 6th Tracer Missile reset the stacks or essentially as long as you keep casting Tracer Missile, it will keep the buff at 5 stacks making each Tracer Missile cost no heat.

 

- Vic

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Very true, and while it would be nice, I don't expect to be on top again. IO is actually in the middle of the pack, ranking around #8 spot, out of 18. Pyro is actually ranked pretty high (3rd I believe), but Mercs are middle and dead last.

 

I've been OPs raiding since launch, and have been leading different prog teams for years. All with an Arsenal Merc. But ever since that last nerf, NiM/MM w/ Arsenal is ............ difficult, to say the least.

 

I look forward to seeing you in Operations, Floplag! /salute

 

Thanks, yeah silly sidenote for whatever reason i never did a lot in SWTOR but its the bulk of what i do in other such games like WoW... no reason why it just sorta worked out that way. Perhaps my enjoyment of PvP in SWTOR IDK.

Time to change it i think.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Im curious to see how Critical Charge may help that, if im reading it right its more or less a persistent 10% crit buff since it would seem easy enough to keep up most times.

 

Correct! With your regular rotation, that set means you would basically have a consistent 10% crit buff during any fight. That, coupled with the quicker stack build for supercharge gas (which, remember, you build stacks with tracer during a fight, but takes a while because you're clicking other abiities too), is promising. If the stack build can approach activation on CD (every 8 seconds), that means a constant 10% armor penetration buff and 1-3% alacrity buff.... and most importantly........ a 10 heat vent every 8 secs. That's sounds pretty tasty to me!

 

All that said, we won't know until PTS drops. Much excite! lol

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks, yeah silly sidenote for whatever reason i never did a lot in SWTOR but its the bulk of what i do in other such games like WoW... no reason why it just sorta worked out that way. Perhaps my enjoyment of PvP in SWTOR IDK.

Time to change it i think.

 

Hey, maybe it was just your subconscious mixing things up for you:) You found something you love to do here, and that's what it's all about!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Can mercs actually use there jetpacks for something? These are iconic for Bounty Hunters in the Star Wars universe.

 

I still think jet charge should be baseline, but i cant really think of when i might use it... i just want it :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites


×
×
  • Create New...