Tracer Missile Education

Same thing on my Jedi Guardian. I have the main bar, bottom bar and left bar filled, about 70% of those are hotkeyed and used regularly in combat. I personally enjoy it and don't want macros/one-button setups, but it just doesn't feel like good balance when you have classes like that and then other classes that could really get away with having 4 skills on their bar. I assure you, my Guardian isn't going to kill anybody if I only ever use 4 skills.

When will people see that rotation has absolutely nothing to do with skillcap whatsoever. Every rotation, proc system, priority list in every MMO can be learned by a blind monkey.

Obviously I'm going to spam Tracer missiles, use HSM, Railshot and Unload and do my full pve rotation when you let me. Would be stupid if I didn't. Wouldn't you be hitting your highest dps rotation if the enemy isn't doing anything?

It's not Mercs being bad, it's their opponents being clueless. Arsenal is the easiest spec in game to shut down, go do it instead of whining because you're being lazy or incompetent.

And stop thinking Mercs have great survivability, they don't. Heavy armor is useless in pvp. Mobility, avoidance, immunities, shields are thing that count when it comes to surviving and we don't have those.

Yeah I agree with the OP but I'm Aresenal merc and let's be honest it's a flawed design that only shines on a tank and spank boss fight. That being said I love instant cast abilities and loathe the cast bar so I try to avoid using it unless necessary. Plus you get Rolf rolled by any decent melee player if you stand there trying to spam tracer.

Why am I Aresenal? Heat seeker missle, jet escape, knock back rocket punch. Plus the passive buffs to our other abilities. Aresenal can do much more then just spam TM. It's nice to apply heat signatures but not necessary to get a kill... And like I said can be counter productive, range classes in any mmo have to kite 1v1, unfortunately it's not too easy in this buggy game but doable.

I also find pyrotech fun as well but u heat up too quick and the free rs proc rng drives me nuts. Never a fan of procs..

But yeah Tracer Missle is a fail design and even looks the part....

BTW I have over 30 abilities and use them all in pvp...so you boys and gals are talking out your back end about a two button rotation.

My Merc generic offensive rotation in PvP:


Tracer
Tracer
<Power Surge> Fusion Missile
Heat Seeker
Explosive Dart
Railshot
Unload


After that, assuming they're still alive, I "play it by ear" til one of us is dead. It usually works.


So doing an ability twice doesn't seem like 'spamming' to me.

I am only lvl 24 BH Merc at the moment but I have a lvl 50 Jedi Sage.

I guess you can only play what is put in front of you and if that involves using the same skill upto 5 times to get the best dps then so be it. I found that Sage doesn't have much of a rotation either.

Maybe if Bioware devs can change Merc so we get max armour debuff off 2 shots rather than 5 then everyone will be happy. Those not familiar with sarcasm need not reply

whats funny is that if they want tracer (arsenal spec) nerfed then ppl will start playing pyrotech which is a much much higher dmg spec overall with just as much burst and superior movement and heat control.

arsenal is still a good spec, but better for pve. im shocked more pvp mercs have not switched specs yet.

fusion and explosive dart are both solely AOE efficient abilities. take those out of your single target rotation and you will do more damage my friend

/agree

The OP brings good points, nevertheless the damage output added to the other benefits of tracer/grav is a bit overkill.

You usually have to choose whether you debuff your target to set up burst, or deal acceptable amounts of damage. In its current state tracer is the ultimate package.

No doubt .. lol