Technical community discussion : Nerfing Tracer Missle

I started to reply in the other thread but the post got pretty long and with so many trash, whining and junk filler posts polluting the thread I thought it would be best to make a new one with more stringent rules.

Do not fill this thread with trash, /signed posts or general whining about TM spam. If you post in here it needs to be relevant and a constructive contribution to the discussion.

I will keep this post updated with information as much as I can and try to highlight the major points.

In your post include this information so we have an idea of how informed you about the gameplay aspects:

Server:
Bounty Hunter Level: (Put your class name here if you are not a BH and still feel you have something constructive to add)
PvP Level:







Main points I'm starting this thread with - feel free to suggest others:

What are non-Merc players saying about Tracer Missile?
Claim: TM is spammed in PvP matches. (remains fairly valid)
Claim: TM is all that the Merc needs to be effective while other classes need many skills to merely survive. (baseless - see quoted posts)
Claim: TM is overpowered (baseless - see quoted posts)

What are Merc players saying about Tracer Missile?
Unavoidable use - The Arsenal skill tree is built around Tracer Missile

Frequency of use - Unload has a chance to be instantly cooled down, Rail shot is available to targets with Heat Sig's, HSM recieves damage bonus per each Heat Sig on target. Using TM incessantly has rewards and is needed to be stacked on each target you attack for good results. Thus 'spamming'.

Channeling animation -
--Con: Many players don't the bending over - mostly an 'issue' due to how often you have to use the skill and watch it.
--Pro: It does make it obvious that the target is being tagged with Heat Sig's in PvP, so the smoke is good.



What are the primary paths to adjust the class that will address these concerns, maintain fun-factor and maintain class balance?
Path 1 - Reviewing the Arsenal tree as a whole and making the skills less contingent on the repeated use of TM and application of Heat Sig's.
Path 2 - Use a different skill to apply Heat Sig.
Path 3 - Leave it alone - see posts primarily from Theballzz, feeling that the difficulty of play when under pressure and requiring mobility is acceptable and fun.

General concerns
The concern is not that the class is overpowered or that Tracer Missile is the one button wonder to kill-all but more along the lines of gameplay quality and appeal in both PvP and PvE.

My thoughts:

Server: The Maw
Bounty Hunter Level: 48
PvP Level: 12

I think non-Merc players are are concerned that TM does good damage on a short cooldown and is the only thing that Merc's spam around in PvP.

I think Merc players are simply unhappy with TM because of the 'lacking/unattractive' channeling animation and primarily the fact that it applies Heat Sig debuff which is quite needed for any of the other skills to do good damage. In PvE personally I get tired of using it, I can use 3 TM's on weak/normal targets to kill them OR I can use every other skill I have and take much longer, use more heat and make it look very cool but its simply not as effective, TM spam actually is the best choice for the majority of short fights.

As far as changing TM... You can't really just "nerf" Tracer Missle and keep the class functional... Basically bring TM damage down and bring the damage up on other skills like HSM, Unload, Rail Shot, Power Shot as needed to compensate so that they are not as reliant on the debuf and therefore not spamming it everywhere. Make TM less important so that other skills are used instead and more frequently. Most rotations simply begin with 3 tracer missles and if the target dies then you have to tag a new target with either 2 or 3 tracer missles to be most effective. I think thats an issue.

Server: Jen'Jidai
Bounty Hunter Level: 50
PvP Level: 53

I recently respecced to pyro from arsenal as I hate being immobile. Tracer missile should be a pure heat sig/lower armor skill IMHO. Make it instant, add a cooldown, lower the damage significantly and incentivize other skills instead (like powershot or the AoE skills).

Actually I personally feel that arsenal should be more AoE centric. Then you could have pyro as a DoT tree and arsenal as the AoE tree (less damage but area) while leaving single target damage (higher damage but single target) to melee DPS. But I guess most people rather want to see huge numbers :P I am just missing specific roles somehow.

Drthballz-Wound in the force
50 Arsenal Merc
4/5 Battlemaster.



I like it the way it is. Just saying.........
Ive PVP'ed quite a bit and honestly... HONESTLY! its tracer is a detriment to you. Your bound to this whole you have to keep 5 heat sigs up. this is NOT easy when you fight ANYONE who is ANYWHERE near competent in PVP.




Here's why..

Melee can just step through you to kill your tracer.

Tracer can be interupted.

Tracer can be silenced.

Tracer can just be LOS ranged...

Tracer has a 1.5 sec cast time.. Thats a pretty big cast time to interupt its the most obvious looking skill a BH uses. If your getting hit by it... do one of the above. Nerfing it ruining the class build because bads cry is retarded though.



Damage mitigation.. if a BH can't get tracers up he cant get procs for unload, railshot etc you want to mitigate a BH damage stick a halfway competent melee on him...



When i play any other class. I always kill BH's with easy. They are in FACT other than an OPS the easiest class to just straight up kill. they can be cc'ed and interupted all day long.

Yes you're def right about the unattractive animation of TM but I don't think that's too important at this stage of the game. TM is fine, I only spam to get my heat sigs. My rotation is TM>TM>Explosive Dart>TM>Heat Seeking Missile>Unload>Rail Shot. IMO TM isn't even your main dmg dealer. I just need TM for heat sig for when I proc my Unloads. Unload is my main source of dmg by far.

If you fix the animation for TM, most players wouldn't even know they were getting hit by it. The perception is that it's all an Arsenal merc uses because:

1) It requires multiple applications to fully buff damage/debuff armor, meaning they're gimping their DPS if they don't use it multiple times;
2) It's their best consistent damage attack;
3) It's loud and has a huge smoke trail animation;
4) People confuse Heatseakers with it, adding to the perception that it's all the merc is firing;
5) Properly talented TM has a chance to end the cooldown on Unload and give it a 25% damage bonus, giving mercs one more reason to use it often.

WOW another BH who "GETS IT!" Its not tracer.... its unload UNLOAD IS THE ******* if i hit you with it... just fallover dead cause its GONNA kill you =)

Everyone knows tracers need to be dialed back. Anyone who says otherwise simply doesn't want to lose an advantage.

There should never be a single skill that you can spam and win with.

Micarlin 40 BH

My rotation is half TM, like another person posted. sometimes in the heat of the moment I might get over reliant.. but, that hurts me and my dps not the perosn im hitting.

IMHO people should be grateful when a BH spams TM, better than unload rail and heatseeker.

NTM regarding this thread, there are gunna be ranged dps classes, they are gunna do dps from range and people will die. Pandering to public opinion doesn't make an issue real. Although it may actually create more public opinion in your favor. You should be careful what issue you rally the masses for. Thank goodness BW is a Private comapny and has metrics to see real issues.

That's the thing tho. No one just uses TM. You can never win by just spamming TM. So what you just said makes no sense what so ever.