What asenal spec bounty hunters have to use:

 

Rapid Shots---zero heat cost minimal dmg spammable baseline attack

Unload---three hit channled attack, decent dmg per hit 15 second cooldown

Power Shot-- 1.5 second cast time fires both blasters, lower dmg than unload or tracer

Fusion Missile--1.5 second cast time missile attack, good dmg with an aoe DoT, very high cost

and a 30 second CD

Explosive Dart--instant dart that detonates for low dmg after a short delay doing aoe dmg. 15 second cooldown

Death from Above--Grount targeted aoe missile attack, good dmg 60 second cooldown

Sweeping Blasters--Ground targeted aoe blaster attack, med-low dmg

Tracer Missile--1.5 second cast time, medium to high dmg low heat (talented)

Railshot--Instant, high dmg shot can only be use against targets that are burning 15 second cooldown

Heatseeking Missile--High dmg triple missile attack, instant cast 15 second cooldown

 

Of these attacks, you notice how many 15+ second cooldowns? Now let me fill you in further.

 

Railshot is affected by a stackable buff from Tracer Missile, this buff is stackable to 5 for full effect.

Heatseeker Missile is affected by a stackable debuff placed on the target from Tracer Missile, this debuff stacks to 5 for full effect

Unload has a chance with each Tracer Missile shot to have its cooldown reset and dmg increased by 33%

 

So now that you see how our AC works maybe you will understand why you see/hear Tracer Missile going off so much, honestly looking at these abilities what would you be using?

 

And for those of you that think TM needs its dmg "toned down" keep in mind, with the annoying animation/noise of TM you tend to focus in on it and never see that sometimes when that TM hits you, the explosive dart explodes, heatseeker lands and railshot reaches you, so yea thats a big burst but by no means is it just TM.

First, the Unload cooldown drop/damage buff is 25%; there's another talent in Arsenal that improves Unload's damage by 33%, but the buff from Tracer Missile is 25%.

 

Second, Power Shot does more damage than Tracer Missile, but it deals white damage so it can be deflected, shielded, or otherwise mitigated. Also, it does not proc any of the literally six other functions a Tracer Missile has; it's basically been replaced by TM on my bar.

 

And Rail Shot is high damage? Good heavens, it crits for less damage than Tracer Missile. Even with five stacks of the buff TM gives you, its damage is unimpressive.

First, the Unload cooldown drop/damage buff is 25%; there's another talent in Arsenal that improves Unload's damage by 33%, but the buff from Tracer Missile is 25%.

 

Second, Power Shot does more damage than Tracer Missile, but it deals white damage so it can be deflected, shielded, or otherwise mitigated. Also, it does not proc any of the literally six other functions a Tracer Missile has; it's basically been replaced by TM on my bar.

 

And Rail Shot is high damage? Good heavens, it crits for less damage than Tracer Missile. Even with five stacks of the buff TM gives you, its damage is unimpressive.

 

My bad on Unload, good catch, its a 30% chance to increase by 25%.

 

I have never seen Power Shot hit for more than 1500, usually ~1k, this is with 1200 Aim 34% crit and 81% surge, I however wasnt aware of the mitigation issue with it.

 

As for rail shot, with the above stats I see it crit for 2500+ regularly have seen it go as high as 3k but that was in the lower bracket. Still it is respectable dmg for an instant attack with low heat cost even with the 15 second CD.

Doesn't change anything about the noise. Seriously, NERF the SOUND. Meeting 3-4 tracer spamming clue-hunters in WZ tears plaster from my walls.

First, the Unload cooldown drop/damage buff is 25%; there's another talent in Arsenal that improves Unload's damage by 33%, but the buff from Tracer Missile is 25%.

 

Second, Power Shot does more damage than Tracer Missile, but it deals white damage so it can be deflected, shielded, or otherwise mitigated. Also, it does not proc any of the literally six other functions a Tracer Missile has; it's basically been replaced by TM on my bar.

 

And Rail Shot is high damage? Good heavens, it crits for less damage than Tracer Missile. Even with five stacks of the buff TM gives you, its damage is unimpressive.

 

My Rail Shot crits for 3500 all the time..

Good Post OP. This will let them know why Arsenal mercs have to use Tracer frequently. If they want Tracer used less, lower the cooldown on Heatseeker I would take that trade anyday if I were still Arsenal. Instant cast ability on a 5-10 second cooldown that hits really well? Yes please! In order for this to be acceptable, the damage bonus from tracer would have to be rolled into the base Heatseeker ability though. Profit

Doesn't change anything about the noise. Seriously, NERF the SOUND. Meeting 3-4 tracer spamming clue-hunters in WZ tears plaster from my walls.

 

LoL ever thought about finding your volume knob? I totaly agree though, i have my sound effect turned off because its so annoying, they need to swap Fusion missile animation and sound effect with TM's

Most educated pvp'ers realize that you can and do use other abilities as a BH. The annoyance comes from the fact that you don't have to and you can still be highly successful.

Most educated pvp'ers realize that you can and do use other abilities as a BH. The annoyance comes from the fact that you don't have to and you can still be highly successful.

 

We understand this. What drives us mad is that these so called "educated" pvp'ers call for a nerf to tracer, but leave everything as is. This would solve the problem of people being successful with one button, true, but it also screws those of us who use the class as it is meant to be (multiple buttons) by lowering our damage when we are doing exactly what we should be and playing to the best of our abilities.

 

Sure, nerf the shortcut, but buff one of the abilities the 1 button heroes don't know about so the rest of us can still compete.

sometimes when that TM hits you, the explosive dart explodes, heatseeker lands and railshot reaches you, so yea thats a big burst but by no means is it just TM.

 

And where is the Republic version of that? On my level 15 BH I almost always do 3-5x the total damage that a level 40-49 dishes out. I m not THAT good at PvP, and they ALL cant be all bad.

Edited January 30, 2012 by Smooth-Criminal

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And where is the Republic version of that?

 

grav round, whatever their version of explosive dart is called, whatever their version of heatseeker is called, and high impact bolt.

LoL ever thought about finding your volume knob? I totaly agree though, i have my sound effect turned off because its so annoying, they need to swap Fusion missile animation and sound effect with TM's

 

I need sounds to hear what's going on around me. However tracer is so noise, nothing else can be heard. If you found selective volume option to tone down certain sounds, please lecture me...else, you know what...

Sure, nerf the shortcut, but buff one of the abilities the 1 button heroes don't know about so the rest of us can still compete.

 

Yea I am totally fine with this. I don't think they should just blindly nerf tracer I feel like they just need to make the class less dependent on it and look at it's burst. If you do even more along with tracer because you know your class it makes it even more difficult to sustain the burst as a class without multiple interupts. But again I think if they do nerf this they definitely should compensate you with something that is worthwhile and makes the class more fun.

A lot of people aren't arguing that Tracer Missile isn't your only effective attack, at least that's the impression I get. Most people just think that it's silly that one attack, with no cooldown and very little resource cost is so effective. I certainly hope a blunt nerf never comes to these 2 classes or this particular skill specifically without a complete revision of the other skills you've listed, but both sides of the argument stand to benefit from a revision to merc/commando. If you truly love your bounty hunter class then it will actually take a modicum of skill to play, you can't just sit there spamming 4k crits, and people can take you seriously.

Yea our dmg comes from several abilities, its just that when done right you can time it and have these abilities all hit within a second of each other, TM actually has a bit longer travel time than HSM, and RailShot is almost as instant as you can get, if you pop an explosive dart, TM, HSM, and Railshot in rapid succesion the actual dmg araives on target almost at the same time causing a large spike in health loss.

 

This spike in health loss coupled with the distinct sound of TM causes people to believe TM is OP, or at least thats what I think is happening.

grav round, whatever their version of explosive dart is called, whatever their version of heatseeker is called, and high impact bolt.

 

Ammo vs. Heat

 

The classes are supposed to be mirrors; but that difference alone is huge.

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Yea I am totally fine with this. I don't think they should just blindly nerf tracer I feel like they just need to make the class less dependent on it and look at it's burst. If you do even more along with tracer because you know your class it makes it even more difficult to sustain the burst as a class without multiple interupts. But again I think if they do nerf this they definitely should compensate you with something that is worthwhile and makes the class more fun.

 

Finally a voice of Reason! Thankyou for understanding the real problem. And while we are at it, let's get an effect added to Kolto Shell for Bodyguard spec. Something like "the Kolto Shell also increases healing to the shelled target by 5%" but make it cost 5 heat or something.

FYI - the "you can't nerf the only thing we have" argument didn't work for ops/scoundrels. It probably won't work for you either.

I primarily played a Healing spec Merc but healing is a joke in this game so I tried arsenal spec again. I am in full champion gear with all crit/surge enhancements to replace the ****** ones our armor gets to begin with. But even in full champ gear I have never EVER seen a tracer missile crit for 4k, the Majority of my attacks hit for 2500-2700 crits. I am not sure if people are getting hit by Heat Seekers (15 sec cooldown) that can and does hit for 4k crits.

Doesn't change anything about the noise. Seriously, NERF the SOUND. Meeting 3-4 tracer spamming clue-hunters in WZ tears plaster from my walls.

 

Your bass sounds like its too high. Turn the volume or bass down.

 

Issue solved.

I primarily played a Healing spec Merc but healing is a joke in this game so I tried arsenal spec again. I am in full champion gear with all crit/surge enhancements to replace the ****** ones our armor gets to begin with. But even in full champ gear I have never EVER seen a tracer missile crit for 4k, the Majority of my attacks hit for 2500-2700 crits. I am not sure if people are getting hit by Heat Seekers (15 sec cooldown) that can and does hit for 4k crits.

 

I have seen 3500 hits from tracer but that was stim popped, relic popped and with the red WZ powerup, certainly never see a spammable 4k.