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what are the 3 changes you need to see in the Merc class?


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what are the 3 changes you need to see in the Merc class? the commandos have gotten into this alot and i would like the mercs to also get into it so we can focus on improving the merc/mando class so lets get together some concerns for the class representative to compile to be able to ask the devs when it is his turn.. the things i think our class really needs is utility something that makes us needed in ranked pvp or other ops if you guys need ideas of what the merc mando class need you could run by the commando forums and you will find alot of discussion on this very topic
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A little bit more DPS potential would be nice so we could be more competitive with Snipers and Maras. I think that if heat was a little bit more manageable that would be nice. I know we can technically get by, but we can't really deviate from our rotation at all if we want to keep heat down. I think that making Unload proc more frequently, at least for arsenal, could help with that and it could increase our DPS as well. Or you could have rapid shots actually lower your heat instead of just costing no heat.
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A little bit more DPS potential would be nice so we could be more competitive with Snipers and Maras. I think that if heat was a little bit more manageable that would be nice. I know we can technically get by, but we can't really deviate from our rotation at all if we want to keep heat down. I think that making Unload proc more frequently, at least for arsenal, could help with that and it could increase our DPS as well. Or you could have rapid shots actually lower your heat instead of just costing no heat.

 

I think heat and concussion missiles cast time are 2 issues. Merc already parses close to a sniper on a dummy but does even better in pvp because it has 55% ignore armor on all its attacks and 85% on unload and railshot. Also merc has healing that sniper doesn't have(kolto overloads,bomb,etc) and more mobility.

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Mercs have healing (that isn't great), but if they use it, their heat goes way up and they're DPS consequently goes down because of the heat problem. Snipers have mitigation from several abilities AND have better resource management. Honestly, I don't see much point of comparing the dummies, all it shows is that a couple of really talented people got lucky enough in the parses to be CLOSE to Snipers. They don't show what happens in the field where it matters. And what's so hard about boosting a few abilities a tiny bit to make it more even?
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Mercs have healing (that isn't great), but if they use it, their heat goes way up and they're DPS consequently goes down because of the heat problem. Snipers have mitigation from several abilities AND have better resource management. Honestly, I don't see much point of comparing the dummies, all it shows is that a couple of really talented people got lucky enough in the parses to be CLOSE to Snipers. They don't show what happens in the field where it matters. And what's so hard about boosting a few abilities a tiny bit to make it more even?

 

You're right. To get those good parses, a merc has to basically rely on the RNG. Unload procs and crit need to be friendly with you for that parse. I've had parses with 50+% HSM crit, but 15% unload crit and almost no procs (compared to the average), that parse sucked. I've alos had parses with CRAZY UNLOAD PROCS, but terrible crit % on abilities across the board, that parse sucked. The only good ones, 2900+ are with good RNG. I won't even go into 3000+ range.

Snipers don't need the RNG, their rotation is uninterruptable. They don't rely on procs for their hardest damaging ability, it's always there. (just one comparison).

If they upped the unload chance, then it'd help. 45% sometimes seems like 4.5% on my parses. I go 45 seconds and more without an unload proc at times, and not just once, but several times in a row. It's just either buggy, something related to position, or i'm just very unlucky. I've found that if I have bad procs, and if I move, my procs will come back...but that may just be a huge coincidence.

 

As for suggestions, lower the CD of electro net to 1 minute so it lines up with other cooldowns. Either lower the cd of power surge to 1 minute or make it longer to 2 minutes so it lines up with cooldowns. And increase barrage proc rate.

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i agree with what you guys have said but i really think the merc/mando needs more utility to be a more coveted AC to bring into raids ops and ranked pvp.. as of right now i know that we are not needed in any of those situations if you can bring a different class instead... i know the easiest way to be more wanted is to produce more damage but i think that is more a short term answer adding more utility(and hopefully the more damage just comes along with it since the devs how to know about all the parses and what not that have happen) one suggestion that has been made is the effect of electro net be added to our full auto (basically not escape/gap closers) or even just shorten the CD on electronet but yeah im hoping to get more mercs involved in this discussion for when the class reps talk to the devs because the merc/mando class needs alot of help in order to be on par with other classes and has needed it for a long time
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Yeah, adding the hinder debuff to the target during the duration of unload was proposed by Cashogy. I think its a pretty great idea, since if makes the Jet Boost > Unload combo more effective on leapers. Here's my 3 topics

 

PvE: Heat management, aggrevated by the change of the set bonus. I don't do PvE, so I can't comment much, but this is the complaint I see most.

 

PvP: Pyro. They gutted the spec with last minute nerfs on the PTS for 2.0, and its considered to be the worst Advanced Class PvP spec out of all the classes. We have no cleanse protection, and all our damage was turned into fluff. We have very little takedown power, and you can forget about pressuring a healer. Thermal Det had its upfront kinetic damage cut in half, and the other half was replaced with a cleanse-able, lack-luster DoT. This spec needs looking at.

 

The General Question: Cooldown times. Why does our AC have such long CDs compared to other ACs? Power Surge, TSO and Electo Net are the main culprits here. Would they consider lowering any of our CDs? Or even adding an Offensive CD? For "walking arsenals", our lack of a full fledged offensive CD is suprising.

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True jet elevated movement , making us unreachable for melees f.e. for 6 seconds. You move as usual, but higher by 6 meters.

But this way my imagination fails for commando ac. :confused:

Edited by Akfourtys
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Just posted this in an older thread but it applies here too, what do you guys think of this:

 

I realize this thread is a little old but since someone else dug it up let me give my 2p. When I'm leveling, I don't pay much attention to ability text so when I got Jet Boost, this is exactly what I thought it was. I figured it pushed you around or upped your speed because the idea of Jet Boost pushing enemies back is just odd. Look at the words: "Jet" obviously referring to our jet pack and "boost" which means an increase. Why the hell does that KB? I don't think we should lose the KB, I just think Jet Boost is the wrong name...anyways...

 

Looking at AC and their individual in-combat mobility CDs:

Sith Inquistor - Force Speed

Sith Assassin - Force Pull

Sith Sorcer - Extricate, Surging Speed (Madness Tier 7)

Sith Warrior - Force Charge

Sith Juggernaut - Intercede, Shien Form (Vengeance Tier 3), Obliterate (Rage Tier 3), Rule of Two (Immortal Tier 6)

Sith Marauder - Predation, Ataru Form (Carnage Tier 3), Obliterate (Rage Tier 3)

Imperial Agent - Take Cover, Evasion, Covered Escape

Sniper - Seek Cover (Marksmanship Tier 5), Hit and Run (Lethality Tier 1)

Operative - Exfiltrate, Infiltrator (Concealment Tier 2), Ghost (Concealment Tier 4), Advanced Cloaking (Concealment Tier 5), Hit and Run (Lethality Tier 1)

Bounty Hunter - Hydraulic Overrides

Powertech - Grapple, Jet Charge (Shield Tech Tier 5), Jet Speed (Shield Tech Tier 5), Pneumatic Boots (Advanced Prototype Tier 3)

 

Not counting abilities that can slow or immobilize enemies, these are simply the abilities that allow for movement in combat (including moving an enemy into range, moving a group member into rage, moving yourself into or out of range, etc).

 

Looking at that Mercenaries get ONE ability and not only does it only increase speed by 30% its not even, its not even an exclusive. Look at how Sins/Sorcs were designed: Sorcs can pull friendly targets in to protect them, Sins can pull enemy targets in to control them. By that same logic why is it Snipers that get the backwards escape? And seriously, Operatives get a TON of movement stuff while Mercs get pretty much nothing. The utility of HO comes from its immunity not really from its speed buff because any gap you open up between yourself and a DPS in PvP is going to be closed by them due to their higher regular movement speed and in PvE it just isn't fast enough to get you out of danger like Force Speed does for Sorcs.

 

For those arguing that Mercs either shouldn't have any Jet Pack abilities or have enough (someone listed Recharge and Reload? Seriously? Our out of combat regen ability? The "Jet" effect there has no utility and is purely cosmetic) you are not thinking clearly. The only ability we have that truly uses our Jet Pack as an actual mechanic is Jet Boost. DfA does not *require* a jet pack since its simply pushing you up, you could just as easily fire the missiles from the ground. Jet Boost on the other hand has no way to function without a Jet Pack. Perhaps if it animated similarly to HO and then stomped but...too close to Overload IMO. Add to that the fact that our only defense comes down to that we wear heavy armor and can cast some heals and its just ridiculous. I do NOT use my Merc in PvP ever simply because of how easy it is to tear them up.

 

The WoW Warrior jump seems to close to Jet Charge so I think thats out but the jump backwards while firing is a great idea. Here is my tweak though:

Out of Harm's Way (Generates 30 Heat): Fires your Jet Boosters to blast you backwards 12 meters. When slowed, you only travel 6 meters. This ability is not affected by the global cooldown. Can be used while immobilized. Cooldown: 3 Minutes

Related Talents:

Bodyguard: Emergency Response - Out of Harm's Way now places a Kolto Pool at your feet upon landing which heals up to 4 allies for 3027-3143 over 3 seconds. Additionally, you are immune to damage and movement impairing effects for 2 seconds after activating Out of Harm's Way.

Arsenal: Out of the Fying Pan - Out of Harm's Way now increases critical strike chance by 100% for 6 seconds.

Pyrotech: Destructive Escape - Out of Harm's Way now unloads your blasters at your target while blasting backwards dealing 3087-3690 weapon damage over 3 seconds. Additionally, damage done this way hinders the target, preventing the use of high mobility actions and escapes such as charges, vanishes, and speed boosts. Lasts 2 seconds per charge, stacks up to 3 times.

 

So this puts it on par with the Exfiltrate (in terms of getting us out of bad situations) and Force Barrier (in terms of power VS CD) while also allowing it to be talented for increased PvE or PvP effectiveness. The typical OP argument is countered by the fact that the heat cost is so high. In PvP this shouldn't be an issue as you are rarely able to hunker down and turret for all too long, and in PvE it means that you either need to plan your Heat management around the use of this CD or use it in conjunction with Vent Heat. All of these effects are comparable to similar effects of other classes just tweaked to work for Mercs:

 

The basic concept is the same as a reverse exfiltrate with the exact same distances applied. The heal becomes a similar mechanic to the similar Operative roll, the Arsenal Damage increase works out to 4 instant casts, 4 Tracers, an Unload and a few others etc, and the Pyro effect gives them some additional control and mobility.

 

As for how this could be tuned for Commando's, that is simple: Someone else pointed out the football "spiking" concept, well you could similarly simply point such a high powered canon at the ground for a self-knockback effect. Call it Blast Free and its good.

 

Thoughts?

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My 3 suggestions:

 

1.) Reduce the cast time on concussive missile to an instant cast. As it stands now we have one CC (electrodart), the knockback on jet boost is garbage because most times as soon as you use it you are either forcechoked or they just jump right back on you, meaning no separation at all to help survive, and the root on rocket punch is utter crap as it does next to nothing to help me since I have to be in melee range to use it and the root effect wears off while I'm still in range of jumps or other distance closers.

 

As I said I think this should be an instant cast ability and maybe have an AoE stun effect like flash bang/awe. We all know the name of the game is CC

 

2.) Add a finishing move, almost every DPS class has some sort of less than 30% health finishing attack, to be on par we should have one as well, rather than watching that healer who is at 12% health heal right back up because HSM and any other hard hitting attack is on CD and tracer takes 1.5 seconds to cast (1.4 if you have that 2% alacrity skill, if you cast faster then why the heck you stacking alacrity? please share.)

 

3.) Add a proc for an auto crit or a instant refresh on HSM either to compare with sniper's auto refresh on series of shots or the crazy smash autocrit that makes smash monkies so devastating in almost every aspect of the game. Why take a mercenary when you can take along a class that has an autocrit every 20 seconds for insane damage Jumpy Von Jumperson wins that battle of class choice every time.

 

 

These are just some ideas, maybe I'll post some others once they decide on this representative, thanks.

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As I said I think this should be an instant cast ability and maybe have an AoE stun effect like flash bang/awe. We all know the name of the game is CC

 

Definitely agree with you, Mercenaries do not have nearly enough control abilities and it makes it extremely difficult to handle situations when you get rushed by yourself.

 

2.) Add a finishing move, almost every DPS class has some sort of less than 30% health finishing attack, to be on par we should have one as well, rather than watching that healer who is at 12% health heal right back up because HSM and any other hard hitting attack is on CD and tracer takes 1.5 seconds to cast (1.4 if you have that 2% alacrity skill, if you cast faster then why the heck you stacking alacrity? please share.)

 

While other DPS do have this ability, none of the other Heal/DPS classes do (Sorcerers, Operatives, Mercenaries). The only class in a role that is missing it would actually be PTs as all other Tank/DPS classes do (Assassins and Juggernauts). In the end the best advice is to be sure to save a finisher for that last 12% (about 4k HP) so you could save even be sure to have a Rail Shot or a PS TM to finish them.

 

3.) Add a proc for an auto crit or a instant refresh on HSM either to compare with sniper's auto refresh on series of shots or the crazy smash autocrit that makes smash monkies so devastating in almost every aspect of the game. Why take a mercenary when you can take along a class that has an autocrit every 20 seconds for insane damage Jumpy Von Jumperson wins that battle of class choice every time.

 

I can only speak about the parses I've seen on TorParse but Series of Shots only makes up about 15% of a Snipers total damage so an Auto Crit for them isn't making that much of a difference. The issue with comparing it to Rage is that in between Smashes there is not a whole lot of damage output (assuming a target of full health) since they cannot Vicious Throw, their Ravage is not buffed at all, their Vicious Strike hits decently hard but its just filler. The better comparison is to Carnage Marauders and the Execute Force Scream which hits between 7-8k on a boss, is usable every 9 seconds but requires a secondary buff (Gore) in order to hit that hard (unbuffed Execute crits for 4.5-5.5k). Now, all that said Mercenaries do actually already have an refresh on our biggest hitting ability: Unload. Unload accounts for ~30% of our DPS and depending on RNG you can be hitting it extremely frequently.

 

Personally, I believe non-Pure DPS classes should do slightly less damage than pure DPS classes because they can't bring any other utlility where as Mercenaries can (and I have) seen sh*t hit the fan, switch cylinders and heal.

 

 

These are just some ideas, maybe I'll post some others once they decide on this representative, thanks.

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My top concern for damage in PVE is somehow normalizing unload procs. I have no idea as to how...maybe give other abilities to proc barrage, idk. But as of now, too much of our dps relies on good barrage procs in my opinion.

 

2nd was to shorten electro net cooldown to 1 minute

 

3rd i'll leave up to you all

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My top concern for damage in PVE is somehow normalizing unload procs. I have no idea as to how...maybe give other abilities to proc barrage, idk. But as of now, too much of our dps relies on good barrage procs in my opinion.

 

2nd was to shorten electro net cooldown to 1 minute

 

3rd i'll leave up to you all

 

^ This

Increase the % chance from 45 to 55? in the skill tree, as is my merc dps is more based on luck than skill for top #'s vs my sniper.

 

3. improve set bonus back to something along the lines of 2 set = 15% crit to TM and reduction of rail shot cost by 8 and 4 set keep +8% damage to rail shot.

Edited by DarkForster
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My top concern for damage in PVE is somehow normalizing unload procs. I have no idea as to how...maybe give other abilities to proc barrage, idk. But as of now, too much of our dps relies on good barrage procs in my opinion.

 

2nd was to shorten electro net cooldown to 1 minute

 

3rd i'll leave up to you all

 

I agree but what else would you have proc it? Rapid shots? lol there isn't a whole lot in our rotation so maybe just "On Damaging abilities"? Though that would mean that Unload could proc Barrage. I definitely agree though, I have had times where I'm just proc starved and its terrible.

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I agree but what else would you have proc it? Rapid shots? lol there isn't a whole lot in our rotation so maybe just "On Damaging abilities"? Though that would mean that Unload could proc Barrage. I definitely agree though, I have had times where I'm just proc starved and its terrible.

 

Well, the list could be extended to missile blast (on the move) and they could increase the percentage of it. Sometimes that 45% feels like 4.5% where I go a full MINUTE without barrage procs. It's ridiculous. It's never 45% among my parses. The lucky ones are 45+ percent, rest of the time it's less. Just...maybe take out the RNG factor of it.

Like someone said with sniper, their main damaging ability, follow through, is not on a proc. Nothing snipers do procs a high damage ability, everything is on a cooldown and very neatly organized.

Leaving mercs with their highest damage ability being RNG is retarded.

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I agree but what else would you have proc it? Rapid shots? lol there isn't a whole lot in our rotation so maybe just "On Damaging abilities"? Though that would mean that Unload could proc Barrage. I definitely agree though, I have had times where I'm just proc starved and its terrible.

Each Target Lock increases proc chance for 5%.

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Just remember I think the Devs want 'questions' rather than suggestions...so in people's ideas we should try to preface any suggestions with a question or phrase the suggestion as a question :)

 

i.e. for Merc - Arsenal:

 

- Why does this spec have such heavy RNG, would you consider increasing the proc rate of barrage in any way?

- Why have you changed the 4pc eliminator set bonus away from helping with heat management, isn't there another way to balance pyrotech spec without a QoL debuff?

Edited by odawgg
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The main change I think we need is some sort of interrupt immunity in pvp. For instance, an unload with barrage procced should be uniterruptible and immune to pushback.

 

I'd also like to see the set bonus restored to the old one.

 

And I'd like us to get an execute style ability.

 

But to put it all in questions:

 

1: Mercenaries struggle in pvp because they can be fairly easy shut down by an opponent that knows what they're doing (better now, but the problem still exists). S why are mercenaries the only ranged class without access to some sort of interrupt immunity? Snipers have it all the time (in cover) and Sorcerers have it through a cooldown, why are mercenaries singled out to not have that ability?

 

2: Odawwg's question is fine here :)

 

3: Why doesn't Mercenaries have any sort of execute ability or other damage boost on targets below 30%?

 

All fairly DPS focused questions, but simply because I don't play enough as a merc healer to know what needs to be discussed there. Though our class representative need to be mindful about the healing communties questions as well.

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1: Mercenaries struggle in pvp because they can be fairly easy shut down by an opponent that knows what they're doing (better now, but the problem still exists). S why are mercenaries the only ranged class without access to some sort of interrupt immunity? Snipers have it all the time (in cover) and Sorcerers have it through a cooldown, why are mercenaries singled out to not have that ability?

 

I like this for pvp. Having interrupt-immunity would definitely help merc not being so easily shut down in pvp.

 

3: Why doesn't Mercenaries have any sort of execute ability or other damage boost on targets below 30%?

 

This is a good point. I know pure dps classes have executes, but so do juggernaughts and assassins, which both can tank OR dps. I would like this answered/remedied if possible at all

 

Odawgg's questions mirrored what I was thinking.

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1) Would the design team be willing to reduce the CD of Kolto Missile to 0 (same effect as Healing Scan) while Supercharged Gas is active?

 

2) What is the design intent for Kolto Jets?

 

3) What is the design philosophy behind resource management for Bodyguards and how might the design team address concerns from the community that Bodyguard resource management has a much tighter window than other healers?

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Why have you changed the 4pc eliminator set bonus away from helping with heat management, isn't there another way to balance pyrotech spec without a QoL debuff?

 

When there are things to ask such as heat costs for any and all our damage over time effect or why Pyrotech sucks so much in general. Why there's no armor debuff (our only utility) for Pyrotech when the other two classes that come with it can apply it no matter which spec they choose. And how does one justify a much more unforgiving resource system but less damage compared to those other classes which I don't want to name here.

 

And for Pyrotech going back to the old 4p would an outright nerf - not that it matters a lot with the state the spec is in right now. I personally have no issue with more damage on Rail Shot and heat neutral cost instead of effectively regenerating some heat.

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The main points to discuss from my arsenal dps PoV is DPS and raid utility.

 

In my opinion the merc cant keep up with snipers in dps. I really hate the idea of the merc being a 'hybrid class' and always getting to hear that snipers and maros should do more dmg than the other classes, because the 'hybrid classes' have other advantages. But i cant really heal effectivly in boss fights AND keep my dps up. Im not just loosing GCDs but the most important think that im loosing heat and mess up my whole heat management by emergency healings. The alleged dps classes have the most damage potential AND the best raid utility abilties.

 

So why should u take a merc as a range class with u in heavy dps fights with hard enrage timers, while e.g. snipers do a much better job here?

 

BW should either raise our dps or give us 'unique' raid utility which doesnt diminish our dps that much (or both).

 

My suggestions according to dps would be to 'repair' the heatmanagement (by giving us back the old heat costs + bonus) and lower the cds of power surge, TSO and electro net.

Making the merc rotation less rnd is also a good thing i suppose (although i personally dont have such big problems with that), and i really like the idea with the +% procc buff on tracer lock. To carry this idea on i would suggest to give a buff on railshot which 'transforms' the used tracer locks. This would give a certain buff which increases the procc chance of the next tracer missle by x% of each tracer lock used for the rs. This would fit pretty good in the merc rotation since u would higher the chance on a barrage procc significantly after rs.

 

Relating to utility, make the tracer locks not only cast healing scan faster but also reduce the energy costs or dont remove the stacks, that u can at least use ur railshot with full stacks. Or u could introduce a 'high' tree skill in arsenal specc that makes each healing cast combined with power surge for free. This would give the arsenal dps a good opportunity to be a real support for the healers as the 'oh-****-helper'.

 

To vary a little more the rotation and make the merc a little more interesting to play BW chould also realize these ideas above by other buffs or abilities than tracer missle resp. traver lock (i would like to see eg. missle blast in our rotation or at least as a kind of option).

 

Last but not least i really like the idea of that jetpack action. This would be so epic. Or some other 'sytle' stuf ... if i had a wish for free at this point i would give us mercs a rocket launcher ability like the one blizz had or we had in the good old ilum pvp area to shoot down the vehicles. THIS would be awesome.

 

So in the end i try to summarize my ideas up to these 3 'questions' although i think this will never satisfy all the suggestions that have been made:

 

Dear Devs,

'why did u nerf the arsenal mercs heatmanagement that much and didnt give us cylinder related set boni?'

'why did u decide to give the mercs such high timers on their offensive cds (in particular our new dmg cd electro net)?'

'why did u decide to make heal casts so expensive/long for dps speccs and weaken their dps that much while healing and supporting the raid?'

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- Why does this spec have such heavy RNG, would you consider increasing the proc rate of barrage in any way?

[/Quote] Not increasing, this would be a damage buff and we are not allowed to do as much dps as Slingers and Sentinels.

I would try something like: "would you consider a more consistent proc rate of Barrage without further dps loss?"

 

- Why have you changed the 4pc eliminator set bonus away from helping with heat management, isn't there another way to balance pyrotech spec without a QoL debuff?

I would emphasize our problems with the new bonus.

 

Are you aware that the 4pc eliminator set bonus results in noticably less dps and entails severe ammo managing issues for Gunnery players, isnt there another way to Balance pryotech spec withotu a QoL debuff?

 

Has BW said anything yet about the length of those questions? Are we allowed to explain all of this further?

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Since you guys go first, I'll post my concerns here. Did it on the commando forum as well, and I'll try to use Merc terminology. I will note that when I first asked Eric about these questions he encouraged us to make the questions extremely thorough, so I feel like every question should have as much background as possible.

 

1) Ammo/Heat management (possibly arsenal only?): In PVE, in order to maximize your DPS you often have to push your heat and ammo to very limit in order to stay decently competitive. Screwing up however can be extremely detrimental and lead to a large DPS loss right when you need it the most. This has mostly been an issue since 2.0 with the combination of the change in 4 piece eliminator's set bonus and the slight nerfing of upgraded arsenal/special muntions which changed the reduction on Rail Shot/High Impact Bolt from 1 point spent for an 8 heat/ammo cost reduction to 3 points spent for a 6 heat/ammo cost reduction. These have combined to make ammo management so much tougher, with no significant increase in damage. In fact, those who continue to use the old 4 piece set bonus over the new one continue to parse as well or better than when they use the new 4 piece set bonus despite hte loss of 64 aim (plus a 14% bonus from buffs). This seems just silly. My question then is would it be possible to improve ammo management for gunnery/arsenal slightly? There are several very simple fixes. One would be to combine the old and new set bonuses so that both DPS specs benefit a lot from it, as opposed to one favoring assault/pyro and one favoring gunnery/arsenal. Another would be to change the effect of Upgraded Arsenal/Special munitions to reduce the cost of Rail Shot/High Impact Bolt by 5 per point instead of 3. I'm sure the devs can think of other ways, but regardless of what the best way to fix it is, this is definitely an issue, and I think the biggest one confronting PVE damage. Also, this is a commando exclusive issue, but you guys get to go first, so could you please point out that commandos can't see exactly how much ammo they have? It's really freaking annoying.

 

2) My second issue now would be the plethora of abilities whose benefit is all out of proportion with their usability. To me the biggest culprits are: Tech Override/Power Surge, Adrenaline Rush/Kolto Overload, Plasma Grenade/Fusion Missile, and Reserve Powercell/Thermal Sensor Override.

 

Tech Override/Power Surge: I've touched on this already, and Cash practically led the charge on this and RP back when 2.0 was on the PTS, but 1 instant cast every 2 minutes baseline (2 consecutive instant casts every 90 seconds in gunnery) is just awful for a level 46 ability. It does literally nothing to help us do more damage or be more ammo/heat efficient in PVE, and it's the tiniest of bandaids in PVP when trying to cast under pressure. I've almost always used it to get an instant cast concussion round/concussion missile off in either environment. The talent in gunnery/arsenal is nice, but I'd honestly rather have that buff applied to RP/TSO in PVE, whereas two instant CBs/PSs in PVP Assault/Pyro (assuming they fix that tree) would be pretty nice. Either way the cooldown is way way too long for the benefit it provides, and if they insist on only 1 to 2 instant casts then the cooldown needs to be dropped to 60 seconds. If they insist on a 2 minute baseline cooldown the effect should last for 10-12 seconds and I'd like to see it come with a cost reduction for all ammo skills while active. Not make everything free, but maybe a 50% cost to ammo/heat spending skills or increased ammo regen for the duration. Better yet give us an actual offensive cooldown. Give me battle focus/explosive fuel. I will rock faces with it.

 

 

Plasma Grenade/Fusion Missile: The only real problems with this skill is its ridiculous cost. It has the cost of a spammable low damage 5 target AoE like Hail of Bolts or Sweeping Blasters, but a 30 second cooldown, and only hits three targets. It really is pretty awesome for single target damage so I don't even mind the low target threshold, especially since its in keeping with other grenade/missile abilities, but the cost needs to be cut in half at least. Actually giving it a cost of 8-10 ammo would help our ammo out quite nicely since I'm sure both DPS specs would be using it on cooldown and something like a good damage ammo neutral ability would help address the above issue nicely. Generally to keep an ability from being OP it either has a decent length cooldown or an absurd cost. PG/FM has both, and that is dumb.

 

Adrenaline Rush/Kolto Overload: A 90 second effect which, when you are below 30% health triggers a semi hot on you for 8 seconds which constantly tries to heal you up to, but not exceeding, 30% health, and then triggers a 3 minute cooldown. Are you serious? This is an ability that is literally only used because its there and is psychologically better than nothing. I would be hard pressed to find an ability in this entire game whose effect and usefulness was more out of all proportion with its cooldown. I have no clue why this ability was reworked, but it needs to be reworked again. With a 3 minute cooldown it should trigger immediately and keep healing you for all 8 seconds. Even as good as that would be I would argue the cooldown should be 2 minutes instead of 3, but even so, an adrenaline rush that worked like that would actually have some very nice survivability uses in both PVE and PVP. Note that it wouldn't allow us to cheese big hits that are supposed to one shot us since if we take more damage in one instant than we have HP we die regardless, but its applications for making lives easier on healers are just endless. I understand that VGs/PTs have a talent which makes it better, but that talent could be changed and I think they'd be fine with an overall much better adrenaline rush.

 

Reserve Powercell/Thermal Sensor Override: Again the effect is nice but we get exactly one free ability every 2 minutes (90 seconds if you're in assault), which is the teeniest tiniest band aid to ammo management ever. Again, if you're only gonna allow it to work on one ability, lower the cooldown to a minute. If you're going to keep the 2 minute cooldown, then give me 10 seconds of absolute free casting. Personally the former option seems more balanced, but either way this and Tech Override feel more like abilities I'd see in a Final Fantasy MMO than like anything else in SWTOR.

 

I would like to know if any of the above abilities could be reworked to make them more usable and bring them more in line with other cooldowns and abilities in the game.

 

3) Assault/Pyro is broken. In PVP you're always better off going gunnery/arsenal. Always. In PVE, while people can make the spec viable they do so by putting only 33 points into the tree because Assault Plastique/Thermal Detonator was reworked to be so very very horrible. The optimal rotation is to simply skil Unload/Full Auto altogether and just spam Charged Bolts/Power Shot and use HiB/RS whenever they get the proc, while mixing in Incendiary Round/Missile as ammo/heat allow. Doesn't it say bad things about class design when this spec is so obviously broken?

Edited by ArchangelLBC
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