I really don't understand why Arsenal still hasn't been buffed since the Concentrated Fire nerf, you can't just throw out 10% crit chance and expect their numbers to stay the same. Apex Predator is only slightly better as a set than Concentrated Fire, but that doesn't even matter because it's bugged right now anyway and it isn't even purchasable from the Tech Fragment Vendors.

Parsely doesn't tell the whole story either since the parses weren't wiped when the Concentrated Fire nerf happened, so almost all of the current records are based on pre-nerf for the spec. The current actual record is 21.5k DPS, which is significantly lower than the low 23k to high 24k that we're seeing from the rest of the specs. Why do you guys think that Arsenal is balanced or otherwise undeserving of a buff?

SADLY Bioware didn't separate PvE from PvP and it'll not happen.

So if you buff Arsenal damage they HAVE TO nerf the defensive cooldowns, because it'd break pvp even more.

Mercenary is already tankier than a tank, buffing the damage would be insane.

So before we ask for buffs, Bioware needs a way to separate pvp and pve.

Your opinion is quite uninformed. DCDs are irrelevant. The concept of glass cannons and lower damage tanky DPS specs do not exist in this game and in general they are ridiculously difficult to balance. DCDs and damage output are balanced separately because DCDs are given to advanced classes while damage output is defined by the individual spec. For example, IO has nearly identical defensive cooldowns and does significantly higher DPS and regardless, merc DCDs are not so good as to warrant 2-3k lower DPS than every other spec in the game. Now it would be pretty easy to buff them without affecting PvP too much as well by just buffing the Apex Predator set so that the stacks only build up to 3 instead of 5 or something so less Rapid Shots would be needed.

If you feel that merc DCDs are too strong, then by all means, make another thread complaining about that. It would be very easy to nerf their DCD utilities. Trauma Regulators could provide less stacks or less healing per stack. Kolto Surge could heal you to like 50% instead of 60% or not increase the healing rate. Energy Rebounder could have a higher rate limit or smaller cooldown reduction on Energy Shield on hit.

Your opinion is quite uninformed. DCDs are irrelevant. The concept of glass cannons and lower damage tanky DPS specs do not exist in this game and in general they are ridiculously difficult to balance. DCDs and damage output are balanced separately because DCDs are given to advanced classes while damage output is defined by the individual spec. For example, IO has nearly identical defensive cooldowns and does significantly higher DPS and regardless, merc DCDs are not so good as to warrant 2-3k lower DPS than every other spec in the game. Now it would be pretty easy to buff them without affecting PvP too much as well by just buffing the Apex Predator set so that the stacks only build up to 3 instead of 5 or something so less Rapid Shots would be needed.

 

If you feel that merc DCDs are too strong, then by all means, make another thread complaining about that. It would be very easy to nerf their DCD utilities. Trauma Regulators could provide less stacks or less healing per stack. Kolto Surge could heal you to like 50% instead of 60% or not increase the healing rate. Energy Rebounder could have a higher rate limit or smaller cooldown reduction on Energy Shield on hit.

That is one way to see it and i'm not saying is completely wrong, but that is not how BW sees it. Sadly, they see that Mercs are too op with their DCD and decided to nerf their dmg instead of fixing that (this was in 5.x).

No, that's not even how Bioware saw it. They were nerfed in 5.0 because they were a ranged burst spec, not because of their DCDs. Here's the evidence:

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=9333043#post9333043

This is beside the point anyway because their balancing philosophy has clearly changed for 6.0. Parsely shows clear evidence of that. DPS differences between the classes are much smaller than they were in 5.0 and don't conform to the philosophy post I linked. In addition, you don't nerf damage output if DCDs are the problem, especially in this game when it's so easy to buff and nerf things very precisely. You have no evidence supporting your position.

The reason they aren't doing balance changes is because they balance according to what they see on Parsely (this is obvious from their changes to the health modulator) and Parsely shows Arsenal as balanced when you don't actually look closely and see that it's a lie.

I really don't understand why Arsenal still hasn't been buffed since the Concentrated Fire nerf, you can't just throw out 10% crit chance and expect their numbers to stay the same. Apex Predator is only slightly better as a set than Concentrated Fire, but that doesn't even matter because it's bugged right now anyway and it isn't even purchasable from the Tech Fragment Vendors.

 

Parsely doesn't tell the whole story either since the parses weren't wiped when the Concentrated Fire nerf happened, so almost all of the current records are based on pre-nerf for the spec. The current actual record is 21.5k DPS, which is significantly lower than the low 23k to high 24k that we're seeing from the rest of the specs. Why do you guys think that Arsenal is balanced or otherwise undeserving of a buff?

The actual record with "Apex Predator" is around 22,2k on live servers. i have done a parse which is located in this area but not the actual record: http://parsely.io/parser/view/508066

After i have heard that "Apex Predator" got fixed on PTS i did some parses there and confirm that the set got actually fixed.

Average tries with Gunnery were around 21.1k-21.7k DPS (live servers: 21,3k-21,8k)

Max DPS was around 22,1k: http://parsely.io/parser/view/526464

My estimation was that DPS after the fix would have been risen about 200-250 DPS

But my actual parses in average are worse than on live servers. The higher ms on PTS could be a problem.

All in all, i would assume that the top parse could be around 22,3k DPS now.

To compete with the specs at the bottom, Gunnery/Arsenal needs at least a buff of 900-1000 DPS.