The reason I personally didn't start making suggestions until now is because my suggestions would have sucked. I was not a hard core PvP'er. Even though I knew Merc was under powered, my suggestions would be only based on my own experience and not the reality of end game PvP.

 

Now that I'm almost 90 valor and have been through thick and thin on my Merc, I feel my suggestions are finally valid and I can see what the class really needs. I have fully augmented, fully optimized WH gear (not counting the new elite stuff). I also have leveled 2 other classes to 50 and can see the bigger picture more clearly.

 

NOW I can finally start my own list and X out the ideas that are too wild or unbalanced. 95% of players can tell that Mercs need help, 100% of players can throw out suggestions, but how many of those suggestions are made by players with PvP knowledge and not just PvP desire?

wonderfully valid and balanced suggestions have already been made, countless times, by a large number of players. just b/c you are a new merc doesnt meant the devs will suddenly see the light and start making intelligent balance decisions

Stockstrike should be a hard stun or Knock Back, not a root. We aren’t a Vanguard and can take nowhere near the damage of a Vanguard. This boggles my mind because it is a talent in Gunnery. Who ever decided this should be drug tested...

 

You do understand that a vanguard in plasma/high energy cell has exactly the same defenses and damage reduction as a commando?

You do understand that a vanguard in plasma/high energy cell has exactly the same defenses and damage reduction as a commando?

Its a fairly understandable misconception that some commandos have, because when you *face* a vanguard 1v1, they'll usually win, with quite a bit of their health left.

The reason of course is not extra mitigation/defenses, but because the majority of THEIR damage is instant, and not effected by your attacks - whereas commandos, particularly gunnery but also assault to a lesser extent lose damage output under fire.

Assault vanguards also have a very high proportion of damage that bypasses armour. Assault 'mandos can't spam ion pulse, and gunnery mando's aren't even in the same ballpark.

You do understand that a vanguard in plasma/high energy cell has exactly the same defenses and damage reduction as a commando?

Same damage reduction is absolutely right. But not quite the same defenses. That AoE 2s stun can be worth its weight in gold.

But yes they're just as squishy as we are, they just make people pay cash for the effort.

wonderfully valid and balanced suggestions have already been made, countless times, by a large number of players. just b/c you are a new merc doesnt meant the devs will suddenly see the light and start making intelligent balance decisions

I think the reason we haven't seen major changes to the merc despite the constant QQs about the class being garbage in PVP is

1.)BW feels the class is fine the way it is based on it's pve performance.

2.)They don't know how to fix the class but are working on it. (if that's the case then just say something BW but you won't will you.)

3.)They have thrown in the towel on the Merc AC and are hoping that everyone with a merc rerolls and goes away.

So what I think BW should do is make it so that tracer missile/grav round can be casted while moving. That will fix the issue of mercs/commandos being nothing more than turrets in wZs.

Also another thing is mercs/commandos need an ability like "Hold The Line" which will make the merc immune to all movement impairing effects for 8 secs AND give them a 30% speed boost. Those two changes right there will solve the problems dps mercs are having in WZs.

Your correct on the issues of playing a commando/mercenary in PvP. The fact is that THEY LACK MOBILITY when melee engages them. Heres my old thread you might enjoy, its recommendation to solve this problem. I hope Bioware/EA can resolve this issue with a bit of originiality and bring the class to life by granting Mercenarys the jetpack disengage ability. Giving them Hold the Line would be a major disappointment to me honestly, and would be very cheezy for other classes trying to lock the commando/merc down. Casting Tracer while moving would be meh...

As of now they do not feel like Jango Fett whatsoever, and they need to bring in some style to the gameplay rather than giving them a mindless buff like Hold the Line. Troopers could sprint 40% faster as you said, while running backward and shooting the enemy in the process. The bounty hunter version would work similar. If your interested i recommend you read this post. Its a possible solution to the same problem you discuss here:

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=532476

I think the reason we haven't seen major changes to the merc despite the constant QQs about the class being garbage in PVP is

 

1.)BW feels the class is fine the way it is based on it's pve performance.

2.)They don't know how to fix the class but are working on it. (if that's the case then just say something BW but you won't will you.)

3.)They have thrown in the towel on the Merc AC and are hoping that everyone with a merc rerolls and goes away.

The problem with Merc is not DPS related, its mobility/utility. You can make changes to both of those with little to no affect on PVE performance.

Option 3 is what is happening

The problem with Merc is not DPS related, its mobility/utility. You can make changes to both of those with little to no affect on PVE performance.

 

Option 3 is what is happening

I've always said that mercs have the deeps. They can do very good damage...IF you leave them alone. However, it's their survivability/utility/escapability that makes the AC completely blow in a pvp environment. Now some people are saying that mercs only do well against ****** teams. Well, here is the other problem. Even ****** teams / players are learning how to shut down a merc. I'll give you an example.

Tonight I did my pvp daily solo(*********** torture by the way) on my full WH Arsenal Merc. First match was a huttball, so of course I take the high ground and get ready to bombard the enemy team. No more than I would say a minute in after ive got a couple of tracers missiles i'm jumped by a sentinel and shadow who proceed to tear my poor merc to shreds. Yes, i'm the first to die. I respawn track down the enemy ball carrier and start my dps rotation once again i'm jumped on by melee almost immediatly. I die. Respawn. Rinse and repeat. This is how the rest of my night went This is how most of the WZs that i'm in go. It's like the Arsenal AC is a *********** magnet for unwanted attention.

Disclaimer: I have six level 50 toons and currently leveling my gunnery to lv40; i.e. yet to play a merc in 50 bracket. I am enjoying on my gunnery more so than my lightning sorc (possibly just cosmetic reason). So will likely to spend a lot of time pvping on it.

I feel that merc is not intended to be a very mobility class.

Range + mobility = potential imbalance (range can already hit anyone in 30m radius)

Operative and Powertech (both with limited range abilities) are intended to be the mobility classes.

Melee classes are meant to charge to you. It will be no fun if a rdps can kite them all day. So I am disagreeing with making TM/Grav cast on the run.

Agree that some slight changes are need to help lift gunnery/Arsenal.

I suggest buffing FlameThrower/PulseCannon. Maybe reducing CD and extra damage to emenies who are subject to heatsig/grav. The reason is that the damage from merc is decent from range but it can get shut down by a melee too easily. A buff to a close range ability will act to balance it.

Another suggestion is a damage reduction debuff applying from RocketPunch/stockstrike.

I've always said that mercs have the deeps. They can do very good damage...IF you leave them alone. However, it's their survivability/utility/escapability that makes the AC completely blow in a pvp environment. Now some people are saying that mercs only do well against ****** teams. Well, here is the other problem. Even ****** teams / players are learning how to shut down a merc. I'll give you an example.

 

Tonight I did my pvp daily solo(*********** torture by the way) on my full WH Arsenal Merc. First match was a huttball, so of course I take the high ground and get ready to bombard the enemy team. No more than I would say a minute in after ive got a couple of tracers missiles i'm jumped by a sentinel and shadow who proceed to tear my poor merc to shreds. Yes, i'm the first to die. I respawn track down the enemy ball carrier and start my dps rotation once again i'm jumped on by melee almost immediatly. I die. Respawn. Rinse and repeat. This is how the rest of my night went This is how most of the WZs that i'm in go. It's like the Arsenal AC is a *********** magnet for unwanted attention.

I vote that all Mercenary's should have huge red text above their names that says " I R MERC LOL". And when a melee class leaps/pulls you, the "trolol" song should immediately start playing.

Commando here

Range is our advantage and yet that is gone with a single instant ability.

Cover+entrench or armor talents+uninterruptable Gr/FA or Move speed increases+instant abilities.

Throwing my keyboard out the window would give me the same result as fighting off marauderp 1-10,000.

Stand together fellow gimped mandos/mercs!

Tonight I did my pvp daily solo(*********** torture by the way) on my full WH Arsenal Merc. First match was a huttball, so of course I take the high ground and get ready to bombard the enemy team. No more than I would say a minute in after I've got a couple of tracers missiles I'm jumped by a sentinel and shadow who proceed to tear my poor merc to shreds. Yes, I'm the first to die. I respawn track down the enemy ball carrier and start my dps rotation once again I'm jumped on by melee almost immediately. I die. Respawn. Rinse and repeat. This is how the rest of my night went This is how most of the WZs that I'm in go. It's like the Arsenal AC is a *********** magnet for unwanted attention.

A day in the life of an arsenal merc. This is exactly how war zones go for us.

Don't you know that only snipers and warriors can be immune to interrupts while channeling/casting?

Yes, there needs to be some compromise for mercs/commandos and snipers need a nerf of some kind with all the leg shots, knockbacks and not being able to leap to them. That's literally rock, paper, scissors'ing my jugg.

How bioware merc class developer makes the pyro merc class for pvp:

-Hey lets make a merc dot spec.

-Sure!

-Now lets say you are doing damage to your target but now want to CC, well go FK yourself because your concussion missile breaks on damage and every target u start attacking has a burn dot.

-GG! We are done developing this class. Great job guys.

You're over-thinking it.

This is Bioware's Dev team working on balance changes for the next patch:

I think right now the problem with dps mercs and commandos is that they have to stay still in order to do any kind of decent damage. (talking about the arsenal/gunnery trees) In PVE that might be fine but in PVP if you stand still for too long your going to draw attention from hungry marauders/juggs, especially if your a dps merc (yes youre an easy kill). So what I think BW should do is make it so that tracer missile/grav round can be casted while moving. That will fix the issue of mercs/commandos being nothing more than turrets in wZs.

 

Also another thing is mercs/commandos need an ability like "Hold The Line" which will make the merc immune to all movement impairing effects for 8 secs AND give them a 30% speed boost. Those two changes right there will solve the problems dps mercs are having in WZs.

I played a level 33 arsenal merc and a 33 pyro merc and i have to say Pyro is alot better for PvP, I got alot of mobility and the only thing I have to stand still for is 2 shots which is only short lived cause most of the time I get enough crit to fire another insta rail shot while the guy is burning.

I can dish out around 200k in a WZ with the pyro merc and about 100-300k WZ with a arsenal merc, it depends how targetted I get but I seem to get ganked most with all my characters and my alts so its hard to say how effective it is a pyro without being zerged I think I can do more because I got so much damage from spamming rail shot over and over again, but I get zerged alot as a Merc.

I seem to not have issues with heat as much but thats just me, I honestly as Pyro's dont suffer needing to resort to using normal shot as often as Pyro.

As for against Melee you got a few tricks to push them back or root them (which sucks) or stun them twice, of course you also got shield and a +15% more health and a quick heal as well.

Of course being zerged doesnt help but neither do any classes cause when I get zerged by my Sorc, my Jugg, my Operative or my Merc no amount of CC will stop me from dying (unless I get heals which my Jugg has the best survival).

One more thing, I know a very good Merc in my server who can dish out nearly 1 million k damage, but the Merc gets targetted alot so its a good test of my healing skills. We end up having the entire Republic squad on us while we have 75% chance of winning WZ in this case, but it does get annoying to be targetted like that no doubt.