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Arsenal and Innovative Ordnance Mercenary/Gunnery and Assault Specialist Set Bonus Discussion


EricMusco

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First of all please get rid of the "Cannot occur more than once every x of seconds"

In my opinion a new direction is required.

 

Suggestion 1:

Find the least used abilities and buff them through set bonuses(for example "Explosive round")

 

2-set bonus : Explosive round cost is reduced by 50%

4-set bonus : Using explosive round grants you "x" surge/critical/etc for 10 seconds(stakcs up for 5 times)

6-set bonus : Using Demolition Round now also fire an explosive round (for less damange if you think it goes beyond your 5% buff)

 

Suggestion 2:

Buff some skills by using a different approach:

 

2-set bonus : Demolition Round deals 25% more critical damage

4-set bonus : Supercharged Cell now lasts 5 more seconds

6-set bonus : Using Demolition Round under the effects of Supercharged Cell makes your next High Impact bolt to deal double(or 50% more) damage.

 

Thank you for your time,

Dimitris

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The only thing I want changed is the 4pc.

 

Old 4-pc: Power Surge/Tech Override CD reduction by 5s.

 

That's pretty useless, I like it on paper, and it can be helpful in the opening of a rotation for a little extra APM, but it's not a DPS increase at all.

 

New Concept 4-pc: Increase the Duration of Supercharge Cells/Supercharged Gas by 5s.

 

This would be the exact same as the Healer Merc/Mando SB, and would be a great DPS increase.

 

You mean the 4 pc set bonus that doesn't work? How would that be a DPS increase?

 

They've had months to fix it and still haven't.

 

 

6 piece set bonus: Increases merc/mando range to 35 meters and they can no longer be leaped to.

 

Or possibly merc/mandos are immune to all stuns and incapacitating effects while HO/HTL is active.

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6/6 bonus:

 

Hydraulic Overrides increases melée and ranged defenses by [a large amount] and renders the Mercenary immune to stuns/sleeps/blinds over its duration.

 

Yes because 30% uptime on total immunity is totally balanced. :rolleyes:

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Some pretty good suggestions in this thread.

 

I like the idea of making HO/HTL a big part of the set bonus. Would make a decent 4 piece if say while HO is active, Tracer Missile and Serrated Shot can be cast on the move, in addition, HO grants a XX% bonus to heat dissipation/Ammo regen.

 

If we only get one set to share between PvP and PvE, then the 2 piece should be something to boost the Energy Shield. Maybe when the shield duration ends, it grants 4 or 5 seconds of evasion.

 

I would also rework the 6 piece to be the same as the current 2 piece, just increase the damage bonus to 5% instead of 2%.

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Just out of curiousity Eric, is this a one size fits all discussion on set bonuses, or can they be variable between PvP and PvE sets?

 

Simply asking, because what I would want for a PvP set bonus wouldn't reflect what I would want for a PvE set bonus.

 

How mabout instead of a 5 sec power surge reduction we get a 30% defensive on adrenaline rush?

and make charged bolt an grav round crit auto every 20sec or 30 sec

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I hope you guys realize glass cannons are more desirable than iron peashooters.

 

Gunnery barely meets the minimum burst requirements to be viable in high-end PvP. It doesn't matter how good your defensives are if your demo round only hits for 6k.

 

Yeah autocrits where OP back when only a couple classes had methods to counter focused burst. But now almost every class in the game has escapes or straight focus stops, and burst healing is much stronger than it was. Because of this burst specs have few opportunities to bring their burst to bear in a effective manner, and with so few opportunities burst specs cannot afford to not-crit.

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now almost every class in the game has escapes or straight focus stops, and burst healing is much stronger than it was. Because of this burst specs have few opportunities to bring their burst to bear in a effective manner, and with so few opportunities burst specs cannot afford to not-crit.

 

This is where the problem is for Arsenal / Gunnery spec, considering it's the "go to spec" for PvP. The one thing I hope the devs take away from this feedback thread is that our survivability is, to be blunt, pants. It doesn't help when our burst also isn't up to par with other classes.

 

They seriously need to do some work on this spec, or risk making it obsolete through mediocrity. It's not far from that now.

 

Set bonus wise, purely for PvP, a mix of DPS burst increase and survivability would be useful to have. The current 6-piece however needs an alteration for it to be useful for increasing our burst capability.

 

  • 2-Piece: Heatseeker Missile and Serrated Shot or Demolition Round and Serrated Bolt increase damage dealt by 2% for 15 seconds. Cannot occur more than once every 30 of seconds.
  • 4-Piece: Activating Unload and Blazing Bolts or Full Auto and Boltstorm will grant Eliminator's Critical Bonus making your next Heatseeker Missile and Mag Shot or Demolition Round and Mag Bolt critically hit. This effect can only occur once every 30 seconds
  • 6-Piece: Activating Priming Shot or Vortex Bolt will grant Eliminator's Defensive Bonus reducing the cooldown on Hydraulic Overrides by 5 seconds and allows casting Tracer Missile on the move or Hold The Line by 5 seconds and allows casting Grav Round on the move.

 

I'll also go right back to the issue we have with our utilities, especially where it effects our survivability in PvP. As Arsenal / Gunnery we always used to take Energy Rebounder / Reflexive Shield to help lower our cooldown on Energy Shield / Combat Shield pre 3.0. As this is no longer the case (there is a solid preference to take the 30% DR while stunned) either that utility needs to be moved down into the Masterful tier or the developers need to seriously think about lowering the cooldown from 120s to 60s on Energy Shield / Combat Shield.

 

I can't think of any situation in PvE or PvP where I would take that utility due to it's location in the Heroic tier, however not having it is hurting the class survivability.

 

I really hope that along with set bonus being looked at, the developers take a look at the metrics on our utilities and see which ones are now completely defunct compared to pre 3.0, due to the locations they've been placed. Then work on putting utilities in the right tiers.

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Hey everyone,

 

We wanted to take a moment to reach out to the community to collect ideas on set bonuses. We are looking for opinions on current and previous set bonuses as well as concepts for future. This thread will cover Arsenal and Innovative Ordnance Mercenaries/Gunnery and Assault Specialist Commandos.

 

Note: Our intent is to have set bonuses not increase DPS by more than 5%. Please keep this in mind when posting your suggestions.

 

Current Level 60 Set Bonuses (for reference)

  • 2-Piece: Heatseeker Missile and Serrated Shot or Demolition Round and Serrated Bolt increase damage dealt by 2% for 15 seconds. Cannot occur more than once every 30 of seconds.
  • 4-Piece: Power Surge or Tech Override's cooldown is reduced by 5 seconds.
  • 6-Piece: Activating Unload and Blazing Bolts or Full Auto and Boltstorm will grant Eliminator's Critical Bonus making your next Heatseeker Missile and Mag Shot or Demolition Round and Mag Bolt critically hit. This effect can only occur once a minute.

Cheers, all!

The SWTOR Combat Team

 

5/10 wd

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The 4 piece set bonus is garbage.

 

4 piece bonus should be more like an energy management buff like other classes.

MAybe reduce the heat generated by Unload and/or Power Shot in IO or Tracer Missile and Rail Shot in Arsenal by 2.

 

IO is pretty tight on heat so it will slightly decrease management over longer fights. In arsenal, that is not that heat intensive, idk, for balance sake tracer missile = power shot in IO. Blazing bolts is a heat negative attack meaning it vents more heat over the duration than it produces so that would be pointless to reduce it even more. So rail shot would generate slightly less heat in arsenal.

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Something for the team to consider philosophically:

Set Bonuses granting DPS is fine, but I think what would improve the lives of the most players, while also increasing the replay-ability of the previous content, would be focusing the Set-Bonuses on raw utility and removing DPS from it at all as a consideration.

 

Destroyer's Tactical Kit:

2pc Bonus: Critical hits from Blazing Bolts or Tracer Missile and Magshot or Thermal Detonator cripple your target by 50% for 4.5 seconds.

4pc Bonus: Slows, immobilizes and roots applied to you reduce the cooldown of Hydraulic Overrides by 3 seconds. This effect can occur once per five seconds.

6pc Bonus: Taking direct damage grants a single stack of Power Barrier which reduces damage taken by 1%, stacking up to five times. The effect can only occur once every one and half seconds. When you reach five stacks of Power Barrier, your next Tracer Missile or Powershot can be cast on the move. Casting Tracer Missile or Powershot on the move will remove all stacks of Power Barrier.

 

It's better to stick all the damage perks onto the stats, and let players "choose" their utility. Maybe you'll see people running around with three different 2pc bonuses. Choice is good. Our set bonuses should be more horizontal and less vertical.

 

If you /must/ assign a "damage bonus" then just grant a flat percentage at each tier. 1% at 2pc, 1% at 4pc, and 3% at 3pc. It's incredibly boring, but its easier to balance, and spend your team can spend time balancing the utility that can be granted instead.

 

Always on, minor effects are in general better than effects you need to track over the course of more than 10 seconds. Until we have internal cooldown tracking, it's too difficult to make the choices you need to make to do that. Instead, we as players are going to wait until someone good at math tells us what rotation uses the bonus incidentally will cause us to do the most damage via charting the bonus proc's ICD. Giving us something interesting to consider is far better than locking something out to a 1 minute cooldown.

 

Also, as a general rule, could you avoid making the proc icons for our set bonuses the same? The 2pc buff and the 6pc buff have identical icons at the current tier and having to hover over them to know which one is currently active is silly.

 

Allowing us more variety in how we control our playstyle by giving us set-bonuses that instead change HOW we play instead of simply making us "stronger" is a step in the right direction.

Edited by alonephoenix
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  • 3 weeks later...

I like the idea of the more set piece armoring we get the percentage of dps increases... But Its not fancy or flashy nor does it cater to the individual class abilities...

 

Arsenal is fine, but Rail Shot needs to hit harder. Especially when Tracer Lock buffed... The post 3.0 bonus was nice. It was either free or returned heat or critted? I forget. But for a move that is designed to be pivotal in both dps rotations, I feel it is lackluster next to Demo Round / Heatseeker Missle in raw damage...

 

But what I realy want is a buff to the energy / heat costs when playing IO / dot spec...

 

I try to stay on course with my rotation but one AOE or wrong move and my heat is FUBAR. Its tough to recover... And what good is a DPS while auto attacking to regen energy / resources?

 

Survivablity would be nice. But I would lean more to PVP for that... PVE is fine... Even without Kolto Bomb (I still miss you :) )

 

A longer cast or wider area of effect to our AOEs sounds nice, but secondary to increased damage and resource management IMO...

 

So Eric, please buff the damage and energy regen of this class. Period.

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  • 2 months later...
First of all please get rid of the "Cannot occur more than once every x of seconds"

In my opinion a new direction is required.

 

Suggestion 1:

Find the least used abilities and buff them through set bonuses(for example "Explosive round")

 

2-set bonus : Explosive round cost is reduced by 50%

4-set bonus : Using explosive round grants you "x" surge/critical/etc for 10 seconds(stakcs up for 5 times)

6-set bonus : Using Demolition Round now also fire an explosive round (for less damange if you think it goes beyond your 5% buff)

 

Suggestion 2:

Buff some skills by using a different approach:

 

2-set bonus : Demolition Round deals 25% more critical damage

4-set bonus : Supercharged Cell now lasts 5 more seconds

6-set bonus : Using Demolition Round under the effects of Supercharged Cell makes your next High Impact bolt to deal double(or 50% more) damage.

 

Thank you for your time,

Dimitris

 

I'm in favor of your suggestion 2 Dimitris to increase our DPS since defensively we are extremely weak in comparsion to other classes.

 

Maybe multiple set bonuses are needed per each advanced class. One for Arsenal, one for IO. Then break down the bonus like:

 

2 Piece = Defensive bonus

4 Piece = Utility Bonus

6 Piece = DPS Bonus

 

This could work for both PvP and PvE.

 

The idea of having different bonus based on the advanced class is an interesting thought, but probably not for the purposes of this thread.

 

Personally I'd like to see a return of something similar to the old set bonuses of having a free Railshot.

 

Preferably something that makes Priming Shot or Serrated Shot free in the set bonuses, and makes the next Tracer Missile / Power Shot auto crit (can only occur once every 30s), it benefits both Arsenal and IO specs. Where it turns up, I don't really care.

 

As for a PvP set bonus? Lets beat the dead horse about surviving...

 

  • 2-Piece: Heatseeker Missile and Serrated Shot or Demolition Round and Serrated Bolt increase damage dealt by 3% for 15 seconds. Cannot occur more than once every 30 of seconds.
  • 4-Piece: Activating Chaff Flare / Diversion or Kolto Overload /Tenacity increases damage reduction by 30%.
  • 6-Piece: Activating Power Shield / Reactive Shield and Hydraulic Overrides / Hold the Line grants you immunity to stuns and mezzes for the duration of the ability.

^^The sad thing is, although a little tongue in cheek, I'm not even joking that I'd like to see that as a PvP set bonus. It's what the class needs to make it work better.

 

In regards to have set bonuses not increase DPS by more than 5%, only your 2-piece idea gives an additional % for DPS, while the 4 and 6 piece ideas are just for defense.

 

If Eric and his team could rework some passive stats for the commando / mercenary with your 2 defensive suggestions, rather than putting those in the set piece bonus then we would be much more viable in PVP and also PVE.

 

-Activating Chaff Flare / Diversion or Kolto Overload /Tenacity increases damage reduction by 30%.

 

-Activating Power Shield / Reactive Shield and Hydraulic Overrides / Hold the Line grants you immunity to stuns and mezzes for the duration of the ability.

 

Both of these could be implemented as Chaff Flare / Diversion could just be like the Gunslingers Defense Screen of 30% damage reduction and immunity to stuns / mezzes would be essential due to our lack of stun breaks. I feel every commando / mercenary would agree with atleast these 2 changes to the class.

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  • 2 months later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Another thing that might be nice to see, is to have more then just one set, We are stuck with only the one set, that stays the same throughout the "levels" (208,216). I know the medic has one and the commando has one and vanguard has one (I ignore the other because it's junk mostly), but it would be nice to see more then just one per set. Such as a set bonus for the medic that focuses on AOE healing, and one that focuses on small short single burst heals. Give the classes more diversity in how we can play them by altering the abilities from the gear.... You can also apply that to the DPS Gear, allow one set to deal with AOE damage, the other set, single targets, or as was mentioned before, one set deals with resource management, another set deals with DPS, obviously you will get people trying to do 3/3 of each set or something like that, but it could be moderated so you can't get an OP boost from having one bonus from one set, and 2 from the other...

 

Just my Humble Opinion

KelarNok

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  • 1 year later...
  • 4 months later...
Somehow making it to 10 seconds before this "Instant Ability" is going off. Not really an "Instant Ability" if it's taking over 2 seconds to fire now is it? I'm really sick of this ******** animation. IO needs Rail Shot, this ******** with Mag Shot is unacceptable

 

4gcyKFx.jpg

 

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Why does it matter? It's just an animation, it doesn't put you in a disadvantage or anything. it looks pretty cool imo.

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The feeling when I fire off Mag Shot then Serrated Shot only to have Serrated Shot somehow connect with Target before Mag Shot even though Mag Shot was fired 1st....

 

KK9VP9D.jpg

 

I've tried explaining it. I've taken a **** ton of screen shots to show it. This ability is broken af. It isn't working like an instant ability. If this is suppose to be the "Improved Version of Rail Shot" I've got news for you devs. It's not an improvement, it sucks and sucks badly.

 

I don't know what I'm doing wrong to encounter this bug. All I want is Rail Shot back, I don't know why this seems to be such an unreasonable request. Rail Shot works fine with Arsenal and Healer Mercs have Rail Shot and they aren't even a dps spec.

 

Why can't IO have Rail Shot? What is the reasoning behind it? Mag Shot is lame af. Anyone who says otherwise is an idiot imo.

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