The Arsenal skill Mandalorian Iron Warheads, which buffs the damage of all missiles by 6%, does not improve Fusion Missile.

Here's the test:

 

1) Removed all talents and fired Fusion Missiles at an Operations Target Dummy for 20 minutes.

It hit from 1059 to 1188 and ticked for 298.

 

2) Added the Mandalorian Iron Warheads skill only and fired Fusion Missiles at an Operations Target Dummy for another 20 minutes.

It hit from 1059 to 1188 and ticked for 298.

 

 

If someone could please independently test and bug report this, that would be great.

I bet it was a Commando talent first then copied over when they decided to mirror all abilities.

 

Why?

 

Fusion Missile = Plasma Grenade

 

Mandalorian Iron Warheads = Havoc Rounds

 

Now this is the difference in wording:

 

MIW = Boosts Missiles by 6% (Tracer, Heatseeker, Incendiary)

HR = Boosts Rounds by 6% (Grav, Demolition, Incendiary)

 

The commando one makes sense because Plasma Grenade isn't a Round so no buff.

The mercenary one doesn't make sense because they forgot about the wording of the buff when they were making mercs into missile spammers.

 

Thus they tripped up on Fusion Missile.

 

That's my theory anyway.

Edited July 16, 2012 by Gyronamics

Fusion Missile's only real use is for the AoE DoT, as it's single target damage isn't worth the heat cost and cooldown. So I'm not surprised a talent in the single target DD tree doesn't affect it (even though the tooltip suggests it should). But that's my opinion. There have still been plenty of instances in the Arsenal tree of talents not doing what the tool-tip suggests they should be doing.

Fusion Missile's only real use is for the AoE DoT, as it's single target damage isn't worth the heat cost and cooldown. So I'm not surprised a talent in the single target DD tree doesn't affect it (even though the tooltip suggests it should). But that's my opinion. There have still been plenty of instances in the Arsenal tree of talents not doing what the tool-tip suggests they should be doing.

 

Its kinda nice as an opener with thermal sensor override and power surge. Or when your heat gets a bit too high.

The talent also boosts Kolto Missile, so healers spec it. Would be nice if it boosted Fusion Missile.

What an absolute surprise.

 

It's like we have to personally go through each individual talent that mercs have and test it for bioware

Its kinda nice as an opener with thermal sensor override and power surge. Or when your heat gets a bit too high.

 

This. Also Knowing when to use it in your opening rotation is key. For example (as Pyro) opening with Thermal Det, Rapid, Fusion Missile, Rapid, and either Rail Shot or Incendiary (or both with rapid in between) can cause massive amounts of burst and still keep your heat managable. I always use it multiple times each WZ. When used with little to no heat you'll actually burn off a few tics of heat in the process before getting hit with the high cost. On that same note Sweeping Blasters burns off heat while channeling after the initial heat cost (same for Unload and Flamethrower). IMO these are excellent AOE abilities to use at low heat levels.

 

As far as the MIW skill goes this has been reported since beta and has yet to be adjusted. They should just change the skill so that the bonus is applied to all Tech Damage abilities, Kolto Missle and Power Shot.

That doesn't surprise me, as the second poster pointed out, the commando version doesn't include grenade.

 

I use fusion missile as a "finisher" as pyro because dots on health below 30% ticks higher and fusion missile's dot is pretty strong. As arsenal it's situation, I'll cast it when power surge is free to use (rather than having to use it on tracer or rapid scan while on the move).

 

It was pretty clear months ago that merc and commando were the least developed class in this game with a handful of talent bugs and no interrupt, finally some of those talents has been fixed since then.

Edited July 21, 2012 by Sookster