Hydrolic overrides is meh.. Let's face it. It's our only /sigh "escape" when we get focused in wzs.. Which we all know we are the first focus targets.

 

How about we get a jetpack escape/leap with a cool down similar to exfiltrate OPs have? A new ability would calm the community and give mercs at least SOME survivability in pvp. It could be on a cool down with jet boost and would activate a jetpack animation jumping into or out of combat.

 

Thoughts? Feedback?

Hydrolic overrides is meh.. Let's face it. It's our only /sigh "escape" when we get focused in wzs.. Which we all know we are the first focus targets.

 

How about we get a jetpack escape/leap with a cool down similar to exfiltrate OPs have? A new ability would calm the community and give mercs at least SOME survivability in pvp. It could be on a cool down with jet boost and would activate a jetpack animation jumping into or out of combat.

 

Thoughts? Feedback?

 

Not disagreeing with you but it would be very hard to balance with Torque Boosters. 10 second Hyrdolic Override plus leap escape would be op.

The problem is that the Merc dps is already most effective class for low skill players. Any buffs to Merc dps that are easily accessible to all player skill levels will make Merc dps OP amongst low skill players. What needs to be done is to offer buffs to Merc dps that are difficult for newbies to use.

 

Typically such buffs take one of three forms:

 

1) An new attack that does not respect the global cooldown. Newbies have a lower APS (action per second) than experienced players so this is one way to place additional Merc output on a higher shelf that requires more skill to reach.

 

2) A defensive heal (say, Rapid Scan) that is instant cast if it is procc'ed. Newbies often can't keep track of ability procs, so again, this is a way to put output on a higher shelf. For a long time I have suggested that Kolto Missile be given a 10% chance to proc an instant Rapid Scan. Seeing as how Sorcs already have such a heal that does not require any proc, I can't see why this would be unbalancing.

 

3) An ability that becomes useful when chained with other abilities. Power Surge + Conc Missile is a good example.

 

It wouldn't be hard to design a Merc dps buff that is difficult for newbies to access. But I doubt it will happen. You are probably better off if you want to be a ranged dps to just reroll as Sorc.

The problem is that the Merc dps is already most effective class for low skill players. Any buffs to Merc dps that are easily accessible to all player skill levels will make Merc dps OP amongst low skill players. What needs to be done is to offer buffs to Merc dps that are difficult for newbies to use.

 

Typically such buffs take one of three forms:

 

1) An new attack that does not respect the global cooldown. Newbies have a lower APS (action per second) than experienced players so this is one way to place additional Merc output on a higher shelf that requires more skill to reach.

 

2) A defensive heal (say, Rapid Scan) that is instant cast if it is procc'ed. Newbies often can't keep track of ability procs, so again, this is a way to put output on a higher shelf. For a long time I have suggested that Kolto Missile be given a 10% chance to proc an instant Rapid Scan. Seeing as how Sorcs already have such a heal that does not require any proc, I can't see why this would be unbalancing.

 

3) An ability that becomes useful when chained with other abilities. Power Surge + Conc Missile is a good example.

 

It wouldn't be hard to design a Merc dps buff that is difficult for newbies to access. But I doubt it will happen. You are probably better off if you want to be a ranged dps to just reroll as Sorc.

 

I have to disagree with your assessment, PvP wise its our survivability that is lacking. Complicating our rotation with more "procs/buffs" will not help us survive. we currently have some of the highest cooldowns in the game; knowing the right time to use them is a steep enough learning curve for most players. A disengage ability is still needed for this class, we don't have force bubbles, and we don't have a vanishes. Patch 2.7 will help to some degree.

 

Also your advice to "re-roll" is a unwanted phrase/comment in these forums and disrespectful to the die hard merc/commando community.

I am planning on suggesting/asking about the possibility of a disengage ability in the upcoming Commando questions. I think that would round out our escape tools quite nicely.

I couldn't agree more. Jet boosts and hydrolics can only do so much in ranked pvp to keep melee away and its no use against ranged.

I am planning on suggesting/asking about the possibility of a disengage ability in the upcoming Commando questions. I think that would round out our escape tools quite nicely.

 

Why don't you ask for Jet Rebounder to lower the cooldown of Electronet ?

 

 

I kid ... I kid...

I am planning on suggesting/asking about the possibility of a disengage ability in the upcoming Commando questions. I think that would round out our escape tools quite nicely.

 

I support this.

 

For some time now, I've been wondering if the root of all our problems is the fact that we can't avoid being opened on (only counter is a guard, which isn't always available in solo ranked; either because of ignorant players, lack of Dps, lack of tanks in queue, or just plain lack of classes with guard.) and the fact that once we are opened on (even if the op gets caught out of stealth or the sorc is opened on the same time as us L2P isn't gonna help,) we can't disengage. Would be interesting to see how we would play if they gave mercs a disengage. My vote, 10 second invisibility that allows us to heal (only heal without it being broken) freely without being detected but has a 2-3 minute cooldown. Stealth scan wouldn't work against us, neither would aoe or dots knock us out of invisibility. It wouldn't break combat so we can't recharge and reload, but it would disengage us so that we could heal ourselves and it would make us less likely to experience unavoidable deaths.

 

So please, ask them about disengage. It's not a want, IMO it's a need.

I guess the reason I suggested this is because I would really like to see some sort of jet pack animation! Wouldn't it be sweet if our BHs could jet pack in, or jet pack out of combat??

Between jet boost, hydraulic override, electronet and rocketpunch I feel like I have more than enough escape tools at least as arsenal. What I feel I'm lacking is abilities to use while kiting if tech override is on cool down. I can't put out the damage on the run that I can on my madness sorc for example. Hopefully the interrupt immunity on energy shield being moved to tier 2 of the healing tree will help fix that (not sure what I'd sacrifice to get it, but it's probably worth it). I don't have issues escaping, but I can't always put out pressure on my attackers to kite effectively.

 

I also like to run with the 2 piece healer bonus to lower the cool down of hydraulic override. Between the decreased cool down and the increased duration it's usually available to me when I need it.

Between jet boost, hydraulic override, electronet and rocketpunch I feel like I have more than enough escape tools at least as arsenal. What I feel I'm lacking is abilities to use while kiting if tech override is on cool down. I can't put out the damage on the run that I can on my madness sorc for example. Hopefully the interrupt immunity on energy shield being moved to tier 2 of the healing tree will help fix that (not sure what I'd sacrifice to get it, but it's probably worth it). I don't have issues escaping, but I can't always put out pressure on my attackers to kite effectively.

 

I also like to run with the 2 piece healer bonus to lower the cool down of hydraulic override. Between the decreased cool down and the increased duration it's usually available to me when I need it.

 

Your gimping yourself by trying to dps with a 2pc healer bonus imo. The escape/leap would give us a 2nd option to put distance between ourselves and an opponent instead of having to pop every cooldown we have to maybe survive.

The only thing that I could think of that could help with this and I'm probably going to get a bit of flak for a wow reference but giving you guys a heroic leapesk skill. That would go perfectly with the while jet pack theme of the bh. Just give the move a like 10-15 m range and a like 30 sec cd so it's not too op that IMO would be fair but a restriction would be that it can only be use on platforms LEVEL with the player to make it fair so that in HB mercs couldn't run into pit then jump up to the goal. But idk I don't play a merc or mando this is just from the outside looking in if there really is a problem with that

My Opinion:

Mercenary needs to have their defensive cooldowns shortened to be viable, even after 2.7 changes.

 

Example:

-Reduce the cooldown of jet boost by 5 seconds

-Reduce the cooldown of hydraulic overides by 5 seconds

-Reduce the cooldown of "chafe flare" talented effects by 10 seconds

 

Important Note:

Devs don't read "class forums" section of forums. You can tell by how many replies there are to relevant class balance issues across all classes. Chances of this thread being read is 0%. They only reply to threads they have started themselves such as upcoming changes to the next patch or class representative election threads.

Edited March 3, 2014 by DkSharktooth

Totally Agree, and I would suggest to use the jetpack as animation:

 

Put the Override as proc and use the replace it with "like op-rolling" ability

I don't think you guys have thought this through... don't worry. I did it for you.

 

let's say we get an ability like a wow hunter's disengage. that ability applied a single target root for a few seconds. is this comparable to what you guys want? even if it didn't apply the root, you would almost certainly need to burn electro net and/or hydraulic overrides immediately before or after using it. here's why. this ability would help vs melee classes... mara/sent, jugg/guard, shadow/sin, and op and vg/pt. so you use your disengage to get away from them. mara/sent and jugg/guard will just force leap right back to you, wasting the disengage. dps shadow/sin will just force speed right back to you, tanks will force pull you to them, wasting the disengage. op willl do a cute little somersault and be right back on you and vg will just yank you right back, wasting the disengage. so unless electro net is off cd, its a pointless ability than will ultimately provide very little actual benefit.

 

it's a monumentally stupid idea. what we need as a better anti gap closer to keep our range, not another ability to create a gap. electronet is really good for this. it would be better if we could use it more. longer duration/shorter cd.

I don't think you guys have thought this through... don't worry. I did it for you.

 

let's say we get an ability like a wow hunter's disengage. that ability applied a single target root for a few seconds. is this comparable to what you guys want? even if it didn't apply the root, you would almost certainly need to burn electro net and/or hydraulic overrides immediately before or after using it. here's why. this ability would help vs melee classes... mara/sent, jugg/guard, shadow/sin, and op and vg/pt. so you use your disengage to get away from them. mara/sent and jugg/guard will just force leap right back to you, wasting the disengage. dps shadow/sin will just force speed right back to you, tanks will force pull you to them, wasting the disengage. op willl do a cute little somersault and be right back on you and vg will just yank you right back, wasting the disengage. so unless electro net is off cd, its a pointless ability than will ultimately provide very little actual benefit.

 

it's a monumentally stupid idea. what we need as a better anti gap closer to keep our range, not another ability to create a gap. electronet is really good for this. it would be better if we could use it more. longer duration/shorter cd.

 

Apology but I disagree with you for a simple reason: all is about a strike and counterstrike, the Merc so far need a strike/counterstrike more (+1) to be challenging in pvp. In otherwords obviously an opponent can leap on you but after you used your escape ability you can still use the your Hydraulic Override if your Net is in CD.

 

And I would stress the Arsenal is the tree who need it more as it can't really kite the opponent.

Did someone just suggest that the BIGGEST BURST CLASS IN THE GAME NEEDS A KITE ABILITY?!?!?!?

 

In my personal opinion, merc's don't need any escape/leap (And yes I play them all the time and actually love doing so).

 

We have the strongest single aoe ability in the game now, we have a 6 or 10 second escape ability in hydraulics (yes its slow, but at least it prevents being pulled back unlike force speed in dps specs), of all the dps/heal classes in the game, we are (to sadly use biowares horrid terms) the only ones that can truly "make them pay". Yea so what if we are squishy outside of our rather long defensive cooldowns? That's kinda the point of the cd. (and they reset each arena)

 

The only non-bug fix change I could ever support in fairness to the game would be a passive increase in the speed boost granted by hydraulics ONLY FOR MERCS, something that puts it up to maybe 50-75% movement boost.

 

On a side note, someone please make the *********** knock-back activate immediately, not with a stupid delay.... No other KB is that delayed.

Hydrolic overrides is meh.. Let's face it. It's our only /sigh "escape" when we get focused in wzs.. Which we all know we are the first focus targets.

 

How about we get a jetpack escape/leap with a cool down similar to exfiltrate OPs have? A new ability would calm the community and give mercs at least SOME survivability in pvp. It could be on a cool down with jet boost and would activate a jetpack animation jumping into or out of combat.

 

Thoughts? Feedback?

 

Like maybe he uses the boosters on the bottom of his boots to push himself self back away from the enemy?:cool:

BIGGEST BURST CLASS IN THE GAME.

 

lol

see:

Rage Mara/Jugg (maintained all single-target burst)

Carnage Mara

Deception Sin

Lightning Sorc

Pyro PT

Eng/Leth hybrid Sniper

 

All of these can match the burst or top it while only one (lightning sorc) suffers from such a dps loss under pressure like mercs. Said spec also has an endless resource pool. Just stop.

Edited April 10, 2014 by PhatMcMuffins

My Opinion:

 

-Reduce the cooldown of jet boost by 5 seconds

-Reduce the cooldown of hydraulic overides by 5 seconds

 

i think these both happen in gunnery/arsenal..+4 sec duration on HO and -5 cd on JB, there's also the root on JB, stun on RP..

this while HO purges from impairing effects, which is not op but really good and in other classes you need to train it with considerable expence of skill points. in general HO is superior to FSp which is what you'd think to aim at first..

if a class is not the best starter for pvping it doesn't mean you don't have a viable class..sorry if it feels like a row against, but i have a commando and i just feel good in wz as on my sage, and at doing the same things..especially in fking arenas..i mean, it's like having EN on 1 min cd lol

 

oh and arsenal procs for insta rapid scan and can heal ( 2 insta healing scans) with power surge and this makes the best healing burst for a dps class..

 

 

My vote, 10 second invisibility that allows us to heal (only heal without it being broken) freely without being detected but has a 2-3 minute cooldown. Stealth scan wouldn't work against us, neither would aoe or dots knock us out of invisibility. It wouldn't break combat so we can't recharge and reload, but it would disengage us so that we could heal ourselves and it would make us less likely to experience unavoidable deaths.

 

rofl at this

 

the problem is that kiting must be learnt and there's no exp boost for it.

I don't really have too many problems with Melee users. Most marauders and Sentinels open with their charge or whatever so using the Jet boost into an Unload then firing off some tracers is fine. And if they don't open with their charge I think Electro web makes it unusable for a couple seconds allowing for an Electro web into Jet boost into unload and effectively keeping them at range quite easy. I may be 100% off but it's worked for me for the most part.

I've done some thinking about this and here are my thoughts:

 

The ability should be like a jet pack. It will put us into the air for 'X' number of seconds. An animation similar to DFA could be used. While in the air, we will be immune to melee attacks (similar to the way that saber reflect only stops ranged attacks). It would also be cool if the exhaust did some small amount of damage to any enemies below us, but I feel like that may be asking for too much. It would also be good if we could trigger while stunned much like pyros can do with their shoulder cannon.

That could be nice for the new ability for 55-60 that's is coming...

Hydrolic overrides is meh.. Let's face it. It's our only /sigh "escape" when we get focused in wzs..

 

HO is our only escape?

 

Arsenal tree has the RP root, JB pushback increase, Unload slow, Electro Net, Electro Dart, CM.

Pyro tree has Sweltering Heat slow, Degauss, Jet Rebounder, Electro Net, Electro Dart, CM.

 

Just sounds like you need to kite more and stay at the 30m range to let mDPS soak up the damage

 

Personally, I would much rather have some heavy armour that actually works.

What i want see is a "oh sith" button, to escape, to some point survive mutiple attacking enemies, especially if their use stun, every other class has at least one such ability.

 

Situation:

2-4 enemies are attacking and additional are not the dumbest and uses stun.

Some Solutions

what classes can do to escape or mostly avoid these situation, if necessary with use of stunbreaker (DD and heal spec perspective):

 

Scoundrel: Vanish (choose when to join battle), Battle Vanish, AOE stun, almost invulnerability for up to 5 sec., roll,

Gunslinger: almost invulnerability for up to 5 sec, complete immuntity to cc for up to 23 sec. every 45 sec., aoe knockback with immobilize, roll

Sage: stun bubble (one spec), force barrier, force speed

Vanguard: AOE stun then hold the line, shoulder cannon (at least some damge in stun, very good for defending)

Guardian: MIGHTY passive selfheal, AOE stun and slow, almost invulnerability of 3 sec + reflect damage, instantly up 30m movement

Shadow (vague, i dont play this class) : Vanish (choose when to join battle), Battle Vanish, Resilience (invulnerability, bye bye electro net), stunmaster.

Sentinel (vague, i dont play this class): battle vanish, invulnerability and i think he have more

 

Commando / merc (i give a rating from 1 = best and 6 = worst, based on situation escape / avoid):

Energy / reactive shield = reduced damge 25%, good ability but not activitable in stun, will not save him against multiple enemies anyway, at least survive 1 or 2 seconds longer. RATING 4

Passive selfheal up to 35% = saved me from time to time, but means 2-3 attacks at once makes it useless. RATING 5

Concussion charge / jet boost = not activitable in stun, for this situiation many times not effective, because of gap closers. RATING 5

Hold the line / hydraulic override = THAT escape skill for trooper / bounty hunters, but good for only one dd spec, no immunity to stun, so if the attackers not retarded = no escape possible, but at least a chance to escape, a win of a few seconds. RATING 3

 

Multiple Enemies in combination with the Bioware CC system, the merc lack the ability, that all other classes have, to either avoid / escape / survive situations against multiple enemies. The Merc is the only class, that is DEPENDENT on help from other classes, to manage these situations. For all random matches a "no go" and the reason why he is target number 1

 

So my idea:

Change the way concussion charge / jet boost works and make it useable in stun. If activated in stun, targets gets immobilzed instead of slowed. Direct damage ends this effect.