I've been playing Merc a lot this and last season and I can see that DPS Merc was pretty over tuned in 5.0. But in 6.0 I would argue Merc is the most balanced DPS right now with a viable Dot and Burst spec. Concentrated Fire gives Mercs the ability to dish out a medium amount of damage which is great. Mercenaries are performing well in PVP and PVE but not to the point where it is overpowered. Merc is also one of the only anti-stealth classes and by removing their decent damage you are in fact buffing the stealth classes even more. If you compare elo from mercenary to other classes, mercenaries are right in the middle of the pack (around 1600 highest). If you look at both Assassin's and Operative's their highest is right around 1800-1900. Mercenaries have the ability to survive and find people from stealth while being able to do damage. By nerfing this set Mercenary will not be seen nearly as much and will allow stealth classes to have even more power over ranked than before. I understand Merc healer is over tuned but taking the DPS down along with it seems quite stupid as Merc DPS is very balanced IMO. If you are looking for something to nerf about Merc healers look at taking away the 30% DR for AOE and Stuns from healers as it allows Merc healers to sit in cleave and be virtually unphased whereas Ops and Sorcs have to kite around outside of cleave.

I agree, the set bonus should nerf the healing aspect if its really that problematic. Alternatively they should just stop making general sets that are good for every spec in that class.

I agree, the set bonus should nerf the healing aspect if its really that problematic. Alternatively they should just stop making general sets that are good for every spec in that class.

 

Agreed. It makes more sense to go directly to the merc healing spec, and adjust the ability numbers! Is it that hard to do the math and figure out how much they ought to lower something? It just seems like a heavy-handed attempt to fix a problem that has nothing to do with the gear set.

 

Use some common sense here, BW.

 

Oh, something to think about Bioware! Instead of nerfing this gear set, why don't you guys put some thought into fixing the merc healer's gear set so that they aren't using the DPS set in the first place? Right now, imo the merc healer's gear set is useless! It's an awful gear set that ought to be improved.

Agreed. It makes more sense to go directly to the merc healing spec, and adjust the ability numbers! Is it that hard to do the math and figure out how much they ought to lower something? It just seems like a heavy-handed attempt to fix a problem that has nothing to do with the gear set.

 

Use some common sense here, BW.

 

Oh, something to think about Bioware! Instead of nerfing this gear set, why don't you guys put some thought into fixing the merc healer's gear set so that they aren't using the DPS set in the first place? Right now, imo the merc healer's gear set is useless! It's an awful gear set that ought to be improved.

 

Theres a Merc healer gear set??

if you guys actually played on the pts u would know that the set gets nerfed for the healers and the dps gets the old setbonus passively through their tree

if you guys actually played on the pts u would know that the set gets nerfed for the healers and the dps gets the old setbonus passively through their tree

 

Can you provide link or source?

if you guys actually played on the pts u would know that the set gets nerfed for the healers and the dps gets the old setbonus passively through their tree

 

WHAT?? Your saying the set bonus is now just baked into the merc class talent tree???? That would be absolutely insane.

if you guys actually played on the pts u would know that the set gets nerfed for the healers and the dps gets the old setbonus passively through their tree

 

I haven't been able to get on the PTS as it gives me an error everytime but I've heard that it's only baked into the IO tree and not the arsenal tree. IO needs a buff for pvp as there is no reason at this point to take it over arsenal but the way to "Buff" it is not by nerfing arsenal lmao. If I'm wrong please let me know

IO needs a buff for pvp as there is no reason at this point to take it over arsenal

 

I mean this is wrong, but I much prefer IO so if bioware agrees with you, I won't complain lol. I can imagine why people might be of this opinion though, since the number of people playing IO anywhere close to correctly can probably be counted on one hand.

IO is arguably better than Arsenal, so not useless by any means.

I mean this is wrong, but I much prefer IO so if bioware agrees with you, I won't complain lol. I can imagine why people might be of this opinion though, since the number of people playing IO anywhere close to correctly can probably be counted on one hand.

 

I'm an IO main but arsenal is a lot more useful in ranked content than IO. For PVE I assume IO is better in some situations but this thread is mainly concerning arsenal. Arsenal doesn't need a nerf. For ranked there is a burst meta so IO gets thrown on the back burner as it has less controlled burst than Arsenal.

Edited May 30, 2020 by slashbrant

I haven't seen any patch notes yet. But from what I gleaned from PTS forum is the 10%crit is gone. From a healing point of view, the loss of crit sucks, but the magic of the set is all in generating stacks quickly for high uptime on supercharge casting immunity. That's intact so I'm kosher with any other changes.

Anyone ever mess with any other merc sets? I like my Arsenal Merc tbh will play it even if they eat a nerf. I just wonder if maybe there's something better or at least an additional option that is equally useful as the CF set?

I'm an IO main but arsenal is a lot more useful in ranked content than IO. For PVE I assume IO is better in some situations but this thread is mainly concerning arsenal. Arsenal doesn't need a nerf. For ranked there is a burst meta so IO gets thrown on the back burner as it has less controlled burst than Arsenal.

 

Lemme guess: still using energized charges?

Oh please,

Don't start with the nerf talks , for the one time merc is overall balanced except for pvp people start whining about it.

All heal specs can compete with each other at this moment.

If they do nerve concentraded fire there isn't a single set that is usable for heals since all others are trash.

Edited May 31, 2020 by Warrioroffhell

This cant be serious. Arsenal mercenary is already one of weakest dps specs among all. Its burst became irrelevant compared to operatives and assassins and its sustained damage is low as always. Any further nerfs will kill arsenal completely both in pve and pvp. I already abandoned my merc in ranked just because its damage is weaker compared to all other range classes. Dev's calculations seems to be absolutely inaccurate and wrong...

Lemme guess: still using energized charges?

 

what other tactical would u use?

what other tactical would u use?

 

Learn to use continuous fire. It's frustrating at first, and requires more skill, but it's the way to go.

Learn to use continuous fire. It's frustrating at first, and requires more skill, but it's the way to go.

 

I've tried it and sure it does more damage but you sacrifice your basically 90% uptime on supercharged. I use it in cleave games but it basically makes CC impossible whereas with EC you don't need to spread to still do a lot of damage with. CC meta on DM basically demands that u don't spread on every target and with such a high AOE percentage in your rotation it can lose games. I assume if you use it selectively it could be good but I don't see giving up the extra single target dps viable in CC games.

I've tried it and sure it does more damage but you sacrifice your basically 90% uptime on supercharged. I use it in cleave games but it basically makes CC impossible whereas with EC you don't need to spread to still do a lot of damage with. CC meta on DM basically demands that u don't spread on every target and with such a high AOE percentage in your rotation it can lose games. I assume if you use it selectively it could be good but I don't see giving up the extra single target dps viable in CC games.

 

Nah the dps boost from energized is puny. Once you get used to it, you'll take continuous fire over it even for single target. But you do you man- if BW balances IO with the assumption that people are still using energized and let continuous slip under the radar, I won't complain

heals getting nerfed because of pve is just ridiculous. healers in pvp are still slightly undertuned and merc will once again be at the bottom after this nerf.

 

unless they add a heals set worth using, this is outrageous