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Mercenary Manifesto


cashogy

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NB: The majority of this thread has been a discussion of how to address the interrupt vulnerability of Tracer Missile and Power Shot. As of 11/24, this is the most up-to-date list of class changes based on the discussion in this thread.

 

Dear BiowarEA: These changes (or changes like them) need to be made the the Mercenary/Commando advanced class in 1.6. Im going to use Merc terminology throughout this, but obviously Commando equivalents apply. Lets get started.....

 

General Mercenary:

- Missile Blast now slows the enemy by 30% for 6s (Mercenary only change, will not affect Powertech's Missile Blast)

 

Arsenal Tree:

- change Muzzle Fluting, a tier 2 box, to the following: Muzzle Fluting: Reduces the activation time of Power Shot and Tracer Missile by 0.5 seconds. In addition, Rocket Punch has a 100% chance to proc 3 charges of "Run and Gun". Abilities with cast times will activate instantly, and consume 1 charge of "Run and Gun". "Run and Gun" lasts for 15s, or until all charges are consumed

- power barrier -> change this back to 2% damage reduction per stack

- change Afterbuners, a tier 3 box, to the following: Rocket Punch has a [50 / 100]% chance to KNOCKBACK AND IMMOBILIZE the target for 4 seconds. Damage caused after 2 seconds ends the effect. In addition, Jet Boost's knockback effect is stronger and pushes enemies [2 / 4] meters further away.

- change Jet Escape, a tier 4 box, to the following: Reduces the cooldown of Jet Boost by [2.5 seconds / 5 seconds] and Determination by [15 seconds / 30 seconds] AND you have a [50 / 100]% chance to increase your movement speed by 30% for 4s after using Jet Boost

 

 

Pyrotech Tree:

- switch System Calibrations (tier 1 Pyrotech) with Hired Muscle (tier 1 Combat Medic).

- change Hired Muscle to [2 / 4]% tech and ranged critical chance increase

- change Deguass, a tier 3 box, to the following: Energy Shield has a [50 / 100]% chance to remove all movement-impairing effects when activated and a [50 / 100]% chance to be immune to all movement-impairing effects for the duration of Energy Shield

 

 

Combat Medic Tree:

- switch System Calibrations (tier 1 Pyrotech) with Hired Muscle (tier 1 Combat Medic).

- change System Calibrations to increase alacrity by [1 / 3 / 5]%

- change Superheated Gas, a tier 2 box, to vent 16 heat (up from 8)

- allow Kolto Shell to be applied to an unlimited number of allies, and reduce its heat cost to 8

- change Cure Mind, a tier 5 box to the following: Cure now removes negative mental AND FORCE effects and heals the target for X

- reduce cooldown of Emergency Scan to 18s

 

 

 

These are all relatively simple changes to make. Now, before I get a ton of people telling me these changes would imbalance PvE or make Merc OP in PvP, realize that none of these changes will affect damage output or heal output. They are, for the most part, all changes to increase mobility and utiltiy of the Merc class.

 

I encourage players to show their support for Mercs, who have become the joke of PvP over the last 6 months. Im more than willing to discuss why i think these mechanics are necessary, as I do think all of these changes *need* to be made.

 

With a new warzone in 1.6, there will be more focus on PvP. Overall class balance needs to be addressed, and these changes will bring Merc up to a level where they can effectively compete.

Edited by cashogy
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/notsigned.

 

Clearly you do not understand how this would impact both aspects of the spectrum (for Arsenal) negatively. Some of those are nerfs for PvE yet clearly a buff for PvP. Not only that, you are wanting your arsenal to have the ability to NOT be able to be locked down which is poor planning. Yes, mercs need a buff of some sort for mobility in PvP, but not to the extent of making them spamming Tracer Missiles while strafing.

 

Lets just pick at the Tracer Missile becoming instant but doing 15% less damage.

 

The GCD on instants is 1.5sec. With a cast, your GCD reflects the cast time. Therefore, my 1.4s Tracer (with CR up) will be able to be spammed every 1.4s without a damage reduction.

 

You are saying to increase the time inbetween Tracers by .1s and reduce the damage by 15%.

 

 

 

I will add I do agree with the Heatseeker buff. It does little damage for our end tier ability.

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realize that none of these changes will affect damage output or heal output. They are, for the most part, all changes to increase mobility and utiltiy of the Merc class.

 

For starters the changes you said to Combat Medic would actually increase healing done.

 

"allow Kolto Shell to be applied to an unlimited number of allies, and reduce its heat cost to 8"

This would be 2400 heal to everyone and not just 4 people

 

"reduce cooldown of Emergency Scan to 18s"

Faster 6300 heal

 

None of these changes you said would be viable. It would break pve too.

 

/notsigned

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/notsigned.

 

Clearly you do not understand how this would impact both aspects of the spectrum (for Arsenal) negatively. Some of those are nerfs for PvE yet clearly a buff for PvP. Not only that, you are wanting your arsenal to have the ability to NOT be able to be locked down which is poor planning. Yes, mercs need a buff of some sort for mobility in PvP, but not to the extent of making them spamming Tracer Missiles while strafing.

 

Lets just pick at the Tracer Missile becoming instant but doing 15% less damage.

 

The GCD on instants is 1.5sec. With a cast, your GCD reflects the cast time. Therefore, my 1.4s Tracer (with CR up) will be able to be spammed every 1.4s without a damage reduction.

 

You are saying to increase the time inbetween Tracers by .1s and reduce the damage by 15%.

 

 

 

I will add I do agree with the Heatseeker buff. It does little damage for our end tier ability.

 

Tracer Missile already hits easily for 2.5-3k. for a low heat, spammable set-up ability that damage is quite high.

 

take 15% away from Tracer Missile, and you are looking at 2.2-2.5k damage per missile. over 3 missiles, that is a loss of ~900-1500 potential damage.

 

heatseeker hits for 4.5-5k. increase that by 15%, and it goes to 5.2k-5.8k. it would likely be reasonable to hit 6k from time to time if you are optimized for power stacking

 

so you are trading ~900-1500 damage on the front end, for ~800-1000 damage on the backend. a potential loss of 100-500 overall damage is minimal, which is the impact that i said it would have in PvE.

 

and can i ask why youre taking critical reactions in your build? you need to spend 7 points in combat medic in order to get that. Arsenal is a DPS class, you could be getting better benefits for that many points than .1s off your TM cast time. not to mention that .1s is literally going to change nothing.

 

might i add that overall, instant TM/PS would likely benefit PvE play. there are many fight mechanics that require players to stay mobile for extended periods. instead of ending up spamming rapid shots, you will still be able to use tracer missile and/or power shot. overall, i think that would be a benefit for PvE

 

edit: i completely read over your comment about how Mercs would not be able to be "locked down". being "locked down" should not be a balance mechanism. Arsenal Merc is nearly impossible to play in a mildly competitive PvP scenario. The number of ways to have casts interrupted in this game is extensive, and Merc needs a way to maintain its DPS output. Merc would still be able to be "locked down" the same way as any other class: CC, snare/roots, group focus fire.

Edited by cashogy
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For starters the changes you said to Combat Medic would actually increase healing done.

 

 

This would be 2400 heal to everyone and not just 4 people

 

 

Faster 6300 heal

 

None of these changes you said would be viable. It would break pve too.

 

/notsigned

 

Kolto Shell is Mercs reactive heal. Just like Operative and Sorc with their HoT and Bubble, we should be able to spread our reactive heal to all group members.

 

a 3s cooldown to Emergency Scan is hardly going to break balance, and i have never seen it heal for any more than 5.5k. Rapid Scan is able to hit similar numbers, and that has no cooldown. this change would simply mean that Merc would have access to its single "oh-crap" heal 3s more often.

 

2 changes which i think would have a positive effect on Merc healers, without drastically increasing their performance so that it is greater than other healing classes

Edited by cashogy
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For starters the changes you said to Combat Medic would actually increase healing done.

 

 

This would be 2400 heal to everyone and not just 4 people

 

 

Faster 6300 heal

 

None of these changes you said would be viable. It would break pve too.

 

/notsigned

 

Always good to see people who have no idea what they're talking about.

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I don't agree with making tracer instant permanently but change a talent so when power shield is active tracer will be instant for a duration, this should keep the class image as it is but give us mobility hen we need it and shouldn't call for the damage reductions.

I believe power shot should be instant to keep inline with pt/van flame burst.

No limit on kolto shell is a great idea and will bring us inline with other healers slightly.

My own would be to bring the higher% healing buff back while super chargegas is active.

 

I don't like the changing the talents from one tree to another, I like the way they are atm just the deep trees need slight additions to help is out.

Edited by geftra
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Reducing dmg on Power Shot? Tracer Missile? are you insane? Any more dmg reduction and we'll be the ultimate jokes in pvp (which we are pretty much anyway).

 

All I'm asking to Bioware is to either make one or various channeled attacks uninterruptible and give us another defensive skill or whatsoever, because when I see a maraudeur that has in battle stealth, dmg reduction skills, a 4 second godmode button, heals and uber dps, I really want some of these skills...

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I want a slow its very own move not attached to somthing like full auto or kolto bomb and the crappy dots slow. Also some kinda of crappish heal so we have somthing to use if med probe and adv med probe get intterupted. lasty get rid of that useless talent up in the healing tree that ticks ur tramua probe off when u hammershot an enemy.
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Bump for justice. Although half of these changes are not exactly what we need, we definitely demand attention this patch, nothing less will be accepted. If we go another patch without viable and adequate changes, I'm done and unsubed permanently. I'm sure I'm not the only one.

 

20-30m Jetpack ablity, either targeted or backwards from out current point.

 

Castable while moving full auto.

 

Reliable way to proc Sweltering heat snare.

 

Reduced cooldown on our knockback concussive charge down to 15 seconds again, this nerf did not make sense.

 

Increase charged barrier damage reduction back to 2% per point, this change also did not make sense. We're a heavy armor class, let us actually have the damage mitigation heavy armor demands.

 

Keep the knockback in addition with the snare of Concussive force, giving a RANGED class a 4m snare is just plain counterproductive, at least make it worthwhile using and a real game changer. Drastically reduce resolve produced from knockback.

 

These are a few of the less intrusive changes the Mando/Merc Community has been suggesting for months and to be honest I still think we need more to be ranked viable. If nothing is done in 1.6 the extinction of Mando/Mercs is absolute.

Edited by LeonHawkeye
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Bump for justice. Although half of these changes are not exactly what we need, we definitely demand attention this patch, nothing less will be accepted. If we go another patch without viable and adequate changes, I'm done and unsubed permanently. I'm sure I'm not the only one.

 

Agreed. I am currently enjoying my time on Rift, but I would like to play both game. I am not from the biggest part of the community, playing a Commando only, for PVP only but it matters. Not only for the few reminding players in our situation, but for the game as a whole. This is just not serious to keep a situation like this for so long (since 1.2...). People (even not playing Commando) won't invest time in this game if it lakes credibility because Devs/Community managers are not responsive/aware of problem like this. I don't care about cosmetic changes, puppets or new compagnons. I wan't to enjoy my time in PVP and not smash my keyboard every time.

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instant power shot/tracer missile does nothing but improve Mercs ability to maintain its DPS while mobile and/or under pressure from enemies. this is something that Merc DESPERATELY lacks right now

 

a temporary interrupt immunity does not solve it, because Merc being effective is tied directly to casting abilities 8 times out of 10. that, and interrupt immunity protects only against interrupts, not against knockbacks, pulls, leaps, etc. there are more ways to interrupt casts, other than interrupts.

 

in conjunction with making those abilities instant, moving the damage output to the back-end would be necessary in my opinion. the overall result would be the slightest reduction in overall damage, as i have already outlined. but in order to maintain balance, this is necessary.

 

and to those of you that think this will increase Tracer Missile spam, how do you still not realize that Tracer Missile spam is going nowhere? Arsenal is 100% dependent upon using Tracer Missile as a filler/set-up ability. Casted or instant, Tracer Missile is still going to be the most frequently used ability by Arsenal spec'd mercs.

 

 

 

now, for those of you that think we need skills like marauders, or that we need leaps or burst runs, i suggest that you re-roll as the classes that possess those tools. Merc does not need those abilities. As far as "escape" abilities go, the two i have suggested would be simple to implement and have a very positive effect.

 

you need to keep in mind when you suggest things, that creating a new ability is a multi-departmental task. the more departments involve, the longer it takes for anything to get done. almost all of the changes i suggested merely required re-writing some of the values in the coding. much easier to accomplish these changes that to create whole new abilities that really do not solve anything

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and can i ask why youre taking critical reactions in your build? you need to spend 7 points in combat medic in order to get that. Arsenal is a DPS class, you could be getting better benefits for that many points than .1s off your TM cast time. not to mention that .1s is literally going to change nothing.

 

You do realize that either 1 point in CR and one point in System Calibrations is necessary right? If you don't go that route and feel more comfortable with CR maxed out- you do that.

 

If you are not doing that- then you are wrong.

 

Also, you grab CR not for the time off of Tracer Missile... you grab it for the time off of Unload. Unload becomes a 2.8s channel which adds up over time and adds to your APM. High APM = more attacks = more DPS.

 

I currently Parse 1900-2100 on NiM Firebrand and Stormcaller (16). That is a mobile fight, but if you manage your abilities EFFICIENTLY you won't have to deal with a major DPS loss while moving in which you can ramp it back up when you are stationary.

 

Again I will explain why instant Tracers for a 15% damage reduction is terrible.

 

My Tracers currently crit for 3800. With the damage reduction, it will do 550-600 less per tracer. That is a MAJOR loss.

Not only that, but Tracer will now be only used on the GCD, which for instants is 1.5 seconds. Yes, its only +.1s to your cast but that is still .1s, and for someone min/maxing that is quite a bit. All of these losses for what? To be able to use 1-2 tracers while moving?

 

Firebrand and Stormcaller = If you are efficient, you will use the knockback to get to your shields. Yes you can do this on Nightmare. That is not even a full GCD to use a Tracer, and also the bosses take like 90% less damage. Running back to the tanks would be the only time you would need that, but with Dart, RS and HSM... (3 GCDs) you get to the tank in enough time for instant Tracers to be obsolete.

 

Toth and Zorn = Instant Tracers are literally unnecessary in this fight. If you're moving around to the point of needing it- you should rethink your class.

 

Colonel Vorgath = Instant Tracers definitely not needed.

 

Kephess = Instant Tracers not needed. When running between droids during the later phases, Dart makes up for it since one GCD will get you to the other side assuming your Marauders take advantage of Predation (which they should be for maximizing DPS output).

 

 

So that is current content... where Instant Tracers are not needed. The only reason people want it is for PvP, which will nerf PvE.

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not signed.

 

Again, these changes do not take pve ballance into effect and the overall end result there would be less damage output.

 

Don't use the dev dessign mechanic, where by adding buffs or making changes to pvp play, you nerf pve play.

Edited by Flying-Brian
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You do realize that either 1 point in CR and one point in System Calibrations is necessary right? If you don't go that route and feel more comfortable with CR maxed out- you do that.

 

If you are not doing that- then you are wrong.

 

Also, you grab CR not for the time off of Tracer Missile... you grab it for the time off of Unload. Unload becomes a 2.8s channel which adds up over time and adds to your APM. High APM = more attacks = more DPS.

 

I currently Parse 1900-2100 on NiM Firebrand and Stormcaller (16). That is a mobile fight, but if you manage your abilities EFFICIENTLY you won't have to deal with a major DPS loss while moving in which you can ramp it back up when you are stationary.

 

Again I will explain why instant Tracers for a 15% damage reduction is terrible.

 

My Tracers currently crit for 3800. With the damage reduction, it will do 550-600 less per tracer. That is a MAJOR loss.

Not only that, but Tracer will now be only used on the GCD, which for instants is 1.5 seconds. Yes, its only +.1s to your cast but that is still .1s, and for someone min/maxing that is quite a bit. All of these losses for what? To be able to use 1-2 tracers while moving?

 

Firebrand and Stormcaller = If you are efficient, you will use the knockback to get to your shields. Yes you can do this on Nightmare. That is not even a full GCD to use a Tracer, and also the bosses take like 90% less damage. Running back to the tanks would be the only time you would need that, but with Dart, RS and HSM... (3 GCDs) you get to the tank in enough time for instant Tracers to be obsolete.

 

Toth and Zorn = Instant Tracers are literally unnecessary in this fight. If you're moving around to the point of needing it- you should rethink your class.

 

Colonel Vorgath = Instant Tracers definitely not needed.

 

Kephess = Instant Tracers not needed. When running between droids during the later phases, Dart makes up for it since one GCD will get you to the other side assuming your Marauders take advantage of Predation (which they should be for maximizing DPS output).

 

 

So that is current content... where Instant Tracers are not needed. The only reason people want it is for PvP, which will nerf PvE.

 

just so you know, alacrity does not lower the GCD. so it doesnt matter if you can cast Tracer Missile in .5s, you will still need to wait a full 1.5s for the GCD to go down before you can re-cast. for DPS specs, alacrity is one of the worst stats you can take. and i just tested this to make sure, and the GCD still has to tick down before you can cast again.

 

so alacrity has literally no impact on how quickly you can output damage. and just so you know, there are more operations than just EC, and there are plenty of mechanics were being immobile is going to get you killed.

 

 

again, these changes would not have a significant impact on PvE, no more than they would affect PvP. open your mind and understand there needs to be some give and take, and that these changes would overall offer a massive benefit to the class in both aspects of the game.

Edited by cashogy
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Your biggest issue is that it will give you to much edge in PvP.

 

Having the primary dmg abilities on casted rather than insta timers forces ranged to stand still. This is because some CC doesnt affect you like it does classes that do NOT worry about casted vs insta. For example your Melee toons require 4-10 range to do most dmg. Ranged require cast times for most abilities (high dmg ones)

 

The reason is the difference in root/snare vs interupts. Because root snares affect those that require to be close, and interupts affect those with cast times. If a merc's dmg was insta based with 30 range, they would be immune to both interupts and root/snares. This is why the changes are unwise. Name one class that can currently maximize damage from 11+range with insta cast abilities?

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