What are all thee current bad specs for each AC right now? If there is a guide for each of them, I'd appreciate it as well.

I always have had a hard time not trying to hard to win. TBH, its probably the biggest reason I dont do ranked. I got into tournaments in a video game pre online gaming and i came in last the first time, and it caused me to spend the next year to play Armored Core a disproportionate amount of time. I had a PS1 with a portable screen in my car and played there during lunches and breaks even. The next year, i took 2nd but had ruined my favorite game.

So i figure if i go in to low expectations, i can just challenge myself to do better rather than worry about wins and losses.

The only "bad" specs I can think of are:

IO merc

pyrotech powertech

lethality operative

lightning sorceror

..that's pretty much it

What about healing merc?

They have a really low Damage output, not worth it imo

They have a really low Damage output, not worth it imo

I'm going to start with IO merc. Used to play pyro a LOOOONG time ago from time to time so; maybe a good start.

 

I'm going to start with IO merc. Used to play pyro a LOOOONG time ago from time to time so; maybe a good start.

IO's not THAT bad, it's just difficult. It still does just about the same DPS as Arsenal, and the burst is comparable too, just easier to mitigate cause it's like 3-4 abilities instead of 2.

IO's not THAT bad, it's just difficult. It still does just about the same DPS as Arsenal, and the burst is comparable too, just easier to mitigate cause it's like 3-4 abilities instead of 2.

single target, I find IO to be fine. but the second I try to dot spread or (heaven forbid) boost my burst with fusion + explosive dart, I go OOM.

I also prefer the arsenal version of chaff flares just b/c I know exactly what will and will not be absorbed/resisted.

lastly, 70% snare on blazing bolts + thrill of the hunt. nuff said on that.

the pluses for IO are better against white dmg, better heal proc (well...you only need to do one thing to proc an instant. and that is often an instant itself). lastly, it's a more interesting spec. you have more buttons to push and more decisions to make. but inability to work in the dot spread w/o nursing my output with med- or rapid shots is frustrating as all get out.

edit; forgot this: ops purge you all the time. i may be mistaken, but I think both ops and sins have a utility that allows them basically to purge going into stealth or out of roll? my dots get purged all the time by ops. considering how uncleansable dots are, I'm finding that frustrating.

single target, I find IO to be fine. but the second I try to dot spread or (heaven forbid) boost my burst with fusion + explosive dart, I go OOM.

 

I also prefer the arsenal version of chaff flares just b/c I know exactly what will and will not be absorbed/resisted.

 

lastly, 70% snare on blazing bolts + thrill of the hunt. nuff said on that.

 

the pluses for IO are better against white dmg, better heal proc (well...you only need to do one thing to proc an instant. and that is often an instant itself). lastly, it's a more interesting spec. you have more buttons to push and more decisions to make. but inability to work in the dot spread w/o nursing my output with med- or rapid shots is frustrating as all get out.

 

edit; forgot this: ops purge you all the time. i may be mistaken, but I think both ops and sins have a utility that allows them basically to purge going into stealth or out of roll? my dots get purged all the time by ops. considering how uncleansable dots are, I'm finding that frustrating.

Yeah, you can take a utility to purge when using the in combat stealth on either sins or operatives; otherwise you want to use dodge/shroud which is a waste of a DCD. I found that out playing leth/DF a lot

single target, I find IO to be fine. but the second I try to dot spread or (heaven forbid) boost my burst with fusion + explosive dart, I go OOM.

 

I also prefer the arsenal version of chaff flares just b/c I know exactly what will and will not be absorbed/resisted.

 

lastly, 70% snare on blazing bolts + thrill of the hunt. nuff said on that.

 

the pluses for IO are better against white dmg, better heal proc (well...you only need to do one thing to proc an instant. and that is often an instant itself). lastly, it's a more interesting spec. you have more buttons to push and more decisions to make. but inability to work in the dot spread w/o nursing my output with med- or rapid shots is frustrating as all get out.

 

edit; forgot this: ops purge you all the time. i may be mistaken, but I think both ops and sins have a utility that allows them basically to purge going into stealth or out of roll? my dots get purged all the time by ops. considering how uncleansable dots are, I'm finding that frustrating.

Yeah, ops and sins can both purge with shroud/evasion, and an operative with evasive imperative will have roughly a 20s CD on their purge if they're constantly attacked. It's not with roll, it's shroud and evasion (1m CD), or if they have the utility for it, when they stealth out they also get a free purge.. but that's what stealth scan is for.

Also.. I really never tried to dotspread that much, only when people are bunched up like idiots. Another thing is, if your dots get purged... it's not a huge deal tbh. IO doesn't rely on its dots for a main source of its damage like Lethality does, you can just hit them with other stuff for a bit and then reapply them later. Sure, it will knock down your DPS a bit, but every DCD will do that. *shrug*

The only "bad" specs I can think of are:

 

IO merc

pyrotech powertech

lethality operative

lightning sorceror

 

 

..that's pretty much it

You forgot Concealment Operative spec.

All bets may be off on this for a bit. Playing IO and adjusting my keys on how I want to play it, I think I finally am getting myself close to using just my Naga for ability activation since I want to keep my other hand free more for strafing. I've always wanted to do that but I kept defaulting to my old standby where I use the top num keys and function keys. I hear arsenal may be more mobile and have an easier rotation.

Arsenal has a MUCH easier rotation. IO is about as difficult as this game gets when it comes to doing dmg. Arsenal is basically the "carnage" of merc (like 4-5 button rotation).

Arsenal has a MUCH easier rotation. IO is about as difficult as this game gets when it comes to doing dmg. Arsenal is basically the "carnage" of merc (like 4-5 button rotation).

I don't know if it is difficult; but I suppose as far as this game goes. It's more just annoying to me. It gives you some ways to make abilities instant but I still think the ability, followed by activation time to spread then having a second ability with an activation time that then needs yet another ability to spread ruins the flow. Like I said; they give you abilities to get past that but then your one mez has an activation time as well. And for me with my merc at level 55, I have to channel unload as well.

Probably wouldn't be too bad if they made concussion an instant and went with one less DOT and spread ability. Then I think the utility that keeps from being leapt or pulled for 4 seconds after rocket out should be a class baseline.

You forgot Concealment Operative spec.

uh no. While concealment isn't the hardest hitting for melee burst, they can still ruin your day if they even remotely have some skill so I wouldn't call it a bad spec.

Would I be strange if I said I like IO merc better than arsenal?

everyone likes IO better than arsenal. arsenal is pretty retarded. for that matter, I like healing. but the state of things makes both impractical outside of regs. I really think softening the resource management and making missile blast the dot spread mechanism instead of explosive dart would more or less fix things up. although I think MB's aoe might need to be slightly widened as well. then at least you'd have a pressure spec than can do more than pressure a dummy that doesn't move or fight back.

:2cents:

everyone likes IO better than arsenal. arsenal is pretty retarded. for that matter, I like healing. but the state of things makes both impractical outside of regs. I really think softening the resource management and making missile blast the dot spread mechanism instead of explosive dart would more or less fix things up. although I think MB's aoe might need to be slightly widened as well. then at least you'd have a pressure spec than can do more than pressure a dummy that doesn't move or fight back.

 

:2cents:

Yeah, Even in regs though; I really F'ing hate arenas. Really questioning my idea of playing lesser specs. From my sniper to a merc; it is tempting to roll FOTM. I've had fun playing IO though. Arsenal I do not find fun even if it is better. Maybe I'll try healing when I next get a good play time in.

Yeah, Even in regs though; I really F'ing hate arenas. Really questioning my idea of playing lesser specs. From my sniper to a merc; it is tempting to roll FOTM. I've had fun playing IO though. Arsenal I do not find fun even if it is better. Maybe I'll try healing when I next get a good play time in.

nah. regs are regs. the issue isn't the format. it's the competition. you usually don't face players at or near the skill cap for their specs in regs. so even if they're on a spec with a higher ceiling than yours, you probably can beat them simply because you can get more out of what you have than he can. that's kinda the problem with ranked. it's not a representative sample of the community.

this is just a theory, but I'll bet you can map the decline in popularity every season to the general skill level. like, at the start of the season, 50% of the pvp population queues ranked. after a week, it's maybe only 48%. the next week it's 45%. after 3 weeks, it's down to 20%. w/e the percentages are, I'd like to see an overlay of the skill cap. like...the lesser players stop Qing. so the mediocre players stop getting wins and just lose every time. so they stop. so the next tier up stops Qing. and so forth down the line. that is pretty much what happened in my experience. but I don't know how to make that anecdotal observation viable empirical data.

nah. regs are regs. the issue isn't the format. it's the competition. you usually don't face players at or near the skill cap for their specs in regs. so even if they're on a spec with a higher ceiling than yours, you probably can beat them simply because you can get more out of what you have than he can. that's kinda the problem with ranked. it's not a representative sample of the community.

 

this is just a theory, but I'll bet you can map the decline in popularity every season to the general skill level. like, at the start of the season, 50% of the pvp population queues ranked. after a week, it's maybe only 48%. the next week it's 45%. after 3 weeks, it's down to 20%. w/e the percentages are, I'd like to see an overlay of the skill cap. like...the lesser players stop Qing. so the mediocre players stop getting wins and just lose every time. so they stop. so the next tier up stops Qing. and so forth down the line. that is pretty much what happened in my experience. but I don't know how to make that anecdotal observation viable empirical data.

Im sure that has a lot to do with ranked. The thing is as a merc or sniper (which BTW, has a lot more DCDs than merc) you cannot escape focus. Its just painfully obvious even with mediocre opponents that you are the number one target because you have no real way to escape. Neither sniper roll nor rocket out gets you that far.

It's definitely what you say but its also a matter of some classes being better suited. I mean, operatives are not rocking ranked outside of a few exceptional ones better than me; but I definitely have a better experience on mine than I do on my sniper or not IO merc. Of course; I would say I could do better on my sniper if I had a guaranteed trinity comp as well compared to my operative but given no matchmaking in regs; and only like to like in YOLO; that doesn't really matter because it's likely not going to happen.

BTW. It is really fun to drink beer and queue on these alts of mine I have not idea what I am doing half the time and tunneling the other half and admittedly hope for someone else to carry me. LOL Just played a match with my operative I barely gave a though to priorities in the last 6 months at least, along with all new keybindings. I'm sure everyone loves me. Now; the IO merc, for as bad as I have been; I've been 3rd DPS and near top objectives every time in mids. I'm having fun thoug, so....

Yep, IO merc is definitely garbage

http://imgur.com/a/bdbdP

kappa

Yep, IO merc is definitely garbage

 

http://imgur.com/a/bdbdP

 

kappa

That's pretty damned good.

I will say that I didn't feel gimped. In arenas; I'd get focused down hard but that's not limited to that spec.

That's pretty damned good.

 

I will say that I didn't feel gimped. In arenas; I'd get focused down hard but that's not limited to that spec.

Yeah, arenas are definitely another ballgame, especially ranked. But when I play merc knowing I'm the first target I can plan ahead on how I'm gonna kite, who I'm gonna net, and when I'm gonna use my dcd's based on their specs. The hard part is just executing it all instantaneously.

Yep, IO merc is definitely garbage

 

http://imgur.com/a/bdbdP

 

kappa

I don't see anything particularly good in that Screenshot.

I don't see anything particularly good in that Screenshot.

Agreed. All I see is a game where he did 2 million damage as a dot spread spec where both sides had healers and tanks from a glance at those protection numbers and all the other dps was really low. So from a quick look at it its a game where people lived alot with his dots on them. I saw a large number of kills on his board, but it didnt show how many kill blows he got so the question has to be asked how much was fluff damage was that absorbed by hots taunts and shields and how much was actual killing damage? I've seen IO powertechs score obscene damage numbers in voidstars, but it didn't break the enemy healers defending the door.