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7.1 Mercenary DPS Changes On PTS


Gyronamics

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you are very funny, I'm sure you agree.

 

Wait how would I be joking? Either it doesn't matter because the content is so easy you can pepega anyway, or it's so hard that you should know how to play around alacrity buffs? Is that really too much to ask?

Edited by ZUHFB
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Wait how would I be joking? Either it doesn't matter because the content is so easy you can pepega anyway, or it's so hard that you should know how to play around alacrity buffs? Is that really too much to ask?

 

It's broken but just handle it being broken. DONT ASK FOR IT TO BE FIXED :rolleyes:

 

What a person.

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It's broken but just handle it being broken. DONT ASK FOR IT TO BE FIXED :rolleyes:

 

What a person.

 

How is gaining alacrity, so being faster, thus missing a time based proc, something that is broken? If you can't play around that you maybe should reevaluate if you should be playing merc.

 

It's just not broken, you get faster you miss the proc, the solution is to get gud. I'm sorry but how can you even argue against that.

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Having got gud, I am in the position of being able to describe the problems and present solutions :)

 

The surprising part is seeing a random come along and say they don't want anything to be fixed.

 

What a person.

 

The identity and reputation of someone adds little to nothing to the conversation, but since you started big guy: I promise you I've killed more bosses in 7.0 than you, but it adds nothing to the conversation at hand.

 

The issue is that either you don't understand alacrity, which wouldn't surprise me due to your active posting on theorycrafters, why ever they still call it that, or you simply got offended by me saying that if you can't handle that you're bad.

 

The solutions you should be doing are: Flame your merc healer that didn't use raidbuffs for fuel CD, cuz you gonna have PTs and you admit to yourself that you could've played around his mistake so it's also your fault, you could do that by simply not doing anything for 0.3s just saying, clicking it of or fillering around it. The other solution would be to stop throwing at all and just log PT.

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The identity and reputation of someone adds little to nothing to the conversation, but since you started big guy: I promise you I've killed more bosses in 7.0 than you, but it adds nothing to the conversation at hand.

 

The issue is that either you don't understand alacrity, which wouldn't surprise me due to your active posting on theorycrafters, why ever they still call it that, or you simply got offended by me saying that if you can't handle that you're bad.

 

The solutions you should be doing are: Flame your merc healer that didn't use raidbuffs for fuel CD, cuz you gonna have PTs and you admit to yourself that you could've played around his mistake so it's also your fault, you could do that by simply not doing anything for 0.3s just saying, clicking it of or fillering around it. The other solution would be to stop throwing at all and just log PT.

 

I don't feel like reading this whole thread, but when this whole alac messing up proc timing thing was first mentioned, it was described as a QoL fix. It's just dumb that a class has to actively avoid extra alac so that they don't mess up their procs. Yes, clicking off raidbuff or waiting 0.3s would fix it, but that's annoying and no other class has to worry about that, hence it being a QoL fix. Yes the IO rotation is already easy enough that clicking off raidbuff or waiting 0.3s is not difficult, but that doesn't matter. It's also semi-annoying that IO has to gear specifically so that their procs don't fail.

 

Also, you mentioned earlier that you don't want it fixed because it would "take away resources from more important things" or something along the lines. It's literally changing a decimal point on the proc timing. How many resources could it take?

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I don't feel like reading this whole thread, but when this whole alac messing up proc timing thing was first mentioned, it was described as a QoL fix.

 

like you said it's just qol and shouldn't derail this topic any further, I'll write this then stop.

It's an issue with unfun Gameplay not with making Mercs unplayable. the DPS loss due to this won't even be visible on a parser as crit luck has a way bigger impact.

 

It's just dumb that a class has to actively avoid extra alac so that they don't mess up their procs. Yes, clicking off raidbuff or waiting 0.3s would fix it, but that's annoying and no other class has to worry about that,...

 

Multiple classes have this issue.

you'd have to click off the Raidbuff before your next GCD starts as one single shortened GCD will force the issue to appear, the Buff can happen at any time there's nothing preventing it from being applied to you just before your already queued next Ability is executed and take affect before you even see it because of lag.

delaying your Ability would be the only Solution but it's not worth it for such a minor DPS loss, you won't even see it on a Parser.

 

 

it has nothing to do with Gear by the way. It's purely changing alacrity (specifically increasing it, decreasing it doesn't matter) after you trigger an internal CD of a proc that is coded to align exactly with your Rotation that causes issues.

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Also, you mentioned earlier that you don't want it fixed because it would "take away resources from more important things" or something along the lines. It's literally changing a decimal point on the proc timing. How many resources could it take?

 

Absolutely fair criticism of my points. It is really just changing the decimal point though and it would be just subtracting -0.5s of that proc as a class change, wouldn't even effect balancing - fair. But, I want to remind you that apparently they can't count to three because the Top3 of last season.

 

The key problem is that the situation is SO situational, the average player will never encounter it, or understand it. It's not something worth the devs time, if you disagree that's cool - but it's just not. Yes it's annoying, but do you think people like aero or cliff would mess up their rotations just because of a merc buff? I don't think so. So, what I'm saying is that either the players are so skilled they are able to play around it easily or not good enough to do content in which this damage loss would realistically matter - which in my opinion again still lowers the amount of people effected.

The only way it would matter is if you were progressing a boss, in which case again you should just spec PT and stop throwing.

 

It's just true I'm sorry. Of all the things you could complain, no damage, garbage cooldowns and like no mobility you choose to complain about a very situational and rotational thing that can be avoided? Do you want to read the patchnotes for merc and be like "nice they changed the proc by lowering the internal cd by 0.5s" and then log onto your PT because merc is garbage???

 

the one who doesn't understand alacrity is you. If you could at least read it wouldn't be so bad

 

 

it's fractions of a second not 3 Seconds.

 

It's actually a very trash example and you didn't understand my point. Either way, I'm not here to convince anybody. Fact is that if the internal proc goes on CD, then alacrity activates you get faster through your rotation and reach the internal proc earlier which is still on CD and thus doesn't proc, I don't actually know how many faster GCDs you need to reach to get this to not proc, but it doesn't matter because it's not broken, it's not bugged it is annoying - but it's not annoying that it didn't proc, you are annoyed at the fact you weren't good enough to play around it - or at least that would be the case for me.

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The identity and reputation of someone adds little to nothing to the conversation, but since you started big guy: I promise you I've killed more bosses in 7.0 than you, but it adds nothing to the conversation at hand.

 

The issue is that either you don't understand alacrity, which wouldn't surprise me due to your active posting on theorycrafters, why ever they still call it that, or you simply got offended by me saying that if you can't handle that you're bad.

 

The solutions you should be doing are: Flame your merc healer that didn't use raidbuffs for fuel CD, cuz you gonna have PTs and you admit to yourself that you could've played around his mistake so it's also your fault, you could do that by simply not doing anything for 0.3s just saying, clicking it of or fillering around it. The other solution would be to stop throwing at all and just log PT.

 

Such ego when no one asked :D

 

I said "I" was in a position to talk about the issues I'm currently talking about.

 

Oh I see, you don't think you should be called a random when you pop up and say a QoL issue that every merc player knows about shouldn't be fixed.

 

Nah that's super random. There is no good reason to be saying that.

Most of the QoL issues have existed for the last 8 years.

 

They've been sabotaging the enjoyment and consistency of play the entire time and it counts as class experience to know when you did nothing wrong as a player yet be able to tell which mechanic failed on you this time.

 

What do you know, before you ever typed a word I already said it counts as "class experience" to deal with issues plaguing the class.

 

But you think you're specially insightful to pop in, read a couple of lines and say hmm use class experience to deal with it :rolleyes:

 

No ****

 

The point of it being a QoL issue is that it's abnormal player behaviour.

 

And yes I am looking to check my working before posting my demonstrations and numbers for ALL the listed QoL issues not just the one you're specially complaining about.

 

Of all the things you could complain, no damage, garbage cooldowns and like no mobility you choose to complain about a very situational and rotational thing that can be avoided? Do you want to read the patchnotes for merc and be like "nice they changed the proc by lowering the internal cd by 0.5s" and then log onto your PT because merc is garbage???

 

Why would you accuse me of not complaining about merc damage. It's in the title of the thread. It's what the thread is about :confused:

 

Merc is all set to be the worst dps class AFTER BEING BUFFED because the buffs have been so weak. There's two threads in here to complain, there's confirmation that devs have read them so whatever goes live, that'll be what they want it to be.

 

The point is. If merc is getting fiddled with, this is probably the only opportunity in years bring up every QoL issue. If the damage is going to be trash for the entire 7.X then so be it. Getting player QoL improved is forever.

 

But you pop in to say no and argue against QoL improvements :csw_jabbapet:

Edited by Gyronamics
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Such ego when no one asked :D

 

I said "I" was in a position to talk about the issues I'm currently talking about.

 

Oh I see, you don't think you should be called a random when you pop up and say a QoL issue that every merc player knows about shouldn't be fixed.

 

Nah that's super random. There is no good reason to be saying that.

 

What do you know, before you ever typed a word I already said it counts as "class experience" to deal with issues plaguing the class.

 

But you think you're specially insightful to pop in, read a couple of lines and say hmm use class experience to deal with it :rolleyes:

 

I was just saying that I am also in a position were I can judge if something is a big deal or not. Yes, I want to be a random please. It's what I said in the line before.

 

I just don't think it's an issue. Nobody, nobody cares. It's annoying at best, not the reason the class sucks not the reason you can't play merc, changing it would do exactly nothing. Oh wait it would make you feel better for not missing procs, seems pretty ironic to me.

 

Bioware! Please buff Fury marauders I have to unclick Zen and then I don't do enough damage! Would be a complain on the same level.

 

The point of it being a QoL issue is that it's abnormal player behaviour.

 

And yes I am looking to check my working before posting my demonstrations and numbers for ALL the listed QoL issues not just the one you're specially complaining about.

 

Abnormal player behavior? BY WHO? This is not a big deal like just don't do it wrong and then you are gucci. It's nice that you check numbers but numbers really don't mean anything at all.

 

Why would you accuse me of not complaining about merc damage. It's in the title of the thread. It's what the thread is about :confused:

 

Fair, guess we got sidetracked a lot.

 

Merc is all set to be the worst dps class AFTER BEING BUFFED because the buffs have been so weak. There's two threads in here to complain, there's confirmation that devs have read them so whatever goes live, that'll be what they want it to be.

 

The point is. If merc is getting fiddled with, this is probably the only opportunity in years bring up every QoL issue. If the damage is going to be trash for the entire 7.X then so be it. Getting player QoL improved is forever.

 

But you pop in to say no and argue against QoL improvements :csw_jabbapet:

 

Yes, exactly, I do argue against QoL improvements. Why would I do that? Well, obviously I want to do damage and not miss my proc once every 200 years. Come on, you know the devs - they won't change too much at a time, would be a shame if merc would be broken good for a change.

 

Honestly - I do not even think mercs damage is that bad. Like yes, it is bad, it is really really bad. But the general complain is that Arsenal and IO aren't viable in the highest level of PvE content let's just say Gods as an example and guess what, Fury isn't viable either, Hatred isn't either. Yeah they do more damage but the classes are bad in general, they offer nothing - just like mercs. Even if you were to buff the merc damage, making them really really strong in PvP (my opinion) it would change little to nothing for the content the DPS would actually make a difference. Yes you could parse higher, yes you could clap those nerds on nefra farm, good job.

 

Point being, if you bring Merc to (another example) Lotek'k it doesn't really matter how much damage you do because you will always, always be a worse version of marauder/PT/sin/jug/sorc just because you don't have the defensive value AND no raid value. To be fair you'd be better than an operative.

Again, not saying you couldn't do it - you can, but you would be throwing either way. I'm also not saying that merc SHOULDN'T receive buffs, it absolutely should - but IMO it would make them strong in PvP, not broken good, but strong. I'd rather not fight an army of mercs netting me constantly AND then see some guy bring merc to a raid because it got buffed and it's "only 15% behind".

 

It all boils down to the fact that I assume we have a fundamental difference: I think, adding damage changes NOTHING for the enjoyment of a class. Adding defensives, adding interesting things - and not some random crit chance on ability X that should do 7.2% more damage, like who even cares. It changes nothing, nothing.

 

I also think you think that this is the case, that adding damage adds to the enjoyment of a class. Then why not reroll Fury, why not reroll AP or Pyro, why complain about it - you do very well know the devs don't have a clue what we are talking about right? Even if you explain it if the core game mechanics aren't understood what can they realistically do? Nothing.

 

Yeah it's sad af that not all classes are viable, but if content is truly hard mercs would never DPS it. I cannot reiterate enough, adding damage to merc will do nothing, but make it maybe even too strong in PvP. If you really can't enjoy a class even when it does no damage... just reroll. I would always, always stick to my main class in all content it's viable - I bet you do the same. The issue with merc is simply not the damage, it's a kit that lacks everything.

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It's interesting to hear a different viewpoint :)

 

All the same I'm going to finish my demos of all the QoL issues I mentioned not just the one you decided to argue over and then I'm going to post them.

 

The other ones are somewhat valid though. It wouldn't just effect like 5 people.

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From a pvper perspective,I think merc needs some rework.It's in a really bad place right now in solo and group ranked,and even in regs sometimes.

I'll talk about some changes I would like to see on IO,since its the spec I love to play.

 

- Increase the dmg of all dots;

- Fusion missile should be insta to make the dot spread faster(all dot classes spread dots way faster and easier than mercs);

- Either lower the cd of rocket out,or make hydraulic a base skill,not a tree choice like it is now. Merc is way too slow and the current state of the game with so many slows and roots makes it very challenging to chase or kit with a merc.Merc has one of the worst mobility in game atm;

- If the mobility issue isnt fixed,at least we need something to counter the combo root/stun - aoe/dot that usually destroys the merc HP. I don't know. Maybe our cleanse could give us a % of dot dmg reduction,like it used to.

Edited by DougTheNoob
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From a pvper perspective,I think merc needs some rework.It's in a really bad place right now in solo and group ranked,and even in regs sometimes.

I'll talk about some changes I would like to see on IO,since its the spec I love to play.

 

- Increase the dmg of all dots;

- Fusion missile should be insta to make the dot spread faster(all dot classes spread dots way faster and easier than mercs);

- Either lower the cd of rocket out,or make hydraulic a base skill,not a tree choice like it is now. Merc is way too slow and the current state of the game with so many slows and roots makes it very challenging to chase or kit with a merc.Merc has one of the worst mobility in game atm;

- If the mobility issue isnt fixed,at least we need something to counter the combo root/stun - aoe/dot that usually destroys the merc HP. I don't know. Maybe our cleanse could give us a % of dot dmg reduction,like it used to.

 

I just want stun dr honestly.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm informed Missile Blast will grant 2 Supercharge Stacks (when triggered) in 7.1

 

This fixes the garbage niche that Missile Blast currently has of almost never being used. I personally thought 1 stack would do it yet they've gone with 2 so better than expected.

 

But I also mentioned Unload also being forced out of common use, being inferior to Power Shot and Rapid Shots spam by not generating Supercharge stacks and that doesn't seem to be getting changed.

 

I'll see what the full notes say on Monday.

 

 

~~~

 

Innovative Ordinance Rotation Issue

 

Innovative Ordinance is distorted around Supercharge and Energised Charges

 

This is the reason core abilities and perks of this spec do not get used.

 

Energised Charges triples the damage from Supercharged Burn, making it the #2 damage source for Innovative Ordinance.

 

If an ability doesn't generate Supercharge stacks or dot spread or have a high damage/cost ratio on its own it is almost worthless.

 

For maximum damage this spec is about pressing Power Shot and Rapid Shots as much as possible because each will generate 1/10 of a Supercharge.

 

Each usage of the above pays back 1/10 of the ~92000 damage Supercharged Burn and 10 heat vented and 16s buff of 10% more periodic damage when the Supercharge is cashed in.

 

As a consequence the following has a greatly distorted use due to neither high damage/cost or Supercharge stack generation:

 

Unload is ideally used once at the start of a fight for convenience and then never again.

 

Missile Blast gains 75% damage and drops to 10 heat under 30% hp or with the perk Volatile Cinders, at any time, but it still has less value except in the scenario that there isn't time left to build and use another Supercharge, therefore it has the opposite use to Unload, being ideally used once at the end of a fight.

 

There we have it, the overpowered state of Innovative Ordinance Supercharge means a core ability and an execute are not welcome in their intended roles because they don't contribute to a Supercharge.

 

The quick and easy solution is to grant 2 Supercharge stacks to a use of Unload and 1 Supercharge stack to Missile Blast. The less easy solution is to not have Supercharge being what the spec orbits around.

 

 

~~~

 

Edited by Gyronamics
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The final change of +2 Supercharge stacks to Missile Blast has improved matters.

 

- Missile Blast is being used consistently in execute (sub 30% hp) range

 

- The perk of Volatile Cinders is probably now the strongest single target perk at L23, albeit requiring more micromanaging than the passive perk of Incendiary Ignition.

 

So Missile Blast is finally being used in its role, it's perks have value and the change was an overall damage increase.

 

Qualms:

 

Volatile Warhead (passive) grants Volatile Warhead (active buff) sub 30% hp on a 15s CD

Volatile Cinders grants Volatile Warhead (active buff) at any % hp on a 10s CD

 

These are two separate cooldowns granting the same buff and sub-30% hp the random procs override each other, denying the player value.

 

Can Volatile Warhead (active buff) be allowed to stack up to 2 to account for sub-30% hp having both passives generating the buff at the same time.

 

 

I have no idea if I'm beating a dead horse on this matter but I repeat that Unload, having no similar treatment of being granted Supercharge stacks, remains and will remain exceptionally low usage despite being:

 

- An iconic ability

- An Innovative Particle Accelerator generator

- Having the perks of Thrill of the Hunt at L64 dedicated to it and Ordnance Expert at L73 including it.

 

2 stacks of Supercharge will give it the value to be a swap in for any 2 out of Power Shot, Rapid Shots and Missile Blast instead of having an ideal usage of once in any sustained fight.

 

See the post above for me quoting myself for further details.

Edited by Gyronamics
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Quality of Life Issues

(redone with examples)

 

 

Supercharged Burn scales negatively with alacrity

 

Innovative Ordinance

Supercharged Burn will lose damage ticks the more alacrity you have

 

DEMO

- Two Supercharged Burns are demonstrated

- The first at 0 alacrity does 9 ticks

- The second at 17% alacrity does 7 ticks

 

Commentary

 

Supercharged Burn ticks at 1s intervals irrelevant of alacrity. However alacrity reduces the window for these 1s ticks and therefore reduces the number of ticks.

 

Suggestion

 

Make Supercharged Burn fully ignore alacrity or correctly scale with it, ideally it scales but it should be fine either way.

 

Ignoring Alacrity example:

Electro Net – ticks 10 times in 9 seconds and doesn’t care what alacrity you have, always 1s between ticks.

 

Scaling with Alacrity example:

Incendiary Missile, Serrated Shot, Fusion Missile – all these DoTs tick faster with more alacrity and end up with the same number of ticks in a shorter time period.

 

 

Rotational mechanics disabled by missed attacks

 

Arsenal

Tracer Beacon is a rotational mechanic of an instant Tracer Missile granted by Priming Shot

Priming Shot will fail to grant this if it misses

 

DEMO

- Two Priming Shots are demonstrated

- The second misses, and fails to grant the Tracer Beacon buff

 

Innovative Ordinance

Speed to Burn is a rotational mechanic of an instant Power Shot/Serrated Shot/Rapid Scan granted by Mag Shot

Mag Shot will fail to grant this if it misses

 

DEMO

- Two Mag Shots are demonstrated

- The second misses, and fails to grant the Speed to Burn buff

 

Commentary

 

In both instances you are expecting a mobility window and usually aligning a proc window (Barrage or Innovative Particle Accelerator) with the instant cast – the difference is having the proc at the start or end of a GCD. A miss means that doesn't happen, disrupts rotation and is extremely random. In PVE you typically gear for 110% accuracy to overcome 10% boss dodge chance. In PVP you typically do not as players have between 5% and 200% dodge chance depending on passive and active dodge at the exact time so you cannot gear to not miss.

 

Suggestion

 

Allow Priming Shot to grant Tracer Beacon on use not on hit

Allow Mag Shot to grant Speed to Burn on use not on hit

 

Comparable instances of mechanical effect being granted on use not on hit are Barrage for Arsenal and Innovative Particle Accelerator for Innovative Ordinance.

 

 

Undesired juggling of Speed to Burn between the two Mag Shots in rotation

 

Innovative Ordinance

Speed to Burn has a cooldown of 15s and activates on a Mag Shot hit, however there are 2 Mag Shots per 15s rotation and the mechanic of Speed to Burn can be dislocated from the Mag Shot you wanted it on to the other Mag Shot until you get the opportunity to reset the rotation

 

DEMO

- A rotation diagram shows the desired position to use the mechanic of Speed to Burn

- The second diagram shows the rotation change if Speed to Burn is forced to the second of the two Mag Shots by the first missing

- The third diagram shows a proposed solution

 

 

Commentary

 

Aside from a Mag Shot missing, many variations of target swapping and urgent damage requirement can end up with the wrong Mag Shot activating Speed to Burn which then interferes with movement windows and your tracking of the invisible Innovative Particle Accelerator cooldown. As you can see in the diagram, a reset point for IPA is changed by 1GCD by the Power Shot not being granted Speed to Burn, instead it is shuffled along and makes a Serrated Shot instant, a less useful result.

The way to get out of a dislocated Speed to Burn is to wait out its 15s CD with extra filler attacks and then restart your rotation with the desired Mag Shot. If that's not convenient you need to continue doing a dislocated rotation until you can.

 

Suggestion

 

Delete the 15s cooldown on Speed to Burn. No cooldown at all.

It will now activate on both Mag Shots in a rotation and there can never be an instance of it being dislocated to the Mag Shot you don't want it on.

 

 

Innovative Particle Accelerator fails because of alacrity boosts

 

Innovative Ordinance

Innovative Particle Accelerator will fail because of alacrity boosts between procs

 

DEMO

- Two reset attempts are demonstrated

- The first successfully resets Mag Shot (the #2 key) at the end

- The second includes an activation of Supercharged Celerity adding 10% alacrity and the reset attempt fails at the end

 

Arsenal

Barrage does not fail the same test of an alacrity boost between procs

 

DEMO

- Two reset attempts are demonstrated

- The first successfully resets Blazing Bolts (the #2 key) at the end

- The second includes an activation of Supercharged Celerity adding 10% alacrity but the reset attempt succeeds anyway.

 

Additional diagram for clarity: DEMO

 

 

Commentary

 

Innovative Particle Accelerator fails because it has a base cooldown of 7.5s and the rotation to reset it is 7.5s

When you get an alacrity boost after IPA goes on cooldown it doesn’t care, it will stay on cooldown for 7.5s, meanwhile the rotation to reset it is shorted by 10% to about 7s and will fail every time at the reset point because IPA is still on cooldown for another 0.5s.

 

Barrage doesn’t fail because it has a base cooldown of 8s and the rotation to reset it is 9s.

When you get an alacrity boost after Barrage goes on cooldown it again stays on the original cooldown of 8s and, again I make the reset rotation go 10% faster to about 8.3s but the reset succeeds because Barrage started with a full 1s buffer and became available 0.3s ago.

 

Suggestion

 

The easiest solution is to cut the base Innovative Particle Accelerator cooldown from 7.5s to 6.5s, giving it a 1s buffer same as Arsenal with Barrage. This will absorb the effect of one 10% alacrity buff with the worst possible timing without harm to the rotation. It is crude and multiple alacrity buffs will overwhelm this buffer but it will work the majority of the time.

 

A better solution is to cut the base IPA cooldown from 7.5s to 6.5s as above.

 

And then change how IPA and Barrage works because:

 

 

  1. IPA and Barrage are invisible
  2. The player is required to play both Innovative Ordinance and Arsenal blind without ever knowing the current cooldown of the passive they are doing the rotation for.
  3. This forces inflexibility of ability use on the player as they must memorise ability use patterns to always predict the IPA or Barrage cooldown as, being blind they cannot react to what it currently is.

 

So to improve matters you delete all resets for Innovative Particle Accelerator and Barrage and implement the following:

 

Innovative Ordinance

IPA grants Mag Shot 2 charges with a 6.5s cooldown

 

Arsenal

Barrage grants Blazing Bolts 2 charges with a 8s cooldown

 

 

  1. Players will be able to see the cooldowns they are working around, will be freed up from static, predictive rotations and have the opportunity to play reactively.
  2. If players don’t want to, they can continue to play the same static rotations they have forever as the charges mirror what the invisible CD of IPA and Barrage were doing anyway.
  3. Most alacrity buffs will be absorbed by the 1s buffer now put on both specs but even when it fails from enormous alacrity spikes there will be no more failed resets as it is now charge based and you will have the VISIBLE indicator of the cooldown telling you it’s still got another e.g. 0.5s to go due to alacrity dislocation and the player can make an informed decision.

 

 

Innovative Particle Accelerator fails with no alacrity boosts also

 

Innovative Ordinance

Innovative Particle Accelerator fails its reset if your alacrity is in a wide band around 2000.

 

DEMO

- Three sets of resets are demonstrated, 0%, 7.63% and 9.78%

- Each set checks the timing difference between variations of full instant to full cast fillers between resets

- 0% alacrity always works

- 7.63% fails with too many instant fillers

- 9.78% always works

 

 

Commentary

 

The actual, not expected timing of instant abilities, casts and casts made instant are different and alacrity makes each of them faster in different ways at different alacrity levels.

The problem occurs in a large band centered around 2000 alacrity, occurring less reliably the further from it.

The reset rotation becomes shorter than the reset timer for Innovative Particle Accelerator if you use enough "short" GCD abilities and/or they roll the low range of the timings they can roll at that alacrity.

Guidelines for playing Innovative Ordinance involve having 2800+ alacrity to get out of the danger zone of failing IPA resets.

 

Suggestion

 

Decrease the Innovative Particle Accelerator cooldown. It is so tight with the rotation timing that timing variations at different alacrity levels cause IPA resets to fail.

I have already mentioned reducing IPA from 7.5s to 6.5s for other reasons and this would easily handle this problem also.

The end result would be that players could take any level of alacrity and use any combination of instant or cast abilities without seeing abnormal mechanical behaviour.

 

 

 

None of these issues for Mercenary DPS behave as a player would expect, some are clearly bugs, some are unfortunate design and it doesn't need anything particularly horrific to change them for the better.

 

The suggestion for redoing IPA and Barrage is the only major one but it would accordingly be a large QoL improvement over the suggestion of merely changing a timing.

Edited by Gyronamics
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  • 2 weeks later...

Using the raid buff is a DPS loss

 

Innovative Ordinance

10 stacks of Supercharge can be converted to ~150,000 damage in the form of

- Supercharged Burn ~100k value

- DoT buff, autocrit on the next Mag Shot (implant bonus), 10 heat vented ~50k value

 

Vs

 

Supercharged Celerity = converting 10 stacks of Supercharge to 10% alacrity for your group for 10s.

 

The group has to gain ~150,000 damage from that alacrity just to break even and gain substantially more than 150,000 damage to make it worthwhile. Meanwhile their IO mercenary starts at 0/10 stacks to use their #1 damage ability.

 

Commentary

 

Supercharged Gas on Innovative Ordinance is several things

- A legitimate dps cooldown after so many years with nothing of consequence

- #1 damage ability of the spec all its bonuses considered

- Overpowered? One of the most powerful abilities in the game for sure.

 

The last change to Innovative Ordinance was to acknowledge the Supercharge oriented state of the spec by allowing Missile Blast to grant Supercharge stacks and therefore actually get used.

 

However the enormous value of 10 stacks of Supercharge to Innovative Ordinance is incompatible with trading them for a 10% alacrity group buff. You're supposed to use the group buff for a damage increase but the personal damage loss is so much that the group ends up with a negative to neutral result. Which is absurd.

 

Arsenal also trades personal damage by consuming 10 stacks to use Supercharged Celerity and buff the group but the trade is more likely to be positive since Arsenal's Supercharged Gas is much weaker and the spec does less damage compared to IO. Not the most enjoyable reason to press the raid buff on Arsenal but it is what it is.

 

Suggestion

 

Delete the 10 Supercharge Stack cost for the Supercharged Celerity perk to guarantee it having a positive not questionable or negative result.

 

Every Mercenary spec will benefit from the reduced conditions but most of all Innovative Ordinance

 

Edited by Gyronamics
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