Bookkeeper_Jay

For once I thought Steelclaw would be serious.

Ahem

/Fail thread

Who griefs the Griefing Police?

I wish you beta testers the best of luck and the best of fun! Do a great job in there, guys.

Well if all he asked was to tank Rom you shoulda let him.

I, too, saw the kick coming.

Good luck in there, beta testers! The Live players are countin' on ya to find all the bugs you can.

So I've been playing Mercs alot lately (and have also seen people complain about them) and decided to really compare the set to others. Now this set seems to look cool and conceptually bountiful at first glance, but when you delve deeper into the set you see the many problems it has.

First off, let's take a look at the Medic. Ah, the Medic! The Leeroy Jenkins of the group. The only pet with a heavy KB AoE in its Tier. Sounds promising, right? Wrong! This little bugger will get his head chopped off quickly if he fires off his aggro grenade in just the right spot. So why is one of the more supportive pets in your set so aggro heavy? Good question. I think every Tier 1 Soldier should be given a grenade, not just the medic. I also think the medic's Med Pack should be reduced from 20 seconds to 15 seconds, and the heal increased by 30 points. Reasonable, right?

On to the Spec Ops. Oh I do love these guys! I was excited the first time I got the second upgrade only to be disappointed by two things! One: The Recharge on the Spec Ops mitigation powers such as Flash Bang and Tear Gas are highly unreasonable. Two: They never seem to even fire off Tear Gas in the first place.

Now I've never seen anyone say anything about Tear Gas being bugged (and it might not be, but I haven't seen them use anything that looks similar to it), yet it appears to be bugged for the Spec Ops. I would suggest they get Tear Gas working if its borken, lower the recharge rate on those powers (including Web Grenade) to about 30 seconds for Flash Bang and 45 seconds for Tear Gas. If Tear Gas has a very weak animation, then replace it with the SWAT animation. Also, add Stealth Strike to Spec Ops Sniper attacks when they are fully stealthed and undetected.

Now on to the Commando. This guy seems pretty solid to me, except he's got one good AoE on a 4min recharge. Come on! The Spec Ops have high recharging attacks as well, no need for the Commando's best AoE attack to get the slow moving train. I suggest lowering the Rocket's recharge time from 4mins to 16-20 seconds.

Now on to the problem with all the pets! They only have 2 resisted damage types, Smashing and Lethal. My suggesting here would be to give them and extra 7.5% resistance to all damage excluding psionics. I mean they're Mercs, right? Aside from the Medic and Spec Ops there's not a lot going for them unlike some other Mastermind Primaries. If giving them resistances to all is too much then at least increase their Smashing/Lethal resistance by an extra 10%.

If you have anything else to add to this list/have your own list/share in this opinion/feel the need to point out the errors in my suggested improvements feel free to do so.

Thugs are nice and all, but each set has its advantages and synergies with secondaries.

Bots Lead AoE Damage

Mercs suck unfortunately (but with an overhaul and faster recharging control powers they could be much hardier)

Zombies are just plain awesome and do amazing Single Target damage, Good AoE, and have an amazing debuffer (aka the Lich).

Ninjas are Single Target beasts with low survivability but mind boggling damage. Good for PvP or heavy targets.

Poor Mercs.

Suck damage, very high recharge mitigation and control powers, lesser resistances, etc.

Mercs need an overhaul, but I doubt we'll get it any time soon.

Veggie Henchmen!

Mercs are the oddballs of the MM primaries because, in truth, they're gimped compared to their brethren Primaries. A few good things about Mercs would be that they are very strong post 32 with the second upgrade mitigation wise, because Spec Ops get Tear Gas...well, I should say they are strong in the opening when the Spec Ops fire off Tear Gas nades.

Honestly if you want Henchmen to be disposable little bags of meat/metal then take Poison. It's got Debuffs that will make EBs mush and AVs cry. Solo either one is great. Poison has on dysfunctional draw back with Mercs, and that is the fact that Noxious Gas is a PBAoE power, which hurts the effectiveness of it on Mercs. Otherwise the combo is a really good solo/PvP mix.

Mercs/Pain is definitely a popular combo for some reason. Why? No idea. Anyways, Pain brings a good mix of heals, buffs, and a debuff along. Mostly with this set you won't have that "High Damage" feel because it's mostly meant for survivability. Against EBs you should perform adaquately if not superbly. Definitely something to consider as a Commando with Painbringer and Serum is an unstoppable machine.


If I might suggest something else! You should look up Mercs/Dark and Mercs/Traps. Both are great picks for soloers and teamers alike!

My Post Pad senses are tingling...

Woot, new griefing system. -_-

Anything with Knives of Artemis...

Oddly enough I'm enjoying the UK users so far. Too bad it's only temporary!

Oh, and it appears The Ocho is now creeping me out slightly.


P.S.

My Avatar remained with the old forums.



EDIT: Nevermind, complete forum merger. Yahoo!!

I ate a sandwhich and slept....

Oh, and, uhhh, I did another LGTF and got two purple recipies...

Sooo, yeah. The forums being down totally did not affect me!

Custom ET animation?

Red

Finally got 300 badges after a bunch of Solo play and casual badging.

Only badge I hated getting was Banisher

Stone Armor/Dark Melee Tanker

You can still target Detentioned Enemies. The Rikti you see aren't "spawned" yet.