lareit the evil

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow

This is... Quite a serious concern of mine. I've been noticing my Ember Demon enhancing the damage resistance on his Ember Shield when I slot him for damage, but I didn't think much of it. It's not really a lot of damage resistance anyway, so even if this is happening, it's probably not going to cause problems.

Except it does. I just checked my Ember Demon, and it looks like his damage enhancements are only counting as Schedule B, enhancing his damage by 20%, instead of the requisite 33%. And since this goes for the Hellfire Gargoyle as well, I have to ask: Is this really true? Seriously? Am I really only going to see some 60-odd percent damage enhancement on my Ember Demon and Hellfire Gargoyle?

Because this is bad. Really bad. And I just noticed it now, after playing with the thing for how long? How did this even go through? What's supposed to be my damage-dealer now? The Demonlings are minions and as such can't really compete, the Ember Demon and Hellfire Gargoyle have crap for damage slotting and the Demon Prince looks like he's half-damage, half-control. What gives here? What am I supposed to do? What's going to be dealing my damage?

Pardon me if this sounds like a rant and a question I should have addressed in Beta, but HOT DANG! I hope I'm wrong. I hope I'm reading the numbers wrong or that they're not real, but this is not good. At all.

Originally Posted by Zeh_Masteh

I *did* say I had no issues as Mercs/TA and got to 50 and was an effective MM... but then again, this was all before I16 difficulty sliders and even greater abilities to solo AVs and such. I didn't go out of my way to fight major AV fights as Mercs, but when I did, I was flattened for the most part. Valkyrie, Silver Mantis, Infernal, and other weak-range, strong-melee EBs I was able to handle, but, I have to concede that Mercs cannot outdamage AV regen (w/o Dark, but even pure empath defenders can outdamage AV regen w/ a pocket /Dark around..) It wasn't an issue for me because I didn't really care if I could solo Honoree, but in today's CoX environment, apparently these things are important. If you do want to solo AVs with mercs, try Poison, Traps, or Dark and stay far, far away from TA (though Silver Mantis is quite the joke w/ Mercs/TA)

What you argue, lareit, is completely different from what I'm arguing. True, Mercs will not survive as long as Bots when taking a beating, and they won't kill as fast as Thugs when they're delivering beatings, but they gain something in their middle-road approach by not being particularly good on either side of the spectrum.

If you don't want to deal with Spec Ops cooldown times, just have a macro or keybind that tells one of your SO to target an enemy and the other to not attack. You can effectively stagger the flashbangs and tear gases to keep the mobs locked down.

Both Spec Ops and Commando have sniper attacks, completely unique to Mercs, and add even more tactical depth to using the set.

Most of all of the Mercs attacks are long and wide cones that enemies don't run out of (unlike the Swarm Missiles of the Assbot), so I will reemphasize my previous point on Mercs specializing in taking out many many weaker enemies.

I can only give qualitative reasons for now (though this thread has gotten me to devote an entire server to testing Primary/Pain MMs quantitatively. Keep your eyes on the boards in the future), but I still think that the crowd control involved in Mercs makes up a little for the lack (though it's more of a "slightly less in magnitude") of orange numbers.

Originally Posted by Cold_Blizzard

I think I found a reason. To be different then everyone else. Other then that, my new merc/storm I made is something to play for fun. I have plenty of 50s and other non 50s that have amazing kill speeds. I don't need all my toons to play that way. I need some variety in my play or I'd get bored.

I already had a 50 bot/ff and have played all the other primaries to at least the mid 20s. Ninjas and Necros can be just as annoying as the medic because most of their heavy hitters like to shoot from range instead of going into melee. The thugs arsonist drove me crazy with how fast he got himself killed no matter what secondary I paired it up with. So far, I'm enjoying mercs much more.

I chose storm for my pairing becaue I had never gotten storm to a very high level and never could get into the set. However, it seems to have a good pairing so far with mercs and has actually become fun to play. At later levels, the powers in storm will help to add damage to a lower damage primary.

Also, from other threads I've read, and can spare the inf, all the mercs can be slotted with the Achilles proc which will reduce the damage resistance of your enemies. Another way to help the lower damage.

Originally Posted by Zeh_Masteh

Ironically enough, I came to the boards today to post my opinion on mercs, which differs very much from the general forum community.

I personally have never had any (major) problems with mercs... in fact, my first redside 50 was a mercs/TA MM... though, as my first 50, I was very inexperienced and she is now my weakest 50... <.<

Instead of thinking how "weak" mercs are at a range (and even then only compared to thugs as a whole and the Assbot), think of it more of a trade-off between damage and survivability.

Do thugs outdamage mercs? If the arsonist hasn't faceplanted for the n'th time, yes. But will you ever see a merc two-shotted by a yellow-con LT? Probably not.

I ran ninja/storm up to 50, the entire time I was wishing I'd gone mercs/storm instead (I have one now lvl30). Corner pulling with SS + FR into a doorway with your mercs ripping through the mob is sooo satisfying. Ninjas might be able to bring down single tough mobs, but mercs are the king of taking out lots of weaker mobs.

Go mercs/storm. Actually slot Gale and M30 grenade. Knock stuff out of melee. Between your medic and your O2 Boost, your pets should stay healthy. A simple GoTo command will stop your Spec Ops from getting punched in the face like a moron. Fight lots of Warriors

Just about the only thing I will agree with in other people's Merc-Rants is that the Medic does like to solo purple bosses, but then again, so does my Arsonist lol.