Mercenaries/Trick Arrow - Rambo Meets Robin Hood
By
Azucar_NA,
Posted on: 2006-07-14 15:13 in Player Guides
Nice guide, thank you for the time to write one up. I like quick and concise, without all the nonsense many other guides seem to pad themselves with.
I would like to know what your thoughts are on the Patron Power Pools. I know you talked about Mu for ignighting the slick, but do you plan on adding any additional thoughts on the PPP's?
Thanks,
-r0y
"Look how many pages of crap are in this thread already!" -r0y to all threads on these forums.
Great guide, though Entangling Arrow has a +20% Acc bonus, not +5%.
Damage Proc Mini-FAQ
Just noticed Damage Proc Mini-FAQ wasn't working with new forums, it's been updated.
Wow, Great guide on two very underestimated and underused powersets.
Well done.
YAY!!! Thanks for the guide. Now I have some direction for General Gizmo.
Wow, didn't mean for my reply to be such a BUMP, but if the original poster (or ANYONE with a TA MM above 41) can give us some insights on the PPP's, such as they are, that'd really help complete this guide.
-r0y
"Look how many pages of crap are in this thread already!" -r0y to all threads on these forums.
Excellent Guide!
Nice guid but i must disagee with manuvers. with it on and sloted with 2 deff buffs and 1 end me and my petts get hit less to a point where i have just the amount of time needed to heal them beffore dieing. Min you its small but its better then nothing
Knowledge is power.
Power corrupts.
Study Hard. Be evil.
[ QUOTE ]
Nice guid but i must disagee with manuvers. with it on and sloted with 2 deff buffs and 1 end me and my petts get hit less to a point where i have just the amount of time needed to heal them beffore dieing. Min you its small but its better then nothing
[/ QUOTE ]
/dark or /ff? That won't work for /TA. Oh, and numbers please. 
Mercenaries/Trick Arrow:
Welcome! So, you've come here with a squadron of well trained soldiers, a gun, a bow, and a lot of questions. Hopefully I can answer a bit of them.
Notes
- As you read the guide, you'll notice I'm light on the numbers. This is mostly because I have yet to see definite numbers for Mastermind's Trick Arrow, and continuously read conflicting numbers. The one post that may have helped is long gone into the lonely void of pruning, so I just decided to play it safe and omit numbers. However, if someone can point me to another post listing them, I'd be more than happy to revise the guide with the correct numbers.
- Power descriptions and statistics come from varying sources: mostly ingame, the Mastermind Notes, and the CoH/CoV Character Builder.
Why Mercenaries?
Mercenaries are the lowest tier in single-target damage amongst the five mastermind primaries. In addition, the devs in their infinite wisdom decided to put off all of these soldiers' class defining abilities until you get your level 32 upgrade. So, why mercenaries?
- High Area of Effect damage at 26 and 32. You get loads and loads of it with your commando, and your soldiers and commando get it and more with the 32 upgrade.
- Control. This is what your spec ops specialize in. They get an immobilize, a disorient, and a hold.
- Flavor. You like ranged, but don't like robots.
Why Trick Arrow?
A previously severely underperforming set, Issue 7 has upgraded the set extremely. This set actually tends to serve masterminds more than defenders, for the following reasons:
- Massive -resistance and -defence help your lethal damage loving minions tear through enemies in no time flat.
- You like to team. Trick Arrow specializes in area of effect debuffing. The more targets, the more your debuffs help out.
- The hold can take care of problematic enemies, such as the dreaded Longbow Flamethrower.
- Your pets can attack while you suffer through Trick Arrow's heinous activation times, while defenders are stuck there doing nothing else.
Why put them together?
- The combination uses very little endurance. You can very easily go without Stamina. (Author's Perspective: The only time with my build I ever feel an endurance drain is the initial summon-fest when entering missions)
- Trick Arrow offers ways to take out problematic enemies for most masterminds, ways to keep melee enemies out of range of your ranged minions, and the heavy -resistance in the set counters the mercenaries' low damage.
Mercenaries: The Powers[/b]
Burst
Endurance Cost: 6.5
Activation Time: 2.2
Recharge Time: 4
Description: Quickly fires a burst of rounds at a single target from long range. Can reduce the target's defense. Damage: Moderate DoT (Lethal), Defence Debuff.
Personal Thoughts: Even if you're into attacks and want to take Stamina, I'd still reccomend skipping this power. Take Slug instead.
Reccomended Slotting: One Accuracy.
Soldiers
Endurance Cost: 19.5
Activation Time: 2
Recharge Time: 60
Description: Calls forth one to three Mercenary Soldiers (depending on your level) to do your bidding. The third Soldier you gain will be a Medic. All Soldiers use Sub Machine Guns, but these can be upgraded. You may only have 3 Soldiers under your control at any given time. If you attempt to call Soldiers, you can only replace the ones you have lost in battle. If you already have three, the power will fail.
Soldiers - (1st and 2nd First Tier Henchmen)
Auto Res Confuse, Placate, Smashing (28), Lethal (28)
Initial Abilities: ASMG Burst
Equip Mercenary: ASMG Heavy Burst
Tactical Upgrade: Auto Fire
Medic - (3rd First Tier Henchman)
Auto Res Confuse, Placate, Smashing (28), Lethal (28)
Initial Abilities: Med Kit, SMG Burst
Equip Mercenary: SMG Heavy Burst
Tactical Upgrade: Stimulant, Frag Grenade
Personal Thoughts: Your first minion. These guys are pretty cut and dry - soldiers deal single target damage primarily until their second upgrade, when they get a Full Auto-type ability. Medics start off healing, and then get Stimulant (a status resist buff) from their second upgrade. A lot of people reccomend not upgrading the medic because he'll stop healing, but I haven't noticed anything of the sorts.
Reccomended Slotting: Three Damage, Three Accuracies. You can go with two accuracies, but I personally hate misses, and since they will be -2 to you, they need every single ounce of accuracy they can get.
Slug
Endurance Cost: 10.66
Activation Time: 1.87
Recharge Time: 8
Description: Fires a single Slug at a targeted foe. Firing a single Slug is slower than firing a Burst, but deals more damage, is longer range, and can knock down foes. Damage: High
Personal Thoughts: A decent attack that can make life before your Commando much easier. However, as an attack, it eats up a fair amount of endurance and can make life without Stamina a pain if you take it. As you level up, you'll notice the two powers you get to choose from at level four are Slug or Flash Arrow. Read up on Flash Arrow, then decide for yourself which power you want to take.
Reccomended Slotting: One accuracy, maybe some damage.
Equip Mercenary
Endurance Cost: 16.25
Activation Time: 1.3
Recharge Time: 6
Description: Equip your Mercenary Henchmen with more advanced munitions and weaponry. This power permanently bestows new weapons and abilities to one Mercenary Henchman. The powers gained are unique and dependant upon the target Mercenary Henchman. This power only works on your Mercenary Henchmen and you can only Equip any given Mercenary Henchman once.
Personal Thoughts: Woo! Your first upgrade. Check out the summon powers to see what this gives each minion.
Reccomended Slotting: One Endurance Reduction should be all you need.
M30 Grenade
Endurance Cost: 18.98
Activation Time: 1.87
Recharge Time: 16
Description: Launches a Grenade at long range from beneath the barrel of your Assault Rifle. This explosion affects all within the blast radius, and can knock them back. Damage: Moderate
Personal Thoughts: DO NOT WANT. For an AoE attack, it does fairly low damage. The main reason you don't want this, though, is the knockback. It knocks every enemy away from the impact zone like Thunder Clap and other powers. You want your foes grouped up to benefit from Trick Arrow's massive area of effect debuffs. Do the math.
Reccomended Slotting: One accuracy.
Spec Ops
Endurance Cost: 19.5
Activation Time: 2.03
Recharge Time: 90
Description: You can enlist one to two highly skilled Spec Ops Mercenary (depending on your level). Spec Ops weapons are highly accurate and long ranged, and they are adept in may different tactical weapons. Like all Henchmen, Spec Ops can be equipped with even deadlier munitions. You may only have 2 Spec Ops under your control at any given time. If you attempt to summon more Spec Ops, you can only replace the ones you have lost in battle. If you already have two, the power will fail.
Auto Res Confuse, Placate, Smashing (28), Lethal (28)
Initial Abilities: SCAR Burst, SCAR Heavy Burst, Web Grenade
Equip Mercenary: Rifle Butt, Flash Bang
Tactical Upgrade: SCAR Snipe, Tear Gas, Stealth
Personal Thoughts: Your black-clad men with guns that shoot shiny blue things. Woo. They get an immobilize, a hold, and an area of effect disorient. To boot, their damage isn't all that shabby.
Reccomended Slotting: Three Damage and Three Accuracy, or Three Damage/Two Accuracy/One Disorient Duration (or Hold Duration). I don't feel the disorient or hold is used enough/lasts long enough to warrant an SO, so I just go for the extra accuracy.
Serum
Endurance Cost: 13
Activation Time: 1.3
Recharge Time: 1000
Description: You can use a special Serum to turn one Mercenary into a virtually Unstoppable killing machine for a short time. Once the Mercenary is injected with this Serum, his Damage, Accuracy, Endurance Recovery, and Damage Resistance to all damage except Psionics, will be greatly increased. The target Mercenary will also be virtually immune to controlling effects including Disorient, Sleep, Hold, Immobilize and Knockback. After the Serum wears off, the Mercenary will be exhausted and drained of all Endurance for a while.
Personal Thoughts: Something that for its recharge time should turn your henchman into Superboy Prime - sadly, he punched reality so hard it retconned the ability into being nothing more than a can of Red Bull. The damage boost is hardly noticeable, and he'll still be very squishy after Serum application. I reccomend skipping it. Maybe consider it again if they reduce the recharge time to a fourth of what it is now, but as it stands there are far better powers to be taken.
Reccomended Slotting: Three Recharge Reduction if you must.
Commando
Endurance Cost: 19.5
Activation Time: 2
Recharge Time: 90
Description: Enlists one highly trained Commando. The Commando is a seasoned professional who favors heavy assault weapons. He is simply a one may army that can leave a wake of destruction in his path. In addition to standard Soldier resistance, the Commandos experience also makes him resistant to Fear and his rugged advanced training makes him slightly resistant to Fire, Cold and Toxic Damage. You may only have 1 Commando under your control at any given time. If you attempt to summon another Commando, the power will fail. Recharge: Very Long
Auto Res Fear, Confuse, Placate, Smashing (28), Lethal (28), Fire (7), Cold (7), Toxic (7)
Initial Abilities: Burst, Slug
Equip Mercenary: Buckshot, Full Auto
Tactical Upgrade: M30 Grenade, Flamethrower, LRM Rocket
Personal Thoughts: Mmmm. You've waited 26 levels for this guy and you won't be dissapointed. He marks the start of your area of effect damage and has some hefty single target damage of his own.
Reccomended Slotting: (Pre-32) Three Damage and Two Accuracy. (Post-32) Three Damage/Two Accuracy/One Endurance Reduction. When you use your 32 upgrade on him, he will actually start running out of endurance! Thankfully, one endurance reduction fixes this little hitch.
Tactical Upgrade
Endurance Cost: 22,75
Activation Time: 2
Recharge Time: 15
Description: Permanently Upgrade the most advanced tactical weapons and gears to one Mercenary Henchman. The Tactically Upgraded Mercenary will gain powers, weapons and munitions. The powers gained are unique and dependant upon the target Mercenary Henchman that is Upgraded. This power only works on your Mercenary Henchmen and you can only Tactically Upgrade any given Mercenary Henchman once.
Personal Thoughts: Finally! You've suffered through 32 levels of mediocracy and here is your reward. Full Auto, holds, flamethrowers, snipes - you've got it all.
Reccomended Slotting: One Endurance Reduction.
Trick Arrow: The Powers[/b]
Entangling Arrow
Endurance Cost: 4.2
Activation Time: 2.2
Recharge Time: 4
Accuracy Bonus: 5%
Description: Upon impact, the Entangling Arrow releases a strong net that can Immobilize most targets. This non-lethal device deals no damage and does not prevent targets from attacking. The Entangling Arrow can bring down flying entities and halts jumping.
Personal Thoughts: Not bad. An immobilize and -fly power stuck in one happy bundle. This power really shines when used in PvP. Otherwise, it's something you may use on occassion, but not much else.
Reccomended Slotting: One Accuracy, two if you PvP. I wouldn't bother slotting the immobilize duration, though if you have the slots it isn't that bad of an idea.
Flash Arrow
Endurance Cost: 9.75
Activation Time: 3.3
Recharge Time: 15
Description: This arrow explodes in a dazzling flash of light and sound. The targets are so blinded that they can hardly see a thing. Most villains will not be able to see past normal melee range, although some may have better perception. If villains are attacked, they will be alerted to your presence, but will suffer a penalty to Accuracy.
Personal Thoughts: The black sheep of the set. Most people write this power off because it gives 'invisible aggro' to you. What that means is that it may not give any aggro intitially, but when you attack the debuffed group, the enemies will remember who debuffed them and attack appropriately. So why take it? This is still an excellent power for avoiding groups you don't want to fight in the first place. In addition, you're going to be getting aggro anyways when you start shooting your other debuff arrows at the group. It's still a great power in my opinion, and I think others are far too hasty in writing it off.
Reccomended Slotting: Empty. One accuracy if you PvP and actually want to use it.
Glue Arrow
Endurance Cost: 7.8
Activation Time: 2.7
Recharge Time: 60
Description: This arrow carries a cartridge of intensely sticky glue, which explodes on impact. The glue Slows the movement and attack rates of any foes in the area.
Personal Thoughts: One of the first arrows you get and one of the best. Even right out of the box it slows even level enemies to a crawl and reduced their attack rate significantly. This helps keep them away from your ranged minions and mitigates damage heavily. The way Glue Arrow works currently for Masterminds is that when you shoot it at a target, that person becomes the achor for the debuff (think Dark and Radiation debuffs). When that person dies, the Glue Arrow stops infecting other people but they will still remain slowed for the remainder of the duration.
Reccomended Slotting: Two Recharge and Two Slow Modifications keep it up often enough and slow +3-4s to a crawl. If you fight anything higher level for some reason, you may want to consider a third slow modification.
Ice Arrow
Endurance Cost: 10.66
Activation Time: 3.33
Recharge Time: 18
Description: This arrow can freeze a single foe in a block of ice. The target is frozen solid, helpless, and can be attacked. More powerful foes may not be Held, but all affected targets will be Slowed.
Personal Thoughts: I'm still borderline on this power. The hold duration isn't too worth it until you get SOs in it and the activation time is horrendous. However, it still is good for taking out those pesky sappers, flamethrowers, and other nasty minions and lieutenants. I held out on taking it until 30 or so. It's also an awesome PvP power for detoggling those squishies. If you tend to group a lot and don't PvP much, this is a skippable power.
Reccomended Slotting: One Accuracy and Three Hold Duration. Toss in another accuracy as taste dictates.
Poison Gas Arrow
Endurance Cost: 10.4
Activation Time: 2.7
Recharge Time: 45
Description: This arrow carries a capsule cloud of poisonous gas, which explodes on impact and weakens all foes in its vicinity. Affected foes damage potential will be severely reduced. Some foes will be react badly to the poison and choke for a time.
Personal Thoughts: Pure damage mitigation. Shoot an arrow and it debuffs the group's damage in a wide area of effect radius. The sleep is neglibible and I wouldn't reccomend slotting for it. If you solo a lot, this is a skippable power.
Reccomended Slotting: One Recharge Reduction. You shouldn't need this up every single fight, so I reccomend saving two slots on this and just going with one.
Acid Arrow
Endurance Cost: 9.75
Activation Time: 3.33
Recharge Time: 20
Description: This arrow explodes in a small shower of acid on impact. This acid eats through armor, causing damage over time. It reduces the target's Defense as well as his Damage Resistance.
Personal Thoughts: Your first -res arrow. It debuffs the target and everyone in a very tight area around it, taking away a bit of resistance and defense. Take it, use it, love it.
Reccomended Slotting: Two Accuracy/One Recharge Reduction/One Defense DeBuff.
Disruption Arrow
Endurance Cost: 18.2
Activation Time: 2.7
Recharge Time: 60
Description: This arrow plants a sonic resonator at a target location. The vibrations of the resonator weaken the Damage Resistance of all nearby foes.
Personal Thoughts: Your second -res arrow, Target an area and it makes a very visible effect in the shape of a power target cursor, debuffing everything around it of resistance. Combined with Acid Arrow, things will fall very quickly.
Reccomended Slotting: Three Recharge Reduction will do it for this, since you can't slot the -res.
Oil Slick Arrow
Endurance Cost: 19.5
Activation Time: 2.67
Recharge Time: 180
Description: On impact, this arrow creates an oil slick that Slows foes in the area and many cause them to slip and fall. The oil slick is very flammable and may burst into flames if fire is used near it.
Personal Thoughts: An orgy of powers. Oil Slick arrow is essentially an Ice Slick that can be lit on fire to turn it into a gigantic Ice Slick Burn patch that does a large amount of damage to everything in it. Target an area and it spreads oil on the ground and makes the enemies slip and fall, also reducing their movement speed. It creates a targettable 'Oil Slick' entity that needs to be hit with energy or fire damage to be ignited. As a Merc/TA villain, you have a few options available to you to do so: 1.) Position your commando close to it and tell it to attack it - if flamethrower is up, your commando will use it on the oil slick. 2.) Be Tech or Magic origin and use your origin power on it. 3.) Take the Mu Mastery PPP and the AoE damage attack.
Reccomended Slotting: Three Damage and Three Recharge. This slows enough on its own, and for added slowtasticness you can lead off with Glue Arrow. You want the damage from this and you want it up as often as possible, so these are obvious choices.
EMP Arrow
Endurance Cost: 29.25
Activation Time: 3.33
Recharge Time: 300
Description: This arrow can unleash a massive pulse of electromagnetic energy on impact. This EMP can affect machines, and is even powerful enough to affect synaptic brain patterns. It will incapacitate all foes in its radius. Additionally, most machines and robots will take moderate high damage. However, this power uses a lot of Endurance and leaves you unable to recover Endurance for a while.
Personal Thoughts: Your final arrow. It does a nice hold to a group of enemies and drains their endurance, but leaves you unable to recover endurance for a short while after. It's a nice arrow for large groups. In PvP, I'd reccomend slotting it for the endurance reduction instead of the hold. While you won't be able to hold most people with it, you can usually sap their endurance to 0 to detoggle them and follow up with an Ice Arrow to hold them.
Reccomended Slotting: (PvE) One Accuracy/Two Hold Duraction/Two Recharge. (PvP) One Accuracy/Two Endurance Modification/Two Recharge.
Pool Powers[/b]
Concealment: Phase Shift now makes you unable to control your minions, and invisibility is fairly pointless with all of them surrounding you. Flavor purposes only.
Fighting: While it may be tempting, just stay away.
Fitness: To Stamina, or not to Stamina, that is the question. Well, not really. Mercs/TA doesn't need it unless you take the attacks in your primary pool. Take it or leave it - I left it far, far behind.
Flight: I love this set. Hover is nice combat mobility when slotted. Air Superiority really doesn't fit the build much, though. Fly is a great all-purpose travel power. Group Fly can lead to some entertaining air raids with your now mobile troupe. I probably would have gone this route if I weren't more PvP oriented and wanted Acrobatics.
Leadership: Eeh. Assault is miserable, so is Maneuvers. Tactics is very awesome, however. I originally went this route being the accuracy lover I am, but eventually respecced out of it because it started to be too big of a hit on my endurance with Acrobatics. Take it if you want to save some slots and have the stamina to spare.
Leaping: The path I took. Combat Jumping provides excellent immobilize resistance, Super Jump is a great travel power, and it all leads up to Acrobatics which gives Hold and Knockback resistance. A heavily reccomended pool.
Medicine: This pool is pure love. Aid Other combined with your Medic can keep your entire group in tip top shape. Aid Self combined with bodyguard adds levels upon levels of survivability to your mastermind. I heavily reccomend this pool.
Presence: A pool for flavor, not much else. The fears could be useful if you have the slots, but you should have enough to do between debuffing and healing your pets.
Speed: Hasten used to be a requirement for trick arrow to be bearable, but ever since the devs reduced the recharge on most of the powers I really don't think this is a necessary power any more. I reccomend shooting yourself in the foot before relying solely on Super Speed as your primary travel power in CoV. It'll be more enjoyable. Whirlwind is the antithesis to trick arrow - ignore it.
Teleportation: Ah, the much debated Teleport Foe. Many people will call you 'cheap' and such for using it in PvP, but I find it's the only way I can get people close enough to my minions to hurt them. Recall Friend can help in recovering lost minions. Teleport is a fun travel power, but greatly hurt in Issue Seven due to targetting issues. Group Teleport is yich - go for Group Fly if you want a group travel power. An optional set unless you PvP, in which case I heavily reccomend taking Teleport Foe.
My Build[/b]
I typically don't like posting my own builds - they're often too subjective to personal taste and can give most people the wrong impression, but I've been asked a few times for it, so here it is:
---------------------------------------------
Exported from Ver: 1.7.6.0 of the CoH_CoV Character Builder
---------------------------------------------
Name:
Level: 41
Archetype: Mastermind
Primary: Mercenaries
Secondary: Trick Arrow
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Soldiers==> Dmg(1)Dmg(3)Dmg(3)Acc(5)Acc(5)Acc(7)
01) --> Entangling Arrow==> Acc(1)Acc(37)
02) --> Flash Arrow==> Acc(2)
04) --> Glue Arrow==> Rechg(4)Rechg(7)Slow(9)Slow(9)
06) --> Equip Mercenary==> EndRdx(6)
08) --> Combat Jumping==> EndRdx(8)
10) --> Aid Other==> Heal(10)Heal(11)Heal(11)
12) --> Spec Ops==> Dmg(12)Dmg(13)Dmg(13)Acc(15)Acc(15)Acc(17)
14) --> Super Jump==> Jump(14)Jump(17)Jump(19)
16) --> Poison Gas Arrow==> Rechg(16)
18) --> Aid Self==> Heal(18)Heal(19)Heal(21)IntRdx(21)IntRdx(23)
20) --> Acid Arrow==> Acc(20)Acc(23)Rechg(25)DefDeBuf(25)
22) --> Teleport Foe==> Acc(22)Range(27)Range(27)Acc(34)
24) --> Acrobatics==> EndRdx(24)
26) --> Commando==> Dmg(26)Dmg(29)Dmg(29)Acc(31)Acc(31)EndRdx(34)
28) --> Disruption Arrow==> Rechg(28)Rechg(31)Rechg(33)
30) --> Ice Arrow==> Acc(30)Hold(33)Hold(33)Hold(34)
32) --> Tactical Upgrade==> EndRdx(32)
35) --> Oil Slick Arrow==> Dmg(35)Dmg(36)Dmg(36)Rechg(36)Rechg(37)Rechg(37)
38) --> EMP Arrow==> Acc(38)EndMod(39)EndMod(39)Rechg(39)Rechg(40)Rechg(40)
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Sprint==> Empty(1)
01) --> Brawl==> Empty(1)
01) --> Supremacy==> Empty(1)
02) --> Rest==> Empty(2)
---------------------------------------------
I like to PvP and I'm almost always grouping, so I'm heavily slotted for accuracy. I also took Teleport Foe for the same purposes.
Tactics[/b]
For Trick Arrow, the debuff order is completely situational. If Oil Slick arrow is up, that's always the first thing to go down. Then follow through with Disruption and Glue Arrows while you send your commando in to light the slick. Then acid arrow or poison gas, rinse and repeat. Use Ice Arrow as needed to take out Malta Sappers, SWAT Equalizers, Longbow Flamethrowers, and other nasty enemies.
Controlling your minions is fairly easy up until 32. They only really have two AI modes: Prioritize Ranged (which they're in 95% of the time) and Prioritize Melee (Which is what your Medic and occasionally a Spec Op will do. GoTo him back to your group and he should get back to ranged attacks).
At 32, however, your commando and spec ops get snipes. This adds a third AI mode - Prioritize Sniping. Occasionally, they'll sit out of normal firing range and just attempt to cycle their one snipe over and over. Once again, GoTo is your friend here. Move them back to the appropriate range and continue fighting. This also works in reverse, though. If your commando isn't using his LRM and he has it ready to be used, send him further away from his target and he'll usually use it.
Closing[/b]
Thanks for reading my guide! Suggestions and discussion are welcome, as are any other questions you might have. Enjoy your new villain!