Merc/?


Airhammer

 

Posted

So I'm looking to bounce back to the redside for a little bit and trying to find a good secondary to go with Mercs. I've played pain up until about level 10 and it feels too much like an emp (which I already have a 50)... I also don't want dark as my only 50 mm right now is dark.

Any suggestions that people have tried that work well... and why?

I was thinking about storm for some buff/debuff to help the lower tiered mercs (from the other mm's)l, but I've never played a storm before and don't know how well I'll like it. I've checked most of the guides and searched the boards and haven't seen much about it. I guess a lot of people don't play mercs?


 

Posted

Well, darn, I was going to say dark since I've had a good run with that secondary.
Failing that, have you looked at /storm?

edit: your edit beat my post.


Writer of In-Game fiction: Just Completed: My Summer Vacation. My older things are now being archived at Fanfiction.net http://www.fanfiction.net/~jwbullfrog until I come up with a better solution.

 

Posted

Thanks for the response.

Having never played a storm before do you think the sets would work well together?

Anything I should keep in mind? As I said finding guides for merc has been a lot more difficult than I have found any other power sets I've checked out.


 

Posted

Storm works well with ranged sets(thugs,mercs and bots). Just don't run it with ninjas or zombies or you'll be watching your pets run around aimlessly in the confusion. I made that mistake once.


 

Posted

Storm
-don't bother with snowstorm. I find O2 boost fairly useless as well but you might want it if you fight a lot of mezzing enemies. It can wait until higher levels either way.
-get hurricane and freezing rain as soon as possible. Those are the staples of the set. Hurricane will keep mobs off you (and your minions if you stay close to them) while FR is a nice disruption ability.
-steamy mist is also quite helpful as it provides stealth -accuracy to everyone nearby
-you will want stamina as storm is very end intensive with all of its toggles.


 

Posted

Steamy mist doesn't do -acc, hurricane does. But I'll agree that if you don't go with /TA go with /storm (which doesn't even conceptually fit in my mind...).


 

Posted

I went bots/storm which sounds odd, but my character's supposed to be a supervillain with a weather control device.


 

Posted

For me, theme trumps all other considerations. If that combo works for your character idea, then it's a good choice.


edit for horrid spelling


Writer of In-Game fiction: Just Completed: My Summer Vacation. My older things are now being archived at Fanfiction.net http://www.fanfiction.net/~jwbullfrog until I come up with a better solution.

 

Posted

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But I'll agree that if you don't go with /TA go with /storm (which doesn't even conceptually fit in my mind...).

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Of course it fits thematically ! Storm Troopers !

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Storm
-don't bother with snowstorm. I find O2 boost fairly useless as well but you might want it if you fight a lot of mezzing enemies.

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I disagree with both of these. Snow Storm is very useful, rendering many otherwise powerful enemies far weaker ( Longbow Ballista for example ). And it helps deal with those irritating runners. And O2 Boost when slotted is a fairly good, uninterruptible heal.

Another good combo with Mercs is Traps; not only thematically, but they have synergy. The all-ranged Mercs stay in Triage Beacon's aura ( which is good after being slotted with SOs ), and the immobs and stuns from the Spec Ops stack with those from /Traps.


Arc #40529 : The Furies of the Earth

 

Posted

Trick Arrow.. Mine is level 50 and is a very good toon...


The hard things I can do--- The impossible just take a little bit longer.

If numbers are so much more important than a teammate who is fun to play with, forget about the game altogether and go play with a calculator instead. -Claws and Effect-

 

Posted

Thanks for all the helpful responses.

I ended up trying out merc/storm. I don't know why but my original concept for the character didn't fit with a bow and arrow... but a technological military device that alters the weather I could somehow fit in.

So far still grinding out the early sloooow MM levels as it has been for every other MM I've started up, but I'm liking the synergy of the kb and having all ranged pets. It doesn't feel like nearly as much of a burden as it was for my bots (where I actually took mu just to stop it).


 

Posted

I meant O2 boost is pretty useless for early levels. It isn't worth it until you get some nice IOs.


 

Posted

I've used 02 boost since level 2, been very, very helpful. I've had to replace about 5 pets since I started with this toon, it's a good heal and it also frees your pets from disorients and whatnot. If you take an attack you might not have the endurance for O2 boost off the bat but if you are building a mm without the primary attacks(only storm offensives) then o2 won't drain your endurance too much, slot for 2 endurance first then the heals and recharges.

Oh and snowstorm is a great skill, it cuts recharge in half with 0 slotting, slotted for slow, you can drop run speed by 97%, and it's aoe. Does anyone build toons without stamina anyway? Snowstorm is a must have in my opinion, third best skill in the set after hurricane and freezing rain.


 

Posted

go traps.

mercs need an overhaul. at least traps will let you do more dmg and give you more control. achille's heel proc in acid mortar plus a few in your pets is a rather powerful amount of resist debuffing.


 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
go traps.

mercs need an overhaul. at least traps will let you do more dmg and give you more control. achille's heel proc in acid mortar plus a few in your pets is a rather powerful amount of resist debuffing.

[/ QUOTE ]

I really dont understand this comment, are you speaking from number crunching or from game use?

I have a 50 mercs, 47 Thugs, 44 Robots and 43 Necro. I find mercs are as good ( in their own way ) as each of my other MM's, in fact I find it easier to solo AV's with them as they stay put when I tell them to now the Medic is fixed, not like Arsonist or Prot bot melee idiocy.

There has been multiple posts in the last 3 years comparing each and several people have proven with extensive testing that mercs damage is not that different from the others, its because they are 90% DoT and people see all the little numbers they think their damage sucks.

I actually have the most Fun on my Mercs/Dark and at no time have felt inferior.


 

Posted

Pain on MERCs .. OH YEAH. The Mercs have their own debuff array, so Pain fits em like a glove. Yes, they have a Medic, but thats one ONE guy with a single-barrel heal, you can do better than him, and make sure he's ATTACKING instead of healing. Pain Bringer works GREAT on the Commado, the damage boost and the endurance make sure he never runs dry on ammo. Carnies will hate you with a passion. lol


Shigeru Miyamoto "A delayed game will eventually be good, a bad game is bad forever."

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
go traps.

mercs need an overhaul. at least traps will let you do more dmg and give you more control. achille's heel proc in acid mortar plus a few in your pets is a rather powerful amount of resist debuffing.

[/ QUOTE ]

I really dont understand this comment, are you speaking from number crunching or from game use?

I have a 50 mercs, 47 Thugs, 44 Robots and 43 Necro. I find mercs are as good ( in their own way ) as each of my other MM's, in fact I find it easier to solo AV's with them as they stay put when I tell them to now the Medic is fixed, not like Arsonist or Prot bot melee idiocy.

There has been multiple posts in the last 3 years comparing each and several people have proven with extensive testing that mercs damage is not that different from the others, its because they are 90% DoT and people see all the little numbers they think their damage sucks.

I actually have the most Fun on my Mercs/Dark and at no time have felt inferior.

[/ QUOTE ]

in game experience. mercs doesnt hold it's own.

pets running off? thugs do so much more damage than mercs and anyone with /traps or /ff can softcap every single pet it matters little. and with my playstyle of keeping everything toghether and under an ffg or dispersion bubble or close for twilight grasp/aoe heals, things running into melee isnt a big deal - even vs. nasty av's with nastier aoe's.

mercs needs an overhaul


 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
go traps.

mercs need an overhaul. at least traps will let you do more dmg and give you more control. achille's heel proc in acid mortar plus a few in your pets is a rather powerful amount of resist debuffing.

[/ QUOTE ]

I really dont understand this comment, are you speaking from number crunching or from game use?

I have a 50 mercs, 47 Thugs, 44 Robots and 43 Necro. I find mercs are as good ( in their own way ) as each of my other MM's, in fact I find it easier to solo AV's with them as they stay put when I tell them to now the Medic is fixed, not like Arsonist or Prot bot melee idiocy.

There has been multiple posts in the last 3 years comparing each and several people have proven with extensive testing that mercs damage is not that different from the others, its because they are 90% DoT and people see all the little numbers they think their damage sucks.

I actually have the most Fun on my Mercs/Dark and at no time have felt inferior.

[/ QUOTE ]

in game experience. mercs doesnt hold it's own.

pets running off? thugs do so much more damage than mercs and anyone with /traps or /ff can softcap every single pet it matters little. and with my playstyle of keeping everything toghether and under an ffg or dispersion bubble or close for twilight grasp/aoe heals, things running into melee isnt a big deal - even vs. nasty av's with nastier aoe's.

mercs needs an overhaul

[/ QUOTE ]

So much more damage, are you kidding? Are you talking arsonist or all Thugs? If you think its all Thugs then that is totally false. This type of blind stereotyping of Mercs damage died after CoH put the "info" button on all powers. I can tell you for a fact that Mercs and Thugs damage are failrly close if you add up all the listed damge under info ( including recharge)

Easy way for you to check is to take your Thugs and Mercs in game and r-click on each pet , click info and slide the slider to 50, then review each powers damage. Add them all up and compare. I did , they are roughly the same....do you even have both to compare?


 

Posted

I have a Thug and Merc at 50 and they are roughly the same amount of damage. Granted the Thugs are a bit more, Mercs are more controls.

That's the difference, Thugs is pure damage and Mercs have controls. Slot some -resist into mercs and you'll see a world of difference in damage. My Merc/Pain survives just as well as my Thug/FF and Thug/Poison.

Thugs and Mercs are not built with the same things in mind. When you only compare one thing, yes one will appear to come out on top. Compare them as a whole and the results will be different.

Damage: Thugs > Merc
Damage (-resist proc on mercs): Thug = Mercs
Controls: Thug < Merc

See what I mean?


 

Posted

I'm pretty sure you can put -res in thugs/. And if they have an immob/ it isn't even close. Thugs/ pull much further ahead.


 

Posted

enforcers use 6 powers each so 12 chances between them that will proc achille's heel -resist. both of my thugs mm's have it. the little debuff is up 90% of the time. i rarely use acid mortar unless it's an eb/av now.

it's far less common on the mercs - probably due to how LONG merc animations are. enforcers animate insanely fast.


 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
go traps.

mercs need an overhaul. at least traps will let you do more dmg and give you more control. achille's heel proc in acid mortar plus a few in your pets is a rather powerful amount of resist debuffing.

[/ QUOTE ]

I really dont understand this comment, are you speaking from number crunching or from game use?

I have a 50 mercs, 47 Thugs, 44 Robots and 43 Necro. I find mercs are as good ( in their own way ) as each of my other MM's, in fact I find it easier to solo AV's with them as they stay put when I tell them to now the Medic is fixed, not like Arsonist or Prot bot melee idiocy.

There has been multiple posts in the last 3 years comparing each and several people have proven with extensive testing that mercs damage is not that different from the others, its because they are 90% DoT and people see all the little numbers they think their damage sucks.

I actually have the most Fun on my Mercs/Dark and at no time have felt inferior.

[/ QUOTE ]

in game experience. mercs doesnt hold it's own.

pets running off? thugs do so much more damage than mercs and anyone with /traps or /ff can softcap every single pet it matters little. and with my playstyle of keeping everything toghether and under an ffg or dispersion bubble or close for twilight grasp/aoe heals, things running into melee isnt a big deal - even vs. nasty av's with nastier aoe's.

mercs needs an overhaul

[/ QUOTE ]

So much more damage, are you kidding? Are you talking arsonist or all Thugs? If you think its all Thugs then that is totally false. This type of blind stereotyping of Mercs damage died after CoH put the "info" button on all powers. I can tell you for a fact that Mercs and Thugs damage are failrly close if you add up all the listed damge under info ( including recharge)

Easy way for you to check is to take your Thugs and Mercs in game and r-click on each pet , click info and slide the slider to 50, then review each powers damage. Add them all up and compare. I did , they are roughly the same....do you even have both to compare?

[/ QUOTE ]

yes i have. and what doesnt show on those boxes is how the enforcers 2x assault buffs are affecting the powers

and do we need to even say it? medic vs. arsonist?

i have every mm primary to 41 or higher. all but my necro use traps so i have parity for my own comparisons. only reason why my necro is dark is becaue it was my first mm and my first 50 villain.


 

Posted

You can actually place the proc on all merc pets. From personal experience Mercs get much more use out of the proc than Thugs.

Granted Thug damage IS higher, that is their advantage after all.

The point of my little comparison was to prove they aint the same. You can't say "Thugs are better because they deal more damage". Mainly because Mercs were not built to be the best damage. IMO all primaries have good and bad points. None are better than another.