Achille's Heel procs in your soldiers should help debuff enemy resists a bit. I've got one in each of my pets and it does help with some of the tougher targets. My Merc is /FF so no real boost there, although the knockback is a thing of beauty with all ranged pets.
The final upgrade at 32 helps alot. Adds a bunch of cones/aoe and some debuffs to your pets.
Mercs will never be top of the heap for damage. Plain and simple. They aren't terrible, but I doubt they'll knock anyone's socks off.
As far as Pain? Not a clue, I've never tried the set.
They ALL float down here. When you're down here with us, you'll float too!
@Starflier
Well, if we're talking about upping the damage:
I'd second the Achilles Heel - put one in Soldiers and one in Spec Ops.
I'd also suggest a Lady Grey damage proc in Soldiers and Spec Ops too, for another damage boost.
Both of those can proc off every attack Soldiers have, and the two main attacks Spec Ops have (not their snipes or grenades).
I'd not put them in Commando though, as he only has one single target attack that qualifies. The Kinetic Crash smashing damage works well with him though - procs off his Slug, Buckshot, M30 and LRM attacks.
From Pain, besides World of Pain there's not a lot that'll boost your pets killing speed until Painbringer (which you'll want to pop on your Commando) and Anguishing Cry.
You may want to pick up Assault for another small damage boost. Personally I also took M30 despite the general wisdom of no personal attacks; I added 2 damage procs to it (Positron's Energy damage and Kinetic Crash Smashing) so while the base damage is still weak, it sometimes gets a good run of proc damage - gives me a little bit of extra offense for when I'm not needed in supporting my pets.
Downside is this all costs inf, and I think the procs (Achilles especially) are a bit pricier than they once were.
Merc/Pain is a nice combo, I've got one at 50.
I'll echo like others about the Achilles proc on all your pets. Being mainly lethal damage, this proc helps a ton in later levels. They don't stack, but will be easy to keep perma with all your pets firing away.
Personally I'm against leadership on MMs unless it stacks with something you've already got. With WoP you got a damage boost, so assault will help a bit. Frakenslotted you can get it perm with other recharge bonuses.
It's not a steam roller mix, but its pretty safe in general. Just shoot and heal
I definitely suggest Assault. It adds +DMG to World of Pain and multiplies with Anguishing Cry. Oddly, I don't have Assault on my Ninja/PD, though I will when I finish my lvl 50 respec.
If you're looking for more survivability for your Mercs, then Provoke (once well slotted) could make a big difference.
Heya, so I'm fairly new to the CoX games and I've made my self a mastermind and gone mercs/pain. I really like the character I got and I'm now level 29 but I have no idea how to build him.
I see other MM's ripping stuff up in missions but my mercs just seem meh and I don't really know how to go about improving them.
I looked around for guides, and while there are a few merc guides and a few pain ones there are none for both and all the different guides say very different things.
I just don't wanna spend all this work on the guy to find that I totally suck and should of rerolled ages ago.
Any help would be greatly appreciated, as I know that there must be some of you out there wise enough to give me some tips about how to go about improving this guy!
thanks!