It has no utility really, the medic is hardly up to it and aside from some choke/disorient grenades from the tier 2's it's not great vs some of the tougher AV's. It can chew through mobs alright but you'll have some difficulty on the hard hitters when it comes to survivabilty. If you're going to get mercs, i suggest mercs/dark, traps works ok but aside from traige there's not much self sustaining stuff, and dark has -res,-regen, -dmg and a whole lot of -acc which makes up for a LOT. Plus and extra pet and "oh shi-" button if you choose it.
They are pretty bad, I have played 4/5 MM primaries to 32 and beyond and I can safely say that they are the worst DPS and the worst survivors. It took an achilles heel -res IO in each pet to get the DPS up to bot level. Once the commando arrives at 26 and is slotted at 27, it becomes equal to the bot DPS (with -res slotting). Once the commando gets the level 32 upgrade, it falls below bots again, since the upgrade is pretty underwhelming for the commando.
I agree with Psiko, a set with huge -res and -acc and holds is good for them to keep them alive and killing adequately fast enough.
I am playing a TA/Mercs which is self torture, I wanted to see if I could make it work. In short: I can't. The only place the character fits in well is in a large team where the large area debuffs (as pathetic as they are) work best.
I have a ff/bot at 32 and a thugs/poison at 36 and a necro/dark at 50 and I can honestly say that my TA/merc is heading for a delete soon. I will keep at it until slotted oil slick then give it another assessment if its to keep or not.
@Boerewors
I'm not very far in to the set, but I have a L20 Merc/FF MM, who is my toon for a challenge to get to 50 undefeated (if we die, then we have to start again with a new character).
I'm playing in a duo with a friend, and unfortunately he's suffered a couple of deaths. Whilst he levels up to the same level as my Merc, I've rolled other MM's to keep him company.
Compared to the sheer iritation of the ninja's I love the mercs. The mercs do as they're told. The ninjas spend half their time throwing ninja stars when they should be kicking the hell out of something.
Sure, liberal use of GoTo commands will get the ninjas into melee for a pretty awesome alpha. But it's 50:50 at best. Usually one will always stand there throwing stars and refusing to melee.
The Mercs might be lesser damage, but when I tell them to attack, they all open up and attack.
Thugs seem to be good, but every man and his dog has thugs. So far, I've not found Mercs to be a problem. Perhaps not the best, but adequate, and they don't stomp around with the annoying mechanical noise of bots. 
I see, thanks for the replies everybody.
I guess I'll scrap the idea so I don't end up regretting my choice later on, I've decided to try out the robots instead 
It's a pity though, I find having my own soldiers to command very cool but ah well, robots work too!
[ QUOTE ]
Thugs seem to be good, but every man and his dog has thugs. So far, I've not found Mercs to be a problem. Perhaps not the best, but adequate, and they don't stomp around with the annoying mechanical noise of bots.
[/ QUOTE ]
Yes, I thought about thugs, maybe its just me being strange but I just cant get comfortable with the concept, Id much rather have trained soldiers then gangbangers. 
"Touch of Lady Grey: Chance for Negative Damage" should increase damage output considerably. Place in Soldiers and Spec-Ops.
I ran a few paper missions, on ruthless solo, mainly against Carnies with a few others as fillers:
---
Type Lethal (total) 7,319.41. Per minute 127.25. Per hour: 7,635.10
Type-Bonus Negative Energy (total) 12,847.41. Per minute 223.36. Per hour: 13,401.52.
---
I think the numbers speak for themselves. But just in case it's unclear, I just showed a way to almost triple damage output. But you can use them in Thugs as well, so it's not like Mercenaries will be severely outperformed as usual. Maybe nobody should pick up the set, so they can datamine that, and start to look at it. ;-)
---
[ QUOTE ]
I think the numbers speak for themselves. But just in case it's unclear, I just showed a way to almost triple damage output. But you can use them in Thugs as well, so it's not like Mercenaries will be severely outperformed as usual. Maybe nobody should pick up the set, so they can datamine that, and start to look at it. ;-)
[/ QUOTE ]
Hehe, I see.
Well, no sense in needlessly gimping myself I guess so Ill give it up. It just really bugs me that street thugs fight better then soldiers 
Thanks for the help, it probably saved me some disappointment later on.
[ QUOTE ]
It just really bugs me that street thugs fight better then soldiers
[/ QUOTE ]
You nailed it. 
---
It is really sad that you will have slot very expensive IOs in the pets to actually get them to perform well. Achilles heel goes for 5-8mil an IO and the lady grey ones even more. That is a lot of money to get the set DPS working well.
After playing my TA/Merc in a group for a while I used my vet respec to salvage the IOs I put in it and shelved the toon.
I was especially feeling rather down when I had to quickly afk in a few fights due to family emergencies and when returning I saw that my partner had not even missed me at all.
The merc utility is lacking as well. You just have to group with a ninja MM to see how your commando does not do so well when that Oni rips out a rain of fire and has mobs choking in a hold. I really dont see how a LRM shot or short range flame thrower can hold a candle to other tier 3 pets.
BAH, enough of this maudlin depression, it was only 3 weeks of levelling wasted, I will move on.
@Boerewors
I currently have a Mercs/TA at 35 and I'm finding.... they're not actually that bad. Do I underperform compared to a thugs/bots of similar level, probably and I'm not going to say I won't be immensly happy if they review mercs somewhat.
BUT I can happily and relatively easily solo missions on Ruthless (I can theoretically do relentless, but the AoEs work better on more low-level minions), and this is without any damage procs.
I can also happily run two leadership toggles without stamina.
In my opnion: do mercs underperform - Yes. Are they gimped - No!
They could give every single merc a leadership aura that gives a small bonus to damage and accuracy. Working together as a unit they're highly effective, with a large bonus to their general hurtiness. As they die and get thinned out they become less effective. Soldiers are meant to work as a team after all.
Chairman of the Charity of Pain; accepting donations of blood and guts.
Prophet of the Creamy Truth; "If it's empty, fill it with cream."
Anann has the point here, Mercs are worse than the other sets, but they aren't so bad you have to have help missioning. Sure, it was aggrovating to find my medic using stim pack on an otherwise unmezzed minion when i've got 89 billion holds stacked on me, sure it was annoying that my bot's pal just stormed past me as I gradually worked on a few mobs, but hey it's an underdog, and I still carried on to 50 with my mercs/traps MM, and I. Felt. Good.
Especially after I got to 50 and never had to play them again
In short - it's still playable, but it's tough running at times, and will rub you the wrong way sometimes.
I couldnt keep myself from it and actually tried out a merc/dark despite all the warnings, I guess sometimes you just got to learn it the hard way.
I love how they look, I love how they fight and I love the lead flying all over the place.
But I do not love seeing their damage compared to that of an equally levelled mastermind with thugs that I played with a bunch of times.. it was like, wait, what? How can those street thugs do that? What are my professional soldiers armed with, pea shooters?
So yea, here's hoping that they take a look at the set at one point, because I think it is the coolest.
Firstly, dont jusge TA till you have the jewel in the crown: Oil Slick Arrow. Every time you fire this it pings off enough damage to finish minions whilst at the same time giving excellent damage mitigation.
TA also functions much better on teams. Its strength is immense AoE debuffs which cant be detoggled. It simply does better in big groups.
Now, as for Mercs...
Comparing my (now deleted for concept reasons) 33 Merc MM and my 50 Bots MM.
Bots seemed slightly more resiliant, in general.
Bots seemed to do a similar amount of damage, in general (the problem was s/l resistance which could make mercs dip often)
However, Mercs seemed to do more Stun / Debuff effects, particularly AoE ones. And this is comparing them to Bots which have a good amount of these. I strongly suspect that Mercs have the best overall "debuff/mez" ability of any pet.
Medics stimulant and heal where handy
Commando used to run out of endurance a LOT
The Mercs STimulant was ok, compared to the Bots repair power which is poor.
Overall, Id say Bots were better, but only because of the over prepoderance of smash/lethal damage.
I have a lvl 32 Thugs MM. Yes they do more damage, although have less AoE. They have similar survivability, but they have comparitibly very poor mez ability.
Overall, I couldnt say any one of them was "gimped".
As a lvl 50 mercs mastermind:
The set seems more 'controller' in it's application. The damage may not be as high as with other sets, but when teaming damage is not really a high priority. I reached the mid-forties without getting the first debt badge, and solo'd EBs for breakfast. (Using serum to tank)
The mercs heal/stimulant made my MM much more survivable solo. I needed to be patient for the medic to apply it to me though (usually using goto, to make him stand next to be first)
Commando used to run out of endurance a LOT... until I slotted an end redux SO in his set, and it never happened again. I now have a lvl 50 dam/end IO which does the same job.
I now have three dam/mez Hami's in Spec Ops, which maximises the damage, hold, immob AND stun durations of their attacks (awesome mez potential). The damage is quite low on them anyway, but they are there to provide control. I plan to add up to three acc/tohit debuff ones as well once I have the inf. 
As you said, Mercs seemed to me provide more control than anyother set - dont judge on damage alone.
I'm not a mastermind so you might want to take my opinion with a grain of salt.
I have however duoed extensively with first mercs and now robots. From my perspective as the brute teaming with the MM, the difference isn't that big.
The bots do seem to do a bit more damage, but they also have really freaking annoying knockbacks that trigger all the damn time, while the mercs had more useful status effects that don't ruin my attack chain and thus my combos.
Personally I'd rather team with mercs than bots because:
1. Mercs don't have annoying knockback
2. Mercs have more valuable mezzes
3. The damage difference doesn't seem that insurmountably high
This is my view as an outsider, but unless you don't intend to ever team, I think it's worth taking on board.
i got a merc / ff (yes i know theres not many tools exept kb and def in ff) to 32 and i was so underwhelmed compared to my other mms that i had to delete since i couldn´t bring myself to play him and when i did i had to change toons immediately to cure my boredom.
I left CoH already, but had to bring a new scam-mail under the notice in general.
Anyway, Mercs were 1 of the reasons i left CoX, being my highest MM i have (43). Some random points:
Mez, if you want mez power, take dark, TA or traps, they mez 10 times stronger, 10 times better and 10 times faster. Their little ammount of teargas, webnade or flashbang? Leave the stupid powers and let the MM handle the mez (except for FF, all sets have strong mez abilities). Their damage is really far below any other set, not only due only SL damage (with exception of LRM missile) but due their insane ammount of DoT.
Why? quick example. When a mob is left with 10 hp, any other set doing 1 instant damage will make all other pets stop attacking and continue next mob. As 5 merc pets do a high ammount of DoT attacks (actualy tier1 only have DoT's) with long casting, the moment the first starts, all other pets still engage attack since the HP is not yet 0 (dot of 2-3dmg ticks).
Commando basicly uses 2 powers effectively. Full auto is a joke when he opens it on 1 single mob. A AR blaster knows how to use FA, knowns he has to position himself correctly to benefit from it, compared to all other Tier3 powers commando is a plain joke. LRM he only does if he's far far away from the mobs. (90% of the time.. he wont) same goes for the seals sniper shot. Their stealth is, unlike ninja hide or smokeflash, a serious joke. Randomly on off on off with no noticable advantage except a -runspeed penalty.
I posted several other replies in sortlike topics with details info about basicly every power the mercs have (10 times mock the medic).
How i ever reached 43? drag along with fast and solid teams, just 'pretending' i contribute to the team or sk'ing along in Rikti warzone with heroes. Untill i grabbed my necro/traps and missions went insanely fast.
Unles they revamp many powers merc have (like AR got when blaster got his normalisation) it remains the lowest damage dealing class, with the most ammount of useless powers. Mez is a pitty excuse that stand little ground if you play a active MM and serious dont compensate their lack of damage. If i ever miss CoX, i think about my Merc/TA, i laugh and move on.
50)Sinergy X/(50)Mika.
(50)MaceX/(50)Encore
Sign the petition, dont let CoH go down! SIGN!
I'd be happy if the mercs got an AI improvement alone. It'd be nice to see them co-ordinating AOE attacks, not waiting 4 minutes for LRM to recharge and not applying stim pack to a rock when you and/or your minions are mezzed.
The idea that the get bonuses the more are around and together is a neat idea, squad bonuses and stuff, but it's been done with thugs already so I'm doubtful (but still hopeful!) it'll ever come in.
Back to AI though, they ought to be the smartest and most adaptable of the pets, zombies have the intelligence of a log, ninja's have enough wit about them to kill stuff ninja-like, thugs are just punks but who knows, they could be smart punks and bots are using pre-programmed AI, so should be between ninja's/thugs and mercs at the top
Before someone leaps on me and says, "but wait, bots could have really advanced AI" yeah well, sucks to be you you already get +def, heals, -acc, -dmg and -regen from your pets aswell as damage mitigation from the KB. Give mercs this one
Oh yeah, Augury, that's not true. Merc's medic has the Frag grenade, commando has m30 grenade, buckshot and lrm rocket, so there's KB in there. And it's all AOE. Are you sure that MM didn't just have their mercs out to look cool and just pretended to do damage by making shooty noises?
I play my mastermind using a lot of macros/binds, so placement of AoEs and choice of targets is usually in my hands. I often split my minions to attack different targets and micro-manage them. I can choose which range my Commando starts attacking, so I know which attack is about to come.
I've never noticed a -runspeed on the Spec-Ops either.
I certainly wouldn't complain if Mercs had a few improvements though.
This is what I'd change:
Remove grenade from the medic. It's pointless and usually gets him killed fast. Make the AI heal/stim faster and more often, priorising stim on the MM himself. (100% of the time healing/stimming would be fine with me once the last upgrade is avaiable!).
Make serum last longer. 60 Seconds is not long enough, make it 180s, or at least 120s.
Improve spec-ops damage slightly, even with full damage slotting the sniper rifles do poor damage, and the general attacks are no better.
Ive got a Bot, Merc, Zombie and a Ninja, i can safely say that merc is the underperforming set its more of a control MM but with bad CC :s
Why people keep saying its control? You mean SpecOps abilities?
Redtomax info:
Webnade = 30sec recharge.
Flashbang = 120sec recharge.
Teargas = 180sec recharge.
Yup, alot of control isit? If we take Lich or Oni, they spam hold, immobilize, fear like no tomorow (vary from 4 to 20sec recharge max), thats what i call control. Add the pets knockup/down/back, calltrops, self heal, fire/psn dmg ability, little DoT's.
They suffer every issue currently ingame, broken AI, weapon redraw, DoT-target-priority, broken power normalisation (Commando), interupt-healing, longest cast/upgrade powers of all MM and highly resisted SL along the game.
50)Sinergy X/(50)Mika.
(50)MaceX/(50)Encore
Sign the petition, dont let CoH go down! SIGN!
there are two specs ops, not one. And they use AoE powers, not ST.
Well I finally got my Mercs/TA to 50 and actually towards the end she was highly enjoyable.
Big teams are definitely the way to go as it allows the AoE spec ops mez (and the TA debuffs) to have max effect.
Don't give up on em yet, but devs please give them a bit of a boost. Personally I think replacing serum with something useful could be the way forward (following the military theme something related to leadership as mentioned before or even the ability to call in an airstrike?)
Hello all.
I used to play the game a bit a long time ago and recently returned (just today!) and decided to start anew with a new character.
Ive been looking into a mercenary mastermind as I really like the concept, but browsing trough posts both here and on the US boards I get the feeling its an overlooked set people dont really use.
While I like the concept, at the same time I dont really want a gimped character so to speak, so Ill just plainly ask if they really are gimped compared to the other minion sets, and if so, how much?