Improving Mercenaries

I had another idea that is so mindblowingly awesome I can't contain it.

Give pets tech trees.

Think about it after getting your L32 upgrade you have a choice. Do you want a medic, a grenadier, or a flamethrower trooper? Then every time you summon and upgrade he is that specialty. The only way to change it would be with a respec. Spec-Ops could have Sniper, CQC, and Riot. Commando could have standard, explosives expert, or suppressive fire.


So this is how I see this working. L32 you go to the Arbiter pick your upgrade then you get a screen like SOA's do at 24 where you pick the specialties of your troops. Then whenever you use the L32 upgrade they get the special gear.


Soldiers : Only one Soldier would change the other two would stay as is.

• Medic : AOE heal, Single target Heal, Stimulant, (maybe Triage Beacon as well) SMG attacks (same as current medic)

• Grenadier : Frag Grenade X2, Nail bomb (AOE minor DOT -recharge -speed), Pistol attacks to fill chain. (Would have 2 or 3 bandoleers with grenades and holster.)

• Flamethrower : Ignite, Burn, Something, Something (Incendiary Grenade?) (Could use either the Longbow flamethrower or a WWII USA Flamethrower look alike)

• Sniper : Stealth, 50Cal Snipe, 7.62x51mm Snipe, AR attacks, (BIG sniper rifle on their back maybe even put ghillie suits on them.)
• Close Quarters Combat : Stealth, Buckshot, Slug, Pummel, Rifle Butt, Smoke Grenade and or Placate of some kind. (Would also have a shot gun.)

• Riot : Flashbang, Tear gas, Web Grenade, Glue Grenade Venom Grenade. (Would carry the big grenade launcher that the Council/5th Column has all the time.)

• Standard : Same as he is now but with lower recharge on LRM.

• Explosives Expert : Claymore mine (non interruptible) Frag grenade, Satchel charge, Shape charge (Single target high damage), LRM (snipe attack same as current), RPG (PAOE short recharge, moderate/low damage, high knockDOWN chance) Would carry the big tube missile launcher the Council/5th Column use.

• Suppressive Fire : Gatling Gun attacks, Gun Drone, Most attacks would be AOE or Cones (Can use the same Minigun the Council/5th Column do.)

lol, yeah. That'd be awesome.

If we can't get them to change a single power then there isn't a lot of chance for anything that major ;(

Wow...I'm impressed. I like your idea!

The Mercs absolutely should have a branching tree of powers just like a SoA does.

I like the above idea, but I would never want it to be implimented. The point here is to bring the Soldier MM back up to snuff with the rest of the sets, not have it left out in the cold like it is right now.

Giving Merc pets this set of bells and whistles would be an avalanche ready to happen. Soon people would be asking why they can't have an Oni with an Ice alternative or a Zombie pirate with two hooks acting as claws. Cool idea, but I would rather not have this considered being implimented.

Branching is an awesome idea. I don't know if we'd get that kind of revamp for mercs though. At this point I'd settle for the medic actually being useful and special ops having leadership abilities.

The Soldiers can stay the same.

Medic - Aid Other is nice, however, if Frag Grenade was replaced with a PBAoE regen aura don't think anyone would be upset. Really you could take away his first attack and replace it with like a PBAoE heal or something (I am a real military member and Medics are considered Non combatants along with Chaplins and aren't really supposed to carry weapons. So conceptually the medic having a gun and a grenade is all wrong. Then again MMs are Villains to begin with so I guess my arguements in null)

Spec Ops - As mentioned by plenty of others lower the recharge for the AoE mezzes and add a stealth strike, make their hidden presence usefull, I mean it isn't going to be gamebreaking since most of their damaging attacks are ST anyway.

Serum - I along with all the playerbase probably wouldn't mind if you broke the cottage rule on this one. I don't even know anyone who has this power.

Commando - I don't have big problem with this guy. Though conceptually it would be nice if he came with either Assualt or Maneuvers. And give him his gun drone back please.

This is just a universal issue here, but, it would be nice if Gun Drone was a perma pet. I noticed for the Malta it is, it even stays out after the summoner dies. I think Blasters should get this to along with the Commando.

Remove the absurd Knockback from the Commando, first and foremost.

I'll just throw out my ideas (and support others).

I would love to see my Medic heal/buff me first and then the other pets.

I'd agree to have Serum changed....into SOMETHING that is worthwhile in taking. Even with the new inherent fitness I didn't take Serum on my Mercs/Traps...just not worth it.

I'd like to see more damage and/or more control from the Spec Ops/Commando (heck all pets ).

Is there any chance we could get this thread stickied? There's a lot of valuable ideas in here and having it at the top of the list will show how adamant we are that we want a change.

I have PMed Mod 05 asking for a sticky.

Can't think of any other good idea right now other than giving the medic Dual Pistols....

At least he would look cool.




By the way if any one asks we are all part of the Buff Mercenaries Militia.

I just created a 25 MM Merc. It's fun but I just want more fire power. Ditch the medic and give another full powered soldier. Also, I read the comments about a shortened timer on the spec ops. I rarely had my spec ops die though, my soldiers died regularly but not the spec ops. I'd like to hear more about this.

My thing is the AI for them. During my time in Praetoria, some of my soldiers chased bad guys all the way back to front of the mish. I need better control. I can heel and that's useful but I need these guys to have better commonsense. Their strength is when they fight together. They separate easily during combat.

Demons aren't bad neither are Thugs...but I can't say much since I'm not a MM person.

My humble suggestions, without trying to ask for much, and hopefully not anything that would require a lot of new coding (but let's be honest, I don't have any idea the amount of coding that goes into the game).

-Eliminate all melee attacks for all mercenary pets. Factor range of powers so that all pets stay near medic in a medium range setting. Medic has an interuptable heal, which becomes useless as pet will attempt to cycle through heal repeatedly, then gets distracted to use melee range weapons, or chases down other pets for stimulant, making the medic have ADD. Hopefully this will cut down on some bad behavior problems without actually needing to modify any AI code.

-Add some survivability to make up for lack of pets capable of recharge intensive pet IO sets. (Simple solution, give spec ops some leadership ability, or allow all pets to take attack or recharge intensive sets). This should even up the odds a bit between Mercs and other mastermind sets, while staying in theme (Special Ops forces able to lead and command in hot zones on even terms with street thugs? Check). Both would be nice and make up for the fact that some secondary sets can take those IOs and some can't, making it so that any Primary/Secondary combination is viable, again, a core draw to CoH.

-Mercenaries were build around the advantage of their pets having extra control powers (as compared to other sets who's strengths lay elsewhere). Either eliminate this and make their strength somewhere else, or actually make the powers useful. Spec Ops and Medic's grenades are worthless, as is. I would personally not mind seeing Medic lose his short range attacks altogether to force him to stay back with the bulk of the group, giving him a mid range shotgun or pistol (and would fit in the theme of a combat medic).

-Serum is useless as is. Due to the cottage rule, keep it as a resistance/tohit based buff, but a simple solution would be to make it a lesser buff that hits the whole team without as significant of a crash. Make it a "Let's get dangerous" button, at cost of endurance for the mastermind or a longer recharge for the power, rather than "Let's have one of my minions become a tauntless tank for 20 seconds, then crash". Maybe make it a tactical click 'leadership' power that effects player and all minions within supremacy.

There are probably about 12,000 different ideas for this power all that are better than leaving it as is.

Jeeez Thanks. Now Darkwing Duck is stuck in my head on repeat .

Two changes I would like to see....

- Give Mercs "Body Armor" as a power and allow them to be slotted for resistance.

- Make Serum an AoE buff..and take out the endurance crash.

Regardless of how you feel about my suggestions. The general consensus seems to be Mercs aren't quite up to snuff.

These issues must go back to the front of the line!