I have to agree with basically all of the changes suggested. Particularly, Spec Ops need the most help aside from the Serum. Serum is just worthless. Spec Ops need huge buffs- and I feel like buffing them with lower recharge on their crowd control powers and giving them a stealth strike will help them the most of anything.
Someone needs to be a representative and send a PM with a link to this topic to... whoever is in charge of powers balance now that Castle is gone.
I dunno, Serum needs to either be changed or replaced, and personally I think a change would be better.
So I was sorta tossing the idea around with Serum that it could include a taunt similar to Gauntlet and not include a crash. This way, you could use your Commando as a point man or tank to mop up extra aggro with Serum.
However, I also realize many people wish for Serum to be used on players with reduced effects (about 2/3) and no crash. This could be a pretty nice addition, but I see balance issues with it.
I'm gonna have to go back through and see which ideas are the best to implement with Mercenaries and add them to the main post. I'll e-mail all of the suggestions which are appropriate to the dude who oversees Power Balance (I didnt know Castle left. Link?).
Hmmm, I think replacing serum with a recharge intensive pet like auto turret would work better than anything you could do to serum.
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If we're going talk about replacements then I'd like to add this, painbringer, in addition to the serum. I wonder about the value of enforced morale too. I had my minions under some spell maybe psionic and this was worthless.
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Originally Posted by Lewisite
Hmmm, I think replacing serum with a recharge intensive pet like auto turret would work better than anything you could do to serum.
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Originally Posted by Lewisite
Hmmm, I think replacing serum with a recharge intensive pet like auto turret would work better than anything you could do to serum.
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Very debatable.
Serum Revamped
- Increase damage modifier to 50%
- Increase ToHit values to 35%
- Increase damage resistance values to 62.5% vs. all except Psi
- Add in a taunt modifier equivalent to gauntlet, if not more so
- Remove the crash
- Reduce recharge to 10mins
- Add a recovery resistance modifier
- Add superadine effect (slight transformation, Merc gets very beefy)
- Able to be used on players, but with 1/3 and or 1/2 the original values (this means 1/3 and or 1/2 the unenhanced values) and no gauntlet effect
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*strokes chin* That's an interesting idea there. I almost gave that the vulcan eyebrow. |
Originally Posted by Bookkeeper_Jay
Very debatable.
Serum Revamped
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I respectfully disagree.
The suggested changes hardly make up for the lack of recharge intensive pet slots, all the above does is make serum a power you might use occasionally, RIP slotting gives you permanent bonuses you can use all the time.
This is all opinion, I understand, but mercs suffer from poor survivability, and RIP slots provide a very solid bonus.
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Originally Posted by Lewisite
I respectfully disagree.
The suggested changes hardly make up for the lack of recharge intensive pet slots, all the above does is make serum a power you might use occasionally, RIP slotting gives you permanent bonuses you can use all the time. This is all opinion, I understand, but mercs suffer from poor survivability, and RIP slots provide a very solid bonus. |
As I said, you're only looking for a quick dump for the Pet Uniques.
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Well, yeah...|
Originally Posted by Bookkeeper_Jay
As I said, you're only looking for a quick dump for the Pet Uniques.
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Is that a bad thing? I mean the auto turret (or whatever I guess) would still be useful provided the recharge wasn't too long on it.
They are way more likely to buff serum that change the power completely I freely admit. A temporary buff on a long recharge still sounds like something I personally would skip in favor of something to add more regular survivability though.
Its not up to me anyway, I still play my mercs flaws and all
Cheers!
So any one think that the incarnate stuff has helped to fix any of Mercs/ problems?
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This is a re-post:
Man, I am bored at work and I keep posting! lol Anyway, I've been looking at Spec-Ops numbers and something doesn't seem right to me:
Burst (21.77) x 7 = 152.39
Heavy Burst (34.53) x 3 = 103.59
Brawl (25.70) x 3 = 77.1
Riflebutt (7.62, a stun) x 3 = 22.86
Snipe (49.05) x 2 = 98.10
Yes, it's that SNIPE!!!! Spec-Ops' Snipe has 16s recharge and I believe it has no interruption.
For a 16s long range attack, its base damage is pathetic at 49.05. This ratio just doesn't seem right to me. Clockwork boss pet has a Chest Beam that is going to have reduced recharge from 30s to 16s. Now that Chest Beam hits HARD and it's a small cone attack.
I don't want Spec-Ops to shoot faster or anything. I think Snipe just needs to be better. Snipe has terrible activation time at about 3.90s so making it recharge faster doesn't make it a good attack chain.
The dev refuse to give Spec-Ops Stealth Strike and that's fine. They just need to increase Snipe's base damage to match a REAL snipe brawl index. A real snipe on Corruptor like Moonbeam has base damage of 115.1 and Dark Blast has 41.7. Looking at this number, a real snipe's base damage is almost 3x higher than a basic 4s attack.
I am not asking much but can we at least increase Snipe's base damage from 49.05 to 69.06? Heavy burst has 6s recharge and double that is 69.06. Remember, Snipe has 16s recharge so double the damage from a 6s attack is still not that much.
Another idea I have is to add more damage in Riflebutt. Yes, your spec-ops probably rarely uses it but this attack has 16s recharge as well and it already does damage. I think Spec-Ops can use any damage increase they can get and I really hope the dev can increase Riflebutt's damage to 34.53. 34.53 is like a 6s attack.
I mean Riflebutt is situational attack at best. If the mobs dare to come close, spec-ops need to at least make them pay!
What's left is to normalize all Assassin Strikes and improve Stalker's old sets (Claw, MA and EM)! You don't need to bring back the missing PbAoE attack. You just need to make the existing ones better! For example, make Slice a WIDER and LONGER cone.
In general for 'ranged' minions I think they need to remove brawl or melee attacks. Replace them with ranged attacks that are a bit weaker then the brawl/whatever they replace. Even though I have to admit that I do love the look of Rifle butt.
As has been said, remove the grenade from the Medic and give him an AoE heal, and a single target shot to replace the lost grenade. Decide if Spec-Ops are going to be damage dealers or CCers. If it's damage, remove most of the CC and give them AoE damage and better single target. If its CC then still buff single target damage, but decrease the cooldown on most of their CC. Do some tweaking to the AI so that Spec Ops won't try to apply the SAME CC that the other SpecOP just applied.
For the Commando...buff LRM, decrease the cooldown. Widen the cone on Full Auto.
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I support this motion. The people politely demand a verdict.