Improving Mercenaries

For Serum I suggest 2mins of the Pet getting 45% resistance to all damage, the Recharge being 6mins 30seconds, Endurance Recovery, 80% endurance crash and 10 seconds of -1.00% endurance recovery, a damage booster of 20% to all, and a tohit bonus of 7.50%, and finally a 2.50% regeneration buff.

Downside -> Recharge is unenhanceable
Downside -> Resistance can only be enhanced to a max of 60%
Downside -> Regeneration is unenhanceable

"Can" be used on both player and henchmen, BUT! Just like the Winter event Serum is ONLY "potent" on your pets, meaning it's a decent (but not exactly great) buff on players.

I also believe that Serum should be cut in half when used on players and ONLY using base attributes, not the enhanced version.

Can you just make Serum akin to Forge?

60s timer, 120s duration, works only on caster's pets.
uh...10% Resistance, Damage/Status Resistance/ToHit buffs all the same.

Bam. Done.

Spec Ops?
FlashBang? 120s to 45s, recharge unenhanceable
Teargas? 180 to 90s, recharge unenhanceable

Done :-D

I still think Tear Gas should be lowered to about the same as Flash Bang, or at least to 50 seconds. The hold on it isn't worth a 90 sec timer.

Amen to taking away the Grenade from the Medic.

I would prefer to see the Medic with a pistol and do less damage and more support than throw that annoying, "I'm gonna get myself killed now", grenade. I'm sure data-mining would show the medic dies much more than even the other two even level soldiers.

Ug, the medic. AoE plus a weapon that seems to have a shorter range? Horrible.

I wrote a custom macro to keep my medic alive. Tells the rest of the pets to attack and keeps the medic in bodyguard mode near me. The side effect seems to be less grenade usage, and more actual healing done because he draws less aggro.

And Serum right now is worthless. I'd love an Air-Strike power. MM nuke!

The Spec Ops do use the Tear Gas, but the visual isn't very strong, and I find it easy to overlook. I do agree with the suggested reduction in recharge for Tear Gas and Flash Bang; too long for not enough effect.

And a pony. I want a pony.

Well that wouldnt be that big problem? A brute (and soon tank) can alpha attack with rod and shield charge, causing trashloads of damage, no other set can do it.

Then again, i can survive a few months and go demon summoning, can ditch my merc totaly (its my only non 50 MM yet).

I've got an idea, get rid of Serum and replace it with

Fortification:
The mercenaries dig in and commit to a defensive position. They become nearly impossible to move and gain a bonus to resistance. They also gain range and damage bonuses from the superior firing position.


Pet's become immobilized, but gain resistance and protection from most controls, specifically Kb, repel, teleport, fear and terror. This is the classic "dug in" military force. I am not sure where to put the resistance numbers, since it would have to be balanced with enhancements, self buffs (like world of pain or the upcoming thermal set) and IOs, but it should be respectable. The teleport resist is mostly to keep shady players from teleporting their "dug in" Mercs from battle to battle.

The range and damage bonus would represent a good firing position that allows you to brace your weapon and pick your shots well. I would have suggested a recharge bonus (looking at those spec-ops grenades) but I know that wouldn't fly. Say, 20% range bonus and 20% damage.


For the power itself, make it a toggle with a 10 minute enhanceable cooldown. It is a toggle so you can turn off the immobilize early if the mobs die fast, or if you really need to get them out of something nasty (read, massive Malta bot burn patch) There might be a problem with someone trying to root their Mercs and then pull the mobs too it, but I honestly think doing that would slow down a good player. That leaves this for specific situations, like really nasty groups, boss encounters, really bad pulls or ambushes.


This is just an idea that popped into my head just now =) so please feel free to poke holes in this.

After looking over the set a bit more the Medic still leaves a bad taste in my mouth. This guy needs a serious overhaul, and I propose he get some upgrades along with it.

Num.1: His healing is too weak and slow to be noticeable. He uses stimulant enough, but his med kit power is just took slow and too weak to make a difference. Being the Medic he should heal more and heal often, or at least be able to use the medical kit uninterrupted.

Num.2: Let's say he could have some new fancy powers. First off I'd be awesome for him to be a bit more of a medic by being able to also heal himself, revive a fallen pet (with a good timer size), or even have some more "combat" biological weapons. I know it's not exactly going with the whole medic feel, but what if the medic could use a sort of poison trap-like power, except with a shorter hold time, long recharge, and much smaller "activated" period? Just my thoughts on that.

Now I'm thinking about the Commando here. What if he could summon a Gun Drone? I just feel he's lacking slightly for a Tier 3 Pet. Don't bring the Lich on me either, because he's not lacking in any way. Uber control and debuffage is sweet in exchange for minimal damage.

Anyways, what do you guys think? I feel the Medic, Spec Ops, and Commando need a look at power-wise (the Spec Ops having been discussed already of course!).

Mercs/ has been gimpy since the release of CoV and yet I tried my hardest to endure through 50 lvl's because it fit my theme. He sits there at lvl 41 and I have decided he will continue to remain untouched until it gets a serious overhaul.

* If you can give Thugs a "corruptor" as the 3rd Tier 1 pet, why can't my Medic be more of a "defender"? Let him heal and support with very little offensive support. I always thought a Frostworks style Dull Pain would be perfect for a medic (most medics carry morphine and adrenaline shots).

* With the Spec Ops, we get controller esque pets who are left waiting for the their powers to recharge.

* The Commando is our big time Blaster, but all his best attacks recharge at a rate that you are lucky if they are used more than once a mission.

* Serum . . . just look at every other sets lvl 18 power and then proceed the cut your Merc MM's throat.

Unfortunately the chance of any of the Mercs 50 problems every getting fixed are slime to none. By hey, at least are Spec Ops don't debuff their own speed any more!

Devs Fixing Huge Problems FTW!

Well since this thread was suddenly brought back up by a random poster I guess I should post my opinion here as well:

Serum: Its true serum sucks as it is because its not as good as all the other MM primaries. I always thought Serum was more of a last resort weapon rather than it being used like repair or Soul Extraction. Since Serum have a 16 minute rechage afterall.

-Add a Regeneration effect if you're going to give him a recovery and insane resistance

-Change the duration of the effect to at least TWO minutes

-Replace Serum with a more military skill rather than a Gamble Skill. Like an Air Strike! Air Strike has been mentioned before and it could lead to it being a OP nuke if ever used with the Secondary Power Detonator. But since Mercs have a weaker damage output than ALL of the primaries having a OP skill in there wont do much other than take a chunk of HP out of a couple Lieutenants and Bosses. Or replace Serum with a TANK! Because we all know that the Tank, not the Commando, is considered a "One-Man Army" For the Tank's skills and what it does is another question. Like give the Tank a Resistance as powerful as Serum and the Tank lasts for 2 minutes like Gang War.

Spec Ops: Since the powersets for MMs is set for realism like how thugs have little to no resist and Robots have Mez-Immunity. Change the recharge time for the Spec Ops! I dont care about the Commando since he runs out of endurance even with the incredibly long cooldowns for his powerful moves. The Spec Ops are basicly controllers of their own accord but they cant use their attacks often. They even use their SCAR snipe more than they use their web grenades! If you wont change their recharge times then AT LEAST increase their Hold/Stun/Immobilize Magnitudes by 1 or 2

-Oh wow! Spec Ops can use Rifle Butt! For a 3 Mag of Stun! LAME! Just switch it to Bean Bag since its more in the Spec Ops nature to Traq/Stun someone from afar

-Give it stealth strike if you're going to give it stealth then give the Spec Ops a special damage output like how Jounin can get Critical hits.

Medics: Medics using a frag grenade.... heheheh oh man, you devs crack me up. The only time I saw the medic using this usefully was when all these enemies were all up in my soldier faces and the Medic fragged them and knocked them back. Just change Frag grenade to something else that doesnt aggro THE ENTIRE MOB

-Change how often the Medic should use his Med Kit or change his recharge times for it. He spams his Stimulant every chance he gets while he only use his Med Kit every time we're OUT of battle. When all of my men are dead. Also I've been hearing about how the Medic should get a rez ability. Yeah, the Devs are going to rewrite the Medics AI programming and the pets time limit to fading away JUST so the medic can rez them. HA! You guys are funny! Would be cool though...

Damage Output: Since Mercenaries are more of a Lethal Damaging set. Give the Mercenaries a boost in power! This could lead to it being OP or something like that but if you compare Mercenaries being Purpled out in damage and any other MM Primary being Purpled out in damage then Mercs loses hands down


P.S. This is all thought up without considering the enhancements and sets I could've put into the Original Powerset or this Improved Powerset

I made my Merc MM a /poison, with the little medic bugger in mind, named the medic "stinky" and I give him the noxious gas move everytime I'm about to attack, knowing fully well what he's going to do, cause hey, he may as well make his A.D.D useful, lol.

I think the commando should get scourge like an assault rifle corr, kinda like how the bruiser from the thugs has a fury bar like a brute. I don't think it's too much to ask.

I agree with this forum i have played many MM there my fav archtype they seem to be weak in dmg with the DoT surem is a big joke with thermal secondary the res of only L/S isnt that bad but could be better.

-fix tear gas
-stealth strikes for spec ops
-give mercs ignite

Bump~!

Actually Ignite would be sexy!

Imagine if the Arsonist had just Flares and Fiery Embrace and the rest of his attacks were short range pistol attacks and an AoE grenade. One top of that, he uses Flares fairly regularly but only uses Fiery Embrace when out of battle.

This would be the rough equivalent of what we have with the Medic.

Now imagine that the Bruiser's recharge times for Foot Stomp was 4 minutes and KO Blow was 3 minutes.

Ahh, this is what we have with our Commando.

Imagine the Enforces only buffed with Leadership once a minute for like 10 seconds.

Woohoo, hello Spec Ops!

Lastly, Imagine Gang Wars only summons a group a Male Thug Cheerleaders who encouraged one of your Thugs for 60 seconds, making him highly resistant and do more damage. Unfortunately these male cheerleaders could only be summoned every 1000 seconds!

Boom Serum.

Yep, I say we leave Mercs the way they are and nerf the other sets down our level.

Make it happen Devs!