Merc's need a buff!!
*spots incoming nerf hammer*
Oh snap....
*ducks*
Haha ya missed me!
Merc's need a bu*POW*
Oh God what did I do?!?!?!
All my merc's are now medic's and the commando is dressed up like the Easter bunny, ears and all.
Seriously though, they need a looking at.
Every one PM Castle! I did about 2 weeks ago but maybe if he gets a whole bunch at the same time he will take a look at them. Also every one should use the same text for the subject line.
Captain Den'Rath 53* Merk/Traps MM, Rivona 50Energy Blast/Time Cor,Victoria Von Heilwig 53* Dual Pistols/Traps Cor, Crab Spider Webguard 53* SOA, Accela 53* Bot/FF MM,Valkyrie's Executor 53* Broadsword/Shield Def Scrap. On FREEDOM! @Knight Of Bronze
"Hypocrisy, the human inherent." "Let not this work be wasted, apply yourself always."
I can't believe I am back to CoV again!!! lol
And I can't believe we are still talking about this subject. Merc is my most favorite MM and I while Spec-Op got a nice buff by cycling Snipe in normal attack chain, Merc still needs a bit more love (but I still think Ninja needs more).
I'll repeat:
1. Improve Serum: At least include Psionic resistance and/or increase duration. The damage buff part is so little that it doesn't matter.
2. Reduce Spec-Op's recharge time on two aoe control powers by 20% to 25%.
3. If reducing the recharge time is not possible for whatever reason, maybe the dev can add some damage to it so at least Spec-Op has better "burst" aoe damage.
4. I still don't know what the real use of stealth mode in Spec-Op. Theme-wise, it matches but utility-wise, it's pretty weak. Why can't they do Stealth Strike like the enemy does? That will be perfect IMO.
5. I would like to see Bean Bag instead of Riflebutt but I know that's too powerful (I still want to bring it up though)
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.
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We have to keep the subject fresh! The devs listen and if we keep discussing it and stressing our opinions and come up with some excellent suggestions and feedback maybe they will give Mercs some love! ...what? I am trying to be positive! lol
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Originally Posted by Jibikao
I can't believe I am back to CoV again!!! lol
And I can't believe we are still talking about this subject. Merc is my most favorite MM and I while Spec-Op got a nice buff by cycling Snipe in normal attack chain, Merc still needs a bit more love (but I still think Ninja needs more). I'll repeat: 1. Improve Serum: At least include Psionic resistance and/or increase duration. The damage buff part is so little that it doesn't matter. 2. Reduce Spec-Op's recharge time on two aoe control powers by 20% to 25%. 3. If reducing the recharge time is not possible for whatever reason, maybe the dev can add some damage to it so at least Spec-Op has better "burst" aoe damage. 4. I still don't know what the real use of stealth mode in Spec-Op. Theme-wise, it matches but utility-wise, it's pretty weak. Why can't they do Stealth Strike like the enemy does? That will be perfect IMO. 5. I would like to see Bean Bag instead of Riflebutt but I know that's too powerful (I still want to bring it up though) |
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I was gonna say this is a great idea but unlike other 'from the air' powers, this implies theres a plane over head... which there can't be in your in a building or cave.|
Originally Posted by SteelHarbinger
Instead of serum why not give us an Airstrike??
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Instead I suggest a power that when used forces all of your mercs to use a special ability:
"Lock Down". All of your Mercs attacks have a Z% chance to put a +1 hold on their target per attack for X seconds. This effect ends after A Seconds.
Essentially it's a free hold but with the twist of requiring your mercs to be out and focusing on a single target to stack the hold effect to high numbers. 1 Attack will only have a chance of +1 hold. 6 Attacks will have the possiblity of making the hold +6.
If you scatter your mercs to hit different targets, you could have multiple targets with weaker holds on them.
Whining about everything since 2006.
Ammo switching for Dual Pistols was my idea:
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=135484
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The Comando parachuting through the roof of the cave makes alot of sense too. What about the 2nd upgrade being air dropped as well? 'From the air' is already taking place in two different powers in the set. Another 'from the air' power would do little to increase the absurdity of the situation any more.|
Originally Posted by Vel_Overload
I was gonna say this is a great idea but unlike other 'from the air' powers, this implies theres a plane over head... which there can't be in your in a building or cave.
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The hold idea isn't bad, but if you use /dark (which I do) more cc isn't needed at all. What the mercs need is a big nice boost in dps, all across the board. Serum should be focused much more on increasing dps, (instead of the laughable 7% it currently does).
Meh, I figure the Serum could do with a change similar to the upgrade changes. It would make a nice contrast between thugs, which uses it's extra power to call up an additional army, whereas serum could be changed to be a damage/defense/recharge buff on all of your pets, followed by some kind of crash, either for all of your pets or for you. Quality over quantity, as it were.
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I think the only real problem with this whole set is just the insane recharge times. On a set where you can't buff rech, and you can't control when Spec-Ops/Commando powers will be used, well.... the "balance" formula for how to set recharge times needs to factor that stuff in. |
Originally Posted by Black_Aftermath
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! |
I think the various control effects that happen would be a good balance for having no inherent defense, and small damage outputs, if they fired predictably and frequently enough to be useful. But, what real use is a power that is just as likely to hit a henchman with 2 hp left as it is to hit a boss at full? You spend 99% of your time receiving no benefit at all, and and on those rare occasions where it shows up, you've probably already popped your purples because you didn't know it was coming.
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Originally Posted by Black_Aftermath
Yes, drop serum ASAP.
As for what would be better in it's place? Just about anything. Nobody takes Serum because it is horrible. |
As I have stated before, Mercs need a more thematic power that would work in all environments. I had brought up a suggestion that Serum should be replaced with a power that would change the ammo type (temporarily) of each (or all if it would be more beneficial) Mercenary individually, giving Mercs a good, steady ground with a couple of different damage types and included debuffs. (This power would work much like change ammo for Dual Pistols).
Also:
1) Reduce Commando LRM Rocket Cooldown to 45 seconds
2) Reduce Spec Ops Flash Bang and Tear Gas grenade recharges to 25 seconds
3) Slightly increase cone radius' for all Mercenary attacks
Eh, I'm thinking maybe make the upgrades give the Mercs a couple of attacks that do that. Either some ammo changing abilities similar to Dual Pistols or just an 'Armor Piercing' bit that ignores lethal resistance for 40% of the damage.
Edit: Or, just give them a move similar to the Piercing Rounds move in Dual Pistols, which, according to the wiki, debuffs and lowers resistance against Lethal damage, would fit right in with the set with all the debuffs SpecOps have.
Keep Serum, like I said, it would make a better contrasting power to Punk's gang war if it simply turned up the power of the pets you have. Damage/Accuracy/Recharge Buff on all of the pets, followed by an endurance crash on the MM itself.
Make the Stealth on Mercs worth SOMETHING.. give them Stealth Snipe or a Critical Hit every once in a while..
And for the love of God reduce the timers on the tear gas and flashbang grenades.
And fix the friggin medic.. he buffs and heals everyone EXCEPT me..
The hard things I can do--- The impossible just take a little bit longer.
If numbers are so much more important than a teammate who is fun to play with, forget about the game altogether and go play with a calculator instead. -Claws and Effect-
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This, like everyone else I had to actually find out for myself instead of listening to the forums, its horse apples.| First of all, like everyone says, Serum is complete and utter sh*t. |
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Make the Stealth on Mercs worth SOMETHING.. give them Stealth Snipe or a Critical Hit every once in a while.. And for the love of God reduce the timers on the tear gas and flashbang grenades. And fix the friggin medic.. he buffs and heals everyone EXCEPT me.. |
As does everything BookkeeperJay has stated.
This aren't game breaking, overpowered decisions, its just a small and simple tweak to make the job alittle on par with others, not looking to be the king, but I'm sure as hell tired of being the joker.
A lot of the complaints I hear now about Mercs today are ones I heard a couple years ago. I do think that the Medic should really just be a healbot and have a higher priority on Stim and Medkit (ensuring stim is on all mercs and the MM, and healing when needed), but I would still think giving him 3 basic single target pistol attacks would be good, provided he didn't have Brawl, and would hopefully not attempt to run into melee since no melee attacks are available.
Eh, the reason they're not hopping all over each other to 'fix mercenaries' is that, well, it doesn't need fixing. It may not be all that strong in relation to other MM Primaries, but it's still head and shoulders above other ATs builds.
A small suggestion that may or may never have been heard before! And I can't really back this up with reasoning. But I would love it if instead of M30 grenade for our tier 3 attack, we had Sniper Rifle! It would compliment the general long range of the set, would up our power considerably - especially on alpha - and would replace a clumsy, weak-ish power with a very cool feeling, useful power!
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M3 Grenade has 50% chance for a knockback. While some really hate it, the knockback is what gives the Merc set even more "controls". I took it and use it mainly for control purpose. If a boss is charging at me, I just use m3 and hopefully I can knockback him back which it does a lot of times. :P|
Originally Posted by The Chimbley Sweep
A small suggestion that may or may never have been heard before! And I can't really back this up with reasoning. But I would love it if instead of M30 grenade for our tier 3 attack, we had Sniper Rifle! It would compliment the general long range of the set, would up our power considerably - especially on alpha - and would replace a clumsy, weak-ish power with a very cool feeling, useful power!
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I would hate Snipe on MM just because I don't want to spend 4s and doing so-so damage.
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.
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I have to say I was a bit surprised that when Castle improved Spec-Op (by letting them cycle Snipe in attack chain), he didn't add Stealth Strike to it. |
Originally Posted by Rooftop_Raider
A lot of the complaints I hear now about Mercs today are ones I heard a couple years ago. I do think that the Medic should really just be a healbot and have a higher priority on Stim and Medkit (ensuring stim is on all mercs and the MM, and healing when needed), but I would still think giving him 3 basic single target pistol attacks would be good, provided he didn't have Brawl, and would hopefully not attempt to run into melee since no melee attacks are available.
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I actually have tried to goto spec-op closer to a target and see if the stealth + rifle butt works. It sucks...sorry. The idea is cool but the practical use of stealth on Spec-op is just very weak.
Does Stealth toggle give Spec-Op more defense? Maybe that is a better trade-off?
I say add Stealth Strike to spec-op and we'll see a much improved set IMO.
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.
One change is all I really ask for.
Fix serum
I'd like to see something done with serum and something done with the recharge in the pet powers.
Anything less would be uncivilized. lol
With 6 minions, Serum's single target effect is the killer. So what you made 1 of your minions (most likely the Commando) next to unstoppable. The other 5 are most likely going to die if you attempt to take advantage of such a situation.
All-Pet Serum perhaps? (Can we call it Stimpack?)
Whining about everything since 2006.
Ammo switching for Dual Pistols was my idea:
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=135484
That was my suggestion =P Like I said, it would make a nice contrast to the Thugs 'Gang War,' powering up your existing minions rather than calling in more.
Mmmm, interesting. I guess they can still keep Serum but make it affects all Pets within the supremacy range.
Turn all of them into "Rambo" but of course the effects need to be less since it's like a "god-mode".
How about something like:
1. Resistance to all but Psionic + 12% (enhanceable)
2. Damage buff +12.5%
3. Tohit buff + 5%
4. Duration 60s
5. When the mode crashes, all pets take 50% endurance penalty. I am not too sure why it needs endurance penalty but oh well....
I like this idea! Recharge can stay at 1000s.
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.
I made a merc/ff years ago and last night I popped on with him and finally got him to 22.
My god this combo is boring and SLOW. I saw this thread tonight and wanted to chime in. Mercs are definitely the worst mm set in the game. Is the mm attacks supposed to make up for the pets? I didn't look at the numbers.
My new Youtube Channel with CoH info
You might know me as FlintEastwood now on Freedom
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Lol...
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Originally Posted by Debt_Magnet
Merc's need a buff!!
*spots incoming nerf hammer* Oh snap.... *ducks* Haha ya missed me! Merc's need a bu*POW* Oh God what did I do?!?!?! All my merc's are now medic's and the commando is dressed up like the Easter bunny, ears and all. Seriously though, they need a looking at. |
My new Youtube Channel with CoH info
You might know me as FlintEastwood now on Freedom
What doesn't make sense are its stats. The 16 minuet recharge on it is absolutely ridiculous. At the very least it should affect all your pets.
Please note, I am not trying to defend serum, I hate it with a passion. However there is a reason the developers put it into the set.
What needs to happen now is that this power must be changed. In its current form, I am truely baffled as to why it got the stamp of approval. Its greatest features are the defensive bonuses, which contribute absolutely nothing when considering the overall mission success of a Merc MM. This type of buff belongs in a melee set, (even then I'd never take it), if anywhere at all.
If they insist on keeping the drug feeding idea, (which I think is f'in stupid), they have to redo the whole thing. No body cares about the stats that it does buff. Mercs would benefit 100000% more from a buff similar to forge in the thermal tree. Make it a sizable and usefull DPS buff on a short recharge.