Mercs Serum - Worth having?

Pretty much the title. Given a 1000sec recharge and a crash, is it worth having and slotting? Or skip out for something else?

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Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

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Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

I am currently leveling a Mercs and I plan on skipping it. The long recharge and short duration just don't seem worth it for a very situational power.

If I had to name a top 10 list of skippable powers, this would easily be on it. Maybe it would suck less with Thugs and the melee centric Bruiser, but with Mercs... yech.

It's okay when it's active (and decent when slotted), but it doesn't last long enough for the huge recharge. The duration, I think, really needs to be increased.

Its... not worth it.

.. realllly not worth it.

As a Merc/ MM, I took it then IO'd it with a Recharge and bought 5 Set IOs of Aegis (Everything but +Resistance Alone)

Giving the Merc a 75.7% Resistance to all but Psionics and making the recharge time only 506 Seconds (Assuming you didnt get hasten that is)


Hell, I took it as a last resort for my Mercs. It came in handy when your enemies can do massive damage on them and you need time to summon out more.

My advice, take it when you're higher leveled.

So... It's only even barely usable if it's six slotted, and stuffed with top-end IOs. And even then it's only available perhaps twice in a *long* mission, and still only lasts a very short time. Or you could spend the same six slots on a power that isn't junk. I know which one I'd go with.

Honestly though, the whole Merc set seems to need a balance pass. The "special abilites" on their attacks are all really long duration for the benefit they provide, and they seem to have fairly low damage overall for a bunch of loons with assault weapons. My level 50 Necro recently teamed up with a level 50 Merc, and all but the tier three seemed to be consistently out-damaged by my *zombies.* The Spec Ops seemed to be glitched and didn't even attack all that much, and the soldiers were always down a man because the first thing the Medic would do is throw a grenade at a boss and then run up and punch him.

Why would you assume someone has Hasten? Especially on a Mastermind. Personally I greatly dislike the power, and only have it on about three characters out of nearly 50. And at over eight minutes, Serum is still on a far longer timer than the six minute AOE Controller holds. Which many people skip because they're on such long timers that they're effectively useless except as a panic button.

And for "which other powers you'd go with" most of the ones on your list are also powers I consider to be completely skipable. I rarely choose to team, so none of my characters have "team only" powers like Resuscitate or Vengeance. I believe I have one character with the Leadership powers, which I'll probably drop the next time I play them. (If you're not stacking them in a full team of people that also have them, they really don't do a heck of a lot.) Between Stamina, which is often needed as much as I hate it, and a travel power (which for me is *never* Superspeed) I'm already short on slots, since I tend to choose powersets where I actually intend to take most of them. Even aside from my deranged preference for taking personal attacks on a Mastermind.

In any case, none of that changes the fact that Serum is a very poor power in a relatively weak set.

Serum is worthless. Don't take it. If the base recharge was half what it is, it might be a maybe.

I took serum but rarely use it. It's basically unstoppable for one of your pets with the same long recharge and very annoying health and endurance drop.

But, you could use it as a mule for some good IOs, like steadfast -kb and res/def, aegis status/psi, impervious skin mez resist, impervium armor psi resist, or gladiator armor tp resist and +def.

Or you could use those same sets or the other resistance ones for their set bonuses.

Short answer: No.

Long answer: Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo no no no.

Complicated Answer: Using Slug would probably result in more net gain damage wise than buffing any one pet with Serum, since they have to stop, animate it, then proceed to use their decent powers instead of deciding, "Hai luk, im tank nao" and rushing into melee.

If you could buff yourself with Serum, I'd prolly consider it a better power, or if it buffed all the pets for a smaller duration/recharge.

Thought: Perhaps they should replace it with a "Stim-Pack" toggle, which causes your Henchmen to do more damage and take less damage(Thinking Defense in the form of "Absorbed" damage), but decreases their regeneration and the effects of heals.

Take it, this why.

Take when you need a power that requires 1 slot, reason for taking it, you can stick the Steadfast: +3 Defense/Resistance in it. This adds +3 percent to your Total Defense(most MM's take Scorp Shield.)


JJ

I skipped it....

I took it for my Mercs and then 3- or 4-slotted Efficacy Adaptor into it.

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite