Things that are good about Mercs

Mercs where my first MM, and my first to 50. Since then, I've switched off of them largely but there are things I miss about them when I'm playing the generally superior Robots or Thugs.

1) Lots of Dakka Dakka. Shell casings everywhere. You can really tell where a Mercs MM shot somebody up from the huge pile of shell casings

2) Full Auto + LRM. The commando gets two quite solid nukes. He rarely uses them at the right time, but they are super-cool never the less. Especially since MM's *FOR SOME INFURIATING REASON* cannot get Munitions Mastery, even though it would look sweet with mercs. I could use a bazooka too damnit.

3) Spec Ops snipe. Seriously long range, it makes a sweet attack for pulling mobs and, back in the day at least, they'd usually behave if you told them to attack a guy then immediately pulled him back when he started the animation. Usually the spec op gets away without getting dinged by the enemy too if you move him into cover. The recharge is short enough usually snipe is up when you start an attack. It also makes a sweet finisher for a mob running away. Spec-op rifle butt occasionally yielded hilarious results (like butting a demon overlord, lol!). Oh and the spec ops actually look cool and professional.

4) Loyality. You gotta hand it to guys who manage to remain loyal to a /Poison MM. That combination is so bad I found myself screaming into my walkie-talkie for more men that I'm sure even robots or zombies would have stopped bothering to showing up.

In more general terms, I found the generic soldiers to be somewhat more competent then most T1 pets, medic aside (who's dumb like the Arsonist but without the blaze of glory). Their cones are narrow but I actually had little trouble arranging mobs into an area where the boys could mow them down nicely. The basic thugs feel like they contribute little, similar with bots. Its probably not entirely true though.

Even though these days I roll with more potent builds like Thugs/Traps, Robots/Traps and even Necro/Dark.. I miss my Mercs

Anyone else still like Mercs, even with their suckage?

Their summoning is the coolest, by far.

The Commando is straight from an 80s action flick. I say that as a good thing.

The reality is, Mercs will get you from 1-50, enabling you to solo the whole way if you wish, including all the EBs you face. It's just relative to other henchmen that it loses lustre.

I'm so glad you asked....I just leveled my MM Merc, Heartless Attitude to 49 3/4 over the past weekend. I think she has the potential to be my biggest moneymaker. I did the Tina Mac Farms with a few tanks and we rolled. I did this over 4 days. I was rolling so hard, we started using each others Tina contacts to keep things rolling. Everyone was asking/telling me for spots on the team. The range with Mercs is just awesome. Tanks softened them up but mercs got the kills with rapid fire. I run ahead 179 feet and the mercs just appear next to me. And when they died, I just called in more. During combat, troops will be running in from the digital space or parachuting in. I fought back a boss who killed the whole team with JIT(Just in Time) Troops. I felt like I was at Mcdonald's...I was "Lov'in it."

I have group fly which is useful but it seems to have a -negative tohit or something. I need to look at this closer but on my second build I'm already planning for group stealth. I have no regrets with mercs because I'm at 49 and I have perfectly filled up/maximized all the slots/powersets I have. This was something I was unable to do on any of my other toons.

Plus with my Mercs, I can eat while I play and take breaks and they'll keep moving forward

I will just say this right now (and only because JUST NOW I figured this out after a long break), Mercs do not underperform in small hallways (Praetorian tech maps make me ooze with DoT). I LOVE Mercs. I can't play Bots/Traps after having played Mercs/Traps. It just doesn't feel right.

Been wanting to try out merc/pain, due to stacking serum and the t9 AB /pain clone, as if you hit serum first, you should still get the +recovery to counter act the crash, and you'll have one pretty durable merc for a pretty long time.

Plus stacking resistance and +damage, with leadership, and merc's sheer amount of assault rifle goodness just really makes me want to roll one up. Shame i don't have character slots, or the money to pay for more

Only problem is that Painbringer will not completely counter the crash from Serum.


Now, Imagine if Serum had -A Large AoE Taunt Radius!!!-

I would take it, especially if they lowered the timer to 4mins.