Mercenaries - Comprehansive Improvement Ideas

My very first MM is Merc/Poison lvl 50 and then I made an Incarnate Merc/Storm and tried several combos like Merc/Trick and Merc/Trap.

I like Merc but I think this Primary needs more help than Ninja. Ninja, on paper, is at least doing very good damage. Merc is one primary that really doesn't excel in any area. Merc probably has the worst ST damage, AoE damage potential is low due to narrow cones, lack of variety of resistance type (only S/L and Commando has some very minor Fire/Cold/Toxic) and even their Control department is on the low side because two aoe controls are on very long recharge and they are used usually one after another. Two Spec-ops have ST web on 30s recharge and Oni can immb with Ring of Fire in 5s! Genin and Jounins have knock back/up as well.

Merc needs more help than just some number changes. It is my belief that if they cannot take both Achilles's Heel and Lady Grey procs, their damage is SEVERALLY below average. I'll break down by tier.

Soldier

Offense
Soldier is a pretty typical tier 1. The biggest problem with them is that their Full Auto cone attack only has 5' arc. It is very very narrow! Comparing to Robot's Tier 1, their Full Auto Laser has 15' arc. Both cone attacks are on the same recharge 16s. I do not understand why Soldier's Full Auto needs to be penalized. Some ideas I offer:

1. A simple solution is to increase Full Auto Fire from 5' arc to 15' arc.

or

2. To make Soldier more different from Battle Drone, I would suggest making Full Auto Fire 10' arc but with reduced recharge to 12s.

Survival

Soldier has about 26% to Smashing and Lethal. These are probably the most common damage type but Battle Drone has 26% Lethal, Cold and Psionic. I think Psionic resistance is just as important as S/L (if not more!).

Soldier wears body armor and I think they should follow what Commando has with a bit of Fire/Cold/Toxic resistance at 6.53%. This is still very minor but I have another idea that I will present later (Serum!).

Medic

This Medic minion has probably the weirdest design of all. I will explain why.

A. Medic has less range than all the other Mercenaries. Medic's two ST attacks only have 70' range while others have typical 80' range. This makes him more likely to get closer. I can't think of any reason why a Medic needs to get closer than other soldiers.

B. Medic has a Frag Grenade. It is a decent aoe damage with good soft controls but is he a Medic or a combat Soldier? Frag grenade has good radius and knock back will attract more aggro to himself than the Soldier's narrow cone attack. Why does Medic have better aoe than the two combat Soldiers and attract more aggro than those two?

Suggestions To Improve Medic

If Mercenaries are designed to have less survival than other primaries due to having a Medic, then this Medic needs to be A LOT more reliable.

1. Increase Medic's range from 70' to 80'.

2. Remove Frag Grenade completely and give it to two Soldiers if possible. To make up the loss of this minion's damage, the two Soldiers should do a bit more. But honestly, Merc needs more support from Medic than his low damage Frag Grenade that gives him more aggro.

3. Improve Medic Kit by reducing recharge from 20s to 12s and increase base healing a bit. It is very unlikely that people would slot +healing in Soldier since they need proc damage more than any other primary. I would also add some +regeneration in Medic Kit.

4. Improve Stimulant by reducing recharge from 15s to 10s. Yes, this will make him spam it more during battle and that's exactly what I want from a Medic and not his damage. :P

Spec-Ops

I would rank Spec-Ops as the MAIN reason why Merc is under-performing and it is not easy to balance them. Spec-Ops as a group does PATHETIC damage with ZERO aoe damage. Comparing to Protector Robot, Spec-Ops doesn't offer the similar protection and Protector Robots have one aoe with stun chance!


Offense Improvement Ideas

1. Spec-Ops' Snipe needs to be A LOT more stronger. Its current base damage is 49.05 at lvl 50 with 16s recharge and 3.83s activation time. For a 16s attack, it should at least do 2x more damage than SCAR Heavy Burst's damage 34.56. I know many people want to add Stealth Strike to it but I rather have an overall increase in damage because Spec-Ops uses this attack during their attack chain.


2. Rifle Butt needs to be better. I have two ideas:

A. Rifle Butt has its use but after the new Pet AI change, I've noticed that Spec-Ops doesn't use it as soon as the target gets closer. I really want them to have Bean Bag Round but if that idea is not possible (due to too much change), then I really want to suggest increase Rifle Butt's damage. If the target dares to get close to Spec-Ops, he should suffers a big blow. I would give Rifle Butt the same damage scale as Snipe. This would give Spec-Ops two good burst damage in Snipe and Rifle Butt. I don't think it's going to do too much damage because Rifle Butt has 20s recharge.


B. If Spec-Ops' design goal is to offer the best control, then Rifle Butt needs to have much shorter recharge than 20s. I would suggest 12s.

3. If we want to give Spec-Ops an aoe attack, adding Toxic damage in Tear Gas would be a good one. Maybe we can create a version similar to Protector's Photon Grenade with 16s recharge, 10'-15' radius, toxic dot damage with a mix of hold chance and -damage debuff? I would even vote for Venom Grenade to have -resistance. Merc will need all the damage potential they can get!
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Defense Improvement Ideas

1. Spec-Ops actually survives pretty well and I think that's because they don't do aoe damage and they have stealth. I would probably increase Stealth's Defense value from 2.8% to 4.2 (50% base increase). Spec-Ops doesn't need to have aoe damage but they need to survive even better than Protector Robots.


2. The most headache is probably Flash Bang and Tear Gas. It is nice to have two good AoE controls but pet doesn't know when to use them and when to save them for the next fight. It is very common to see Spec-Ops shoots Tear Gas on a running minions. What should we do? Tell Spec-Ops not to attack? Beast has a bit similar problem in a way that they cast their buffs before the fight starts but buffs at least last for a while. If Spec-Ops shoot Tear Gas or Flash Bang on a minion, the effects don't last until next fight. Suggestions:

A. Reduce Tear Gas recharge from 180s down to 90s.

B. Reduce Flash Bang recharge from 120s down to 60s.

I wish there is a way to force Spec-Ops not to cycle them one after another. Is this possible?


3. I don't know how we can force Spec-Ops when to use two long-recharge AoE Controls intelligently but what if we change it so one of the aoe controls become a ST target (or a 4' radius aoe) but with much less recharge so at least one of the controls is used often?

Tear Gas is a good candidate to be on a much shorter recharge (like 16s) because it offers -damage. It can be a ST target or a 4' radius (which matches that green cloud).


4. Web Grenade needs to be better. Web Grenade is an awesome immb because it has slow/recharge and -fly. I would reduce Web Grenade's recharge from 30s down to 15s so Spec-Ops can offer more ST soft control to make up their lack of damage, defense and resistance-type.


5. Spec-Ops should also have some minor Fire/Cold/Toxic resistance just like Commando.

Commando


I think Commando is fine the way he is. He shines the most when he is at about 30-40' radius so his Buckshot and Flamethrower are more effective. Comparing to Assault Robot, Commando's aoe potential is lower because cones are much harder to line up than Target AoE. It would be nice if his LRM Rocket has reduced recharge from 240s to 120s.

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Serum

The idea behind Serum is neat but it just doesn't seem to translate well in Mercenaries because Commando isn't a Bruiser. If Thug (or even Demon) has Serum, I would totally take it and slot it because Bruiser can grab aggro and he runs in. Commando isn't exactly a tanker-type. Yes, you can goto him closer but he isn't going to grab aggro for the team. A god-mode on a pet that can't grab aggro (no taunt) just doesn't make much sense to me. And also, Serum is available at lvl 18. I can't think of a situation where a god-mode like that is worth it on a Spec-Ops (who is even worse at grabbing aggro with no aoe). MM is the only AT that can pass inspirations to the pets. I can create a semi-god mode myself by just saving purple/orange for important fights.


If the dev has time, I really hope they can change the design of Serum.

I have several ideas to offer and will add more to this section as I read more posts:


1. Make Serum a Single Target +MaxHP Buff power like Frostwork
- 120s Recharge with 90s duration
- Instead of 40% Maxhp, I would lower it down to 20% Maxhp (enhanceable)
- Can only be put on Merc pets
- Minor +damage 7.50% and +tohit 7.50%

Merc pets can have the least amount of innate +resistance value but Serum will allow the master to give one or two pets 20% Resistance-to-all. This can potentially help Medic too if he is under fire that much and of course Commando will be a good candidate. Robot can excel in having more +defense while Merc can excel in having more +hp.



2. If the design goal is to keep Serum a more "panic button" type, then I would suggest the following.
- +Maxhp 15% (un-enhencable) for all Merc pets within 15' radius for 30s-45s
- +15% damage buff, 7.5% tohit
- For the first 15s, pets get mag 5 Sleep, Hold, Stun and Immb protection
- Recharge 600s
- Instead of pets suffering from endurance crash, I rather pay for a lot of endurance as a master. Endurance crash on a pet just makes me want to dismiss and resummon. If that's the case, i rather just pay endurance cost first.


Since none of Merc pets are exactly "tankers", I believe an AoE Serum will greatly benefit the set. The idea is to inject Serum into the human soldiers so they fight more like "Rambo". The 15% Maxhp is like giving them 15% more resistance-to-all and 15% more damage will help them kill quicker.


3. I understand that dev may not have time to change how Serum function but please consider this:
- Add some Psionic resistance (this will be useful on a team where the main tank lacks Psionic protection. I can send my Commando in first to take alpha)
- Much higher damage buff at 40-50%
- Instead of endurance crash on the pet, I rather pay more endurance up front


Like what I've explained before, Commando isn't exactly a tanker. If the idea is to turn him into a Rambo, I need Commando to do a lot more damage. #3 idea is probably my least favorite of the 3 but I'll take the power if it has a lot higher +damage with no endurance crash on him.


Summary

If dev has very limited time on improving Merc, then I would rank the following from most important to least important.

1. Spec-Ops' Damage and Controls need to be A LOT better. Snipe should have much higher damage and the two aoe controls should have greatly reduced recharge. I wouldn't even mind if one of the controls is changed to a small radius 4' but with only 16s recharge so at least one of them is used more often. I would also decrease Web Grenade's recharge from 30s to 10s. Web Grenade is a great soft control + debuffs.

2. Medic needs to be more medic-like and not a Soldier with better aoe. The two Soldiers need to have a much wider Cone. 5' arc is just way too small on a 16s recharge.

3. Serum needs to be better. Please read my Serum idea. Serum can be a power that can separate Merc from other primaries.

Some good ideas here I think. Personally I'd prefer they change the controls/AI before rebalancing the sets but bird in the hand and all that.

My biggest thing about MMs is I don't like the Minion-Lt-Boss paradigm over and over again. I like that the Lich is more support while the Assbot is pure attack. Keeps them all from being reskinned versions of each other. With this in mind I'd like to see Mercs try using the Spec-Ops as their Tank.

I can see the Spec Ops as having ALL the controls and debuffs for the set. Working together, the two of them could entangle, gas and generally run enemies crazy. For example:

Having two pets with a bad snipe is never a good idea unless their AI can handle the attack chain which Spec Ops can't. Take it out entirely. Replace it with a short-range wide cone with moderate recharge and -Recharge on the enemy (their silenced guns strike unseen, confusing targets and reducing their effectiveness).

Give the Web Grenade a small change to Hold and allow it to be slotted as such. Against a tough single target their spammed grenades would be more effective.

Give them higher Defense (from their stealth) so that when they DO attract all this extra attention they can survive it.

I like the idea of controlling the different tiers of pets separately. I can see sending in the Spec Ops ahead of the rest of the horde where they use Smoke on the enemy before lobbing in tear gas and THEN firing away. The mob shoots at them, misses hopefully due to the -To Hit and added Defense, then the rest of the Horde opens up with everything. You could even add a higher Taunt factor to the Spec Op's shots to draw more attention.

I like the idea of moving the grenades to the two Minions as well.

Even with your suggestions, which i like, the set would still underperform.

1. Its AoE would still be based on rather narrow cones.

2. The damage would still be anemic without procs.

3. You still wouldn't know where to put aura IO's considering you need any spare slot in the pets for procs already.


So in addition to what you suggest we need to buff the LTs a bit, give them Assault leadership buff at 10% damage each and stacking(only affecting pets). Also completely remove Serum, to be replaced by something like "entrench" an toggle which makes them kneel down, immobilizes them and adds some sandbags or something around them(kinda like controllers AoE immobs just different animation) which raises their resistances and defenses by some moderate value and gives them -KB etc. Maybe even adding a random chance for a weak gun drone showing up so the power will accept pet recharge IOs.

Presto, the whole set wouldn't just get a niche, it would be actually something i would want to play for reasons besides concept.

Well personally i think even with your changes AND procs the set would still be worse ST and AoE damagewise than any other set. I mean the only sets with a damage type as bad are ninja and thugs, and they have insane single target damage and a very decent amount of fire damage from oni and arsonist.

Every other set either has flatout higher damage in both AoE(gg Assbot) or singletarget(demons) or a combination thereof with some exotic damage as a cherry ontop(necros toxic&neg energy).

Besides the real problem is the pet AI, whats the point of the LT shooting his awesome Web Grenade if the next thing you see is the medic rushing in to throw a punch ... and getting oneshotted because he is -5 levels to the boss he just bravely tackled. Besides controls and pets only go together with VERY low CD powers, otherwise its just a gimmick thats just as likely to hurt than do good(i.e. Lich/Oni good, specops bad).

Controls are supposed to increase survivability, controls on long timers(everything over 20sec really) means you better not factor them into the balancing of the pets because survivability that goes up and down like a sinuswave isn't very fun(especially if you have no control over when the high and low peaks will happen).

Edit: I guess beast got worse AoE damage, not by much though ... But they trade that for very high res and defenses aswell as a very powerful emergency button.

Some time ago the Soldier of Arachnos's Rifle Butt had its damage increased, but for some reason they didn't buff up the Spec Op equivilant.

I agree with giving the soldiers frag grenade, and maybe giving the medic a minor AoE heal, or an HoT to replace it.

As for spec ops...one thing that would benefit them is an AI change to prevent them from trying to use a CC on an already CC'd target. The second is a reduction on acitivation time on their SCAR snipe, as well as the afore mentioned damage boost. The third is the inclusion of another attack on a short cooldown to fill in the damage spaces, or something along the lines of Venom grenade. And personally I am still a fan of giving them a critical chance.

The commando, as much as I love him, suffers from having two massive cooldowns. Full auto at one minute, and LRM at 240. I'd say halve the recharge time on both of them.

Venom grenade would ALSO boost the damage of the other minions, so that's a double win. Probably won't happen, but that alone would help quite a bit.

Honestly the only thing keeping me from giving Soldier MM's a fair shake is the inability to customize the costumes me minions have.

I like how a bunch of thugs have assault, tactics and maneuvers while actual soldiers of none of it. herp

All of these ideas sound great but I'm starting to feel completely hopeless about anything ever being done about Mercs or MMs in general. Mercs have remained completely unchanged, at least to my knowledge, since Issue 6.

How many more years will it take to do something? They were poorly designed then, continue to be poorly designed right now, and the only change they ever received was a nerf when the devs decided to remove recharge enhancement from pets.

It's beyond the point of contention that Mercs are woefully underpowered compared to other primaries, it's beyond the point of contention that henchmen AI is broken and Mercs suffer the most from it, and it's completely ridiculous that absolutely nothing has been done about it.

It wouldn't even require a complete overhaul of the powerset just to give them -some- love. Reduce some recharge numbers, widen some cones. Call it a stop-gap until they can revisit Masterminds. That's all it would take.

Instead they'd rather spend their time churning out premium powersets, which makes sense for them, but how long are these broken elephants in the room going to be ignored?

Probably forever.

I tried with the Issues and Problems thread but it never caught any traction and I haven't received a single peep from any devs about it, nor has any dev posted in it. It's clear that they are completely ignoring Masterminds save for the release of the largely underwhelming and creatively bankrupt Beast Mastery powerset. Apparently not enough people care about Masterminds for them to ever address any of these concerns that we have been bringing up for years now. At least if they came out and said "we're not looking into doing anything with Masterminds" we could all just shut up about it and go play something else.

Ok, people will probably think im singleminded at this point, but i still think your ideas jibikao do not address the core issues of mercs. Pardon the figure of speech but its like adding spices to a piece of turd. Its still a piece of turd and its still tasting like ****. Sorry to be this blunt and vulgar.

The thing is, thugs are running around with 2x freaking leadership pool(at almost 2x the strength of a defenders maneuvers, for a grand total of 4 defenders worth of maneuvers ...) and we are talking wether the cone attacks of the pets should be 5' or 15' and wether we shall add a AoE to two of the tier 1 pets and buff ST of the tier 2s to EVEN OUT the damage compared to other sets.

Thats just wrong. Apply that sort of logic to blasters vs tankers. How would you feel if tankers had above blaster damage and then to even things out people propose to give blasters damage EQUAL to tankers ...


MM, unlike other ATs, can have their damage(and defense through BG mode) literally get killed. We also profit less from inspirations than any other AT, no four purples for us to waltz through a difficult situation. We NEED survivable pets, or atleast a very significiant gain for a set that purposely lacks it(ninjas insane damage).

Fixing mercs can not be archived by changing some CD numbers, or switching a couple powers around between the pets, its a fundamentally broken set that offers neither ST damage, AoE damage, controls or tankability to any worthwhile amount. Infact there are sets that beat it in every single aspect. Even if the set had good ST and AoE damage it would STILL be broken, because medic is frankly a joke as far as team survivability goes if you compare it to any other "support pet"(ember demon, protector bot or enforcer).

Again, im not saying your ideas wouldn't help, hell ANY buff to serum would be worthwhile on its own, i just think it won't be enough.

What i think would make mercs shine:

1. Give them a theme, they are soldiers so being purely ranged would be a good theme.
2. Remove ALL melee attacks from them, its not like they can't fire their guns at point blank so all these melee attacks do is making the ranged pets charge into melee(im looking at you medic).
3. Spec OPs should have much shorter CDs on their controls like the flashbang and teargas, and give them a AoE slow like the one PPD uses(sticky glue or something).

I mean think about it, 6 sec of mag 2 AoE stun every 30 sec or so might sound imba(and permadoms have mag 6 for 35 sec every 30 sec, just saying), but compared to enforcers giving +20 defense to everything and facing the usualy purple mobs ... i think thugs still get the better deal.

But this way mercs atleast would have .. something unique. Purely ranged set, with noone charging into melee and some tools to keep critters at range. Won't keep them from getting oneshotted at range, won't give them places to put aura IOs and won't keep slow immune bosses from walking all over you either. But you would have something...

It is a good question. Which area(s) should Merc shines in? I mean MMs are so versatile that each set pretty much has aoe, some controls and some debuffs.

I honestly don't think the dev has the time/energy to re-design Merc. Yes, Merc doesn't have the greatest design but I have two level 50 Merc/Poison and Merc/Storm and they are still very playable. They need buffs but not complete overhaul. If they want to spend the time to overhaul something, I am sure they rather just create a new set.

The things I suggest pretty much just make those tiers do better job. The biggest problem is Spec-Ops. If dev only has time to work on ONE thing, it's gotta be Spec-Ops.

- Spec-Ops needs to control better and do much better ST range damage since they have no aoe.

- Medic needs to be more medic-like, whichever way dev wants to do. Get rid of Frag or improve healing/buffing.

- Soldier's problem is the easiest. Their full auto cone simply needs to be larger arc.

- Serum may need some re-design but it's a power that I never enjoy so even if it sucks.. it sucks. Most Robot players I've seen don't aid that robot heal so Merc is not the first set that people skip lvl 18 power. However, the ideas I have for Serum can potential set Merc apart from other sets. They get +maxhp because Merc has the least innate resistance.

One of the nice things about being Merc/Storm is being able to slot the pet uniques. That and being able to keep everything at range (almost) all of the time with my 'Knockback is the best thing ever' playstyle are definitely high points to the combo.

But as much as I like the set, I agree that it needs some help. Maybe not as much as some people say, but it's still an outlier. Hell, I'd be happy with a straight damage boost, but a lot of these suggestions make me think there are some interesting things that could be done.

I think removing melee attacks don't stop them from running into melee at all, they just run there and sit while their ranged attacks are on CD. That's part of the problems the devs had when they "tried" to fix this issue.

Thinking about my rant last night I figured I would add something constructive/useful to the discussion.


Serum: The Super Soldier serum is designed to amplify the inherent abilities already found in an average soldier. Because every person is unique, the Serum has a different effect depending on who it is administered to.

Duration: 120 seconds Recharge: 300 seconds

If administered to...

Soldier: When the Soldier is exposed to the serum, he gains a large boost to his damage and damage resistance. Additionally, all of his powers recharge in half the regular time and he unlocks the ability to use a flamethrower attack. He becomes a one-man firing squad. Other mercenaries in your command will be so emboldened by his actions they gain a bonus to their attacks in the form of Assault and Tactics. When the Serum wears off the Soldier is left so exhausted that he must dismiss himself to recover.

Medic: When the medic is exposed to the serum he abandons his offensive abilities and devotes himself completely to supporting the Mastermind and his fellow Mercenaries. He gains the ability to cast ST and AoE heals, as well as Empathy based buff powers like Recovery Aura, Adrenaline Boost and Fortitude. He also gains the ability to summon a force field generator that will protect the entire team for as long as it is active. When the serum wears off the Medic is left exhausted and drained of all endurance, but he will not have to dismiss himself.

Spec Ops: When the Spec Ops Soldier is exposed to the Serum he gains a multitude of controlling and stealth strike capabilities. Spec Ops stealth will allow opening attacks to deal critical damage as long as he attacks from a hidden state. Under the effects of Serum though, the Spec Ops soldier will prefer to use stun grenades, AoE glue Bombs that slow and immobilize foes, as well as Venom Grenades that eat away at enemies' armor, reducing their damage resistance and defense. When Serum wears off the Spec Ops soldier is left tired, losing half of his endurance, but is able to carry on immediately afterwards.

Commando: When the commando is exposed to the serum he becomes an offensive juggernaut and fearless leader. His attacks gain a large special bonus damage (mechanically identical to fiery embrace), and a large defense bonus seems to make enemy attacks bounce off of him. Additionally, he gains powerful versions of the Leadership abilities Assault, Tactics, Maneuvers and Vengeance, emboldening his fellow mercenaries and avenging those that fall in battle with righteous vengeance. Additionally, enemies targeted by the Serum boosted Commando may be cower and be overcome by fear. The commando suffers no penalties when the Serum wears off, but he will be unable to accept another dose for 60 seconds afterwards.