its the same as always...not too bad, but not too good...just sort of meh but it has lightsabers so I keep playing. The changes to mercs though on PTS are irritating the hell out of me. DR on the stats is driving me nuts. I'm using a 5/36/5 build with the static 2% alacrity talents and using absolutely zero crit rating. Acc rating is like 432 and just under 100% my surge is only like 288 though so only like 68% crit multiplier. Its all about the power atm Im at like 1390 when fully buffed. Alacrity seems to actually do more harm than good for arsenal mercs as the heat regeneration is not up to par. Also the changes to power surge make it very bad for heat management. Many people have voiced their concerns on the swtor forums but there is no response other than the devs saying dont worry mercs are getting more pvp love...but I keep asking what about the pve side of things? We are still able to parse decently but you really really have to manage that heat so more rapid shots that or you can use an arsenal/pyro hybrid that doesnt include HSM but makes it so you never have heat issues.
Dont make to manny guesses about the current pts version, they stated in a mod post that they clearly have many thing that they currently testing for powetechs and mercenarys. Both speccs, pyro and the representive of the two classes will be get another revision. First to nerf the pyro/adv proto hybrid biuld and secondly to more destiguish both available damage tree for both classes.
Also it makes me happy that the buffed crit a little bit. Problem is, its still weaker than pure power builds. Nevertheless it lowers the gap between auto-crit speccs and those, who depends on occasionally crits (leth agent for energy reg.). Lets hope they upp the diminisging return on crit trough main stat again or push crit rating again...
However, the closed beta is a few patches ahead of the curent open beta - have a bit trust in them, i have :P
Wildstar Black Ops - loved by strangers
wish I had your faith. As I recall the post about future improvements for mercs was all pvp related. I'm still waiting for the update though. I really hope they alter the heat regeneration on alacrity to make it worth it. Because I originally thought pow/alacrity would be the new route to go with mercs...oh how I hate the heat regen issues!
as I have already stated twice or more, alacrity isn't that nice, bcause we depend on our big hitting cooldowns instead of a fluent rotation... Heat seaker is our strongest hitting thing, and either you have 500 alacrity rating or 0, the cooldown is even... Maybe are ther sme sweet spots, but overall till now it looks like we only need the 3% from cylinder and some from the skilltree to just nullif the internet delay/lagp
Wildstar Black Ops - loved by strangers
I'm not liking the changes to mercs I'm hearing.
so the changes that austin peckenpaugh made it so we only throw 1 tm to get the stacks we need for hsm. anyone with more pts exp than me have an idea of what good will these changes do?
http://www.swtor.com/community/showt...81#edit6049781
Last edited by krysskallins; 2013-03-26 at 12:27 AM.
It will actually do a lot of positive things. One will be our openers will now be overall more DPS due to the fact we don't need to cast 3 just to get HSM to be full power. Before when I played, casting HSM directly after a Tracer sometimes bugged out... much like casting Unload directly after a Tracer where it wouldn't even go off. I feel these changes somewhat fix the problem for HSM as well as provide us with more burst when switching targets, etc.
Interesting change. I agree with aerroh in that it will help our target switching... But in the long run, I'm thinking long drawn out boss fights, I'm wondering what this does to our overall rotation. I'm hoping that they might increase the proc chance of barrage.. At the moment I sometimes go 3-5 tracer missiles before I get a barrage proc at the opening of a fight.. So right now.. instead of going tracer,tracer, tracer, TSO, Heatseeker, (with barrage) Unload, rail shot.. Its going to be tracer, TSO, Heatseeker. Going to make us a bit more bursty.. I just hope barrage procs when we use our tracers lol
And its also extremely obvious that this change is geared strictly around PvP and so much that it doesn't totally disrupt the balance of pve.. Such a minor tweak will change our rotation drastically.. I just hope it doesn't nerf us into the ground.
The sooner BW stops trying to balance pvp with pve talents.. the better we will be
well i guess the best answer to this is we'll see. no biggie, i think there will be balances/re-balances after it goes on live and all the complaining starts up again anew
I would like to post saying that I am returning to SWTOR. I did enjoy WoW and its content it had to offer- however I did not enjoy the people. I will be once again aiming for World Firsts with <Chosen> on Prophecy of the Five.
Ontop of that, this guide will be seeing some updates as changes go live. I hope that we can all work together to give the Bounty Hunter community nothing short of a helpful guide.
awesome, welcome back. i feel you on that about wow. if you don't get lucky enough to be in with a group of good people or friends you will be with the worst of the worst...
I went from a top 15 guild to a top 60 and kept going down the line... sadly progression doesn't indicate the personalities of players. <Chosen> in SWTOR has always contained my friends and they're all a real cool group of people. There is no yelling, pointing out, pointless call outs, etc. I'd rather have fun in a low population game then be stressed out and feel liking crap in the most popular game. :P
yeah i can't do that kind of raiding. its a little too intense for my style. i like being able to cut up during raids. laughing off stupid pulls or wipes is way more fun than feeling like you killed someone's cat.
2.0: The updates for Arsenal that we know of:
Originally Posted by SWTOR-A new ability, Electro Net, has been added. Electro Net ensnares a single target, reducing its movement speed and dealing periodic Energy damage which increases over time if the target is moving. While Electro Net is active, the target is also hindered and unable to activate high mobility actions and escapes, such as speed boosts, vanishes, and charges. The ability is trainable at level 51.
Originally Posted by SWTOR
-New Passive ability, Missile Salvo, has been added. Missile Salvo allows up to 3 weaker Missile Blasts to be fired in a row before generating heat and going on cooldown for 6 seconds. This ability is trainable at level 10.
-Jet Boost now generates 8 Heat (down from 16).
-Kolto Missile is now trainable at level 20 for all Mercenaries.
-High Velocity Gas Cylinder now additionally increases Alacrity by 3% while active.
-Tracer Missile applies a single Heat Signature stack that replaces the old 5 stack mechanic. This is to improve target switching and add DPS.
Electro Net seems to be the biggest boost we are getting. We now have a periodic dot as Arsenal that is definitely going to have to be used on CD.
Last edited by Forsedar; 2013-03-31 at 05:33 PM.
im thinking the whole missile blast thingy might make it into the mix possibly? can't remember if they dropped the heat on it because otherwise it's full of suck.
Yeah Missile Salvo is still terrible. Unless its changed its going to be one of those things only good for low levels.
missile salvo is utterly worthless unless you are moving and your other instant casts are on CD. Its really something more for pyro mercs to use. They still haven't said anything about the heat management stuff which concerns me. It would be nice to be able to do more than 2 casts before having to use rapid shots but I guess I'm just dreaming.
So one Tracer Missile will now apply a Heat Signature lasting 45 seconds, reduces armor by 20% and now fires faster-moving projectile? And Heatseeker Missiles now does 25% additional damage on targets with Heat Signature and fires a slower-moving projectile?
Do you think a slower-moving projectile or faster moving projectile will make that much difference with their being 1.5 second GC and how many weeks after they go live do you think will go by before they nerf us? I was pulling good DPS on the last PTS build and having no real heat issues and now they buffed us even more (^_*)
I have a feeling there are going to be more changes to come that we don’t know about yet. . . . . . . .