4/19 Patch nots: Is there any reason to spec Arsenal now?

[roga]

(04-21-2012 10:14 AM)Glorion Wrote:  Btw, how do we buff healing, ive gone blank on this one.

kolto residue, nerfed from 5% to 3% (duration 15 sec) with the kolto missle being the "carrier" having a 6 sec CD (heat up to 16).

[Glorion]

Oh right, I got confused. I thought we were talking about Arsenal Mercs, but you meant mercs in general being a "buffing up of other classes."

[Allah]

(04-21-2012 10:14 AM)Glorion Wrote:  I'm massively ignorant on Boss armour mechanics, so im not sure what the deal is with stacking etc. But doesnt practically every man and his dog have an armour Debuff, sniper, Jugg etc. Btw, how do we buff healing, ive gone blank on this one.

Dummy fights were a little different to boss fights, yes, less movement, but also no other debuffs, inspiration etc. I was able to pull an extra 100 DPS on anni droid, even with the movement.

Also, if you've augmented for aim, swap that out for power.

---

Please guys, if you honestly think that you're so much better, and dont need to RS/HS, provide an 8 minute parse of you being able to do that. Until then, i'll keep my own rotation as it suits my needs, and is the best I can currently do.

Nothing wrong with Rapid shotting in a rotation, its proper rotation mechanics. If you are above ~28 heat or so its prudent to rapidshot first.

[Phaser]

Please stay on topic guys. This is about Arsenal merc's ability HSM being broken.
Pre-1.2 patch we were seeing 5-6k crits with only our own tracer debuff.
Post 1.2 were are supposed to get a 10% buff to HSM. Now it is hitting for less than it was before...while soloing.
THIS IS BROKEN. THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH OTHER PLAYERS' DEBUFFS.
Discuss.
p.s. might I also add that, from a balancing perspective, it would be retarded to consider Merc second tier dps. Our armor debuff is not a huge deal and is balanced anyway because other dps have it as well (snipers for example). Merc cannot pull to target, jump to target, sprint, stealth, have a good stun, have any interrupt, or do any kind of good dps while moving. Lets not even get into how dps Marauders are better dps than mercenaries now and have a 15% group dps buff. How does that fit your balancing perspective? We are a pure dps class. Keep it that way and fix our ability please.

[Legolino]

(04-22-2012 04:38 AM)Phaser Wrote:  THIS IS BROKEN. THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH OTHER PLAYERS' DEBUFFS.

True, but a dev recently said that they also corrected (in 4/19 patch) several bugs that made HSM doing too much dammage even when the only debuffs on the target are yours. Thus, they didn't talk about it in the patchnote.

Otherwise, I must agree that, at the moment, mercenaries are below other dps classes who have either a better dps or better utility... or both at the same time, especially in PvP.

[Kaedis]

Quote:Post 1.2 were are supposed to get a 10% buff to HSM. Now it is hitting for less than it was before...while soloing.

Then something else changed, because the current live files are showing HSM with a 30% higher base damage and coefficient than it had in 1.1.5.

[Vintego]

The change is significant. Personally I've found the damage too lethargic to play with and respecc'd Pyro... and have honestly just stopped playing the Merc.

I've seen some tests posted elsewhere showing that the Tracer Missile armor debuff is not working, or not stacking properly resulting in an underwhelming Heatseeker missile. The misleading part is that it appears Heatseeker is still benefiting from the heat signatures of Tracer; however, Tracer's stacking of armor debuff seems broken.

I've heard arguments that the tests -might- be invalid because they are coming off of the fleet dummies which may or may not be broken themselves.

Although several of us have suspected this massive reduction in damage is a result of 1.2c's Heatseeker 'fix', it's hard to prove if people don't want to trust the damage meters on fleet (and personal ship) dummies.

I decided to log my Merc back on last night and for several hours I went after exact, same types of NPC's and tried my best to test very, very basic rotations.

For hours I did this trying to detect any damage bonus from using Heatseeker alone, Heatseeker after 1 Tracer Missile, Heatseeker after multiple Tracer Missiles, etc, etc.

I could not detect any appreciable bonus damage as a result of tracer missile debuff stacks. The damage was so low, I decided to try different mob types.... with the same results.

I know this isn't scientific but people have already tested against dummies, PVP, and recorded results with DPS metering applications. So I thought I would just do something different with the NPC's on Corellia and see if that made a difference.

It did not. Quite frankly, IF this is actually working as intended, I really can't see playing character. I really do hope BW is actually having a look at this but they have not indicated that they are.

On the official forums, moderators have just re-quoted the dev's original statement of 'fixing' Heatseeker (because the original issue was 'bonus' debuff stacking on Heatseeker). But I haven't seen an indication that dev's are looking to see if in fact they broke Tracer along the way.

[Kaedis]

Vintego, get us some solid reliable test data, and we'll do our best to forward it through what channels we have access to. What I need is a solid recording of damage done by HSM at 0 stacks, 5 stacks, and at least one stack value in between. To make matters simpler, it would also be nice to have values for TM damage on the same target at those stack values (remember, the TM that applies the stack doesn't benefit from it). Get a minimum of 10 non-crit (or crit-multiplier-corrected crit) values recorded at each, all against the same target. If you want a nice controlled test, find a bored guildy and have them be a target dummy for a while, but make sure they don't have any proc effects that could interfere! Actually, on that note, make sure you yourself don't have any procs that can be avoided.

In addition, we'll need to know your precise raw stats (Aim, Cunning, Power, Tech Power), your spec, and any buffs you had active (preferably none), as well as your target's class, spec, armor value, and any buffs they had active (preferably none as well).

We need solid statistically-reliable data to verify bugs. My merc is only level 14, else I'd test it myself.

[Legolino]

(04-25-2012 04:08 AM)Vintego Wrote:  I've seen some tests posted elsewhere showing that the Tracer Missile armor debuff is not working, or not stacking properly resulting in an underwhelming Heatseeker missile. The misleading part is that it appears Heatseeker is still benefiting from the heat signatures of Tracer; however, Tracer's stacking of armor debuff seems broken.

The Tracer Missile armor debuff is definetly working properly. I tested with my kinetic dammage relic, which has constant dammage: without the debuff relic critted for 309 and 346 with the debuff.

[Vintego]

I will do the tests over, in a more.. scientific manner. I am running a DPS meter, but I'll do it on fleet to be more precise and redord my findings including the additional info.
Legolino, can you run a similar test with Heatseeker following Tracer? I probably won't be able to for a few nights... I don't trust the 'NPC test' I've tried, and all the other info I have is from alleged DPS metering on the official BW forums.
There is no doubt the damage is severly lowered, but for my own peace of mind I'd really like to know if this is working as BW intended.