Shazbotacus

Yeah, toxic is oddly resisted quite often, but while a few sets involve toxic it’s not like any set focuses on that damage as AR and Mercs focuses on lethal.

It's pretty sad 😂👌

So much this. Let's keep talking about Mercs, guys. My soldiers need some proper training.

The struggle is real, and has been a chronic condition since Mercs was born.

I... kinda like that. Yeah. So for 5 minutes, Medic hands out Serum buffs to all your henchmen? Is that right? ‘Course if Medic dies you’re down serum buffs until you can equip a new Medic with ‘em.

True, giving just Serum a passive effect would be a pretty simple way to add some survivability. I'd probably stick to resistance, though, and have the sum of the passive and active effects be what amount is provided right now. Serum would still probably call for resistance and recharge slotting, probably +to hit if we keep that in there too.

You could just up their damage values, but what we'd be left with is basically a ranged DPS set like Ninjas as they'd still have pretty much pathetic survivability and nothing that makes them unique beyond that but those utility powers on absurd cooldowns, and extreme burst damage every few fights because of how long it'd take LRM to recharge. Of course the ideal solution would be to patch those recharge problems so they can be marked by their CC and debuffs, and I recognize y'all have said as much, but the bottom line I'm saying is if really is the case that the only way to make mercs do what they were supposed to is an overhaul, then so be it. Indeed, Spec Ops need an overhaul more than any other pet in the game. Thing is, though, I don't know if it really would be that breaking to lower their powers' recharge timers. The Homecoming team gave them an AI overhaul not long ago that really helped all henchmen; I'd need someone who worked on AI to confirm that's still the case.

It’s entirely true regarding Mercs never getting caught up when Assault Rifle had its powers go through an animation and activation time quickening. I imagine we would prefer mercs be given that treatment because it really, really should’ve happened to them too. A lotta things shoulda happened to them but they were utterly ignored. But if for some reason that’s not possible, you could increase damage to the target damage per cast cycle numbers I presented. I’d prefer a little more effort to make mercs’ powers behave in a consistent manner to what players get, as it should have always been, but you could technically make them work by doing this along with, of course, the other things I suggested, especially for Spec Ops who need help the absolute most.

So I've made threads about this in the past and each time I've learned something about making these suggestions for fixing Mercs work. I consulted users over the Discord and was advised to keep suggestions as simple and direct to the cause as possible, so that's what I'm going to do now. I have also consulted Mastermind players, also on the Discord, who share my concern with Mercs' poor performance since the day City of Villains launched with the Mastermind archetype. I'm going to keep things as simple as I can think of. I'm going to list each henchman, a list of proposed changes to its powers like patchnotes would be presented, and my reasoning for enacting the changes I propose to each henchman. I will then summarize my proposed changes, why they're beneficial, and why there should be minimal objection. All numbers provided will be at base level 1. Soldiers: Burst: Increase damage to 9.9 (3 ticks of 3.3), fix activation time to 1.0 like Assault Rifle -> Burst is for players. Resulting damage per cast cycle will be 1.98, or very slightly behind Thugs' Pistols Heavy Burst: Increase damage to 18 (6 ticks of 3), which will bring damage per cast cycle up to 1.69 or just slightly higher than Thugs' Dual Wield Auto Fire: Fix activation time to 4s like Assault Rifle -> Full Auto for players and widen the cone angle to 20 degrees. That will slightly increase damage per cast cycle to 0.9, or slightly above Thugs' Dual Wield, and allow it to hit far more targets than the current 5 degree cone angle does. Why?: This will bring Soldiers' damage output much closer to Thugs as a reference point, who are pretty close to other T1s in terms of damage while Soldiers' were far behind. So this just brings the T1 up to par with the rest. Medic: Replace Frag Grenade with another support power handed out in a manner similar to Stimulant: choose either an absorb shield, max health, or a regeneration buff enhanceable with healing. This power should have a duration of 90s and a cooldown of 4s. Stimulant should also have a cooldown of 4s and a duration of 90s. Also consider replacing Heavy Burst with another healing enhanced power as suggested above. Why?: Medic having Frag Grenade is detrimental to its function and survivability, and the henchman could stand to have a stronger presence in improving Mercs' survivability as, indeed, is its function. This should make slotting for healing more worthwhile as well. Spec Ops: Burst & Heavy Burst: Enact the same damage and activation time changes that were done for Soldiers. Snipe: Reduce cooldown to 6s and change activation time to 2.67s similar to Assault Rifle -> Sniper Rifle for players. This will increase damage per cast cycle to 2.01 from its current 0.88. Web Grenade: Add 15 Toxic damage (5 ticks of 3 Toxic over 8.2s) and shorten the recharge to 8s. This means a damage per cast cycle of 1.52. Flashbang Grenade: Cut recharge down to 45s, increase -To Hit and other debuff durations to 30s. Increase -To Hit debuff to -7.5%. Tear Gas Grenade. Cut recharge down to 45s, change -Damage to -7.5% To Hit, and increase debuff duration to 30s. Why?: Strongly enhanceable -To Hit which, along with their hard control, applied much more consistently will help provide survivability. Debuffs for half a minute, crowd control for 6s, should make Spec Ops a decent debuffing henchman that provides much of Mercs' survivability by reducing the enemy's chance to hit for a decent window of time. They also lack severely compared to some other Tier 2 pets' damage, and that would be addressed with the changes to their attacks and web grenade. Commando: Burst: Same thing done for Soldiers here. Full Auto: Fix animation and activation time 4s like Assault Rifle -> Full Auto for players, and reduce recharge to 30s. This changes the damage per cast cycle from 0.39 to 0.76. LRM Rocket: Simply reduce the recharge to 30s. This increases the damage per cast cycle to 0.67 from 0.09 (lol). Why?: This should help the Commando's AoE damage to be decent. Serum: Cut down the recharge to like 90s or something and remove the crash. Why?: Well sure it's like putting a tier 9 super armor on your pet, but the problem here is that it only protects a portion of your damage output from getting snuffed out, whereas for other players it protects all their damage and that makes it a lot more meaningful. Here, it's just a waste as you make one pet harder to kill but then neuter its offense by taking away all its endurance for 20s, a painfully long time, only a minute later. I wouldn't use this power even if it were given to me for free as it is. So why do all this? Why should no one object? I see Mercenaries was built to be a sort of utility set with decent damage like Necro was made to be, but it just doesn't perform this function with the source of its utility being on terribly long cooldowns that stops them from being present for a great majority of the time. They also suffer very low damage not just from their type being resisted, but because their damage output is just plain low. Increasing their damage values to approach other henchmen is the logical thing to do here, and fixing their activation times like has been done for players' AR is also needed to help them go through their abilities so they can have their effects out faster. They have almost no other defense outside of their Spec Ops' CC and debuffs. Imagine Bots without shields, or Thugs without Enforcers (and damage), or Necro without the Lich. That's what Mercs is like right now. Here is data produced by Galaxy Brain testing all Mastermind pets, and only pets, on SO enhancements. Mercs are dead last in single target. It also needs to be noted that Bots in the Single Target category, though only appearing ahead of Mercs by 10 DPS, is likely further ahead than this graph shows, so Mercs are relatively further behind than that.

I do like the fact BR is fired from the shoulder tho. I wish AR did that instead of hipfiring.

I'd like to see the Assault Rifle models proliferated over to Beam Rifle. Yes, I want to shoot beams from the M16 looking model. Also, while we're talking about Beam Rifle, some models float off the hand, some more than others. The Resistance Rifle, as much as I love the model, doesn't even touch the player character's hand and this bothers me so much I can't use it. Here's a screenshot of it. Can you guys look at these models and maybe move the mesh a little to the right or something so they align with the hand that's supposed to hold them?

Yeah. Before and after doubling Mercs DPS, Necro’s position in the ST DPS running does not change, and Mercs is still behind them.

I just wanna put this out there. Second worst ST DPS is necro at 195. Bots is 100 and Mercs is last at 90. Doubling Mercs is 180. Double mercs only makes them second worst at ST DPS. They are still behind Necro. 😂

The Imperial Guard would like to know your location

That’s a frustrating bummer. I just need two pieces.

Literally all we’re missing for a full suit of Crey Crisis/Juggernaut armor is the helm and the backpack. What’re the odds that we can see those available in the near future?

Wait, you wrote the Serum rework with a heal on it? scroll up... Ah, you did. Cool beans. All right, that sounds much better. Heal + resistance, yeah that's something I'd wholly approve of.

I'd definitely cut down recharge on Spec Ops' CC grenade even more, maybe even increase the numbers, at least the duration, of the debuff components. But I'd really reconsider having the Medic's healing come from a stationary triage beacon because that seems annoying to deal with. I'd rather he just hand out a regeneration buff like he hands out Stimulant or something, but with 90s minimum of duration and a 2s recharge or so. Maybe he can have an absorb shield buff he hands out since that scales off healing, too. I assume Vengeance works like it does for Nemesis Officers. That's a really interesting idea, but I'd... actually put that on Commando. I presume he'd be taking the most aggro with his heavier AoE damage output, though I'd probably have it just boost defense and maybe provide that status protection. Serum with a crash for half its duration still seems annoying to deal with, having soldiers' effectiveness and resistance fluctuate so much, and it seems likely to happen at particularly harmful times like when that soldier in particular is taking heavy fire and now he's taking heavy damage. I'd keep it simple as a primarily resistance focused buff that's handed out while the Medic is alive. After all, the Medic is the skilled physician who applies his tools to keep his squad in tip-top shape, right? LRM as a 1-minute recharge nuke with solid damage is something I can get behind. What do you think about going with single shot > burst > heavy burst animations for Soldiers to cut down on activation time even further on them? That'll bring the times down to 0.9s, 1s, and 2.67s respectively and will help their damage even more.

That’s something you could do, then slot it for recharge, healing, and resistance because serum assuming he’d have no attacks. I may be in love with the idea of calling in air support and having a repainted Chaser blow things up, but that can also work.

I thought about the Medic having attacks and think it’s okay if he has one. A li’l semi-auto carbine with one single shot. Although I think I get what ya mean with the healing/support powers bogging him down with activation times, yeah? So maybe that’d be okay if he got the one attack power, too. I suppose it’s something to think about. edit: eh, still not something I’d do. It’d make more sense to me to have these powers from the medic himself, and the other support henchmen don’t get that kind of sub pet luxury either.

That is true, though why separate the Medic’s heals off into a sub pet?

Eh, I’d rather assign more healing/support powers to the medic himself as upgrades are applied. Seems simpler.

What do ya think about a single attack power? Like... a shotgun or a pistol or something? Or a rifle with one power? edit: Y'know what, I'm gonna give him a submachine gun little carbine. Check it out. How's it look now?

Okay, I get ya. I changed up the original post and have three weapon sets on the table for Soldiers. What do y'all think of it now?

Y'know what, I think I can work with that. I can post some alternative Soldier weapons. I would like to see more firing from the shoulder, though. Here's what I got so far. Pump-action shotgun, for a close-range higher damage soldier. base: Narrow Spread Buckshot (Dmg: 18 lethal w/ 50% chance for mag 0.79 knockback & -3.75% Def for 8s, Rech: 8s, Act.Time: 0.9s, Range: 45ft, End.Cost: 5.2, Dmg/Cast Cycle: 2.02) A short-range heavy blast of single-target damage 1st Upgrade: Slug (just as it is, but with added -3.75% Def for 8s 2nd Upgrade: Dragon's Breath (Same range, animation, end cost, and activation time as Incinerator for Sentinels, but with 16s recharge. 3.5 fire damage as 11 ticks over 2.5 seconds for a damage per cast cycle of 2.14. And -3.74% Def of course.) Battle rifle, for the designated marksman base: Hip Shot (it's just Single Shot) 1st Upgrade: Aimed Shot (Dmg: 20 lethal & -3.75% Def for 8s, Rech: 8s, Act.Time 2.67s, Range: 150ft, End.Cost: 8.53, Dmg/Cast Cycle: 1.87) Sniper rifle animation and sound. 2nd Upgrade: Incendiary Round (Dmg: 24 [12 lethal then 4 fire x3 ticks over 3 seconds] & -3.75% Def for 8s, Rech: 10s, Act.Time 2.67s, Range: 150ft, End.Cost: 8.53, Dmg/Cast Cycle: 1.89) Sniper rifle animation, Council marksman rifle sound. I think I'll put it in the main post.