Shazbotacus

Oh, right, addressing Serum. There's a few things I have in mind, actually. 1. Like ya said, Lynne, just take out the crash, cut down the recharge, and apply it to the whole squad. Well, you said take out just the -Recovery in the crash but I'd go further and say just all of it. However, rather than keep the anemic +Damage and +To Hit, I'd rather just drop it and let the power be purely a survival-boosting defensive buff. You mentioned adding a Regeneration component as well, and that might be considered so we'd be looking at strongly enhanceable properties as being resistance, recharge, and healing. That'd be the easiest way to do it. It doesn't feel particularly "mercs" to me though, so I have other things I hope get considered, such as... 2. Fire Support Beacon Place a Fire Support Beacon down with similar range and animation as calling in Seeker Drones. You can plop it right down in the middle of a group of bad guys. The beacon itself can be targeted, is very durable, and has a tendency to draw aggro. It will "fire" a number of PBAoE attacks around itself visually made to look like artillery and/or air strike munitions detonating around it, dealing high damage and drawing enemy attention to the beacon with a +threat component so it can tank for the Mercs for a bit. 3. Call Air Support Very similar in practice to the Fire Support Beacon, this power should call in a short duration temporary pet that makes a pronounced impact for its brief 60 second duration in battle. This pet, a repainted Longbow Chaser, is also targetable and very durable, and should be capable of laying down good area effect damage while generating threat with every rocket and bullet that hits before flying/teleporting off to refuel and rearm. Why'm I suggesting these things? Well, it's Mercenaries, right? Calling in air and fire support is a fairly common trope in military-themed games and especially shooters. I'd feel a lot more like a mercenary commander if I could call in such heavy assets. In-game, it'll have the role of adding some damage while drawing attention away from the squad, helping survivability while it's active. I'm gonna add this to the main post. but the cottage rule No one come at me with the "cottage rule." No one get me started on the "cottage rule." Please. Besides, it was caveated with the occasion if there should be a given power in such a need of an absolute rework, and I believe we're looking at it now: Serum does not feel good for Mercs in its present function, no matter how much that function is improved.

I think it fits quite well. Army squads have different roles within them beyond the bread-and-butter riflemen, such as an automatic rifleman with a light machinegun, also called a squad automatic weapon, and a grenadier with a rifle affixed with an underbarrel launcher. Squads might also have a designated marksman, or an anti-tank operator with a rocket launcher, also called a light assault weapon. You're right in that sweeping changes aren't strictly necessary, and you can get away with just fixing their activation times, maybe increasing damage on powers if that ain't enough, making recharge timers for many powers reasonable, replacing some powers that have no use with ones that do like Rifle Butt with Beanbag, or adding some where it'd help further an overall strength like giving Maneuvers to Commando. Going a little further, however, addresses some practical things like prevalence of lethal damage resistance and some flavor things like making Mercs just feel exciting. It might not fit their aesthetic now, but frankly they need a uniform upgrade anyhow. Besides, no one said "you want guns, stick with mercs" when Thugs got added. I'd also rather be seeing mercs fire from the shoulder, like soldiers who were trained to aim their weapons, than all of them hipfiring like 80's action stars, and only Beam Rifle has those animations.

I’m starting to think I’d rather see both Soldiers with beam rifles, and leave the hipfiring assault rifles and lethal damage for Spec Ops and Commando. Nah.

First part, is something I actually don't like about Mercs is their present reliance on procs to just not be terrible, or more like become less terrible. Everyone's attacks has substantially better damage per cast cycle in my rework, and it's my hope that'll make up for it. Like take a look at the commando's M30 Grenade in game stats, it's half what I'd like it to be. If it's really needed, though, I'm fine with adding a small -DEF component to the beam rifle soldier's attacks. You will still lose it from one pet, the Medic, but you should still have good yield from procs in that case. As for Defense, y'know, I was thinking about giving the Commando Maneuvers with 10% defense. I forgot to do that. You know what else I forgot to do? List my rework idea for Serum. I gotta go to work now, though, so I'll try to get to that later when I have time.

I wanna fix mercs please. This is a topic I've given a lot of thought to, and Mercs is a set I want most to be successful and competitive with its fellow henchmen in the list of loyal henchmen available to our Mastermind players including myself. So no screwing around; let's get right to it. What's wrong? Mercs lack any strength relative to other sets, having very low damage with the dubious honor of the only set that can't break out of double digits in single target damage (assuming SO enhancements only), and no better survivability than even Ninjas. I want to address this problem by giving them a defined strength that'll make them stand out and fun to play. The Direction? I want to see Mercs be a set with solid damage and a respectable survivability through debuffs courtesy of real world riot munitions. I'm going to be getting most of my inspiration from how Necromancy gets its survivability: debuffs and control. So let's address the problem by going power-by-power, and I'll say what I think will help Mercs be worth leading into battle and why I want to make the changes that I do. Soldiers, Role: Single-Target Damage & Healing So, Soldiers, they need a cutting down on activation time of many of their powers to help their damage output. The Medic oughta be better specialized to healing so that slotting for healing is worth doing. Every power I list will use level 1 stats. I'm shifting over to single shot/burst/heavy burst to solve the Soldiers' problems with activation time. I'm making the Medic more specialized to healing. Soldiers, submachine gun base power: Single Shot (Dmg: 9 lethal & -3.75% Def for 5s, Rech: 4s, Act.Time: 0.9s, Range: 90ft, End.Cost: 5.2, Dmg/Cast Cycle: 1.84) As it looks for Soldier of Arachnos. 1st Upgrade: Burst (Dmg: 9x3 lethal & -3.75% Def for 8s, Rech: 8s, Act.Time: 1s, Range: 90ft, End.Cost: 8.53, Dmg/Cast Cycle: 2) Also as it looks for Soldier of Arachnos. 2nd Upgrade: Heavy Burst (Dmg: 6x6 lethal & -3.75% Def for 16s, Rech: 16s, Act.Time: 2.67s, Range: 90ft, End.Cost: 11.86, Dmg/Cast Cycle: 1.93) As it looks the Soldiers right now, but still single target. That makes three single target attacks. For weapon variety, consider giving one of the Soldiers one of these instead: 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. Medic, some kinda carbine/short rifle base power: Med Kit (Mostly as it is, but with its recharge lowered to 16s) Single Shot (see above) 1st Upgrade: Bio Shield (20-25% or so absorption for 90 seconds, Rech: 8s, Act.Time: 3.17s, End.Cost: 13) An absorb shield also enhanceable with healing 2nd Upgrade: Regeneration Treatment (+150% regen for 90s, Rech: 8s, Act.Time: 3.17s, End.Cost: 13) Another power that uses the medical tool animation. Applies a strong regeneration buff to henchmen and maybe even the Mastermind. Stimulant (Mostly as it is, but with a 4s recharge and 90s duration instead) Notice that the damage per cast cycle has gone up to around Thugs' level and that's mostly because activation time went down to reasonable levels, although the first two Soldiers boast a little more since I'd like to see the Medic specialized utterly to healing so slotting that becomes worthwhile and he will hopefully have a greater impact on Mercs' survivability which is presently very lacking. I also think they should have a bit of a range advantage, so we'll be seeing more of that going on here. On to the next. Spec Ops changes are going to focus on improving their ability to debuff the enemy's offense, and they will provide the bulk of Mercs' survivability through this. Spec Ops, Role: Offense Debuffs for squad survivability, Single-Target Damage All Spec Ops, weapon: suppressed assault rifle w/ Cryo Rounds base powers: Single Shot (As seen above, but with half lethal/cold damage and added -15% move/recharge) It should also use the SCAR snipe sound. It sounds great; we need more of it. Cryo Burst (Burst as above, but with half lethal/cold damage and added -15% move/recharge for 10 seconds on targets) Silenced burst sound, same Burst that Soldiers get, but with added slow effect to hinder enemy's pace of attack. Cryo Grenade (-20% move/recharge in 15ft. around target for 30s, Rech: 45s, Act.Time: 1.87s, Range: 90ft, End.Cost 13) Replaces Web Grenade. Hits a group of targets in a radius with a decent debuff to recharge and movement. 1st Upgrade: Beanbag (2 mag Stun for 8s, Rech: 16s, Act.Time: 0.9s, Range: 90ft, End.Cost: 10) Simple single-target mag 2 stun. Flash Bang (Mostly as it is, but the -To Hit goes up to -7.5% instead of -5% and lasts for 30s while the recharge goes down to 45s) Improved to provide better mitigation through more consistently applied debuff and CC. 2nd Upgrade: SCAR Snipe (Mostly as it is, but with half lethal/cold damage and Recharge reduced to 6 seconds for a new damage per cast cycle of 1.77, and with -15% move/recharge for 10 seconds) Council cryo rounds with a silenced snipe sound pretty much. Tear Gas (Mostly as is, but loses its Hold, adds -7.5% To Hit to debuff and extends debuff duration to 30s, and reduces recharge to 45s.) Same reasoning behind Flash Bang. Stealth (as is) So Spec Ops damage is going to go up a bit, but even more than that will its debuff and CC consistency and power, providing a lot of survivability for Mercs. Two Spec Ops firing their -To Hit grenades, without enhancements, should apply up to -30% To Hit between them both for a good while, and they can potentially have up to 4 mag 2 stuns out, potentially stunning 2 different bosses and everything around them below Lieutenant for a short while, or as long as both their beanbag and flash bang are affecting targets. That's nothing to scoff at. Commando should become an AoE damage machine, although not nearly as much as Assault Bot and that's fine. Commando, Role: AoE Damage Commando, weapon: assault rifle w/ under-barrel grenade launcher (not the frankenrifle please) base powers: Single Shot (as it is for Soldiers) Burst (as it is for Soldiers) 1st Upgrade: Buckshot (as it is) M30 Grenade (mostly as it is, but with 16 damage [6 smash/10 lethal] instead for a new damage per cast cycle of 0.89) So it doesn't suck. (edit in) Maneuvers (+10% Defense to all henchmen within 60ft) 2nd Upgrade: Incendiary Grenade (Shares most stats with M30 Grenade, but has no knockdown and does 24 pure Fire damage over 8 ticks [3 each] over 7.1s for a damage per cast cycle of 1.34) Good damage. Not multiple burn patches for Assault Bot good, but there it is. Replaces Flamethrower for an AoE power with less activation time. Toxic Grenade (Shares most stats with M30 Grenade, but has no knockdown and does 20 pure Toxic damage instead for a damage per cast cycle of 1.12) More solid AoE damage. LRM Rocket (Mostly as is, but with a 30s recharge instead for a new damage per cast cycle of 0.7) So it doesn't suck, pretty much. So my hope here is to make each Merc in the player's squad decent at what they do, and those roles should be pretty well defined here. It's kind of an involved overhaul, and it's for a set that's needed help since its first day on live over a decade ago. Well, I hope you guys like it too. Share your thoughts here. EDIT: Look, I think Serum should be fixed too. Here's a copy-paste from what I also said further down: Oh, right, addressing Serum. There's a few things I have in mind, actually. 1. Like ya said, Lynne, just take out the crash, cut down the recharge, and apply it to the whole squad. Well, you said take out just the -Recovery in the crash but I'd go further and say just all of it. However, rather than keep the anemic +Damage and +To Hit, I'd rather just drop it and let the power be purely a survival-boosting defensive buff. You mentioned adding a Regeneration component as well, and that might be considered so we'd be looking at strongly enhanceable properties as being resistance, recharge, and healing. That'd be the easiest way to do it. It doesn't feel particularly "mercs" to me though, so I have other things I hope get considered, such as... 2. Fire Support Beacon Place a Fire Support Beacon down with similar range and animation as calling in Seeker Drones. You can plop it right down in the middle of a group of bad guys. The beacon itself can be targeted, is very durable, and has a tendency to draw aggro. It will "fire" a number of PBAoE attacks around itself visually made to look like artillery and/or air strike munitions detonating around it, dealing high damage and drawing enemy attention to the beacon with a +threat component so it can tank for the Mercs for a bit. 3. Call Air Support Very similar in practice to the Fire Support Beacon, this power should call in a short duration temporary pet that makes a pronounced impact for its brief 60 second duration in battle. This pet, a repainted Longbow Chaser, is also targetable and very durable, and should be capable of laying down good area effect damage while generating threat with every rocket and bullet that hits before flying/teleporting off to refuel and rearm. Why'm I suggesting these things? Well, it's Mercenaries, right? Calling in air and fire support is a fairly common trope in military-themed games and especially shooters. I'd feel a lot more like a mercenary commander if I could call in such heavy assets. In-game, it'll have the role of adding some damage while drawing attention away from the squad, helping survivability while it's active.

Nemesis rifles have huge bayonets; I think those should be considered as well.

As a Mercs player, the set has other issues that need to be addressed as well. The set overall lacks survivability. Buffing the Medic a bit may help a bit, but it may not be enough. Spec Ops need stronger debuffs on their targets' offense, such as To Hit, damage, and recharge reduction or outright CC. Cutting down the recharge on Teargas and Flashbang is a must, but so would separating their functions as two mag 2 CC powers that are different CC types completely isn't very helpful. I'd recommend something like this. Cryo Grenade: Replaces Web Grenade for a 15 feet or so area effect power that focuses purely on being a movement and recharge debuff with good effectiveness and uptime. Stun Grenade: Replaces Flashbang Grenade with a plain Disorient, no other effects, for a base duration of 6 seconds and a quick recharge of 30 seconds. Much, much better up time than Flashbang Grenade, and almost as good as Protector Bots' Photon Grenade. Shockwave Grenade: Replace Rifle Butt with basically an Air Superiority grenade but with no damage at all, strictly knockdown, on a fairly quick recharge of like 16-20 seconds or around that ball park, "holding" enemies for the 4 seconds it takes them to get up. Beanbag: Okay, I liked the novelty of "Air Superiority grenade" but frankly a single-target mag 2 Disorient would be a lot more useful stacked with Stun Grenade and would give Disorient enhancements more meaning. Maybe others like "Air Superiority grenade" more tho, I'd still be okay with it, Tear Gas Grenade: Loses CC to focus solely on being a strong debuff, crippling either damage by -25% or ToHit by -12.5% for 30 seconds and at 45 seconds of recharge. This is to provide a weakening effect on the enemy's offense between hard CC, with greater up time, especially against enemies that might be outside the realm of being reliably stunned anyways such as arch-villains. Doing -To Hit would mean something to enhance, but also possibly additional slot pressure. Cutting down on attack activation time will also go a long way to helping Soldiers and Spec Ops damage, which is even higher than it should be compared to other powers using the same animation. I'd like to see Burst, Heavy Burst, and Auto Fire changed to Single Shot, Burst, and Heavy Burst. These'll use animations for some much quicker activating powers, and fewer but higher ticks of damage will make it seem like your men are at least shooting slightly stronger BBs. Also, may as well have Heavy Burst also be a stronger single-target attack rather than a cone if the cone is going to be so pathetically narrow. They're firing bullets; bullets should be fairly damaging. Robotics has the same problem across all its henchmen. Everything else is good. From a flavor standpoint, though, I really hope Mercs get some weapon variety. I'm legit jealous of Council having grenade launchers, shotguns, flamethrowers, rocket launchers, etc. I don't think it'd be feasible to fit that much weapon variety in, but it'd be nice to try to get more different weapons in if we're aiming for an overhaul like I heard we might.

I wonder if another idea would help with this one, perhaps enabling players to artificially exemplar themselves down to the zone’s max level? Halloween in Croatoa would be rad.

Yeah, they're not the same, but my point still stands; I'm not convinced it's impossible. That's also only one supposedly "impossible" thing I mentioned as well. Other issues were resolved that were previously said to be impossible, like if I remember right it was said that powers couldn't have customizable colors but that got figured out, and I dunno how similar any of those are to each other.

A lot of things were "impossible" before, most recently implementing proper and decent AI behaviors for henchmen.

What are the odds of getting right-handed Katana animations? How about getting a European longsword or greatsword as a model, too? Something like the "longsword" model for Broad Sword but with a longsword sized handle, perhaps? Or even the Barbarian Sword.

I would love Shield Defense on Sentinels, but personally because I want to one-hand an assault or beam rifle while holding a SWAT ballistic shield. If it’s possible to make context-sensitive animations that is; I know the Ghost Slayer Axe is swung one-handed when used with a shield.

That’s... also a really good point; even solo Trip Mine as it is just isn’t good.

Well, I suppose I understand that then. I hated IO sets since the beginning for about that reason. Okay then, you make a good point on that power. I still think Serum needs a lot of help though.

Well, I knew it’d be an unpopular opinion and I stand by it. There are still powers I’d like to see given an overhaul as I believe they have fundamental issues that tweaking numbers alone might not address, like how Time Bomb’s very nature is incompatible with the pace of most groups.

I consider it, the idea that changing a power from +Damage and +To Hit to a cottage-making power is a good argument against any notion of an overhaul, a strawman because it is a fabricated argument by Castle, presented by no one actually opposed to his stance, and refuted to make his point. Castle made that weak argument just to attack it and sound right by presenting something so obviously silly.

I don’t think real world government and game development philosophy are alike enough for analogies. It’s always up to certain people within the development team what actions are done, never any sort of “masses.” Even when a team behind a given game releases a poll or survey concerning what actions to take, it’s the developers that pick what is even on the table as plausible for their game. Bringing power overhaul onto the table won’t bring wacky disorder like Castle’s “cottage rule” post says, nor will it necessarily guarantee that any such overhauls will be done if better solutions are found for the game’s underperforming powers. Besides, that same post says he’d overturn it if a core shift in a given power’s primary function were needed. That’s not something we need this “cottage rule” to tell us; it’s just basic wisdom, something I believe our dev team has enough of to make that kind of call.

Ah, yes, Repair and Time Bomb need help. I forgot those.

I’d rather say the “cottage rule” should no longer be considered at all. That being said, I can only think of Serum as a power that needs a complete overhaul; it’s utterly useless, and Mercs as a whole would be better served by a power that did something else entirely. Unpopular opinion here, but I believe the “cottage rule” itself is an absurd strawman, assuming any power overhaul could only ever be so useless and outlandish, which was somehow adopted as an axiom. What this rule’s absolute nature tries to fix can be resolved with applied common sense; it is not needed to prevent powers from losing their identity unless it’s Serum which needs full reconstructive surgery anyhow. I never once agreed with it.

This is exactly what I was afraid of when set bonuses and then incarnates aired. I resent the both of them.

I miss the challenge. I resented IOs and Incarnates at release, though at the time I didn't know that there was a word for it: "power creep."

I’d like to see more enemy groups with supporting combatants in their ranks, perhaps if they can somehow disrupt/slow the current build meta with IOs. Something to throw a curveball at everyone’s softcapped defense.

I would like to see medieval/fantasy henchmen. I’ve always figured it’d have T1 with swords for offense and shields and parrying to defend, with the third one being a healer type akin to the Luddite Friar: slottem for damage/accuracy/heal. T2 would be archers with strong single-target damage and either a hard CC or offense debuff to enhance and indirectly help survivability. T3, I’d style as a war wizard with nasty AoE damage and a resistance buff that can be enhanced and is applied to minions, and perhaps even the Mastermind, like the Ember Demon’s buff. I see these pets being mostly resistance focused with the T1 henchmen also having good melee, but only melee, defense from their shield and Parry attack. No bullet parrying for the mooks. I see them being like Necromancy: relatively low damage, but high survivability. Perhaps better at AoE damage.

Fly, for its complete freedom of three dimensional movement, is by far my favorite travel power.

I’d rock a medieval/fantasy set. T1 might be men-at-arms with swords and shields, with the third henchman being a very healing focused cleric like a Luddite Friar with a mace and shield. Healing worth enhancing, that is. T2 could be archers with strong damage and either one type of debuff or a CC that’d also be worth enhancing. T3 could be a sort of “battle mage” with a list of area effect damage spells, er powers, like fireball, ball lightning, maybe fire rain or imps or animate something whatever that’s magicky looking, and some resistance buffs OR ToHit debuffs to contribute to henchmen survivability.