Shazbotacus

Epic pool powers are usually meh anyways, especially in Sent’s case. I don’t see any harm in making them available sooner. And, as said earlier, this could be good for concepts.

I’m glad I ain’t the only one feeling this way about combat challenge, OP. I hate the idea of running into a DPS race meta.

I like it. Huh, what if hosping put the player in a cell with a regenerated door?

Seeing the thread asking for a Ninjas buff reminds me Mercs could use one even more. So I'm going to shamelessly bump this thread as I do genuinely want to see Mercs given the buff they desperately need.

It’s true. In the fifteen years since this game launched on live, I have changed substantially and so has my available time and concept of fun. I’m not much for grind anymore. Heck, I remember before when we had all these IO sets and Incarnate god powers. City of Heroes at that time wasn’t about building up epic gear with billions of the game currency and getting these Incarnate perks until the game became trivial when the best we had was Hamidon enhancements.

Oh, I have no doubt Mercs will still stand out from Thugs. So a drone summon based on the target, much like Soul Extraction. That's... heck, that's pretty cool. I can dig it. "Malta-ness," I've envied their tactical kit for the longest time. I've been wanting to "Malta-fy" Mercs for a while in costume at least.

Yeah, I admit I have no regard at all for the "cottage rule." There are several possibilities for sure; many different things can be done. AoE Serum, I suggested an AoE Regeneration buff, or calling in a Sky Skiff to friggin' strafe your target with rockets like an airstrike... I'm particularly attached to calling in a Sky Skiff airstrike. Bottom line is sky's the limit if people let it be.

Oof, finally outta work. Yeah, there's one thing most players can agree on: mercs need help.

If it’s for the Medic, just the mobility with only the regen buff I figure. Although as a T1 pet, I’d probably rather have him with a suite of healing abilities, like one single target, an area effect heal or regen buff, maybe just take Stimulant and make that area effect possibly with a regen component or changed to regen entirely. Definitely no area effect attacks, maybe try him with two attacks with the Council Rifleman’s animation, so 2.67 seconds of activation time, and like 3 seconds of recharge so those get cycled rather than him getting tempted to brawl.

Giving Mercs a FFG? Sky Raiders do it, I suppose. Though I have an interest in focusing on Medic’s healing to make enhancing it more worthwhile. Hm. This makes me think that Commando can be good for more than just raw damage, and right now only slotting for accuracy and damage is worth doing for him, so if a FFG were added to Mercs, I might move the FFG over to him since he’s more likely to survive, and by extension his FFG as well, and 6-slotting him becomes more worthwhile especially with level 50 basic IOs. As with most pet-sourced buffs, I might replace the dispersion bubble with some more subtle radiating circle effect like a Circle of Thorns crystal that only applies the 7.5-10% or so defense bubbles on the player’s mercs and maybe the player himself. I’ve been interested in seeing Mercs focus more on staying power than damage overall; this fits that pretty well. Or if we stick with Medic, because Triage Beacon is annoyingly immobile, I might replace it with a, uh... “Triage Generator” that boosts nearby Mercs’ regeneration. In addition to doing what I previously said, of course, like changing Stimulant to an AoE possibly with a regen component and maybe having Medkit do a self heal as well.

Aye, that'd also do it. Possibly through a health modifier of sorts. Perhaps even an accuracy and/or to hit bonus to deal with the players' most common protection, stacked defense, if you're looking to do something about the "deadlier" part of that equation.

/coxg/ did a lot of friggin' crazy stuff. But they did stuff. They made improvements, or at least an effort to do so.

I understand massive AoE damage becomes the meta at higher end gameplay. The best way to challenge this is basically what you're saying: doing quality over quantity by shifting enemies' ranks up, and basically getting rid of fodder.

Hm. With their reduced target cap, I'd up the damage of specifically their area effect attacks that hit fewer targets than their Blaster counterparts by... a bit. Not sure exactly how much, though I might not affect their "nukes" at first. Perhaps there's merit to upping their damage scale to 1.0 to 0.9, but I'd start with tweaking the damage of specifically those area effect attacks I mentioned earlier and seeing where that takes certain sets.

I don't think they're stupid. Some of us have an "Iron Man" concept, and being someone with a liking for power armor and guns I'm happy to have my Beam Rifle/Energy Aura Sentinel.

Medic having a revive, hm. Upgrades look like they are shed when a henchman is KO'd though, wonder if there's a way to keep them on. It could be interesting if it works though. If that can't work then that might be... a replacement for Serum? "Reinforcement?" Like Soul Extraction, a reinforcing power that targets the fallen henchman and, uh, summons... another Medic? Or maybe something else depending on what died? I know that other /coxg/ server made some really crazy, radical changes to Mercs, one of which was making Medic his own power while getting rid of all his attacks, and the second upgrade, and other crazy stuff. Medic with absolutely no attack powers and purely focused on healing with better powers to do that would be a nice thing to me.

I actually do feel you on the focus on DPS. Star Trek Online is a friggin' DPS race. Their damage could stand to be better, but truthfully I have a dream of Mercs being closer to Necromancy: relatively lower damage, though perhaps still a bit more than it is now, and with its greatest strength being sturdiness through healing and massive, crippling offense debuffs and CC that together make the henchmen have very high staying power. When it comes to Necromancy, the henchmen are quite specialized; zombies are great bodyguard fodder, grave knights do excellent single target damage, and the Lich provides the aforementioned "massive, crippling offense debuffs and CC." I'd like to see Mercs do that but with Spec Ops doing that CC/Debuff, AoE damage handled by Commando, and single-target combat and bodyguard done best by Soldiers, and healing done by Medic. To do that, Medic and Spec Ops primarily need help with shutting down their enemy, and I gotta say I friggin' love the idea of Medic having a smoke grenade with placate. I'd be fine with replacing Spec Ops Heavy Burst with yet another CC or debuff to this end, although Beanbag is all I can think of unless someone's got a good idea. As for additional debuff effects, well... sometimes I think Mercs, or at least Soldiers, should have Beam Rifles. Primarily because Beam Rifle animations would have them fire their weapon from the shoulder rather than from the hip. If at least the first two T1 Soldiers had Beam Rifle and Disintegrate, that'd be strong -regen for the set for dealing with AVs.

Ugh, I forgot to mention Serum. I had this idea of having it changed to a chemical grenade thrown at a henchman with an area effect buff of some sort, perhaps a powerful regeneration effect, maybe even recovery as well. I called it the Aerosolized Regeneration Serum. Personally, though, if I could really give an F U to the "cottage rule," I mean it's literally named after an asinine strawman argument but I digress, I'd change it to summon either a friggin' Sky Skiff or a soldier in flying power armor with a rocket or grenade launcher. In either case the result should be a brief but furious salvo of scorched earth levels of damage before the pet teleports back to base to re-arm and refuel as a very lengthy recharge.

TL;DR Mercs damage and survivability are both horrible. Recharge seriously needs to go down on CC powers for them to be worth anything to Mercs survivability, and damage needs to go up for Soldiers and Commando so stuff actually dies in a timely manner. For a more in-depth rework, keep reading. When City of Villains first came out, my penchant for soldier themed characters naturally lead me right to Mercs. Mercs/Traps, to be specific. Since that moment Mercs has been... fairly behind. Many consider it the worst of the lot for Mastermind primaries, though I won't at all refute that Ninjas needs help as well, possibly even Beasts though I'm not experienced with them at all. I would leave suggestions for fixing Ninjas and Beasts to those more knowledgeable, but I do know Mercs, and I have played Necromancy, Robotics, and especially Thugs to contrast Mercs and their overall strength against some of the best Masterminds have to offer. Before we really get going though, any talk about getting rid of brawl invariably steers into dealing with AI, so let's not worry about that. As nice as it would be, this is a topic for Masterminds as a whole rather than just this set. So, for this thread at least, let's get started on retraining the old Mercenaries, getting them back through boot camp if we gotta, and making them fighting fit, because they sure as heck ain't cutting it now. What's wrong? So, what have I gotta say. First I guess we should introduce what's wrong with them into the conversation, and that can be summed to low damage and survivability. Well, I believe it would be possible to help Mercenaries to at least a passable state with some numbers tweaks, however it would be preferable to involve more effort in giving Mercs some better defined strengths, for in their current state they have none. There's really a lot of things that can be done, and I do recommend several, if not all, of the measures I'm about to put on the table be at least considered. T1 Fixes. Comparing Thugs and Mercs in T1, Soldiers are behind Punks and this gap can be shortened by dealing with Soldiers' activation times. As far as damage per activation cycle, for the T1s three attacks, Punks are at 2.07, 1.6, and 0.88 while Mercs do 1.39, 1.34, and 0.81. So I figure the best way to do this is a Soldier of Arachnos treatment: change their attack progression to single shot, burst, and heavy burst. Activation times become 0.9, 1, and 2.67 respectively, and that would help much but alone it might not be enough because just doing this without touching total damage or recharge, their damage per activation time goes to 1.76, 1.58, and 0.96. The third attack is helped somewhat above Punks' empty clips, but its 5' arc is still pitiful, and the third attack remains well behind Punks' single pistol shot. I might go so far as to say that we should just make them all single target and, in addition to changing the powers to the activation times and animations of single shot, burst, and heavy burst, upping the damage of the first and third attack to a target damage per activation cycle of about 2 and 1.6 respectively. I would then put the full duty of area effect damage on the shoulders of the Commando. As for the Medic, I would have him follow the same attack string, and that would certainly mean losing Frag Grenade. I might even go so far to suggest that his Stimulant be given an area effect and regeneration component even if it must replace the status protection and/or his heal power be given a self heal component as well. I believe this would go a ways to making slotting healing in Soldiers be worth more, and helping with survivability. T2 Fixes Spec Ops powers imply they should help survivability in the same way the Lich does: debuffs and CC. I do not think damage should be their primary focus; these men should stun and cripple enemies so the Soldiers and Commando can focus on inflicting casualties with a minimum of return fire to survive through. You can do much for Spec Ops by simply making their attack chain like what was suggested for Soldiers, going single shot -> burst -> heavy burst all single target instead of burst -> heavy burst -> snipe, and shortening the recharge time on their CC grenades, especially tear gas and stun so they can more consistently weaken the enemy's offense, but if it's possible I would rather suggest an overhaul, and I'll do my best to explain each power I pick for them: Base: Brawl: You know the drill. Single Shot: Same as Soldiers. Use that amazing sound from the silenced snipe here. Cryo Grenade: Replaces Web Grenade for a 15ft or so area effect power that focuses purely on being a movement and recharge debuff by 50% for 30 seconds and at 30 seconds of recharge, slowing the enemy's pace of fire and weakening their offense and with almost permanent up time. Equip Mercenary: Burst: Same as Soldiers. Stun Grenade: Plain mag 2 stun, devoted entirely to being a hard CC that shuts minions up by itself, or bosses as well with the second Spec Ops, 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. Tactical Upgrade: Heavy Burst OR Rifle Butt OR Shockwave Grenade: (Heavy Burst) Same as Soldiers. (Rifle Butt) I edited this in after work, okay, but just hear me out on this. We already have stun, slow, and either -damage or -to hit, possibly both, but Air Superiority has taught us that Knockdown is excellent soft CC as well. That's exactly what this new Rifle Butt will do: guaranteed knockdown on a very fast recharge, maybe 6-8 seconds, with trivial damage. Two Spec Ops will just juggle someone. It'd be hilarious. (Shockwave Grenade) Basically the Rifle Butt I suggested but in targeted area effect form. No damage at all, strictly knockdown, on a fairly quick recharge of, say, 16-20 seconds or around that ball park. Tear Gas Grenade: Loses CC to focus solely on being a strong debuff not subject to the binary on/off nature of CC, 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. T3 Fixes Commando, to me, could use better AoE damage. I imagine damage should be this one's singular focus. You can accomplish this by simply taking down LRM Rocket's absurd recharge and upping the damage of M30 Grenade; the end result should be much better damage per second on area effect. Activation times should also be reduced to match those endured by Assault Rifle players. However, if at any point a rework becomes worth considering, I have a personal attachment to the idea of replacing the Commando's weapon to a grenade launcher and giving him... this: Base: Brawl: Except it's a good attack now. Anti-Tank Grenade: This shaped charge bores through its target with a jet of molten copper for extreme single-target fire damage. Frag Grenade: Single hit of decent smash/lethal damage in an area around the target. Equip Mercenary: Pummel: Rifle butt style attack, straight smashing damage. Incendiary Grenade: Long-lasting and very high fire damage-over-time applied to enemies in an area around the target. Tactical Upgrade: "Bayonet" Smash: Straight smashing damage melee attack by ramming the grenade launcher into the target like a battering ram. Poison Gas Grenade: Assault Bot's incendiary missiles but with poison instead of fire, potentially devastating to mass groups of immobilized enemies. Well, that was a lot to read through and I thank you if you did. Really, though, I want people talking about this. I love Mercs as a concept but they really do need help. Bring up your own ideas, or perhaps even refine what I've brought up? Well, as long as it's getting discussed really. Truthfully, some tweaks to numbers would be sufficient alone in getting each merc tier to be a functional piece of a successful whole next to the other sets like Robotics and Thugs.

I won’t hide my bias towards firearms, and I readily admit my envy of several factions having powers assigned to flamethrower, grenade launcher, and even rocket launcher weapon models. That being said, back on topic, I would love an archetype with friggin’ powers from Greek gods. How could that not be awesome?

Speak for yourself, I wouldn’t mind a, uh... “Soldier of Freedom” or something that might have powers from Longbow and PPD, especially those that players can’t normally have like SWAT’s grenade launcher.

I wish people gave this much of a damn about getting mercs fixed. Or perhaps there’s virtually no bickering about it because it’s so unanimously agreed upon?

Yes. I like this. So, the villains basically doing attacks on Paragon City by proxy. Interesting. Villain players do instanced missions from the newspaper contact to progress towards an open world event for hero players. Maybe level 50 players should get to do really sadistic things like sic Malta on the heroes. 😈 This could be a good reason for some players to go villain side maybe? I can see it now: [Help] Sgt. Sniper: Yo, could we get some villain players to get us some of them sweet Malta summons?

I would like to see street sweeping be more rewarding. I remember on live missions became more and more favored with higher XP rewards and reduced debt incurred from defeat. Some more incentive to see other players in the open world rather than just sitting at Atlas, at a trainer, or in transit between missions would be nice, and I do recall seeing at least one thread from live having this sort of complaint as well.

Sgt. Sniper in Faceplant City. Buff Mercs Pls in War of Disappointment. Clarent Kingslayer in My Soul for a Smarter Zombie. Master Hoarfrost in Ninjas Pulled the Map and I’m Dead Now. Yeah, I would watch these.