Please don't add a combo mechanic to Mercenaries.

[PeregrineFalcon]

Back in Weekly Discussion 76: Noticeably underpowered sets. What needs an emergency buff? I made a post concerning MM/Mercenaries. I'd like to reiterate it here, not just to make sure that the developers see it, but also to see if others agree/disagree.

 

I think that a low effort fix to make them viable would be to add some serious damage resistance to Equip Mercenary and some defense to Tactical Upgrade. This would make them tank-y compared to other MM pets. So it becomes the low damage/high survival MM set. This allows this set to be one where the MM can focus more on their secondary rather than their primary. Perfect for a support character.

 

Another low effort fix would be to add stacking damage buffs to Equip Mercenary and Tactical Upgrade. So they do lots of damage but they're still kinda squishy. Once again this solves the issue of this set being undesirable without requiring a lot of effort on the dev's part and without the need to add some kind of combo mechanic. Please don't do that. Please don't add a combo mechanic to Mercenaries.

 

I'd also like to add: If you seriously want to improve the Mercenaries power set, turning Serum into a PBAoE that affects all pets, just like the various Mastermind upgrade powers work now, would make this into a power that people would actually take.

 

But please, don't add a combo mechanic to Mercenaries.

[Monos King]

lol @PeregrineFalcon I don't think mercenaries are in any danger of getting a combo mechanic. Not to mention all that would do is put their deaths on a hit counter.

 

There has been a good deal of interesting and effective proposals on how to fix mercs up, so I'm sure no matter what the end results are they will be infinitely better than what they get now. It's on the radar, for sure.

 

 

[Dragon Crush]

I'm now vaguely interested in how a combo mechanic would work for them. Dead mercs build up charges, and spec op's tear gas/flash bang get an extra .25 second duration per stack? A charge every time they charge into melee and commando gets 1 second off the recharge for LRM rocket per charge?

[Monos King]

1 minute ago, Dragon Crush said:

I'm now vaguely interested in how a combo mechanic would work for them. Dead mercs build up charges, and spec op's tear gas/flash bang get an extra .25 second duration per stack? A charge every time they charge into melee and commando gets 1 second off the recharge for LRM rocket per charge?

Interesting...

[Sakura Tenshi]

Part of the problem with mercenaries’ damage isn’t so much numbers (I mean, it kind of is and being lethal damage which is commonly resisted in large amounts) but also because they use narrow cones and the AI isn’t designed to optimize their targeting, also low target cap on said AoEs.

 

as for what Mercs should be, in my head I’ve always thought Mercs should be the Mario MM set, at least of the original MM sets. They would not excel at anything but would have good overall damage output, utility, and damage protections. But for that to be trie bots, zombies, and ninja would need a look.*

 

*again in my own ideals these sets would specialize in resilience (bots), utilities (zombies), and raw damage (ninjas)

[Dragon Crush]

35 minutes ago, Sakura Tenshi said:

Part of the problem with mercenaries’ damage isn’t so much numbers (I mean, it kind of is and being lethal damage which is commonly resisted in large amounts) but also because they use narrow cones and the AI isn’t designed to optimize their targeting, also low target cap on said AoEs.

 

as for what Mercs should be, in my head I’ve always thought Mercs should be the Mario MM set, at least of the original MM sets. They would not excel at anything but would have good overall damage output, utility, and damage protections. But for that to be trie bots, zombies, and ninja would need a look.*

 

*again in my own ideals these sets would specialize in resilience (bots), utilities (zombies), and raw damage (ninjas)

 

Yeah, I can agree with those roles for the original pets. When I made my first villain (Ninja/Poison)  I had it in my head I'd be king of taking down hard single targets. Managed it pretty well, but looking back, don't think ninja's single target was far ahead of other sets single/AE to be worth it.