Mercs/Marine

[Meknomancer]

Imagine you took all the best stuff from all the other secondaries and rolled them into one. Thats /marine.

 

 

MERCS MARINE - Mastermind (Mercenaries - Marine Affinity).mbd

[Crysis]

I have a Mercs/Marine at 28, and maybe it gets better, but at same level my Necro/Marine was far more effective than Mercs were.  I think it’s the ranged behaivor.  Tide Pool wants your pets to be in Melee.  I think Thugs/, Demons/, Ninja/ and Necro/ (and maybe Beasts) will all outshine Mercs.  

 

But do let us know how it plays.  I parked mine in favor of Necro/ and Thugs/Marine.  

[Meknomancer]

24 minutes ago, Crysis said:

I have a Mercs/Marine at 28, and maybe it gets better, but at same level my Necro/Marine was far more effective than Mercs were.  I think it’s the ranged behaivor.  Tide Pool wants your pets to be in Melee.  I think Thugs/, Demons/, Ninja/ and Necro/ (and maybe Beasts) will all outshine Mercs.  

 

But do let us know how it plays.  I parked mine in favor of Necro/ and Thugs/Marine.  

 

 

Fantastic. There was a point where i thought necro was the way to go. Build posted is my second one. First one was all recharge bonuses, i stuck in a few procs and slow resists after solo labyrinth runs and made build 2 as there's way too much debuffing you. Considering throwing a couple procs in tide pool by taking them from shoal rush but i dunno if they'll make a lot of difference. I'd like to see the option to slot kb->kd enhances in tide pool as i'm convinced something is knocking the mobs out of it but that maybe just the commando.

 

There seems to be a permanent 10+ stacks of shifting as soon as my commando gets anywhere near mobs and i've seen the stacks go off the screen.

 

 

Edited July 28 by Meknomancer

[Hedgefund]

This is what I'm grind up atm, I go pure SOs the first time around with a new powerset so I don't have any meaningful feedback for you.  Just wanted to say even on just SOs, I'm impressed by the combo, 5/5.

[Crysis]

I found using Tide Pool and WhiteCap in any clockwork missions to be nothing but scatter city.  I think those critters have just low knockback resistance.  Otherwise, I just get the normal (and desired) flopping up and down.  Lots of fun with carnies...they so colorful when flopping.

[Meknomancer]

I never considered thugs but now i think of it gang war buffed with toroidal and power of the depths might actually survive a mob. The dps on mercs is just so good they are mowing down anything in sight and the extra range they get means runners and snipers have no chance.

 

Couple of the labyrinth mobs are rough, anything that does kb, i've only got 7 points and its definitely not enough and Crey are a total pain. PP's and taunt tanks and knockbacks and i faceplant real fast unless i get them with an M30 nade first and put them on their arse. Standard tf's and content at +4 like the itf/lrsf/aeon/tinpex and it just strolls through even on speed runs. Almost every death i've had is waiting on the pets to catch up to buff them with power of the depths. As long as i have it on i feel unkillable, but without group fly i've had to wait for over 40+ seconds on itf towers after rommy dropped for the pets to get there, if i'm solo thats a death, if team is there the mobs are dead before pets hop up to me. I last longer in the labyrinth with only 1-2 lvl shifts even if i'm solo than i do on an itf tower. But i don't see any powers that i would drop to give it better defence. Build 1 has slightly better resists but its just f/c from purple sets which only really matters on MC.

 

I run in offensive mode permanently which can be an issue. I am a lazy player and there's enough to click as it is without switching to bodyguard mode when needed.

Edited July 28 by Meknomancer

[Tacheyon]

1 hour ago, Meknomancer said:

I run in offensive mode permanently which can be an issue. I am a lazy player and there's enough to click as it is without switching to bodyguard mode when needed.

 

 

All I do is have the "Follow Me Defensive" button on my number pad 7 and that instantly gets everyone back on Bodyguard mode in case things hit the fan!

[Meknomancer]

12 hours ago, Tacheyon said:

 

 

All I do is have the "Follow Me Defensive" button on my number pad 7 and that instantly gets everyone back on Bodyguard mode in case things hit the fan!

 

I do have the /macro ATK "petcom_all defensive" in my tray but it doesnt seem to be necessary, if the pets are with me i want them in offensive and with toroidal and dark embrace i'm at 75% s/l anyway so i don't know that BG mode would make any difference.

[MirrorDarkly]

22 hours ago, Meknomancer said:

 

 

Fantastic. There was a point where i thought necro was the way to go. Build posted is my second one. First one was all recharge bonuses, i stuck in a few procs and slow resists after solo labyrinth runs and made build 2 as there's way too much debuffing you. Considering throwing a couple procs in tide pool by taking them from shoal rush but i dunno if they'll make a lot of difference. I'd like to see the option to slot kb->kd enhances in tide pool as i'm convinced something is knocking the mobs out of it but that maybe just the commando.

 

There seems to be a permanent 10+ stacks of shifting as soon as my commando gets anywhere near mobs and i've seen the stacks go off the screen.

 

Do you normally try and get your Mercs to close with the mobs and fight in melee with Tide Pool covering everything or do you have some other strategy? 

[Meknomancer]

11 minutes ago, MirrorDarkly said:

 

Do you normally try and get your Mercs to close with the mobs and fight in melee with Tide Pool covering everything or do you have some other strategy? 

 

Standard tactic is to hop/run to the edge of a mob and drop them with M30nade and then pop tide pool on them before shoal rush/white cap/m30 nade. If i'm solo.

 

On teams i just hop right into the centre of the mob and drop tide pool on myself.

 

In the labyrinth i've been super cautious pulling mobs with shoal rush to corners where tide pool is set up, i barely give shifting tides any consideration it just seems to stack up massively wherever i am i guess commando is just in melee all the time because of the way i play, even if i line it up for cones to the side of mobs it'll stack 10+ times and i've seen it up to 30+ in teams with a couple of other /marines in play. Standard content like +4 itf runs i just hop into the middle of rooms and drop tide pool on myself, mobs will walk into it. Or i just walk to about 5-10 feet from a mob so the mercs line up the cones and drop tide pool on the mob. 

 

Shifting seems weird sometimes i can't tell if its stacking just from live mobs or being affected by all the corpses at my feet.

Edited July 29 by Meknomancer

[MirrorDarkly]

1 hour ago, Meknomancer said:

Shifting seems weird sometimes i can't tell if its stacking just from live mobs or being affected by all the corpses at my feet.

 

 

Thanks, Shifting is an odd power.  I think it would only go off on corpses if a power that targets them goes off in the area.  But some powers like Soothing seem trigger it twice per cast per (alive) enemy in the area.   

[Wavicle]

What I've been finding is that if I drop Tide Pool from range and then Whitecap to get into melee, my Mercs run to join me in melee before aggroing to the mobs. So I just leave Shifting Tides on the Commando all the time and I don't generally have trouble. GoTo if absolutely necessary, but don't forget to hit Follow again after that fight or they will just stay there and you'll die when you go in on the next fight and they didn't come with.

[bellona100]

On 7/28/2024 at 8:52 AM, Meknomancer said:

Imagine you took all the best stuff from all the other secondaries and rolled them into one. Thats /marine.

 

 

MERCS MARINE - Mastermind (Mercenaries - Marine Affinity).mbd 40.91 kB · 34 downloads

If you have Toroidal Bubble going on a regular bases, lets say you have it on Auto.   Do you really need Serum in your build?   Is Serum something that can be skipped in this Merc/Marine build?

[Meknomancer]

31 minutes ago, bellona100 said:

If you have Toroidal Bubble going on a regular bases, lets say you have it on Auto.   Do you really need Serum in your build?   Is Serum something that can be skipped in this Merc/Marine build?

 

Short answer. No it can't be skipped. With toroidal its 90% smashing res, about 88% lethal. 73% fire. 59% cold. 49% e/ne/psi.  59% toxic.

 

Chuck serum on right before the start of the fight, cos it does fade fast but for a few seconds when the mobs blasting you with everything it has every resist except psi is sitting around 78%-90%.

 

Might not seem like much but it makes a difference when it really matters. It makes next to no difference in normal content but if your in the labyrinth or speed running lvl 50 stuff it just means i'm not constantly resummoning pets.

 

Then again i haven't monitored the effects of the t4 barrier with the resistance when its faded so you could be right and it is skippable. I don't take a lot of notice of that.

Edited July 31 by Meknomancer

[Crysis]

I found with T4 barrier Serum is totally skippable.  Even more so if you are running Hybrid Support.  Mercs are nigh unkillable at that point, at least in Incarnate stuff outside of the Tyrant battle maybe.  The incarnate level shifts help dramatically.

[Meknomancer]

I still prefer to have it than not, but i like to exempt down for a lot of low lvl content when we don't have incarnates. I find thats when it make the biggest difference.

[Meknomancer]

So i've been wondering where all my kb come's from and i'm starting to think it maybe shoal rush , odd as that seems. When you apply it to a mob within tide pool shoal rush' def debuff/mob str debuff is magnified and it kicks off a frenzy in the pool and i'm wondering if there's a bug that also magnifies its kb factor or if its intentional.

[tidge]

Knockback is an effect that gets magnified by level shifts, perhaps this is what you are seeing? If not facing something that already suffers more KB (e.g. Clockwork) an enemy that cons less than white will take KB instead of KD (with no special IO slotting).

[goombalord]

Wasn't vectored KB/KD supposed to fix KD powers from scattering?  Or are the KD powers in MA not vectored?

[Jacke]

3 hours ago, goombalord said:

Wasn't vectored KB/KD supposed to fix KD powers from scattering?  Or are the KD powers in MA not vectored?

 

I think there's many KD Powers that still use 0 to 1 (exclusive) KB to give KD.  This includes Marine Affinity's Whitecap.

https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=defender_buff.marine_affinity.whitecap&at=defender

https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=redirects.marine_affinity.whitecap_arrive&at=defender

 

Thus if they get stacked KB from a KB proc or KB enhancement over the target's KB protection and resistance enough to produce >1 KB, they will fly.

[Meknomancer]

So the knock from tide pool stacks with the knock from shoal rush stacks with whatever the commando chucks out i guess. Mildly annoying because tossing tide poll down followed by a shoal rush causes the frenzy immediately, you don't need a dead body in the pool, but i guess thats also causing the knock immediately. That cannot be intentional.

[Wavicle]

Shoal Rush does not do knock down. Shoal Rush makes Tide Pool go into Frenzy, which increases the chance for Tide Pool to knock down.

But like ALL knock downs in the game, if it happens at the same time as Whitecap or as a knock down from the Commando, then they can stack.

 

But Shoal Rush itself does not do knock down, so far as I know. I don't THINK Tide Pool can stack with itself. So I suspect you're either seeing it from Commando or Whitecap stacking with Tide Pool.

This is the combo I've been playing recently and I do see things go flying from time to time. Not with all that much frequency though. And it all dies so fast, I don't really care.

[Wavicle]

If it's happening with no Whitecap and no Commando, then I guess it's possible that Tide Pool CAN stack with itself, which is weird.

 

Maybe when Shoal Rush was given the ability to proc Frenzy something went wonky?

Edited August 3 by Wavicle

[Meknomancer]

On 8/3/2024 at 2:13 AM, Wavicle said:

If it's happening with no Whitecap and no Commando, then I guess it's possible that Tide Pool CAN stack with itself, which is weird.

 

Maybe when Shoal Rush was given the ability to proc Frenzy something went wonky?

 

I'm considering dropping assault and swapping in mu for the immob just to see what happens. Much as i would prefer themed stuff from levi i spend way too much time in melee for a cone to be any use and i'm looking at necro right now minus shoal rush and trying to work out what if anything is causing kb, commando's attacks are 0.5 mag kb's and i can't see them being the issue. If i start to see kb from necro after a respec i'll know, i'm going to put shoal rush into it and see how it compares to the mercs.

[Crysis]

I skipped Shoal on my Necro/Marine, have the OF KB to KD slotted into zombies and other than Clockwork and some other rare critters I don't experience any knockback in the set.....just knockdown.  Which as a soft control works very well I might add.