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Star Wars: The Old Republic: Mercenary Player Guide
BillMurphy
Former Managing EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 4,565
With the amazing success of Star Wars: The Old Republic, players are often looking for direction on how to play their favorite classes. Today, MMORPG.com is pleased to present the first installment of our Mercenary Player Guide. Check it out!
Ultimately, how you play the Mercenary is completely up to you. As both a healer and a DPS class, it can really lay down the hurt and offer up plenty of support when need be. The Powertech is the more tank-appropriate class, but for players looking for a lot of versatility and the ability to step up and heal when their team needs it, there's no better Empire Class than the Mercenary.
Read more of Phil Bickle's Star Wars: The Old Republic - Mercenary Player Guide.
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Comments
Nice run down, and you taught me a few good things to know. But we are waiting for a review, are we going to have 7 more of these articles keeping the hype going before a review arrives?
Actually, you'll be happy: Mike's Review (with accompanying video) is due to publish NEXT FRIDAY.
You heard it here first. Barring any technical difficulties, we'll have it then. If the video gives us issues, we'll run the review by itself too.
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Love the idea of making guides for classes. I expect the same treatment for gw2 when it comes out
Guild Wars 2 Youtube Croatian Maniacs
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If this goes over well, we'll likely be doing it for all BIG releases in the near future, and reaching out to the community for help.
Try to be excellent to everyone you meet. You never know what someone else has seen or endured.
My Review Manifesto
Follow me on Twitter if you dare.
Mercenary....mercenary.....oh YEAH, these are what all those Imps play that get eaten up in PvP all the time! Good guide by the way, hope more Imps play these guys, love watching them hop around in confusion about why I haven't DIED yet, and then run away when they finally realize they forgot to check thier own health!
Send me MORE!!
(DISCLAIMER - The use of the word YOU in the above post is not directed at any one person in particular, but towards those who fall into the category itself - there is no personal attack here, neither intentional nor implied.)
Umm, seeing as how 2/3 of all players on SWTOR servers are jedi/sith I'm not sure this is the class you mean.
I am one of three sith mains in my guild, About a quarter Agents, and half bounty hunters, I would say 3/4 of the BH are mercenaries. (I did say mains, there are loads of sith alts.
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Everyone has either a Jedi or Sith alt. They started out as the main in concept and then they rerolled to something else, hell I'm one of them. But yeah, I'ld say more then 50% of my guild is made of of Smugglers on one side and Bounty Hunters on the other. And on my server (which is very heavy Republic in population) well more than half of the Imp turnout in any warzone are Mercs. I've even been in one that only had one that wasn't a Merc. When will they learn, DPS doesn't mean you can always kill everyone fast, defense DOES matter in PvP in this game. I love walking out with a Paladin badge and over 50k in protection when these guys show up.
(DISCLAIMER - The use of the word YOU in the above post is not directed at any one person in particular, but towards those who fall into the category itself - there is no personal attack here, neither intentional nor implied.)
Anyone who plays a Merc in PVP deserves what they get. It's a good DPS class for PVE, but standing still isn't the best idea for PVP.
Funny most Mercs in my guild are healers not DPS´s, so is mine... I can kill almost any class solo np being a healer...
BruceLeeglad
Retired in too many games
And that is probably why they run away against a shield spec Vanguard with armor and damage mitigation cranked up. You can heal all you want, but tickling your apponent in PvP isn't exactly going to win you a one on one. Thier damage output just doesn't do enough to counter my defense, and to get rid of my (not great) DPS they have to stop attacking and start healing, puts them on the run everytime.
(DISCLAIMER - The use of the word YOU in the above post is not directed at any one person in particular, but towards those who fall into the category itself - there is no personal attack here, neither intentional nor implied.)
I've actually done well in PvP as a merc. If I can get into good position and people aren't paying attention, which is more often than not, I can just let loose. If I get focused, Im worthless, and I'm not much for flag carrying, but I can still hold my own against anyone.
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Played: Everquest, Star Wars Galaxies, World of Warcraft, Tabula Rasa, Everquest 2, Planetside, Age of Conan, EVE, Vanguard, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Lord of the Rings Online, The Matrix Online, Aion, Dark Age of Camelot, Runescape, Lineage 2, City of Heroes/Villains, Rift, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Guild Wars 2, Planetside 2
Sounds like your on a server of wow kids or jsut noobs then
BruceLeeglad
Retired in too many games
Interesting guide. Playing a Mercenary myself, but I think he overemphasizes single-target abilities, while I prefer a combination, and especially enjoy the AOEs (like Death From Above).
It might be better to subdivide these guides into PvP and PvE focuses as well.
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I agree. My merc BH is awesome at handling groups of mobs, much moreso than the other Imp. classes imo.Is a man not entitled to the herp of his derp?
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WoW kids and noobs playing Imp characters???? Really?? :P Are you sure you want to say that on a thread about how to play an Imp Character???
(DISCLAIMER - The use of the word YOU in the above post is not directed at any one person in particular, but towards those who fall into the category itself - there is no personal attack here, neither intentional nor implied.)
Great guide thanks for sharing! Alot of mercs created cause they're fun as hell to level. Geeze put a class guide up and all the peacocks show up! Ford beats Chevy, nooo mine's bigger, young dumb and so predictable.
Funny thing. When I PVP (in warfronts) with my arsenal merc I have a ratio of 3 enemy kills : 1 self death. I guess that many of previous commenters are facing only dumb mercs... and btw I consider myself as a regular PVPer; I am almost sure that a good PVP player can do a lot better with a merc.
your so wrong
Agree its very PVE carebear orientated anyone who isnt using every AOE possible if the situation arises in PVP is a noob and deserves to die.
Abou tthe same here usually in the 32:3 40:4 area of warzones with 150k damage and 30-50k healing to many jango wannabies rather than pvpr's who recognise and can play to the strengths of the class.
For a WoW comparison, the Arsenal spec plays alot like an Arcane Mage. You got your main attack (tracer missle), but you can't spam it, it makes your other 2 main abilities (unload and railshot) much more powerful and refreshes unload. That's all you need for single target.
It's super ez-mode and is way OP.
Worst guide ever. No in deptht explanation at all. For example there was nothing that mentioned that Healing Scan should be used every CD on the tank cause it gives a 10% armor boost for 10 seconds and a HoT on the Tank/Player. There was nothing about how to keep your heat low, how to make it low or how to sustain it. There was nothing that would help a Mercenary healer.
I would have posted my guide here, but it is in Swedish. You can find better Mercenary guides done by people that are level 11, Sorry but this is even more one of the reasons I rarley go here for information anymore. Everything is just pure bad.
Edit: Lvl 50 Mercenary, and have been for over a week. Cleared all the raiding content available and most hard modes. I think you should have gotten more information. This isnt a guide. This is a write up of spells.
The game was just released and we don't know anything about retention and longetivity, which is vital for an MMORPGs success, yet as usual you are talking about "immense success"?
The same hyping was done for WAR, AoC and DCU and where are they now?
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Heh this guy obviously thinks all Mercs go DPS :P I can take on 4+ people myself. Granted I may not be able to kill them. But they can't down me either. Healing Merc is OP + Energy shield and those 4+ usually die from the fact they're all focused on me not the ones downing them. But in all reality it's player perspective and knowing how the other classes work. CC, stuns, stun breaks etc :P I can say when there's a smart bunch that CC me or stun me and my breaks are on Cool down yea I'm dead :P but alas not everyone is smart enough to use those on the proper targets. it's all situationa which is waht makes the pvp interesting and fun for me. It's not all gear based, gotta find the right set of the 50+ abilities(exaggeration:P) we're given to run in and fit the situation.
Edit: For the post above, I agree it's new and not alot of knowledge is known for longevity etc, but there really was no info given towards a healer that really helped. It was more focused on the dps side, which granted there are tons more playing that spec of Merc. It just would have been nice if they gave a bit more intel into the healing side of it since it is listed as an overall class guide.