Krogan Mercenary Gold build (solo capable) ** SPACE MARINE **

Just why doesn't this new "carnage" detonate. Not like explosions are OP this time, but it's at least fun.

Do you usually just tag people briefly to apply the dot? Is there any benfit to flaming them for a longer time?

btw the Merc can also do well with the Piranha or the Soned (UR Andromedan Typhoon), and if you're content to stay at range then Raptor + Vanquisher

Probably even use this same build, except Piranha will switch to Fort Shield Feedback for shield regen since it has no range whatsoever, and Fort Power Armor's accuracy buff doesn't apply to Shotguns.  Maybe gun & melee synergy in Munitions (evo 5), but Piranha is stronger than melee and will be out of ammo a lot; make sure they fall to Flame dot/melee instead of using last shots and spending all the time reloading

Unknown, but if had to bet, the ~1.5 second panic, though that would make it bad since they're already panicking.  As for berserkers, it affects people "on fire", so from reading Rank 1 description to see what exactly that means, seems to be unarmored enemies.  Armor does get the burn dot of course.  EDIT: Actually rereading it, says "unshielded enemies". 

One way to test besides tediously figuring out how much damage is being received is to determine what the behavior of fire explosions in this game is, since enemies on fire can also be detonated.  The instant burn dot cannot be immediately detonated

Berserkers are why I even bring the Vanquisher, though sometimes other clutch sniping comes in handy. My ranks of Falcon and Vanquisher are 3 & 4 and have just about 100% power recharge, but even Falcon 3 and Vanquisher 3 was -1% recharge.

Kek

This guy is such a letdown to me. The flamethrower is trash compared to the vorcha flamer, and the krogan soldier was a way better pyro as well comapred to this guy. On top of the flamethrower itself being a letdown, flak cannon sucks and can't even detonate fire explosions.

This guy looked fun on paper but in reality I think he's kinda bad. If flamethrower was better and flak cannon didn't suck + could detonate he'd be awesome but as it is he is hella average. He's not really that tanky either, rage sucks compared to the barrier or angara passive trees.

Well I might give him a go with the Soned for luls. I do enjoy him more than the other krogans since he's not just a melee spammer, I don't enjoy that playstyle so this guy is more fun to me. And I shouldn't say flamethrower is trash because it's better than many other abilities in the game, it's just a bit dissapointing compared to the old flamer especially if you spec for armor damage or something and try to melt a berserker with a full duration blast and then you don't even take off half his armor. Overall while this guy didn't live up the expectations I initially had when I looked at his kit I still think he is one of the more fun characters, that says more about the lack of fun factor in many of the others than it does about the merc though. But he's allright, he's probably my 2nd favorite power based class after the Angara insurgent at the moment.

I might try putting more points into flak cannon (currently have only 3) just to make him a bit more fun and go for the stun upgrade and try out that combo you mentioned. I think I'll also completely specc out of melee in rage (I have some points in it now), I'm so sick of melee builds in this game at the moment.

The lvl 4 flak stun evo is really intriguing. I have my merc at around 14. Went flamethrower 5, flak 1, fort 4, rage 6,so far. I too am getting bored with melee builds but its just so darn OP.

The flamer's dmg is super underwhelming. It's supposed to be the anti armor but unless there's a group of enemies youre usually bettee off just headbutting. :/

Yeah the single target dps is really lackluster, at least against single target armored targets the dps was pretty good in 3. In this i think it's generally not worth doing more than just briefly flaming them to apply the burn and then start shooting/meleeing even if it's armor :/ Dps boost is decent against crowds though but again not sure if it's worth continuously flaming everything or better to just ignite everything and then start shooting. Difference between vorcha and this guy is vorcha had a ton of aoe splash and could detonate fire explosions with clusters while this guy has flak and it can't compare at all so you'll need to be shooting a lot more. Which isn't too bad but I feel like against armor the dps of flamethrower really should be high enough that's it's worth it to use if you take the risk of exposing yourself by standing up out of cover the full cast time, right now it isn't.