God have M.E.R.C.Y. on me

"Command Crystal, Fury, or Robot Sidekick to scan for nearby targets before releasing a devastating attack."

I know it's not in the tooltip, but by any chance does the artifact work with Brick as well?

@Devs, in case it doesn't, why not?

Deathmike out.

It benefits Brick in some respects, such as the shield, but no it does not provide Brick with a devastating attack, it is not designed to be a tank artifact, it is designed to be a pet based DPS artifact.

It was originally designed to be an artifact for robot sidekick. Much like solar for heat vision. However it was adjusted to allow to work with crystal and fury in order to make sure they didn’t become obsolete. Essentially buffing them too. This is why it only works for these 3 specific pets.

I believe the art only affects the shield it gets as well as giving Brick a % of heals of the ones you get.

Brick isn't a Damage Combat Pet, only Crystal is. As Deity said, it was originally intended to only work with RSK, but because it's potential was far greater, they gave the same attack to both Crystal and Fury. Now when you hit MERCY Attack Protocol (MAP), they will do a scan of the enemies to see if it's multiple targets or single target then do a big hit that is either AOE or ST.

Earth benefits from MAM in tank stance, because it will give Brick a shield as well as a percentage of heals you get will be directed to Brick. Thus helping your Tank role. At 200, you can call a combat pet out once every 60 seconds. So there is a cooldown until the next shield, but it's really good. I was running Manacles, MAM, and EOG or Quislet depending. I was also acro and was using Perfect Poise. It was good. There were only a few instances that the aftershock build was better, namely the second boss of SFFe. Brick, no matter what you do, dies to a one shot from the boss.

Brick and Crystal do roughly the same base damage when powered (so that's not counting the 15% Fortify Golem gives Crystal) if Brick doesn't use power to heal himself (which he doesn't need to a lot of the time) - both higher than Robot Sidekick. This in tank stance, in damage stance Brick actually does way less damage, don't ask me why.

I mean.. Earth is really op when it comes to damage in tank stance while maintaining great survivability, and making M.E.R.C.Y. Attack Protocol work with Brick would make it even more so, but that's exactly what I want, lol!
I already outdamage most dps by a huge margin, but come next 2X Art Xp week I want to outdamage them by an even huger margin.
Probably gonna go with Source Shard but that takes an extra loadout slot.

Deathmike out.

If you are interested not only increasing damage but also a small increase in survivability, then you can experiment with M.E.R.C.Y and Death Blossom Seed(or Blossoming Spore) pet... DBS has lower damage and duration than tier pets... but it has AoE healing (it will heal both you and brick at the same time...as well as other allies), in synergy with M.E.R.C.Y, you can summon this pet 2 times often...There is one more trick to increase the usefulness of the M.E.R.C.Y for damage... but if you are interested in this, then contact me in private...

The difference isn't the unboosted, but the boosted. When you hit Fortify Golem, it gives both pets their role bonuses. Brick taunts, shields, etc, while Crystal does a big hit. Brick doesn't have a big hit, since it's a support pet, not a combat one. There is nothing to replace with the big hit for MAM. It would probably lose support elements and you would probably die.

You know what got left out that was a combat pet? Suppressor Turret. It's mechanics were too different, since it was not designed like Crystal and Fury.

I think I'll focus on leveling an artifact for pure damage, and another one for pure survivability, and switch on a per need basis.
Right now, other than having tank gear on, my build is 99% damage focused and still for pretty much anything that's not an elite raid I find myself not even having to use Gemstone most of the time.

Both have a big hit: Crystal has Epicenter in tank role and Striking Stones in damage role, Brick has Jackhammer in tank role and Localized Tremor in damage role. The only difference is that Brick can also use its power to heal when he needs to instead of doing the big hit, which happens pretty rarely (Fortify Golem itself places a shield on Brick and gives him some healing which is usually enough for him to not need to use his own powerbar to heal on top of that).
I've tested the damage of both (with Fortify Golem cast on each cooldown) pretty recently, and Crystal(both stances) only has a 15% higher dps throughput than Brick in tank stance (which coincides with the 15% damage boost which is granted by Fortify Golem to Crystal only; that's what I meant when I said their base damage is in line - if they receive power by other sources - WoP, supply drops etc. they do the same dps).
There's no technical reason MAP wouldn't work with Brick, it's just a matter of decision by the devs.

Deathmike out.

There actually is, because they are replacing that 15% attack with a different attack. It's an AI mechanic that is a 1:1 change. What you are asking for would require a balancing of a support pet that taunts, shields, and heals. Which would make Crystal, the actual damage pet, obsolete.

I just want it known, I am not pooh-poohing your want. I absolutely would love the same thing. Heck, I would want them to give turret the same treatment, but Brick is not a damage pet and what you are asking for is it to become a damage and support double dipping pet and overpowering it.

Actually there is. It’s already been stated. You’re asking for the change to be made so that you can deal damage as a tank (battle tank). This wasn’t designed for support roles. It was designed specifically for dps. Specifically for robot sidekick. It turned to into the same style of pet as crystal and fury. So those were included. Those pets didn’t not function like ordinary pets and were changed for MAP. They just had their special attack that already existed altered to be in line with the attack that RSK was getting. You’re asking for brick to be given this attack which it didn’t have before.

The aspects of the artifact that benefit brick only do so because it benefits all pets at base to fit the play style. IE healing when you get healed so that pets could stay out longer to do damage.

If I understand correctly, then one of the artifacts that you are planning will be the Suorce Shard? then maybe you will be interested in such a trinket as "Gotham Emergency Signal" it has a huge cd (15-20) minutes... but after being boosted by Suorce Shard on 396 CR, it deals 750,000 damage to a single target... it can be bought in the market place (10 bucks if my memory doesn't betray my with someone else...)...since you love solo play, this kind of damage won't be superfluous...

Brick already has a special attack just like Crystal and Fury have.

Deathmike out.

One that’s not designed to be a dps attack. That’s what you keep ignoring. Bricks special attack does not come close to crysta’ls and fury’s attack in dps role.

Perhaps I can bring a little more clarity to this issue.
One of the reasons why Brick and Guardian were excluded is what people said above, another was that Brick and Guardian have a more complex set of skills and a more complex algorithm of behavior than a Robot, Crystal and Fury. Synergy with M.E.R.C.Y would require not just replacing one attack with another, but a complete reworking of the behavioral algorithm of the pets themselves, which is a much more difficult task .... at least that's how I understood it from the developer's explanation ...

Im sure there will be another pet artifact that will include brick, guardian, watcher, supresser turret, and whatever else trinkets they may choose to add to that artifact down the road.

This is plain wrong. Brick's special attack in tank role is just as powerful as Crystal's special attack in damage role. This is a verifiable fact.

Deathmike out.

You’re going to be asked to back this up… I’m not saying you’re wrong or arguing with you as I know you test and know your stuff

But the best question will be to back it up with fact

Brick already makes the decision of whether to use his powerbar for healing or for damage. If the devs wanted to they could just replace/buff his damage attack without changing the logic of when he uses it.

Deathmike out.

Hi Deathmike.

The reality is, Brick isn't a damage pet, he's a tanking pet, designed to be used for tanking with damage as a byproduct. It's for the same reasons the opposite applies for Crystal, You're not going to get much use out tanking with Crystal for example.

This artifact wasn't designed with Brick in mind for that reason, he's not a damage pet and the artifact wasn't really designed to supplement or enhance your tanking or ability to battle tank although it has potential in that function to at least some extent, but remember battle tanking isn't DPS role, it's primarily tanking with damage on the side.

MAM is not a good tanking artifact, I know some people use it, but it's just not as strong as other tanking artifact combinations, you're much stronger as a tank simply running a more typical suite of artifacts like Manacles, Laz Pit, Everyman, Mystic Symbol, even Circe's mask depending on power type.

The shield and healing to Brick received from it is insignificant in the grand scheme, especially since you've other means to keep him alive, not to mention the fact that if Brick were dying to the extent you even thought MAM was making a difference, you'd still be better off running a Jackhammer build and a different tanking artifact build. (I know there's a few MAM users that won't like me saying that, but shrug, it's just not a tank artifact no matter how much you try to niche force the issue, you'll be weaker for it).

When the artifact was originally designed the developers wanted an artifact that would allow every power in the game to have a viable pet build, in exactly the same way as Earth and Sorcery have Crystal and Fury, but in the form of Robot Sidekick.

It was originally intended to only work for Robot Sidekick but the risk that came with that approach was that if too powerful even Earth and Sorcery players would never have used Crystal or Fury again and everyone would only be using Robot Sidekick, this would have been entirely counterintuitive, so during testing and development Crystal and Fury were incorporated in to the artifacts functionality as well so as to avoid having them become redundant pets.

Edit - I should add as well Supressor Turret is excluded because it doesn't behave like a pet, it probably should be changed so that it does and perhaps included to make Gadgets a proper alternate pet class power, but the gadgets players insist that power remain as it currently is so they can clip with it instead, so also shrug, what you gonna do, it's purposefully excluded as well.