Debate of the rising underdog, arsenal or IO?

For the longest time since 3.0 came out. I believed arsenal was the superior dps spec, Io held no candle of hope to the ultimate out-put and utility of what arsenal could do. Infact, I was going to make a thread bashing people who gimped themselves by using such an inferior spec on an already badly placed class.

I will start with this though, my merc is fully purpled augmented/ min/maxed in full DR. Is the class in a good place? No, but people really exaggerate just how bad the class itself is.
people complain that two stealth can jump you and you will die in a stunlock before you can move. yeah, that's kind of true, it happened to me once. but really the only ones who realistically survive that are a guardian and sage.
sages have utility, and can live for a long time, that is their purpose, but they can't burst or shutdown a class like a merc can.
I had a sniper before, deleted because 4 characters are too many to handle, and really it just felt like a more squishier merc, probably because, they are more squishier mercs, that can put out more damage as a trade-off.

anyway, here's what arsenal looks like.
pros,
priming shot = big hitter, hits usually about 4-6 K, usable every 12 seconds.
which makes tracer missile = instant, hits between 2-6 K,
which makes blazing bolts = constant stream of 2-4K hits, that can do damage equal to that of master strike (10K or more)
follow up with heatseeker = instant, first one will be auto crit, hitting for 11-13K, 5-6K for non-crit
add two more tracers (around 7K or more damage)
to finish with railshot = instant 7-10K damage finisher
if you really want to be mean, you can add E-net which forces the target to stand still, waste cc breaker, or take about another 8-10K by running.

congrats you've just globaled a sage, scoundrel, sentinal, commando, vanguard, shadow, or sniper (guardians are harder to put down than that)

Highly mobile friendly = you only need to stand still to cast about 1 to 3 tracers when prime shot or power surge is down. I highly recommend taking the energy rebounder and thrill of the hunt utility, along with the 20% increased healing received when shield is up. This will help in LOSing caster's, and staying out of melee range without losing too much dps.
Heat friendly = seriously unless you spam healing or tracer missile for 3minutes you will never hit full heat, and since you're a burst spec, fight's shouldn't be lasting very long
Target swap friendly = oh you're attacking a new target? no problem shoot a tracer at it and you're good to go.
Chaff flare is now awesome = with 5 absorbs to force/tech damage. you can literally counter every class's burst in the game except a marksman sniper and vigilance guardian/mara ..every 45 seconds..that's almost like a free shroud.

cons = very predictable rotation/easy to counter. If someone with half a brain interrupts tracer when you have to cast it and you don't have the debuff up on anyone.. well, gg.. you could hit sweeping blasters quick for BB proc if you can, maybe first a missile blast or dart for filler...keep running?


Now to look at IO

Pros = ability to damage multiple targets at once (doh dot specs are pressure spec for a reason) though I'm sure if I can call that a pro, because even with all 4 dot's up, on one target (5 if you include supergas) it's still less damage than a madness sorc/assassin, who only uses two dots..that last longer on a target..
Mag shot every 6 seconds = it's neat because it also fires with your off-hand and it's always useable on any target, not that it matters though because hitting a target that isn't burning is kind of a waste anyway..
More tools = detonator, super missile blast + mag shot at once..with dots, it might exceed the potential burst of arsenal. but I need hard data which I'm unable to obtain.
Chaff flare is awesome... = against 3 classes.. kind of..
ughh?

Cons
This spec is more of a caster spec than an instant one now. = I'm sorry, but separated bolt was stupid, if you really wanted to add a bleed, why not just add it onto power shot? or make the bolt replace power shot? if either of those things were done this spec would be perfect, but no. they had to give you two separate casts, building more heat in a spec that can't afford it, along with fusion missile. Which leads me to..
Poor heat management = hitting a burning target with mag shot is your only resource restorer.. uneven with high alacrity(5.0 or more) you still don't vent fast enough if you want to pump out damage. You can take the utility to vent heat when stunned snared/immobilized, that helps but it also encourages you to be attacked, and that's bad. Which also leads me to..
No filler attacks = as arsenal, what do I do when BB, rail shot, and heatseeker is on CD? I cast tracer until they aren't. As IO? what? power shot spam? nope that builds too much heat. Which leads me too..
Rapid shots is a necessary filler attack = any spec in the game that is not taking for a guardian (actually this may have changed by now) that requires the use of basic attack to maintain consistent damage.. is bad..very very bad..

Awful and pointless dot spread = you have 5 different dots, you can spread 3 of them (unless the cylinder dot spreads too I haven't noticed) that requires two abilities. I'm okay with fusion missile spreading the fire dots, that's cool. but needing dart to spread bleed, on top of the fact that having a separate cast for this bleed is stupid to begin with.. yeah.. why not sweeping blasters? that actually spreads better and procs mag shot, which we need. Also, the dots have such short timers and do little damage, that it's not even worth putting the effort to spread them, all your attacks focus on single target damage anyhow.

Bugged proc ability makes this harder than it needs to be = this one is somewhat trivial but deserves a mention. Going back to the cast problem, I would have recommended taking the power surge utility with this spec instead of the thrill of the hunt, to be an almost 100% on the move spec, however, mag shot forces you to choose between an instant heal/bolt/shot, and this proc consumes a power surge charge, and if it comes up unexpectedly, you're going to be wasting one surge charge, because the only thing you can cast that won't consume that proc is fusion missile.


So all in all, you can see why I favor arsenal, but I recently decided to find any hidden potential or ways around these cons that I'm unsure about. I want to like it, I want to be able to say that it's a viable spec that requires you to think and use the right stuff at the right time to get the most out of your damage while rendering you're opponent helpless.

I'll leave this here for people to discuss ideas opinions and/or experiences on which is better or something I overlooked. Mostly just looking for feedback based on my analasist