Merc, crush or slash?

[Danya]

Having recently rolled my merc, speccing for 50 weap / 50 DW / 27 parry / 7 shield, I'm considering crush or slash now. And I'm not sure which is better.

Resists:
Crush is neutral on all mids, but resisted by hib tanks.
Slash is resisted by mid tanks, but gets a bonus on hib tanks.

Styles:
Crush has a medium stun on it's anytime chain, and a long stun on it's side positional chain.
Slash has the best anytimes, but the only stun is on block (useless).
There's a medium stun on the DW parry chain as well.

Also for looks I prefer wielding two swords to hammers or such, so slash gets a bonus there.

So, the question, is it worth going crush for the nice stun styles, or should I just stick with slash and hope I have a slam tank with me?

 

[old.Vae]

Aye and what about thrust (since I seem to be playing a thrust Merc) ?

 

[Danya]

Thrust styles suck, except DF, and mercs don't evade enough for that to be useful.

 

[old.mattshanes]

Thrust is good if you are saracen,danyan crush hits hard on any class trust me i used to use it but was hard to use with dw styles in 2 hotbars,slash is easier to use and hits dam hard even if it has - i even post some pics if you don't beleive it i just to have to get dook to post them hehe when he can.

 

[swords]

im slash.
slash seems good enough for me and i do ncie dmg with both my weapons.
also there are some nice swords for slashers along the way.

though i do have quite high parry for a merc, and have found 4 styles useful to me at my level.

1.Reflection (use after pary) high dmg low to hit low def bonus and low end....perfect for the long haul and i parry at least once every 3 hits if not more.
2. Amy slash anytime and doesnt devour endurance.
the other two are the DW Flank combo for hinder and slow.

not sure about crush mercs tbh, though a saracen Trust merc would do well against chain wearers so most of Midgard then

 

[old.ondor]

infi merc is the best for me
good:better defence+ better damage
not good: no amethyst + lower hp

 

[Danya]

None of which answers the question. Is crush worth it for the stuns or not? If not I'll stick with slash cos amethyst rocks. My merc is highlander, so thrust isn't really that viable.

Infil merc... no thanks, I don't want a gimp.

 

[Generic Poster]

Originally posted by old.mattshanes
Thrust is good if you are saracen

What is the deal with Saracens and Thrust, do they get any other bonus aside from +20 DEX at the start?

Lets say you roll a Saracen and start with 90DEX and 60STR, that gives your thrust the sum of 90+60/2 = 75.

You roll a Briton with 70 DEX/STR, 140/2 = 70.


Not a huge difference to your Thrust damage.

 

[Derric]

Saracens also get that little bag on their head.

 

[old.mattshanes]

Danyan no crush stuns aren't that long.Also 50/50/28 is best template you are an offensive class not defensive and get master of parry 2 to back the parry up i would rather go damage over parry that's for sure

 

[old.The McScrooges]

My slash/crush experience comes from the lower levels (2x).

Crush - the 3 chain stun allowed me to get in an extra hit before the mob reacted.

Respeccing to Slash - the bland anytime styles allow me to get off quicker hits. I seem to be dual hitting more, though that could just be coincidence and twinking...

At mid 30s with a S&S Paladin I've found the slash styles limited to riposte and amethyst. Riposte not really a option for a Merc and not having a high parry rate or high level I haven't begun to look at the DW styles yet.

I'd consider a respec to crush maybe at the higher levels but there doesn't appear to be much in it.

Of course you could always try a Crush/Slash, I'd love for someone else to try it out.

 

[old.mattshanes]

Well a guildie came up with a template of 39 slash 39 thrust 44 dw 30 parry similar to konah's i beleive he is mixed slash/thrust and has 1.5 mill rp guess it can't be bad

 

[Danya]

I use DW styles all the time on my merc. The anytimes suck completely, but shadow's edge/eclipse and twin return/orbit are nice chains.
I think I'll probably stay slash, and I'm definitely going 50 DW/weapon.

 

[Danya]

Originally posted by old.mattshanes
Well a guildie came up with a template of 39 slash 39 thrust 44 dw 30 parry similar to konah's i beleive he is mixed slash/thrust and has 1.5 mill rp guess it can't be bad

hmm that could work quite well if you specced crush/dw to 40, then respecced your crush away - slash and thrust will have then autotrained giving 104 extra points.
This means you can use this template:
44 DW
44 Slash
44 Thrust
14 Parry
The parry is kinda low but you can use both weapon types effectively. A few levels of MoParry would help with the defence too.

 

[old.mattshanes]

I think that would suck,50/50/28 is by far best template with master of pain 2/3 and master of parry 2/3 you got good parry then and real dam good damage.Also problem with mixed melee is too much boxes in hot be used up too,but i guess it could be good melee damage but very hard to use well.

 

[Danya]

pff I'm still going 50/50/27/7 matt, so nyah!

 

[old.mattshanes]

Don't bother with shield, i don't use it i find 7 shield pointless upto you i guess.

 

[Danya]

I'm not sure how useful it will be but I'm not really that worried over the loss of 0.5% chance to parry, so I might as well.

 

[old.chesnor]

Engage is one of those skills that all shield users should get if they can. Might not use it much now, since archers have been nerfed, but when archers ruled so did engage.

One day Mythic might give archers some loving so people actually start rolling them again (don't hold your breath) and I would get engage rather than another 0.5% chance to parry. Its one of those skills that you might not use for ages, but when you do use it it saves your ass big style.

 

[Danya]

Yup that's kind of what I was thinging chesnor.

 

[aldor_anin]

Thrust styles suck, except DF, and mercs don't evade enough for that to be useful.

I think trust is still a good way to go for a merc.
If you are an saracen that is.
Best merc atm is Sousi and he uses trusting.

 

[Danya]

I used thrust on my minstrel, the anytime styles are complete crap. The DW anytimes aren't much better which leaves me without a decent anytime style. No thanks.
Also there's currently no decent offhand thrust swords craftable, though I doubt I'll get to 45+ before we get long dirks.

 

[old.mattshanes]

Well you are only lv20...

 

[Danya]

Originally posted by old.mattshanes
Well you are only lv20...

Hey I only rolled this char on saturday and I have a job, what were you expecting?

 

[old.ondor]

saracen thrust gimp?

look up at duskwave

 

[old.mattshanes]

heh you lucky i work otherwsie i would be second,catching up though for 4/5th spot and hopefully 3rd soon.