Mercy Stroke - Necessary for MNK?

So far I'm using

Blood for Blood
Invigorate
Bloodbath
Fracture




Mercy stroke seems to be the only viable 5th option, but I really don't want to level up my Marauder....I really hate doing fates.


Is mercy stroke a necessity for progression content?

Mercy Stroke is reasonably useful but far from critical. Edit: I personally favor it because its use cases are particularly useful -- specific to killing adds which tend to have a high priority in terms of mechanics.

Level 26 or w/e for MRD is rather fast btw. If you haven't done your guildhests, do those -- you'll get almost instant pops and they reward a ton of XP. FATE spam in between: Aleport -> East Shroud -> South Shroud. Probably hit 26 in like 4 hours.

While you can only use it when they're below 20%, it's still a free extra 200 potency to weave between cooldowns, and most of the other cross class skills are kind of unnecessary like Foresight, Keen Flurry...outside of solo'ing you shouldn't be in a position where these would be useful. Then there's Skull Sunder, who the hell thought that'd be a good skill to make cross class? :P

It's not imperative to use, but it's better to have more damage than the other "lite-defense" skills. Impulse Drive is also worth consideration, throwing it into your rotations can help get those last couple of seconds out of Demolish sometimes, and from the rear it's 180 potency, so it doesn't slow down your dps. I never used to use it, but I've grown to consider it more useful than Bloodbath, which is ultimately just another minor defensive skill.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Nofacekiller

Blood for Blood
Invigorate
Bloodbath
Fracture

---

Drop Bloodbath and get Mercy Stroke and Impulse Drive.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Aeliott

Impulse Drive is also worth consideration, throwing it into your rotations can help get those last couple of seconds out of Demolish sometimes, and from the rear it's 180 potency, so it doesn't slow down your dps. I never used to use it, but I've grown to consider it more useful than Bloodbath.

---

Personally I've started loving Impulse drive and have started using it quite regularly in my own rotations.

As for Mercy stroke; While not necessary it is indeed a pretty potent off gcd direct damage ability.

Overall dps increase from Mercy Stroke is negligible, but the extra burst is useful in specific situations. I would recommend getting it.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Grembo

Drop Bloodbath and get Mercy Stroke and Impulse Drive.

---

I do not think Impulse Drive is a viable cross-class skill. It provides a small dps increase short-term, but the TP drain makes it impractical and inefficient. Bloodbath is a much more versatile skill.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mitski

Overall dps increase from Mercy Stroke is negligible, but the extra burst is useful in specific situations. I would recommend getting it.



I do not think Impulse Drive is a viable cross-class skill. It provides a small dps increase short-term, but the TP drain makes it impractical and inefficient. Bloodbath is a much more versatile skill.

---

I understand what you mean, and that's why I never used to use it. In very long fights such as the Coil Turns I still don't use it, and Bloodbath is the only other worthwhile option - might as well add a bit of sustain to ease your healer's job. But still, when TP permits it's perfectly viable in my opinion. Not essential by any means, but viable. Matter of preference I guess :)

Generally speaking the only notable uses of Bloodbath that come to mind are:

1. Turn 2 pulsing damage from ADSboss.
2. Turn 4 Clockwork cleave.
3. Turn 4 spider AOE / random aggro (probably only ifwhen the Monk uses PB RB spam, because otherwise they probably won't pull notable threat).
4. Turn 4 possible rook damage. I think the healer would still heal, but BB could have a meaningful impact there.

In other situations the heal is generally too little / too slow to prevent your healer from healing you, which generally negates the effectiveness of Bloodbath.


I mean, the ability feels good to use, but in my experience when I take damage the healers heal it, even if I have Bloodbath / use it / they know I have it / will use it.

Edit: Oh, I guess T1 when Cad spits at you.

Right now i'm using:
Invigorate
Fracture
Impulse Drive
Blood for blood
Foresight

Though after hearing more about mercy stroke, I'll try dropping foresight for it since it doesn't increase my dps (though it's been helpful with dungeon trash since I end up tanking mobs half the time lol). I would still recommend using impulse drive as well because you'll find that in every time you do your 1-2-3 combo and need to reapply demolish, you'll have time to fit in 2 gcd's before needing to reapply it, so you'll need it for a filler while you wait cause you don't want to progress through your combo just yet, otherwise you'll clip demolish too early if you just keep going or if you snap punch instead then for a few gcd's you won't be keeping up demolish.

Fracture
Blood for blood
Invigorate
Mercy Stroke

Those 4 never leave my bars.

I swap between Bloodbath and Skull Sunder depending on what I am doing.