Mercy Stroke is a HUGE piece of SHITE

Oy tanks (an' Drags, but sod off ya pole dancers), why does mercy strike gotta be such unrepentin' arse?

Ev'ry minute anna half (or ev'ry forty secs if yer a class wit some stones) ya get the bloody priv'lege ta strike a dandy pose at somethin' an maybe, just maybe, they'll feel bad enough for ya havin' done it ta toss ya a bandage.

What the hell is this shite? Everythin' about it is trashier 'n a goddamn miqo in heat.

It looks like SHITE. Ya do some 'ooh ahm angry' pose an' a red firework goes off. That's great an' all but ain't I tryin' ta finish somethin' off here? Ya should be swingin' for their neck or tryna crush their skull with a jumpin' smash 'r somethin' meaty.

Oh yeah, and it hits like SHITE. Two hunnerd is some decent potency ah suppose...If I was tryna bloody tickle 'em! Ya expect me ta believe it's some finishin' blow level shite? Aye tis free an off swing an' all that rubbish but 'sa KILLIN' move. In theory. An' it only works fer one fifth of tha bloody time so it's got no 'scuse ta be THAT trashy.

Or it might, if it didna work like SHITE. There be an extra effect ta catch ya some healin'...which'd be fan damn tastic if it wasn't such a bloody chore ta orchestrate a sitch where this limp slap could take 'em out. They gotta be on death's bloody goddamn door, an ya gotta hope ya actually hit 'em with yer stupid pose an' not yer axe. Or that someone in a pointy hat don't blow it up as collateral. Or some finger wavin' fairy chanter didna poison 'em. Or some half-bit thief 'r archer doesn' stick 'em afore ya do.

What I'm gettin at issat it's a huge, steamin, wet, bloody, post-ul'dahn cuisine pile of DRAGON SHITE.

As it's been an' probly will continue ta be, honest. Ya could make it more fun an' useful by fixin' any a' these gripes...'cept maybe looks, thas just me bitchin' it is.

Are you....are you doing it right? I land my mercy strokes often enough my FC mates have asked me to stop announcing it.

Limsa speak. Fantastic xD

Wow, I really enjoyed that lol. Never laughed under my breathe like that at work in a while lol. Besides the awesome limsa RP, I do agree that the secondary effect of Mercy Stroke having to BE the killing blow is kind of lame, but as others will probably chime in, "ex'ra damidge is ex'ra damidge" lol. I think I represented a uneducated lominsan there sadly...I tried though

It's not designed to do 20% of most mobs' HP so stop spamming it right as it comes up.

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Originally Posted by bounddreamer

Are you....are you doing it right? I land my mercy strokes often enough my FC mates have asked me to stop announcing it.

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The same thing has happened to me. It is my curse.

Mercy stroke is kinda trashy compared to other games' execute moves though. Or compared to Misery's End. Especially cross-class, though I guess that doesn't matter as much. The cooldown is just a bit too long for how low the potency is. Getting through to that last 20% should be like "oh HELL yeah it's MERCY STROKE TIME BAY-BEE" but it's really just like "oh I get to hit this button now."

Also the whole "extra damage is extra damage" argument is bs. It's not like anyone's *not* taking Mercy Stroke, because there's nothing else to take. Tank crossclass stuff is slim pickings. That doesn't mean you should be happy with scraps.

It's all about timing but as a tank I sometimes forgot that I even have it on my bar..... The only time it saved me was when I go WAR and doing big pulls. If mob dies to Mercy Stroke, yay hp recovery. \o/
If it doesn't die by Mercy Stroke, hey free damage can't complain much. XD

The animation is representation of testosterone. Nothing quite like the imagery of impaling an enemy with a giant phallic looking beam of rage. And no one will do it as often as big nuts Mc iron-fist warrior.

The way our characters spread our legs and thrust our hips up should've been clue enough.

+1 for entertaining limsa RP. Even though it brings back some horrible memories of struggling to comprehend what in the twelve's name Baderon was on about.

Does typing like that not give you a headache?

What I hate most about it is using it just after the killing strike. Animation plays, skill on cooldown, mob takes damage, but it was just an extra slap after they had already died, so no bonus HP.

As someone with a miqo'te main, I sulked just a little at the jab at us since I despise the stereotype(and people who glamour themselves in such a way to propagate it!) but God damn if that wasn't a witty line, no less than the rest of the post. While I don't have any strong feelings one way or another about Mercy Stroke, this topic was great. Cheers.

I'm impressed by your moxy, typing up an entire rant in Limsa speak.

However, you did err at one point: it should be "godsdamned" or "Twelve-damned" instead of "goddamned."

I basically agree with you; Mercy Stroke is a crappy pick for a cross-class ability.

FEMROE + Mercy Stroke = Death by Snu Snu

90% of the time, it goes off after it's relevant and thus becomes quickly irrelevant when the enemy has already kicked the bucket and the damage becomes null. However, 10% of the time, it actually does work as intended with me nabbing some extra HP.

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Mercy Stroke is a HUGE piece of SHITE

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My one and only beef with it is it has to be The Killing Blow, fun to use otherwise. I'd say make it something like "If the target dies within 2 seconds afterwards, up to 20% of your max HP will be restored." It'd be much more useful then.

It's worth noting that with the trait, Mercy Stroke generates the same amount of potency per minute as Brutal Swing the mob is low on health, and is identical to the Rogue skill Assassinate (except that the latter lacks a heal to go with it). If you're not getting as much use out of it, I would recommend damaging the mobs down to under 20% health faster. You're a Warrior, right?

The reason why the potency is lower is because it's not supposed to be a painful end. It's supposed to be merciful.

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Originally Posted by bounddreamer

Are you....are you doing it right? I land my mercy strokes often enough my FC mates have asked me to stop announcing it.

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Is it a "THIS SHALL BE A MERCY," macro?

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Originally Posted by Joe_Schmoe

My one and only beef with it is it has to be The Killing Blow, fun to use otherwise. I'd say make it something like "If the target dies within 2 seconds afterwards, up to 20% of your max HP will be restored." It'd be much more useful then.

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I often thought the same ever since Lone Survivor(or whatever) appeared on the scene and revealed much better functionality; though I don't know if they'd be eager to make Warriors any better than they already are in the Tanking department, even if it's mostly just a trash pull thing.

Do you know how demoralizing it is when you have been chasing an AST all over wolves den /feast for what seems like an eternity and mercy stroke goes available, and you spam it only to find the healer back to full health? Srsly, they need to buff it a lil bit so it can actually deal a "Killing blow" cuz right now and since the dawn of time mercy stroke, has been a huge "stroke" indeed.

They could maybe buff the Job Trait for Mercy Stroke to allow Warriors to use it regardless of enemy HP amount, , that way WAR gets some more out of it. Not like WAR can be picky, other than Brutal Swing, Mercy Stroke is the only other oGCD WS there is.

Wouldn't care about whether they buff Mercy Stroke for PLD/DRK too much, I really want cross-class skills to be removed, not buffed (removed as in replaced with five new job unique abilities, like DoH Specialist.. except.. done right heh).

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Originally Posted by Xenosan

They could maybe buff the Job Trait for Mercy Stroke to allow Warriors to use it regardless of enemy HP amount, , that way WAR gets some more out of it. Not like WAR can be picky, other than Brutal Swing, Mercy Stroke is the only other oGCD WS there is.

Wouldn't care about whether they buff Mercy Stroke for PLD/DRK too much, I really want cross-class skills to be removed, not buffed (removed as in replaced with five new job unique abilities, like DoH Specialist.. except.. done right heh).

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How about make it EXECUTE! like every warrior class in every other MMO out there.

hhahahaha, I can't breathe hahaha.

That was glorious.

Awareness is trash too btw.

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Originally Posted by Brannigan

Awareness is trash too btw.

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You shut your mouth. On its own, Awareness might not be that great, but it has tremendous synergy with other abilities that makes it worth taking on everyone, because critical strikes cannot be parried or blocked. Awareness + Dark Dance = Many Parries (just don't do Dark Arts for it). Awareness + Bulwark = Epic Blocking. Awareness + Raw Intuition = 20% physical damage reduction guaranteed. Every tank should take Awareness.

EDIT: Let's also take a look at Awareness' base mitigation, because it scales with boss damage. Awareness nullifies the chance at critical strikes--let's give they hypothetical boss a 10% critical strike chance. This means that 10% of attacks will hit for (145+10)% damage, giving a total critical damage percentage of 105.5% compared to if they didn't have any Crit chance. This means that while it's up, for this boss, you'll be taking (5.5/105.5)% less damage, or roughly 5.2% less damage. And this doesn't calculate for additional mitigation provided by parries and blocks, which will have a higher rate without critical strikes in the mix (this means it works really well for WAR because of how Wrath works, and really well with PLD because of the shield). So even on its own, it isn't that bad. But as I said before, pairing it with the right other cooldown makes things epic.

It is a "white damage" cooldown, but it can also be stacked on top of tankbuster mitigation to provide an extra safety net. Long story short, take Awareness. Leveling GLD to 34 isn't going to kill you.

Boss autos have been castrated and tank busters generally do not crit. There are exceptions like the Gobcheese Zoomdoom Man (Savage) and that one add from The Good Set of Raids, but the fact that they have to force those stupid situations to make Awareness appealing should tell you it's bad. Of course you cross class it, because like with Mercy Stroke there's just nothing better, but it's a bad skill with an even worse trait and takes up valuable skill space on a class that people talk about being boring.

Oh yeah I forgot about the Trivial On Release Ice Woman (Extreme) and the add no one ever sees on Ratfinx.

Also if awareness + block/parry skills is "tremendous" synergy then what isn't tremendous?

Mercy stroke is amazing. Learn the timing and take auto auto attacks and others attacks into consideration. Some times it needs to be hit at 15 % sometimes at 2% if ur looking for the heal. It proves invaluable for scenarios like tank jail in a7s. U can land a mercy stroke for for the self heal nearly every time

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Originally Posted by Jpec07

You shut your mouth. On its own, Awareness might not be that great, but it has tremendous synergy with other abilities that makes it worth taking on everyone, because critical strikes cannot be parried or blocked. Awareness + Dark Dance = Many Parries (just don't do Dark Arts for it). Awareness + Bulwark = Epic Blocking. Awareness + Raw Intuition = 20% physical damage reduction guaranteed. Every tank should take Awareness.

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As a WAR, I stopped bringing awareness since its recast didn't line up with Raw Intuition as well as I would have liked. I think its a fine skill though. It just makes my "defense rotation" a bit clunky in my otherwise smooth setup.

@ Mercy Stroke: It's free DPS, but yeah it's pretty Plain Jane since you'll only ever really see the heal on mob pulls in dungeons (and that can be a waste depending on when you get it). The heal also has some use in A7S but that's the only place I can think where it's worth saving and not just using when it comes up.

@ Awareness: Good for mob pulls in dungeons (especially for WAR since it lets you actually get some use out of RI, though as Ragology said the timings don't work out perfectly), but that's honestly about it. Obviously it has use against high crit adds/bosses but those are few and far between. A kinda decent argument for when it first started getting use in 2.0 was that you could use it in conjunction with other defensive CDs during tank busters to prevent an auto-attack crit after and it still serves that function, though it never really seems like bosses autos crit as much anymore - might just be me.