Mercy Stroke pretty useless for WAR?

[Synestra]

A PVP skill that was put into the game before PVP and isn't actually listed with all the PVP skills?
Sacre bleu, mes amis!

No, but really, go away if you're gonna be like that.

Maybe so but the thing is it really shines in PvP, getting 1300+ healing can be a game changer in 1vs2 situations.

[Estaban]

most jobs tend to have one or two useless skill and compared to some of them i don't think mercy strike that bad that it needs a sudden buff

[Warrlordd]

It's a skill designed with PvP in mind, and has a minor use in PvE. Use it if you want. Or don't. No one cares.

[MartaDemireux]

No, It's not a lot of enmity but it is enough to negate about 1 WS and auto-attack of a DPS. With its frequent usability it's nice in a pinch. Being the OT is basically like being another DPS so that's a nice addition there as well. Not every ability has to line up with being only mitigation for tank, only healing for healers and only DPS for DPS. It's one of those situational abilities and certainly shines in the right situations.

[Tiresias]

I'm pretty sure it's there for when you are playing solo.

[IndigoHawk]

It's an ok skill but it would be better if Mercy Stroke put a timed buff on the mob. If the mob died while under the buff, the war is healed. Trying to get the last hit against dps is dumb.

Also, I don't like abilities that only work on trash and are useless on bosses.

Mercy Stroke would be better if it didn't have the % health requirement to use. Either it just does the minor heal (as others suggested) or it puts a buff on the mob that the war can consume with another combo for healing.

It would be similar to spirits within, but with a small heal instead of silence.

[Argyle_Darkheart]

Extra damage at no opportunity cost is far from useless.

I think WAR is in a pretty good spot, in terms of how useful/applicable all of their abilities are.

The main outlier, to me, is Fracture. Its opportunity cost is far too high for how little you gain.

[BIRDMAN]

The main outlier, to me, is Fracture. Its opportunity cost is far too high for how little you gain.

Despite it's GCD, not gaining wrath, costing 80tp, and 20 potency tick; Fracture is the longest duration DoT (tied to Touch of Death, correct me if I'm wrong). For WAR off Defiance or Unchained using Berserk and Internal release provides your Fracture with a massive snapshot that will last 30 seconds. Even while in Defiance, Wrath crit stacks will once again make Fracture a valuable source of consistent damage. I see no reason (other than a WAR being unable to manage their TP) why any WAR shouldn't have Fracture up on a heavy monster or boss.

[BIRDMAN]

That said, I understand OP's concern with Mercy Stroke and I understand others defense of it. Off-GCD dmg exists for WAR only with Brutal Swing and Mercy Stroke. As mentioned before, Mercy Stroke can contribute to a noticeable burst (especially on adds, solo play,and pvp). However, because it is a cross-skill, it's application is so circumstantial and limited when Tanking- only Tanks striving to maximize the utilization of all abilities will incorporate Mercy Stroke in their <20% rotation. Meanwhile other Tanks will be using other, more pertinent, Defensive abilities in their off-GCD, maybe using Mercy Stroke if it's the only button left to press off-GCD.

To make it A MUST USE ability without making it unbalanced: Include in Mercy Stroke trait, "increases dmg dealt by 10% for 10(20?) seconds".

[Argyle_Darkheart]

Despite it's GCD, not gaining wrath, costing 80tp, and 20 potency tick; Fracture is the longest duration DoT (tied to Touch of Death, correct me if I'm wrong). For WAR off Defiance or Unchained using Berserk and Internal release provides your Fracture with a massive snapshot that will last 30 seconds. Even while in Defiance, Wrath crit stacks will once again make Fracture a valuable source of consistent damage. I see no reason (other than a WAR being unable to manage their TP) why any WAR shouldn't have Fracture up on a heavy monster or boss.

In Defiance, according to my math, Fracture amounts to a 2.23 potency/GCD increase. That's a DPS increase of about 0.9%, which isn't really that bad. NOTE: I normalized for persistent DPS increases/decreases for this calculation (i.e. Maim and Defiance), so other's numbers may vary slightly, but the relative difference should be the same.

However, using Fracture in this way increases the length of time between Storm's Eye reapplication. Practically speaking, this means that sometimes Storm's Eye will not be applied to the enemy for 2 GCDs instead of 1. This also means that fewer of your auto-attacks are augmented by Storm's Eye, as well as the other tank's attacks.
The original calculation I did does not factor in auto-attacks or the other tank's attack. If you factor those in, the DPS increase nearly vanishes, or may even become a DPS loss. Also, I did not calculate for decreased Wrath generation, which would amount to less overall crit%. However, the effect should be rather minimal.

All of this is compounded by the fact that Fracture: a) hemorrhages TP, b) slows Wrath generation, reducing IB's uptime, and c) complicates your rotation.

Using Fracture with buffs isn't a bad idea, though I've done no calculations to confirm whether it's truly worth it.

The only time Fracture is an assuredly consistent DPS increase is if you never have to worry about losing Storm's Eye for longer than otherwise, such as when:

1) you are off-tanking, using a modified rotation: SE > (FR > SE > BB > SE > SE) x N. You could also use a similarly modified rotation while main-tanking if threat and Wrath generation are of little-to-no concern (though you'll be doing even fewer BBs).
2) you have a WAR off-tank that is always maintaining Storm's Eye.
3) you are main-tanking, but only using BB > SP. However, your priority here is survival, so slowing Wrath generation may be counter-productive.
4) the enemy is going to jump long enough for Storm's Eye to fall, no matter what you do, and for your combo to break.

If I've overlooked some mathematical factor, please let me know; I would love for others to provide mathematical reasoning as to why I'm right or wrong.

TL;DR Fracture is a lot worse on paper than it might sound or feel, and it almost exclusively has to do with the duration of Storm's Eye. Until Fracture is made more powerful, or until Storm's Eye duration is increased, Fracture will remain a very dubious DPS increaser (at least while tanking).