Mercy Stroke pretty useless for WAR?

[Marxam]

Pro-tip: If you see a mob at 2-4% in a light party use Mercy stroke and there's a good chance that you will land the last hit and get the healing proc when you factor in auto attacks and other players attacking.

Like Spookyghost said, its a 200 potency attack off cd. I've done over 1k crits with mercy stroke (with echo) on dreads in T4 while nexus farming so its alot of damage.

The "draw" on holmgang still sucks though.

[Daniolaut]

Mercy Stroke pretty useless for WAR?

Absolutely not. I use it all the time and also very quite often gain the HP heal from it.

I'm even considering placing it on PLD which i am almost certain i'll never gain the HP heal from it, because i love this skill so much.

[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".

[MythToken]

Mercy stroke with 500+ str is no joke...

[Amnesia]

Isn't it also available even when you're pacified by Beserk?

[Judge_Xero]

An off-GCD finisher skill with 200 potency and potential to heal 20% of your max HP.

Good for dungeons and PvP for the healing and damage aspect.
Good for large bosses for the damage aspect, and slightly for healing if used with Bloodbath.

I think any alteration of the skill would make it OP.

Mercy stroke with 500+ str is no joke...

Imagine if it was changed to a 10% heal any time the boss was below 20% health.

Bloodbath, Berserk, Thrill of Battle, Mercy Stroke - 1.2k Self Heal on top of what you recover from ToB

[MythToken]

I would also like to point out, it is not all that difficult to time a Mercy Stroke to finish off a mob. Especially if you have 500 str+. And the heal is def worth it.

[TheodoreMcIntyre]

I would also like to point out, it is not all that difficult to time a Mercy Stroke to finish off a mob. Especially if you have 500 str+. And the heal is def worth it.

Well, just because you don't have any trouble getting Mercy Stroke off doesn't mean other people don't. I don't have 500+ str, so, no, I still have alot of trouble timing it. Because usually, when I see it at 2-4%, the DPS kill it before I can get Mercy Stroke off. I really don't think the heal is worth it when most people can only time it one out of every ten times.

[subteraneanbird]

Tanks who turn their nose up at free damage must like getting pummeled longer.

To put it simply, specced correctly and played correctly, tanks can actually put out very good damage. This is in fact often needed in harder content, where every point counts. A DPS increase is a DPS increase no matter the color of the symbol next to your name.

There's zero downside to using Mercy Stroke, and plenty to gain.