Mercenary spec ...two weapon types?

50DW
39 Slash&Crush
7 Shield
Rest Parry

Anyone run with something like this?

Thu 5 Sep 2019 1:57 PM by Cadebrennus

gotwqqd wrote: ↑
Thu 5 Sep 2019 10:00 AM
50DW
39 Slash&Crush
7 Shield
Rest Parry

Anyone run with something like this?

It's possible if you want to eke out as much damage as possible. However that still leaves you neutral to Mid chain. On Alb I prefer Thrust regardless of race because it's neutral to all of Hib and potent vs. Mid Chain. I don't even worry about the negative to Mid leather/studded because a Merc's damage table more than makes up for the downside to Thrust vs. those armor types, not to mention their ABS.

That being said if you have your heart set on doing two different damage types I would go Thrust/Slash, because that will allow you to have a bonus vs Mid Chain (Thrust vs. classes including Healers/Shaman) as well as Druids (Slash vs. Scale), while still leaving you Neutral to Bards (Reinforced) but not a big deal because it's lower ABS and you'll still put out good damage as a Merc on a neutral armor type.

Thu 5 Sep 2019 2:32 PM by Keelia

No slam, that’s a nice thing to have.

Thu 5 Sep 2019 6:02 PM by Cadebrennus

Keelia wrote: ↑
Thu 5 Sep 2019 2:32 PM
No slam, that’s a nice thing to have.

I forgot about that. Crush is pretty good for not having to swap to get a stun in. That being said the damage tables for crush against your most common targets are 'meh' for Crush.

Thu 5 Sep 2019 6:52 PM by Keelia

Biggest thing is the 1 style slam. Trying to peel a savage with a two part chain won’t end well

Thu 5 Sep 2019 7:16 PM by Cadebrennus

Keelia wrote: ↑
Thu 5 Sep 2019 6:52 PM
Biggest thing is the 1 style slam. Trying to peel a savage with a two part chain won’t end well

Agreed. I don't even have Slam on my Merc though. I have 35 Shield and have peeled with positionals backed up by Numb just fine. I've found that when it comes to peeling and stopping runners it almost feels like a 9 second purgable stun is a liability because it gives them something like 45 seconds of stun immunity. Hitting them for a 2 second stun is long enough to allow your team's squishier members to flee (because of course you followed up with a Snare Style) but not to give them immunity over 10 seconds. Usually, however, they get nailed with the side or rear stun which is 4 to 6 seconds I believe, which is good enough and doesn't have an immunity timer longer than 30 seconds which is enough time for things like the enemy's DA proc/use to wear off.

Two part chains are harder to get off though, true enough, especially against broken classes like Savages. This is why I just don't get the whines about Fireblade ->Spectrum Blade. It's a great two-parter but hardly guaranteed.