Merc Weapon Question - Phoenix Freeshard

Another one...

I combed through some of the pages and some questions were already somewhat answered, but here it goes.

I finally reached lvl50 with my merc and did a full respec at the end of 49. I am now a bit unsure which way to go.
Spec-wise, I am looking towards:

- 50 DW
- 42 Shield
- ~37 Weapon
- Rest Parry

The main question is, as so often: Crush, Slash or Thrust?

For leveling, Crush was amazing due to the 'anytime' stun. That will be much less useful in RvR though. For me it boils a bit down to Slash or Thrust. With Thrust, I will have probably the best damage resist-wise. With Slash, I would have Amethyst anytimer, which will have great to-hit bonus. Crush is a bit in-between.

As DW has front, side and back styles, I feel like the anytimer is less important, so I think Thrust would still be the best choice.

Not sure if my reasoning makes sense or whether you have additional recommendations/comments

Sun 4 Oct 2020 4:44 PM by thirian24

Guetzli wrote: ↑
Sun 4 Oct 2020 4:05 PM
Another one...

I combed through some of the pages and some questions were already somewhat answered, but here it goes.

I finally reached lvl50 with my merc and did a full respec at the end of 49. I am now a bit unsure which way to go.
Spec-wise, I am looking towards:

- 50 DW
- 42 Shield
- ~37 Weapon
- Rest Parry

The main question is, as so often: Crush, Slash or Thrust?

For leveling, Crush was amazing due to the 'anytime' stun. That will be much less useful in RvR though. For me it boils a bit down to Slash or Thrust. With Thrust, I will have probably the best damage resist-wise. With Slash, I would have Amethyst anytimer, which will have great to-hit bonus. Crush is a bit in-between.

As DW has front, side and back styles, I feel like the anytimer is less important, so I think Thrust would still be the best choice.

Not sure if my reasoning makes sense or whether you have additional recommendations/comments

Depends on race imo.

HO and highlander can get away with any weapon spec. Saracen needs to be thrust.

I've been HO crush, Saracen thrust and now I'm highlander crush. I liked them all, except for the looks of HO. Your spec is the way to go. IMO you cant go wrong with merc. GL

Tue 6 Oct 2020 8:45 PM by Guetzli

Thanks!

I decided on crush in the end - kinda like the anytime stun still and the resits are actually very favorable from the point of albion (just 1 resistant). Lets see!

Thanks for your input!

Thu 15 Oct 2020 1:41 AM by trawetsnivek

Guetzli wrote: ↑
Sun 4 Oct 2020 4:05 PM
Another one...

I combed through some of the pages and some questions were already somewhat answered, but here it goes.

I finally reached lvl50 with my merc and did a full respec at the end of 49. I am now a bit unsure which way to go.
Spec-wise, I am looking towards:

- 50 DW
- 42 Shield
- ~37 Weapon
- Rest Parry

The main question is, as so often: Crush, Slash or Thrust?

For leveling, Crush was amazing due to the 'anytime' stun. That will be much less useful in RvR though. For me it boils a bit down to Slash or Thrust. With Thrust, I will have probably the best damage resist-wise. With Slash, I would have Amethyst anytimer, which will have great to-hit bonus. Crush is a bit in-between.

As DW has front, side and back styles, I feel like the anytimer is less important, so I think Thrust would still be the best choice.

Not sure if my reasoning makes sense or whether you have additional recommendations/comments

If you're specced 42 shield, you won't be using the 2 part anytime stun from the crush line. Slam, and perhaps numb on occasion, is all you need really. I use exclusively DW styles on my merc. While thrust has arguably the best resist tables, it uses dex and str as a damage modifier. Since dex is secondary raising stat with mercs, your weapon skill won't be quite as high if you chose crush/slash as they are entirely str based. Also, the slowest thruster is 3.9 whereas you can get 4.3/4.2 as a slasher. Slower speed weapons proc your enemy's armor less.

Also with slash and thrust, you get extra spec points to use because of auto-training. So you can eke out a few more points in parry over the crush line. Ultimately I went with slash/Half Ogre with my merc.

Thu 15 Oct 2020 8:19 AM by Cadebrennus

If going Crush then drop Shield to 15 and split spec 37/37 Crush/Thrust so you have the stun AND the better damage table, plus you get a bonus vs Hib reinforced armor AND Mid chainmail. You can spec 50 DW and use that for all of your styles except the Crush stun chain.