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Exploding Penguin -> Mercenary: The Unjustly Labeled Class (4/23/2013 21:06:22)
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Lately, I've been seeing lots of threads on how mercenary is underpowered. In this thread, I'm going to explain some mercenary tactics I use, and also some basic logic on why mercenary is labeled as underpowered (which if you haven't found out by now, I strongly disagree with). Feel free to comment and share your opinions, ideas, and your own tactics when playing the class! Any and all comments are greatly appreciated as I would love to expand my knowledge based off of other people's thoughts.
NOTE: This is mostly opinion and some fact. Don't think that I'm stating my opinion as a fact, because those accusations really annoy me to no end. It's already obvious what is a fact and what isn't anyways...
So first, I'm going to break down the entire skill tree and comment on each separate skill.
~Field Medic~
This skill is used to heal you (and now cure poison, which is very helpful). Definitely a vital skill which is worth investing in a little (to be honest, high investments in this skill on merc aren't necessarily great). Investing too much in this skill requires lots of skill points, and you'll easily be doomed by an EMP if it prevents you from healing. Also, the health recovered-to-EP cost ratio slowly becomes less beneficial the more stat points you invest in it.
~Double Strike~
A virtually useless skill. For fact's sake, I'll just mention that using level 1 double strike will grant a boosted +6 strike damage when using a +35 damage primary. This skill should not be used at all because it's just too much EP for a small damage boost which is blockable. There are a few situations where it has it's uses, such as the need to deal increased damage but you don't have enough EP for another skill, especially in clutch moments where it's win or lose. This skill can be worth investing in if you plan on using it more than once per fight. A major plus of this move is that it only has a 1-turn cooldown and it provides static damage boosts, so it's definitely a viable attack if used multiple times per fight.
~Hybrid Armor~
A vital skill to the mercenary skill tree. Basically, it provides protection against all forms of damage except for rage attacks and poison. Unfortunately, it'll help your opponent build up rage quickly. There's a common misconception about this skill and its placement on the merc skill tree, which I'll explain more clearly later.
~Blood Commander~
A unique skill which buffs strength and gives a similar effect to blood lust, with the lifesteal % being based off of the total strength buffed. It lost a lot of its effectiveness once the strength scaling was lessened, but it still has practical uses. Blood commander does not exactly buff primary and gun damage by that much (At max levels with moderate support and strength, it'll pretty much always buff less than 7-8 strike damage). However, when used with rage, a high blood commander can easily return almost 10 HP in one turn. Other turns it'll consistently give small HP recoveries of a little less than 5, depending on how strong the strength buff is and the opponent's defense.
~Intimidate~
A great skill which can save you. Works amazingly well with azrael's will, and can definitely help against high damage output-builds with low defenses. Also costs a small amount of energy at lower levels, which is definitely a plus. Unfortunately, it got a large nerf since the strength scaling was lessened, so it'll typically only reduce enemy strike damage by around 8-ish, depending on the user's support and the opponent's initial strength.
~Bunker Buster~
Definitely a fun skill to use. Has very random damage, especially since the defense penetration is also based off of the opponent's defense (which is an RNG integer). May also randomly crit. This skill has amazing tactical applications, especially as a psychological stress on your opponent because they won't risk getting crit by it in most cases. Later I'll explain about some advanced strategies with this later. This skill improves with a tanking stat, which may seem beneficial, but overall it isn't worth investing in tech for the sole cause of improving bunker damage. Also, past level 5, +2 EP cost for +1 damage really isn't worth it either (maybe in 2v2, but then you'll just get sealed by EMP so probably not even then).
~Artillery Strike~
Improves with support and can hit multiple opponents, which means it normally results in at least 1 crit when used with a support build in 2v2/jugg. However, if you're using lots of support, you can easily be neutralized by an EP remover. This skill overall is pretty useless unless you plan on investing in support, as its base damage is pathetic.
~Berzerker~
Arguably one of merc's most interesting skills. This skill provides a MASSIVE static damage boost with a mere 1 turn warmup. Being blocked when using a high zerker can pretty much doom you for the fight, so be wary when using this move, particularly with rage. This skill is most definitely worth investing skill points into as a 5% damage boost is a large amount.
~Maul~
An interesting stun skill which, in most cases, will provide a damage boost from the defense/resistance penetration equal to the damage boost from level 1 double strike, as well as give a very small chance to stun. If used for offensive purposes, it really shouldn't be relied on for stuns, even at high levels, and should only be depended on for the damage boost and low energy costs, or when a stun is desperately needed. The fact that it requires a maul is also a limitation on what otherwise would be an amazing skill.
~Surgical Strike~
This skill has lots of common misconceptions surrounding it. This skill has many added effects other than just dealing moderately high damage, so I don't see why so many people would think of it as mainly being a kill move. Surgical strike can easily be sealed with an EP remover, so it shouldn't be depended on for offensive capabilities. Like bunker, this skill scales slowly with tech so it isn't worth it to invest solely in tech for the damage boost on surgical strike.
~Adrenaline~
People also have lots of misconceptions about this skill. While at first it may seem weaker than other passives, it has many advanced tactical applications. I'll get into describing these more later. Basically, this skill's benefit is to give the user rage an extra turn earlier in many cases. Overall, it isn't worth investing unless the skill points have nowhere else to go, because +2% rage per 1 skill point is pretty much nothing.
~Atom Smasher~
Really not a great skill on merc. Level 1 with it is very useful against different opponents, but it shouldn't be depended on because it's blockable. The fact that it has a low energy cost may seem beneficial, but it can also be a limitation on max build flexibility when dealing with all opponents because it becomes hard to mix atom smasher into different skill combinations (If you're confused on what I mean by this, it'll get explained in more detail later).
...whew. That took a while. Anyways, now I'm going to address the many misconceptions surrounding merc.
Misconception 1: Surgical Strike is a kill move
Lots of people think surgical strike is a viable kill move because it has high base damage (its scaling with tech is very slow). However, if depended on, you'll be doomed if surgical strike is gone from an EP remover. Also, surgical strike has lots of added benefits such as rage reduction and healing, so I find it a much more useful skill to use when trying to weaken the opponent while guaranteeing your safety from the rage reduction and healing. After that, it's easy to follow up with a kill, particularly since you should have rage once using a powerful skill like surg. Overall, surgical strike CAN be used as a kill move, but that's not really it's main use since it has a bunch of added benefits which make it easy to cripple the opponent while securing your safety.
Misconception 2: Hybrid armor is on the skill tree, therefore merc automatically becomes a tanking-focused class.
Just to state it bluntly, if you're basing your fights off of your tankiness as a merc and not off of other reasons, you're gonna die. Hybrid armor is a nice bonus to ensure your safety for an extra turn compared to if you didn't have it, but it's not really the highlight of mercenaries. I look at this skill as a very useful add-on to the skill tree's already unique setup. Merc has lots of offensive tools at its disposal, and focusing around hybrid armor and tanking will prevent you from using these when you would best benefit from doing so.
Misconception 3: Mercenary overall is one of the weakest classes in ED
I don't really need to answer this directly since this entire post will answer this misconception.
Misconception 4: Adrenaline is useless
Not so! Adrenaline applies psychological pressure because it makes it harder for your opponent to predict when rage is coming.
There are probably a lot more misconceptions, but I addressed some of the major ones. Now I'll explain some of my tactics when using mercenary.
Advanced Tactic 1: Multiple offensive skills
Mercenary has lots of different ways of dealing high amounts of damage, making the class somewhat hard to predict. This lack of predictability (*cough* TLM is extremely predictable *cough*) makes it hard for the opponents to attack you without fear of being killed next turn from an early rage or crit (typically off of support merc, or bunker. Sometimes a stun with maul as well). Bunker is unblockable and provides a large static damage boost, bunker randomly crits and applies lots of pressure on opponents, and both these skills can be used pretty randomly, sometimes sending the opponent into instant panic mode where you force them to heal.
Advanced Tactic 2: Psychological Pressure
I'd call this the most vital of mercenary tactics. Lots of people don't really utilize this, which is why mercenary seems weak when they use it. Basically, the opponent has knowledge that bunker has a high crit rate, and zerker does massive damage. Maul can also deal good damage while possibly stunning. Overall, this combination of different offensive tactics makes the opponent extremely wary, especially with adrenaline giving you unpredictable rage. Many opponents will be scared of a random rage + crit with bunker, easily dealing almost 50 damage at merely level 5 (on high tech builds), or rage + stun, following up with another high-damage skill such as zerker. If you can pressure opponents by mixing up your offensive skills and randomly using them to confuse the opponent, they'll often heal themselves quite early in the fight. This will quite likely make them lose a turn of smokescreen/malfunction, making debuffs less effective.
Advanced Tactic 3: EP variety
Coming off of the previous advanced tactic, it's obvious that a merc needs to mix up their offense and be flexible to use any attack at nearly any moment, no matter what the enemy is. To do this, you must group energy and skills together so that the skills you use can be flexible. For example, I'll use my current build with 70 EP total (this is including generator's EP regain). My level 5 bunker costs 23, Level 4 heal costs 23, 6 surg costs 47, 6 intimidate costs 20, and zerker costs 27. 2 bunkers can be replaced with surg, bunker can be replaced with heal, and surg/2 bunkers can be replaced with indimiate = zerker. Overall, I keep my offensive options at the max possible amount for the entire duration of the fight. With 47 energy left, the opponent is left guessing at whether I'll bunker, surg, zerker, or heal. Keeping opponents guessing is not only a very useful tactic for merc, but for pretty much any class. Adrenaline's faster rage gain also keeps them guessing.
...that pretty much sums this up! Thanks for reading all of this, and hopefully you learned something about mercs! Please leave feedback, and any thoughts you have as they would be greatly appreciated!
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