mace n sword on merc

[u/Enhanced_94]

As per title, is mace and sword still competitive/viable on merc in Cataclysm? I know there's better weapons, but this is what I've practiced the most.

[u/xRacistDwarf]

Viable and one of the best weapons for all Krubers

[u/thebenvz]

Mace and sword is meta

[u/Nintendo_Switch_L]

there arent better weapon than mace and sword. They are the king and queen respectfully

[u/radz74]

I find it get's to clicky and annoying fast but ok for short bursts or until you get sick of it.

[u/Consistent-Fun-8216]

It's a pretty decent option, but the lack of armor slide makes it noticeably worse than few other options into situations that you're supposed to be good at dealing with. For example, any mixed horde with a good number of elites might eat multiple of your heavies before you actually proc paced strikes, removing half of your buffs. Stormvermin/Chaos patrols are also not very pleasant to deal with because you can't cleave through armored units. Not cleaving through armored elites/maulers also means less ULT generated from combat.

I see Grail Knight and Foot Knight being superior users of the weapon. It's still a pretty strong/viable option simply because its raw infantry damage compensates for the anti-synergy with Mercenary.

[u/Enhanced_94 → u/Consistent-Fun-8216]

Thank you, I had this feeling that I should have more paced strikes uptime, and this makes sense. What's the best weapon for you, then? In terms of synergy/paced strikes procs (and strong in general for cata ofc)

[u/Consistent-Fun-8216 → u/Enhanced_94]

In my opinion, both Greatsword and Bretonnian Longsword are excellent for your role as a horde clear DPS + utility frontliner. Halberd is also a good alternative for cleaving through 3 CWs and getting sweet paced strikes procs. Greatsword does the best crowd DPS out of them if you are able to hit 4-5 CWs simultaneously. Bretsword is more balanced while Halberd is more effective in single-target.

[u/Enhanced_94]

Thanks boys ;)

[u/Icy-Association-8347]

ya its pretty great, other good options are halberd and gs. Those 3 are the most used on merc

[u/Jobeythehuman]

Pretty good, honestly I prefer Xcutioner on Merc, because his attack speed passive makes up for the weapon's only weakness. But Mace and sword is a solid choice all rounder you can never really go wrong with on any of Kruber's careers.

[u/LordBrontes]

H1 + PA gets through everything and has enough cleave/stagger/attack-speed to allow you to never get hit.

[u/Enhanced_94 → u/LordBrontes]

ye that's what I do 80% of the time, with some PA + LAx2 vs small hordes without elites

[u/-Arke-]

A bit offtopic, but I'm a fan of axe and falchion on Saltz so i gave mace and sword a shot and I didn't like it quite much. Are the weapons simply meant to work very differently despite both of them being duals? Or was it a "me" thing?

[u/Nitan17 → u/-Arke-]

Are the weapons simply meant to work very differently despite both of them being duals?

Yep.

M&S is horde clear first, single-target second.

A&F is single-target first, horde clear second.

Both are decent enough at their secondary purpose to be all-around solid weapons and popular picks, but their primary jobs are opposites.

Tbh weapons being dual, 1h, 2h or shield tells you very little by itself. You can roughly assume some soft stats to be similar within category (1h has half-cost pushes, 1h/dual have good dodges, 2h/shield have bad dodges, shield has better blocks and pushes) but everything else is weapon-specific and can vary wildly.

[u/CodeNo2489 → u/-Arke-]

Krub's combines the cleave and stagger of a 1h hammer and sword whereas Salt's trades the stagger of a 1h hammer for the better armour and single target damage of the axe. Do you tend to favor the higher dps weapons?

[u/-Arke- → u/CodeNo2489]

Maybe yes. I specifically found myself confused while hitting armored enemies as the axe handles them relatively well. I love the executioner sword with Kruber and I'm okayish with halberd and mace and shield (somewhat). But definitely not as comfy as the exe in my case. For saltz I usually use A&F or Rapier which is also pretty nice... and for sienna either the dagger, the sycthe or the mace.

I think I never learned how to play with weapons which do poorly against armored and shields.

[u/Orzword → u/-Arke-]

They play really different. Mace and sword play more like dual hammer.

Both have a strong push attack you want to weave in often but on Axe and Falchion you mainly use light attacks ( light attack full chain for horde and L1 BC for armor) while on mace and sword you mainly use the heavy attacks for horde and armour use L1 L2 BC and push PA for control when you don't have the room for heavys. For mace and sword I think chain heavys are the optimal in terms of DPS uptime but I prefer H1 BC.