Merciful Strike

[GeorgeBaggy]

Is it worth traiting and using the legacy for?

[MimDerZwerg]

In my Opinion it is only useful if you play red line.
Traited it always crits which makes it a strong single target attack with 2-hander.
Weak spot on merciful strike in comparison too brutal/ferocious is that it can be more easily dodged/blocked.
Personally I use it as a filler if anyhting else is on cooldown (same with born for battle in yellow).

Traiting it in yellow line is not worth because it is too expensive and you need to swap rune (if not combined).

[Lusikkax]

Never, the skill is useless in a rotation currently in both champ specs. You can take it off your bars.

[Chizbo]

Sounds like two different views expressed here.

I have a 99 champ and am getting ready to build my red line FA 100 LIs. LotroHQ has merciful strike damage as one of the Champions Rune legacies to use, implying it is a skill worth using. Can someone with end-game champ experience provide a little more information behind the use or non-use of Merciful Strike? If it is used as filler, is it still worth having the legacy or would a different legacy on the rune (not suggested by LotroHQ) be better?

[Froyo_K_Baggins]

Sounds like two different views expressed here.

I have a 99 champ and am getting ready to build my red line FA 100 LIs. LotroHQ has merciful strike damage as one of the Champions Rune legacies to use, implying it is a skill worth using. Can someone with end-game champ experience provide a little more information behind the use or non-use of Merciful Strike? If it is used as filler, is it still worth having the legacy or would a different legacy on the rune (not suggested by LotroHQ) be better?

I'll agree with the first response. It's not great, but there's room on the red line set so I use it when I'm waiting for bigger hits or towards the end (because of cooldown). There's nothing wrong with it, it's just not one of your top level skills.

[MimDerZwerg]

Sounds like two different views expressed here.
If it is used as filler, is it still worth having the legacy or would a different legacy on the rune (not suggested by LotroHQ) be better?

Well for red line there a only few legacies on rune that is the reason why it is on the rune.
If you read the rotation of red champion on lotrohq it is not included - not even mentioned as a filler.
Only hint is that is has to be used with 2-hander.

That pretty much much explains it.
My advise would be, if you use 2 different runes for yellow and red, follow the guide and place it.
If you use a combined one use yellow specs plus devasting strike legacies.

Champion DPS is based on many small hits usually that is why you do not spend much in big hitters.
I think you should invest the 2 points rather in 1x Vitality from blue line than in merciful strike.

All over red champion is seldom played because it is huge effort to have weapon/rune/armour for red line in addition to yellow which is cleary the main line of champion.
The best players can manage to do almsot the same DPS on yellow line as in red line which make red obsolete since it is single target focussed.

But this applies only right now. I am not sure if it is still state of the art when you have reached level 130.

I recommend building yellow or combined setup and tune red line later if you have nothing else to do

[varobun1]

General consensus is that it's completely useless, don't bother with the legacy or trait unless you have faith that the devs are magically going to rebalance it soon.

[Froyo_K_Baggins]

General consensus is that it's completely useless, don't bother with the legacy or trait unless you have faith that the devs are magically going to rebalance it soon.

When somebody offers a "consensus" without details, always suspect.

“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to reform (or pause and reflect).” Mark Twain

[Lusikkax]

When somebody offers a "consensus" without details, always suspect.

“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to reform (or pause and reflect).” Mark Twain

Having Merciful Strike in your rotation is a significant DPS downgrade compared to not having it in your rotation, which is the definition of useless when it comes to a strictly damaging skill. You'll find this to be true from searching "Lotro red champion parse" on youtube, I'm not going to link videos here since I haven't bothered to read the rules and don't know if that's allowed.

And your quote is not really relevant since the overwhelming majority of champion players will use whatever skills they like in their rotation, Merciful Strike included. Only a very small minority of players will look to actually optimize their DPS rotations in games like this.

[cat301]

Never, the skill is useless in a rotation currently in both champ specs. You can take it off your bars.

With a two hander, I always hit for over 200k. Can you tell me what kind of numbers you are getting?

[MimDerZwerg]

With a two hander, I always hit for over 200k. Can you tell me what kind of numbers you are getting?

Take brutal strikes for example.
With 2-hander you do 3 hits with at least 90k in the same time and they barely miss.

Merciful strike 10s
Brutal strikes. 4.2s

Brutal strikes is always available when merciful would be and in between you need to refresh devasting, remorseless, ferocious strikes, blade wall and wild attack.
So you do not have time and merciful strike costs 5 fervour which means you usually have to use battle frenzy before. But with full fervour you want to use ferocious strikes since it does 2-3 times the damage of merciful strike and cannot be blocked or parried.

As most already pointed out, it is useless because you lose DPS by using it since other skills are more effective.

[cat301]

Take brutal strikes for example.
With 2-hander you do 3 hits with at least 90k in the same time and they barely miss.

Merciful strike 10s
Brutal strikes. 4.2s

Brutal strikes is always available when merciful would be and in between you need to refresh devasting, remorseless, ferocious strikes, blade wall and wild attack.
So you do not have time and merciful strike costs 5 fervour which means you usually have to use battle frenzy before. But with full fervour you want to use ferocious strikes since it does 2-3 times the damage of merciful strike and cannot be blocked or parried.

As most already pointed out, it is useless because you lose DPS by using it since other skills are more effective.

Yes, I see what you mean. Thanks for your help

[gaara908776]

Sounds like two different views expressed here.

I have a 99 champ and am getting ready to build my red line FA 100 LIs. LotroHQ has merciful strike damage as one of the Champions Rune legacies to use, implying it is a skill worth using. Can someone with end-game champ experience provide a little more information behind the use or non-use of Merciful Strike? If it is used as filler, is it still worth having the legacy or would a different legacy on the rune (not suggested by LotroHQ) be better?

Maximizing Champ DPS in Red line is mostly focused around maximizing the amount of Ferocious Strikes>Brutal Strikes>Uptime of Champ’s Duel>Devastating Strike>Remorseless Strike>Wild Attack Crit buff uptime. Any Raid where Boss DPS checks are a thing(Remm for example), It’s beneficial to bring a Red Champ for the the buffs to melee DPS.

Most raids this isn’t the case, so you’ll be in Yellow. However, even if you get a chance to play Red in a raid, Merciful Strike is one of the last abilities you’ll be using in your rotation. Outside of the Moors, I don’t trait it at all and I almost never use it because I rotate Ferocious/Battle Frenzy + Brutal/Clobber combo, swap DW and Remorseless, Wild attack/Blade Wall as filler and use Devastating Strike off CD. Champ Duel I track the buff to make sure I don’t overwrite with a CD reset. I have basically no room in my rotation for anything other than the occasional swift strike outside of this.

[Thorandril]

For 3 trait points, 2 legacies and requiring a 2h swap it is probably one of the more underwhelming skills. Probably does about 1/2-1/3 of the damage it should given it's cooldown relative to other DPS skills & it's cashout ability.