Anyway, I just want to point out that I don't criticize or point things out just to do it, or for fun, I honestly want everyone who plays this game to reach their maximum potential. I do my best to offer the most helpful advice that I can, even to those for whom most of the other "max/min" types on these forums have little patience.
I do however find it incredibly frustrating when someone chooses to deny reason and justify something that is detrimental with, what is essentially, bad and/or fallacious logic. I apologize for getting somewhat out of hand, Krizz, but as a mathematician, that just REALLY gets under my skin.
I would rather someone justify a detrimental gear choice because "I want to wear it" or "It looks cool" because at least then it's
subjective.
When you start bringing in the STR/DEX/Attack in terms of fSTR/WSC/pDIF on Dilarams as benefits in defense of its -8% critical hit rate, which is a gigantic detriment to a
critical weapon skill, not only are you flat out objectively and mathematically incorrect because of the huge penalty to your average weapon skill damage from -8% critical hit rate will
far outweigh the boost from 8STR/8DEX/16Attack, you run the risk of confusing another player who might not be as knowledgeable as the rest of us into making the same mistake (the continued prevalence of elemental gorgets/belts in sets for WS that shouldn't be using them is an example of this).
When you make mistakes like that, and then say "when you get a relic, you'll know better," it should be relatively unsurprising that the forum base does not take what you say seriously.
The same thing goes for going around saying things like "Mercy FAIL." Mercy Stroke is a fantastic Weaponskill hooked to a fantastic weapon that THF is capable of using to its full potential. Trashing it because it's situationally unimpressive (just like most other WS have downsides, no WS is best in ALL situations) has the potential to mislead and discourage other players, when all evidence points to that you simply may not be using the weapon skill to its maximum potential.
I've said this many times, it's fine to play at reduced performance, but it's a problem when you consider it to be the ideal.
Understanding the best way to gear for something or the most effective way to play something will help you even if you don't have access to the best gear, or simply don't want to maximize your potential.
I don't always play at max efficiency because I either don't feel like it, or don't need to do so. But that doesn't mean that I don't know what I should be doing to maximize whatever I'm doing.
There are a lot of knowledgeable people on these forums. Some people consider me to be one of them, although like most people, I do make mistakes. If you don't want to listen to me, listen to one of the dozens of other people telling you that you're simply not correct.
tl;dr
Reasons Mercy Stroke is Fantastic:
1.) 3.0ftp isn't the highest around, but it gets the job done when forced critical. It is slightly weaker than Rudra's storm but...
2.) 60% STR mod is fantastic. THF gets access to a lot of STR gear. It also gets access to a lot of gear with STR/DEX/andor/AGI/Attack on it, giving it the gear choices to really pump up the damage with SA/TA.
3.) High level relics get a 25% damage boost, effectively making the FTP 3.75, which is a nice bonus.
4.) STR is one of the best mods around because STR passively increases attack, something that DEX mods can't do (Sorry Rudra's)
5.) Mercy Stroke has the benefit of being attached to a weapon, which when main-handed, increases attack by 35, has extremely high base damage for a dagger, and deals triple damage 13% of the time without having to have this effect activated by a specific WS.
6.) Mercy Stroke increases your critical hit rate by a decent amount, which is a nice boon to your overall DPS.
So yeah, Mercy Stroke fails.