Mercenary Alternate Skills

[[COS] CrazyLasagna]

I’ve been checking out Mercenaries alternate skills, but I’m not sure if I should use them or not. Anybody know the pros and cons for both skills?

[Lasting Asteri]

The thing about the different skills is that whether someone thinks the new ones are good or not is incredibly subjective, so it's really up to you if you should use them or not.

With that said I can point out the differences of them,

Whirlwind: Offers good horizontal speed boost when used with feet planted on the ground, allows you to spend a little more time in the air and does a decent amount of damage.

Rising Thunder: Great vertical movement keeping you in the air for far longer when combo'd with your dash and Eviscerate, nice way to single out enemies as you bring them up with you as you uppercut, though if my memory is correct you're able to bring up groups of enemies with the attack. Does more damage then Whirlwind with 450% damage whereas Whirlwind is 2x200%

Eviscerate: Amazing ability doing a large amount of damage (110% damage repeatedly for the duration of the attack) to a single enemy at a time, halting them and giving you invulnerability for the duration of the attack, can also be used as a secondary dash if you don't hit an enemy with it.

Slicing Winds: Another pretty great ability where you send a massive slash forward that stops and hits up to 3 enemies in it's area of effect for 8x100% damage, it stops and starts attacking either when it hits an enemy or terrain. This ability doesn't give you any invulnerability when you use it and can't be used as a dash, it doesn't stop any enemies from moving when they're in the attack either unless you have the stun grenade item but you can send the attack to any distance I think, can't remember if it has a limit or not. Another thing this ability has over Eviscerate is that you can have the Slicing Winds blade thing active while still moving around and even attack the enemies already being attacked by the ability.

Personally I love both R abilities and since unlocking Rising Thunder for M2 I've only been using it, I sometimes swap between using Eviscerate and Slicing winds. I have heard some people say it wasnt worth unlocking Slicing Winds but it really depends on your play style. What I recommend is just experimenting and seeing what you like.

[Noodles4Lyfe]

When it comes to Whirlwind and Rising Thunder, the latter is objectively the better one, as seen from Vilon's description.

Eviscerate and Slicing winds however are a bit different, and all depend on your play style as Vilon said.

Eviscerate:
Pros-
Invulnerability
Can be used as an escape option along with utility skill
Less risky
Cons-
Less damage
Might lock on to the wrong enemy
Good for airborne enemies
Doesn't chain the same amount of hits for a group of enemies

Slicing Winds:
Pros-
More range
Can stack and affect many enemies simultaneously
More damage
More manoeuvrability
Good for crowd control
Cons-
No invulnerability
Doesn't stop enemies
Can miss the enemy

Overall, I might be a bit bias in Slicing Winds (as I prefer that more in my opinion), but it all comes down to how you play. Eviscerate is a lot safer and less reckless than Slicing Winds, but does less damage individually and in an AoE. Eviscerate is handy for getting out of sticky situations, but Slicing Winds has better crowd control.

It's all up to you really, and just experiment as Vilon suggested.

[a e s t h e t i c]

Originally posted by Noodles:

Eviscerate:
Doesn't chain to other enemies

It's even on first map without any damage items can chain on kill to any near enemy (and doesn't mean is it boss or any type of mob)

[Noodles4Lyfe]

Originally posted by a e s t h e t i c:

Originally posted by Noodles:

Eviscerate:
Doesn't chain to other enemies

It's even on first map without any damage items can chain on kill to any near enemy (and doesn't mean is it boss or any type of mob)

Apologies, I might have phrased that wrong. What I mean is that it won't chain the same amount of hits.

[Percher]

Originally posted by Noodles:

Apologies, I might have phrased that wrong. What I mean is that it won't chain the same amount of hits.

You also forgot to mention that Eviscerate scales with attack speed.

[Noodles4Lyfe]

Originally posted by Percher:

Originally posted by Noodles:

Apologies, I might have phrased that wrong. What I mean is that it won't chain the same amount of hits.

You also forgot to mention that Eviscerate scales with attack speed.

I thought that also applies to Slicing Winds, so I didn't bother. Unless it does, then that's my bad.

[Percher]

Originally posted by Noodles:

I thought that also applies to Slicing Winds, so I didn't bother. Unless it does, then that's my bad.

Well, time to test that as soon as I unlock the damn thing.

[Noodles4Lyfe]

Originally posted by Percher:

Originally posted by Noodles:

I thought that also applies to Slicing Winds, so I didn't bother. Unless it does, then that's my bad.

Well, time to test that as soon as I unlock the damn thing.

Haha, best of luck for a good Prismatic Trial seed!