My final spec is going to be the norm 50 DW, 42 Shield, 36 Slash and rest parry. Maybe some time down the road I might give the 50 Thrust spec a shot. Should I bother trying to work shield in while leveling or focus solely on damage? Being that I most likely will be in random groups most of the time I have a feeling groups will expect me to tank.

Depends ultimately,

Groups should be plentiful at launch (assuming that the population returns after the beta ) so you could easily just go DW.

If however you play sporadically, at off time hours or solo a lot then I would defo say crush / shield whilst lvling.

Shield later on in PvE is better than just about any other type of defense available (apart from perhaps friar with dodger).

Oh, and I would not bother with 50 thrust (are you thinking dragonfang?) as merc only gets evade 1 - will rarely evade even as saracen. Slam at 42 shield is more reliable, or even the crush stun chain.

Weapon spec here does not appear to matter as much as long as composite 50 is achieved so you are really only pushing for a particular style (eg: Annihilation in large weapon on hib at 50). Dragonfang on a low evade class is kind of pointless I would say.

Wouldn't that mean that the only class that can truly make use of dragonfang is infil? What about a saracen merc? I just want to know if I should go Saracen to have all options open.

Infinitesimaltron wrote:Wouldn't that mean that the only class that can truly make use of dragonfang is infil? What about a saracen merc? I just want to know if I should go Saracen to have all options open.

That is pretty much exactly what I am saying. It is not that you cannot spec 50 Thrust as a merc (irrespective of race) but the fact of the matter is a Merc only comes with Evade 1 as standard, and a few pts of extra dex / qui on a saracen will not turn you into an evade ninja

Therefore you would not really be speccing to 50 Thrust for that style per se (not like an infil who has Evade 7). And a lot of posts on this board have shown that speccing to 50 in a lot of the weapon spec lines is a waste of pts as composite 50 is all that is needed, plus the fact that you will have 50 DW and should be using those styles mainly.

If you purchased Dodger 5 (unlikely on a merc but there you go ) you would see more evades, however relying on that style as your source of stun is ill-advised. Bear in mind you need someone to be directly attacking you for you to then evade and stun them, your targets should be support / casters assuming 8 vs 8.

Plus going highlander if you are concerned about min / max is perhaps a better idea as it means you can spec any of the 3 lines and perform well (Slash / Crush / Thrust) whereas a saracen would perhaps perform to a slightly lesser degree on the purely strength based weapon lines.

So I leveled with crush/shield til 40 and it went pretty well imo. I was able to tank just as well as an arms/pally up til 40 which came in super handy many times. I respecced at 40 and brough DW to level, and rest into thrust. It seemed to go pretty well for me.

Resurrecting this somewhat, but now the population has plateu'd is leveling with DW still a good idea, or best to go Shield/Hammer you think?

Shield / Crush to level defo - respec at 40

at lvl 17 you get parry.
raise 1h+shield until lvl 20 then switch shield to parry
it could be:
lvl 10 10 crush 8 shield
lvl 15 15 crush 11 shield 8 DW
lvl 19 15 crush 18 shield 11 DW
lvl 20 18 crush 18 DW 10 parry
lvl 24 23 DW 19 crush 15 parry
lvl 25 25 DW 19 crush 15 parry