I think Merciful Shot is bugged, personally

[Lieutenant Columbo]

...I think Merciful Shot (MS) is bugged. This is why I believe it is:-

MS can be used when the target's health is at 25% or less.
Now, As you know, you can queue up styles, e.g. quick shot with barbed arrow queued.
Now suppose you know that you're at the point where after the next style the target will be at 25% health or lower, so you can use MS, so for example you want to do quick shot followed by MS, right? Well, the thing is, you can't queue up MS after the quick shot, because at that time quick hasn't yet done it's damage, because at that point the target's health is still above 25%, even though you know it won't be after the arrow strikes.
So, you can't queue MS, which I think is wrong.
The other problem with MS, in this case, is that you can't immediately select MS after quick shot for example, because of the fact that you don't have a queue, so you get an auto-attack immediately after the QS. This then puts you in the position where there is little point in using MS because the target's health is so low you might as well use another style.
I think MS should be returned to how it used to be, where the target's health only had to be at 50%. You had plenty of time to use the style. As it is now, it's probably the most useless style a Hunter has. The window of opportunity to use MS is so narrow.

While I'm at it, I think the timer on Heart Seeker should be reduced to 3 minutes instead of 5.

[Scappydog]

What Merciful Shot needs is the button to only go live when it is useable..not when you have enough focus.

[Easy_Rider]

6 focus is 2 much and i hardly know a hunter if he atacks a lvl 50 sig or elite will still have 6 focus :/

[Bell of Eternity]

it is bit of a balancing act to have 6 focus near the end of a solo battle. One could use the haste and then hit swift and barbed for focus, or simply try to not use pen shot. Or save the in-combat focus buff until the latter part of the battle and hit that. I rarely actively bother to save up focus for merciful; if I have it, I use it, otherwise too bad. I don't think it is good for your DPS to save up, as two pen shots do just as much, if not more, at the cost of just 2 focus each and short cooldown.

Boss fights are another matter of course. By the time it is at 25% morale, you usually are at low to zero power and full focus due to spamming quick shot. If you get a power boost off somewhere - a pot, class trait, LM transfer - that is a good time to use merciful, as it costs just as much as pen shot. You'll do a bit more damage before you are forced back to quick shot spam.

Focus is not the primary headache for hunters though. I can't remember if I've ever been defeated due to lack of focus. I can however remember many times I've been defeated due to lack of power.

Oh, and on topic. :) Merficul shot should be fixed so it can be queued like all other abilities.

[zimoo]

I don't find the focus cost to be an issue, when a mob drops below 50% health I stop my penetrating shot spamming and fire off alot of quick shots and/or barbed arrows so I have 6 focus ready for when he drops below 25%.

But yes the mentioned bug is very annoying.

[Crazalus]

It's not a bug, it's a feature...



*goes for another coffee to wake up a sense of humour*

[Lieutenant Columbo]

A bug is anything that annoys you, e.g. when someone says, "Stop bugging me!"

So you're wrong, it IS a bug!

[Caemthalion]

It's not a bug, it's a feature...



I bet Steve Balmer will steel that idea .... BSOD in Windows ? ... it's not a bug, uhm ... it's a feature ! ... and working as intended.:p


But seriously ... I would like to see MS cost 1 focus less than it does now, the rest can remain unchanged.