Mercedes Guide - Finally a Class Guide

Demagonz

New member
Aug 6, 2018
15
21
3
Antarctica
Oh boy, there's finally a class guide, and I bet you're probably disappointed to learn that this isn't a guide for your next bandwagon class, but instead a scuffed guide from a scuffed player for a scuffed class.

Who am i
Some people might know me as Dryadalis in game, or Demagonz on discord, but I've been playing Maplestory on and off since cygnus knights (Sometime 9 years ago). I've enjoyed playing Mercedes since her release, and have mained her ever since the mini-rework in v160 involving how skills link together, making this a less clunky and now fluid class to play.

______________________________________________________________________________________

Mercedes
PXSQiFj.jpg



______________________________________________________________________________________

What is Mercedes.
Aside from having a good link skill, Mercedes is bowman which uses dual bow-guns and magic arrows and possesses a linking system similar to that of Cadena or Ark. This means that you won't be sitting there mashing one button, for the most part you'll be chaining a few of your various skills together for smoother animations and buffs

Pros
-Your 5th job skill lets you ride a unicorn.
-Mobile class with a pseudo teleport as well as flash jump.
-Inflated range.
-Fun to play
-Dex tends to be one of the cheaper stats
-Probably one of the flashier classes
-Starts with level 30 charm for pocket slot.
-Has alot of natural IED in its kit.
-Have i mentioned you get a unicorn?

Cons
-Has a lot of key bindings
-Isn't the highest DPM class (although it is by no means weak and alot stronger than people think. )
-Doesn't have the best one button mobbing.
-Low defenses and HP (doesn't really matter later on)
-Has a lot of important skills to max on the V matrix


______________________________________________________________________________________

Skill Breakdown

Skills you need nodes for.
A skill you'll probably be using quite often, it simply launches arrows in front of you to hit mobs, it can be linked to Rising Rush, Unicorn Spike, Spikes Royale, Lightning Edge or Wrath of Enlil
Stunning Strikes.gif

Another commonly used skill for mobbing, after fixing the hit boxes on leaf tornado it's possible to use only this skill to mob. However it is less efficient than linking skills together and requires you to be in the air. But it's an option if you're lazy. This skill can be linked to Gust dive, Spikes royale or Wrath of Enlil. Additionally, two leaf tornados can be placed in a macro in order to use the skill twice in one jump. Note that this requires DSI
Leaf Tornado.gif

Note that the gust dive V matrix node is in the same node as leaf tornado.
Gust dive is used in combo's mid air, its use is to bring your character back to the ground as well as moving you horizontally. It can be linked to Rising Rush, Stunning Strikes, Leaf Tornado, Unicorn spike, Spikes Royale, Lightning Edge or Wrath of Enlil. There is a small delay at the end of the skill however this can be skipped by linking the skill including Leaf Tornado which will skip the animation even if you cannot cast it due to lack of height.
Gust Dive.gif

The signature hurricane skill of the class, as with every other bowman hurricane, this skill attacks 8.3 times a second and is our highest DPM skill (Will explain later) our most convenient skill to boss with. This cannot be linked to anything for obvious reasons.
Ishtar's Ring.gif

Along with Wrath of Enlil, probably your furthest reaching mobbing ability. Bossing-wise, it has a decent amount of damage but most importantly debuffs enemies with a -30% defense (50% with the hyper passive). It comes with a 5 second cooldown that gets reduced by 1 second each time you link skills together. It can be linked with Leaf Tornado, Gust Dive, Rolling Moonsault, Wrath of Enlil.
Spikes Royale.gif

The other high reach mobbing skill that does a considerable amount of damage (This is a hyper skill so don't be alarmed if you don't see it). It comes with a 8 second cooldown which gets reduced by 1 second for each link you perform. It can be linked to Rising rush, Stunning strikes, Unicorn Spike, Spikes Royale or Lightning Edge.
Wrath of Enlil.gif
______________________________________________________________________________________

Skills you may want nodes for.

You might be wondering why you want nodes for these, but these summons aren't a joke. They attack fairly quickly and can make up a solid portion of your DPM. Additionally, you can summon two of these.

It summons a unicorn that hit things. The unicorn also debuffs enemies to make them take 30% additional damage. All hits from this are critical strikes, although you probably have 100% crit regardless. It comes with a 10 second cooldown and like spikes and wrath, reduces by 1 second for each link you perform. It can be linked with Rising Rush, Stunning Strikes, Lightning edge, Wrath of Enlil, Spikes Royale.
Unicorn Spike.gif

Lightning edge is another dash skill without a cooldown. Unlike rising rush, this does not push enemies and is useful for traversing the map quickly. Enemies hit are also inflicted with a debuff which causes Ishtar's ring do 20% additional damage. It can be linked to Rising Rush, Stunning Strikes, Unicorn Spike or Wrath of Enlil. BUT although it isn't stated it can also be linked to leaf tornado which will not activate, cancelling the animation prematurely. Linking it to leaf tornado also removes the delay where you cannot use lightning edge again.
UpMOuDf.gif

______________________________________________________________________________________

Other Skills.
Rising rush is a dash ability similar to other classes, however at the end, enemies are knocked up. This during this knock up, the skill can be linked to Parting shot, Aerial Barrage or Rolling Moonsault. Additionally, pressing down + rising rush performs the knock up on the spot meaning you won't accidentally dash into debris and other hazards while bossing.

Rising Rush.gif

This skill performs some kind of combo attack. Rising rush must be used before hand. It can be linked to Rolling Moonsault, Leaf Tornado, Gust Dive, Spikes Royale or Wrath of Enlil. In all honesty, not a very useful skill, neither is rising rush.
Aerial Barrage.gif

This can be used standalone in mid air and resets your flash jump, allowing you to flash jump once more afterwards. It can be linked to Leaf Tornado, Gust Dive, Spikes Royale or Wrath of Enlil. Again not a very useful skill.
MoonSault.gif


______________________________________________________________________________________

V skills

Spirit of Elluel was the initial V skill Mercedes received. At level 30 it lasts 70 seconds with a cooldown of 150, effectively up half the time. The first portion of this skill adds a chance for your skills to be mimic'd by afterimages, these afterimages only deal 60% final damage however, up to 4 can be created.
drNJeGA.gif


The second portion of the skill creates a psuedo FMA (It doesn't actually hit the whole map but has a pretty large AOE). This Pseudo FMA deals 900 * 8 on 10 enemies at level 30. This has a cooldown of 10 seconds which gets activated during the buff duration when attacking. The cooldown gets reduced by one second each time you link skills. (Its the big tree that spawns in the gif)
LLqEMaT.gif


You finally get to ride your unicorn (for 45 seconds at level 30 with a 150 second cooldown). However, between both your V skills you have an uptime of around 80%. Sylvidia grants 20% attack (Bugged D: ) and 25% damage reduction (also bugged D: ) and deals 1430% * 9 on 12 mobs per dash. Dashing can be done sideways and diagonally upwards.
pntqDFa.gif


Other Stuff.
TL;DR Legendary Line: 20% Boss damage, Unique Lines: +21 Attack, +20% critical rate.

Legendary: Attack speed is useless as we start with a base weapon speed of 6, -1 from Elven grace, -2 from Booster, -2 from DSI, -1 from MPE green pots bringing us to 0 attack speed (hard cap). Thus we use 20% Boss damage as the preferred line.

Unique:
+20% Critical rate. Unlike the other bowmen classes which all have sharp eyes, Mercedes does not. This means that without other sources of crit rate such as links, legion, hyper stats or IA, we don't reach 100% crit rate. However, even at 100% crit rate, this line is useful in order to increase our burst with Vicious Shot.

+21 Attack. It's just more damage, nothing else good really goes into this slot. Alternatively players can opt for +38% buff duration which is a useful QoL on any class which needs to buff.

* Indicates optional portions
Mobbing combo's and rotations vary from map to map.


Gust Dive > Leaf Tornado As mentioned prior, leaf tornado after gust dive cancels the delay afterwards, allowing you to start moving much faster.
lEmCPMF.gif


Lightning Edge > Leaf Tornado Although lightning edge doesn't mention it, you can link it to leaf tornado, cancelling the finishing animation similar to the combo above.
fINCIf0.gif


Alot of things > Spirit Nimble Flight Spirit nimble flight is a skill which teleports you in a selected direction. While using it vertically it doesn't go on a cooldown, but has a 10 second cooldown horizontally. This skill MUST be used during another skills animation and is faster than rope lift for alot of platforms.
pSXCpRr.gif


Stunning* > Wrath > Stunning (Typically in middle of ishtar) A useful combination that is primarily weaved in during use of ishtar's ring in order to both increase your DPM as well to ensure ignis roar stacks stay up. Linking skills to stunning is useful in general as the extra animation isn't long due to how mercedes works (In this case wrath > stunning seems to be only 1-2 frames longer than just wrath)
(Double tapping ishtar's ring after the last stunning strike lets you go back to ishtar's faster)
kPrCQxw.gif


Debuff Combo, Wrath > Stunning* > Unicorn Spike > Stunning* > Lightning edge > Spikes > Leaf* > Gust > Wrath > Stunning* > Ishtars* Used to debuff enemies with all 3 debuffs. Note that you dont have to do this, there are simpler versions, however this is just the most efficient way I've found to reduce DPM loss to a minimum as well as placing you in your original spot after lightning edge.
73qxuPJ.gif

As stated previously, Ishtar's ring isn't the highest DPM skill. The highest DPM combination of skills (I've found to be so far) is Stunning* > Wrath > Stunning > Unicorn Spike > Stunning > Spikes > Leaf > Gust (Repeat). Just as a reference, these tests were done at 37k stat, 380%bd and 96% ied.
HAUnonm.gif


Combo DPM (I'm retarded and forgot to show the actual damage in the recording, so I'll put the battle stats below)
DCwh8mr.png

xRD1a6d.png

Ishtar's DPM

This combo has been made possible by a Mercedes mobbing buff sometime in v190. These changed effected.
Leap Tornado, 260 * 4 > 390 * 4
Unicorn Spike, 315 * 5 > 415* 5
Stunning Strikes 300 * 4 > 380 * 4
Gust Dive 195 * 3 > 430 * 4
(and some update in between Wrath of Enlil got changed from 300% * 10 > 400% * 10)
This caused the combo to start dealing more damage than Ishtar's ring as each rotation now dealt 3795% more damage.

The combo became even stronger in v199 where Nexon changed Wrath of Enlil able to be copied by Spirit of Elluel.

Without taking into account Spirit of Elluel or Hyper Passives. Each rotation of the combo consists of 1x Wrath, 2x Stunning Strikes, 1x Unicorn Spike, 1x Spikes Royale, 1x Leaf Tornado, 1x Gust dive. Dealing 7 hits. At a final attack chance of 75% this leads to one rotation of the combo dealing (400 * 10) + (380 * 2 * 4) + (415 * 5) + (700 * 3) + (390 * 4) + (430 * 4) + (7 * .75 * 120 * 2), adding up to 15755% per rotation.

Ishtar's ring deals 220% * 2 8.3 times a second. Hitting 8.3 times a second, final attack deals 8.3 * .75 * 120 * 2. Each second, this ends up dealing 5146%. With each 8 seconds weaving in Stunning > Wrath > Stunning. Dealing 48208% roughly every 9 seconds.

This means that for the combo to deal more damage, each rotation must be completed within 3 seconds. From the gif, at 0 attack speed, I am able to perform each rotation in about 2.3 seconds. However, under 3 seconds should be attainable even at 2 attack speed (soft cap w/o mpe green pot).

However, a considerable gap between DPM comes from Spirit of Elluel. Mimic chances on non ishtar skills are far greater, with 90, 70, and 50% chance of 1,2 and 3 copies respectively rather than the 50% chance of Ishtar. Additionally, linking skills with the buff on reduces the cooldown of a 7200% attack by 1 second per link. This causes the attack to roughly occur every 3 seconds rather than 10. This means that the Combo is ALWAYS a higher DPM method while the buff is up. And only slightly stronger while it's not.
TL;DR Use the Combo while Spirits of Elluel is up due to the considerable gap in DPM. While it's down, it isn't worth the effort for a small DPM increase.

Although it's one of the faster MP runners, I wouldn't recommend using Mercedes to farm MP due to the effort/precision it takes compared to other classes. Refer to Rend's VJ guide for alternative classes. But if you insist on farming on Mercedes, This is what my average monster park run looks like on Mercedes. (VJ). Having mihile link for stance helps with consistency aswell.

A few people wanted to know my keybinds, I personally like to keep most of my skills on the 6 keys above the arrows, but regardless they should be kept together so you don't have to move far while chaining skills. Find what works for you.
ZlKhHuC.png


Feel free to ask questions or suggest anything below, or through discord (You can find me on the official Aries server). Enjoy playing ded class :)
 
Last edited: