This week at The Defias Blog, Garbad_the_Weak discusses the ‘Mercy’ Naval Frigate, which is one of the Naval Officer’s class-specific MoV ships.

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Key Ship Stats

• Max Speed: 17.00
• Acceleration: 1.08
• Turning: 9.00
• Turning Accel: 5.85
• Armor: 1638 / 10 DR
• Sails: 2875
• Top Deck: 16 x 8lb Guns
• Gun Deck: 28 x 18lb Guns
• Defining Characteristics: More hitpoints, better sailing characteristics, heavier, more accurate guns and faster reload than the ‘Defiant’ Mastercraft Frigate it’s based on.

Mercy — Level 50 Naval Frigate

The ‘Mercy’ is a Naval 44 gun warship intended as an open sea supremacy fighter. Featuring superb long range DPS, solid toughness, and a very good top speed the ‘Mercy’ has ruled the sea for a long time. The ‘Mercy’ is generally used as an OS Heavy fighter and as such regularly squares off against bundlehercs, ‘Dauntless’es, and other refits. Should things go poorly, the ‘Mercy’ has enough speed to escape or keep its distance. The ‘Mercy’s weakness is poor agility and relatively poor armor (compared to its peers), and it can get mauled in close range fights. As a MoV refit, she is expensive, but is well worth it.

The Mercy in Perspective

The ‘Mercy’ Naval Frigate comes from a very large family. Its direct kin include the vanilla ‘Defiant’, the Sleek ‘Defiant’, the ‘Gallant’ Naval Frigate (which is a MoV refit of the vanilla ‘Defiant’), and the Mastercraft ‘Defiant’. Each of these ships shares a similar flavor (high top speed, moderate armor, good long range firepower), but they have dramatically different results. The vDefiant is almost never used because its low gun count makes its DPS poor relative to the MC ‘Raa’ . The Sleek ‘Defiant’ and MC ‘Defiant’ were recently buffed, and have some potential as chasers and skirmishers, but in general they looks inferior to the ‘Minerva’ (which is large, not huge). The ‘Gallant’s recent buff was even more interesting. It’s unusually tough for its level and has outstanding target tracking and accuracy, as well as an excellent top speed. It’s not quite the equal of most level 50 frigates, but it’s close. It has some potential for a wealthy NO who wants to get into fleet PvP right away. None of these ships is anywhere near as popular as the ‘Mercy’, however.

The ‘Mercy] also is frequently compared to the ‘Dauntless’ (better range, accuracy, armor and speed) and the ‘Archelon’ (better long range DPS and speed, less armor by far). Finally, ‘Mercy’ vs. bundleherc is one of the most common fleet fights in the game (Herc has agility and toughness, mercy has ranged DPS and speed).

The Mercy and Pirates

The ‘Mercy’ is a very prized capture for pirates. Many pirates believe the ‘Mercy’ is even better with the CT/BU skillset, and prefer it even to their own MoV/bundleboats. As it happens, I have a Naval Officer, a Buccaneer, and a Cutthroat who each own a ‘Mercy’ at this moment, and I thought it might be useful to compare the ‘Mercy’ as sailed by other classes.

In these screens, the Cutthroat and Naval Officer are rigged identically (2 Runner’s Rigs, 2 Precise Gun Tackles, 2 Double-Planked Hulls, Overloaded Cannons, Engineered Structure, Explosive Powder) and are each using Crew Focus: Gunnery and Fine-Grained Gunpowder (for accuracy). The NO is using reload and damage toggles (plus passives), and the CT is using Rum Ration and Sacrifice for Victory (plus passives). The Buccaneer is rigged a bit differently (2 Runner’s Rigs, 2 Devastating Guns, 2 Double-Planked Hulls, Overloaded Cannons, Engineered Structure, Explosive Powder). I gave him more damage because BU DPS sucks and because I figured the reduced turning wouldn’t hurt a BU much (who get large boosts to turning). The BU is using accuracy powder, his prebuff, and passives (no hound, survivor, or whistle). In all three cases, no one else is buffing them.

I also did some comparisons using Douglas Jackman’s excellent Ship Comparison tool. The outcome was not at all what I expected. I expected the CT to have similar DPS to the NO and superior speed/agility. Instead, the NO has far, far superior DPS (15-40% depending on range). This is due to the NO’s accuracy and range bonus, which fits nicely with the ‘Mercy’s strengths. The BU’s DPS was in the middle, probably due to its focus on spiking and better accuracy (NO DPM = 1343, CT DPM = 1108, BU DPM = 1183). The speed, as expected, heavily favored the rats. Rats simply get a lot more speed out of a ship. My NO with those riggings would peak out at about 26 knots, while my BU would hit 27.4 regular and 32.3 with Whistle Down the Wind. The CT could hit 30 before Dump Guns and 31.7 with Dump Guns.

Contrary to my expectations, the ‘Mercy’ is not better for rats than NOs. In combat, the NO has a major advantage as his skill set is better tuned to the long range combat the ‘Mercy’ is designed for. Likewise, much of the CT’s agility and debuffs were wasted at long range and the BU was unable to use some of its best skills. The ‘Mercy’ still has some potential in the hands of a pirate (specifically because of its ease of escape and/or kiting), but there is no doubt a NO is superior in terms of toughness, DPS and range.

Conclusion

The ‘Mercy’ is a staple of OS PvP for good reason. It’s an excellent ship overall, and the best long range fighter in the game. Its outstanding blend of firepower, speed and toughness make it an excellent skirmisher and supremacy fighter. Every NO should seriously consider coughing up the doubloons for this ship and every pirate should pray the NOs get careless with it.

Oh, and she just happens to be one of the most beautiful ships in the game. Not that we would pick a ship based purely on how cool it looks. Right. =P

This article was originally posted by Garbad_the_Weak in the Pirates of the Burning Sea official forum here.

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