I've had a bit of experience w/almost all available specs to an Infil. Here's my take on this:

In my experience w/this, the most common template for a Mercfil would include Env, not CS. Depending on weapon choice I'd assume also...slash vs. thrust. I do not have experience w/this in the slash aspect, however I do in thrust.

You have to realize that weapskill/damage is greatly reduced on your target (lets say SB, or bladeshade) by the lvl 47 debuff poison since these classes/specs rely entirely on str for its weapon modifications.

You will find as a full out Mercfil that your dmg w/CS styles will be sub-par compared to your DW styles due to low CS spec, and not to mention the rather huge variances in dmg you would see. Env would help you more in the long run w/this spec.

It really depends on your playstyle, who you choose as your targets, how you plan your attack, etc.

I would suggest taking this to Pendragon to do some extensive testing to see how "you" want to play it.

For thrust Mercfil I suggest:

34 Stealth (50 @ R6)
50 Thrust
50 DW
33 Envenom (50 @ R7)

You also have to realize w/Mercfil that you will not get the parry stun that DW offers. W/slash spec you will not recieve the slash stun that relies on a block by you. DW spec relies greatly on its positional styles. Therefore, a thrust Mercfil would be ideal for this.

Just a note: I have seen avg perf dmg (400-500) from opening a fight w/the side positional chain from the DW line: Flank, followed by Shadows Rain using the 3.9 spd Exceptional Rapier. Attacking from stealth like this can in some cases let you /face or /stick and also land the rear positionals (Shadows Edge, followed by Prenumbra) from DW as they pass also. Not in all cases mind you, but I've seen it.

In most cases it's alot easier to lead from stealth w/side positional than anything else.

<Grudge Inc>
Bringin Chaos, 50 Infiltrator
Bringinn Chaos, 50 Scout

Edited by: Bringin Chaos at: 10/17/03 7:58 pm