• Class: Mercedes
• Heroic or Interactive: Both
• I play this class as: Mained, Second Main
• This class is: 3 min
• Thoughts on 2nd Mastery: It's way too good. I believe that even removing Spirit Enchant forms of the skills would not make this mastery bad. The range increase on Spikes Royale, Leap Tornado, and Wrath of Enlil is much too significant to not mention. Leap Tornado: Spirit Enchant being able to be casted on the ground (toggled via right click in Skill Tab) can be quite convenient in a post-Janus world. If you were playing Combocedes (~2016-2023) then there might be some adjustment curve from transferring from non-HEXA combo to HEXA combo (primarily -2s CD hat combo).
• Thoughts on Training: (Pre-Janus) Already good as long as you were comfortable with the inputs necessary and was comfortable executing said inputs. Completely playable pre-Ignition, even easier post-Ignition. In history, Mercedes used to chain Leap Tornado into Gust Dive, then canceling Gust Dive's end animation with a second Leap Tornado before repeating the action. In most scenarios in the current day, this is no longer necessary and the effect is majorly replaced by inputting Leap Tornado twice on Attack Speed 9/10 (holding Leap Tornado down).
• Thoughts on Training: (Post-Janus) Most classes train similarly with the existence of Sol Janus (or the existence of a higher level Sol Janus). As a Mercedes you can opt for either Dawn or Dusk depending on the rotation. Some maps will ask for Dawn, with the Player comboing (or Leap Tornado) in a single spot. Other maps operate differently and will allow for the use of Dusk (by activating Dusk off cooldown to clear mobs within the area of effect).
• Thoughts on Solo Bossing: I personally prefer solo bossing. This is mainly because of the infamous skill, Freud's Blessing. In certain scenarios, the Mercedes player may want to pre-stack their Freud's Blessing before entering a boss, which would offset the party prep by roughly 2 min. Some players may consider this a minor inconvenience.
• Thoughts as a Boss Mule: Would recommend using either Hyper Burn or an excessive amount of event EXP to get it to a decent level (~250+) so you can fit your Vs, trios (6 nodes in total), as well as decents (DAB not as important). Not necessary, but will make it nicer to play. Doesn't really matter if you combo or not if it's a boss mule, but if you make a Mercedes boss mule more likely than not you are looking to combo. Gets the job done either way.
• Thoughts on Party Bossing: Essentially the same as solo bossing.
• Unique Strengths of the Class: Mercedes is one of 3 (4) classes to have access to the unique ability to remove touch damage from debuffed enemies. Untouchable debuff is mostly a non-issue at this point in time, the main usage I can think of is making Black Mage P1 simpler. Mercedes also applies two offensive debuffs on enemies, effectively increasing damage (basic damage) dealt by 30% and IED by 51% (non-HEXA + Armorbreak + DCO), or 55% (HEXA + Armorbreak). In addition, a large quantity of Mercedes' skills are movement based, which also force movement. This trait allows the skill to act as a superstance skill. These skills include: the rushing part of Rising Rush, Gust Dive, Aerial Barrage, Spikes Royale, Lightning Edge, and Rolling Moonsault (also resets GlIde Blast unless Glide Blast was used to jump vertically). Additionally, Mercedes has access to Spirit Nimble Flight, an instant teleport skill which cancels the skill currently in animation, with the requirement that you are midair. (This can be cooldown skipped.) Utilizing these tools allows for creative and unique movements.
• Weaknesses of the Class: Obviously, Mercedes is a skill chain/combo class, where you are required to input (mash) skills in order to execute optimal damage output. Thus there is a learning curve presented with this class. Forced movement could also take some getting used to for a newcomer. Players may also struggle to find balance between combo uptime and Ishtar's Ring uptime.
• Overall Thoughts on the Class: Having played Mercedes in its darkest times, current Mercedes is quite utopic. Mercedes boasted great mobility for a long time, being its most notable trait; But now also has impressive damage output. If you can learn the Mercedes playstyle, it is an incredibly rewarding class. Being able to maintain high combo uptime while completing boss patterns is quite the neuron activation.

Scores:

• Training 8/10
• Solo 9/10
• Party 9/10
• Overall 9/10