Revamping the Merit System: What SE SHOULD have done.

[Legal Fish]

Re: Revamping the Merit System: What SE SHOULD have done.

I will say this: you should be able turn off certain merits like Enmity +/-.

[eticket109]

Re: Revamping the Merit System: What SE SHOULD have done.

Okay, but BLM and DRK do get it much earlier and have more dark magic skill.

Bio: BLM - 10, RDM - 10, DRK - 15
Bio II: BLM - 35, RDM - 36, DRK - 40

However, the E rating in Dark Magic is truly abysmal. It makes much more sense to raise the Dark skill slightly in RDM then it does to remove something like Bio II. Although Bio is technically Dark Magic, it is considered a debuff or enfeeble by the player base and is at the core of what a RDM does. It makes sense to have it meritable.

The Tier II screwup lies mostly with NIN in my opinion. Let's give NIN 8 meritable abilities with 6 points max to spend on them. gg SE.

[Callisto]

Re: Revamping the Merit System: What SE SHOULD have done.

As for issue with Dia/Bio 3: It made sense to give RDM Dia 3, seeing as how that's the first spell RDM even gets, and it's an Enfeebling-based spell. By extension, it made some sense to give Bio 3, since it's the other half of Dia per se, and RDM does get and make lots of use from Bios 1 and 2, as their DoT ticks are greater than Dia. My problem with Bio 3 is that Bio is based on Dark Magic skill, and not Enfeebling magic, so you're tossing out the spell with a base skill of 200 if it's capped. It would have made more sense to give Poison 3 instead of Bio 3, with a healthy chunk of DoT/tick and the spell being Enfeebling-based. Otherwise, here's how I view my Group 2's for RDM:

Dia 3 - Essentially pointless for the MP cost. Not enough DoT, not enough Def- to warrant spending the MP on. I dropped it after testing it for awhile.

Bio 3 - Still needs the DoT to scale up when you merit it higher. At level 1 it's pathetic, the duration is next to nothing. At level 2, the duration is better, and the initial damage is pretty decent if it goes fully unresisted. Although, since it is based on Dark Magic skill and not enfeebling, this doesn't always happen.

Phalanx 2 - Kickass. I get more use out of this than I ever thought I would. I do alot of small-group things with DRKs, SAMs, MNKs and the lot, and it's a great help to keep them from burning all of my MP on cures b/c they take hits like a wet paper bag. I'm putting serious thought towards dropping Paralyze 2 and bumping this up to level 2.

Paralyze 2 - Not terrible enough to toss it by itself, but really for 6x the MP cost of Paralyze 1, the proc rate really isn't that much more often at level 1. I think I'd be better served to bump Phal 2 up another level and let this one go.

Slow 2 - Also kickass. Even at level one the effect is noticeable, the tanks I've worked with have said it's extremely noticeable to them. Makes Charybdis duo pretty easy with a NIN.

Blind 2 - Honestly I can't tell how good this is. I use it, but when something hits or misses a tank, it's hard to tell if it's their evasion or my Blind. Hell if I can tell the difference. I cast it and hope it's better than Blind 1.

[Raydeus]

Re: Revamping the Merit System: What SE SHOULD have done.

I will say this: you should be able turn off certain merits like Enmity +/-.

That would work too. Although you'd still be unable to merit other atributes because even if a stat boost is turned off it would still count for total combo, that's one of the reasons I want to just tweak merits at will.

But still, an on/off switch would be much better than nothing, that's for sure.

[Legal Fish]

Re: Revamping the Merit System: What SE SHOULD have done.

I'm bored... so I'm going to throw out some thoughts. Imagine a Group II merits for Others. These would be extremely potent and ideally equal in power. Their effect would only be accessible at level 75. Very potent and very costy. 5/10 limit.

Auto-Refresh (Activates at different percent of MP: 20%, 40%, 60%, 80%, 100%)
Attack Speed (1% per Merit)
Fast Cast (1% or 2% per Merit)
Damage Reduction (1% per Merit)

[hongman]

Re: Revamping the Merit System: What SE SHOULD have done.

Just nitpicking here, why would you want Auto-Refresh to kick in at 100% if you are at 100%...

Anyways - my 2 cents on RDM's Para II is the same as the majority. Not bad enough to drop, decent proc on exp mobs at lvl3, but really should be adjusted to either proc more, or lower the MP cost.

Landing it on Sky Gods is meh. I managed to Para II Suzaku on /DRK, and I saw it proc once. Which is pants. Granted I didnt have as much mnd as /whm but still, thats poor.

Slow II is hands down the best spell in that category.

I pity RDMs who use Bio III without gear swaps.

[Gobo]

Re: Revamping the Merit System: What SE SHOULD have done.

Thats cause though Suzaku is a "Wind" mob from being a greater bird, its also a Fire mob, since it is Suzaku. By constrast I've had a decently +MND Para II (I think I was at about +50) proc a decent rate on Seriyu, Fafy, Khim and a few other end game mobs while stopping Ouryu dead in its tracks (multiple back to back procs and a few triple procs). Mind you, it still doesn't stay on as long as I would like and sometimes its stupidly flickle. It really is a "cap or don't use it spell" because lvl 1 sucked monkey balls and 2 wasn't much better. An MP reduction for it would be nice, I won't deny that.

[hongman]

Re: Revamping the Merit System: What SE SHOULD have done.

There you go then, I managed to land it in a God that is inherently weaker to that element. Fantastic.

Once I can merit my enfeeb some more, I can reduce the +skill kit and go for more +MND. Just too lazy to do Slow II with skill macro/Slow II with max MND macos, currently its all +skill and MND where skill isnt available.

Or if I ever get Duelist Chap. If.

[Gobo]

Re: Revamping the Merit System: What SE SHOULD have done.

No i'm staying you landed it on a God that is resistant (fire>ice) to that element, which means that you did something hard. (Though landing an Enfeeb on a sky god is usually difficult in itself)

[Callisto]

Re: Revamping the Merit System: What SE SHOULD have done.

I did do a bit more research and testing of my spells, and yeah I'm dropping my level 2 Bio II and putting both Paralyze II and Phalanx II up to level 2. The initial damage from my Bio III is pretty good, it usually does about 165~, however even when I max my Dark Magic I can only get to 224(Torque, Abyssal, and Crim Gauntlets) and at that level Bio III will only do 7/tick, while Bio II with the same skill will do 6/tick, and last twice as long. Unless you're really hard up for the extra 4.whatever% Attack Down effect, I've come to the conclusion that Bio III just isn't worth the MP cost.

[hongman]

Re: Revamping the Merit System: What SE SHOULD have done.

No i'm staying you landed it on a God that is resistant (fire>ice) to that element, which means that you did something hard. (Though landing an Enfeeb on a sky god is usually difficult in itself)

See, Im still such a "young" RDM..../sigh

Although, on Wiki it just says Suzy is weak to Water.

[Callisto]

Re: Revamping the Merit System: What SE SHOULD have done.

See, Im still such a "young" RDM..../sigh

Although, on Wiki it just says Suzy is weak to Water.

That'd be technically correct as he's a fire-based god. This would make him inherently strong to ice spells like Paralyze. I'm not sure if by being a Greater Bird as well makes him have a wind element, too, which if it does might offset that a little.

Side note, I Suzaku fights! I haven't done it in a longtime, but instead of binding it we used to just have me chainstun while he chainnuked. I generally kept him from casting anything, although one time he did get a Flare off on me, luckily Blink ate it.

[hongman]

Re: Revamping the Merit System: What SE SHOULD have done.

Yeah, we CSS him, and now I have /drk I get to have fun on him xD

Although he does still get a few spells off during his CS spam, apparently this is normal though.

Marvellous fun.

[WishMaster3K]

Re: Revamping the Merit System: What SE SHOULD have done.

I should raise DRK one of these days.. But I see myself coming to sky a few times as a newbie PLD so I can jump in for 2 minutes while the Vets reraise, so who knows. I might make a career out of it. (not enough to NOT get a Rajas Ring tho.. That thing is pure Awesome.)

Merits in general are "ok" for RDM, which is fantastic because the majority of the jobs get screwed harder than-

Ok, nevermind, that was going to be a bad analogy, but after some time, I've definitely thought of meritting Phalanx II and Slow II. Dia3 is worthless to me. And for the MP cost, ParaII is as well. And Bio just equals: no.

I think RDMs are balanced enough as it is. My only complaint is adjusting enfeebling at higher levels, because there is no way that RDMs with 320+ in skill should still be recounting how enfeebling still sucks..

[hongman]

Re: Revamping the Merit System: What SE SHOULD have done.

I should raise DRK one of these days

Cool. Come to Bahamut and buy all of my 4-5 +1 Scythes I was silly enough to buy (yeah, i turned to a melee tard while lvling DRK) and now cant sell :/