Question on merits

[Vyuru]

Well, now that I can finally get some of that easy imp exp (cursed imps -.-) and have gotten to lvl 69, woot! I'm feeling like lvl 75 isn't that far off and that I should be starting to think about merits. Now most of them are no brainers, + polearm skill +crit hit rate and -enmity = good, but the job merits offer some problems.

Abilities that I am sure that I want to max would be High Jump and Angon. High Jump for less enmity and more tp, Angon for that lovely def down. The rest I'm not sure about though.

Since Super Jump's timer got reduced to 3 minutes awhile ago, I almost feel like that is an auto merit for me, so I am not inclined to merit that. Also in any special event I go to where the monster spams abilities that I want to avoid, well he'll be spamming them and I doubt 30 seconds off Super Jump will really help me there.

Jump and Spirit Link are my next two options, however whichever one I pick partly depends on what group II merit I select.

If I choose Empathy I think I would want to merit it fully, so that my wyvern can get 3 status effects without me having to cancel certain ones that I may want just so that my wyvern can get Hasso say. If I fully merit Empathy, I'm not sure if it would be worthwhile to merit Spirit Link so that I could transfer over abilities faster and give my wyvern Stone Skin more frequently.

Then there is Deep Breathing, this sounds pretty nice, however since it is on a 15 minute timer if I where to merit this I would also probably want to fully merit it to reduce the recast timer. Also, doesn't this do exactly what the Relic Helm does? And if so, just think of what Deep Breathing + Relic Helm could do together.

Bah, decisions decisions.

[Sevv]

Re: Question on merits

personally if i was just a drg alone:

polearm: 8
staff: 4
Hp: 4
Mp: 4
Crit rate: 4
emnity down: 3
spell int: 1
Str: 5
Jump: 5
High Jump: 5
Angon: 3
empathy: 1
strafe: 1
deep breathing: 1


basically give you both aspects of solo and party make up with a well rounded but stronge set up a few of those have change like i have 2 emnity+ merits only 4 polearm with katana and archery and evasion merits lol. The best thing about merits if you dont like it you can always take them out!

[SomeMithra]

Re: Question on merits

I wouldn't touch enmity until last. Reason being because there is always the chance you will suddenly feel like leveling a tank job and then have to lose the merits and...thats wasted time if you could have stuck it in anything else.

You will not be able to fully merit both Angon and Empathy. So if thats a turnoff for you I say 1 Deep Breathing and 1 Strafe or 2 Strafe. People I know that merited Strafe say they like it because their wyvern now does breath attacks for 100 way more often then before. Of course if you are an avid soloer I would probably say empathy 1 and deep breathing 1 in addition to angon 3.

That all said, this is how I feel that for the Jump vs Spirit Link idea...

If you are going to solo numerous things constantly (I am talking about everything from EP yagudo to Sewer Syrup here), I would suggust meriting Spirit Link. There are so many times that 30 seconds could have saved my wyvern, and thats after I have been healing it every 3 minutes. All in all Spirit Link can make a big difference. Remember when you solo you never want to lose a wyvern if you can help it. Thats why for soloing I suggust this ^^b

On the other hand if you are going to be participating and focusing more on team activities, I would say go for Jump. In all honesty its pretty rare outside of Caedarva Mire my own wyvern dies, unless of course its something endgame where its not going to live anyway because of high AoE spammage, so Jump seems the more useful tool in this case.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Question on merits

Well, now that I can finally get some of that easy imp exp (cursed imps -.-) and have gotten to lvl 69, woot! I'm feeling like lvl 75 isn't that far off and that I should be starting to think about merits. Now most of them are no brainers, + polearm skill +crit hit rate and -enmity = good, but the job merits offer some problems.

Other covered the rest, so I'll just hit on this one.

Be careful how you merit combat skills and enmity. Unless you're just going to be DRG and only DRG, its not so much of an issue, but if you want to be other jobs besides as DRG, you could run into problems.

-Enmity, for example, can be bad if you're looking at NIN or PLD to play. Idea there is to have mobs hate you, not ignore you. And you definately don't want +enmity if you're a straight DD. DD or Mage-only? -Enmity is perfect.

As for combat skills, you can have potential conflicts with this. It really depends on what else you plan to level and what jobs you really intend to specialize in. I'm always struggling with this point and I've just decided to put it off until I see how I feel about other jobs when I land them at 75. DRG only? Polearm is a solid choice, but otherwise? Hard to say.

[Sevv]

Re: Question on merits

note those were just what i would merit not the order in which i would merit, also like i stated for dragoon only. Like personally i have 1 emnity+ merit for my nin already. Also on the spirit link V jump idea, when soloing my wyvern only dies if i die so basically spirit link is a waste but for mire pts but still my wyvern lasts usually about 19+min so i can deal with a min of wyvernless action.

[tdh]

Re: Question on merits

I'm with OMGWTFBBQ on this. Weapon Merits are a toughy. I currently have RDM75, and plan to have WAR, DRK, and SAM to Lv.75. I would love to be able to dump 8 Merits in to Great Sword, Scythe, Axe, and Great Katana, but I'm only allowed 12 total. I have friend who are 1 Melee job ONRY and have cap merits in that weapon. (MNK, WAR, and SAM come to mind.) I've seen consistent AWESOME Rampages, higher Asurian Fists, and more accurate SAMs. (He already did pretty damn good WS damage.) So do I just dump 3 into each weapon, or forgo Weapon Merits until they hopefully expand this category's limits?

I'd also stay away from Enmity merits. Last thing you want are Enmity + for suddenly leveling a mage job, or Enmity - for suddenly leveling a tanking job, or a job that requires SATA. Crit Merits are a no brainer for any sort of Melee/RngAtk job, but for the next 4 Merits you could go with Spell Interrupt down, or Enemy Crit hits down. Spell Interrupts would be great for NIN, PLD, DRK, and RDMs, but NIN would probably benefit from Enemy Crits down.

I'm only a DRG29, but there are a few DRGs in my LS. One of them has gone full Empathy & full Angon. Another didn't even bother with Angon, but Empathy was awesome for their Wyvern. I guess it just comes down to what your activities consist of. Do you do a lot of soloing, are only in party settings, Dynamis, or HNM activites? That alone could dictate what you decide to merit.

So Crit & STR merits are pretty safe Merits. Any other Melee job would benefit from them, but Enmity +/- or Polearm merits may harm another job, or not benefit them at all.

[Vyuru]

Re: Question on merits

Well, my thoughts are:

I am 99.99% sure that I would not be leveling either pld or nin, until drg, war, drk, sam, smn, and any other jobs I want to take to lvl 75 are fully leveled, and while I might enjoy tanking as a warrior, that just isn't seen that much anymore. So -enmity merits aren't a problem.

I am first and foremost a drg, or a Gaxe using war, so I would either dump 8 merits into polearm and 4 into Gaxe or do 6 and 6.

You will not be able to fully merit both Angon and Empathy.

Is that so? Looking at ffxiclopedia it says that you can put 6 merits into rank II abilities, for a max of 3 each.

After thinking about Empathy a bit, I think I won't merit it. The situation may change, but I really like drg/sam over drg/war, and for exp and probably events I may well be going to those mainly as drg/sam, in that case, Empathy would give my wyvern Hasso, which is nice, make no mistake, but I think I would want spike wyvern damage instead of the damage over time that Hasso would give me.

And also, Angon will give the mob defense down, so my wyvern already gets an attack boost indirectly.

[eticket109]

Re: Question on merits

I'm looking more into Strafe and Deep Breathing. I may just keep 1 in Empathy and Angon and put 2 in each of those. People have done some research on BG and those two seem to be more powerful then expected

[Sevv]

Re: Question on merits

Angon is probably the best group II merit i have ever spent. Not to mention alot of End Game Ls will make you merit it if you want a chance to go drg. I tried to make my combat balanced between my main jobs of drg nin war rng but i gave up on it and took out merits:

Personally i am at/going to :

Hp 1/4
Mp 1/4
Str 0/5
Crit Hit 1/4
Emnity 1/1
Spell Int 1/3
Polearm 2/8
Evasion 2/8
Jump 2/5
H Jump 2/5
Angon 1/3
Empathy 0/1
Strafe 0/1
Deep Breathing 0/1

just for my drg

[KoukiRyu]

Re: Question on merits

I don't mean to hijack this thread, but I have a quick question. Say I'm a MNK 75 and a THF 75, and I got MNK there first. On MNK, I meritted H2H fully, 8 times up, and I get THF up to 75 today. Can I merit dagger/sword/marksmanship at all? Or is it limited to those 8 times I did it with MNK?

[Sevv]

Re: Question on merits

12 total in combat skills for all jobs, other wise there really would be a question on combat skills

[KoukiRyu]

Re: Question on merits

o_o 12 in total for all the jobs....that's so horrible. Wow, I'm happy I've only done one hand-to-hand merit so far...I'm gonna have to seriously consider these now. Thanks for the quck reply Sev. :D

[Sevv]

Re: Question on merits

o_o 12 in total for all the jobs....that's so horrible. Wow, I'm happy I've only done one hand-to-hand merit so far...I'm gonna have to seriously consider these now. Thanks for the quck reply Sev. :D

np doing globals at work so im slamming my head off the desk and posting lol.