Merit Question

[Aldion]

Hey guys,

I'm just curious, even though this may seem completely dumb.

I hit 75 PLD over a year ago, but since I did, I never really went out exping and so I've never had the pleasure of upgrading my character VIA merits.

Is it possible to put merit points into combat skills that a PLD doesn't natively have? For example, could I merit Marksmanship or Great Katana even though I'd be getting the merit points through my PLD?

Any info would be great.


Thanks in advance!

[Tirrock]

Re: Merit Question

No, your job has to have skill in that category already before you can merit it.

[Keitre]

Re: Merit Question

Be sure to check what skills your job actually has before you give up the idea. A lot of jobs have unexpected skills, for example I merited my THF's dagger skill 1 point using my BLM before I started leveling it so I'd get WS's one level early.

[Darkhound]

Re: Merit Question

PLD for over a year and never got a merit.... wow. Did you just not care, what about the xp loss from missions etc? I am sure you did xp right?

[Keitre]

Re: Merit Question

I know on our server it's nearly impossible to get a 75 exp party as a PLD, resulting in the need to use exp mode instead of merit mode. Any chance to keep yourself from deleveling is necessary. I had one friend quit PLD because of this. It was kind of sad because she was one of the best PLD's I've ever known and loved the job.

Edit: I somehow left out an entire word.

[Fynlar]

Re: Merit Question

What you can do is look in your status screen as your 75PLD, and check the merit categories. Anything that's dimmed out is a skill PLD does not possess, thus it cannot be merited by that job.

PLD for over a year and never got a merit.... wow. Did you just not care, what about the xp loss from missions etc? I am sure you did xp right?

We don't really know how much he used PLD or died with it. What I do know is that trying to get a merit party as PLD is a real drag and lots of people don't even bother, they just take another job to 75 and get merits with that. It's completely natural to find the PLDs that won't EXP unless they absolutely have to (to avoid delevel).

[Darkhound]

Re: Merit Question

Well, it is sad to see how the paladin class is slowly dying. I hope SE fixes this!

[Keitre]

Re: Merit Question

With any luck, they just did. They added Auto-Refresh and Shield Mastery. Once the affects of these two abilities becomes more widely known, it'll hopefully help.

[Darkhound]

Re: Merit Question

My best friend in game is a PLD, and yes if he does not pt with me, he regularly suffers and he is always on the edge of deleveling! I hope you guys get more invites. Paladins are very nice and it is very unfair seeing how they are overshadowed by ninjas

[Tirrock]

Re: Merit Question

I know a few PLDs that either quit PLD or leveled up an alt job for merit points because of how difficult it is to keep at 75 as PLD.

[Fynlar]

Re: Merit Question

Well, it is sad to see how the paladin class is slowly dying. I hope SE fixes this!

PLD, unfortunately, has been a broken job ever since NIN (more specifically, Utsusemi) was released, and I really don't see this changing anytime soon. Auto Refresh and Shield Mastery, while useful for the PLD trying to reach endgame level, does not come close to solving their problems AT endgame. More MP and TP is not what PLD needs at all.

Three things need to happen before PLDs can start to reclaim spots in meripo and various endgame activities:

1) PLD needs a boost in their DDing capability. Yes, I know they can sacrifice Provoke, Defender, and their tanking gear and whatnot in order to DD a little better, and if they're 74+ and go /NIN they can still survive to a degree. However, they still do not compare to the standard DD. People will invite DRGs to their meripo parties before they'll invite a PLD DD.

2) PLD needs a boost in damage mitigation. Stuff that swings devastating blows at PLD still only hit NINs for zero damage. Various CoP HNMs can Fast Cast an ancient magic spell at a PLD and they'll drop in one hit, sometimes taking more damage than they have max HP; NIN just laughs and throws up a single shadow to deflect it. Nobody can convince me this isn't broken.

3) Utsusemi: Ni NEEDS to be pushed to a 38+ level. There is absolutely no reason why a NIN's one practically defining spell can be subbed; why the hell can't I sub RDM and use Convert/Refresh? If /NINs could only cast Ichi this would put a hamper on randommelee/NIN's ability to be able to "tank" endgame stuff. The way it is now, you can just slap /NIN on everyone, trade hate carefully, and short of AoEs (which also hurt PLDs just as much) they aren't gonna get touched. Who needs a tank?


I love PLDs; I am 75RDM and there is a PLD I staticed with for most of the way up there. The RDM-PLD relationship is a pretty unique one; PLD actually tends to prefer us over BRDs due to the fact we can actually land Refresh on them on a consistent basis. I actually want to take up PLD next after my WHM. However, now that me and my friend have both reached 75, I am starting to hear more and more from my friend about just how PLDs are getting the shaft in endgame.

[kuu]

Re: Merit Question

A wah? Pld are use much more then Nin's engame.

Sure you can tank some of gods and the easier HNMs with utusemi, higher stuff must be pld tanked.

Meriting is a problem for pld, since the point of meriting is to kill fast, kill lots, and cover distances.

All this work against almost any class with mp usage. Reason they gave pld refresh.

New ToA area is pretty decent though, still non stop pulling but less distance to cover between pulls.

[Aldion]

Re: Merit Question

PLD for over a year and never got a merit.... wow. Did you just not care, what about the xp loss from missions etc? I am sure you did xp right?

Well, I had stopped playing for about 6 months, but before that, after a few runs through DIEnamis and playing around with the gods, I didn't really like how end-game was for PLD.

As far as exp loss from missions and such, I had about a 10k buffer which is now sitting at about 7k. When out on missions and such, my LS rarely has deaths.

After my static party dissolved I never did go out of my way to party. The only EXP I'd get was from skill ups with my LS or going on missions or quests.

The reason I ask now about Merits though is that my LS wouldn't mind taking me out to get merits with them when doing TP burns with my PLD in attack gear. Assaults are also another source of some cheap free exp that I get on my PLD. (The LS likes to do them uncapped and its my only job at 75 )I've already gotten about 3000 limit points (3/10ths of the way to my first merit!) and was hoping I could improve other jobs that I enjoy playing instead of meritting a job which I rarely use any more.

[Keitre]

Re: Merit Question

I too see PLD's used more often than NIN's end-game. In fact, the whole problem with them not being able to merit is because them and NIN's both die at end-game events, but NIN can get an exp/merit party a whole lot easier.

PLD isn't gimp end-game, they're just obviously second-rate in end-game exp parties.

I do agree that Utsusemi: Ichi would be interesting as a 38+ spell.

[Fynlar]

Re: Merit Question

A wah? Pld are use much more then Nin's engame.

Sure you can tank some of gods and the easier HNMs with utusemi, higher stuff must be pld tanked.

Yes, this would be why my PLD friend is forced to stand on the sidelines and play WHM, right? The only time she's engaged with the mob is to do Spirits Within. She's not the only one that I see forced into that role either. She's regretting her job choice.

If you've got a shell that actively uses PLDs, be thankful. I can assure you they're not in the majority. Point is, there is just way more stuff out there that a NIN is more effective against.