merit stats for ninja

[zatteran]

ive gotten to the point where stats are bout the last thing i neeed to merit, so im curious, STR AGI or VIT

STR, since i have 75 war as well, and tp burn would become easier

AGI for evasion, crit -%

VIT for damage mitigation. (wasnt really thinking bout this one til a friend of mind tossed his points here and kept going on and on about it)

whatd you all throw your points into?

[Sevv]

If you have war, no question asked STR

Str is used by the majority of ws so it tends to be the best choice.

[LyonheartLakshmi]

STR is nice for any melee job. Even if the WS you use doesn't have a STR modifier, it will at least impact the fSTR portion of the damage formula. If the WS does happen to have a STR modifier, that means it affects your WS damage two different ways. This is why many RNGs will say that it's actually better to gear for STR rather than AGI even for ranged WSs like Sidewinder.

[Amele]

STR is nice for any melee job. Even if the WS you use doesn't have a STR modifier, it will at least impact the fSTR portion of the damage formula. If the WS does happen to have a STR modifier, that means it affects your WS damage two different ways. This is why many RNGs will say that it's actually better to gear for STR rather than AGI even for ranged WSs like Sidewinder.

(side note: sidewinder is a bad example, it has STR as a secondary modifier)

adding to this: there's a reason the stat modifiers on weaponskills are labeled WSC (weaponskill Secondary Calculation) these are secondary modifiers. the primary modifier is, of course, strength. for all physical damage weaponskills.

[LyonheartLakshmi]

(side note: sidewinder is a bad example, it has STR as a secondary modifier)
Sidewinder was meant to be an example of "STR counts twice" for certain WS.

It has both STR and AGI as secondary modifiers. And STR plays a smaller role as a secondary modifier than AGI (STR is 16% while AGI is 25%). Players who don't know the full damage equation might be tempted to trade out AGI for STR in equal amounts, since AGI has more weight than STR.

[Amele]

this would hold true (and be a clearer example) for a weaponskill with *no* str secondary modifier as well though. (catastrophe being the most famous example) but most marksmanship weaponskills are like this too.

you also get half your strength back in attack (and ratt) which directly contributes to PDIF as well.

which is why I said sidewinder was a poor example, it has str in the wsc modifier, which isn't a requirement for str to be the (second) most worthwhile thing to pump for your weaponskill damage.

[Arximiro]

I would go STR for sure (Unless) You tank things hardcore and rarely DD.. Then I would go Agi. Nin gets a ton of Dex gear. Str would be more useful from a DD perspective for your WAR and NIN.