Paladin Merits???

[Kurb]

Just wondering ifanyone knows ehat I should be focusing on when spending my merits. So confussed not sure if i should go with VIT INT healing magig blahh blahh ect.
Any tips or info would be appriciated

[Quetzalcoatl]

i think u should merit chivalry and then VIT,HP,Enmity and prolly some STG

[LoneGamer]

PLD don't use INT except as a modifier on certain lower level weapon skills (Burning Blade, Red Lotus Blade, and some Staff WS). If you're going to merit a casting stat, merit MP. In your magic skills, Divine might be your best choice.

As the above poster said, VIT and Enmity+ for sure.

But, I'm not a PLD75, so take my advice with a grain of salt.

[Malacite]

Here are some good options for a career PLD (note that some choices depend on whether you focus a lot on EXP or end game such as dynamis and HNMs)

HP/MP: 8/8 (Depends on race. Unless you're Galka or Elvaan, go for HP)
STR/VIT: 5/5
Sword: 8/8
Shield: 4/4
Enmity: 4/4 (be careful with this as it affects other jobs too)
Critical Hits Up/Spell Interuption: Up to your discretion. I'd go with crits personally.
Sentinel Recast: 5/5
Rampart Recast/Cover Length: 5/5 (Rampart is probably better)
Chivalry:3/3 (Amazing JA, converts TP to MP)
Guardian: 3/3


I'd get at least a few sword merits first, if not max it out ASAP. Paladins have a hard enough time as it is in TP burns, so you might as well pump that A+ sword skill of yours to it's max to keep up. After that, use your own discretion.

[Futan]

HP/MP: 8/8 (Depends on race. Unless you're Galka or Elvaan, go for HP)

I personally would go 8/8MP unless a taru. Simply because capped MP[80MP] can turn into 310HP, which is much more than capped HP offers.

[tuggler]

Nuuu...don't merit MP at all, whatever your race, especially if you are intending to do end-game with your PLD. There are plenty of methods available to get enough Refresh that the actual maximum amount of MP you have becomes irrelevant as you are constantly refreshing it.

HP is what is important at end-game, for both survivability of nasty attacks and use of Spirits Within for macimum damage.

[Kurb]

Thanks Lads now off to merit

[Sevv]

Hp 8/8
Vit 5/5
Shield 4/4
Parry 4/4
Evasion 4/4
Sword 8/8
Divine 8/8
Healing 8/8
Enmity+ 4/4
Enemy Crit rate 4/4
Sentinel 5/5
Rampart 5/5
Chivalry 3/3
Fealty 3/3

just my path if i was a career pld

[tuggler]

Hp 8/8
Vit 5/5
Shield 4/4
Parry 4/4
Evasion 4/4
Sword 8/8
Divine 8/8
Healing 8/8
Enmity+ 4/4
Enemy Crit rate 4/4
Sentinel 5/5
Rampart 5/5
Chivalry 3/3
Fealty 3/3

just my path if i was a career pld

You could now actually do shield 8/8 as well as sword 8/8. Personally, as I also play WAR and have a joytoy, I'm opting for Sword 8/8, Axe 8/8 and Shield 4/4.

[Sevv]

You could now actually do shield 8/8 as well as sword 8/8. Personally, as I also play WAR and have a joytoy, I'm opting for Sword 8/8, Axe 8/8 and Shield 4/4.


No you cant shield,parry,eva,guard still cap at 4 merits


im 3 75s almost 4 now lol my merits are war focused as well lol

[tuggler]

No you cant shield,parry,eva,guard still cap at 4 merits

They do? You know, I didn't even bother to check and assumed that all combat skills were 8 max. Even better that they're not :-). That means I don't feel bad for not even attempting to get shield to 8 merits. Now I'm happy that I can have sword, axe and shield all capped :-).

Just got myself a Boxer's Mantle today too, very handy for my PLD and also if I end up tanking for any duration as WAR :-).

[Razoul]

Does the sword merits make a big difference for paladin? Cause if it doesn't I would rather use those points on another jobs weapon like nin or sam or something like that. And the VIT merits too. I think i remember reading somewhere that at a certain point the VIT stops making a big difference and other stats would help more.

[Malacite]

It really helps. 8 merits on sword = roughly +16 accuracy (I believe accuracy from skill deminishes though once you reach a certain level) and +16 Attack.

That's a very large boost and you can really see the difference it makes in merit parties.

[Razoul]

So the main thing its helps with is merits huh. Well I'm guessing I'd use my Sam more for merits but since neither pld nor sam are even in the 70s yet I have plenty of time before I have to decide. Thanks for the insight.

[Tokitoki]

Each point of skill after 200 is .9 Accuracy and 1 attack. Since the merits kick in every 10 levels you would get WS sooner, have higher accuracy, higher attack, and so on making the merits worth it if still going through the level grind.

[Karinya]

Higher accuracy and attack just isn't as important to a PLD as it is to other jobs, though. It's still nice, but your ability to do your job in a party doesn't depend on your damage (fortunately!) I'd definitely prioritize shield skill over sword skill, and if you have other jobs trying to get their share of combat skill merits, you may get more mileage out of those too. As a PLD and DRG I'm currently aiming for 8 shield, 8 polearm and only 4 sword (RDM can use some of that too, but combat skills aren't really a priority).

Aside from shield, if you don't have any other jobs you can merit +enmity, but you should probably mostly focus on the job-specific categories (at least for your first targets). Spell interruption down and enemy crit down are both nice, but they don't change the percentages *that* much.

In group 1, I think the most significant one is Sentinel recast. Since this year's rework of Sentinel, it's a really great ability and being able to use it more often is very nice. Rampart recast is worth considering because Rampart is such a huge hate grabber in many situations; Shield Bash can be useful against silence-resistant magic using enemies like imps (and also grabs some hate). Even with AF2 body, I wouldn't merit cover recast; I just don't use it enough to justify a use of limited merit points.

As for the Group 2s... Chivalry is very nice, but I don't know if you really need less recast than it already has, with auto-refresh traits, parade gorget and refreshers in most parties. You can get some good mileage out of Fealty in certain encounters, but recast reduction won't often give you a second shot before the fight is over, so I wouldn't put in more than 1 point. Iron Will and Guardian don't look that impressive, but I guess it depends on how big the effect is. Being dependent on abilities that are only up 10% of the time (or less) isn't exactly a point in their favor.

[IfritnoItazura]

As a PLD and DRG I'm currently aiming for 8 shield, 8 polearm and only 4 sword (RDM can use some of that too, but combat skills aren't really a priority).
The limit on Shield merit (http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/Merit#Combat_Skills) is still 4, I think, unless you mean 4th level merit for +8 skill total.

Spell interruption down and enemy crit down are both nice, but they don't change the percentages *that* much.
That depends on what kind of critical hit rate you were getting before the merit, isn't it? If you're getting 20% crit hit on a particular monster, yeah, +1% is a fairly small change. If it's 6%, though, then +1% is a pretty big change.

The actual effect on the damage output partially depends on the pDIF (http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/PDIF), but I'll leave that discussion to people more knowledgeable.

[Tokitoki]

Any job can use more damage to hold hate better. This is how NIN tanks work best, and can only help PLD. Since normally you would focus on more gear that has Enmity, Defense, and VIT and not as much Accuracy and Attack the sword merits will help add a bit of damage which translates to hate.

I'll admit it wont make a huge difference, but being able to hit more often and use better WS a little earlier is nothnig to simply ignore.

[Callisto]

Enmity: 4/4 (be careful with this as it affects other jobs too)


Haha, yeah that's a fun lesson. I was leveling PLD in the 30's and wanted a bit more emnity, so I used a point to add +1. Now my RDM and COR keep getting beat down when I use Souleater or Slug Shot XD

[Tokitoki]

+1 Enmity is like yelling names at a mob from behind a bush. They look around and keep walking. What's making you get hate is the huge enmity spike from Souleater and Slug Shot, not the single Enmity merit.

[Sevv]

or spamming rampage >.>

[Tokitoki]

Didnt know COR and RDM got Rampage :p

[Cotners]

Didnt know COR and RDM got Rampage :p

You didn't know? Blm's get rampage now too. :)

[Sevv]

i was talking about emnity merits overall, didnt know people who merit emnity only lvl rdm and cor. Guess I should go take out my emnity merits then.

[Sevv]

Haha, yeah that's a fun lesson. I was leveling PLD in the 30's and wanted a bit more emnity, so I used a point to add +1. Now my RDM and COR keep getting beat down when I use Souleater or Slug Shot XD
+1 Enmity is like yelling names at a mob from behind a bush. They look around and keep walking. What's making you get hate is the huge enmity spike from Souleater and Slug Shot, not the single Enmity merit.
Didnt know COR and RDM got Rampage :p
You didn't know? Blm's get rampage now too. :)


Didn't know cor or rdm got souleater ethier.

[Cotners]

Didn't know cor or rdm got souleater ethier.

RDM/DRK does

Although using it would be idiocy.

[Sevv]

RDM/DRK does


who was talking about sub jobs?




lol i hope you know im messing with you all lol.

[Cotners]

lol i hope you know im messing with you all lol.


Sarcasm is the devil...
So is foosball

[Tokitoki]

I just didnt see how Rampage fit into SE and Slug at the time o.o

[Sevv]

I just didnt see how Rampage fit into SE and Slug at the time o.o


Because it related to the fact of 1 emnity merit. People who have 1 emnity merit tend to level more then just rdm or cor. Well that or you can have a drk/nin with axes who uses soul eater and rampage 2.

[Zempten]

Hey guys

My PLD is approaching 75 soon (40k to go) and I was wondering about the PLD specific merits with the corolation(sp?) to the new update on Shield Bash.

The chance for the additional stun effect of the abilities “Shield Bash” and “Weapon Bash” to occur has been greatly increased.
In addition to this change, the help text for the following pieces of equipment has been changed to “Bash”+(number) to reflect an increase in “Bash“ damage.

Chaos Gauntlets/Knightly Earring/Chaos Gauntlets +1/Valor Gauntlets +1/ Valor Gauntlets/Sigma Earring/Crude Sword

In my mind I was going to merit Sentinel Recast (max), Chivalry(max), Guardian(max), and initially I was going to do Rampart Recast (max) but now that I see that Shield Bash's stun might actually activate more often I was wondering if I should do Shield Bash Recast (max). I don't really see a point in Cover Recast (max) b/c it's already at 3 mins by default. I mean does hate really fly all around that much that you need Cover Recast?

Thanks for the help