[mpa]

To hedge your bets on merits is to be mediocre in endgame. I don't know how well BLM's do against resists on wyrms or gods without merits, but I think the decision comes down to how to how you value being great at one thing or good at many things.

[arkaine23]

To each their own. As I said, I have a split focus. I do like taking blm out now and then. Heck I might drop a point into dark magic, considering that dynaims calls for rdm/drk to stun a lot, and our dark magic skill blows. I know a great many rdm's just maximize enfeebling so they can get maybe 50% resists on Gods, others might spilt it 4/4 between elemental and enfeebling, and play BLM to 75 as well as RDM. It's all in your preference.

From what I've been told, even capping enfeebling and elemtnal accuracies, Gods will still resist you about half the time. But from what I can see on just about everything but Gods/HNM, I already have about a 95% stick rate. Seems a waste to take it too high, and a HNM/God fight is long enough that a recast here and there is no big thing... not to mention that other rdm's in alliance are enfeebling also. I doubt like hell I could land a nuke for more than 1/4 damage on something so tough even fully geared and merited.... but during lvl cap stuff and when playing BLM main I know it'll help. For that matter, I mght divert some points of sword into H2H if I ever get my monk up to 75.... Would be nice to drop Raging Fists while in a 40 cap zone or BCNM.

Like last night I found myself chaining weapons in sky for merits. There was no BLM and the SC often left the weapons with 40% or more hp left. I could sure take a chunk out of that with an unresisted free nuked Bliz III @ 500 or so. And since I was only refreshing the whm pld and myself, I found I had the MP to nuke Blizz 3 on every fight, and sometimes follow with a Bliz 2 and a Drain. When a fight lasts only 35 seconds, what's the point of enfeebling? I got resists about 1/6 nukes. A little extra skill would be nice. And I have an HQ ice staff, I can just imagine how it might go if I tried free nuking Thunder III without any elemental merits and just an NQ staff....

I guess what I'm saying is that, for me, there's more to end game than just enfeebling gods. Hard core soloists might dump 5 into enhancing for an extra point on Phalanx and En-spells... Surely the end game HNM crowd is dumping more on mnd and int than I plan to, etc.

It's all about how you play, how you can compenstate for racial weaknesses, and what strengths you want to boost up. I like doing a bit of everything as a red mage.

Then there's the cost to consider. It takes more merits the higher you go in any one thing. My plan will take over 1,3000,000 limit points to complete. It would take several hundred thousand more if I was maximizing say enfeebling, convert timer, wind accuracy, and boosting only int and mnd.

Here are the current merit caps:

HP/MP- 8 total, 8 in either max
Stats- 5 total, 5 in any 1 stat max
Combat Skills- 12 total, 8 in any one category max for weapons, 4 max in others (parry/sheild/evasion)
Magic skills- 8 total, 8 in any 1 school of magic max
Other- 8 total, 4 max in any specific category (crit hit, enmity, spell interruption -)
RDM- 10 total, 5 max in any specific catergory (elemental-specific accuracy, convert timer)


Merits are active as long as the 75 lvl job remains at 75. The job specific ones... for instance, RDM, do not apply to any other jobs you may have.


Another thing to keep in mind is that this may only be phase one of the expanision of the merit system. With a new game expansion coming in a few months, SE has already hinted at giving new spells and abilities through merits. The current speculation is that this might be like if you have 3 of A magic merited and 4 of B skill merited and at least 1 of C elemtenal accuracy merited (for example), then you can now get insert_new_spell/ability name here. Lots of RPG's have somthing similar... Diablo II comes to mind, I guess WOW? Anyway, only speculation at this point.

[mpa]

Originally Posted by arkaine23

When a fight lasts only 35 seconds, what's the point of enfeebling?

I totally agree with that statement. In roaming PT's I hardly debuff the mob at all because they're dead so fast. In terms of the merit (heh) of meriting elemental skill for use as a RDM, however, I think we look at it from different viewpoints. What happens after you're done with merit PT's? The boosted elemental skill for a RDM will be of little use after you stop fighting mobs that are around exping level.

I do see your points about split focus and the potential merit expansion pre-requisites. It must be tough to have to choose between RDM and BLM since both are in high demand in LS's.

[TheGrandMom]

Attitude has a lot to do with merits. Some people are focused on End Game and really want to excel. To people like that, maxing enfeebling is important. Having Gravity stick consistantly on HNM's/God's/Kirin/etc. are important to them. Other people want a more balanced approach for other jobs they are lvling or to be able to solo more efficiently. To each their own. But I will say that some HNM's are more focused on people that will adapt to the LS instead of their own individual style. They want people that are focused on the same goals that they are and will also focus their meriting on the categories that benefit that.

Personally, my ls comes before my wants. I lvl jobs that my ls needs me to lvl. I merit what they need me to merit. I try to excel at what they need. It benefits the ls and, in doing so, it benefits me. I also lvl different characters for different classes. My Taru is my whm/blm/rdm/smn/brd. My mithra and elvaan are my dd's. My Galka is my tank. This way merits go where they are needed and don't affect other jobs adversely. But thats just my take on things and everyone has their own way of looking at it.

[arkaine23]

Luckily, you can always demerit yourself and get more limit points and apply them somewhere else. And with end game activites, even when you're all merited out, you'll still have to go build up that xp buffer frequently.

[Enialas]

Originally Posted by arkaine23

Luckily, you can always demerit yourself and get more limit points and apply them somewhere else. And with end game activites, even when you're all merited out, you'll still have to go build up that xp buffer frequently.

as long as you can do that, all it costs you is time.

[Johnny]

A lot of good information here! I'm fast approaching 75, and have grown quite curious about this subject of late. All I really knew about merit points was that you could increase stats. I had absolutely no idea of how exactly it worked, or what the limits were. Definately nice to know that you can remove merits and rearrange them (even if you do have to reaquire the xp/limit points to get them again). I suppose this way if i have the time, I can spend a while as HNM/God killer, and then switch to solo if that's what I want. looking forward to see what sort of merit changes will be added in the upcoming (who knows how soon with SE ) expansion.