Tier 2 merits?

[Callisto]

Re: Tier 2 merits?

My merits were structured towards endgame and HNM fights, so I had 5/5 Slow II and capped Earth Magic Accuracy. Even with all that, you'll still need ES to reliably land Slow on mobs like Khimaira. Which is pure bullshit by the way, with capped gear and merit skill, but whatever.

This is why 5/5 Slow II was typically a waste to me compared to spreading it out. There's not really anything in the game where 2-3 extra Slow II merits will make or break your ability to land it. The majority of fights I see it's either I can land it in full MND, I can land it in full Enfeebling, or I need ES regardless. Either scenario makes another 2 merits useless.

Blind is always the red-headed stepchild of debuffs, but really it's not useless. It may not have a huge noticeable effect, but it is more noticeably with higher evasion tanks such as NIN or THF, and really, doing a small something is better than doing nothing.

[Malacite]

Re: Tier 2 merits?

This is why 5/5 Slow II was typically a waste to me compared to spreading it out. There's not really anything in the game where 2-3 extra Slow II merits will make or break your ability to land it. The majority of fights I see it's either I can land it in full MND, I can land it in full Enfeebling, or I need ES regardless. Either scenario makes another 2 merits useless.

The extra merits also increase it's potency though.

[Callisto]

Re: Tier 2 merits?

The testing I saw showed that additional merits didn't increase the actual cap, they just decreased the amount of MND needed to cap it. With a dedicated MND build are likely hitting at least 40 dMND on most everything(which caps Slow I iirc), I sit at 140+ with room for at least 8-10 MND worth of improvement. There's a point where I'd rather have access to other spells since I'm going to be capping it regardless of if I have 2 merits or 5.