Suggested Pup MeritsFollow

Can some of you older pups share with me what the best things to merit as a pup is? I just hit 90 and am looking for where to place my merits!
Thanks in Advance,
Belaal

Pretty much what Camwin said really.

In case you were wondering the main reason why Optimization is 5/5 and not Fine tuning is because the latter increases the stats by a flat 5, whereas the former adds on 5% (so at least 15 each merit after 300 skill).

Role Reversal and Vent are not as useful as they once were before we got Deus Ex Automata, but they're still pretty damn useful. With their recast duration already pretty low for merit abilities, 1 is enough in each.

As for the tier 1 traits the usual layout is 5 magic 5 melee, but it's not as cut and dry as it once was. Given that we can get Blizzard V at 90, only leaving Thunder V to get in 9 more levels (unless they change something somewhere or add something else), you probably won't need any merits in magic in order to use the spells by 99, and might instead choose ranged skill depending on which you use more. Only time will tell on this one.

Edit: I'd say even with other merits you strongly consider going 8/8 on H2H due to how base damage is worked out for H2H weapons compared to any other

Edited, Apr 12th 2011 5:03am by Xakz

These days I tend to use it in completely the opposite way to before (Hate dump on to the puppet) just because of DEA. Poor man's Super Jump on a better timer to boot.

For self DD:
Fire tiapan with str and atk
Walk of echos weapon with victory smite
Empyerian weapon with victory smite

For pet:
earth tiapan with -pdt (for VE tanking)
ice tiapan with 9int and + MAB for blm nukes



As far as best dps in/out of abyssea they will be about the same.

Fire tiapan < walk of echos < burts (lvl 89 droped) < empyrian for inside abbysea
fire < walk of echos < burts/empyrian for outside abyssea

Burts pulls ahead outside abyssea to make it even if not better then the empyrian weapon.

Edited, Apr 12th 2011 5:32pm by dustinfoley

Camwin's post is definitely the standard thinking (and is exactly the way my merits are set, including the non-PUP specific ones). You really can't go wrong with following that post.

Also, a note that even if you really like Sharpshot, automaton melee is better than automaton ranged even on SS. Why? The key for SS is generating TP to get off more weapon skills. You gain TP mainly through melee strikes, where SS can really use the boost due to its lower base melee skill.

It's arguable that depending on what skill/spells we get in the coming levels 91-99, auto magic skill will become less useful in time. I'd still be reluctant to give up the extra MAB/M.Acc from more magic skill, but if you can get all spells without merits it's not completely unreasonable to consider putting some of those merits in other stuff. We'll see what happens.



I did seriously think about dropping some auto melee merits for repair myself recently, but I didn't do it. Auto melee is just a great merit since it helps every frame.

Two reasons repair is comparatively stronger now though:
1) Get a BLM puppet to 100% HP for Deactivate/Activate. More useful now since even if your puppet dies, you can DEA > Repair and be at 100hp pretty fast.
2) Valoredge tanking (especially with Burts and Cannibal Blade spam). More frequent ability to also use repair improves the potential to tank harder stuff.



Exactly ^^ I also sometimes use it to establish hate on myself. Open with a big automaton nuke, vent onto myself, Stringing Pummel = that mob is stapled to me for a while.

I will say I'm still a little sad that they changed Vent in 2010 to make it no longer a viable instant claim tool as it was for a long time. Now PUP doesn't have any native instant claim abilities. You can /WAR for voke, /DNC for Animated Flourish, but when you're /NIN you don't have an instant JA (best you can do is Ni ninjutsu).

Role Reversal is still useful as an emergency self-cure, and is also nice for situations where the automaton is tanking. Dump your HP onto it, then get cured by a mage (or atma regen).



Dustin's reply is completely correct, but I'd like to emphasize just how amazing Burattinaios are. Do what you can to get them, they're way easier to obtain than an Empyrian weapon and they are phenomenal.

In the meantime, yeah Fire Taipan +2 are the standard very solid choice. Ice/Earth/Wind Taipan are situational pieces, but you should certainly prioritize the Fire ones.

Thats probably why I never need those merits.

I have a second account I have a WHM on so keeping myself alive with 15 mp refresh and cure v/vi is cake.

With VV and regain earring I open every fight with a VS(or SP if using burts) and am pretty locked in from there.

I'm in with Camwin on the build. Some people remove either/both role reversal or ventriloquy and put the points in fine-tuning, but I'd never part with either of them. They have just saved me too many times.

As for weapon, I did the Barracudas +2 because they were easy to solo during the random and sporadic time that I had. Give the time invested/power gained ratio, I'd aim for Burts for now.

I wouldn't bother with Burts anymore, personally. I'm glad I never put in the time to get them, now. Things like Burts and Ducal Guard atma always get fixed, I just ignore the bandwagon, myself.

Burts is a good placeholder and on the off-chance you're doing automaton only activities, 1 TP is still not bad if you're not in the mood to do a pet attack/accu magian. You can also use it to idle in and give your pet some TP before you start fighting so you have a spare WS with Tact Switch. I wouldn't really work to get it but if you can get it, it's nice to have.

All right let's do this. /cracks knuckles.

First off when you get skill lvl merits, aka h2h and automaton skills it adds the skill levels to both sides. Aka if you were 280/348 and added a merit to them it'd be 282/350.
Also work on crit first if you primarily play in abyssea as that will help your dmg output the most.

By the way I decided to go against the grain and dropped all STR merits and beefed up my DEX even more. I wouldn't suggest it unless you completely know what you are doing.

And here in a few skill levels ditch the mines and just go aby skill, with Atma all skills are easier obtained. I believe mines won't cap you anyways. (might with the new mobs).

@camwin hows dex treatin ya? (Curious)

cool cool :D, I remember when I went dex heavy back in the day to try it. Was it 4-5 dex is around 1% crit rate or something like that? I remember reading about it when I used to play nin before the uncap of lvls xD I have no idea how it works anymore xD

=D Thanks jinte

Just my order on merits:

1: 1/5 Role Reversal
2: 1/5 Ventriloquy
3: 5/5 Automaton Magic Skill
4: 8/8 Hand-to-hand
5: 5/5 Increased Crit Rate
6: 5/5 Automaton Melee Skill
7: 4/4 Evasion
8: 5/5 Optimization
9: 3/5 Fine-tuning
10: 5/5 Reducted Crit Rate
11: Literally anything else, like other jobs you don't even use anymore.
12: 8/8 HP
13: STR, DEX, INT, whatever. Most use STR for pup, but meh. I'm at the point where I might just put them into int for my blm, that might actually matter since I'm hume.

You could move optimization and fine-tuning above evasion if you wanted. I'm a big evasion fan here, so I put it up my way. Also, capping evasion merits is quick and easy. Might as well get it out of the way.



It's a well know irony that the hypercustomizable PUP has only one top-end merit setup:
5/5 Automaton Magic Skill
5/5 Automaton Melee Skill
1/5 Role Reversal
1/5 Ventriloquy
3/5 Fine-tuning
5/5 Optimization

There are a few holdouts for other setups, but most PUPs go with this.

Edited, Sep 2nd 2011 11:03am by Thydonon

Now that I look back at my merits, I think I can do without vent and RR, I've been using them because I have it but every time I go over the scenarios, Deus Ex Automata keeps coming up as an answer lol. Them 5's to everything sounds good right about now.

whether or not you do 5/5 opt/FT, or you keep the vent/RR merits, is basically entirely up to preference/play style. Personally, I don't use them religiously when I play pup, but I use them often enough to warrant having them, and in the situations I do use them, I'm really glad I have them

That, and at 90, you're not gonna need/notice the extra 10 acc/r.acc/eva 90% of the time, and the extra 10 MDB, while nice when put into play, isn't enough for to warrant the lack of extra utility having vent/RR provide for the same cost. For me, anyway.

@ dfoley
yeah i wish the attachments were percentile or at the very least caught up with the times.

@camwin
i demeritted the two and doing my usual to see if i have any 'itches' without them. i'm already feeling the itch though lmao.

@jinte
the utility is hard to pass up for sure. i use both of them here and there. you're right about the miniscule 10 stats with abby buffs around. outside besides voidwatch. its hard to justify almost.

so far im feeling empty without them ._. hahaha