Updated merit suggestionFollow

Merits are another one of those catagories that is pending updates by Square Enix, though it's a fair bit down the line still.

Biggest Sellers are Convert 5/5 for Group 1

And Group 2
Dia III
Paralyze II
Slow II

are the big contenders, though you can only max 2.

Phalanx2 is nice if you do lowman Dynamis, or anywehere where a straight 30 point reduction to damage recieved is significant (AoE blood tanking/pulling). I personally haven't missed moar Paralyze II or Slow II merits, and come BRD or WHM for zergs so Dia III isn't in demand.

Edited, Oct 14th 2011 1:24pm by tertoonetwothreefour

Ok, one more question: do you suggest ice 5/5 or something like 3/5?

Either or.

It depends entirely where you want to invest.

I go 5/5 because I'm 5/5 Paralyze and Ice Element is our strongest darkness based nuke. But Magic Accuracy itself is a sort of... aggravating thing. We don't have a problem with it at high levels so much as we have a problem with high end notorious monsters being flatly or nearly immune to status effects with fixed resist rates.

My personal approach was to set up a spell I could go full potency on, and that was Paralyze, which was also decided because of Blizzard being a fairly powerful element at the time. Although, I am not entirely sure it still holds up, but I've found no personal experience yet to tell me to change it.

Again, it really depends on your mileage.

There's a shorter list of things that are not viewed as generally helpful or useful than there are those that are. Blind II for instance. (I don't think people would be putting merits into Water Accuracy either.)

Phalanx II is still the only merit that gives us something new, without requiring a subjob.

Depending on your play style and event line up is that you'll be meriting. Paralyze II is godly for anything that doesn't flat resist it, but on things that do, which are the VAST majority of difficult monsters, it's utterly useless. Slow II is mediocre but very few things are resistant to it, any merits you put in it will help you in every fight you do big or small, with the exception of earth (and some wind) based NMs. Phalanx II is a weird one, on one hand it's something that can be strategically helpful but it's weakness is it has horrible scaling and required you to go 5/5 and thus sacrifice other options. Dia III is your strongest enfeeble period. It's a direct 17.6% attack bonus to every member of your alliance, including BLU's and pets, two jobs that can't buff their respective attack (spells for BLU). To put this in perspective, a PLD with 550 attack is going to be hitting the NM as thought he had 646 attack, a free 96 attack. A WAR with 650 attack (non buffed) will be hitting as though he had 764 attack, a free 114 attack. With buffs and food it'll scale even higher, and stacked with Agnon or saboteur you can basically guaranteed capped attack (ratio) on every member of your alliance. Dia II is 11.1% attack bonus, so you must individually determine if the additional attack is worth it or not. I would recommend at least 2/5 minimum, that is 60s of destruction.

Now personally, I went 5/5 Dia III and 4/5 Para II, 1/5 Slow II. Not a good solo setup but a godly alliance fight VWNM setup. I can keep a powerful Dia III on for the entire fight and our two PLD's have commented that they notice the damage increase. As a RDM/NIN I too notice it and have done some pretty impressive CDC's. The only thing that my shell currently terms difficult are the VWNM fights, namely the Windy Vamire, the Outlands T1 Tiamat, the Jeuno T2 corse and the Jeuno T2 mothra. Although honestly the mothra isn't so much hard as you don't have much room to maneuver and it's aoe's do substantial damage over time. The corse is just a wanker, its highly potent aoe burn stays on you every AFTER you die, so you re-raise and immediately die a few seconds later if your don't immediately apply stoneskin. It spams death at lower HP and just plain cheats (2K Hadal summons through stoneskin with barfira and Shell V up). You beat both of those fights by keeping everyone as far away as possible while holding it in a corner and sending people in two or three at a time for damage then pulling them out when their hurt. Because these fights aren't a million DD's hitting a brick wall with infinite HP (scenario nearly every DPS comparison done is based on) I've determined that it's important to maintain constant damage over time by people who won't die within 30s of heavy aoe's, namely our two Alamce PLDs (one Aegis one OChain). By ensuring their always dealing solid damage, even in their -DT / MDB sets we can get the NM's HP down even when half our melee's are weakened.

So like Hyrist has said, your mileage may vary and what you do will determine what you setup as. If your low manning things with a few friends then maxed Para II with some Dia III thrown in will be greatly useful. If your over /BLM or not /SCH and low manning things, then a maxed Phalanx II with some Dia II and Para II will be useful. And if your in big group super alliance fights, then maxed Dia III with some Para II / Slow II thrown in will be immensely useful.

Group is easy, 5/5 convert because it's that useful, and 5/5 on an element of your choice. I went with Ice, but with the way SE is going I may be switching to Thunder for Enthunder / Thunder IV nukage. Magic Acc is droped as a requirement for enfeebles now, either it's gonna land or it's gonna be immune. Now I'm turning towards magic damage and seeing as our elemental skill is rather low a +15 boost wouldn't be a bad thing. (SE's been making lots of things Ice resistant, most of the harder VWNM fights are very resistant to ice period).

Ice has been in charge for quite a while though. So I'm kinda glad they're making some more ice resistant mobs.

As far as reallocating merits into a different catagory, I'd say wait due to the revamp comming down the line, but with the ease of exp these days, why not fart around and test it out?

I have friends who are sitting on capped exp, capped merits, and all desired jobs leveled going "great, what am I doing to do with all these now?" every time we head out to do a skill party or they have fun with a exp alliance to help out subjobs/lowbies. So really the consequence of fiddeling around with merits isn't nearly as punishing anymore.

I'm most likely going to be trying out 4/5 Dia III. Something about a 3 minute Sabo-Dia III on an NM just seems right on paper.

Any suggestions on how to allot merits in the other section? I.e combat skills, hp/mp, and so on.

This above everything else Cid wrote.

Your merits will be ruled by your favorite jobs and your playstyle with them.

For example. Cid mentions INT as a possible 'best benefit'. To which I would say only if your primary focuses are nuking mage jobs. If you say are playing primarily RDM and WHM, I wouldn't go as far Merit INT. This goes further when it comes to RDM considering the fact that a RDM can boost an individual stat based off his at-the-moment needed, and the set shall be complete after the 99 cap raise. (Meaning Gain INT becomes available.)

If you play so much as one melee job habitually you might be better suited off going STR, as you'll probably get better mileage out of it.


The same goes for Combat Skills.
Now I'm all for pushing RDM to its limits, but if you're playing a warrior most the time, Merit G.Axe.
Otherwise, Sword and Dagger are staples for RDM.

Magic Skills (in no particular order) Enfeebling, Enhancing, Elemental are all staples. Prioritize to what you're doing.

But general merits are just that, general. There less about one job and more about what you as a player are doing more as a whole.