Merits and You...Follow

People mostly picked Thunder and Ice Potency merits in group 1 since their regular spells had the highest base damage cap for their tiers. Based on this, they picked Freeze II and Burst II. Add to that, that these two cover both Light and Darkness SC Magic Bursts.

Recommended, I'd still go for Thunder and Ice potency, since they're likely the highest base damage when the end of the cap is there. Group 2 doesn't nearly matter as much, I've unlocked them all and put 3 merits in Freeze II and Burst II for reasons stated above.

Group 1: Thunder/Ice x5

Group 2: Like Fyn said, who cares? I have that group capped simply because I'm running out of things to merit. Before you worry about group 2, merit enfeebling/elemental skill, MP if you are not Tarutaru, spell interruption down.

Freeze2 is our second strongest nuke.

You haven't capped your merits yet?

Ah, ok. That would be a good explanation for not having merits capped.

I think i've got somewhere in the range of 20 million exp since abyssea. Only about 5m or so was actually used for anything. I've got merit bps for avatars i don't have unlocked

Edited, Dec 21st 2010 11:14pm by ThePsychoticOne

Yeah, that's pretty silly.

People did skillchains?

lollerskatez

Accidental chains don't count, you silly goose!



I rest my case.

Everyone else just tweaks their merits every time a new level increase comes out, right? I mean to align with the best spells. With the 20 merit change and stuck at 20/20 merits all the time, it seems silly not to change it. Tier 1 is only 15 merits to change 0/5 to 5/5 in a category.

Of course, depending on which magian trials you've finished might also play a role, but it's so easy to change merits now, do it whenever you feel like it.

If I had BLU90, I would consider dropping ele merits in favour of BLU magic - anything to help land tricky triggers such as 1000 needles. Or perhaps Ninjutsu if I really put lots of effort into my NIN and made it my main

Yeah I guess it's probably fairly inconsequential anyway. The closer we get to 99 the less those magic merits are going to have an impact.

Or SMN skill, which would let you hit another tier of avatar's favor at level 90.

this is what my gut is telling me too, and why i'm not investing a ton of time into fighting over this content with every greedy rdm and blm on the block. basicly, most of this stuff (current content, "the new standard gear") is doable with a small group, and if you happen to be thf + mage you can manage quite a lot of the popsets, gear upgrades, and NM clears with just that and some good atma setups.

what said it all to me was that after the more or less wild (by the old standard of LFG as a given job) success of abyssea, they made the director of abyssea content the director of the game, period. and the changes since have indicated this trend is likely to continue.

whether or not we lose something aesthetically in this spate of changes is really a subjective notion, but i could definitely see several angles to such a discussion. long ago i suggested that perhaps a "game" of ffxi, that is to say a server population of regular players, might be quite a bit more interesting with a total population of around 250 or so, and after reexamining that idea in light of the current trend i still believe it.

to me the best parts of ffxi are not found in attempting to find that false sense of being the top rdm, or whatever. that kind of goal is not only foolhardy but also creates social incentives to abandon years of solidarity in favor of social standing, or out of fear of losing access to content (upgrades, access, accumulated player-driven points) to stand idle while abuses of power persist.

that said, i have enjoyed the magian trial content especially, for this reason alone: i can take up the quest and nearly anyone i meet with similar goals can join without any such anxiety. content goals that encourage solidarity and long term relationships have all been much more satisfying than trying to out click someone for the old long-pop NMs, etc. i do understand the heart-thumping appeal of an open claim window, but i feel the 'punishment' of losing claim for the other 75-90% of people present at the camp is just too destructive in terms of the behaviours it rewards.

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bit of a derail but hopefully forgivable. to bring this back to the OP and topicality, i'd just reiterate that merits are easy these days and you can feel fairly free to experiment with your build in this climate. also worth restating, content will be changing yet more over the next year, so try to have fun with it, for goodness' sake.

tl;dr: nothing to see here, move along.