BLM Merits

Myushani

Myushani

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Im still fairly new to merits, and i need an opinion from some experienced 75 blms. I know to merit lightning and ice potency to 5, but im not sure wether to get all 6 AMII's or put 3 merits into Burst II and Freeze II, because i am told I will MB them (no idea where). Any suggestions?

Edit: Quick addition, do the extra merits to BurstII and FreezeII add a lot of damage?
 
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Everyone still uses magic bursts on big end-game fights. It's always either light or dark, so there's a good case for only doing burst 2 and freeze 2. A 75 blm would be better to answer your question, but you do use magic bursts.
 
You have a very simple choice on Teir 2 merits. Do you want 6 gimpy spells, or 2 really effective spells? Even if you don't MB, +10 MACC (essentially an offhand Ice Staff) is a whole lot better than 2 spells you won't use, don't you think? If you want a third, like Tornado II for Kirin, go 3/2/1. Or if you really want some variety, go 3/1/1/1. But really, how often are you actually going to use Flare / Flood / Quake / Tornado 2?
 
I guess if you think about it as a solo situation the answer is obvious to do 3 in burst and freeze, but nobody fights anything big with only 1 blm when blm is being used.

I would go 3 burst 1 freeze 1 flood 1 tornado if you do anything big for versatility and also helping other blms with resists and let other blms do 3 burst and 3 freeze and die first or whatever.
 
If you're referring to the elemental resist down on AM... I'm pretty sure there's no difference between teir 1 and 2 in strength, only duration, the same as ninjutsu (which as I recall has a stronger effect anyway).

Oh, and Freeze II 3/3 is stronger than Burst II 3/3, because Freeze uses Ice/Aquilo's Staff and Burst only gets Thunder/Jupiter's Staff.
 
Yes but usage is still a factor, and the majority of mobs you burst light on. The elemental resistance is an added bonus to the versatility you gain by being able to different elemental spells (useful on grand wyrms and sea mobs) and being able to cycle more AM2 (useful for manafont zerg.)
 
Raise your elemental magic skill to 8/8 first

AMII wheel is my reccomendation but do what you want
(Quake II's purpose its to lower a mobs resistance to wind magic... i.e. Gravity... especially useful on Jailer of Temperance) others have a defense above... except Flare II... which I have never used with any significant purpose but still have.

Ice and Lightning potency max is the only sane option

Raise enfeebling if you dont have another job that eats that category (I'm a blue mage as well so I'm screwed)

Raise MP

the others do as you please
 
In all honestly its a choice between 6 gimp spells, or 2 less gimp , but still gimps spell. I got freeze II and burst II 3/3, but getting all 6 isnt a bad idea
for lowering resistance against the next spell. (ie on kirin cast quakeII before casting wind spells).

You shouldnt care about AM2 before being fully merited in ice/thunder potency and elemental magic.
 
Hey Myu, this is what i'm doing for this:

~Maxing out Burst II and Freeze II.
~Max MP Merits
~Meriting Elemental, & Enfeeblings skill
~Maxing out Thunder/Ice Potency

From what I've asked other BLM's this seems to be the most effective way to Merit BLM. If you're gna make BLM you're main job, you could probably mess with meriting INT but that's alotta work and merits.
 
When I played the game:

I did all 6 AM2. Quake always felt like a waste. You could probably bump up your freeze2 or burst2 if you really want. Or just get them all. If you do limbus at all, they'll come in handy. At least they did in my shell. If you do a lot of the other endgame fighths (ouryu uncapped, gods, mini-gods) where proper elements have their uses, the AM2 also serve a purpose. And a manafont->6xAM2->revitalizer->manafont->6xAM2->megalixer->AM2 will score you a shitload of besieged points. lol. Or was it 5. I haven't been on in a while.

I also did 6 elemental magic, 2 enfeebling magic because I loved to solo. I actually did that first.

Then go with 5 thunder potency and 5 ice potency.

Then do as much int as you can before you go insane. It's not pretty.

Then just goof off with mp/hp and whatever else you get the urge to merit. -enmity isn't really going to make that big of a difference, but I did it anyway. It just FELT safer. :P It never was.
 
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I had -emnity merits, but when I was made to level Ninjar, they kinda worked against me >_>;; and other then mobs despawning while soloing, from lack of hate, I never noticed a difference between having the -emnity merits and not having 'em :/
 
Nicholette said:
Raise your elemental magic skill to 8/8 first

AMII wheel is my reccomendation but do what you want
(Quake II's purpose its to lower a mobs resistance to wind magic... i.e. Gravity... especially useful on Jailer of Temperance) others have a defense above... except Flare II... which I have never used with any significant purpose but still have.

Ice and Lightning potency max is the only sane option

Raise enfeebling if you dont have another job that eats that category (I'm a blue mage as well so I'm screwed)

Raise MP

the others do as you please
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The resistance down only lasts for one spell, a flash from a pld, stun from a nin/drk, or insert 50 other spells that are commonly cast on mobs will end that resist down without any benefit. Getting Quake II for the resist down is kinda pointless. 5 ice potency Freeze II will do almost the same damage as an obi'ed Flare/Flood/Quake/Tornado II, they have limited usefulness. That said, I still have all 6 AM2 because the increased damage from the 2nd and 3rd upgrades is small, and unless you're retarded you won't be using them when macc is an issue (MB's give a dramatic boost to macc, as does elemental seal, the two times you'll use them on HNM. If you use them frequently in manaburns you need to be bitchslapped)

Flood is nice for Suzaku, Tornado for Kirin, I like Flare because I carry around fire staff and obi for FIre IV on firesday (better than blizz IV on firesday, on average, and I find myself casting Flare II occasionally solo on firesday) but I have yet to find a real usefulness for Quake (the resistance down is better done with Doton: Ichi/Ni/San. The resistance down is the same, and the varying duration rarely matters because some offensive spell will be cast before it wears almost all the time. The effect and often gimped damage is not worth the nearly 300 MP, cast time, and 10 TP to the mob)
 
For purely a BLM standpoint ignoring any other jobs you may have leveled or will level, here is what I would merit:

8/8 Elemental Magic skill
8/8 Enfeebling Magic skill
8/8 MP (might change if you're taru and really lack HP, but most taru are suicidal anyways)
5/5 Ice Potency
5/5 Thunder Potency
4/4 Spell Interuption Down
4/4 Enmity Down
5/5 INT

The argument for Tier 2 Merits differs based on opinion and preference as well as your own playstyle and purpose. For some, they play a lot of end game where there is always a Light or Dark skillchain meaning they can make the most of full merits into Burst II and Freeze II, but that's not always the case for everyone. Some prefer putting a single merit into each to give versatility to their spells while others want the ability to cast all spells maximizing the amount of damage their Manafont can do. It's really just a preference. Do you gear yourself for one or the other? There is also a side issue as to whether meritting a single AMII three times will compensate enough for not nuking to a mob's weakness, but that's probably something for another topic.

Now, I left a lot of those merits alone, but there are other issues to take into account while looking at merits for BLM, namely order in which you chose merits and more importantly, other jobs you have or will level. For starters, I would chose merit order based on upon importance to your needs. If you do a lot of end game where AMII would come in handy, I would try to get a merit for them quick. If you solo frequently, I would suggest getting a couple of merits into Enfeebling and then Ice/Thunder Potency. That would help reduce resists on gravity/sleep and improve the damage you do while soloing. Side Note: I wouldn't use AMII while getting exp, it's still rather MP consumptive versus the damage output although still a lot better than AMI. You should try to use the merit points as you get them because almost all merits will help you improve the rate you get merits in the future even if only slightly.

Other jobs will influence how you merit as well. Notice I said 4/4 -enm merits? That's IF you plan on meritting BLM and ignoring everything else. But many players level a variety of jobs and having -enm on any tank job and often melee jobs in general can be a bad thing. INT is only really useful for BLMs as well. Other jobs just don't get much out of it and it's very merit costly as well; 36 merit points in total for all 5 INT. That's why many chose not to bother with it. Again, chose what's best for you and what you think will give you the best setup for all jobs or perhaps just BLM if that's what you enjoy most. Don't forget, merits are not permanent, they can be removed, but at the cost of the merit points which you cannot get back.
 
Isollde said:
Hey Myu, this is what i'm doing for this:

~Maxing out Burst II and Freeze II.
~Max MP Merits
~Meriting Elemental, & Enfeeblings skill
~Maxing out Thunder/Ice Potency

From what I've asked other BLM's this seems to be the most effective way to Merit BLM. If you're gna make BLM you're main job, you could probably mess with meriting INT but that's alotta work and merits.
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This seems like an awesome option.
 
Elemental, Enfeebling, Thunder/Ice Potency are pretty standard. Upgrade those in the priority of your play style.

For the AM II.. I personally have all 6. I duo the Prime Avatar fights often, and being able to have an AMII to bust out each fight really helps, as the Avatars will resist anything not their weak element.

Its also a lot of fun to pop a Wizards drink in Besieged, and spam the AM II elemental wheel against a mob :biggrin:
 
Isollde said:
I had -emnity merits, but when I was made to level Ninjar, they kinda worked against me >_>;; and other then mobs despawning while soloing, from lack of hate, I never noticed a difference between having the -emnity merits and not having 'em :/
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that's the problem stine's discussed with me when we reach merits. she actively levels WHM and PLD. She's told me that she's not throwing any merits into +enmity because while she does level PLD, WHM is her primary job and the last thing she needs is to automatically pull hate while healing, lol. Likewise, she's not going to toss any into enmity- because she doesn't want to lose hate when tanking :\

It's a rough life :) I'm tossing a couple into enmity- when I get there, because hey! I don't EVER have to tank >:D
 
Tristam Green said:
that's the problem stine's discussed with me when we reach merits. she actively levels WHM and PLD. She's told me that she's not throwing any merits into +enmity because while she does level PLD, WHM is her primary job and the last thing she needs is to automatically pull hate while healing, lol. Likewise, she's not going to toss any into enmity- because she doesn't want to lose hate when tanking :\

It's a rough life :) I'm tossing a couple into enmity- when I get there, because hey! I don't EVER have to tank >:D
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I personally don't like +/- enm merits. As I leveled WAR, I had Patroclus Helm which gives -5enm, for a total enmity of -1 with all my other gear. In certain circumstances, it would be difficult for me to pull hate when we needed to do a SATA or if I needed to save the tank. In some of those cases, there was more to it like I was the lowest level so my damage output was lower thus the significant hate issue, but the issue was still there, I could not pull hate with a simple provoke. To remedy that, I could easy take off my helm and replace it with something else. Easy enough. With enmity merits, you can't just turn it off and on as you please which is why I don't like them as much. For someone who is mage centered, it's perfect, but a majority of players are not. It also messes with people as they duo too. I tried to duo with a friend who has full enm merits, I can't budge the hate my way at all.
 
I'd definitely level Elemental (and perhaps Enfeebling) before MP at all...nukes getting resisted less would go much further than having a larger MP pool, but then I guess this'd depend on what you generally fight against to begin with.
 
Merit in this order:

Elemental
Burstx1
Freezex1
Thunder Potency
Ice Potency
Enfeebling
Burstx2
Freezex2
MP
INT

K, bye.
 
Tristam Green said:
that's the problem stine's discussed with me when we reach merits. she actively levels WHM and PLD. She's told me that she's not throwing any merits into +enmity because while she does level PLD, WHM is her primary job and the last thing she needs is to automatically pull hate while healing, lol. Likewise, she's not going to toss any into enmity- because she doesn't want to lose hate when tanking :\

It's a rough life :) I'm tossing a couple into enmity- when I get there, because hey! I don't EVER have to tank >:D
Click to expand...


Lol, tbh, i hated teh -enmity merits :/ it made soloing really aggrivating. If i was consistaly casting on the mob, it would lose hate and despawn, and then I just wasted 300+ mp for jack shit D:

imo, there is gear if you were want the -enmity or the +enmity that a merit i dont think ill ever touch again
 
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