Merit Set-Ups

Psylentcuda

Psylentcuda

Silencer of Jibba Jabba
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Jan 3, 2006
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FFXIV
Psylentcuda
I'm interested to see what everyone's merit set-ups are. Hopefully this thread will start some intelligent discussion about what people are trying to achieve with their RDM in the end-game scene. Please post the following:

Tier I Merits:
Advantages:
Disadvantages:

Tier II Merits:
Advantages:
Disadvantages:

Psylentcuda (Unfinished)
Tier I Merits:
Convert Recast: 2/5
Ice Acc: 2/4
Wind Acc: 1/1
Advantages:
Slower Convert allows me to dump mp into large MP spells such as Cure IV. It also allows more room to juggle mp around without being as careful.
Ice Acc helps to land Bind in sticky situations easier and also allows Paralyze to be more potent.
Wind Acc helps to land Gravity in kite situations.
Disadvantages:
No Earth Acc means Slow may or may not always land. Its one of the harder spells to land on HNM.
Lower Convert recast means I can't stack Divine Seal with Convert every time I convert.

Tier II Merits:
Slow II: 2/5
Phalanx II: 0/1
Bio III: 0/4
Advantages:
Slow II with a great mind build helps NIN or /NIN tanks keep their shadows up easier. It also means less TP attacks and less MP spent on cures over time.
Phalanx II stacked on a PLD helps reduce the damage they take immensely when blood tanking.
Bio III can deal decent DoT over time and having 4 merits means it will last a full 2 min.
Disadvantages:
Paralyze II can help when tanking larger HNM with a higher proc rate.
More merits in Phalanx II would mean PLD's take less damage.
No Dia III merits doesn't allow for max defense down when melee damaging any monster.
 
Stacking Divine Seal with Convert is nice, but not really necessary in my opinion. Also in some situations you won't even be /whm (even though a lot of the time you would). My Merits are also unfinished but personally I'm having second doubts about Wind Accuracy merits, Since a lot of Higher level NM outright resist silence and/or eventually build resistance to Gravity. As soon as I start up on Tier2 merits I intend to dump them for Earth.
 
5ice/5vert/5bio3/3slow/2para

mainly solo-oriented; ice, vert, and bio are no-brainers for this.
 
Courtney

Tier I Merits:
Earth Accuracy 4
Ice Accuracy 3
Wind Accuracy 3

Advantages:
Accuracy merits to cover the major enfeebling spells (Silence Gravity Paralyze Bind Slow) and our strongest nuke (Blizzard). Accuracy Merits also double as potency merits, by allowing you to use more potency gear and keep landing spells. Slow is my most important of these, so gets the extra merit.
Disadvantages:
No Convert Recast. Convert Recast is useless anytime you don't convert in <10min, and it only adds MP. I can currently regenerate ~2000MP/10 min by myself when necessary and for most endgame that's plenty. The one time I'd find convert recast helpful woulod be for meriting, but I don't do a lot and preferred the accuarcy/potency.

Tier II Merits:
Slow II 3
Paralyze II 1
Phalanx II 2
Advantages:
Slow II is a guaranteed effect once it lands, Paralyze is a bit hit and miss, some mobs it procs a lot, some, almost never. I do quite a lot of Salvage and small man Assaults where Phalanx II is very useful, although I rarely use it for big fights (Plus there was a period where our PLDs were screaming for it all the time, and it was easier to keep them quiet.)
Disadvantages:
No Dia III (decisions were made with 6 total merits, and Dia III isn't really that useful as a defense down enfeeble with <3 levels)
No Bio III (mainly for solo)
No Blind II (not that useful endgame)

Haven't upgraded to 10 yet (recent merits going to other jobs), but will probably either add 2 Slow/2 Para or 1 Slow/3 Dia.
 
Haven't finished my merits yet, but this is what I'm gonna do when I get the last couple done. I merited more towards soloing.
Tier I Merits: 5 Convert, 5 Ice Acc.
Advantages: Helps with soloing :dur:
Disadvantages: I guess no acc. for wind or earth.

Tier II Merits: 5 Bio III, 3 Slow II, 2 Para II
Advantages: Again, helps with soloing. Bio III is amazing.
Disadvantages: No Phalanx for tanks, Less effective Paras and Slows. No Blind II (lol) No Dia III (lol)
 
My rdm will mostly be used for soloing/lowman stuff and for meriting. Since I don't do much end-game anymore, about the hardest thing I fight are tier 4 znms, which I will most likely still be attending on whm.

For the first group, I can't decide between 3x Convert/4x Ice/3x Wind and 5x Ice/3x Wind/2x Earth... it seems like for the mobs I'd be fighting, the former would work the best and was what I was leaning towards. Or alternatively, I might go with a 5x Convert build...

For the second group I was planning to do 4x Bio II/3x Slow II/3x Paralyze II.

This is all subject to change of course depending on how much I end up liking rdm vs whm when I get to 75.
 
what do you solo with bio 3 ?
 
Anything that you would kite?
 
I used to have 5 convert and 5 earth, but 5 convert was for back when i used to tank on rdm, and has no real use in normal rdm endgame activitys, it mainly, as people have said, for soloing and merits. I now have 5 ice and 5 earth, cause really, outside of HNM, what mobs resists you? And how many HNM do you silence and gravity these days? No real use for wind for me.

Tier 2 i use 5 Phalanx2 4 SlowII and 1 Paralyze2. Again, my rdm is HNM oriented, and we are more and more moving back to blood-tanking on pretty much everything we do. Slow is the most important rdm enfeeb imo, its reliable and its effective. Sure its cool to get alot of paralyze procs when your in the shit, but you cant rely on it and you just might aswell get 0 procs. Slow on the other hand is always there. If you stick it, you get your guarenteed slow%.
 
I'm asking this because I don't see many NMs that would be worth soloing as rdm, (assuming /nin) where bio3 would be the main source of damage. Even Jailers would mainly die from Nukes. Idk exactly about Sky NMs, but you'll probably end up doing better money subbing THF and killing ladybugs.
 
Tier I Merits: 5/5 Ice and 5/5 Convert

Advantages:IMO 5/5 Convert is the most useful thing to merit in the category. It helps in everything you do as RDM. More MP can mean you can throw out them extra nukes or enfeebles. 5/5 Ice helps us with our best nuke, Bind, and Paralyze.

Disadvantages:5/5 Convert won't do anything for very short events. 5/5 Ice means that you're not putting merits into the other magic categories. You will have less gravity, silence, and Aero accuracy than someone with 5/5 Wind, and same for other categories.


Tier II Merits:Slow II 5/5 Bio III 5/5

Advantages:Slow II is constant slow% and will help on nearly everything. Bio III 5/5 is mainly for soloing and 5/5 makes it more MP efficient.

Disadvantages:Slow II 5/5 is a pretty standard setup and the only thing in this category that I think all RDM's should have. Bio III isn't used as often in standard party/endgame events. Dia III would help your melee allies more. Paralyze II MIGHT help prevent the mob from casting/attacking. Phalanx II would help if you're party is straight tanking something. lolBlindII. Bio III is more of a personal choice; it doesn't really matter what you merit in place of it. Slow II is the only thing that stands out in this category.
 
pchan said:
I'm asking this because I don't see many NMs that would be worth soloing as rdm, (assuming /nin) where bio3 would be the main source of damage. Even Jailers would mainly die from Nukes. Idk exactly about Sky NMs, but you'll probably end up doing better money subbing THF and killing ladybugs.
Click to expand...
capped bio3 is pretty efficient, and it's amazing on things that you don't bind or take little damage to nukes.
 
I don't understand why you say "Slow rarely lands on Hnm so i didn't bother with earth acc" then go 5/5 on Slow2, if you have full ice merits (or 4/5?) wouldn't paralyze2 be more effective, since it would be slightly easier to land, allowing you to put more MND into casting set?

Edit: sorry, directed at the OP if it's not obvious.
 
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I come from a time when RDMs nuked in EXP pts and did almost all my RDM merits (pre Teir II) in Sky and the Range. That being said I used: 3 Ice; 3 Wind; 2 Earth; 2 Thunder

So as you can see mine were based around all enfeebling and nuking in pt. Now how I was planning on redoing them once I finish up SCH.

4 Ice; 3 Wind; 3 Earth

god I wish I could up Dark ACC <.< And Convert is too rarely needed in under 10min to make it worthwhile (outside of a pure solo build).


Anyhow for Teir II
2/5 Para II
2/5 Slow II
2/5 Dia III

is my current setup.

I was looking at going 5/5 Para II as I have seen some damn good results from 5/5 Para with stats building towards the 320/140 setup (320 Enfeebling with 140 MND).

I was going to leave the others alone and maybe add Phalanx II (like Courtney more to appease whiny tanks).

Looking at some of the things put up here and the whys might have me consider another way.
 
bladewind~ said:
I don't understand why you say "Slow rarely lands on Hnm so i didn't bother with earth acc" then go 5/5 on Slow2, if you have full ice merits (or 4/5?) wouldn't paralyze2 be more effective, since it would be slightly easier to land, allowing you to put more MND into casting set?

Edit: sorry, directed at the OP if it's not obvious.
Click to expand...

Probably because with elemental seal you dont need any acc at all. Use elemental seal for slow, cause its way more important with slow for the blinktank, and spam para, hopping to get lucky.
 
Caerloc said:
Probably because with elemental seal you dont need any acc at all. Use elemental seal for slow, cause its way more important with slow for the blinktank, and spam para, hopping to get lucky.
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Well that and Slow 2 merits add potency and accuracy. So with those 5/5 merits it'll land more accurately than 5/5 acc merits. Also its the only earth spell i need accuracy on. Ice Acc merits work for Bind and Para along with allowing me a higher MND set-up for Para thus making it proc more. High mind/acc Para I > Low mind/acc Para II
 
Tier I Merits: wind x4, ice x4, convert x2

Advantages:Have a high acc on bind and gravity, plus 40 sec off my convert timer which has help in many occasions.

Disadvantages:Personally I have considered droping ice/wind to 3 each and dropping another 2 into convert. Para and slow not much of a issue because tier 2 adds acc to them.


Tier II Merits:Slow II x2, Para II x3, dia III x1, Phalanx II x1

Advantages:It a little bit pf everything. dia III for merits or to throw on any mob to help kill faster. Slow II always a crowed fav, and would not trade para II for the world. Nothing better then to see a screen full of bune is paralized. The phalanx II for the time I'm in tank party. I throw it on given tank that little extra something.

Disadvantages:Personally hardly ever use phalanx II considered getting rid of it several times. Sch does the job better anyway even with 5 merits. Honestly hardly use it. Plus could use the merits to place in bio or blind. (which I think very under used.) Blind work on alot nms and with 2 merits it can be stronger then ninja blind. Would love see how it test against flash but 9 point alot to blow on testing.

When all said and done I will either be 4 para 4 slow 2 blind or 3 para 3 slow 2 bio 1 dia 1 phalanx, or maybe 3 slow 3 para 2 blind 2 bio.

Like point out something though the slow, blind and para is not that potent with only 1 merit in it. Have to have atleast 2 to beat out ninja. Puting 3 in para almost like having a wyvern para on.
 
no i'm pretty sure that blind II wont beat ninja blind even if fully merited unless the ninja is only casting kurayami ichi....

I'd honestly like to see the spell made work but for the only tank job that needs to worry about evasion and the job that's most often used for tanking(going off of reading could be different now?) pld/war or pld/nin.


even if it did bead kurayami ni it'd be by a very small margin which you would have to give up a lot of space ie 5 merits to have for that one situation unless for some reason you face this situation a lot, even then blind II would have to be > ni


looking at wiki Blind II -15 acc from first merit each adds an uncertain amount each extra merit. Also wiki isn't clarifying(no time stamps) if fully merited 5/5 blind II doesnt overwrites ni or if 3/3 doesn't overwrite ni.
 
K. Ishitar said:
no i'm pretty sure that blind II wont beat ninja blind even if fully merited unless the ninja is only casting kurayami ichi....

I'd honestly like to see the spell made work but for the only tank job that needs to worry about evasion and the job that's most often used for tanking(going off of reading could be different now?) pld/war or pld/nin.


even if it did bead kurayami ni it'd be by a very small margin which you would have to give up a lot of space ie 5 merits to have for that one situation unless for some reason you face this situation a lot, even then blind II would have to be > ni


looking at wiki Blind II -15 acc from first merit each adds an uncertain amount each extra merit. Also wiki isn't clarifying(no time stamps) if fully merited 5/5 blind II doesnt overwrites ni or if 3/3 doesn't overwrite ni.
Click to expand...
That truly appointing if so. I mostly want try it for self soloing see if it made a differences.
 
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