Meriting

[Shaidalyn]

Okay, I have a few questions about merits in general, as well as some idea... but I'd like to have some of Quetz' finest give me some advice.

I'm leveling Whm right now.. The main question I have is.. how many merits can I put per skill? On the site it shows..
White Mage Lv. Pattern: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 | Combo Total / Max: 10
Which is simple but does this mean I can put all 10 merits in one slot? If so I'm gonna kick out all 10 on Regen because I find that to be the most useful spell in the game.. And I dunno Regen III's increase but 10 more per tick would be nice I am sure.. if this is a bad idea.. perhaps the Cure Cast -4%
However that is my LAST priority.
My primary idea currently would be to merit Eva, Parry and Shield. I hear I can only do this... 4 times each? When Rdm hits 75, will I be able to merit it more?

After that I am looking to buff Crit up as high as I can, again same question as above..
Others Lv. Pattern: 1, 2, 3, 3, 3, etc | Combo Total / Max: 8
Can I toss 8 into Crit up ? if I do, can I add more as Rdm if I so choose to later on?

Beyond this I dunno what I'll merit... thats enough work to last me a LONG time.. and the merits you see (eva, parry, shield) are for Nin, Pld, and Sam.. So don't go on about how they don't help WHM...

I guess my question is mostly based on the multiple job meriting.. and if anyone has any -further- suggestions, or alterations to my WHM setup.. Parry/Eva/Shield will be merited, that's not changing.
Also, when is a good time to change to Merits? How much exp buffer is a good idea as whm? (I will not be doing Dynamis)
Thank you~

 

[Reynard]

here's the basics that you need to know.

You can merit combat skills a total of 12 times total, no matter what job. Weapons can have a maximum of 8 merits, defensive gets a max of 4 (evasion, shield, and parrying for example).

This also applies to Magic Skills. You can merit this a total of 8 times also, no matter what job you are. They all cap at 8, I believe. If you're serious about WHM, you won't have much need for anything here.

Others (Crit rate and enmity) get a total of 10 I believe. If you're doing all mage jobs, putting a couple into Enmity- would be wise later. You can merit your HP and MP too, putting some points into MP would be good, it's a free 10 MP per level.

Now, for WHM, you get Regen and Cure cast as your biggest choices. I would advise putting points into Cure first. You can put a total of 10 into White Mage merits, so you don't have to worry about running low on room. Keep in mind though, that job specific merits ONLY apply when that job is your main. You won't get any Cure cast merits if you're subbing WHM.

The most important thing to remember is that outside of the job specific merit categories, you share all of the merits with all your jobs. Even if you level RDM to 75, you'll still have all those merits to evasion, club, whatever.

 

[Shaidalyn]

Okay I knew about them carrying over.. my biggest thing was if I merit 4 shield, 4 eva, 4 parry.. am I done in that section for the rest of my game life? lol

And -enmity is tempting for DD jobs.. but I really only want crit up and perhaps -spell interrupt seeing how I will be leveling nin AND pld.

and yes, 8 MP merits will be nifty :3

 

[Tagrineth]

Okay I knew about them carrying over.. my biggest thing was if I merit 4 shield, 4 eva, 4 parry.. am I done in that section for the rest of my game life? lol

And -enmity is tempting for DD jobs.. but I really only want crit up and perhaps -spell interrupt seeing how I will be leveling nin AND pld.

and yes, 8 MP merits will be nifty :3

You can remove merits once they have been applied.

Combat skills go 1-2-3-3-3-3-3-3. Job specific skills go 1-2-3-4-5. "Other"s go 1-2-3-4 and cap at 4.

If you want to do PLD and NIN, spell interrupt and critical increase would probably be a good idea. PLD also benefits from mob critical decrease, though - and IMO would probably be better overall as spell interruption rate is very unreliable.

 

[Reynard]

When I said they carry over, it was pretty safe to assume that yes it applies to your RDM as well -_-;. You can remove the merits later, but you don't get the points back. I wouldn't waste my time with parrying and shield, honestly. Put those points towards Sword for your RDM. Every 1 skill is basically a free 1 accuracy and attack, it's very worth it.

 

[Bajaratt]

Actually, every combat/magic merit raises accuracy and attack by 2, not 1.

For the job specific merits, you can only take each to a maximum of 5, so regen would cap at 5. You can take 2 of the merits to max or any of them to a total of 10. For whm, Regen potency, cure casting time and bar-spell effect are the main things that whm's will merit. It's up to you which you want, there is no "best option," I personally don't like cure casting time but there are others who do.

As for what you can specifically merit, it depends on what job is currently your main. If you are 75 white mage, then you can only merit the combat/magic abilities a whm can use. If you change to rdm, then you can only merit the abilities that rdm can use. This means that you'd have to change to your rdm to merit your sword; I was really annoyed that I couldn't merit hand-to-hand skill on my whm for my monk that I was leveling at the time.

 

[Shaidalyn]

When I said they carry over, it was pretty safe to assume that yes it applies to your RDM as well -_-;. You can remove the merits later, but you don't get the points back. I wouldn't waste my time with parrying and shield, honestly. Put those points towards Sword for your RDM. Every 1 skill is basically a free 1 accuracy and attack, it's very worth it.

I didn't mean carry over as in are active.. thats common sense <.<; I meant if I could -raise- them.. I see i cant.. thank you ;p

 

[Rones]

Now, for WHM, you get Regen and Cure cast as your biggest choices. I would advise putting points into Cure first. You can put a total of 10 into White Mage merits, so you don't have to worry about running low on room. Keep in mind though, that job specific merits ONLY apply when that job is your main. You won't get any Cure cast merits if you're subbing WHM.

As one whm to another, I would recommend grabbing the regen upgrades. Cure cast time isn't that signifigant. However with 5 regen upgrades and whm af2 body my regens look like this:

Regen1 5->11hp per tick 120% increase
Regen2 12-> 18hp 50% increase
Regen3 20-> 28hp 40% increase

This greatly improves your mp efficieny and makes curing a lot easier so your cure cast time wouldn't be needed as much. :wink:

Mp is a great upgrade because it helps you on so many jobs.