RDM category 2 merits

[Fellina]

With the advent of Campaign I finally have a way to get merits while still getting stuff done outside of FFXI, so I've been working on my RDM. I've hit an impasse however, in that I'm not sure which of the category 2 spells are actually worth putting points into. I currently have one rank in Phalanx 2, and one in Dia 3; both have been really handy, but the duration (on dia esp.) is pretty short. I'm wondering if I'm better off boosting those two up, or if the level 2 debuffs are good enough that I should get those instead.

 

[Dejan]

With the advent of Campaign I finally have a way to get merits while still getting stuff done outside of FFXI, so I've been working on my RDM. I've hit an impasse however, in that I'm not sure which of the category 2 spells are actually worth putting points into. I currently have one rank in Phalanx 2, and one in Dia 3; both have been really handy, but the duration (on dia esp.) is pretty short. I'm wondering if I'm better off boosting those two up, or if the level 2 debuffs are good enough that I should get those instead.

There are a tonne of options and paths to follow. Blind 3 is usually ruled out, not sure how much hate it generates, but that's the only use i'd see in endgame blind. Dia 3 is pretty useful, and Bio 3 is amazing (Mandatory) for rdm who love to solo.

So basically it depends on what you focus on - if you're more of a support/endgame Rdm, then maybe Phalanx, Slow/Para? If you're into solo'ing and doing stuff on your own, Bio 3 helps.

 

[pchan]

Whatever you chose pick 2 and put full merit on it. If you plan on dia3 with 1 merit you will use 1000 mp every 10 minutes just for it so it's not worth it. Personnaly I played with the different spells and now i'm conviced that Maxed paralyze and slow is the best for what I do (Salvage, dynamis, Einherjar, Limbus).

 

[Courtney]

Really depends what you mostly do as a RDM. Slow II is pretty nice on HNMs. Paralyse II is a nice improvement over Paralyse as well, although it doesn't have the fixed duration of Slow II (or it seems, as consistent an effect). Dia III is pretty nice, but you need all 3 merits in it or you're forever recasting it.

If you solo a lot Bio III is a RDMs highest DoT spell and again, you'd want all 3 levels to get a decent duration. The best tool for DoT/kiting.

Phalanx II is useful in areas where your tanks/mellees get hit a lot but for smaller amounts (eg Salvage, and that Blitzkrieg assault).

And, as was said Blind II is the only spell thats not that useful. Also, none of them are really that useful in Merit Parties (maybe Phalanx II in some situations).

 

[Willian]

I personally have:
1 Dia III
3 Phalanx II

I kept the Dia III at 1, so I could cast it on Faffy before SCing... and have it wear off fast enough so we could sleep it if needed. Then I dropped out of end game and never got back to meriting RDM <_< Oops.

 

[K. Ishitar]

pretty much there was a thread before which I'll dig up in a sec basically all of the info I've gathered on them...Spoilering each section since it's pretty long

My merit understanding

Spoiler:

SlowII- absolute must have for rdm, haven't seen a single one say the boost isn't noticeable or helpful, people usually put 2-3 merits in

ParaII- powerful as well but heard that some weren't impressed with the results and used the merits for other stuff again 2-3 merits

BlindII-don't know anything about this base is -15 acc while the tier I is -5 sounds good but in most situations you'll have a nin(since they're everywhere) outdoing it with their own

DiaIII-heard it's great for exp and long endgame fights; merits run through mobs pretty quick so 1 merit would help a lot if you get change your mind and get them that way; needs full merits to get the full bang for your buck since it costs more

BioIII- Great for soloing duration is short so again full merits gives the greatest return; highest rdm DoT spell as well.

Personally going to toy with Slow II 3, Para II 2, Blind II 3*.

*-I plan to test out blind II with a solo melee set and see how much i can increase the ratio between the mob's acc and my eva, most likely it will go back into para II and make it fully merited but no one has info on Blind itself or it at full merits vs nin blind. If I like it for solo but want a strong II base of para and slow I'll leave one merit in it, but not likely.

Gear and merit choices

Spoiler:

Something to add that no one else has, I think a factor in choosing merits is the gear builds you have as well.

ie

Slow II and Para II is affected by mind so if you have high builds of mind full merits into this would further decrease the potency rate(read: greater your mnd vs mob= lesser rate of potency loss) of each respective debuff.

Same goes for Blind II but others say the above 2 are far more useful because of nin

BioIII-affected by skill only, if you have any dark magic+ in great amounts it help the power of this spell even more

Left out Dia because I'm not sure what its damage/duration is affected by...

I'd like to say it's static but I've had some Dia's wear off faster than others whether Rdm or /whm for another job soloing, so I'd assume Enfeebling magic.

It also depends on your role in endgame, had rdms switch their merits from Para to Phalanx to help tanks with dyna mobs and nms since they hit pretty hard.

Tier I and correlation and other links

Spoiler:

Your tier I merits should also have an effect on what to merit in group II

Ie

Earth Accuracy for Slow II

Wind Accuracy for Grav, Silence,etc.

Ice Accuracy for Para II, bind, etc.

helps increase accuracy which potentially can let you swap to more potency based sets unless it's a hard mob to enfeeble

Pulling up threads rq

BioIII-http://www.qcdn.org/ffxi/showthread.php?t=40645

Tier I Merits if interested as well-http://www.qcdn.org/ffxi/showthread.php?t=43433

Tier I/II Merits-http://www.qcdn.org/ffxi/showthread.php?t=48115

 

[Tomasello]

I went:

2 Merits in Dia III (awesome for exp parties and if you fight hnm at 60 secs per cast it isn't too bad, 30 is too short and would be a pain in the ass time and mp wise)

2 Merits in Slow II (I would of gone 3 but I wanted a little more depth for tier 2 spells)

1 Merit in Paralyze II (Still better then paralyze I and stacking on the MND will help potency)

1 Merit in Phalanx II (If your actually in a blood tanking situation (last I heard it was extinct lol) then it does help the PLD alot)

I didn't bother with Blind II because if you have a PLD tank they can flash which is far more potent and the Blind II isn't going to make much of a difference on an evasionless job and if you have a Ninja tank their Blind will overwrite your Blind II so I found it pointless imo.

I didn't bother with Bio III because 6 ticks of dmg versus 8 ticks of dmg didn't seem worth it to me unless you tend to solo alot not to mention BLMs and DRKs can do 7 ticks of dmg with Bio II so what's the point of an extra tick? With the majority of blinks tanks these days attack down is meaningless.


There's no right or wrong really just depends on how you play.

 

[pchan]

Last time I timed I had this result :

Paralyze II ~ 1:30 (3/3 merit)
Slow II ~ 3:00 (2/3 merit)
Blind II ~ 4:00 (1/3 merit)

Then I did an elemental seal paralyze II that lasted 30 seconds...

 

[Fellina]

Since I only ever solo on BST and not RDM, I think it's safe to say I can avoid Bio. Knowing that NIN blind will overwrite Blind II makes that one pretty worthless as well, since the only time blind would really be useful is when you have a NIN tank. :/

I guess the real question is how much better than the level 1 versions are Paralyze II and Slow II. I'm not planning on doing HNM stuff ever (been there, done that, not for me) so I'd really only get use out of them in Salvage, and to a much lesser extent Dynamis.

 

[K. Ishitar]

Spoiler:

Credit isn't due to me, hocked it from Araelus in the third link on my first post

 

[Courtney]

The graph is a bit dodgy but it gives the general idea. Each level of Slow II is about 3% extra on the previous level (for the same MND difference) all cap at a MND difference of about 80 (haven't actually tested the cap at level III).

 

[pchan]

This graph doesn't give much more info than the ingame description of the numbers of merits. More merit > better effect. Also Paralyze2>paralyze I which everyone expects.

The cap is 30% ? cool but how can you get 80 more mnd than a level 85 mob. Even if you manage, with a brd how to land it ?

 

[K. Ishitar]

I couldn't give an honest answer personally, hopefully Araelus can clear it up; I assumed it was a guesstimation(making that up) based on different numbers of mnd builds.

No one in the thread it came from asked/argued it's accuracy so I assumed it was true.

 

[Courtney]

This graph doesn't give much more info than the ingame description of the numbers of merits. More merit > better effect. Also Paralyze2>paralyze I which everyone expects.

The cap is 30% ? cool but how can you get 80 more mnd than a level 85 mob. Even if you manage, with a brd how to land it ?

From memory, Slow 1 capped at 30; Slow II 33, and Slow II (2 merit) 35-36%. And you can't really get to +80MND on an 85. You can still get pretty high though, and still land Slow with Slow II merits and earth accuracy merits. Fafnir/Nidhogg is around 85? and slow lands on it fairly easily. If you can't reach cap though, each +5MND still slows the mob a further 1%.

 

[Elash]

I absolutely love my Slow II now that it has full merits. I only have one merit in Phalanx II though and I sort of regret it. I don't intend to remove it, however, until I decide for certain on Paralyze II or Bio III.

I want all of the spells, but I want them to be effective which means I only get two :/. Damn you SE for forcing yet another sadistic choice...

 

[charlo]

YEa i agree with Pchan
The most bang for your buck is para 2 and slow 2 maxed
Backed up with 5 convert and 5 ice acc

 

[Hach]

the chart look weird... slow II with 1 merit and 2 merit has no difference till it reach about 40 MND above the mob is it?

 

[Courtney]

the chart look weird... slow II with 1 merit and 2 merit has no difference till it reach about 40 MND above the mob is it?

There was a fair bit of error in the way it was measured. They tested in PvP on something like Shadow recast, and with 1% slow being only a fraction of a second on that recast, the error on individual readings is pretty high. I did some testing on crabs and Colibri (time taken for 20 attacks, time is higher so less error), and it seems like each level adds 3%.

 

[K. Ishitar]

does the slow II cap according to the mnd in the chart or does it have a static max potential cap?

Also...

/poke Elash!

sup dude welcome to my antiseptic for FFXI...

 

[Massimo]

If you solo a lot Bio III is a RDMs highest DoT spell and again, you'd want all 3 levels to get a decent duration. The best tool for DoT/kiting.

Funny how people always forget about Poison II.