RDM Tier 1 Merits

[Tomasello]

Well after a long break from meriting, I had maxed out my enfeebling skill and Tier 2 Merits, I've decided to work on these.

Now, most rdms I know, seem to be all about the 5 Ice / 5 Wind combo. And I can see why Ice will boost your Paralyzes and Binds and Winds will help Silences and Gravitys.... All very important spells.

But what about Slow? Next to Para and Dia I think its my most used enfeeble.

Can some one tell me why I shouldn't do 3 Ice, 3 Wind and 3 Earth. I do realize Earth only helps this one spell but I think its just as important to land.

Oh and if I did do 3/3/3 what do I do with the extra merit? Ice or Wind?

 

[Vilurum]

What's hardest to land in the first place?
What screws over you (solo) and/or your group, the most if it doesn't land?

Factor those questions into your equation, and then decide for yourself what you want to merit. Merits are, after all, about customizing your character for what *you* think is important or works best.

 

[Courtney]

Wind is stronger than Ice for party casting. Silence and Gravity are pretty much staples whatever you're doing, while Bind and Blizzard III get a lot more use solo than in a group.

As to slow, again it really depends what you're spending most of your time doing. Slow II is too expensive for too little effect TP burning, but it's great for HNMs and /NIN soloing. Slow II does have a really good magic accuracy boost naturally though, so in a solo situation you probably won't need the merit in Earth.

 

[Javir]

I person use 3 Ice, 3 wind, 2 Earth and 2 Thunder.

The thunder is extremely situational (ie, Stun-gun on DL). For most RDMs who are going all out on RDM, Wind and Ice should be the highest, while Earth makes a reasonable option.

Water only helps Poison II which isn't often used, and when it is, often lands anyhow.

Fire does next to nothing for the most part

Ice: Paralyze/Bind not to mention it's nice for those rare times they let the RDM help nuke on ice MBs

Thunder: thunder MBs, Stun (so likely not an option unless RDM/DRK is one of your primary functions for your group).

Wind: Gravity, Silence

Earth: Slow pretty much.

Dark: don't we wish. D:

Light: Dia III + Light Accuracy... hmmmm. (again like dark doesn't exist, [sad])

 

[hellstorm]

don't count out convert recast that seem be big one on other severs, you take off 140sec off timer if you put 5 merits in it, By looks of avesta vid he has done that and most likely 5 ice acc to with his uncanny binds on seiryu. as for slow you get that potent from teir II spells. my current merits are 4ice 5wind 1earth but considering taking the one out earth and 2 out of wind placing them in convert recast.

 

[Calais]

I did 5 Wind, 3 Convert, 2 Ice. Convert recast is wonderful, especially if you merit a lot as rdm. Earth merits are...meh. If slow resists, no big deal, just recast it. Those 3 merits would be better spent on Convert recast, IMO, but if you're really set on doing 3/3/3, throw the extra into wind accuracy.

 

[Tomasello]

don't count out convert recast that seem be big one on other severs, you take off 140sec off timer if you put 5 merits in it.

Don't you mean 100 secs? It's only 20 secs a pop. I thought about Convert recast but I'm mostly Rdm/whm so it would fuck up my Divine Seal > Convert > Cure IV timing... lol

I'm leaning towards 4 wind, 3 ice, 3 earth but thanks for your the input guys and gals

 

[Illyria]

And her I was wondering what the hell those magic accuracy merit were good for to begin with (yes I'm serious). I was going to slowly merit all 10 into convert recast because lately most my parties are on colorbis with 5 DD and me rdm/whm and I basically keep chain's going off convert and also for dynamis. So I benefited from this post a lot^^

 

[Makelith]

You can only put 5 max merits in to the tier 1 merit set for a single ability.

 

[Illyria]

And every day I learn so many new things about merits... /sigh

 

[Rorion]

5 vert, 3 ice and 2 wind is my plan.
Regarding the "problem" with DS-CureIV on vert is minor; the
vert-gear (usally) contains so much more mp then the int/mnd-gear
or enf-gear that 2 CureIV is affordable. That leaves DS to curebomb
someone else.
However if you only have a static gearsetup for your rdm it could be
advicable to start lvling drg.

 

[Javir]

The issue I have with using Convert merits is, I don't very often need it sooner than 10min. More often I benefit from having the Accuracy. In heavy merit pts you shouldn't be the only healer unless you have a BRD (and likely should be using the Refresh sanction), so you should have, at minimum 6-7MP/tick.

Mostly I only have trouble keeping MP when more than one-two of the melee either don't have /NIN or don't use Utsusemi any time the shadows are down (or keep taking when they can't recast). Or on flies that don't die in 15 seconds <.<

 

[Rorion]

The faster you can vert, the more stuff you can do^^

 

[pchan]

Ice merit is necessary, since it gives u accuray for both ice-nuking, paralyze and bind.

If there was dark accuracy merit I would have chosen it but sadly there is none. So i choose wind cos landing silence and gravity can save your ass.

Howerver if u plan to merit slow2, it's better to merit earth imo, assuming slow2 is affected by tier1 merit, which is not obvious, since i have capped ice, level 2 paralyze2, and still paralyze 2 has low accuracy, and short duration (compared to paralyze 1 ^^).

 

[Tomasello]

The issue I have with using Convert merits is, I don't very often need it sooner than 10min.<

I have to concur. I'm casting what I need to be and I'm usually not hanging on a convert timer cause I'm burning spells. 10 mins versus 8:20 is not going to make or break anything and when I can quickly bang out a Divine Seal > Convert > Cure IV for 850-900 hp or whatever it is I'm back in the game in a matter of 4 secs. I find it extremely efficient.

If I had a 75 whm I would go this route as long as I kept the timers equal, but I like my DS > Convert too much. And to be blunt I'd rather have my magic accuracy increased then wasting it on a timer decrease I'm hardly in need of. I carry around +21 MP regen in macro when I rest and a duelist's chapaeu, with sanction refresh when applicable, for auto-refresh as it is in case mp becomes and issue. 10 mins is plenty of time.

 

[Vilurum]

If I had a 75 whm I would go this route as long as I kept the timers equal

1. Wouldn't work anyway, remember job-specific upgrades only apply when a. that job is your main and b. that job is at 75. So even if you had Divine Seal recast merits on WHM, your RDM/WHM would have a 10 minute Divine Seal.

2. As a general rule, WHMs tend not to merit Divine Seal anyway. Generally it's some split between cure cast time, barspell+, or regen+.

 

[Tomasello]

I didn't know that. Thanks for the info.

 

[Courtney]

The faster you can vert, the more stuff you can do^^

Only to a certain point, and doing more is often secondary to being more effective...

Convert gives you ~1000MP every 10 minutes (600 seconds). Being able to convert in 500 seconds theoretically gives you another 17% on top of that which is a pretty good boost.

The only issue is that in most endgame applications /WHM is more useful, and if you Convert timer goes inside your DS timer, you lose 88 of that gained MP having to cast an extra Cure IV.

170ish MP/10min for five levels of merits can probably be justified (although, in endgame RDM really does get a huge amount of usable MP and you give up MagAcc to get it), but 82MP/10min to me isn't as useful...

 

[K. Ishitar]

should you merit group 1 or group 2 first?

I plan to merit a bit before I get into endgame including dynamis and the merit mobs should only be vt so acc. isnt really needed I'm guessing Group 2 first?

 

[Courtney]

should you merit group 1 or group 2 first?

I plan to merit a bit before I get into endgame including dynamis and the merit mobs should only be vt so acc. isnt really needed I'm guessing Group 2 first?

Same as with gear, first merit what will give you think will give you the most effect for your merits, but that will depend a lot on your playstyle.

Some of the new spells are really nice because they have both increased accuracy and potency over the existing spells. eg. Slow II is both stronger and more accurate than Slow, so for 3 merits you get both effects. For the same 3 merits though, you could also get 2 Enfeebling Skill + 3% Earth Accuracy + 10MP.

It really depends on how you intend to play endgame, and choosing what Merits will have the largest effect on how you intend to play. (Dia III is one of the spells that does have an impact on Merit Parties, but at a fairly steep cost).