Ugghhhhh Merit Frustration...so.... Opinions?

omg tom i love that speech... The Network was an awesome movie

Oh... and Crits 4/4 > Gkt 8/8 > Store Tp 5/5 > Meditate 5/5 > Shiki 1/5 > Overwhelm 5/5 > Str 5/5 > Bladebash 1/5 > Ikishoten 3/5
 
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I think I would do the first three overwhelm merits before doing Meditate. Maybe do the last two overwhelms after other stuff is done, but 15% more WS dmg is a nice boost. 30 seconds off meditate...is cool and all, but meh.
 
So now that Utsusemi is back up, I guess I'll just play with my pesky while I wait for the recast to cool on Hasso or Seigan so that I can reapply those. Whereas Third Eye, I can just keep the fucker up fulltime.

You cancel it for Ni only, and you'll never have a problem putting it back up after shadows. \=

Shadows block AoE too, not Seigan. =/

>.> Stuff like Firespit(If we are referring to merits) are blocked by shadows as well. GL at Mamool camp and dodging those attacks. Alot more than this where /NIN is teh uber as well. Its WS attacks that are a problem on avoiding, melee attacks shouldn't be needed to be blocked, as they're not as damaging.

Personally, and considering that I've been able to accumulate some nice gear for SAM, I'd say full-timing the above quote beats out /DRG.

Sometimes /DRG can be better than /WAR if properly geared right. And yeah...fulltiming the Hasso would put out a better WS > per WS output than taking 10% haste off and using it as a Shadow Substitute.

-To Icewolf @ my recent post~Maybe so...but I've had some good 35k per hour Cannon Parties at Mamools when its completely empty, and all the SAMs were using /NIN. Granted we were BRD RDM NIN SAM WAR SAM however...wasn't full SAM PT.

I don't know if your /SAM and /WAR parties beat that, but I am glad to settle for 30-35k per hour and not have to constantly worry if my melee are going to die because I don't have MP & resting: because they're taking 500-700DMG Firespits or Rushing Drubs or IV nukes from the Mage Mamools, or AoEs from the Puks. Allows you to not have to rest much if at all to keep going. :3
 
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omg tom i love that speech... The Network was an awesome movie

Oh... and Crits 4/4 > Gkt 8/8 > Store Tp 5/5 > Meditate 5/5 > Shiki 1/5 > Overwhelm 5/5 > Str 5/5 > Bladebash 1/5 > Ikishoten 3/5


Drop those and get 4/5 Blade Blash, other seems fine and just like my set up
 
I know this is the wrong thread (/NIN versus /WAR for merits), but since it got locked only a day prior, and this is still a thread technically about merits, I have to voice my opinion. Because frankly I don't think I've ever seen a greater collective group of misinformed and confused people (read: idiots) when it comes to SAM than here.



To clarify as to what he's saying in point A, casting time for Utsusemi is increased by 50% and then the recast time is increased by 50%. What this means is that not only are you waiting long to finish casting, you're also increasing the time until you can recast Utsusemi thus prolonging your vulnerability to getting attacked.

Point B is also true, mobs do die fast. If your WHM or RDM can't keep up then it's their fault. Just last night I was in a party with a BRD and WHM; this means a slower refresh effect than if it was a RDM, and yet they had absolutely zero problems keeping their MP above 900 even with me being a so called "MP sponge." If your healer is running out of MP, consider replacing the healer, not the SAM/WAR.

Point C: While Utsusemi is indeed a static three shadows, once those three shadows are up, it's over and you need to recast; but you can't because you get interrupted due to longer casting time, or you can't because the recast isn't up yet due to a 50% increase. Whereas on the other hand while Seigan+Third Eye is random and can last as few as one attack, or as many as over ten attacks, when the longer streaks of anticipates kick in, it's absolutely worth is every time. Not to mention Third Eye blocks the entirety of multi-hit attacks whereas Utsusemi does not.



This is a joke, right?

You gain more damage from /WAR due to increased attack and a higher base STR than /NIN. Not to mention you gain access to Berserk and Warcry; 10% Double Attack. Even with fulltime Hasso, a SAM/NIN's damage is going to fall short of the SAM/WAR with Seigan simply because of the support job.



Did you really just compare a MNK to a SAM? MNK has to sub NIN. Why? Because they don't have access to Seigan and Third Eye. SeiganEye is what allows SAM/WAR's to do what they do best. You said Third Eye is bad because it isn't consistent, and I agree on that part to an extent, it isn't consistent, but while Utsusemi is consistent, it's also consistently unreliable because it's guaranteed to only block three hits. Third Eye has the chance to block much more. I've seen Third Eye last the full 30-seconds duration and be under attack the entire time on several occasions.

Another thing I noticed in your posts; you're downing Aselus for using a Polearm? Last I checked Greater Colibri are weak to piercing, and I've seen SAMs throw out 1500-2000 Penta Thrusts on a regular basis. I know this because mine has.


Lol.



So, what you're saying is that whenever you get hate (which as a SAM is quite often), you should cancel out Hasso or Saigan so that you can put Utsuemi back up with no penalties? Cool. So now that Utsusemi is back up, I guess I'll just play with my pesky while I wait for the recast to cool on Hasso or Seigan so that I can reapply those. Whereas Third Eye, I can just keep the fucker up fulltime.


<----->
Long wall-of-text aside, here's the thing: if you're gonna complain about pick-up parties using /WAR over /NIN because not everyone knows how to play their job (which is somewhat common) then guess what? DON'T FUCKING MERIT IN PICKUPS. It's as simple as that.

While I think you present a good argument by all means, there are a few things that simply don't work with it. Note the Underline+bolded portions.

First of all, don't put your skill as the standard that everyone plays by. Because you're good at maintaining seigan does not mean that a healer is bad because they can't keep someone else alive that uses seigan to avoid /NIN. I can tell you that I consider myself to be a decent RDM and SCH, even I can't save some idiot who doesn't effectively use Seigan. But, I also know there are under talented healers as well, and this is why in most situations I won't choose to rely on someone I'm not sure about, and thus I'll tend to sub NIN.

i'm not going into this discussion again there was enough of a thread about it. please keep the /nin stuff out of this thread, thank you.

yeah I'm doing those merits.. though I think Crit before meditate possibly... still extremely undecided on the meditate vs third eye thing it's a frustrating decision, i think i'm going to flip flop that a lot when i hit it.

You asked for opinions about merits. Some opinions may be based on using /NIN, if you're done with the possibility of /NIN coming up, ask for the thread to be locked.

You need to know how to handle these guys Aselus.

I don't have to tell you /war is bad. Everybody knows /war is bad. It's a subjob. Everybody's out meriting and scared of using their favorite subjob. A hundred gil buys five's worth; bazaars are going bust; RMT are running wild in the street, and there's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there's no end to it.

We know the gear that is used is unfit to wear and our squid sushi is gimp to eat. And we sit watching our computers while some website tells us that today we had fifteen accounts stolen and sixty-three mpks, as if that's the way it's supposed to be!

We all know things are bad -- worse than bad -- they're crazy.

It's like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don't go out any more. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we're living in is getting smaller, and all we say is, "Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my PS2 and my XBox and my PC with FFXI on it, and I won't say anything. Just leave us alone."

Well, I'm not going to leave you alone.

I want you to get mad!

I don't want you to protest. I don't want you to riot. I don't want you to write Square Enix, because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about the drop rates and the inflation and the RMT and the ninja lots.

All I know is that first, you've got to get mad.

You've gotta say, "I'm a SAM/WAR, goddammit! My job has value!"

So, I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chair. I want you to get up right now and go to the window, open it, and stick your head out and yell,

I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO SUB NINJA ANYMORE!!!

PC+1 =P Nice quote, but add something of merit to the post!

Spoiler:
do you see what I did there <.<, see below!


Drop those and get 4/5 Blade Blash, other seems fine and just like my set up

why? The Samurai of old FFXI didn't have it before merits and now that you can, it's nice for once in a while... I'm not for trying to myself an active stunner. More often you'll make better use of any way to earn more TP.
 
why do i get the feeling when people see sam/nin that somehow the ja seigan is locked?

even /nin i find myself useing seigan/third eye. nin and thf mamools (dual weild, triple attack)


i love the days when third eye used to block firespit from melee mamools ;;
 
iono maybe i thought someone else might actually respond to the thread and offer further advice on BB vs/ Shiki, or maybee how they use third eye merit?

So far i'm set on going meditate, but if there's anyone that has TE, i would like to hear from them and how it changes their gamestyle, and if I lock this thread and they see it someday then i will be deprived the information...

Also more gear advice wouldn't be bad... even if mentioning /nin for non-meripo event that require it, how different is the gear for /drg for /war for /nin in those events? what would I need to do to my gear setup in reference to my merits?

really not that hard for people to just like...you know... not talk about /nin as the main subject in this thread and actually advise on the questions asked... just a thought... the entire point of me putting it in there is so that people would consider the fact that i go as /drg to most things as my preffered sub and if TE merit is better for that? :-P
 
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