WHM Bar- Spell merits

[Jehu]

Is bar- Spell it worth meriting, I just finished cure cast time, and I don't know what to do with the remaining 5. I don't run Sky or Sea just Dynamis at the moment.

Any help would be great, thanks in advance.

 

[Vilurum]

As a general rule, Barspells are essential in specific endgame fights (flight-capable wyrms come to mind) and are relatively unimportant for day to day concerns. It really depends on what you do. If you don't *do* anything, like wyrms, that depends heavily on Barspells (and no, I'm not just talking about Barfira to minimize casualties from Mijin Gakure), then you may well be better suited with some other merits instead (Regen's the usual choice, a few like Divine Seal recast). If you *do* do stuff that depends heavily on Barspells, you will naturally want to merit them.

Simple (or not) as that, really. It's a situational thing that's awesome if you have cause to use it and pointless if you don't.

Alternatively, put off the decision and merit some other stuff.

Group 2, at least, is somewhat more straightforward. Shellra 5 is awesome and should be fully merited, Devotion should at least be unlocked, Protectra 5 is nigh on useless (very pretty, but it's not worth meriting something for 5 more loldefense over Protectra 4, all the way up to *9* more loldefense if fully merited), and Martyr is up for debate (it's instant and costs no MP directly, but that's about all in its favor).

 

[Rappa]

You've already done cure casting time down so you got the important stuff done already. Where you go from there depends on what you want to do. If you want to do anything end-game, do barspell merits and do dynamis long enough for relic pants. If you don't, you probably will get more mileage from regen merits. Divine Seal is lol, don't merit that. For group 2 do 3 in Shellra V and 3 in Devotion.

 

[Uzor]

<3 Bar-spell merits. Wouldn't trade them for anything.

Personally I merited Rege, bar-spell and 2 cure casting. Never considered Cure Casting that important and useful.

 

[Lavi]

Barspells are nice, an extra 10 to elemental barpsells can make a huge difference. You can make use of them in almost any end game event, there are many many mobs which use elementally based AoE attacks and while the barspell will not reduce the damage directly, it will help cause players to resist the damage taken... If that makes sense to you. At any rate, the only other choice I thought worthwhile was regen, but most tanks end up at full HP before the regen is done so it's a wasted spell in my opinion.

Tier II, I personally went three merits into Shellra V, one into devotion and two into Protectra V. The magic defense bonus from Shellra is very helpful for magic based AoE which is the bulk of the damage tanks take these days since everything is blink tanked anyways. I do a lot of end game, so for me it was a necessity although, I personally do recommend it. The remaining choices were up to me, but I chose one for devotion to at least get something nice for WHM even if it is only once every 20 mins (15 if you fully merit) and 2 into protectra to add a little defense for the tanks.

 

[Mishaela]

I always wondered, does Martyr give any hate? If not I could see it being a so-so spur-the-moment tool, but otherwise...

Pretty much already been said; barspells is the best thing you can merit. Even if you don't do Dynamis or HNMs you'll often run into mobs where barspells help (Goblins, Bugbears and Antica take up a wide majority of earlier missions, in which case Barfira and Baraera can prove extremely useful, for example)

Cure cast time (or maybe Regen *shrug*) are both good secondary things. Divine Seal is very not-worth it, nor is Protectra V.

 

[Negorissimo]

Yes, they are worth meriting. You can do it!

 

[Courtney]

Maxed barspell merits (along with the best gear) actually give a WHM the highest Barspell in the game. Until the merits came in RDM was the strongest Barspell due to higher Enhancing cap.

 

[Mishaela]

Maxed barspell merits (along with the best gear) actually give a WHM the highest Barspell in the game. Until the merits came in RDM was the strongest Barspell due to higher Enhancing cap.

I believe with relic legs, WHM surpasses RDM all the same.

 

[Bajaratt]

Yeah, without any gear, RDM could do better bars, but with Cleric Pantaloons, WHM has the best.

 

[Uzor]

Barspells are nice, an extra 10 to elemental barpsells can make a huge difference. You can make use of them in almost any end game event, there are many many mobs which use elementally based AoE attacks and while the barspell will not reduce the damage directly, it will help cause players to resist the damage taken... If that makes sense to you. At any rate, the only other choice I thought worthwhile was regen, but most tanks end up at full HP before the regen is done so it's a wasted spell in my opinion.

Actually, capped bar-spell merits also gives 10MDB to the same element, which equals to 20/256 = -7,8% magic damage taken. With Blessed Briault, you have 15MDB, which equals roughly to -11,7% magic damage taken.

So bar-spell merits do directly reduce the damage you take.

 

[K. Ishitar]

Yeah, without any gear, RDM could do better bars, but with Cleric Pantaloons, WHM has the best.

It always tickled me that rdm got the highest enhancing skill while whm got a lower grade...really doesn't make much sense unless you consider making the game a better challenge but feh.

Ok something to contribute

Please get devotion if you don't have it already your mages and your pld will love you, I'm serious telling them that you don't have it is like *cue clever parallel* so yeah you want it and we love it=3

barspells also affect durations of added effects from mob wses such as silence or para so anything to increase the resistance/duration will shine^^

 

[Jehu]

Well actually cat. 1 is the only thing left for me to merit under WHM I'm finished with cat. 2 with full Devotion, and Martyr, like I mentioned I don’t run Sky or Sea, and that was a reason I didn’t consider Shellra V. I found Martyr pretty useful under conditions, and while its only a situational I thought that 20 min cool down was a bit too long, and now that’s its at 15, I’m finding that I actually use it less often than I did before, I might unlearn it since endgame require Shellra V.

Thanks for the input, there’s a lot of positive results for bar- spell, so I guess I'll work on that if I’m going to play in Sky/Sea someday.

 

[Mishaela]

Thanks for the input, there’s a lot of positive results for bar- spell, so I guess I'll work on that if I’m going to play in Sky/Sea someday.

Just to point out again, it's especially good even if you choose to never do HNM, Sky, Sea etc. since plenty of stuff you fight outside those places may need barspells. Baraera helps for Magnetite Cloud, Jamming Wave, Flying Hip Press; Barwatera helps for Venom and Cursed Sphere; Barfira helps a lot for Bomb Toss.

Seems a bit silly to name off things but there's always times where you're goofing off an WHM and would be surprised at how useful they can be.

If I may ask, have you ever noticed if Martyr generates enmity of any kind? Always been curious as to how it is in terms of hate gained.

 

[beeznuts]

I always wondered, does Martyr give any hate? If not I could see it being a so-so spur-the-moment tool, but otherwise...

Pretty much already been said; barspells is the best thing you can merit. Even if you don't do Dynamis or HNMs you'll often run into mobs where barspells help (Goblins, Bugbears and Antica take up a wide majority of earlier missions, in which case Barfira and Baraera can prove extremely useful, for example)

Cure cast time (or maybe Regen *shrug*) are both good secondary things. Divine Seal is very not-worth it, nor is Protectra V.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure Martyr gives some hate, not sure how much. I don't think it's proportional to a normal cure, probably less, but I'm actually not completely sure.

I personally have found 5 Regen, 5 Barspell, 3 Shellra V, 1 Devotion, 1 Martyr, 1 Protectra V to be a very good combination for just about anything I'd ever want to do, and I've never had any regrets about setting things up that way. Your mileage may vary.

 

[Uzor]

I have 5 Bar-spell 2 Regen 2 Cure Cast Time, 1 devotion, 1 martyr 2 shellra V 1 protectra V.

And only because I'm too lazy (and busy) to merit, otherwise I'd have 3 Shellra and 3 Regen.

 

[Jehu]

If I may ask, have you ever noticed if Martyr generates enmity of any kind? Always been curious as to how it is in terms of hate gained.

I haven't noticed any enmity change, maybe I do, I've never notice. I'll have to pay attention tonight during static and I'll get back to you. From my experience I've ever been attack after using Martyr, but then again I'm not 100% sure.