Skill Merits

[Ultimagi]

Sorry Max.

Skill merits are a touchy subject for me, I have way too many jobs to focus them on just one. I want to maximize versatility without sacrificing too much on my favoured jobs. So far I have White Mage, Black Mage, Red Mage, Dark Knight, Bard, Ninja, Blue Mage, and Scholar level 75. I'm working on Paladin and Summoner, with no intention of leveling any more after that assuming no more jobs are released. I've neglected meriting these categories for too long, and need to come to a final decision on what to do with them. I don't care to merit White Mage since it performs just fine without them, and I just plain don't like Ninja, since any job can outperform it with by using it as a subjob. I never get to use Dark Knight for anything other than Bahamut's Zaghnal fights, and Blue Mage only ever gets used with sub Thief. But I do like these jobs and they're fun to solo with.

Which magic skills do you find the most helpful for each job? Which do you find the most easily compensated for with equipment?

Would you merit offensive skills for melee jobs you never get to use, or merit defensive skills instead? Does meriting a skill, like parrying, before its capped make it harder to skill up to cap?

[Neb]

If you are talking magic skill with your jobs I would go 8/8 Enfeb and 8/8 Elemental. Then you can put 4 in a defensive which I believe is the cap so why not put in 4/4 parrying for Nin and Pld then you still have 16 for weapons that would be up to you, I could see 8/8 sword being nice for Pld Blu and Rdm and then do 8/8 Scyth for Drk f if you wont be lvling any other melee jobs. Club and Staff merits are retarded.

Edit:
I do not believe merits affect skillup rate I'm pretty sure skillups are based of your base or pre merit lvl.

[Ultimagi]

Are Evasion and Shield merits worthwhile? Those would contribute to more jobs than Sword or Scythe. I really wish they'd increase the magic skill merit cap.

[benny]

There's really no competition for enfeebling and elemental if you have BLM and RDM leveled. They're going to take you a lot farther in a lot more important situations than dark or enhancing or anything else. Melee really comes down to personal preference or what jobs you play most often, but something like evasion that's useful on really all jobs is not a bad start.

[Hank]

Shield and parry can only be skilled up when they actually proc so the merits actually help you skill up.

[Ultimagi]

Good to know, and I want your hat.

[Isiolia]

IMO, 8/8 Sword as it can apply to BLU, RDM, PLD, 8/8 Scythe, to push DRK up if/when you do use it, and 4/4 Shield.

I'd say Shield over Parry or Evasion because it's far more dependable. More skill will help you cap faster, not slower.

Magic, yeah, Elemental/Enfeebling both to 8/8.

Personally I have 75 RDM BLM BST BRD NIN WAR PLD currently and have 8/8 Katana and Gaxe, with 4 Sword, plus 8 each of Enfeeb/Elemental.


To me, meriting a job that you don't use much isn't necessarily bad. Particularly if you'd like to play it more. If you neglect to gear/merit a melee job when you've got typically more in-demand stuff like BRD available, then it's like sealing your fate. Nobody wants a half-ass melee, even if there's logic behind it.

[Ultimagi]

Maybe I'll cap Evasion, Shield, and Parrying, then 1 weapon of choice pending further investigation, but probably Sword. Dark Knight requires merits that will only work for that one job, seems like too much of a waste.

Elemental and Enfeebling seem the most transferable. Black Mage was my first job, and definately one of my favourites, so I think that's probably best.

[Mafai]

Dont ever get rid of ele/enfeebling. I got Ghorn and dropped them for wind/singing, making me hate myself.

[Ultimagi]

Oh really? Do you notice much difference in March potency? I'm assuming you have reached the highest tier with equipment.

[Magnus5557]

Parry merits are fail. Also, imo, evasion merits aren't very helpful either. I had it level 4 for a while, and I solo on THF all the time, and then I got rid of them and it didn't make soloing any more difficult. And as far as shield goes, with M.head/the torque/earring etc. I would think you can get shield high enough for when it's needed en mass (to cast spells without interruption) without needing merits. So, for melee skills, I'd recommend 20/20 in weapon skills. I personally think Sword is a great think to merit in particular, because it's relevant for many jobs.

For magic, 8/8 Elemental + 8/8 Enfeebling. No question.

[Diamicles]

For magic, 8/8 Elemental + 8/8 Enfeebling. No question.

I completely agree with this advice. For anyone w/ multiple mage jobs this is consensus in most circles how to go about meriting.

[Ultimagi]

If I can evade one attack every blue moon, I think that's better than a totally untouched Scythe skill. But that's just because I haven't used Dark Knight for anything other than berserking Bahamut in over a year. Maybe if I bothered to merit the job I might actually use it more, who knows.

[ryskar]

Also, imo, evasion merits aren't very helpful either. I had it level 4 for a while, and I solo on THF all the time, and then I got rid of them and it didn't make soloing any more difficult.

I personally love my evasion merits. I don't think you're going to notice 8 skill by just eyeballing, but since I like to solo on MNK, THF, and NIN, they definitely help.

[TacoTaru]

Shield merits are something I'm curious about too. I have Koenig, Torque, Earring, and Boxers all right now in my shield/ichi setup along with 4/4 merits. If I can drop the merits it'd be great since I could move them over to something more worthwhile.

[Tulun]

I would say merit what you use most for combat skills.

I am on DRK and NIN the most, so my combat merits are devoted this way.

I would only go crazy on defensive combat merits if you actually tank; the loss of skill merits on DD matter if you actually use the job (especially if they use multi-hit WS...)

[Nevex]

If you have BLU AF2 head and you play this job a lot, and I mean a lot, then 2 or 7 Blue magic skill merits are worth considering, depending if you want to reach the 300 or 310 tier. You don't need to cap them.
Otherwise Elemental and Enfeebling merits are superior.

[Absolutely Virtue]

Dark Knight requires merits that will only work for that one job, seems like too much of a waste.

Lies!

Your BLM has native E in Scythe. Think of how much ass you could kick as melee BLM with Scythe merits!

You'd be stupid NOT to do it!

[Bakthi]

I've had 4 singing/4 wind since...well, that was the cap at the time, and I got them on weapons, if that tells you anything. The jobs in my sig are in the order that I leveled them, and it was years in between BLM and BRD. So at the moment, I have my original merits plus 2 enfeebling and 6 elemental. I've gotten pretty lucky with gear, so I manage, but I really don't want to drop my singing/wind, so I'm hoping that recent interview means SE is coming to their senses about magic skill merits as well as combat ones.

[Panthera]

Enfeebling is the most versatile. It helps rdm, whm, blm, sch, even drks who are clever enough to reailze they have the sleep spell. 8/8 enfeebling myself. Given that you have blm rdm and sch, i'd go with ele skill to help with resist rates. Given that your melee jobs don't get much use, it is really worth putting time into combat skill meriting? Put merits into something you're actually gonna use.