Tier 2 Merits for a few jobs

[xIndustrialxAngelx]

Hello~ so I'm trying to finish capping off some merits for some jobs, (in particular atm is MNK and DRK) and I was wondering what were some of the choices people made. I'd like to know if say... you did full Mantra on MNK for salvage, or w/e. Any examples to why you chose the merits makes it much more easy for me to decide. As for DRK, I dunno anymore =( but I'd like to help ; ;.

[Cream Soda]

For mnk, I did
Formless 1 (Very handy to have for emergency situations, but not worth putting more than 1 merit into)
Penance 4 (Most will say go penance 5, very good in a lot of situations)
Invigorate 5 (I reversed pen and invig because I do a lot of ballista and solo'ing so I love having 5 on invig).

[Sanjiyan]

Same as Vegetto.

[Firedemon]

For DRK capped Desperate Blows was a no brainer. I did 2 Muted Soul because I was pulling a lot of unnecessary hate buffing at the start of a big fight DRK/THF. I also did 3 Dark Seal for a 10 minute recast. DS is pretty situational, but I use it quite a bit during our weekly Dyna-Xarc that my linkshell and I lowman. DS+Drain II during Perfect Dodge and Invincible for 400+ is pretty cool. Aside from 5/5 Desperate blows, I guess it all depends what you use your DRK for.

[xIndustrialxAngelx]

For DRK capped Desperate Blows was a no brainer. I did 2 Muted Soul because I was pulling a lot of unnecessary hate buffing at the start of a big fight DRK/THF. I also did 3 Dark Seal for a 10 minute recast. DS is pretty situational, but I use it quite a bit during our weekly Dyna-Xarc that my linkshell and I lowman. DS+Drain II during Perfect Dodge and Invincible for 400+ is pretty cool. Aside from 5/5 Desperate blows, I guess it all depends what you use your DRK for.

See, I did Souleater recast 5/5 and Last Resort Effect 5/5, I have 1 in Diabolic eye, 2 in Muted Soul, and 3 in DB. All I do with drk is merit, or do Einherjar with it.

As for the 2 other people who have posted about MNK, I was going to do the exact same merits, but then I saw Rich post about his low man salvage group, and how they both had 5/5 Mantra, so it seemed kind of appealing.

[Raen Ryong]

5/5 Diabolic Eye/Desperate Blows for DRK, take out 1 for Dark Seal 1/5 if you really want it; it's so situational compared to the almost global use on the other two that I don't consider it worth it.

[Cream Soda]

See, I did Souleater recast 5/5 and Last Resort Effect 5/5, I have 1 in Diabolic eye, 2 in Muted Soul, and 3 in DB. All I do with drk is merit, or do Einherjar with it.

As for the 2 other people who have posted about MNK, I was going to do the exact same merits, but then I saw Rich post about his low man salvage group, and how they both had 5/5 Mantra, so it seemed kind of appealing.

I don't see how mantra would be good. Doesn't stack with body boost

[xIndustrialxAngelx]

I don't see how mantra would be good. Doesn't stack with body boost

Oh, thats right! hmm, guess that helps narrow down my decision then! Ty!

[pchan]

you did full Mantra on MNK for salvage, or w/e..

No, it's doesn't seem very usefull IMO. Penance is a nice thing to do if you tank salvage bosses with dual MNKs or even MNK + melee/nin. With Hades sainti (+1) black belt raja job trait etc ... you are almost capped on subtle blow, or at least 40 which is -40% TP given, now with chi blast it's an additional -25%, for a duration of 1:40 sec. So if 2 mnks time their chi blast, the Boss get very little TP 100% of the time. As a result it makes the fight faster ( less aoe, less damage taken, less shadow casting) and less dangerous (Mortal revolution etc).

[Tulun]

Drk merits:

5/5 Diabolic Eye. Aggressor for DRK if you cap it.

At least 3 in Desperate Blows (Hasso + this share haste, cap at 25%). 5/5 isn't that necessary. (4/5 is probably best though).

1 in Dark Seal is nice for Zergs. Dark Seal + drain II.

[Cream Soda]

No, it's doesn't seem very usefull IMO. Penance is a nice thing to do if you tank salvage bosses with dual MNKs or even MNK + melee/nin. With Hades sainti (+1) black belt raja job trait etc ... you are almost capped on subtle blow, or at least 40 which is -40% TP given, now with chi blast it's an additional -25%, for a duration of 1:40 sec. So if 2 mnks time their chi blast, the Boss get very little TP 100% of the time. As a result it makes the fight faster ( less aoe, less damage taken, less shadow casting) and less dangerous (Mortal revolution etc).

I personally wouldn't use rajas on a Chariot, but maybe that's just me. Besides with a cor or someone /cor (Usually the brd or thf in our case), mnk's roll tops us off

As for penance yea you got the right idea there. I have lv 4 and my partner has lv 5 so we can keep it up full time

[Zekyr]

DRK for me:

3/5 Desperate blows (hasso or haste samba caps this at 25% as was said)
1/5 Dark seal (mainly for drain II)
1/5 Diabolic eye (rarely ever really need to use this, but meh)
5/5 Muted soul (helps more than you'd think, esp using kraken)

Probably not the best, but suits my playstyle. Same reason I'm doing 4/5 stealth instead of 4/5 flashy on RNG.

[ryskar]

For mnk, I did
Formless 1 (Very handy to have for emergency situations, but not worth putting more than 1 merit into)
Penance 4 (Most will say go penance 5, very good in a lot of situations)
Invigorate 5 (I reversed pen and invig because I do a lot of ballista and solo'ing so I love having 5 on invig).

This is pretty much the extent of it. Formless strikes is too damn good not to have at least 1 merit in it, but any more is a waste. Penance and Invig should both get at least 4, the 5th you will have to decide for yourself.. it really depends on what you use monk for.

I have 75 ninja, and use it probably less than 1% of the time I'm playing, just because I solo or tank on monk so much.. ergo, planning on 5 invigorate.

If you say, tanks chariots in salvage, 5 Penance may be a stronger alternative; especially if you have a second monk you tank with who also has Penance.

[Cream Soda]

If you say, tanks chariots in salvage, 5 Penance may be a stronger alternative; especially if you have a second monk you tank with who also has Penance.

Another penance mnk would be a reason to do 4 penance and 5 invig. lv 4 and lv 5 can keep a mob penance'd full time and since they can't overlap you'll have to time it anyways go go right when the other's wears off.

[xIndustrialxAngelx]

Thanks so much for the input guys, this is exactly what i was looking for!

[Maaglin]

Drk merits:

5/5 Diabolic Eye. Aggressor for DRK if you cap it.

At least 3 in Desperate Blows (Hasso + this share haste, cap at 25%). 5/5 isn't that necessary. (4/5 is probably best though).

1 in Dark Seal is nice for Zergs. Dark Seal + drain II.

^ This is correct for drk merits imo.

I did:

5 DE
4 DB
1 DS

Tier I's

LR recast is 5 for everyone. Playstyle / relic will determine if you want to do 5 LR effect or SE recast.

[Yugl]

LR recast is 5 for everyone. Playstyle / relic will determine if you want to do 5 LR effect or SE recast.

What?

[Tulun]

I find Tier 1's to be more a matter of opinion than tier 2 (though if you just k-club zerg, I could see the argument for 5/5 muted soul). I can see argument for any combo of 5/5 SE Recast/LR recast/LE effect

I think I'm leaning towards 5/5 Souleater, 5/5 LR recast though (haven't finished these), and here's why:

I actually go DRK to end game. I find Souleater is one of the best ways to increase DRK DoT (NOTE: Souleater is best used for DOT. Spiking WS is often not a good idea and should be done with caution) on HNM type mobs. If you just merit with DRK LR effect might be better...
LR recast for me over effect, though, is because it likely will net me better damage over time than simply LR effect. LR recast means more DB haste more often. And 25% attack gain is already pretty potent.

[Vodou]

Invigorate is great if you want to skip buying persikos au lait while soloing. In parties or events I think the value drops considerably.

Mantra is much more situational. Spikes hate, raises PT members HP up to 20%, and assists SE darks.

Comparing the cost of +HP gear versus persikos is not a fair comparison (since one is a consummable), but I think its clear that many people think +HP is a valuable commodity.

For me, I think Mantra is underrated.

[Arthars]

think about sj nin in some situation for drk, where you (usually, or i say mostr of the time) dont have dnc. 5/5 db is good.

desperate blow 5/5 is certainly nice even for /sam. MOST drk gets hate during the 30 sec golden phase and we used to use dreadspike in that period to cover ourself a little. but ever since kirshy found the cap, i spam third eye+seigan during the 30 sec because that enable you to use seigan + eye = counter more damage or even survive a oshit fang rush which your spike wont save you from. Yes eye is random but we still have a spike behind that for double security.

dont talk about samba man............that shit is still way underused atm and im sure people rather put in another drk or melee to raise a zerg damage fight

if you are a real drk. 5/5 db is a must for any situation, for any setup, for any sj when your not KC-ing. Dont depend on others like dnc. they are too rare atm and dont think you will be forever sj sam in every situation.

other 5 is either 5/5 eye or 4/5 eye + 1 seal