Meriting Magic Skills?

[Imperial]

Hi,

I am 75 NIN and BRD and am close to capping STR merits now, and have combat skills capped and such.

Next thing I want to go for is Magic so I was wondering what would be best to cap, ninjutsu, wind, singing or a mix?

From BRD meriting wind do you get any noticeable differents from 8 merits in wind? Would it be better to go for 4singing/4wind?

I'm hesitant w/ meriting Ninjutsu because even w/ NIN AF2 +10 Ninjutsu still can get resisted quite a lot and don't want to drop a few hundred k exp into Ninjutsu just for a slight chance increase to land enfeebs on IT++ if instead I can put the merits into BRD and get a noticeable difference.

Also for reference I play both jobs evenly, for Dynamis NIN onry, for sky both jobs, for limbus as well, for merit I don't mind going either, so it's a tough choice but I just like to hear from people that have capped either of those skills and see if they were satisfied w/ their results.

Thanks.

[Xavier]

Whats your resist rate like on BRD currently? If you have a near perfectly geared BRD you probably won't see much of a difference.

[Imperial]

Well let's see, in merit pt no resist there lol.

For Gods it's random, some days can land elegy finale np others just resist resist resist.

My gear is hq earth/light staff. Af2 head & body, wind/string torque, melody+1 x2 (Working on musical), af+1 body, and the rest sha'ir.

So basically the only resists I get is in sky. But also would maxing wind give extra attack/defense/accuracy/haste for their songs?

[TsingTao]

You can pick up the BRD AF1+1 Hands (+7CHR, +10 Singing Skill) and AF1+1 Legs (+8 Wind Skill) for a big boost before even touching Merits. If that's not enough +Skill to make you content you can decide what to merit then....no wasted exp in the mean time.

They're the pieces you'll want (IMO) in a +Skill set to minimize resists on big stuff anyways, so they're good to get either way.

You can also watch the AH for a Singing Earring. They're quite a bit cheaper than Wind Earrings.

PS: /wave from Unicorn.

[Asy]

My original plan was 4 string 4 wind, but uggh, bad idea. 8 Wind. If you find yourself using Ninja on HNMs more often, you could consider using a mix, but in all honesty, RDM debuffs would be much better.

[Krandor]

I'd personally go with the Wind merits. Since the last merit change RDM debuffs are generally a bit stronger then NINs now, and whether or not you land them with a RDM around (read: basically any HNM fight) wouldn't terribly matter. A resisted elegy can be death for tanks in some fights.

On the other hand, if you like to solo alot on NIN (and specifically on mobs VT and up), a few Ninjutsu merits can help you out a bit for your soloing.

[Xavier]

I think theres a pretty simple way to go about this.

Unless you're so serious about nin that you actually carry around +ninjutsu skill with you, that being the af, torque, the sea backpiece, etc, then the merits probably don't mean anything to you. And if you do carry around all that gear, odds are you don't need the skill to begin with.

I guess since BRDs have such naturally low skill, meriting that instead is the best bet.

[Demitrius]

Just my opinion, but high Ninjutsu skill simply isn't going to help much on big fights. If you have a merited RDM, Para II and Slow II are going to be more effective, and a RDM will have an easier time keeping their skill high, and has a shorter recast if they get resisted. Kurayami doesn't help that much, because you're not gonna dodge anything that will resist your spells regularly. Your primary function is going to be taking hits, and +16 Ninjutsu skill won't help that very much.

As a BRD, Elegy is a godsend. Nothing can replace it. You'll definitely want your Threnodies to stick. I'm not sure exactly how singing impacts your Wind/String skills, from my limited knowledge I'm under the impression that raising Singing by 1 is equivalent to raising both Wind and String by 1. If that's so, 8 Singing is probably your best bet. If it's more like you need a balance, then I would think some combination of Wind and Singing.

But don't merit Ninjutsu, it makes the baby Jesus cry =P

[spooky]

You might want to not merit anything at all in this section yet. In the future, you could level RDM or BLM and now even doing SMN skill is an option too. In my opinion Enfeebling/Elemental/Summoning Skill would all be more useful that Ninjitsu or a BRD skill; assuming you had those jobs levelled of course.

[Stilgar]

Say I have BLM and BLU at 75, would it be at all worthwhile to use some merits for blue magic skill, or should I just keep all my 8 Elemental skill merits? I have almost a perfect gearset as far as Ele skill on my BLM, just missing the sea cape now.

[spooky]

Personally I would do 8 in Elemental skill for BLM. But I'm totally bias towards BLM. >:/ Just go with the job you like the most.

[Imperial]

Hmm, some good advice for me to think about, thank guys.

I don't have any Ninjutsu eq swap in gear so I guess it would be a waste to merit Ninjutsu.

As for levelling rdm or blm one day, maybe, but not for a long time. Guess I will leave magic alone for now ><

[Evelyn]

meh, I wouldn't leave it alone atm. Yeah, its a lot of merits to have to just delete one day (30 I think), its not so much that you should avoid it at all costs. If you have no plans to level rdm or blm, then some +wind skill would do you well. Plus, meriting that skill can allow you to move some +skill gear out for more +chr gear, which (I think, its true for RDM but I don't play BRD) will make your elegies, etc. more potent. And Potency is ALWAYS good. +16 skill is nothing to be laughed at.

[Zhais]

I always thought, that for bard, singing skill + is the way to go whenever you have the option since singing factors in to both wind and string intrument songs.

AF+1 hands are definitely awesome, that's the first (so far only ; piece I've upgraded.

[Xavier]

I always thought, that for bard, singing skill + is the way to go whenever you have the option since singing factors in to both wind and string intrument songs.

AF+1 hands are definitely awesome, that's the first (so far only ; piece I've upgraded.

The main reason its not always true is that the vast majority of instruments you use are wind, not string based.

Outside of lullaby, you can pretty much get by without touching string.

[Awoir]

I always thought, that for bard, singing skill + is the way to go whenever you have the option since singing factors in to both wind and string intrument songs.

AF+1 hands are definitely awesome, that's the first (so far only ; piece I've upgraded.

The main reason its not always true is that the vast majority of instruments you use are wind, not string based.

Outside of lullaby, you can pretty much get by without touching string.

Mary's Horn > Nursemaids.

[Xavier]

Mary's horn is expensive shit.

[XxSlusherxx]

Awoir is RMT

[Lockecole]

Wind all the way. This coming from someone who has Ninjutsu skill leveled up all 8 increments. Does it help? Sure...definately helps with alot of things, recasting during Utsusemi etc, but in the end it wont make or break things like Wind skill will on BRD.

A perfectly geared BRD lands Elegy on Cerb and Hydra alot, two things which are incredibly hard to land on. Our one BRD who has practically perfect BRD gear goes Tiamats with 98% land rate on elegy the last couple Tiamats. Its pretty ridiculous.

[Koul]

tiamat isn't a good example... 70+20 chr with 225 wind skill can land it on tiamat 98% of the time, at least I never get resisted and if I do, I just give myself etudes voila problem solved~ cerb and hydra aren't even a good example cause with the same set-up I landed elegy no problem

I would never merit any brd magic skills unless you were never gunna level a different mage/support job