White mage merits progression?

[Teorem]

Cure Cast Time - 5
Barspell Potency - 5
Protectra V - 1
Shellra V - 3
Martyr - 1
Devotion - 1

The actual progression I used was: Regen (I got when the merit system was first implemented, and removed to cap Barspell Potency) > Devotion > Cure Cast Time x5 > Barspell x5 > Shellra V x3 > Martyr > Protectra V.

I sat and considered a long while whether putting 9 more merits into Devotion to cap it out was worth it. And to be honest, ~250MP more every hour (Devotion on a 15-minute vs 20-minute reuse timer) just did not seem worth it, and the merits, for me, would be better spent on other jobs.

That isn't to say that Protectra V was so much of a better choice (it wasn't). And with Martyr, well, it actually has come in useful on occasion when I'm out of MP. But, when/if the cap on Category 2 merits is ever increased, I'll probably cap out Devotion out of the three.

Barspell potency is a great choice in general. It's worthless, in my opinion, for Mijin Gakure in Dynamis, but resisting Silencega and Paralyga is nice (although the rest of my party never seems to, sadly).

I've been one-shotted a few times by Quadrastrike and Condemnation with Stoneskin before (I have around 1020HP), usually after making a bad path choice cutting across to try to heal a tank marathoning one of the demon NMs. I'll still probably max MP merits though because while it may not be enough for a Cure IV, it certainly is enough for a Regen III or a couple more Hastes in a cycle (or Refreshes, Sleep/Sleep IIs, Head Butts, etc.) while the extra HP is good to save you from a fluke LoS attack.

[Meloria]

Meriting my whm is something that I've been putting off. I'm usually needed at events on BLM which is just about finished.

It hasn't been until recently that I've needed to go on WHM and when I do I realize how much I've neglected this job. The reason being because I'm torn between cure cast, barspell, and regen merits. I realize that tanks tend to get over cured rendering regen useless, but the few ticks they get when kiting xarc NMs could be helpful. Especially if you need to get a tick or two of rest.

I currently have 2 cure cast merits and 1 regen. I've toyed with the idea of removing the regen merit and going 5/5 on cure and barspells. I've also considered doing 3/5 barspell and 2/5 on regen. Regardless, I think my next set of merits are going to unlock devotion. There were situations yesterday where it definitely would have helped. As far as the other merits are concerned (pro/shell5/martyr) I'll more than likely merit all of them, but I think I'll put the remaining 2 merits into shell5.

[Sylphet]

There's no such thing as the "perfect" or "ideal" WHM merit build.

What you should get, depends on 2 things:
: What you use WHM for (Tank party on HNMs, Out Party WHM, EXP, R3 and PL whore, etc.)
: Your personal play style

Personally, I am WHM for most events but I have built my merits around what I feel is my most important role, which is Tank Party WHM for HNMs.
I have:
5/5 Barspell
5/5 Regen
3/3 Devotion
3/3 Shellra V

To answer a few questions that I've seen:
Yes, there is a +10 MDB from fully merited Barspells but only for the element of the spell and yes it does stack with Blessed Briault.

My $0.02:
Barspell is made of win for WHM, and almost a must when combined with AF2 pants and enhancing magic gear: breaking 120 from bar spell is key when combined with Barfire gear on tanks for say, Tiamat. You need 320+ barfire for reliable resists. Gear = 150-160 (but not everyone may have all of it), Carol = 60, Barfira = 120+ Only a WHM is capable of doing this.

Regen vs Cure Casting Time... well this is a tossup both are excellent imo.
My character is Elvaan so I've always been a big fan of conserving MP. Additionally I have AF2 Briault which make it particularly effective. Cure Cast time merits are really great as well and probably a better choice for someone who does a lot of out party WHM stuff. Wish I could merit both!

DS recast is nice but way too specific in terms of usage.. the only time I can think where it really would come in handy is Ouryu BC with evil slowga from hell but that's not enought to make me want to merit it.

Group II merits:
With the evolution of tanking from PLD/WAR NIN/WAR centic to a far more diverse and useful (imo) tank setup that utlizes PLD/NIN, NIN/DRK, NIN/BRD, BRD/NIN, RDM/NIN (you get the idea, there's always a NIN or /NIN somewhere) the importance of defense has changed dramatically. There have been many other threads as to why Protectra V is nothing more than pretty so I'm not going to reiterate.

I chose level 3 Devotion as my other Group II. I cam see where someone would like to do 2/3 Devotion and 1/3 Martyr but I chose not to. I have a basic HP macro (nothing fancy or expensive) that puts me at ~1200 HP for Devotion which returns ~300MP. This is sufficient to fill most BRDs and PLDs. However recently I did Bahamut V2.0 and we do 2 WHMs in the same party for that BC. Both of us had merited Devotion and it worked out extremely well.