New Jobs' Merit 2 Abilities Discussion

[DragonCloud64]

http://img509.imageshack.us/img509/2222/ranged3uv9.png

Nyzul Bird Camps Hoooo

If it wasn't for Role Reversal and such, i'd be meriting activate right now.

[Rocl]

howfor did PUP do that

[DragonCloud64]

SE, slowly reducing the lolpup through Optimization.

[Toth]

Nice damage there. How did you do that? My ranged attacks tend to be 170-190 on those birds.

BTW That chain 201 in my sig was done recently as PUP/WAR :D (One BRD using only haste and accuracy songs and 1 RDM in party too) For the record, during that chain - which only broke because we took too long deciding on which of 3 birds to kill-, my maton died only once and I never dropped below 1k HP until the ninjas started to stop voking around chain 150.

[Dreampainter]

Dragoncloud, thats great damage for its single ranged attacks. Its going to be a real pain keeping that beast alive in parties though if its daze damage jumps that much as well from the merits. I haven't finished my pup merits yet, just blew 9 merits on upgrading to lvl3 windblade on smn, but max optimization is my next goal. I'm glad i merited ventriloquy as i'll need it even more if the optimization merits are really that good.

[Khamsin]

Yeah, that is some nice damage. Try stacking some fire maneuvers on top of that and see how high you can get it, for reference!

[Toth]

Again, 3 Optimization here and I only had one maton death in a chain 201 party. Like anything, you just need good tanks. Though 600 damage Dazes can get your maton into trouble if you aren't careful...

[DragonCloud64]

3 Fire Manuevers, i even managed to get the damage as high as 307. Had to constantly use role reversal, ventriloquy, and repair lol.

[Lotan]

Attuner + Tension Spring II + Flame Holder?

Fiber? I'd think the fiber would have him eating dirt if he was putting out damage like that.

Very nice by the way.

Lotan

[BRP]

When my PUP gets high enough, I'm thinking I'll have to "nerf" automaton's damage by putting more into Fine Tuning than Optimization. Is this the case? A PUP who's auto keeps on dying is going to be a lot worse than one that can keep his alive right?

[miokomioko]

Would you even use Flame Holder with Sharpshot frame? While still forcing Daze, I've only been able to have one Fire Maneuver up to be converted, even with Heatsink. It's definitely not worth losing Daze for Arcuballista, even if it's 2-3 Fire Maneuvers converted from Flame Holder.

I think I am still going for 3/3 Optimizing and 3/3 Fine-Tuning. Ventriloquy seems to only be good for solo or Colibri meriting. Though, I am still considering dropping one Fine-Tuning just for Role Reversal, to help keep it alive in a possible future HNM AoE scenario. The timer is way too short to dismiss.

Attachment thread is so buried, so just for info reasons since it was in the same update... Hammermill made my Valoredge's Shield Bash do like 140~150 dmg to Lesser Colibri, slightly more than a normal critical hit. The slow effect isn't all that strong, at least not to the point of it being really visible. Replicator activates at 50% or less HP and gives you 2 shadows per Wind Maneuver converted. Blink status, not Utsusemi.

[DragonCloud64]

Attuner + Tension Spring II + Flame Holder?

Fiber? I'd think the fiber would have him eating dirt if he was putting out damage like that.

Very nice by the way.

Lotan

Yes i had an optical fiber in. I only let my auto eat dirt when activate was up again. Put a Merit into role reversal and ventriloquy, and you should be fine, lol. The low recasts on them make it very doable, even with the 3 wars in the PT who were not voking i was able to keep maton alive

[Toth]

I use Tension Spring II + Attuner + Flame Holder + Optical Fiber for my merit sessions. One Fire Manuever + One Light Manuever give me 595 Dazes. Would taking off the Flame Holder do more damage since the effect of the attuner is erased when the fire manuever is consumed?

[DragonCloud64]

I just found out a very nice trick with ventriloquy. It can be used at ANY distance between you and your automaton (Role Reversal as well). So you put your auto on an EP mob at the beggining of a zone. You run into an IT mob a ways into the zone and aggro it. hit it, use ventriloquy and that sucker is running back to your auto at the begining of the zone. Once the mob is back at the beggining of the zone, deactivate away.

[Dreampainter]

When my PUP gets high enough, I'm thinking I'll have to "nerf" automaton's damage by putting more into Fine Tuning than Optimization. Is this the case? A PUP who's auto keeps on dying is going to be a lot worse than one that can keep his alive right?

With the two new merit abilities you shouldn't have much trouble keeping your puppet alive in a party. You could have a lot more trouble on colibri than on other mobs though, as pecking fury hits the maton for up to 600 damage. Replicator is your friend.

[Phatnightmares]

i must say corsair got the better end of the bargain when comparing all the other 2 new job merits. a strong merit would be Snakeeye because everyone here knows for a fact that corsair always gets screwed from a perfect roll just by a 1... lol

[LD]

No, PUP get the best Group 2's; Merits are judged by how much they help their job both individually and on the whole. PUP got two JAs with great utility and two JTs with great power. COR got good merits, but they wont use them anywhere near as often.

[Delekii]

No, PUP get the best Group 2's; Merits are judged by how much they help their job both individually and on the whole. PUP got two JAs with great utility and two JTs with great power. COR got good merits, but they wont use them anywhere near as often.

Play COR much do you? Being able to roll a 1 on your next roll is one of the best things available to COR. It basically means you are NEVER stuck with 1mp/tick on evokers, or can ALWAYS hit a lucky/11 on a roll that makes a big difference. Random Deal was almost useless before merits, now it is almost a garunteed ability refresh... you can hardly say COR got better (or worse) abilities than PUP, both are equally useful for their purposes.

[Elcura]

I think he's trying to say basically, 4 useful merits > 2 useful merits.

[Delekii]

I think he's trying to say basically, 4 useful merits > 2 useful merits.

Well the other merits are useful too... removal of a bust basically means you can double with reckless abandon and greatly increases your chances of 11's (since you will not need to worry about busting when you double on a 7 more often than not, which was a big risk before)... the only semi useless tier2 for cor is extended phantom roll duration, which is only useless because the rest are useful.