RDM Merit Point Allocation

[Septimus]

I can go through any set of floors on Nyzul without needing to touch it (Probably my main use for RDM, and gogo Duelist's Chapeau+Dalm+Balrahn+Sanction+Refresh). I use it like maybe every 20 minutes, if at all, on any king/HNM I've encountered and fought with my LS. I'm never gonna tank an HNM as RDM/NIN so I won't benefit from it there as well. If I merit as RDM (and I always have a BRD when I do so), I use Convert every 15-20 minutes.

With a fully merited down Convert timer, you can go through 4 MP pools very easily as RDM during a Nyzul run. There's always more mobs you can hit with a Blizzard III or Hastes you can dole out, especially if you get a lot of Eliminate All Enemies floors.

Nyzul is a nice rarity that you pretty much know you have 30 minutes, and want to have Convert available for bosses, so you might as well time your Converts accordingly.

Generally in my groups, when we take a RDM to Nyzul Isle we take him/her to cure and have a BLM to nuke. As such, I would be fairly angry at a RDM throwing away MP on nukes that could instead be used for hastes/cures. But I have never been impressed by RDM nuking.

[Leeto]

I can go through any set of floors on Nyzul without needing to touch it (Probably my main use for RDM, and gogo Duelist's Chapeau+Dalm+Balrahn+Sanction+Refresh). I use it like maybe every 20 minutes, if at all, on any king/HNM I've encountered and fought with my LS. I'm never gonna tank an HNM as RDM/NIN so I won't benefit from it there as well. If I merit as RDM (and I always have a BRD when I do so), I use Convert every 15-20 minutes.

With a fully merited down Convert timer, you can go through 4 MP pools very easily as RDM during a Nyzul run. There's always more mobs you can hit with a Blizzard III or Hastes you can dole out, especially if you get a lot of Eliminate All Enemies floors.

Nyzul is a nice rarity that you pretty much know you have 30 minutes, and want to have Convert available for bosses, so you might as well time your Converts accordingly.

Generally in my groups, when we take a RDM to Nyzul Isle we take him/her to cure and have a BLM to nuke. As such, I would be fairly angry at a RDM throwing away MP on nukes that could instead be used for hastes/cures. But I have never been impressed by RDM nuking.

depends on floor/time, if you're rushing to get to the boss to start asap you'd probably not be hurting anything tossing out a nuke or two. the same goes for floors with flans and puddings.

[sekaran]

I can go through any set of floors on Nyzul without needing to touch it (Probably my main use for RDM, and gogo Duelist's Chapeau+Dalm+Balrahn+Sanction+Refresh). I use it like maybe every 20 minutes, if at all, on any king/HNM I've encountered and fought with my LS. I'm never gonna tank an HNM as RDM/NIN so I won't benefit from it there as well. If I merit as RDM (and I always have a BRD when I do so), I use Convert every 15-20 minutes.

With a fully merited down Convert timer, you can go through 4 MP pools very easily as RDM during a Nyzul run. There's always more mobs you can hit with a Blizzard III or Hastes you can dole out, especially if you get a lot of Eliminate All Enemies floors.

Nyzul is a nice rarity that you pretty much know you have 30 minutes, and want to have Convert available for bosses, so you might as well time your Converts accordingly.

Generally in my groups, when we take a RDM to Nyzul Isle we take him/her to cure and have a BLM to nuke. As such, I would be fairly angry at a RDM throwing away MP on nukes that could instead be used for hastes/cures. But I have never been impressed by RDM nuking.

depends on floor/time, if you're rushing to get to the boss to start asap you'd probably not be hurting anything tossing out a nuke or two. the same goes for floors with flans and puddings.

I've done probably over hundred Nyzul runs and can count on one hand where I've ran out of MP. I don't need Convert merits with my play style, and I probably won't convince RDMs who say you absolutely need it otherwise.

[shukuffxi]

I think it's probably because i've heard many many people say "I know how to manage my MP, so Convert merits are a waste for me" and in 9/10 situations, it's so untrue it's not even funny. You are probably just in the 1/10, if you have a Dalm/AF2 Hat + Pocket BRD at all times, in which case you're gonna end up with a ton of MP most of the time.

[Araius]

"Managing" your MP is a pretty poor excuse not to merit convert. In most cases, if you aren't using Convert every 10 minutes, you aren't doing things that you could be doing beneficial to the party. Not all cases, but most. And as such, if you can Convert every 8:20, you should be "managing" your MP accordingly to use Convert when you're able. There's a difference between good management of MP and conserving too much MP.

I'm not saying everyone should merit Convert, by any means. If you aren't lucky enough to get AF2 hat I'd say the merits could easily be argued to be better placed in Wind Acc. But don't dismiss the idea simply because you don't use Convert enough, most of the time that just means you're not doing everything you could/should be.

[shukuffxi]

Can people with and without Wind Magic Accuracy merits speak up on how they think it servers them? I've had all but 1 of mine removed for a long time now, and I simply can not remember the last time I experienced either A) A Silence resist on something that wasn't immune to Silence or B) A Gravity resist on something that DOESN'T build resistance over time, in which case I would think Wind Acc isn't gonna help, cuz the resist rate is built in. RDM Enfeebling Skill, +16 merits, +15 AF Body, +15 AF2 Hat, +7 Enfeebling Torque = I seriously don't recall the last time I received a resist in any scenario where I wouldn't have received a resist even with full Wind Acc merits.

[Kionu]

I'm relatively new to the rdm solo scene, but my experience has been, you guessed it, shit is situational.

When I started meriting rdm, the first things I merited were enfeeb 8, wind 5, mostly because my gear was "meh" and I was noticing I'd occasionally get resisted on silence on mamools (mostly whms). Since then, I've had many times when I'm glad those merits are there.

I have an incredible success rate with gravity on kirin, even after we've been fighting for over half an hour (yeah, I know, lol, but still), and I don't have AF2 hat or nashira legs. I still get resists, but most of the time when I'm expecting him to have built a huge resistance I'm shocked when my gravs still land. Nothing I've quantified, but I have surprised myself a lot.

On difficult solo fights like Ancient Goobbue, Faust, Zipacna, etc, that +15 accuracy might just get you 1 extra landed gravity which can make-or-break the fight. I tried to fight Faust once, and I got resisted on my 2nd and 3rd bind. I had 3/5 ice acc merits, and really wished I had more and better gear. Every little bit helps when solo, and in the case of Faust, 1 extra gravity to cover a bind resist might buy you 20 more minutes to fight.

Convert, however, has a more variety of applications even in solo. Since most of what I do is duo, though, I find mp rarely lacking enough to warrant it, and I'd rather have the accuracy.

My 2cents.

P.S. sorry for lack of hard data, it's all I've got to go on.

[Julian]

Depends on what enfeeble you are casting.
I hope to god you don't Slow or Paralyze a mob with a full skill set.
Earth accuracy and Ice accuracy are nice because they add a lot of magic acc to your potency setups to cast a more potent Slow/Paralyze without sacrificing anything. I do not have Earth Accuracy merits, but I could usually manage to enfeeble pretty consistently with Club/Shield and the only enfeebling skill + being torque and af2 hat.
Either way its not a very big difference but it does help a bit. I just prefer my ice acc/vert merits because thats the best combo for how I play RDM.

Obviously I don't cast Slow (II) Paralyze (II) in full Enfeebling+ gear >_> It's fairly easy to get hax Para on crap like Fafnir if you're meritted/AF2 hat, Club+Wand is an easy choice, even back when I did Tiamat, I could land the large majority of my Slow II's with Club+Wand instead of Terra's Staff.

The thing with Earth Acc Merits: You can reach close enough to the cap BEFORE Earth Acc merits, to the point the extra Acc is kinda useless. Ice Acc is just full of freaking win because of Bind, and allowing you to shove in extra potency on Paralyze (II), not to mention full merits is +15 M.Acc to Blizzard III, coupled with an Elemental Torque, Merciful Cape, Aquilo's Staff, making it a seriously reliable nuke on anything not resistant to ice. Wind Acc obviously is good for Gravity/Silence, but afaik, they're static effects and nothing affects their potency, and you can stick them on anything pretty much with full Enfeebling Skill+ set.

So overall for Cat. 1 merits, Convert and Ice Magic Accuracy just stick out as the best options overall for someone with at least full Enfeebling Magic Skill+ merits, in my mind at least, and for sure in the case of those lucky enough to have got their Duelist's Chapeaus.

I'm planning to merit convert and ice to 5/5 for pretty much the same reasons as above. (Just hit rdm to 75, kinda waiting a little bit before tossing merits in it because I honestly haven't experienced around much with it endgame, but i'm probably just gonna stay 5/5 ice 5/5 convert 3/3 slow 3/3 para. I got awesome nuking gear from BLM so raising accuracy on my blizz would be very beneficial as well)

I also want to add, magic accuracy works a lot like melee accuracy, there is no 100% in this game. There is always that small 5% chance that your spell might hit, or 5% chance that your spell might miss.

So because of how that works, every time you see one of those stray gravity resists or what not, thinking "Damn, if only I had those wind acc merits I would have landed it!" is most likely an incorrect statement, since you were probably in that 5% area that would have missed no matter what.

[shukuffxi]

To Kionu: So you're pretty happy with Ice/Wind merits, and not Convert. You rarely experience resists and such, with 8 in Enfeebling and 5/5 in Wind. +15 M.Acc... Sounds sorta familiar to... Duelist's Chapeau So would it be ideal to say if you had that hat, instead of the Wind Acc merits, you'd feel your resist rate would be just fine?

To juli: dir Gimmie your robe Trade you a cuirass for it!

[FudgeMz]

8/8HP
8/8 Enfeebling
8/8 Elemental
5/5 Earth
5/5 Ice
3/3 Slow 2
2/3 Para 2
1/3 Phalanx 2

Wind merits really wouldn't help me at all since merit mobs rarely resist Silence and the only stuff which would be remotely difficult to land Gravity on that I can think of is Kirin(which has builds resistance to it anyway) and KB which is quite easy to land it on. 8/8HP because I'm a taru and it gets me a 1/1 Convert ratio. I'd find the extra earth accuracy more useful for Khim/Cerb where you're trying to land Slow without ES.

[Koyangi]

Just did an LBC with no Opac cell nor a Pileus cell, pssh to vert merits. We PLD/WAR strat with sam/war, war/sam SC + 2-3 blm MB. ( <3 capped Phalanx2 ) and the PLD has a Dring too =)

[Kionu]

To Kionu: So you're pretty happy with Ice/Wind merits, and not Convert. You rarely experience resists and such, with 8 in Enfeebling and 5/5 in Wind. +15 M.Acc... Sounds sorta familiar to... Duelist's Chapeau So would it be ideal to say if you had that hat, instead of the Wind Acc merits, you'd feel your resist rate would be just fine?

Depends, I suppose. I just duo'd Ulli for fun, wound up resisting a few gravities along the way even with 5/5 wind and my usual enfeeble set. I find myself more often in the situation of "this had better land or I die" rather than "convert had better be up or I'm gonna die," i.e. Faust. I'd keep the wind merits even with the chapeau, but that's just me.

[ACEJester]

I personally went:
5/5 Ice acc
5/5 Wind acc

3/3 Slow II
2/3 Para II (I had 3/3, and slow 2/3 for a while, but that didn't seem to work as well)
Dia III 1/3

Enfeebling 8/8

I am strictly HNM RDM (I only PT for buffer... once every three or so months at most).
I merited Wind acc over Earth since I tend to use silence and gravity quite a bit (>_>... yeah), and have little trouble landing Slow II on most mobs. I put one in Dia III for whenever my LS does a zerg for "final push" to take something down.

[Seditedi]

To Kionu: So you're pretty happy with Ice/Wind merits, and not Convert. You rarely experience resists and such, with 8 in Enfeebling and 5/5 in Wind. +15 M.Acc... Sounds sorta familiar to... Duelist's Chapeau So would it be ideal to say if you had that hat, instead of the Wind Acc merits, you'd feel your resist rate would be just fine?

Depends, I suppose. I just duo'd Ulli for fun, wound up resisting a few gravities along the way even with 5/5 wind and my usual enfeeble set. I find myself more often in the situation of "this had better land or I die" rather than "convert had better be up or I'm gonna die," i.e. Faust. I'd keep the wind merits even with the chapeau, but that's just me.

For Faust yeah.. but Faust isn't very resistant to wind anyways, but can be resistant to ice/binds.
My reasoning behind being against Wind accuracy merits is simply because the extra accuracy does jack shit in the grand scheme of things because most NM you solo and need the accuracy eventually become completely immune to gravity due to the resistance buildup. After that resistance builds up all the wind accuracy in the world won't let you land it.

[Fiofio]

I'm currently decreasing my wind accuracy merits to boost up my ice accuracy to level 5. I don't much like to lower merit levels but I feel that my gear has changed enough, along with full enfeebling merits, so that I would find the +15 ice magic accuracy more useful for what I do.

[chapstick]

I'm currently decreasing my wind accuracy merits to boost up my ice accuracy to level 5. I don't much like to lower merit levels but I feel that my gear has changed enough, along with full enfeebling merits, so that I would find the +15 ice magic accuracy more useful for what I do.

Same here, lol. I was 3 ice and 2 wind, but now I'm 5 ice.

[Airenn]

I think it's probably because i've heard many many people say "I know how to manage my MP, so Convert merits are a waste for me" and in 9/10 situations, it's so untrue it's not even funny. You are probably just in the 1/10, if you have a Dalm/AF2 Hat + Pocket BRD at all times, in which case you're gonna end up with a ton of MP most of the time.

This would be untrue, but for like duo/solo situations, I do feel I am decent at it. I remember to switch back to AF2 Hat after every cast, etc, and for kiting mobs, I'll neglect things like Haste/Phalanx, thus saving MP.

You really shouldn't need Haste when kiting something like ixMNK or ixDRK, anyway. _-_;; Around then, I'd be at about 1-2mins on vert and can just wait it out.

For fights like VV/CR... That's a different story, and that's what is making me rethink the Wind ACC Merits. I am not sure if I should leave them and deal. Move them down to 2 and get 1minute off Vert, or go for the full Vert @ 8:20. Hard choices, mang.

Depends on what enfeeble you are casting.
I hope to god you don't Slow or Paralyze a mob with a full skill set.

I tend to do this on Khim/Cerb with better results than MND. MND for Faf, CR, VV, etc. Tia is up in the air, she takes Slow/Silence regardless of what set I cast it in.

[Seditedi]

Shit is situational.
Khim/Cerb are stupidly resistant to every enfeeble.
For those 2 HNM and Hydra you are going to want a full skill set.
Everything else though, potency set all the way.

[Leeto]

You'll probably end up wasting more MP casting slow and para2 over and over on khim/cerb than you would curing any extra damage caused by lack of the enfeebles. Just get your whms and blms to rotate ES slow and para if you have enough.

[chapstick]

ES slow rotation for those NM's are the only way to go I think, fuck spamming slow II.