Multiple jobs and Merits

[Midnitelouie]

Can I just state that after that post I'm...I'm...at a loss for words.

I think I've seen confessions from crack users with more cohesiveness...

[Sho]

This not serious business, I want my money back.

And I agree that dude is drunk or something.

[Yutuyu]

To actually reply to the meat of your post and the idea expressed instead of the medium...

Some may say it's actually a good thing that you're unable to specialize in every job you do. That's the whole point of declaring a main job you want to be considered as.

You seem to want an FFXI where you don't have to make any tough choices about favoring any jobs over any other, being able to get each EX/Rare quest reward on a job by job basis, and having the flexibility to do merits job-by-job. And while that sounds good in theory it would remove a great deal of customization and allow advanced players to outshine others with less time on their hands on multiple jobs.

I really kind of like how things are. I may never be better than the guy who plays FFXI all day on say, RDM, but if I focus all of my efforts towards PLD I can outclass him there, etc.

[Street]

I wonder who this guy is on Unicorn... gotta be a reason for being anonymous

[Siralin]

To actually reply to the meat of your post and the idea expressed instead of the medium...

Some may say it's actually a good thing that you're unable to specialize in every job you do. That's the whole point of declaring a main job you want to be considered as.

You seem to want an FFXI where you don't have to make any tough choices about favoring any jobs over any other, being able to get each EX/Rare quest reward on a job by job basis, and having the flexibility to do merits job-by-job. And while that sounds good in theory it would remove a great deal of customization and allow advanced players to outshine others with less time on their hands on multiple jobs.

I really kind of like how things are. I may never be better than the guy who plays FFXI all day on say, RDM, but if I focus all of my efforts towards PLD I can outclass him there, etc.

You read all that shit?

[Yutuyu]

To actually reply to the meat of your post and the idea expressed instead of the medium...

Some may say it's actually a good thing that you're unable to specialize in every job you do. That's the whole point of declaring a main job you want to be considered as.

You seem to want an FFXI where you don't have to make any tough choices about favoring any jobs over any other, being able to get each EX/Rare quest reward on a job by job basis, and having the flexibility to do merits job-by-job. And while that sounds good in theory it would remove a great deal of customization and allow advanced players to outshine others with less time on their hands on multiple jobs.

I really kind of like how things are. I may never be better than the guy who plays FFXI all day on say, RDM, but if I focus all of my efforts towards PLD I can outclass him there, etc.

You read all that shit?

I have a psychotic need to deviate from normality brought on by early childhood abuse at the hands of my peers.

[Damane]

i think you missed the point of merits... the idea of merits is, that you can specialize on 1-2 jobs compared to other people, while other people can specialize on 1-2 other jobs. lets 2 people have SAM and PLD lvld. one focus merits on SAM the other on PLD. its obvious that each of them have thus more differences and advantages over the other while playing the same job. Thats how I see the Idea of merits. specialize in 1-2 jobs greatly, I dont see a point where you could max out all jobs on merits and make them "uber". in that way you could have just raised the lvl cap and would have had the same effect.

[Max™]

To actually reply to the meat of your post and the idea expressed instead of the medium...

Some may say it's actually a good thing that you're unable to specialize in every job you do. That's the whole point of declaring a main job you want to be considered as.

You seem to want an FFXI where you don't have to make any tough choices about favoring any jobs over any other, being able to get each EX/Rare quest reward on a job by job basis, and having the flexibility to do merits job-by-job. And while that sounds good in theory it would remove a great deal of customization and allow advanced players to outshine others with less time on their hands on multiple jobs.

I really kind of like how things are. I may never be better than the guy who plays FFXI all day on say, RDM, but if I focus all of my efforts towards PLD I can outclass him there, etc.

You read all that shit?

I have a psychotic need to deviate from normality brought on by early childhood abuse at the hands of my peers.

*gives Yutu a wedgie*

[Ashira]

in that way you could have just raised the lvl cap and would have had the same effect.

This is actually something I've thrown out as a topic of discussion; where some things are just so ridiculous now with jobs and setups and whatnot and other things that are completely stupid unless you have +30000000 skill, etc, and how so many people do have multiple jobs, a raise in level cap would help alleviate some of that whole meriting stress and trying to decide where to specialize

But then of course, everyone and their mother could probably solo Byakko and Seiryu.. and probably Hydra... if we did that. It's a vicious cycle.

Then again, I think it'd be really fun if there was some ninja patch where levels of HNM suddenly rose sharply and we didn't know it... and their pop conditions changed. That would be fun. :D

[Cookiemonster]

Didn't read the entire post tbh but I've been worrying about rings actualy for my PLD because I didn't choose Sattva.
I'm going to camp Blood Bead but that will probably take a while, until then I was thinking maybe using Mermaid's Ring/jelly ring and Hercules' Ring?
Everyone tells me +VIT rings suck and I wont be able to use jelly or bomb queen depending on the mob.
Not that I'll use them much, in exp will probably use a TP build and everyone wants me BLM for events.

[yrpaine]

i think you missed the point of merits....

Thank you for being the judge of what merits are for?

There's already caps on how many merits you can put into each weapon/ability/skill w/e. Why limit people to playing 1-2 jobs when there's quests like Maat's Cap, some people like to be more of a utility player or have some change from the normal. I don't agree with being able to move the merits around, but there should be quests or something to raise the cap for shared areas (stats/weapons/magic) if you have multiple 75's. From SE's PoV it would just encourage people to play longer to cap their merits again.

I don't agree with a lot of things in the OP, but I do enjoy being whichever job is needed for that day. I don't really have a main, and the whole pick 1 job thing is lame when I had to level up all jobs to get a Maat's cap.

[Damane]

i think you missed the point of merits....

Thank you for being the judge of what merits are for?

There's already caps on how many merits you can put into each weapon/ability/skill w/e. Why limit people to playing 1-2 jobs when there's quests like Maat's Cap, some people like to be more of a utility player or have some change from the normal. I don't agree with being able to move the merits around, but there should be quests or something to raise the cap for shared areas (stats/weapons/magic) if you have multiple 75's. From SE's PoV it would just encourage people to play longer to cap their merits again.

I don't agree with a lot of things in the OP, but I do enjoy being whichever job is needed for that day. I don't really have a main, and the whole pick 1 job thing is lame when I had to level up all jobs to get a Maat's cap.

I have 7 jobs at 75 and I am happy the way merits are, I picked 2 main jobs of the 7 that benefit mostly from merits, this doesnt say the other 5 jobs dont benefit from it or so. But other players with merits based on other jobs will have a better result then my other 5 jobs and I like it this way. Why should I be able to be topnotch on all 7 jobs, I like the individuality merits offer.

That doesnt mean my other 5 jobs are rendered useless, but yes a player with merits on one of this jobs, will have better results. I dont mind, I will have better results in the 2 other jobs :D

for the maats cap thing: was your decision to lvl all jobs, you got a maats cap for it as a reward and the fact to be able to switch to 15 different lvl 75 jobs at any given time so you can adjust to anything that arises. if you dont have a main job then by all means scatter your merits around a bit, you seem to like versatility, scatter the merits around combat skill so that lets say 5 of the 15 jobs you use most benefit from it mostly. That means your job might not outdo someone that is specialised on 1 job, but you have the benefit of being versatile.

[Fhqwghads]

The bottom line is there's plenty of character slots. If someone has a main that is fully merited and desires to be a specialist on another job and fully merit that as well, there's nothing stopping them from rolling another toon and leveling/meriting it, short of the time it takes to do so. There's no need to expand merits and gear to cover all jobs. A significant portion of really good gear is r/ex, and if someone is so hardcore that they want all their jobs to be at the top of the game there's no way they could do it anyway, because they would run out of space. So in essence the point is moot because there will be sacrifices that prevent a single character from being the best it could possibly be, purely from a storage standpoint.

[Sendra]

i got Knightly for shield skilll and i think anyone getting anything different would be stupid but thats me

OH MY FUCKING GOD:

http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/ff...ly_Earring.jpg
http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/ff...ly_Earring.jpg
http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/ff...ly_Earring.jpg

IS NOT AN APPLICABLE CHOICE FROM DIVINE MIGHT, TRY A-FUCKING-GAIN.

[Rocl]

u ... u ... u ... u ... u

Your Y and O keys won't wear out if you use them, I promise.

You might also want to look into what a shift key does, it's kind of cool!

Not true, my A, S, crtl, alt and L keys all want to talk to you.

[ffxiUnicorn23]

as cool as changing merits around would be maybe it would be a lil nuts if you had say 10 jobs 75 and could switch in and out and make them pimped. it would take like 200 merits to do that or so idk. maybe letting people dump more merits in though would help. like attributes cap at 27 total merits. put in another 27 to allow you to change it to another stat?

im not looking for the easy fix of just being able to pimp every job i hit 75 with merits. i just want the option to take my jobs to that next level. at 75 u can only do 2 things to make ur char stronger and thats meriting or getting new equipment. i have most the equipment for my other 4 jobs i just have absolutly no room to merit them with the current limiations. i have 200 merits in PLD id gladly do 200 more for another job. i mainly want the option and right now im limited to job spacific merits.

also to the person who was talking about the level cap situation. i think they could up the level lets say to 100. you can be level 100 but when you enter zones like dynamis limbus or HNM zones sky sea ect u get BCNM like thing and are caped at 75. another thing i though of with comeing expantion.... we warp back in time right.. so maybe when your in the past u can go over 75. but once u come back to he future....lol, you are restricted to 75 again. although the idea of being stronger back in the past is a lil weird im sure they could come up with some kidna story for it

[Khrno]

Edit: nvm, sorry. :D

[UnclePhil]

as cool as changing merits around would be maybe it would be a lil nuts if you had say 10 jobs 75 and could switch in and out and make them pimped. it would take like 200 merits to do that or so idk.

I lol'd.

[Obev]

Didn't read the entire post tbh but I've been worrying about rings actualy for my PLD because I didn't choose Sattva.
I'm going to camp Blood Bead but that will probably take a while, until then I was thinking maybe using Mermaid's Ring/jelly ring and Hercules' Ring?
Everyone tells me +VIT rings suck and I wont be able to use jelly or bomb queen depending on the mob.
Not that I'll use them much, in exp will probably use a TP build and everyone wants me BLM for events.

Herc/Mermaid, and shit is situational.

[arus2001]

Overall, merits just plain seem to favor DDs.

Of the stat merits, STR helps a lot of WS and general melee all damage calculations considered. VIT only really benefits PLD in laughable amounts, and INT is likely only considered by career BLMs.

Far as combat skill merits go, Sword actually represents the broadest range of jobs. PLD, WAR, BLU, DRK, and RDM. Granted, some require a Joyeuse or Ridill to be considered worthwhile over some other options, and nobody expects or demands a RDM to melee, either. Great Axe is certainly WAR only since DRKs don't get Raging Rush. Scythe's for DRKs, with Great Sword offering an okay alternative. Great Katana is obviously SAM. Katana with NIN. Hand-to-Hand benefits MNK the most, but PUP can also see some benefits. And while some RDM sing the praises of Dagger, it's ultimately a dedicated THF's must. Club, Staff, Marksmanship, Archery, and Throwing are pretty much laughable in the grand scheme. After the 2H update, while meriting a 2H weapon will help you some, it almost feels like a moot point when you realize the 1H jobs pretty much need them before they can start considering Meat for meriting.

I've never had an interest in the defensive merits, but Shield at least makes sense for PLD. Evasion for THF or even NIN becomes questionable once you hit the point where more EVA doesn't even matter. Parry and Guard? Meh. Doesn't help they're a bitch to raise, either.

Magically, going 8/8 Elemental and Enfeebling doesn't really hurt a melee job. Both help DRK some, but it's ultimately something for RDMs and BLMs, with WHM bringing up the rear on Enfeebling should they so choose. Only BRDs will be concerned with the song-related skills. I don't think even SMNs give a crap about Summoning Magic. Blue Magic is also obviously BLU only, but if I'm not mistaken, tests have shown that going over 6 levels seems pointless.

Other stuff like HP and MP is a mixed bag. I'm of the opinion that MP merits are ultimately superior, but if you're a career job that never uses MP or doesn't have a worthwhile use of an MP sub, I can see HP being the winner. Meanwhile, I'd only touch +Enmity if I plan on going PLD-4-Life. -Enmity hurts any melee that might employ Trick Attack, and I've always felt it questionable even for mages since their hate just tends to come in giant spikes from cures or nukes. I'd never touch -interrupt, since once merely needs to learn how to cast when being hit. Overall, Crit Rate Up for melees is the winner, while Enemy Crit Rate Down takes second place just because there's not really anything better for the majority of jobs.

Job specifics spice things up a bit, but at this point, we've all kind of come to a uniform decision that some abilities are useless (lolzanshin), some are must-haves (hi2uslow2), and others are just one-point wonders (Diffusion, etc.). I feel like that's the biggest downer with merits, since they're what should be the real defining characteristics of our jobs instead of another case of cloning the next guy because it's the best way. All the spells and JAs that came about from Tier IIs really should've just been learned as we leveled or by scrolls. Those abilities then could've been improved through the merits, or made way for things that really make us think hard on what to get.

I guess this all one long-winded way of saying there's a definite end-point or finite lifespan of a job's progression. Updates and Expansion can redefine those points, but they can be few and far between. Some people think it's best we can't be A+ at everything. Others can't really stomach being B+, but don't wanna give up their previous A+, either. I dunno, would upping caps based on number of 75s be an option? Should we just STFU and deal with it? Or maybe just hope for new gear that doesn't make the B+ seem like such a bad thing? I dunno anymore. So many things SE could do to make the game better, but simply haven't due to a combination of stubbornness, laziness, and incompetence.