Corsair Job Merits; so many options! >_<

[Auspice]

I know there have been a few discussions about COR job merits but not since AF2 was introduced so I figured I'd reignite the discussion.

I'm currently sitting at 5/5 Phantom Roll and 2 Fold, 2 Snake Eye, and 1 Loaded Deck.

My current debate is where to put my final 10 points(duh?).

I am VERY aggressive with my rolls since I hate having a shitty number on a buff. That being said, I wanted to go 5/5 SE and 4/5 Fold HOWEVER with the AF2 hat enhancing Phantom Roll it makes me want to throw some points in Winning Streak so when I hit those enhanced rolls they last longer and also when I push my rolls to the limit they'll be better. The flipside of this is that since I DO double up frequently I do bust so I'm using Fold and Random Deal to reset Fold timer; at least, I thought I did. The past several nights I've been in longer merit sessions and I honestly haven't been busting as much as I thought I did. So I can't really see needing 5(and 7 1/2) minute recasts on SE and Fold anymore.

As far as G1 stuff goes, I've always been torn between QD Recast and QD Accuracy(and now with AF2 body perhaps Random Deal recast). I seldom if ever get resisted on QD but in all fairness, I haven't really done much endgame play on COR so I'd like to hear if anyone has QD acc merits and actually has needed them. The benefits to QD recast become pretty apparent when shit gets sour and having an extra set of sleeps is always a good thing. My alternate choice is Random Deal recast depending on how the new Frac enhances Random Deal(hopefully not just an enhanced Loaded Deck like people are currently speculating). Although, if it has a very potent Loaded Deck potency like similar gear(NIN gloves etc) then it may be worthwhile to pull the 1 point I've got in it right now and repurpose it for another one.

The way I see it, if I'm 5/5 SE and 4/5 Fold I'm probably not going to be burning a Random Deal to reset those timers unless I'm having REALLY bad luck on rolls so Random Deal recasts would be a waste. However, if I DO put points in Winning Streak I may be relying more on Random Deal if SE and Fold timers are down.

tl;dr, wall of text, etc

Just looking for some input to see if anyone else is having a similar dilemma. >_<

[Callisto]

I'd rather have better rolls more often than the chance of getting stuck with a shitty roll for longer, 5 SE, 4 Fold, 1 LD IMO.

[Fryte]

Tier2: 5 SE 4 Fold 1 LD

Tier1: 5 QD recast.

After that, I don't know. I debate with myself everyday whether or not to merit Phantom Roll recast for those unsightly yuck rolls so I can reroll them quicker after a Fold and Random Deal is down. However, QD accuracy has endgame applications, but with enough +AGI and magic accuracy, is it even necessary?

[Kazujiro]

My Corsair Merits:

Group 1
Quick Draw Recast 5
Quick Draw Accuracy 2/5

Group 2
Snake Eye 3
Fold 1
Winning Streak 3
Loaded Deck 1

I'm not sure what I want to do after capping QD Accuracy either, I'm torn between throwing my last two Group 2's into Fold or Loaded Deck.

[Kilhart]

I did:

5 QD Recast
5 QD Accuracy
5 Snake Eye
3 Fold
1 Winning Streak
1 Loaded Deck.

Considering taking Winning Streak out and putting in a fourth Fold, though.

[Vedder]

I am completely vexed on what to do for my COR job specific merits. More than any other job, it seems like COR merits are more flexible to different playstyles and don't have such clear cut options.

I was thinking about doing 1 each in SE, Fold, WS, and LD ... then seeing what I liked in conjunction with my playstyle, but I'm noticing a lot of people who aren't even touching Winning Streak. Callisto's comments on this made sense... anyone else have comments on Winning Streak one way or the other?

[nekura]

For group 2 I have:
5 Snake Eye
3 Winning Streak
1 Fold
1 Loaded Deck

Before meriting Winning Streak, I considered putting more merits into Fold, but even though it's an incredible ability it's not one I find myself using more than fifteen minutes. I'm sure I'll run into a situation where I'll think to myself, "Damn, if only my Fold timer was up again," but those are far and few in between. Five minute Snake Eye, on the other hand, is the greatest thing ever, and having an extra minute on my buffs is pretty nice too.

By the way, good to see you're still around Kilhart! I read a lot of your posts on KI before I started leveling COR.

[Callisto]

I am completely vexed on what to do for my COR job specific merits. More than any other job, it seems like COR merits are more flexible to different playstyles and don't have such clear cut options.

I was thinking about doing 1 each in SE, Fold, WS, and LD ... then seeing what I liked in conjunction with my playstyle, but I'm noticing a lot of people who aren't even touching Winning Streak. Callisto's comments on this made sense... anyone else have comments on Winning Streak one way or the other?

We debated this on FFXIO before too, and yeah it's extremely based on playstyle. WS can help increase your own damage output since you spend more time swinging/shooting and less rolling, but to me even if I can put up big #'s in meripo I'm still a party buffer first, and I'd rather have the other 3 DDs sitting on lucky/X/XI as often as possible than see myself pop 2 extra Slugs per roll cycle. And with a faster fold timer I can be much more agressive w/ rolling on 8-9 if they're unluckies.

[Shiznicle]

My current plan for Corsair Merits:

Phantom Roll Recast: 5/5
Quick Draw Accuracy: 5/5
Snake Eye: 5/5
Fold: 5/5

I decided to not bother with Loaded Deck since I rarely ever use Random Deal, and I'm hoping that the AF2 Body will make it so I don't need it anyway.

As far as Tier 1 goes, I wasn't sure whether to put merits into Quick Draw Accuracy or Recast, but I finally decided on Accuracy because I haven't been in too many situations where my recast timer has been a problem.

[Meat]

Quick Draw Recast 5/5
Quick Draw Accuracy 5/5
Snake Eye 1
Fold 5
Loaded Deck 4

[Kerberoz]

QD acc: 5/5
QD recast: 5/5

Snake eye: 3/5, will go to 5/5
Fold: 2/5, will go to 4/5
Loaded Deck: 1/5, will stay there

[Kylen]

More than any other job, it seems like COR merits are more flexible to different playstyles and don't have such clear cut options.

I definitely agree with this.

IMO, the "must-have" merits for COR are 5/5 Quick Draw recast in Tier 1, and 5/5 Snake Eye, 1 Loaded Deck, and 1 Fold in Tier II. After that, it's really down to a matter of preference.

The only time that Winning Streak really helps "extend your good rolls" is if all of the rolls in your cycle end up being good (which happens, but rarely). Otherwise, you'll typically have a lucky Evoker's Roll followed by a so-so Chaos Roll followed by an unlucky Corsair's Roll or some combination thereof, so you're taking the bad with the good by extending your roll duration. Because of this, I used to be somewhat against Winning Streak merits.

After hearing other COR's rave about it and finally putting 1 merit into Winning Streak, though, I can definitely see where they're coming from. Having those extra 20, 40, or 60 seconds really does make the job a lot less stressful and allows me to focus more not just on DD'ing, but also sleeping links or Dark Shotting buffs if needed. Winning Streak merits are expecially nice in Salvage, Nyzul, and Dynamis, where it's easy to get behind on my roll cycle and have rolls drop when I have to wait for everyone in my party that's running around to regroup so they're in range.

Lowering Fold recast is nice, but I really prefer to use Random Deal in conjunction with Fold when I bust (since it resets Phantom Roll 90% of the time for me) so the people I'm buffing don't have to wait a full 50s-1 minute without buffs while waiting on my PR timer.

[Cakes]

Quick Draw Recast 5/5
Quick Draw Accuracy 5/5
Snake Eye 5/5
Loaded Deck 4/5
Fold 1

Although, I am considering switching some Loaded Deck merits for winning streak. Hmm.

[kayn]

This is only my take on the merits.
To each his own.

Corsair Group 1
5 Phantom Roll Recast
5 Quick Draw Recast Corsair
Group 2
5 Snake Eye
5 Winning Streak

Busts only seem to affect you. You can reroll the busted roll and your pt will still get the effect. To me this makes fold kind of useless.

Being able to light/dark/dmg shot more often is greatly beneficial in any situation. Also, being able to bump a roll up from a 10 to an 11 or out of an unlucky number also is of great benefit.

My own personal take on PR recast and winning streak. The less time I have to focus on buffs, the more time I can be doing other things. Whether it be damage dealing or if I'm /whm, curing/removing enfeebles.

Quick Draw acc is very enticing but HNMs are HNMs. Either they resist fully or you can overcome it with AGI/M.acc gear and HQ Staves.

[Bozo]

I've gotten a bit burnt out from meriting but I currently have:

Snake Eye 5/5: I love this on a 5m timer, I can't see myself being without it.

Fold 1/5: As Kylen mentioned its great to use in conjunction with Random Deal. I will probably put another point or two into this.

Winning Streak 0/5: I really don't see the point in meriting this. As mentioned before when meriting COR it has a lot to do with your play style and I enjoy the rolling quite a bit. Also as Kylen mentioned its helpful in the events such as salvage/nyzul etc. You also have to take into consideration of other events you will be doing. Let's say something that involves zoning, dispellga (Genbu and Seiryu for example.) or you just get stuck in a crap situation where you need to constantly zone and hold something or party members around you are. (I was actually in that situation last night, the troll ZNM started kicking our ass with overthrow spam and we had to hold it). In those situations you may find merits in Fold or Loaded Deck more beneficial. But once again, depending on your play style you might find Fold or Loaded Deck useless and Winning Streak more beneficial.

Loaded Deck 2/5

Quick Draw ACC 2/5
Random Deal Recast 1 or 2/5 I forget.

[Trotsky]

Of G1, my goal is to fully merit Quick Draw and Random Deal's recasts.

As for G2, gonna be a bit more detailed here. Snake Eye is a totally wicked job ability, meriting it to full is a must if you want to get most out of your rolls. Loaded Deck is pretty cool too, currently got it to lv.2 and been planning to take it further, but now that AF2 frac's been introduced, gonna wait a bit 'til it's effect on Random Deal is fully explored, as in - how these two effects interact. Fold is nice to have just in case, but upgrading it more than one or few times seems insane to me. Unless you're deliberately double-up on VII+, you're not gonna bust that often, especially with Snake Eyes available. Finally, spending merits on Winning Streak is just gimp, since rolls already last significantly longer than songs, not to mention you wouldn't want those unlucky ones to stick around any longer than they already do.

[Callisto]

Fold is nice to have just in case, but upgrading it more than one or few times seems insane to me. Unless you're deliberately double-up on VII+, you're not gonna bust that often, especially with Snake Eyes available.

If you're scared of VII-VIII you're doing it wrong.

[nitsuj]

Tier I:
Quick Draw Recast 5/5
Quick Draw Accuracy 5/5

Tier II:
Snake Eye 5/5 (to get it on a 5 min timer. I think this is the COR's most important merit from a buff standpoint)

Fold 1/5 (you need to have this but if you have snake eye you shouldn't need to use it too often)

Loaded Deck 1/5 (enough to make a difference)

Those are the ones I know. I'm not sure what to do with the remaining 3 :/

[Kilhart]

By the way, good to see you're still around Kilhart! I read a lot of your posts on KI before I started leveling COR.

Oh what the hell? Someone remembers me? <_< But yeah, I stopped playing for about half a year. Came back about 2 months ago.

Too lazy to multi-quote, so here goes.

Yeah, in a way your COR merits should suit your playstyle, but I really wouldn't go without 5/5 QD recast or 5/5 Snake Eye. I don't think you can debate the usefulness of those two. I personally went with QD acc because I'm currently working on my QD build for HNMs/sky/sea/etc., and I've yet to hear of a COR capping QD acc on those things.

As for the issue with Fold, here's the thing: it's very true that Busts only affect the roller, but think about it. If you bust once and don't have Fold up, you'd be a fool to Double-Up from a VI or higher at ALL while that Bust is active, since it's not really worth the risk of not being able to roll at all for a few minutes. Fold eliminates this problem quite nicely, and with either the "wait til Double-Up Chance is about to wear" method or Fold+RD method, you're able to take risks more frequently in doubling up without reducing the overall efficacy of your rolls.

[Mizango]

For group 2 I have:
5 Snake Eye
3 Winning Streak
1 Fold
1 Loaded Deck

Exactly what I have so far as well. Yeah Cor merits more than any other job seem to bend towards a particular play style. I've sat on merits and given all day though at times as to what to pile them into so I know what you're feeling man.