merits and do they make me a bad mage?

[Kymberry]

Okay so me and a person in my Linkshell have been arguing constantly on "Me being a bad mage." And he told me to post on BG about my merits etc. I just recently found out about BG so this is going to be my first thread ever made. So sorry if I don't write it like others on this site.

To go into better detail on this situation, I have Smn, whm, brd, and rdm for mage jobs, I also have thf level 70 (working to get to 75 now) and also have bst which I intend to get 75 as well. I have tried my best to make it where my merits suit all my jobs and that I do not lack "Important" meirts, while also trying to make my character be able to be enjoyed by myself since I pay close to 20 dollars a month for it. I figured no big deal adding a few extra merits a "Mage" usually doesnt have.

I mainly play Whitemage and Bard for events.
Also I am a Tarutaru, I think that is something worth mentioning.
I also enjoy mage/nin for fun when soloing.
Linkshell events are Dynamis sky sea etc.

I guess gear would deal into this too.

Gear wise I have plenty of MP I at this moment in time usually have 800 HP and 1300+ mp! I can balance it to have 1000 hp & mp but since my Linkshell doesn't do HNM's, I don't do it often. I enjoy having a lot of MP, but I also like to live which is also why I am working on HP merits as well so I don't die in case of rare chance of getting hit with aoes.
I have fast cast gear along with enfeebling, healing etc. Noble's Tunic for whitemage, I use cure clogs for cure, and rostrum pumps for other spells, have capped stoneskin, I have zenith head, hands, and pants. blessed gear for haste. I have a lot of gear macros lol. I even have a HP + macro for devotion, that includes bomb queen ring and jse. (another reason I want HP merits for a better devotions)

Ok here are all of my merits. (still working on them, plan to cap soon)

HP/MP: 2 into HP 1 into MP (Planning on either finishing off HP or 4/4

Attributes: I was thinking of doing 3 CHR, and 2 DEX or AGI.

Combat skills: 6/8 Dagger plan to cap. and have capped Evasion skill.
Thinking of doing axe for Beastmaster not sure. or marksmanship for Thief.

Magic: 1 enfeebling, 1 sing, 1 wind. going to cap out wind and singing.

Other: Capped critical hit, and almost capped enemy critical hit rate.

Whitemage merits:
Group 1 merits:
4 Cure cast
2 Barspell
4 Regen

Group 2
Devotion 1 plan to cap
Pro 5 1
Shell V 1 Plan to cap

Red Mage: I just got it 75 so it doesn't have anything yet but plan to do
Group 1
Ice, wind and earth accuracy
Group 2
I plan either Dia 3 or Bio 3
and to cap Slow 2 and Paralyze 2

Bard merits:
Group 1:
Lullaby capped
Finale almost capped
Group 2:
Nightingale 1
Troubadour 1 Plan to cap both

Summoner merits:
Avatar physical accuracy 1 from being capped
Avatar physical attack 1 from being capped (plan to cap both)

After saying all that, do you think honestly I have made bad choices in my merits? or do you think, I have done well in making what is fair for all my jobs?
Also do you think that the way I have/plan to merit will effect my linkshell and cause problems etc.?

I know my character still needs work but just curious to all of your opinions, on what I have put in so far.

[Valyana]

Lightning Accuracy seems an unusual choice; do you expect to be nuking that much?

If you're going to use your new RDM much, you should consider maxing Enfeebling rather than Wind.

Other than that, seems fine to me.

Also, merits don't determine whether or not you're a "bad mage". Your skill as a player is a lot more important.

[Yugl]

Red Mage: I just got it 75 so it doesn't have anything yet but plan to do
Group 1
Ice and lightning Accuracy

No wind? Lightning accuracy is rarely going to be utilized compared to Wind. Maybe for Chainspell stuns, but that's about it, and the situation in of itself is rare.

Group 2
I plan either Dia 3 or Bio 3
and to cap Slow 2 and Paralyze 2

I wouldn't say EITHER Dia or Bio. Both are worth looking into for different situations.

[Kymberry]

my rdm is mostly leveled for self purposes, but your right fixed it forgot about slow and paralyze when making this post quickly.

[Chen]

drop the cure cast merits or the regen down 1-2 and cap barspells.

then like others have said, i'd do enfeebling 8/8 and singing personally, and forget wind skill.

ice/wind acc for rdm, and maybe drop the enemy crit rate and get -enmity?

[SubzeroDiabolos]

HP for mages job, do you really never run out of mp?

[Neosutra]

Fuck that, I love my wife's cure cast time merits.

[Kymberry]

I agree I love the cure cast, reason I combine it with the cure clogs. As for my critical rate merits and - enmity. I honestly do not want to mess with my enmity at all, I hear often people going I wish I didn't cap enmity cause now when I play this job I get hate to often and die etc. I rarely pull hate, and when I am it's cause something killed the tanks, or it did a reset move, or a lot of aoe's.

Is that really a "Big issue"? curious to other mages input on that and if they agree or disagree with me.

[Chen]

iirc someone done a ton of tests(here on BG) with /sch cure clogs and merits and showed it capped out around 35%~ cast reduction, if you worried about speed, get 2/5 cure merits, /sch & the shoes

[Seraph]

I agree I love the cure cast, reason I combine it with the cure clogs. As for my critical rate merits and - enmity. I honestly do not want to mess with my enmity at all, I hear often people going I wish I didn't cap enmity cause now when I play this job I get hate to often and die etc. I rarely pull hate, and when I am it's cause something killed the tanks, or it did a reset move, or a lot of aoe's.

Is that really a "Big issue"? curious to other mages input on that and if they agree or disagree with me.

I'm curious why you would bother with HP merits unless you are strictly focused on tanking, or using them towards maximizing Convert and Devotion. I can't think of any situation where more HP will really help a BST or THF unless it's just enough to help them survive a fight.

As far as the rest, nothing specifically bad comes to mind that people haven't already mentioned. There is no single right answer for merits, because they will usually be tailored to what you want to do. The only real wrong answer is to not have any merits.


Edit: To add to this, I personally think that having a person who is not an idiot in the driver seat is infinitely more valuable than a well geared well merited idiot. I've seen plenty of stacked players disappoint me, and I've seen many underwhelming players impress me. That is no excuse to suck though, just a point to take into account. Play to be better, and play to have more fun.

[tobyjuggler]

On the melee side, don't bother with DEX and AGI, but do bother with STR.

[Chen]

found it.

http://www.bluegartr.com/forum/ffxi-...5-13-08-a.html

shows 35-37% in cast time reduction to be the cap, any more is useless. buy the shoes, and get 2/5 cure merits and anymore useless! (cause you'll probably have loq earring)

[Kymberry]

I'm curious why you would bother with HP merits unless you are strictly focused on tanking, or using them towards maximizing Convert and Devotion. I can't think of any situation where more HP will really help a BST or THF unless it's just enough to help them survive a fight.

As far as the rest, nothing specifically bad comes to mind that people haven't already mentioned. There is no single right answer for merits, because they will usually be tailored to what you want to do. The only real wrong answer is to not have any merits.


Edit: To add to this, I personally think that having a person who is not an idiot in the driver seat is infinitely more valuable than a well geared well merited idiot. I've seen plenty of stacked players disappoint me, and I've seen many underwhelming players impress me. That is no excuse to suck though, just a point to take into account. Play to be better, and play to have more fun.

Reason I want hp merits is for devotion macro cause im a tarutaru lol. I already have a ton of HP gear but I want to cap it as far as I can and extra HP can't hurt again cause im taru!

[Kymberry]

As far as the cure cast I will check into that, I am a bit of old school whitemage and have been leveling sch but have not quite researched into its full abilities yet as sub for whm. I still prefer blm and smn subjob, but I think its more out of just using it for so long. I am open minded and willing for a change if I see its good value. so thank you.

[Seanr]

Skill > Merits/Gear

[Damane]

Ok here are all of my merits. (still working on them, plan to cap soon)

HP/MP: 2 into HP 1 into MP (Planning on either finishing off HP or 4/4

Attributes: I was thinking of doing 3 CHR, and 2 DEX or AGI.

Combat skills: 6/8 Dagger plan to cap. and have capped Evasion skill.
Thinking of doing axe for Beastmaster not sure. or marksmanship for Thief.

Magic: 1 enfeebling, 1 sing, 1 wind. going to cap out wind and singing.

Other: Capped critical hit, and almost capped enemy critical hit rate.

Whitemage merits:
Group 1 merits:
4 Cure cast
2 Barspell
4 Regen

Group 2
Devotion 1 plan to cap
Pro 5 1
Shell V 1 Plan to cap

Red Mage: I just got it 75 so it doesn't have anything yet but plan to do
Group 1
Ice, wind and earth accuracy
Group 2
I plan either Dia 3 or Bio 3
and to cap Slow 2 and Paralyze 2

Bard merits:
Group 1:
Lullaby capped
Finale almost capped
Group 2:
Nightingale 1
Troubadour 1 Plan to cap both

Summoner merits:
Avatar physical accuracy 1 from being capped
Avatar physical attack 1 from being capped (plan to cap both)

After saying all that, do you think honestly I have made bad choices in my merits? or do you think, I have done well in making what is fair for all my jobs?
Also do you think that the way I have/plan to merit will effect my linkshell and cause problems etc.?

I know my character still needs work but just curious to all of your opinions, on what I have put in so far.

Since you are a taru you will have more then enough MP, go for full HP merits to enhance survivability

whm:
drop cure cast merits
make full barspell merits
full regen merits
drop pro V merits
make full shell V and devotion merits.

RDM:
personally I would go with
5 wind
3 earth
2 ice
do slow II
and then decide on:
if you are in tank pt usually
full phalanx II
if not:
its up to you to do dia III bio III or para II.

as for magic skill meirts:
do 8/8 enfeebling magic
and 8/8 singing skill
this will support your rdm and whm enfeebling (in most situations very important)
and will also buff your brd

[Thorgridson]

Looks very good indeed, i would keep curecast since as you stated you dont do HNMs so bar cap is not nice but not essential. Im taru as well and HP merits for devotion are very good.

But most important as being said: your skill will determine if you are a good mage and not your merits, a good WHM is hard to come by, very rare.
Other then that, depending on which job you want to focus in the future or lets say, whats your favourite job, that should be your focus. Not all job combinations can "survive" with the same merits.

[ErzaScarlet]

When looking at your RDM tier 1 merits you might want to consider your RDM tier 2 merits. You may not do HNM now but there may come a time when you may and it's probably a good idea to know why you'd merit certain things before you spend 50 merits you might regret.

Are you going to want to land paralyze 2 to and have a strong MND build? For this reason you might want to invest in Ice Accuracy. This will help your bind accuracy as well on tougher targets, also if you will be nuking things on red mage (Salvage gears come to mind) you will often want to use blizzard 3 since you will have +skill and Int on Aquilo's (Ice) Staff personally for these reasons I am 5/5 Ice.

Now I used to do a lot of soloing on red mage and at the time I needed more reliable gravity so I am currently 5/5 Wind, also helped when trying to silence suzy, and I dont regret these merits as they served their purpose however since i use slow2 very often I am leaning towards dropping all or some of my wind for Earth.

So evaluate your needs (an perhaps where you will help your linkshell) before you continue to merit on red mage.

The only thing that lightening accuracy would help would be your Thunder 3, but as I said blizzard 3 would be a smarter choice, and maybe getting 1 more stun off on something like Khim as he starts to build his resistance, in my opinion this is not worth it.

Bard

I like lullaby merits great for pulling and getting links or if melees kill too slow. Especially if you merit on birds where you cant use horde.
Finale merits not sure why you did this maybe theres a reason i cant think of. Whenever i'm in a ls event that needs mass dispels like sandworm there are usually rdm to help. For this reason my 2nd brd group 1 merits went into Minuet.

I see your reason for hp/mp merits well explained i have no problem with that since you evaluated your decision and did something that worked for you.

Personally I love bard and wish i could merit 16 into it between wind/singing. But atm i also have rdm and blm and 8/8 enf/ele so I wont be dropping any of those any time soon. I would love to be able to land elegy reliably on khim/cerb with no eseal but 16 merits is more then I can devote to brd.

So if you love brd that much and you need those skill go for it but make sure you wont regret not having those merits caps available on other job skills.

SE has mentioned in an interview that they might raise combat skills maybe this includes magic skills we can only hope.

If you are deciding between capping slow 2 or para 2. From my observation more merits in slow 2 help slow effect slightly and accuracy slightly. More merits in para 2 help effect on stronger mobs(nicely) and accuracy slightly. a Strong mind Build is Crucial for paralyze 2, helpful for slow2 but slow 2 with a weak build is still nice.

WHM

Personally I dont play whm but from a PLD point of view I love devotion.
Honestly at think point there are very few situations where i'm not pld/nin so protect 5 is ok but not really something you need 5/5.

Devotion is nice I had a friend who was 5/5 always good to get hit with that, shell V very nice too.

Barspell 5/5 is excellent there is really no substitute for that in a lot of things.
I like the thought of 5/5 cure cast when i'm at 100 hp.

Summoner I have lv 1 so I'll leave that to someone else to advise.

Well theres my 2 cents, good luck with your merits.

[chapstick]

Someone calling you a bad mage because of your merit choices is pretty stupid no matter how abstract your merits are TBH.

If you can play your job right on those mage jobs, no one should be bitching you out - maybe they should level mage jobs themselves so they can do it "right"?

[miokomioko]

You could seriously just lie to everyone about what you have merits in (as long as they aren't spells/JAs that you don't have) and no one would ever have a fucking clue otherwise.