merits and do they make me a bad mage?

[Arthars]

I'll just fix your merits with explanation. I am taking into account that you mainly play WHM and BRD, as you mentioned. So here goes..........

HP/MP: 2 into HP 1 into MP (Planning on either finishing off HP or 4/4)
Recommendation: go 8/8 HP!!! or 6 HP 2 MP if you lazy........since your a taru, MP should not be a matter at all. get your HP up for survivability, better converts, devotion etc etc etc

Attributes: I was thinking of doing 3 CHR, and 2 DEX or AGI.
Recommendation: CHR is a waste of merits, and your time to even grind that merit, to put them into utter waste. If you intent, or have a melee job(BST since i think i saw you mentioning that), go for 5 STR. no dont go for mix, 5 STR onry. if you dont like your BST, you can still go 5 INT to help your BLM, or even rdm. nope, no dex no mnd, 5 str or 5 int onry period.

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.
Recommendation: Evasion is not popular these days, you may wanna remove it. you dont have a thf job so i was wondering why you wanna cap dagger skill. but hey at least its dagger not club/staff. so i guess 8/8 dagger is ok.... go for 8/8 axe is fine, since one day you may wanna play WAR too.....as for the other 4, maybe you can go 4 sword. But for my recommendation and doing it right, go 8 axe, 8 sword, 4 dagger.

Magic: 1 enfeebling, 1 sing, 1 wind. going to cap out wind and singing.
Recommendation: If you really like BRD that much, go 8 wind 8 singing is fine. but if you know your songs are not going to get resisted that much or if you dont even have a good gears to start with to reach next "song tier" then going 8 and 8 is useless/not needed. can always go 8 enfeebling or 8 elemental. but if your a really good brd, 8 singing 8 wind is fine.

Other: Capped critical hit, and almost capped enemy critical hit rate.
Recommendation: N/A. You got one right there!

Whitemage merits:
Group 1 merits:
4 Cure cast
2 Barspell
4 Regen
Recommendation: -_- regen. go 5 curing speed and 5 bar. at least just a little merits to tweak group 1.

Group 2
Devotion 1 plan to cap
Pro 5 1
Shell V 1 Plan to cap
Recommendation: Can keep that prot V lvl 1 if you like. 4 devo, 1 prot V, 5 shell V is ok.

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
Recommendation: Any RDM should have 5 convert, or 3 minimum for solo and oshit group play scenarios. as for elements, it all scale down to what you do really. if you like full MND slow, you can go 5 earth. This can be further enhanced in group 2 to ensure full MND slow dont get resisted. Ice and Wind can also be mixed. Actually, like i said, it scale down to what you do really. Can mix too np. but general idea is convert should be 3-5.

Group 2
I plan either Dia 3 or Bio 3
and to cap Slow 2 and Paralyze 2
Recommendation:
For group 2, if your doing full MND slow and have 5 earth in group 1, you can go 5 slow 2. Slow 2 imo just needed lvl 1. and if your doing it right, you need 4-5. dont mix as well, i seen people with 2 each in group 2 and, tbh, it blows in all aspect of all the 5 spells...... You may wanna throw in phalanx 2. Phalanx 2 is good only you get lvl 4 or 5. 1 2 3 sucks..... lolpara2 you dont need that. its too random. Bio 3 is good for solo, and its a lvl 4 or 5 thing. lvl 1 2 3 sucks. So yea, it goes down to what you do. What i did was 5 bio 4 phalanx 1 slow cos i solo/low man with my rdm. My wife is my personal support rdm. so shes 5 slow 5 phalanx. It goes down to what you do. Omg did i mention alot of "depend on what you do?" Yep because RDM is very versatile. There is no super rdm template for all situation.

Bard merits:
Group 1:
Lullaby capped
Finale almost capped
Group 2:
Nightingale 1
Troubadour 1 Plan to cap both
Recommendation: N/A. Good job but spend your merits on other jobs first. 1 trou 1 nigh is ok for now.

Summoner merits:
Avatar physical accuracy 1 from being capped
Avatar physical attack 1 from being capped (plan to cap both)
Recommendation:Im not a super duper smn but from what i know from the trend now is that 5 lvl attack is not that super useful. it only means extra "few" random damage from predator claws etc. 5 lvl of accurancy is ok. but i feel that you should spend the other 5 on magic accurancy, because there are some NMs in this game that needed nukes from group 2(if for some reason your not using BLM for nuking these kinda NMs -_-)

Summary
Yes, your initial merit choices are pretty bad........and i suppose thats why your friend mean that you have gimp merits, because, tbh, it kinda blow my mind how you got some of those "plan" in your head. but hey, since you posted here, we gotta help right? but end of the day, if you dont wanna do it, and wanna follow your "plan", go ahead

[Kymberry]

I'll just fix your merits with explanation. I am taking into account that you mainly play WHM and BRD, as you mentioned. So here goes..........

HP/MP: 2 into HP 1 into MP (Planning on either finishing off HP or 4/4)
Recommendation: go 8/8 HP!!! or 6 HP 2 MP if you lazy........since your a taru, MP should not be a matter at all. get your HP up for survivability, better converts, devotion etc etc etc

Attributes: I was thinking of doing 3 CHR, and 2 DEX or AGI.
Recommendation: CHR is a waste of merits, and your time to even grind that merit, to put them into utter waste. If you intent, or have a melee job(BST since i think i saw you mentioning that), go for 5 STR. no dont go for mix, 5 STR onry. if you dont like your BST, you can still go 5 INT to help your BLM, or even rdm. nope, no dex no mnd, 5 str or 5 int onry period.

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.
Recommendation: Evasion is not popular these days, you may wanna remove it. you dont have a thf job so i was wondering why you wanna cap dagger skill. but hey at least its dagger not club/staff. so i guess 8/8 dagger is ok.... go for 8/8 axe is fine, since one day you may wanna play WAR too.....as for the other 4, maybe you can go 4 sword. But for my recommendation and doing it right, go 8 axe, 8 sword, 4 dagger.

Magic: 1 enfeebling, 1 sing, 1 wind. going to cap out wind and singing.
Recommendation: If you really like BRD that much, go 8 wind 8 singing is fine. but if you know your songs are not going to get resisted that much or you dont have the enough gears to reach next "song tier" then going 8 and 8 is useless/not needed. can always go 8 enfeebling or 8 elemental. but if your a really good brd, 8 singing 8 wind is fine.

Other: Capped critical hit, and almost capped enemy critical hit rate.
Recommendation: N/A. You got one right there!

Whitemage merits:
Group 1 merits:
4 Cure cast
2 Barspell
4 Regen
Recommendation: -_- regen. go 5 curing speed and 5 bar. at least just a little merits to tweak group 1.

Group 2
Devotion 1 plan to cap
Pro 5 1
Shell V 1 Plan to cap
Recommendation: Can keep that prot V lvl 1 if you like. 4 devo, 1 prot V, 5 shell V is ok.

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
Recommendation: Any RDM should have 5 convert, or 3 minimum. as for elements, it all scale down to what you do really. if you like full MND slow, you can go 5 earth. This can be further enhanced in group 2 to ensure full MND slow dont get resisted. Ice and Wind can also be mixed. Actually, like i said, it scale down to what you do really. Can mix too np. but general idea is convert should be 3-5.
For group 2, if your doing full MND slow and have 5 earth in group 1, you can go 5 slow 2. Slow 2 imo just needed lvl 1. and if your doing it right, you need 4-5. dont mid as well, i eedn people with 2 each in group 2 and, tbh, it blows in all aspect of all the 5 spells...... You may wanna throw in phalanx 2. Phalanx 2 is good only you get lvl 4 or 5. 1 2 3 sucks..... lolpara2 you dont need that. its too random. Bio 3 is good for solo, and its a lvl 4 or 5 thing. lvl 1 2 3 sucks. So yea, it goes down to what you do. What i did was 5 bio 4 phalanx 1 slow cos i solo/low man with my rdm. My wife is my personal support rdm. so shes 5 slow 5 phalanx. It goes down to what you do. RDM is very versatile.

Bard merits:
Group 1:
Lullaby capped
Finale almost capped
Group 2:
Nightingale 1
Troubadour 1 Plan to cap both
Recommendation: N/A. Good job but spend your merits on other jobs first. 1 trou 1 nigh is ok for now.

Summoner merits:
Avatar physical accuracy 1 from being capped
Avatar physical attack 1 from being capped (plan to cap both)
Recommendation:Im not a super duper smn but from what i know from the trend now is that 5 lvl attack is not that super useful. it only means extra "few" random damage from predator claws etc. 5 lvl of accurancy is ok. but i feel that you should spend the other 5 on magic accurancy, because there are some NMs in this game that needed nukes from group 2(if for some reason your not using BLM for nuking these kinda NMs -_-)

Summary
Yes, your initial merit choices are pretty bad........and i suppose thats why your friend mean that you have gimp merits, because, tbh, it kinda blow my mind how you got some of those "plan" in your head. but hey, since you posted here, we gotta help right? but end of the day, if you dont wanna do it, and wanna follow your "plan", go ahead

While I appreciate some of you comments a few are.. umm not accurate. I have thf leveled for one, and I dont have blm leveled for 2 lol. As far as combat I dont see why I need to cap sword o.O. I have eva for my thf and mage jobs I have noticed I evade more stuff since I got them.

[Arthars]

I did not know you have thf. If you do, 8 dagger is ok. and you can ignore the INT part if you dont have BLM lol. but still 5 STR prz

Theory wise, obviously having extra evasion helps in evading. but evasion is not very popular atm.

Everyone and their mother in the world atm wants skill for their weapons. yes you can quote me for that.

[Dammerung]

Don't knock regen merits.

[SargentRemora]

Personally, I went 5/5 into both Physical Att and 3/5 into Acc. But then I went 8/8 on Summoning skill which affects Acc. In terms of your SMN, thats fine, could use some Group 2 merits, but then I don't use those much

[Kyo]

RDM:
personally I would go with
5 wind
3 earth
2 ice

Please explain, your thought process here, Im not saying your wrong, Intrested to see why you chose these.

[SubzeroDiabolos]

Arthars, please have me bebbehs. Also I do know that your merits don't define how you play, but having them right according to what you do sure helps. For all of you who think i'm just trolling her, here's the latest lulz I can give you:

Me on vent: "im poisoned and paralyzed"
Mage on vent: "k"
Mage start casting poisona on me.

While she did remove paralyze quickly after, it still made me giggle that poisona came first xD. I'm not saying i'm perfect though and I don't think I would be a good WHM simply because I don't like it. PLD onry.

[shaddix]

Cure cast information stated in this thread is incorrect. The animation is based on tiers, the actual speed at which hp is replenished is not. Sadly the recast is based on the animation, so half of their usefulness is gone once you hit that animation tier.

edit: OP: think about full ice and full vert recast

[Kymberry]

I will explain something in that situation.. I accidentally cast poisona before Paralyna they both start with the letter "P" and are right next to each other in macro bar. And I already told you that subzero before..

[Keria]

no one should merit any attribute but str, or int 5/5 if blm main

[SubzeroDiabolos]

I will explain something in that situation.. I accidentally cast poisona before Paralyna they both start with the letter "P" and are right next to each other in macro bar. And I already told you that subzero before..

Doesn't mean it doesn't make me giggle and, for the love of god, you can't start a phrase with the word AND.

[Chen]

my my aren't we very picky! ;p

[Fogo]

There's plenty of smn skill gear available now, lose some phys acc merits and get magic atk merits for your smn (smn skill affects magic acc as well as far as I've experienced). Especially considering most of the time when you're using magic on NM's you're using diabolos, and the acc for nether blast is 100% all the time anyways.

[Drunknmunky]

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

This is the way; I chose to merit my white mage group 1 and 2. Moreover, please understand that this what I believe is best for me. (My style)

Group 1:

Cure cast – 5/5

Bar spells – 3/5

Regen – 2/5

Group 2:

Pro V - 1/1

Shell V - 4/5

Devotion - 5/5

[Arthars]

thats a mean signature lmao

[Syntex]

Sup Arthars?

Anyways on the subject of merits for RDM onry I would go with these...

5/5 vert
5/5 ice
5/5 slow II
5/5 para II or depending on other RDM setup in your shell phalanx or dia for zergs.

Like Arthars said above its 5/5 int or 5/5 str for stats NOTHING ELSE MATTERS AS MUCH AS THESE TWO except the rare case if your a super RDM going for an insane slow build and merit mnd.

Also from what I have seen very few magic merits mean as much as elemental skill and enfeebling skill do unless your hardcore into another job. If you think your good enough you dont need the bard merits or only want to do one of them go with enfeebling skill for sure, it really helps and elemental if you plan to level and use blm otherwise its not needed.

combat skills should be whatever job you use the most/enjoy the most and 4 eva merits to make for an even 20 is good in my book as every job can use them where mages dont benifit from stuff like shield skill or parry(not all mages anyways) but evasion is universal.

just my 2 cents. :D

[SargentRemora]

There's plenty of smn skill gear available now, lose some phys acc merits and get magic atk merits for your smn (smn skill affects magic acc as well as far as I've experienced). Especially considering most of the time when you're using magic on NM's you're using diabolos, and the acc for nether blast is 100% all the time anyways.

I still like to have Acc merits just so it does land more often. It pisses me off so damn much when Garuda misses with a ton of skill+ gear...

[Thorgridson]

I'll just fix your merits with explanation. I am taking into account that you mainly play WHM and BRD, as you mentioned. So here goes..........

HP/MP: 2 into HP 1 into MP (Planning on either finishing off HP or 4/4)
Recommendation: go 8/8 HP!!! or 6 HP 2 MP if you lazy........since your a taru, MP should not be a matter at all. get your HP up for survivability, better converts, devotion etc etc etc

Attributes: I was thinking of doing 3 CHR, and 2 DEX or AGI.
Recommendation: CHR is a waste of merits, and your time to even grind that merit, to put them into utter waste. If you intent, or have a melee job(BST since i think i saw you mentioning that), go for 5 STR. no dont go for mix, 5 STR onry. if you dont like your BST, you can still go 5 INT to help your BLM, or even rdm. nope, no dex no mnd, 5 str or 5 int onry period.

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.
Recommendation: Evasion is not popular these days, you may wanna remove it. you dont have a thf job so i was wondering why you wanna cap dagger skill. but hey at least its dagger not club/staff. so i guess 8/8 dagger is ok.... go for 8/8 axe is fine, since one day you may wanna play WAR too.....as for the other 4, maybe you can go 4 sword. But for my recommendation and doing it right, go 8 axe, 8 sword, 4 dagger.

Magic: 1 enfeebling, 1 sing, 1 wind. going to cap out wind and singing.
Recommendation: If you really like BRD that much, go 8 wind 8 singing is fine. but if you know your songs are not going to get resisted that much or if you dont even have a good gears to start with to reach next "song tier" then going 8 and 8 is useless/not needed. can always go 8 enfeebling or 8 elemental. but if your a really good brd, 8 singing 8 wind is fine.

Other: Capped critical hit, and almost capped enemy critical hit rate.
Recommendation: N/A. You got one right there!

Whitemage merits:
Group 1 merits:
4 Cure cast
2 Barspell
4 Regen
Recommendation: -_- regen. go 5 curing speed and 5 bar. at least just a little merits to tweak group 1.

Group 2
Devotion 1 plan to cap
Pro 5 1
Shell V 1 Plan to cap
Recommendation: Can keep that prot V lvl 1 if you like. 4 devo, 1 prot V, 5 shell V is ok.

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
Recommendation: Any RDM should have 5 convert, or 3 minimum for solo and oshit group play scenarios. as for elements, it all scale down to what you do really. if you like full MND slow, you can go 5 earth. This can be further enhanced in group 2 to ensure full MND slow dont get resisted. Ice and Wind can also be mixed. Actually, like i said, it scale down to what you do really. Can mix too np. but general idea is convert should be 3-5.

Group 2
I plan either Dia 3 or Bio 3
and to cap Slow 2 and Paralyze 2
Recommendation:
For group 2, if your doing full MND slow and have 5 earth in group 1, you can go 5 slow 2. Slow 2 imo just needed lvl 1. and if your doing it right, you need 4-5. dont mix as well, i seen people with 2 each in group 2 and, tbh, it blows in all aspect of all the 5 spells...... You may wanna throw in phalanx 2. Phalanx 2 is good only you get lvl 4 or 5. 1 2 3 sucks..... lolpara2 you dont need that. its too random. Bio 3 is good for solo, and its a lvl 4 or 5 thing. lvl 1 2 3 sucks. So yea, it goes down to what you do. What i did was 5 bio 4 phalanx 1 slow cos i solo/low man with my rdm. My wife is my personal support rdm. so shes 5 slow 5 phalanx. It goes down to what you do. Omg did i mention alot of "depend on what you do?" Yep because RDM is very versatile. There is no super rdm template for all situation.

Bard merits:
Group 1:
Lullaby capped
Finale almost capped
Group 2:
Nightingale 1
Troubadour 1 Plan to cap both
Recommendation: N/A. Good job but spend your merits on other jobs first. 1 trou 1 nigh is ok for now.

Summoner merits:
Avatar physical accuracy 1 from being capped
Avatar physical attack 1 from being capped (plan to cap both)
Recommendation:Im not a super duper smn but from what i know from the trend now is that 5 lvl attack is not that super useful. it only means extra "few" random damage from predator claws etc. 5 lvl of accurancy is ok. but i feel that you should spend the other 5 on magic accurancy, because there are some NMs in this game that needed nukes from group 2(if for some reason your not using BLM for nuking these kinda NMs -_-)

Summary
Yes, your initial merit choices are pretty bad........and i suppose thats why your friend mean that you have gimp merits, because, tbh, it kinda blow my mind how you got some of those "plan" in your head. but hey, since you posted here, we gotta help right? but end of the day, if you dont wanna do it, and wanna follow your "plan", go ahead

Same, arguemnt as OP, not all of your recommendations are really usefull. For SMN phys acc and att is essential while the tier 2 merits are just bleh... Noone not even in endgame keeps his avatar outside and let it feed TP to a mob (cause that is what you need to use your tier2 BPs- more TP more damage). Other then that I would agree with what you stated , but again it depends on how and why he plays the jobs, and not everything goes well together. I hope SE increases the max of magic and combat merits. 8 enf/ele is sooo important and is hurting everyone who wants to play another job decent.

oh and yea edit :

Like Arthars said above its 5/5 int or 5/5 str for stats NOTHING ELSE MATTERS AS MUCH AS THESE TWO except ...

^this

[Ahlah]

Don't touch singing/wind/summoning magic skill merit, ever, even if you plan on getting relic horn. It's just not worth the effort unless SE change the mechanism of how these skill work. Get 8/8 enfeebling magic and consider 8/8 elemental magic.

RDM
For the love of god do not merit Earth or Wind magic acc. Anything you can't land Slow/Silence/Graivty reliably with good gears you can't land them even with earth/wind accuracy merit. Never expect to be able to land silence on HNM. Also NMs build resistance to gravity based on the frequency the spell is cast. 5/5 wind accuracy will not change that.
Get 5/5 Ice accuracy for more accurate paralyze/bind(very important if you play solo rdm a lot)/BlizzardIII. And put the rest of your group I merit in Convert.
Group II is fairly straightforward too - 5/5 Slow II is a must. You can ignore paralyze II, esp if you only level RDM to solo. Paralyze II costs too much mp to be worthwhile. Full BioIII merit if you intend to play solo/RDM tank, or full PhalanxII if you LS don't have one. Can do Dia III if your LS is melee heavy and already has a phalanxII RDM.

BRD
At least 1 Troub, and save your merit for other job first.

WHM
Really depends on your LS activities. For HNMLS see the advise already posted.

SMN
5/5 physical BP accuracy/potency. Forget about lolmagical BP. Don't touch group II merit unless you are bored and have tons of merit points to spend

[Ollieyk]

Capped Barspell merits are broken for a HNM WHM, but fairly useless for a non-HNM WHM imo.