The 9th Vana'diel Census (06/22/2009)

[TummieGaruda]

A bigger wtf in the BLU section is whoever out there has any merits in Monster Correlation, let alone two.

On paper, I could see how that would be useful if you mainly merit on Colibri. Monster Correlation "Should" boost MP drainkiss against colibri since Amorph > Birds, but I haven't seen much of any testing on Monster Correlation because a lot of BLU's I have come accross see it as "Junk". Some time ago I was exping in ToAU against Colibri and we'd pull some Treants in between pulls. We had a BLU/THF and I suggested maybe equipping the AF head since it would boost the damage from CASA Death Scissors against the Treants since Vermin > Plants, but he wouldn't listen.

Also that physical accuracy + physical potency was a mistake, even though we all know now that Physical Potency = Physical Accuracy

[Sho]

I like the graph that shows "Selling the right to obtain rare items won in combat" it really is big business after 5 mil. Also the "Other" made me chuckle.

[Talint]

I'm sure nobody but me cares about this, but

How is No Foot Rise not the leader in the DNC merit category? It's the single most useful ability DNC can merit. It's the DNC meditate.

That makes me a sad panda.

[Suiram]

On paper, I could see how that would be useful if you mainly merit on Colibri. Monster Correlation "Should" boost MP drainkiss against colibri since Amorph > Birds, but I haven't seen much of any testing on Monster Correlation because a lot of BLU's I have come accross see it as "Junk". Some time ago I was exping in ToAU against Colibri and we'd pull some Treants in between pulls. We had a BLU/THF and I suggested maybe equipping the AF head since it would boost the damage from CASA Death Scissors against the Treants since Vermin > Plants, but he wouldn't listen.

The problem with Monster Correlation merits is that not only are they only useful on certain mobs for every spell, but that when they are applicable they are each only a 0.4% (yes, four tenths of a percent) increase per merit. Not to mention on certain spells (principally non-breath nukes) that doesn't even modify the full base damage.

[Toth]

I'm rather surprised there are more PUPs than CORs. Both are a blast to play but a buffer job is always a big demand.

[Marcicus]

lol @ the one aggressive aim merit. And here I was expecting someone to put a merit into Defender..

[Gergall]

We are diligently working on developing a solution to the RMT website advertisements that have been showing up through the tell function since last year. We believe we should be able to address the issue sometime soon.

It was nice of them to acknowledge this, finally.

Survey results confirmed what we already knew: Few people consider BRD to be their favorite job to play (ranked 18th in survey) but is frequently played anyway (ranked 10th in game data). I couldn't find any other disparity this large.

Some of those job specific merit choices were downright SCARY. WHM with divine seal recast? I understand why (Divine Veil) but the merits don't reduce the recast nearly enough to put this above cure, barspell, and regen.

Zanshin was also disturbing IMO. Enough DRGs have Ancient Circle recast to make it show up on the graph. Why are Corsairs doing Bust Duration? NEVER roll on 6 unless Fold is ready.

Recycle (IMO) is giving up DD potential to save gil. If that's your concern, why play RNG at all?

[Baelorn]

I'm rather surprised there are more PUPs than CORs. Both are a blast to play but a buffer job is always a big demand.

COR is just way too expensive for most players I think. PUP can be really expensive but it's all upfront costs.

[Mistress Stowastiq]

It was nice of them to acknowledge this, finally.

I agree! I was really glad to see that. It will be interesting seeing what they do to fix it. I also like the closing letter from Sage.
I am really pleased with the report overall.

[Toth]

COR is just way too expensive for most players I think. PUP can be really expensive but it's all upfront costs.

That's true. Though honestly, CORs that invest in a good melee TP set and shoot with cheap bullets for TP and stronger (i.e. steel) for WSes can kept their costs down. 12 stacks of steels may cost 180k but they last a looooooong time at least. Unfortunately, there is no way of getting around the more excessive rolls. PUP get an advantage somewhat since most of our best gear is free/questable.

[Spider-Dan]

Why are Corsairs doing Bust Duration? NEVER roll on 6 unless Fold is ready.

Bust Duration is stupid, granted, but not for that reason. CORs that stay on VI (except for Evoker's) have a fundamental math problem. You shouldn't stay on VI unless you already have one Bust and Fold is down.

Recycle (IMO) is giving up DD potential to save gil. If that's your concern, why play RNG at all?

Every RNG cat2 that is not Snapshot sucks, so a vote for Recycle is a vote for "I wanted to cap cat2 and this was the least useless option."

Interesting that the survey seems to show that Thief is both popular (survey) and frequently-used (game data). 2003 called, it wants its job distribution back?

[TummieGaruda]

The problem with Monster Correlation merits is that not only are they only useful on certain mobs for every spell, but that when they are applicable they are each only a 0.4% (yes, four tenths of a percent) increase per merit. Not to mention on certain spells (principally non-breath nukes) that doesn't even modify the full base damage.

Right, not saying that it is the best merit choice but if you only used BLU in a situation that favors Correlation then I can see why a person would merit it. Those situations being a fairly small percentage of events when that would occur.

Why are Corsairs doing Bust Duration? NEVER roll on 6 unless Fold is ready.

Or if you are rolling Scholar Roll, Samurai Roll, Magus Roll, and Choral Roll, all of which have 6 as an unlucky number. Bust duration though is an odd choice.

[nekura]

Why are Corsairs doing Bust Duration? NEVER roll on 6 unless Fold is ready.

Disagree -- double up on 6 unless you already have one Bust up and Fold isn't available. But I still share the sentiment otherwise.

[Gergall]

I thought the merit information was pretty interesting; I was honestly surprised by the number of people that merit evasion though.

I don't think it's surprising at all. You merit 2 weapons to full and that brings you to 16/20. With your 4 remaining points, you can half-ass a third weapon for that job you don't care about as much, or you can cap evasion across all 20 jobs. Good for solo too.

[ronin sparthos]

Recycle (IMO) is giving up DD potential to save gil. If that's your concern, why play RNG at all?

Cap snapshot then what? Cap flashy? The timer is just way too long for my liking personally.

Stealth Shot is also meh so 5 snap, 4 recycle and perhaps 1 flashy if you really feel you need to have that unlocked.

[Gergall]

Cap snapshot then what? Cap flashy? The timer is just way too long for my liking personally.

The timer is just packaging for the added damage. If there was a merited job trait that said "Increase your parser damage results by 0.2% per level" I think we'd see RNGs cap it out for the 1% extra damage.

[Spider-Dan]

The timer is just packaging for the added damage. If there was a merited job trait that said "Increase your parser damage results by 0.2% per level" I think we'd see RNGs cap it out for the 1% extra damage.

If Flashy Shot was meritable down to, say, 2min recast, then sure. If it was a fulltime trait, then great, I'd merit that too. But it isn't. It has a TEN MINUTE recast when fully merited. Furthermore, it also has a ridiculous enmity penalty for some unknown reason; where's the enmity penalty on Warrior's Charge or Assassin's Charge?

Flashy Shot sucks. 1 merit for screenshots only and call it a day.

[Gergall]

It still adds more than 10,000,000% more DPS than Recycle. I see your point, though.

Hmmm...does Stealth Shot work with Barrage?

Edit: I didn't mean to make this a RNG merit discussion thread. Maybe we can focus on the DRGs who merited ancient circle recast?

[Sci]

I would have loved to see their comments on each of the job merits. Hell, even a comment about neglected merit options would have been nice. But at least they made a graph of it, so we can hope they try to make some of the useless merit choices not so useless. I'm looking at you Ninja merits. I also got a chuckle out of Black Mage merits, reminds me of the "Black Mage spell selection flow chart". Calculate a ton of factors -> cast Thunder.

[ronin sparthos]

It still adds more than 10,000,000% more DPS than Recycle. I see your point, though.

Hmmm...does Stealth Shot work with Barrage?

Edit: I didn't mean to make this a RNG merit discussion thread. Maybe we can focus on the DRGs who merited ancient circle recast?

Roleplay DRGs would merit Ancient Circle.