Scholar Merit Suggestions

[Tetsujin]

Hey! I've been subbing scholar for a while and decided to get it to 75.
I hit 71 recently and I'm in the middle of spamming cure and barspells on myself to get my skills capped.

I was wondering what Category II merits Scholars typically go with.
Any advice to aid me in my decision making would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks~

[Eric]

I think there has never really been a consensus on what SCH group 2 merits should look like, mostly because they're all not very useful in comparison to the abilities we already get.

That being said, here's my setup:

• Equanimity: 4/5
• Enlightenment: 1/5
• Stormsurge: 5/5

Now, here's my reasoning for it:
Stormsurge 5/5 is something that I think most scholars would agree on.
The rest of the group II merits are really more a matter of personal preference, but I think 1/5 Enlightenment is worth getting.
I chose to put the remaining merits into Equanimity.
Some people may choose to put those merits into Tranquility, but here's my personal opinion for why I don't do so:

1. Tranquility can't be used while Animus Minuo is up.
2. Reducing the enmity of ONE Cure isn't going to do much for your hate levels if you're doing a lot of healing.
3. It's not a sustainable way to keep enmity down, since it relies on stratagems.
4. In most cases where you would be pulling a lot of hate from a single Cure (rapture Cure IV), time is often crucial, and taking an extra second before casting Cure IV (in addition to the 1s used to activate Rapture) is not something that I am comfortable with doing if my tank is on the verge of dying.

[Dantedmc]

1. there are ways to cap -enm without minuo in voidwatch legion and abyssea.
2. hate will become an issue in extended fights and anything to slow it will be useful
3. -25 extra enmity for a total of -75 can help
4. I never use it when the tank is on the verge of dying. It's meant to slow enmity build up not be used when someone is about to die.

That said my choices are

-Tranquility 5/5
-Equanimity 4/5
-Enlightenment 1/5

I used to 5/5 stormsurge, but because I usually thunderstorm and 7(12) dex from thunderstorm obviously wasn't helping the mages I dropped it. I only miss the str for the DD, but it hasn't seemed to make a major difference so far either.

However It's mostly based on how you play sch. I could see meriting Stormsurge instead of equanimity or tranquility (I may switch it up one day). People may also 5/5 enlightenment for the bonus to enhancing magic from argute gown +2 if they are lacking other gear to reach 500 skill for example.

[Sotek]

Animus Minuo is trash. -10 enmity doesn't beat the extra -50 enmity, the only way losing -10 enmity from Animus is ever going to hurt you is if you 1/5 the Stratagem, you should 5/5 it.
I don't know what other Stratagem you'd use for Cure IV to be honest. Penury has been irrelevant for a long time. Celerity was never relevant. Rapture is irrelevant now you can heal 800HP with a subpar set and Aurorastorm, it will only cause you to gain more enmity now and pull hate faster, its only useful when something goes wrong, which shouldn't be often. You're either using Tranquility and greatly reducing your enmity gain overall, or you're getting nothing out of your Light Arts Stratagems.

[Eric]

Ok. After reading both responses, I'm pretty convinced that tranquility is well worth meriting.

That being said, what about stormsurge? Is the STR boost for DD's all that worth it? As Dantedmc mentioned, the DEX is wasted on mages, who I'm usually hitting with thunderstorm.

[Tetsujin]

So many different responses - and constructive too. I must say I'm quite entertained.
Just got my first 30 merits to dump but I haven't made up my mind on this yet, so I'm putting these on group I

[Tetsujin]

I'm surprised no one's mentioned Focalization - input/reasoning on that?

[Dantedmc]

Ok. After reading both responses, I'm pretty convinced that tranquility is well worth meriting.

That being said, what about stormsurge? Is the STR boost for DD's all that worth it? As Dantedmc mentioned, the DEX is wasted on mages, who I'm usually hitting with thunderstorm.

It depends how you play honestly. Do you find yourself using equanimity more than the DD gain benefit from stormsurge? If so drop stormsurge. If not drop equanimity. In my opinion both are good choices. Tranquility is the only merit I won't budge on. You could probably even drop that 1 enlightenment and max out equanimity or stormsurge as your second if you really wanted.

I'm surprised no one's mentioned Focalization - input/reasoning on that?

Most schs don't merit that because macc isn't as much an issue for sch like it was at 75 cap.

[Delvish]

Personally, I use Hailstorm over Thunderstorm. Depends on what is most often being cast though. Often I find Blizzard spells to be on par with Thunder spells, if only just slightly weaker. The INT boost helps both spells~ For heavy DD, Firestorm is always nice, Eva tanks get windstorm, blood tanks sandstorm, quick DD thunderstorm, healers aurorestorm, and hardly ever use Rain or Voidstorm. Either way, if I'm in a healing or support position I'm using storms so Stormsurge is always worth the little boost.

With regards to the other spells, I have equanimity merited but I never use it. Might get more use out of Tranquility but I haven't really played lately since before it was 2 stratagems per merit. The two MACC+ merits though... waste of space without question.