In case meriting protectra V wasn't bad enough...

[Babekeke]

I was browsing through all of the augmented Relic +2 gear to see if any of the augments were good enough to consider any merit changes, and when I reached WHM I wasn't sure whether to be disgusted or just laugh at the "Augments Protectra V effect".

In case any of you haven't already seen (I didn't see a thread here about this already) here is what this amazing augment grants you...

Grants an additional +2 defense per merit up to a maximum of +10 for 5/5

So, protectra V gives 5 def over protectra 4 (at a cost of 19 mp more) and fully meriting it gives a massive +8 to that. now, by spending half your life in dyna on whm to get 20k exp, you can add a whole 10 more! for a grand total of 78 def from protectra V.

Am I the only person who thought SE had a great chance to make protectra worth meriting and completely messed it up?

All they had to do was make the augment -1~2% pdt per merit for a total of 5~10% at 5/5. THAT would have made it worth meriting. As it stands, it's only merited by ppl who can't be bothered to cast pro V on everyone, or sub SCH and use a stratagem. And then it's only ever 1 merit.

I'l, admit, I put a single merit into it for that 1 reason, but if I'd done my homework before-hand and seen it was only 5 def more than protectra 4, I'd have just bought protectra 4 and stuck with that.

[Daniel_Hatcher]

In this warped game you'd be laughed out of a party if you didn't do one merit in Protectra V and cast Protectra IV instead.

I don't disagree with you, though personally the protect line itself is messed up. Shell adds MDT as Protect should add PDT, then it'd make both worth meriting.

[SpankWustler]

To summarize the Development Bros' thoughts on defense, "Defense is useful! The giant mantis who lays eggs in the rice-cooker tells me so! Pants are tyranny!"

While Defense isn't as useless as it is often made out to be, it's still relatively bad compared to almost anything else and the guy who came up with all-things Protectra V should feel bad. I bet he's the guy behind Aggressive Aim, too!

[Llana_Virren]

by spending half your life in dyna on whm to get 20k exp

Now now, let's not exaggerate. You can get 20k EXP in Dyna in all of 10 days.

However, to anyone who decides (foolishly enough) to waste merits in Protectra V... I say this:

Light Arts -> Accession -> Protect V

[Babekeke]

Now now, let's not exaggerate. You can get 20k EXP in Dyna in all of 10 days.

I've probably only done dyna ~10 times since these trials came out, so that is half my life, lol

[Asymptotic]

I ... did a 20k dynamis XP trial in one dynamis run on SCH, curing/hasting my friend who was on MNK and a THF. They're really very easy trials.

Team up with someone who is farming the zone anyway (Friend was farming base relic dagger and random AF2). That said, I wouldn't do it if the augment wasn't worth it, and WHM *does* have pieces worth augmenting (Pants, for example).

[Return1]

How do you take more than 1-2 runs to finish a dyna trial? Especially with all the exp rings out there.

[Babekeke]

I've never tried one of these trials yet as the pieces I want to upgrade seem to completely elude me.
That said, I was duoing EP mobs in beaucedine with a friend for his trial. I was getting just over 30 exp per mob, but obviously he was using ring so getting ~70 per mob. He needed 7k exp to complete, and finished it after ~1H45. We weren't bothering too much about procs though. Only a few thf/mnk mobs we turned until we procced. If ppl are trying desperately to proc and get exp, they'll take longer.

[Economizer]

However, to anyone who decides (foolishly enough) to waste merits in Protectra V...

Now I'm one to talk, since for the longest time I was adamant that Protectra V merits are useless. But recently, since Devotion isn't really used as much, and the changes make it so you can put one merit in Devotion or Martyr and get the full timer, I've recently changed my merits to 1/5 Protectra, 1/5 Martyr, 3/5 Devotion.

Honestly, I don't think Accession Protect V is really worth the extra MP over a Protectra IV even (and it really bugs me when people would ask for what is essentially 5 extra defense, since anyone asking doesn't have a receives effect gear), so I don't really know that this is really "good" but I think it should be put another way... is it "bad"?

I don't think it is bad considering that you can now have Devotion, Martyr, and even a Protectra Merit while still having those ten minute timers. I don't think it is particularly good, but I don't rely on Devotion as much as I used to. Maybe if I started working on a Devotion build with the AF2 piece that boosts that I would change it back, but I don't feel particularly foolish for changing it for now.

[Mifaco]

They could have made it so much more useful with -%PDT merits, but they messed up.

I put one merit in Protectra V because of balance. It just looks stupid to cast Protectra IV and Shellra V. And it doesn't chain you to /SCH either.