[byr1001] Uncapping the Merit Point Categories

[Byrth]

I have a simple suggestion that would help the game, would not be difficult to implement, and would not cause any serious balance issues.

Remove all the merit point category caps.
Please let us hold more merits as well ; ;

(Category Caps are the limits on a group of merits. So the category cap for Tier 1 merits is 10. The category cap for Combat Skills is 30, etc.)


A. Will this cause balance issues?
No, because:
1) The strongest players pick one of their jobs and merit for it.
2) If they are perfectly merited for one job, it presents the biggest balance threat when given more merits because you have to assume that they would be on that job in situations that require high performance, the hardest events.
3) If they are perfectly merited for one job, any future merits that they obtain from having the cap increased will necessarily be less valuable to their job than the ones they already have.
4) Optimally-merited jobs barely benefit from increasing the caps.

Example:
Warrior is in some ways the greatest threat for this kind of adjustment because they are so versatile, so the limitation on combat skills/stats stands to benefit them the most. Still, what happens if you uncap a perfectly merited WAR?
- They gain 12 DEX and VIT.
- Their Warcry and Aggressor recasts drops 50 seconds.
- Instead of meriting three of Upheaval, Resolution, Ruinator, and Stardiver, now they can merit all four.
- They gain 14-15 accuracy (0-8% hit rate) with some of their proc weapons.

So you have barely made Warrior stronger. The other jobs benefit even less than this. Plus, at a time when people complain about the difficulty of events (like Legion, Provenance Watcher, etc.) this gives them an opportunity to help themselves. I mean, what do you want our failure rate to be on these events? Is it really too low at the moment?



B. Why should we do it?
1) This will give players nearly-unlimited potential for character growth. - It would take 6706 merits to cap out. Players currently have ~2000 or less. Even with an epeening "I get 250k/hr" Abyssea party, it would still take them almost 80 rl 24-hour days to cap out from 2000 merits.

2) A limiting merit system has always been the antithesis of the job system. - One of the major draws to FFXI is that the game lets you play through with only one character, which you are free to become attached to. There are certainly times when you need to change your role, and the job system accommodates that. It is silly to suddenly reverse this at the level cap, which is where players spend almost all of their time these days. When the cap was at level 75, you go 1 to 75 as a Red Mage playing however was convenient in any type of party, but Tier 2 merits forced you to decide whether you wanted to use your Red Mage to solo or do Salvage.

3) Programming-wise, this almost has to be possible and reasonable. - The category caps have been increased before several times. You could either remove them from the interface (clean) or increase them to the maximum amount (dirty but definitely possible).

4) At a time when content is sparse, this would give a much-needed boost to activity. - People want to play, but don't have anything that they can do to improve their character. This would make it so there is almost always something they can do.

5) Increased participation in events/systems that yield XP. - More people would do Grounds of Valor. More people would do Campaign. More people would do Besieged. More people would do Dominion Ops. More people would do Voidwatch. etc. If you increase the incentives, you increase the odds that people will partake in an event. Giving XP value serves as an incentive.





Fellow posters, I challenge you. Come up with a situation where the above proposed change would alter the way we do any event. Where it would make something noticeably easier. Where it would affect the "balance" of anything. Try!

[Legomike]

yes please i see no reason why this would be unbalanceing

[Monchat]

You know it won't happen. the dev team thinks aura steal is too powerful.

[Kaisha]

And increase the on-hand merits from 30 to 50 while you're at suggesting stuff*

[Daniel_Hatcher]

Agreed, but I fear they will just blank this, or say: "It's not possible", "Due to Balance Issues" etc...

[Gropitou]

HELL YES!!!

[Taint2]

100% agree with the OP

Its time to open merits up and yes it will spark a lot interest back into actually getting XP.

[Merton9999]

I agree completely. SE would have me paying for another year at least if I could merit everything. I'd be all over campaign, Abyssea burns, besieged, etc.

One could have said that, prior to Abyssea, the job system effectively limited many people because few could commit the time required to level, let alone gear, a lot of jobs. Even though it was possible it wasn't doable for many people. However, now that modern leveling has made 99 in every job so easy, it's time that merits follow suit and became just as open.

I don't even care about the balance aspect so I can't meet your challenge. I just care about advancing my character, and that really isn't happening spamming the same boring battles.

Although I never liked it, I understand the original concept of merits was to make you choose. But, we've been "having fun" (or whatever people want to call it), with that idea for years. We all know how much Abyssea changed old systems. I'd like to see another kick start, like unchaining merits, to make me want to play again.

[Tsukino_Kaji]

You know it won't happen. the dev team thinks aura steal is too powerful.

I think they may have ninja nerfed it or something because my 5/5 only dispelled 1/12 today.

[Llana_Virren]

100% agree with the OP

Its time to open merits up and yes it will spark a lot interest back into actually getting XP.

A few hours in abyssea and any new cap on merits would be reached within a week. Unless you suggest there be no cap, which would be scary now that I think about it....

But removing the current cap on merits will not revitalize the grind for EXP ....