[byr1001] Uncapping the Merit Point Categories

[Spectreman]

And you know what? characters are becoming so godly, why SE even bothers with merit limits? I mean we more than 10 different weapons to get new weapons skills and are locked with 3 only. You dont need to give all of them but having at least half of it would be decent.

So many people are dying to have 1 or 2 weaponskills for "trash" jobs like whm clubs just for fun but they are not allowed to have fun or they will be gimp in those required weaponskills to be maxed to endgame.


Why bother with HP/MP merit limit? I mean even if you go all they way to 150hp its basically ridiculous when you have mobs dealing 200-300hp in a single hit, just raise that crap already!!

Why Red Mages have to choose 2 spells from their tier 2 group only to be maxed? We are demanded to have Phalanx 2 and i bet other jobs also have their demanded skill which gives us only 1 option. Just raise the option to have 3 maxed skills at tier 2 for jobs for christ sake, it wont break the game as bad as 250 dmg weapons are!!!!

[Demon6324236]

Why Red Mages have to choose 2 spells from their tier 2 group only to be maxed? We are demanded to have Phalanx 2 and i bet other jobs also have their demanded skill which gives us only 1 option. Just raise the option to have 3 maxed skills at tier 2 for jobs for christ sake, it wont break the game as bad as 250 dmg weapons are!!!!

Dia III & Phalanx II are the only merit spells I have had in a long time, truly depressing thought that half my unique spells, or rather, tiers of spells, are locked behind a stupidly placed limiter on my RDM merits, or at least, stupidly created merits in the first place.

Oh how I wish SE would make this change, sadly, I doubt they ever will.

[Kaiichi]

I fully understand the point of the merit point cap, as the original look on it was to allow one WAR it be unique from another. Having one RDM 5/5 in Dia3 and another 5/5 in Paralyze, but because of the level cap and that 98% of the population solo and the entirety of the game has become "End Game" there is no longer a need for uniqueness. Even so, there really never was, as all WAR's merited the same things because that was the best way to do it with optimal output for damage dealing.

[Tsukino_Kaji]

Please consider this, Development Team!!

Rewrite the whole thing in japanese and maybe they'll give it an "I'll pass it along" before they throw it in the trash, never to be seen by the dev team's eyes.

[Archades]

I agree under current setup, But disagree overall. i like specializations that are awesome either way w/ caps, so you have to choose but not be weak either way.

[FrankReynolds]

I agree under current setup, But disagree overall. i like specializations that are awesome either way w/ caps, so you have to choose but not be weak either way.

Yeah, unfortunately, there's really only one way to play most of the jobs, so the caps are pretty pointless.

[FaeQueenCory]

A lot of the merit caps..... I see no reason to increase their cap: the WSs, the HP/MP, the attribute, the misc.... These merits affect all jobs... So maintaining the cap on them I fully agree with. (especially the WSs, you can't have your cake and eat it too. You want all the meritted WSs? fine. accept that the bonus won't be the max %. Ever since that update, anyone who wants to not max 3 should find themselves very happy about having their cake and a slice of it being edible.)

But the job specific merits?
The only reason why they were limited to 10 in each category is because of the level cap.
Whenever the level cap.
The merits are a sort of precursor to the iLvs of Adoulin.
When the level cap was 75, they enhanced your abilities enough to take out >75 mobs.
When the level cap is 99, they do the same again. (though their potency is much less noticeable at 99 compared to 75 due to the similar restriction: ie +5 @ lv75 is a much bigger boon than +5 @ Lv99)

Which is why I see no problem with raising the job-specific merits... I think it would be a much better way to address lv150 mobs (you know it's coming... if it's not already here... I dunno the levels for a lot of the really big Adoulin NMs, but I think the highest is 120 or 130 atm), as opposed to the purely iLv way that the game is headed now.
Furthermore, having merits be more relevant again in the 100-130 end-game Adoulin setting... (and I mean their potency) would lessen the barrier for new players and returning players to get into the new-endgame.

ex: don't have delve gear, but you have a 99 empy and maxed merits? now: meh... you're just meh. with a raise in the merit cap for job specifics: you're decent enough to be able to something and not just die.
Though that might be being just a little too idealistic.

Another alternative to raising the merit cap could be to add a third merit category with merits specifically designed for the Adoulin level playing field. (again, job-specific only. the only non-job-specific merit category I feel could be increased would be the HP/MP section... raising the cap from 15 to 20... since +100HP/MP... seems to be really common on Adoulin gear... ESPECIALLY after this next update.)

AND THEN, there's also a third alternative, instead of raising the category cap individually.... why not merge the categories and have a single job-category with a max of 20? I don't really think that would change much.... BUT it would then be easier to raise the cap to 30 or 25 and have merits be more unique to the individual's play style.

But overall, I would like to see the job-specific cap raised a bit (even if it's only 5/group) to help deal with the Adoulin challenges.
Not to make it easy, though it will make it easier, but to make it less dependent on gear.... which, I know is kinda the exact opposite of the direction the game is headed in...
But I LIKE side-ways growth sets... because it allows for different people to play the same job slightly different... and I think that that is very important to the health of an MMO.
Variance and choice... We need more of it.
(though I'm sure there will be more choice with this next update... and especially once Adoulin is "finished", and even more after that. I mean, before the adjustments... no one was selling Balsam Staffs on Odin... now? It's a viable alternative to Yaksomotos Pole... Though obviously there are trade offs, less MAB for +Macc, but the fact that there even IS a choice for gear... I think is healthy.)

[Duelle]

My thinking is that the merits as a whole are simply lacking. Most categories turn out to be no-brainers and give only the illusion of choice. Stuff like primary stat merits (STR, VIT, DEX) are fine because their usefulness varies depending on the player's chosen main job. A guy that plays PLD more than the rest of the jobs will probably merit VIT and put some points in STR. There's stuff that should not be there (enmity merits come to mind), and the worst of the lot are the job-specific merits.

Job merits were supposed to help our characters branch out, but instead have led to people going the way of cookie cutter simply because one or two merits in each category is outright superior to everything else. No one is going to merit Arcane Circle, because the sensible merits to take turn out to be Last Resort Recast and Last Resort Effect. RDM was (and still is) pigeonholed into taking Ice Accuracy merits and Convert Recast because that's what brings the most benefit.

Instead of asking for the merit caps to be raised/removed, we should be asking the devs to redesign or revamp merits. As it stands the system is a joke that attempts to be an alternative way of progression, and that is the main issue that should be first dealt with.

[Taint2]

Uncapping Merits would give us a ton of reason to log in....with SE making Delve bosses easy there is little to accomplish. Being able to merit/grow each job while we wait for the new engame content to come out would be a big plus.

[Doombringer]

i feel like this has become even more necessary now that most emp/relic/mythic weapons (and therefore weaponskills) are no longer relevant. i'm REALLY starting to feel the crunch on the WS merits in particular. i'm prolly just gonna start quitting jobs altogether.


not to mention that back when delve was hard, you really wanted to bring your A-game on whatever job, and being unable to merit most of them limited your options. i feel like that exacerbated the long form times for pugs. when 90% of the people who want, can't, and the remaining 10% are only able to merit ~3~ jobs, you're gonna be shouting for a long time to assemble 18 of the right jobs at the right level.

sure delve is easier now with all the recent gear buffs, but are we to assume nothing will ever be difficult again?