[dev1040] Merit points adjustments

[Mirage]

Thanks for that info, Gildrein, those are welcomed changes.

I'm just wondering if we can expect updates to the maximum amount of merit points in the rest of the general merits in the next update as well.

[Gropitou]

Why put a category cap at all?
With players now having many (if not all) jobs near cap, each job requires different skills/attributes. Since people get a crazy amount of experience in aby in all sorts of ways let us use it. Let us cap all magic skills (since each type of mage needs different types of magic) and weapon skills.
No matter how high you put the maximum merits stored, that maximum will be reached in days (2 weeks tops for occasionnal players) and then we will be back to the same old story of tossing all our experience gained into the toilet.

[Ihnako]

Erm... you can have all jobs but you should not perform best in all.
It's part of the game that you have to set a focus on what jobs you play.

[Mirage]

Actually, I am for the idea that you should have to choose which jobs to be the very best in.

[Urteil]

Actually, I am for the idea that you should have to choose which jobs to be the very best in.

Yes. Yes. Yes.

[detlef]

I don't really care about combat or magic skill caps at this point. Many people don't even cap all their skills so what's the point in being able to optimize merits? I'm far more interested in increasing the job-specific merit points. Is that coming in the next merit point update? Get to it SE.

[Mirage]

I don't really care about combat or magic skill caps at this point. Many people don't even cap all their skills so what's the point in being able to optimize merits? I'm far more interested in increasing the job-specific merit points. Is that coming in the next merit point update? Get to it SE.

Maybe you don't. Even if you don't have capped magic skills, light/dark arts push you to the top, and merits are added on top of that again. Even if your combat skills aren't capped, merits will help you get there, and help you when you're at the cap.

[detlef]

Oh it's not that I think those merits are worthless or anything like that. I just don't think it's worth getting excited over anything short of allowing more job-specific merits. That would be a real difference-maker.

[Karbuncle]

Can't say I'm Super excited, But I do like the idea of 4 more STR merits, or if they cap at 8 still.. 4 DEX.

The other merits.. Eh... I think i saw they were increase the Critical hit Rate category area, which is green in my book.

[esmrambo]

I would like to increase in weapon skill merits. I like to play BLM, BLU, SMN, WAR, MNK. Which means that I can't cap weapon skills in all of those jobs.

[Creelo]

ok its nice to see more merits on old sytem increased but shouldnt you be able to add more lets just call it weapon lvl increase per job you have at 75+ so if have 20 jobs at 95 lets say 0.~ you then would be able to merit more skills overall.
persoanlly ive capped this catergory for each relic/emp ive built, and ran out of rooom b4 i can complete capping each weapon. this catergory i think neeeds a huge increase maybe 2x of what it is now. i do see a neeed of a newer merit system but FFS get the old 1 better b4 add more stuff. many people i know have all jobs to 95 and capped merits but still cant fully merit all there relics, they must pick and choose. so why build more relics/emp/mythis if you cant increase acc/dmg output via skill

O.o

Well, 16 additional combat skill from merits for the appropriate weapon is undoubtedly nice, but in the end, it really won't make or break you.

Still, I really hope they give us at least 8 more Combat and Magic skill merits to use.

[Byrth]

Expanding the Tier 1/2 job specific merits would have kept us busy for a lot longer and allowed us to invest in the individual jobs that we like. Instead they're just reducing the difficulty of content by giving everyone extra stat points to throw around. Now every DD in the game will have another 4 points of STR. Hooray.

[Bayohne]

Greetings! I have some information to pass along in regards to the merit point adjustments! We looked into both groups 1 and 2 of the merit points and decided to make the following adjustments:
　

Group 1
As the first step we take, we’ll be reviewing point increases.
　
Group 2

Abilities with an increased effect from the second step on
We have no plans for adjustments for now.
　
Abilities with a shorter recast time from the second step on
We plan on adjusting these abilities so that their effects are increased with each step, instead of having their recast time shortened with each step. The recast time that has been shortened up to the fifth step will be used.
　
The following are adjustments that do not deal with the effects of merit points.
The below examples are for ease of reference.


Ex 1: Devotion is raised to the fifth step
Before: The recast time is shortened from 20 minutes to 10 minutes
↓
After: Increased MP recovery
*The recast time is fixed at 10 minutes

Ex 2: Sange is raised to the fifth step
Before: The recast time is shortened from 15 minutes to 5 minutes
↓
After: Shadow images are no longer consumed
*The recast time is fixed at 5 minutes
*We are considering adding new shuriken
Other
If the above adjustments do not solve all of the problems, we'll look into adjusting the effects themselves.



Upon further development and consideration, the adjustments may change, but for now we plan on making the above adjustments. We will let you know when we decide on the details.

[Byrth]

Can we get an ironclad guarantee that you won't nerf the potency of merit JAs and make us restore them through merit levels?
ie. Saber Dance's base DA rate is 20%. Knowing a typical SE patch, you guys would nerf it to a base rate of 12% and make us restore it to 20% through merits. Please don't.

[brayen]

!!! sweet so i get my blade bash timer at 5min with 1 merit....but wait, what does more merits do to it then? stun harder? lol and enlightenment...i max merit it just for the shorter recast? lol we need more clarification on some of this i think lol sorta missed out the important merits...warriors charge enlightenment role reversal ...etc lol

[Byrth]

Blade Bash has Plague, so they'll probably increase that. I'm betting none of these changes will make this patch.

[brayen]

Blade Bash has Plague, so they'll probably increase that. I'm betting none of these changes will make this patch.

oh i know that lol just would like to know as this is an area of interest for me!
and i know it has plague but..really? plague on that rarely lands would make more then 1 merit even more worthless with the update XD im fine with that tho i suppose~ but like i said lots of other useful merits that don't fall on the same category so im just asking. hoping to see something for group one at some point as well.

[Merton9999]

!!! sweet so i get my blade bash timer at 5min with 1 merit....but wait, what does more merits do to it then? stun harder? lol and enlightenment...i max merit it just for the shorter recast? lol we need more clarification on some of this i think lol sorta missed out the important merits...warriors charge enlightenment role reversal ...etc lol

Enlightenment was my first thought. Maybe they'll "upgrade" it to actually do what the description has claimed it does all along. Along with that, having it last for more spells with each upgrade might be nice.

[Eric]

!!! sweet so i get my blade bash timer at 5min with 1 merit....but wait, what does more merits do to it then? stun harder? lol and enlightenment...i max merit it just for the shorter recast? lol we need more clarification on some of this i think lol sorta missed out the important merits...warriors charge enlightenment role reversal ...etc lol

Great news if this is true for Enlightenment. It will make investing merit points into the other crappy strategems about 1% less useless.

[brayen]

Great news if this is true for Enlightenment. It will make investing merit points into the other crappy strategems about 1% less useless.

lol those stratagems really need to be completely overhauled in a major way to be worth using i think.
Enlightenment provided it gets any boost should still be far better, not sure what they can add to it tho? lasting for extra casts would be ok i suppose but so few spells are actually used under this JA it wouldnt be very useful, you would end up using ur extra casts on stuff u don't need it for. Could add mp reductions and cast time for next spell <or even a potency boost so it gets more usage out of it>

[Ophannus]

This is worthless for DRG considering how strong Spirit and Soul Jump are compared to Jump and High Jump. What could they possibly add to Super Jump? It already sheds 100% of all hate unless they make it shed hate of the player behind us, which invalidates Spirit Surge even further.

[brayen]

This is worthless for DRG considering how strong Spirit and Soul Jump are compared to Jump and High Jump. What could they possibly add to Super Jump? It already sheds 100% of all hate unless they make it shed hate of the player behind us, which invalidates Spirit Surge even further.

they said no plans for group 1 yet
also pay attention and realize they might not adjust every single merit, and drg merit on jump and high jump already reflect on spirit and soul jump so no idea what you are complaining about

[Absolutezero]

Does this mean rdm group 2 merits won't be adjusted? That's pretty disappointing.

[Kyte]

This is worthless for DRG considering how strong Spirit and Soul Jump are compared to Jump and High Jump. What could they possibly add to Super Jump? It already sheds 100% of all hate unless they make it shed hate of the player behind us, which invalidates Spirit Surge even further.

Ummm, the merits affect Spirit Jump and Soul Jump already. There's no reason to assume that whatever additional effects they add won't apply to them as well. +DMG% seems like the most obvious enhancement

As for Super Jump, they honestly could add a variety of things (including, but not limited to what you said). For example, they could make your next few actions also hateless.

[Dais]

I am versy curious how this change will affect the corsair merit abilities fold and snake eye. I am not even sure how you could add any potency to those abilities. They could become charged abilities but a 5 charge snake eye at 5 min recast seems very strong.

[tyrantsyn]

Does this mean rdm group 2 merits won't be adjusted? That's pretty disappointing.

Not sure, with RDM cat 2 spells there's spell duration with Bio/Dia III. So I guess 1 merit would max that out on duration? For Para/Slow/Blind it a increase point and 2 macc. Not sure what would happen there. Phalanx would be full time duration and would probably still have to merit for damage reduction. But god only know's.

[brayen]

Not sure, with RDM cat 2 spells there's spell duration with Bio/Dia III. So I guess 1 merit would max that out on duration? For Para/Slow/Blind it a increase point and 2 macc. Not sure what would happen there. Phalanx would be full time duration and would probably still have to merit for damage reduction. But god only know's.

Going by what they said the only changes at the moment they are looking at is stuff concerning recast not duration so it would seem stuff such as rdm spells have yet to either be considered for a change for example as those are not affected by recast and are not even JA. This just seems like the initial changes they are planning, doubt it will be within this coming update as well so still very early to think this is all they will do.

[Deadvinta]

Not sure, with RDM cat 2 spells there's spell duration with Bio/Dia III. So I guess 1 merit would max that out on duration? For Para/Slow/Blind it a increase point and 2 macc. Not sure what would happen there. Phalanx would be full time duration and would probably still have to merit for damage reduction. But god only know's.

You place too much hope with SE doing that kind of blessed adjustment for Red Mage.

[Zhronne]

Can we get an ironclad guarantee that you won't nerf the potency of merit JAs and make us restore them through merit levels?
ie. Saber Dance's base DA rate is 20%. Knowing a typical SE patch, you guys would nerf it to a base rate of 12% and make us restore it to 20% through merits. Please don't.
So so so so worried about this... Thinking about Troubadour and Nightingale as well, and many other things :(

[Tennotsukai]

Wonder how this will affect Diffusion. Perhaps, on 5 merits, ability to cast 5 self buff spells per use.

[Byrth]

So so so so worried about this... Thinking about Troubadour and Nightingale as well, and many other things :(

At least with Troub and Nightingale you don't really have any other competitive Tier 2 merit to spend it on. For Dancer, we're facing:
1) They buff Saber/Fan Dance and we happily re-merit because we like the changes better than Closed Position.
2) They change Saber/Fan Dance to be weaker at 1/5 than they are currently, but stronger at 5/5. We grudgingly re-merit or at least push things around.
3) They full-SE it and make you go 5/5 Saber or Fan Dance to get an effect as potent as the current one. I lose 4 of my Closed Position merits just so I can use Saber Dance the same way I do now.

[saevel]

Does this mean rdm group 2 merits won't be adjusted? That's pretty disappointing.

Pretty much.

[Koroma]

while your adjusting group 2 merits could you make "feral howl" you know.... work?

[Mirabelle]

I am versy curious how this change will affect the corsair merit abilities fold and snake eye. I am not even sure how you could add any potency to those abilities. They could become charged abilities but a 5 charge snake eye at 5 min recast seems very strong.

Wouldn't really be strong in as much as you can never do better than an XI on buffs. Seen as you can already get XI's fairly regularly if you really try, wwe're not talking game breaking having an abilitiy that would assure more XI's or Lucky's.
But I agree that its hard to imagine how Snake Eye and Fold can be empowered other than adding charges since they are really all or nothing abilities.

[Urteil]

Re-work Muted Soul and Diabolic Eye - because they are worthless.


Diabolic Eye:

-% HP counteracts the only JA we have to deal damage - souleater and is worthless.
+accuracy is not needed or an issue on people with good gear and who play the job properly.

Remove -% hp, and give it a beneficial effect that matters.


Muted Soul:

When I swing around a weapon like Apocalypse, or anything worth mention -enmity isn't really going to help, I don't gear my DRK for -enmity. Complete waste please redo the effect entirely.



Dark Seal:

I wish I had magic that this would be worth casting on, or if it boosted Drain/Aspir/Absorb spells in an interesting way.

[Limecat]

I'll be curious to see what happens with Feral Howl.

[Vizardx]

100 bucks says it increases the Duration of the Terror effect that will never land.

[Delvish]

Diabolic Eye:

+accuracy is not needed or an issue on people with good gear and who play the job properly.



I remember when DRKs could fly...

[ShadedOnyx]

I think the thing they would do for Fold is remove all your rolls. SNake eye probably would be multiple rolls

[Kristal]

Bayohne, could you please shed light on RDM group 2 merit changes?

Blind II, Paralyze II and Slow II are fine as is, but Dia III, Bio III and Phalanx II are and always have been utter broken.
Dia III, Bio III and Phalanx II are all crippled in duration and potency, UNLESS you get all 5 ranks in them.

I'm sure you are familiar with the community's spitefull response to the scheme used for the new weaponskills? That scheme was implemented several years earlier in half of the RDM group 2 merits.

[saevel]

Bayohne, could you please shed light on RDM group 2 merit changes?

Blind II, Paralyze II and Slow II are fine as is, but Dia III, Bio III and Phalanx II are and always have been utter broken.
Dia III, Bio III and Phalanx II are all crippled in duration and potency, UNLESS you get all 5 ranks in them.

I'm sure you are familiar with the community's spitefull response to the scheme used for the new weaponskills? That scheme was implemented several years earlier in half of the RDM group 2 merits.

Do you even play RDM?

Blind II -> utter crap due to monster accuracy formula
Paralyze II -> Good but everything it would be good on is resistant to it
Slow II -> Mediocre, but not bad

Phalanx II -> utter crap due to scaling formula
Bio III -> utter crap due to low dark magic skill (we have E skill rating)
Dia III -> Best enfeeble in the game, monster can't resist it and gives everyone an attack bonus

You have Slow II and Dia III as the useful ones. Rest are for procing VWNM or soloing.