White Mage Merits

[s_white62]

Would love some suggestions for how to properly merit a White Mage. Any help/builds would be appreciated.

[Zerich]

Cure cast: 5/5
Bar-spell: 5/5
Shellra V: 5/5
(up in the air whether or not to merit Protectra V at all, but i have 1 in it just because lol)
and Devotion: 4~5/5

[Llana_Virren]

Cure cast: 5/5
Bar spell: 5/5
Shellra V: 5/5
Devotion: 5/5

If you want to chain yourself to /sch, you could consider switching Cure Cast Time for Regen Potency, but that's about it.

Protectra V isn't worth the 8 bits of data used to create the text that says Protectra V, so don't even look at it.

[Dantedmc]

Group 1:

Cure Cast 5/5 - I believe it possible to cap (not easily) cure cast at 80% now without the merits however, regen isn't very useful if you aren't on sch main.

Barspell 5/5 - 10resistance and 10mdb is really nice for barspells

Group 2:
shellra V 5/5 - The only group 2 merit that really matters

[InsideOut]

Group 1:

Cure Cast 5/5 - I believe it possible to cap (not easily) cure cast at 80% now without the merits however, regen isn't very useful if you aren't on sch main.

Barspell 5/5 - 10resistance and 10mdb is really nice for barspells

Group 2:
shellra V 5/5 - The only group 2 merit that really matters

True. I would argue that most WHMs get more practical use out of meriting 'Protectra V 5/5' than they would capping Devotion.

[Llana_Virren]

True. I would argue that most WHMs get more practical use out of meriting 'Protectra V 5/5' than they would capping Devotion.

You would lose that argument, but you could argue it nonetheless.

Until I find a situation in which /sch is not my optimal setup (read as: never), 5/5 Devotion and Accession>Pro5 will be forever more practical and beneficial than a single merit in Protectra V.

[InsideOut]

You would lose that argument, but you could argue it nonetheless.

Until I find a situation in which /sch is not my optimal setup (read as: never), 5/5 Devotion and Accession>Pro5 will be forever more practical and beneficial than a single merit in Protectra V.

No thanks. I would rather use my second stratagem to Protect/Shell another party in my alliance. I have better uses for my stratagems.

The fact still remains that the majority of WHMs find that putting merits in Protectra V has a more practical use than Devotion. That is why we unlock Protectra V and use it 1001x more than we will ever use a job ability that gives MP to another player. WHMs are usually in parties with damage dealers and support jobs that do not naturally have MP.

Now that I think about it, Devotion sounds more like a Dark Knight or Paladin job ability,and they would get much more use out of it than a WHM would ever.

[Llana_Virren]

No thanks. I would rather use my second stratagem to Protect/Shell another party in my alliance. I have better uses for my stratagems.

The fact still remains that the majority of WHMs find that putting merits in Protectra V has a more practical use than Devotion. That is why we unlock Protectra V and use it 1001x more than we will ever use a job ability that gives MP to another player. WHMs are usually in parties with damage dealers and support jobs that do not naturally have MP.

Now that I think about it, Devotion sounds more like a Dark Knight or Paladin job ability,and they would get much more use out of it than a WHM would ever.

That's why you give Devotion to the PLDs and DRKs in your party <_<

Also, no, most WHMs have admitted to unlocking Protectra V because it "looks silly" to cast Shellra V with Protectra IV. Asthetics does not a well-thought out merit choice make.

However, if you're casting shell/protect on another party, then you're running with 2 or fewer primary healers, in which case your strategy would obviously change. For the sake of this discussion, I am not assuming that the WHM in question is the only healer in an alliance.

[Dantedmc]

That's why you give Devotion to the PLDs and DRKs in your party <_<

Also, no, most WHMs have admitted to unlocking Protectra V because it "looks silly" to cast Shellra V with Protectra IV. Asthetics does not a well-thought out merit choice make.

However, if you're casting shell/protect on another party, then you're running with 2 or fewer primary healers, in which case your strategy would obviously change. For the sake of this discussion, I am not assuming that the WHM in question is the only healer in an alliance.

I'd much rather the whm accession shell V the mage party in voidwatch that never has a whm and may not have a sch. and last time I checked most VW alliances do only have 2 healers.

Also give me a serious situation in which you use devotion. It is useless in abyssea and voidwatch. Whm isn't invited to nyzul or to farm dynamis for coins either. Seriously tell me when you use it?!

The facts are that shellra V is the only merit that does anything. You can argue all you want that you are a better whm for 5/5 devotion, but its not true. If you feel like wasting strategems to protect V your pt one could even argue you are making a worse choice.

[InsideOut]

That's why you give Devotion to the PLDs and DRKs in your party <_<

Also, no, most WHMs have admitted to unlocking Protectra V because it "looks silly" to cast Shellra V with Protectra IV. Asthetics does not a well-thought out merit choice make.

However, if you're casting shell/protect on another party, then you're running with 2 or fewer primary healers, in which case your strategy would obviously change. For the sake of this discussion, I am not assuming that the WHM in question is the only healer in an alliance.

As Dantedmc said, a lot of alliances these days only have one or two primary healers. I'm speaking from an everyday combat perspective, not hypothetical situations where a DRK or PLD has exhausted so much of their MP ,casting one or two spells,that they need a WHM to run up and Devotion them.

I'm sure most people unlocked Protectra V without knowing of its uselessness. Its the next tier so it has to be much tougher right? Well, it is actually tougher than IV.

[Llana_Virren]

Also give me a serious situation in which you use devotion. It is useless in abyssea and voidwatch. Whm isn't invited to nyzul or to farm dynamis for coins either. Seriously tell me when you use it?!

The facts are that shellra V is the only merit that does anything. You can argue all you want that you are a better whm for 5/5 devotion, but its not true. If you feel like wasting strategems to protect V your pt one could even argue you are making a worse choice.

Again, for the sake of being a broken record, I am not saying that Devotion is the almighty choice; the problem with Protectra V is that it sucks and isn't worth any merits.

I do not think I am a better WHM for capping Devotion; but I think I am a more resourceful one for putting merits where they are potent, versus "unlocking Protectra V because it looks funny casting Shellra V and Protectra IV".

And I have yet to understand how using strategems on a party buff is a waste. What are you using those strategems for if -not- to buff your party? (Or, before my LSs main DD line had all their screens, a double Accession>Cursna on the two DD parties came in very handy).

The point of this entire thread was that Shellra V is the only merit worth the time. I agreed with that since the beginning of the thread! Learn2read. The issue is that after Shellra V, Devotion is the only other category which can justify the merits. Protectra V currently does not, no matter how people look at it.

Going 1/5 in a category is not because of its usefulness, but because people have OCD about having access to every spell. If you can wrap your head around the idea that Protectra V is garbage, then you'll understand why I haven't put a single merit in it. Hell, if I could go 6/5 in barspell potency, that'd be better than 1 merit in Protectra V.

[Retsujo]

Devotion is pretty seldom used as an ability, but there are times when you CAN use it effectively to change the tide of battle, and those rare times are very helpful, indeed. They certainly don't happen often enough to make Devotion a serious merit, but between that and Martyr, it definitely gets more use.


Going 1/5 in a category is not because of its usefulness, but because people have OCD about having access to every spell.

I'm 1/5 ProV and 4/5 Devotion because of that right there! :D