Third Tier

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Originally Posted by Zatias

As I expected, especially for giving a RDM example.

I said they were examples, and these are MERIT abilities. They aren't including what the job might get naturally from 96-99 (Which is probably nothing, if we're only talking about RDM).

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There's something wrong with Shiyo apparently. The only thing I foresee with these merits is SE will make it a horrible grind in some way, even with Abyssea.

I just hope DRK doesn't finally get Magic Attack Bonus for the tier V nukes we'll have for merits.

-.-

:\ I'm pushing for more of a talent tree approach.

Want higher Retaliation activation rate?

Then you can't have increased Blood Rage duration and cooldown reduction.

But you get the chance to put points into occasionally attacks twice when Retaliating

But then since you didn't put anything into Blood Rage reduction, you can't get its next tier, Regain while under the effects of Blood Rage.

One tree supports taking the hits for more TP and dishing out higher damage, while the other supports party play and dishing out stupid high damage.

Just the feeling of customization would be nice, and choices that make you second guess what you're doing.

Ya'll aren't thinking big enough. Tier 3 merits need to be a major time sync. Remember how long it used to take to merit off colibri and cap your character merits and your first job? You could exp every day, if camps were open, and not get it done in a month (if starting from scratch).

They need to take the same philosophy with tier 3 merits. Black mage merits could be MAB+ .25 per level, 10 merits per level, with a total of 100 upgrades. That would be 100k exp per .25% MAB, but +25 MAB from merits for capping 100/100. It would also be 1m exp. Sounds about right.

Bard could increase March effect.

War double attack rate.

Thief could merit TH. (Every thief just died a little inside).

Also make there be a bunch of categories, like 10, and you can cap them all. The game needs a major time consumer with the loss of Dynamis, Ein(tab), Limbus, Kings Camps. Voidwatch is clearly going to be a piece of that, but it can't be all of it.

Think of the all the fun things you could merit. Pup could merit something like the size of their puppet....make it bigger or something...

Also could have sub-job merits, merits that are only active when set to a sub-job, like giving /sch more charges.

Or /sam an increased return on meditate.

Endless creative options here. Just keep adding merit categories. Or better yet, let us merit infinitely, but have every upgrade cost more. So the first blm MAB +1 is 1 merit, but the 2nd is 3, the third is 5, the 4th 9...the 10 50 merits...just make it more and more painful.

Now, I don't know about time consuming in general (although, I constantly find myself with capped merits, and no way to spend them except for leveling another job), but this I can agree with:

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Originally Posted by Buffy

Also make there be a bunch of categories, like 10, and you can cap them all.

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The thing I always hated about the merit system was limiting choices - very few jobs have this actually result in different play styles since most players gravitate towards the same ones on most jobs. I'd much prefer if job/subjob combinations and gear combinations were the things that make us different.

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Originally Posted by Buffy

Also could have sub-job merits, merits that are only active when set to a sub-job, like giving /sch more charges.

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This would be wonderful. The upgrades don't even have to be very big, but getting slightly more out of your sub job would be a great way to add more power and options without adding more things to the main job.

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Originally Posted by Buffy

Endless creative options here. Just keep adding merit categories. Or better yet, let us merit infinitely, but have every upgrade cost more. So the first blm MAB +1 is 1 merit, but the 2nd is 3, the third is 5, the 4th 9...the 10 50 merits...just make it more and more painful.

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Bad idea. Game balance flies out the window when the devs can't make a mob level appropriate. How do you make something level appropriate against someone who can have anywhere from 0~1000000 bonus Magic Attack Bonus (or rather, something else that scales better)?

I'm not sure time consuming is the right thing

Challenging on the other hand...

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Originally Posted by Runespider

Abyssea type atma merits, massively boost triple attack/crits/refresh etc.

Just make them require mass amounts of merits to gain.

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Looks like someone has been too spoiled by abyssea and probably has never done anything outside of it.


I would prefer a whole new menu of merits to increase traits other than what is already there. Such as:
-Magic Atk. Bonus
-Magic Def. Bonus

Maybe a few new job abilities, if there is anything we don't already have. Not the outrageous "ideas" (and I use that term loosely) that the posters of this forum have had.

I'd go for meriting passive abilities, things such as...

-Native wide-scan (have it add an extra tier to jobs that have it natively or something)
-Getting that larger radar that you get via NIN main/sub currently as well as mob display on it
-Stealth for all classes, perhaps make Easy Prey not aggro at all when maxed
-Ability to use /sprint outside of Ballista, # of merits determining sprint distance before cooldown initiates
-3 Extra AH slots (a man can dream, shame this never happened with the AH merger)

You know, crap like that to make our lives just a LITTLE bit easier to deal with. Things that should be granted without needing to work for it, but hey, the devs work in weird ways.

I want merit categories that define the jobs in ways the playerbase CANNOT weasel around:

Max merits per group:9
Max merits per category:3

*Red Mage

1) Empowering (JT)--Increases Magic Damage and Accuracy of Sword Enhancing spells. Additional merits increase damage and accuracy by 15%.

2) Doublecast (JA)(Initial recast:10 min.)--Allows the caster to cast the same spell twice in one cast. Additional merits reduce the casting time by 2:30.

3) Touche (JT)--Increases the rate of activation, accuracy, and damage of attacks while Temper is active. Additional merits increase activation by 4%, accuracy by 5%, and damage by 15%.

4) Umbrella (JA)(Initial recast: 5 min.)--Expands single-target enhancing spells to party members within area of effect. Additional merits reduce recast time by 1:00.

*Summoner

1) Avatar's Blessing (JT)--Bestows avatars with elemental enhancements. Additional merits increase Magic Accuracy and Damage by 15%.

2) Caller's Arts (JT)--Reduces avatar attack delay. Additional merits reduce delay by 50.

3) Avatar Barrier (JA)(Recast: 3 minutes)--Creates an aura around the avatar, protecting alliance members within area of effect from corresponding elemental attacks. Additional merits reduce damage taken by 15%.

4) Elemental Surge (JA)(Recast: 10 minutes)--Allows the summoner to absorb elemental spirits, allowing them access to their full spellbooks. Additional merits reduce recast time by 2:30.

They've been talking about a reworking of Merits ("New adventurer growth elements" probably tied in to the Soul Gem we just got), which I'd hope is more drastic than just adding another merit category to each job; more like entirely changing the options we have to merit. Ideally, no abilities or spells would be gained through merits, only augmented or enhanced through merits.

My in-depth idea for a merit system revamp is here (linky), and the (next) (four) (posts) of (examples))

It includes these categories:
Health, Attributes, Offensive Melee Skills, Defensive Skills, Resistances, Magic Skills, Enhance Melee/Ranged Offense, Enhance Magic Offense, Teamwork/Cooperation, Sphere Effects, Enmity, Specialization, Job Abilities (maybe part of specialization), Weaponskills, Spells, Traits, Auto-Status, Non-combat/Travel, Crafting, Fellow

Most of these categories include old merits, but many are brand new; but it's not a complete re-write of the system, it's more of a massive extension for level 99.

(Putting so much together in one post didn't seem to get many responses.)

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Originally Posted by Leonlionheart

I'm not sure time consuming is the right thing

Challenging on the other hand...

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People don't want challenges though. Just look at VW and WoE selections. It is never the hard fights with random jobs, it is the item dropping fights with perfect kill setups.