[Suggestion] Protectra V and Shellra 5 Merits

With the introduction of Protect V and Shell V at Lv76 and the possibility for a Protectra VI/Shellra VI somewhere between Lv90~99, the Protectra V and Shellra V merits are loosing their effectiveness as merits.

A suggestion that I'd like to make would be to change these merits to instead enhance the effect of the spell type:

Protectra Effect
Increases the defense of party members within the area of effect.
Increase bonus defense by 2.

Shellra Effect
Increase the magic defense of party members within the area of effect.
Increase bonus magic defense by 1.

This would pretty much grant exactly the same effect as it does currently, however it'd boost the effectiveness of all Protectra/Shellra spells instead. Protectra V and Shellra V could then be implemented as magic scrolls for Lv75 or Lv76 (to follow the trend of previous Protectra/Shellra tiers being the same level as their single-target spell).

Amazing suggestion, and I completely agree.

Yes, please! I've have been wishing that they would do this since the 1st lvl cap raise.

Unless they add some -PDT or something useful to protect merits I won't be touching them anyway... few points of defense is worthless.

Agreed 100%, best "Realistic" suggestion I've seen so far.

A plausible suggestion. However, single target spells are only as effective as a single point in that particular merit. So fully merited Shellra V will still beat Shell V.

I'm 100% down with the suggestion, but just wanted to clear up any confusion on -ra V versus single target V.

I gave a similar idea on KI that they flamed to death.

My idea was this, drop the protcra and shellra merits and make them spells.

Then the merits would be job traits
“protect potency: increases protect potency by 4%”*
*So 60 times 1.04 if you have 1 merit in it since protect V is 60 def

“Shell potency: increase shell potency by 4%”**
**24.2 for shell V, 24.2 *1.04=25.1, the idea is to keep the upgrades to like they are now.

having a potency job trait will allow WHMs to have the single spells have the same power as the AoEs (like shell V and shellra V with 5 merits are different, but override eachother) Lest this way people can get the same power comming from a whm with single target and the AoE version of the spell

Shellra V 5/5
Protectra V 1/5 or 0/5 (since you should be subbing sch to begin with)

Increase in defense is very pointless.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Pesh

A plausible suggestion. However, single target spells are only as effective as a single point in that particular merit. So fully merited Shellra V will still beat Shell V.

I'm 100% down with the suggestion, but just wanted to clear up any confusion on -ra V versus single target V.

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The suggestion is more based around if a Protectra VI/Shellra VI are introduced, making the two merits redundant for any WHM that have the tier VI spells, not so much because of the single-target equivalents making the merits in any way redundant.

With the introduction of the new merit system, and the current merit system being based around Lv75, even with Protectra/Shellra VI spells being added, the Protectra/Shellra V merits still have some use for those Lv75-LvXX (whatever level tier VI will be), but for other jobs that have merits that likely to still be useful een at Lv99, the Protectra/Shellra V merits would largely end up being a waste of two slots in WHM Category 2 merits.

Equally a similar suggestion could be made for other jobs that unlock spells using merits if a higher tier is released between Lv91-99.

I agree with this 100%. Alternatively, if we don't see an added tier of pro/shellra spells, I'd like to see a 3rd merit category with Potencies for them, rather than ra VI merits. Assuming we'll be getting a 3rd group of merits, that is.

Personally, I want my Shellra merits to effect my Shell V as well as Shellra V.
If not for buffing other parties in the alliance, simply for buffing individuals in the party who missed the original AoE.

If SE plans on making future additions of Protect/Shell, I also advise making these merits work for them.

It would be nice if the Protectra V and Shellra V merits were changed in order to affect all levels of Protect, Protectra, Shell, and Shellra. Not only that, for Protect and Protect, to have the merits add Physical Damage Taken -% instead of simply defense.

However, Group 2 abilities are meant to give access to new job abilities or job traits, not simply enhance the effects of abilities we already have like Group 1 merits, so it would be interesting as to how this would be implemented.

SE said they were introducing a "new" merit system. I am guessing that will come when the lvl 99 cap comes. So I'll wait til then and c what they are making :)