Third Tier

[SpankWustler]

2. Increase the category caps (HP/MP to 12, etc.)
3. Increase other item caps (Enmity + to 5, etc.)

I choose to be optimistic and interpret this as "Lots of categories will have increased caps, but only the 'Other' category will have the cap increased for individual items." Having 15 merits for each Job Specific category would be pretty awesome.

SE will probably take the opposite stance when implementing the changes, giving me 120 more MP and little else when the update rolls around. Hope is the seed from which disappointment blossoms and bears it's bitter and poop-tasting fruit.

[pancakesandsx]

Heya everyone! We were able to get more information from the dev. team about the merit point cap increase.

We are looking into the below three types of merit point cap increases:
1. Increase the amount of merit points you can have at a given time (current is 20)
2. Increase the category caps (HP/MP to 12, etc.)
3. Increase other item caps (Enmity + to 5, etc.)

Hopefully this answers some of your questions. We'll keep you posted when we receive more information. ^_^

Are there any plans to increase total point caps (not the individual caps) on job specific group 1 and 2 merits? It would be nice to cap or enhance more than what is currently possible, even if it came at a high cost per upgrade.

[Arcon]

Lets be honest here, the main one people want is more points to spend in the job groups. Second best, allow more in critical hit rate.

I don't really care for more job-merits, most jobs don't have more than two useful things to merit in the first place (many even less). And she already said you'll be able to merit Critical Hit Rate more (it's in the "Other" category with Enmity Increase).

Honestly, what I'd want most would be to just raise the caps so you can merit everything. Having to choose is stupid, I've always felt this way, and it goes against everything FFXI stands for, namely not having to specialize on one thing, but being able to play everything as you wanted (the job system is the best indication for this). It's the only game I know that does that, and it's great at it, only the merit system stands out like a sore thumb. Just make merit points harder to obtain, and maybe limit them somehow (like 20 a conquest tally? let the bitching commence), so that not everyone can cap everything in hours. After that, just let people enjoy being good at everything. Not like meriting something will make or break a job anyway, but that's the point.. if you can be good at it even without it, why deny us certain abilities in the first place? It just never made sense to me.

[brayen]

I disagree about being allowed to merit everything. I think the concept of letting players enhance their jobs based on what they feel is the better adds a customization feature that i like. The main problem is that some of the merits are very minimal, and on top of that the other merits are down right worthless (hello defender recast!) personally i would like to see increased cap per category, as well as limits per merit-able skill/ability, and beyond that i would hope to see revisions to some of the merits as well as added merits to jobs. But as it seems the only changes planned are for increasing some limits and caps i will forgo what revisions and what not to save posting space and time.

[Zubis]

Hopefully the increase in merit point storage from 20 to 30/50/99 doesn't mean a similar increase in the requirements for merits. I don't really want to spent 30 merits to get 10HP/MP guys.

[Daniel_Hatcher]

I disagree about being allowed to merit everything. I think the concept of letting players enhance their jobs based on what they feel is the better adds a customization feature that i like. The main problem is that some of the merits are very minimal, and on top of that the other merits are down right worthless (hello defender recast!) personally i would like to see increased cap per category, as well as limits per merit-able skill/ability, and beyond that i would hope to see revisions to some of the merits as well as added merits to jobs. But as it seems the only changes planned are for increasing some limits and caps i will forgo what revisions and what not to save posting space and time.

Limiting RDM and BLM spells is a joke.

Yes, unique JA's/Traits I can agree on, but doing it to spells is out of order. Especially when you consider the merit spells is basically the only thing that separates RDM enfeebles from a WHM, BLM or SCH, and each spell is RUBBISH unless fully merited.

[Alkimi]

Limiting RDM and BLM spells is a joke.

Yes, unique JA's/Traits I can agree on, but doing it to spells is out of order. Especially when you consider the merit spells is basically the only thing that separates RDM enfeebles from a WHM, BLM or SCH, and each spell is RUBBISH unless fully merited.

Main problem is however fail the merit spells are, they're all potential triggers for voidwatch. Including all the San spells, all 6 AM2 spells and all the RDM meritable ones. This forces you to get at least 1 merit in all of them anyway.

[Daniel_Hatcher]

Main problem is however fail the merit spells are, they're all potential triggers for voidwatch. Including all the San spells, all 6 AM2 spells and all the RDM meritable ones. This forces you to get at least 1 merit in all of them anyway.

Exactly the point, this system makes unique spells impossible as you need 'em all. Therefore they should allow you to at least be able to put 1 in each and do 5/5 on at the minimum 3 of the spells.

[Byrth]

My biggest problem with the merit system is that it really hasn't kept up with the xp rates. I have wasted millions of limit points (hundreds of merit points) because I have nowhere to put them. I'd specifically like to see the job merits change.

Tier 1 merits - I'd like to see the category caps eliminated. It provides a moderate amount of benefit to all jobs. Individual item cap is up to you guys. Some of the recast enhancing merits might get a little broken if they were allowed to increase further. WAR would move towards permanent Berserk, etc.

Tier 2 merits - I'd really love to eliminate the category caps for a lot of reasons:
1) You'd have a hard time making the argument that it would create balance issues of any kind.
2) It removes the problems people are talking about above.
3) It would give me something to do with my merit points for a long time because this category is so expensive.
As for individual item caps, this falls in to the same trap as Tier 1 merits.

I don't care as much about the other merits. Doing the two things outlined here would let me spend hundreds of merit points.

Warrior: 5 Aggressor, 5 Warcry, 5 Defender (I guess), 4 Tomahawk, 5 Aggressive Aim, 1 Savagery : 91 merits
Dancer: 5 Building, 5 Step Acc, 4 Saber Dance, 4 Fan Dance, 2 No Foot Rise : 78 merits
Black Mage: 5 Fire/Wind/Water/Earth, 5 Elemental Seal, 4 Tornado/Flood/Freeze/Flare/Quake II : 170 merits
Red Mage: 5 Fire/Wind/Water/Earth/Thunder MAcc, 4 Bio III, 4 Blind II, 4 Dia III, 4 Slow II, 4 Paralyze II : 170 merits
Beastmaster: 5 Call Beast, 5 Sic, 5 Tame, 4 Feral Howl, 1 Killer Instinct, 5 Beast Healer : 91 merits
Summoner: 5 MAcc, 5 PAcc, 5 Elemental MP, 4 Grand Fall/Meteor Strike/Wind Blade/Geocrush/Thunderstorm : 140 merits

That's another 740 merits, and after that I could still merit Ranger and Bard (between 75 and 90.) 200k xp/hr? That's still 37 hours of xping. I wouldn't hurry through it like that, either. I'd just wait to get xp through events and upgrade slots.

[Urteil]

Try raising the other categories to 10, the hp/mp to 20, statistics to 15, and I think it would be a bigger deal.