[Pipe Dream] Revamping Red Mage Merits

[Duelle]

I know we've mentioned that merits for our job are lackluster, to say the least in several threads on these boards. We haven't exactly put suggestions together on what we'd like to see replace our rather lackluster merits, so I figured we might give this a try here instead of trying to do a general "how'd you like your job's merits revamped?" thread.

The rules are simple.

- We're a melee mage, and as such merits for each category should be split as close to as even between stuff that favors the caster RDM and stuff that favors the melee RDM.
- We're getting rid of elemental accuracy merits and instead get two tiers of the job trait Magic Accuracy Bonus, which would give +10 M.Acc per tier at lv40 and lv80.
- Our current merit spells will become learnable scroll spells (at 5/5 potency), entirely opening up category II merits for job abilities and some such.

My contributions:

Category 1:

Convert Recast (Stays the same)
Job Trait: Magic Fencer - While under the effect of enspells, you gain 2/4/6/8/10% Double Attack rating and 1/2/3/4/5% Haste rating.
Job Trait: Elemental Chains - Casting an elemental spell reduces the cast time of the next tier up of that spell by 10/20/30/40/50%. (factored before Fast Cast) Example: Assuming the baseline cast time of Fire IV is 8 seconds, the RDM would cast Fire III, receive the Elemental Chains buff. At 5/5, it would reduce the cast time of Fire IV to 4 seconds, and fast cast would then be factored based on that temporary 4 second cast time.
Job Trait: Triage - Your healing spells have a bonus Regen effect for 10/20/30/40/50% of the amount cured for 12 seconds. Example: You cast a 1000 hp Cure IV, triage kicks in and places a regen effect on the target that heals up to an additional 500 HP over 12 seconds.

Category 2:

Job Ability: Spellblade (5:00 cooldown) - Instantly cast an elemental spell. Requires melee range and sword or dagger equipped in the mainhand. Each point increases spell potency by 20% and reduces the cooldown by 30 seconds.
Job Ability: Combined Magic (5:00 Cooldown) - If the next spell has a -ga version of it, it will cast the -ga version at 400/375/350/325/300% of the MP cost.
Job Ability: Renew (2:00 Cooldown) - Resets the duration of all buffs on the target. Additional merits decrease the cooldown by 12 seconds per merit.
Job Ability: Synchronicity (5:00 Cooldown) - Synchronizes you with one party member, copying any buff you receive to that party member. Duration of 2 hours. Effects with potency variances are copied at 5/10/15/20/25% potency (Enspells, Temper, Phalanx, Stoneskin, etc). Requires you to be within 10 yalms of the Sync target. Buff durations enhanced through Composure and gear ARE transferred to the Sync target. Spell effects reset by Renew also affect the Sync target. Cancelling Synchronicity removes all buffs from the Sync target.

Example: I'm front-lining and decide to buddy up with a SAM. So I use Synchronicity on him, which gives me and the SAM the buff Synchronized. I then proceed to cast Protect and Shell on myself. Synchronized allows that SAM to receive Protect and Shell at the same time I receive the effects, so long as he and I are within 10 yalms of each other. I cast Haste on myself and he receives Haste at the increased duration thanks to Composure. I cast Temper, and that SAM only receives up to 25% of the DA gained from Temper. So if I received 20% DA from Temper, that SAM would at most receive 5% DA. If I happen to have put points into Renew, buff durations would be reset on the SAM just like they would on me. If he cancels Synchronized, the SAM loses all the buffs that were copied over to him. I only lose Synchronized.

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And so we go from no-brainers to real choices that are dependent on our individual play styles. The guys that like to cast have options, the guys that like to melee have options. I'm iffy on Renew, as in this context it would be a JA that can be used on yourself and on others. As far as I can see, RDM would benefit the most from this JA, but there may be room to abuse; enough for me to consider changing it to self-only.

I know with this suggestion, it may suck to have to change merits if you end up having to use RDM for something else, but I think the idea behind our merits should be to support our play-styles instead of giving us the illusion of choice, which is what those elemental accuracy merits were.

Please feel free to add or post your own ideas for RDM merits. In my opinion, it's one of those parts of the job that is in dire need of attention.

[Esvedium]

You can have my Phalanx2 merits when you pry them from my cold, dead hands.

[Demon6324236]

I know we've mentioned that merits for our job are lackluster, to say the least in several threads on these boards. We haven't exactly put suggestions together on what we'd like to see replace our rather lackluster merits, so I figured we might give this a try here instead of trying to do a general "how'd you like your job's merits revamped?" thread.

The rules are simple.

- We're a melee mage, and as such merits for each category should be split as close to as even between stuff that favors the caster RDM and stuff that favors the melee RDM.
- We're getting rid of elemental accuracy merits and instead get two tiers of the job trait Magic Accuracy, which would give +10 M.Acc per tier at lv40 and lv80.
- Our current merit spells will become learnable scroll spells (at 5/5 potency), entirely opening up category II merits for job abilities and some such.

My contributions:

Category 1:

Convert Recast (Stays the same)
Job Trait: Magic Fencer - While under the effect of enspells, you gain 2/4/6/8/10% Double Attack rating and 1/2/3/4/5% Haste rating.
Job Trait: Elemental Chains - Casting an elemental spell reduces the cast time of the next tier up of that spell by 10/20/30/40/50%. (factored before Fast Cast)
Job Trait: Triage - Your healing spells have a bonus Regen effect for 10/20/30/40/50% of the amount cured.

Convert: Ok, has worked for a long time, see no reason to change that.
Magic Fencer: Love it, but doubt we would get Double Attack from Enspells when we just got that as its own spell, haste however might happen, would be more likely to get % of enspell damage or some such then DA I think.
Elemental Chains: Nice, would have to work your way up the spell list which might be annoying, would be faster to just cast my T4 nuke and move on but wouldn't be bad either.
Triage: O_O; umm~ how long does this 5/5 merited 300+ regen last might I ask? SCH can hit 69 regen with Regen V but umm~ 50% of my cure 4 is... more than 300 hp, so yeah~ maybe like 2-10% but 10-50 would be 1-2 ticks... at most... Not a bad idea to have something like that though it might be a lil breaking.

Category 2:

Job Ability: Spellblade (5:00 cooldown) - Instantly cast an elemental spell. Requires melee range and sword or dagger equipped. Each point increases spell potency by 20% and reduces the cooldown by 30 seconds.
Job Ability: Combined Magic (5:00 Cooldown) - If the next spell has a -ga version of it, it will cast the -ga version at 400% of the MP cost. Note: Not sure how merit points would affect this one.
Job Ability: Renew (2:00 Cooldown) - Resets the duration of all buffs on the target. Additional merits decrease the cooldown by 12 seconds per merit.
Job Ability: <Vacant: Feel free to suggest something for the caster side>

Spellblade: Looks nice but our new JA already does something very much the same other than the range, which kind of weapon we must have, and spell type limit. However I would like to say the sword/dagger requirement would not matter, if a RDM is using a staff there is no reason not to slip on sword or dagger then change back if you truly want to cast the spell instantly, though the fact you would lose the potency of the staff, could go either way on that but don't think its something that would happen.
Combined Magic: Sounds good, I think merits would lower MP cost, for instance 1 merit you simply get the ability, for each merit there after you lose 50% of the cost up, so 5/5 would cost you 200% of the normal cost, maybe 25% down, to end at 300%, either way sounds good to me other than would probably annoy alot of BLMs that we get T3 ga spells.
Renew: Would love Renew, would make RDM melee much more fast paced, I hate the fact that every 15 or so minutes I have to stop, but on enhancing magic gear, use my 10+ buffs (which takes 2 minutes) and then change back to melee to fight again, would be more than 1.2-2 minutes in recast probably though, seeing as if were soloing we could make no buff ever wear off, but then again if its longer it would ruin the ability to use it on others which as you said, could be abused. I think it would be a great merit for RDM though seeing as it would give us the ability to have our buffs last on ourselves or a few others without having to recycle through them all again before moving on to something more important.

And so we go from no-brainers to real choices that are dependent on our individual play styles. The guys that like to cast have options, the guys that like to melee have options. I'm iffy on Renew, as in this context it would be a JA that can be used on yourself and on others. As far as I can see, RDM would benefit the most from this JA, but there may be room to abuse; enough for me to consider changing it to self-only.

I know with this suggestion, it may suck to have to change merits if you end up having to use RDM for something else, but I think the idea behind our merits should be to support our play-styles instead of giving us the illusion of choice, which is what those elemental accuracy merits were.

Please feel free to add or post your own ideas for RDM merits. In my opinion, it's one of those parts of the job that is in dire need of attention.

I agree RDM merits right now are poor, accuracy merits are poor for RDM same as the spells, the spells were nice when we were lv75 but now not so much. Would be nice to see something other than those especially when now they seem like a massive waste with everythings resistance/immunity to enfeebling. Also I do think we should have them to help us make RDM how we want to play it, if I want to melee I think I should have more melee based merits too, where as all they gave us was magic same as our "AF3" set which was pure mage gear, nothing of melee in the least bit which annoyed me greatly.

[Demon6324236]

You can have my Phalanx2 merits when you pry them from my cold, dead hands.

- Our current merit spells will become learnable scroll spells (at 5/5 potency), entirely opening up category II merits for job abilities and some such.

There you are, honestly would make me happy that way, as of now I feel like I should unmerit my Phalanx II for the reason it almost never sees use outside of when I get to help my ls FC KIs or I do my occational FC for money, in which case Im a Phalanx whore anyways and I might as well /SCH and just use Phalanx I for that. But either way, that was added for the reason you mentioned Im sure.

[Daniel_Hatcher]

Category One
Augments "Composure" - Increases duration of enhancing magic on party members by 10% per merit upto a maximum of 50%.

Convert Recast (you all know this)

Enspell effect - Increases enspell damage by 5 per merit upto a maximum of +25

Fastcast Effect - Increases Fast Cast by 2% per merit upto a maximum of +10% Fast Cast.

Refresh Effect - Increases Refresh Effect and Duration

• Adds +1 MP per every two merits and a 20 second duration increase.

Phalanx Effect - Increases Phalanx Effect and Duration

• Adds +3 Damage reduction per merit level upto a maximum of +15

Augments Enfeebling Magic - Enfeebling magic occassionally activates with 100% accuracy and augmented bonus's.

• +10% accuracy per level upto a maximum of +50% chance. Spells are randomly augmented as such.
  • Slow - Occasionally grants a temporary STOP (like Terror)
  • Paralyze - Occassionally grants a temporary Amnesia.
  • ETC

Enhances "Composure" Effect - Increases melee accuracy and adds a Haste effect.

• Adds 3 Accuracy per merit level upto +15 and 2% JA Haste upto +10% Haste Effect.

Category Two
Renew - (JA) Restarts all active spell duration timers. (Recast: 3.00) - Additional merits increase duration by 10 seconds per merit.

Runic Blade (JA) - Absorbs the next spell into the blade for later use (Recast 5:00 - Additional merits increases damage by an additional 10%.

• Absorb the next spell cast by the enemy into your sword which then can be expelled in one of the following:
  • MP Recovery (Converts DMG that would have been delt ignoring any reduction items or traits into MP. (DMG / 12)
  • Magical Potency (Doubles the damage/potency dealt by the next spell) (works for Enfeebles as well)
  • Enspell Damage (Enspell damage is improved temporarily bdoubling damage until the Temper charge is consumed)

Temper II (Spell) - Grants the ability to occassionally double attack. (Party Targetable) - Additional merits increase potency.

Faith (JA) (Duration 1 minute - Recast 3 minutes) - Increases magic Accuracy and Potency - Additional merits increase magic accuracy by +3 and MAB by +2 per merit.

• Base stats: Magic Accuracy +10 Magic Attack Bonus +10 (Can not be used with Bravery and shares a Recast Timer)

Bravery (JA) (Duration 1 minute - Recast 3 minutes) - Increases Accuracy and Attack - Additional merits increase accuracy by +3 and Attack by 2% per merit.

• Base stats: Accuracy +10 Attack +10% (Can not be used with Faith and shares a Recast timer)

Previous spells will become Scrolls.

[Duelle]

Magic Fencer: Love it, but doubt we would get Double Attack from Enspells when we just got that as its own spell, haste however might happen, would be more likely to get % of enspell damage or some such then DA I think.

I think it was Neisan who made a comment about Temper's DA not being enough. I kept that comment in consideration when devicing Magic Fencer. Certainly better than fiddling with Temper, IMO.

Elemental Chains: Nice, would have to work your way up the spell list which might be annoying, would be faster to just cast my T4 nuke and move on but wouldn't be bad either.

The idea behind this is actually more like regardless of the tier you use, the buff you still apply. If you cast a tier III nuke, then you'd get the buff reducing the cast time of the tier IV by the alloted percentage.

Triage: O_O; umm~ how long does this 5/5 merited 300+ regen last might I ask? SCH can hit 69 regen with Regen V but umm~ 50% of my cure 4 is... more than 300 hp, so yeah~ maybe like 2-10% but 10-50 would be 1-2 ticks... at most... Not a bad idea to have something like that though it might be a lil breaking.

Actually, that was supposed to be up to half of the cure cast over X amount of seconds. I figured 12 secods would be safe. Like if you cast one of those mythical 1000 HP Cure IV's, your target recovers up to an additional 500 HP over 12 seconds.

Spellblade: Looks nice but our new JA already does something very much the same other than the range, which kind of weapon we must have, and spell type limit. However I would like to say the sword/dagger requirement would not matter, if a RDM is using a staff there is no reason not to slip on sword or dagger then change back if you truly want to cast the spell instantly, though the fact you would lose the potency of the staff, could go either way on that but don't think its something that would happen.

Aside from the loss of the potency staff, do keep in mind that it requires melee range. Casters generally don't come into melee range unless they're going to cast a Bar spell, really. That aside, this is more to solve a problem RDM has when front-lining: lack of burst damage outside of WS when standing in the front lines. The melee RDM looks pathetic if they stand next to a BLU that can toss heals and then toss a 1000+ damage spell while meleeing. And no, our buffs will never make up for that.

Combined Magic: Sounds good, I think merits would lower MP cost, for instance 1 merit you simply get the ability, for each merit there after you lose 50% of the cost up, so 5/5 would cost you 200% of the normal cost, maybe 25% down, to end at 300%, either way sounds good to me other than would probably annoy alot of BLMs that we get T3 ga spells.

I'm sure they'll get over it when they realize that the -ga spell is only once every 5 minutes. The concept is that to replicate the effect of a -ga spell, the RDM has to really strain themselves, hence the increased MP cost and 5:00 recast. I do agree that merits reducing the total MP cost to 300% at 5/5 definitely has potential.

Enhances "Composure" Effect - Increases melee accuracy and adds a Haste effect.
•Adds 3 Accuracy per merit level upto +15 and 2% JA Haste upto +10% Haste Effect.

Something so obvious, and yet I forgot about that. Good idea!

[Neisan_Quetz]

I'm not sure if that was pre or post buff... 5% was definitely piss poor, the new 20% with a decent enhancing set is much more welcome. An attack boost would also be welcome, or native Dual Wield (if you're talking strictly from the point of a meleeing buff).

[Duelle]

I'm not sure if that was pre or post buff... 5% was definitely piss poor, the new 20% with a decent enhancing set is much more welcome. An attack boost would also be welcome, or native Dual Wield (if you're talking strictly from the point of a meleeing buff).

I could have sworn it was after it was discovered that Temper was 20% DA, but oh well.

I guess an Attack Boost would be nice, though to my knowledge it's not exactly easy to get great amounts of double attack on RDM between Temper and Gear. I can't even begin to imagine how to implement some form of Dual Wield without tying it to Composure.

Note: Updated the OP with a final category 2 merit, Synchronicity.

[tyrantsyn]

If it came down to new merit~able spell's, I'd rather have it be original spell and not higher tier version of older spell's. Like para, slow, phalanx, blind etc. I like Faith and Bravery idea's from D-H. And another 4 original spell's would set the job up right. As for the current one's like we've been all saying for year's now. They just need to be put on scroll's and learn the old fashion way.

[Duelle]

If it came down to new merit~able spell's, I'd rather have it be original spell and not higher tier version of older spell's. Like para, slow, phalanx, blind etc. I like Faith and Bravery idea's from D-H. And another 4 original spell's would set the job up right. As for the current one's like we've been all saying for year's now. They just need to be put on scroll's and learn the old fashion way.

The problem I have with meritable spells is that it works for certain jobs, but RDM being a hybrid happens to not be one of them. It simply doesn't fit given the dual nature of the job.

It works well for SMN because you can kinda of show which Avatar you lean toward or preffer. It kind of works for BLM because of elemental alignments and whatnot...until you realize almost every BLM goes 5/5 Elemental Seal Recast and either 5/5 Ice Potency or 5/5 Lightning Potency to compliment 5/5 Freeze II or 5/5 Burst II because that gets you the most bang for your buck when it comes to merits (which means Flood II, Flare II, Quake II and Tornado II are wastes of space, as are Fire Potency, Water Potency, Wind Potency, and Earth Potency). They had the right ideas, but the system they built the merits on top of was not a good system.