New merit additions needed

[Dale]

Be nice to see SE take merits to the next level by expanding the options to include:

-Traits (broken out by melee/mage with a choice of 2 from a list from said class, i think this truly allows customization)
-JA (1 more for each job)
-2HR augment (something that is reasonably suitable for the job) (ex. benediction also replenish 25% mp as well)

I think 1 of these 3 is a strong possibility in the future.....hopefully.

Cool ideas.

I never considered adding the ability to upgrade traits through merits, and that's a good one.

I'd also like for them to let you use merits on your sub job. That is something I really do wish they would strongly consider letting players do. That way you could create a dominant sub job for your class by dumping merits into it, bringing more individuality to different players.

[Nattack]

...and DRK

DRK actually had a useful merit at one point in time though, until Desperate Blows was nuffed.
Ninja has almost never had one that could help partywise!

[Harpalina]

I'm sorry but I'm going to have to side with Dale on this argument. My WAR is 90 and I have maxxed out merits in Great Axe and Scythe. WARs can't use Guillotine and my DRK can. The whole point of my maxxing out Scythe was so it would boost accuracy and attack for my DRK. I'm not aiming to boost my Scythe B rating up to an A+ on my WAR...it's illogical. First and foremost, my WAR uses Great Axe for maximum damage output because that's what my merits are geared towards. I would like to max out other combat skills for my other jobs...like for instance Polearm for my DRG when it eventually reaches the level where merits would make a difference. It also helps my DRG at lower levels because it would allow me to use Penta Thrust one or two levels before 49. This isn't about overpowering WAR. This is about enhancing your other high level jobs.

[Hoshi]

I thought even with the higher rating there are some skills that are simply never available to jobs unless you are on the right subjob. Furthermore even if WAR had 16 more points in every skill in the game why would they use a lower skill weapon for DD purposes instead of their max skill weapons like great axe?

[Harpalina]

Furthermore even if WAR had 16 more points in every skill in the game why would they use a lower skill weapon for DD purposes instead of their max skill weapons like great axe?

PRECISELY. And also to add to that, having every skill max meritted, it would only help in versatility for the WAR, just in case someone needs WAR to equip another weapon besides Great Axe. It doesn't necessarily mean that WAR is going to overpower another job in an A+ rating for said weapon. If say, you need a specific weapon to proc for an NM and there's not a DRG or DRK in the party, the WAR can whip out a polearm or scythe, substituting that job.

[Chronofantasy]

Yes, waiting until level 99 is best to rework the merit system at since after 99 there most likely won't be anymore level cap increases unless SE decides to take us to level 125 or 150 in 3-5 years. There are a lot of other things to do outside of meriting/exping if you're all capped on that stuff. Try doing some random quests or raise up crafts or help out other players with all your skills/merits, etc. I know SE is planning to renovate the entire merit system at lvl 99 otherwise.

[Daremo]

Yep, Wars are totally going to surpass Monks and Pups using Hand-to-Hand... Well, maybe not, but they'll bust out staffs and totally humiliate Smns with their massive Spirit Takers! Wait, why would they use...? Ah, they'll all switch to Great Sword since it's only 20 below their Great Axe, and then they'll crack on mobs like level 87s! Er, uncapped 87s... They could whip out Club skill equal to that a Whm! A Whm who hasn't merited Club skill at all, that is...

Or maybe, they'll use merits to improve some of the other jobs they have, so they can feel better about going to parties and events as something other the one, or at most two jobs they chose to optimise 5 years ago, increasing their variety of play, and adding a little freshness to their gaming experience.

[Kjara]

the lv99 merits will more than likely be about the lv76-99 spells/JAs/traits we get. personally I'd love to merit Soul/Spirit jump for even more TP bonus.

[Atomic646]

I 2nd that lol

[Byrth]

Unlock the skill level merit caps. It really doesn't benefit any individual job's maximum potential (as you can only really use two weapons at once reasonably.) It just decreases the amount to which we have to specialize.

For instance, I have Dancer and Warrior with weapon merits. Currently my merits are 4 Evasion, 8 Dagger, 8 Great Axe. If I could put another 8 merits into Weapon skills, I'd do 8 Axe for my Beastmaster and Warrior. It's not like my Warrior is going to do more damage with Axe than Great Axe just because it has 8 Axe merits (if that was the case, I would have Axe merits now). It's just that I'll have 16 more Attack and 14~15 more Acc when I'm using an Axe in the future. Also, and more importantly, I'll have somewhere to dump my merits.

I'm a BLM, RDM, BRD, and SMN, and I currently have Elemental and Enfeebling merits. If I could open up that category, I'd merit Summoning magic, Dark Magic, Enhancing magic, and Wind/Singing skill. 16 Dark Magic skill is far from game breaking, and otherwise those merits just get me up to where a dedicated player of BRD or SMN (or someone without other mage jobs) would already be.

Opening up Tier 1 and Tier 2 merits wouldn't be such a bad idea either. In any given situation you rarely want to use more than two elements, so letting you max all element potency on BLM wouldn't result in an increase in max efficiency, but would let you, for instance, enjoy an extra 10 MAB against Ouryu even if you're faithful to Ice and Thunder as your top two choices. Capping AM2 . . . man who really cares? RDM capping Slow/Blind/Para/Phalanx 2 and Dia/Bio 3 isn't really game breaking either. SMN capping their Tier 2 merits would be convenient, but again it's like BLM. You can already cap two of them and rarely want to use more than two elements at any given time.


tl;dr:
Right now we limit ourselves and confine our roles due to the merit caps imposed upon us, which is contrary to the basic structure of the job system (change job, change role). Removing the merit cap decreases the amount to which we have to specialize in one particular job, and gives us something to do with all the xp that has been building up since level 80.