[dev1210] Why Not Merit Weaponskills ??

[Alhanelem]

1) Uncapping the merit system gives us more reasons to log in

Dubious. It doesn't give me more reasons to log in. Even if I can max out more WS, that's not going to impact my current login rate. If it doesn't give me more reasons, it stands to reason that at least some other people aren't given more reasons. If not being able to max all weapon skills is pushing you towards not logging in, there is probably a lot more serious issues that have pushed you in that direction already.

2) Uncapping the merit system would get people to do things that give xp (like Voidwatch)

Dubious. The merit system doesn't really prevent anyone from doing this.

3) Uncapping the merit system is at cross purposes with the rest of FFXI's design

Opinion, not a fact. With 22 job options, a system that provides specialization and thereby lets you stand out on a favorite makes sense to me.

None of your points are "logical outgrowths." Two are pretty much wrong and one is a subjective opinion. Points 1 and 2 do indeed make assumptions about the average player's experience.

You're getting doused with likes in spite of this fact, so I pretty much can't win. I said coming in here I knew my opinion wasn't popular. But just because people like your post, doesn't mean you're right. Fortunately for us, post like contests don't dictate SE policy (most of the time).

(also, I'd like to see some math expert person come in here and tell us if the recently posted WS adjustements decrease the dominance of any of the popular merit WS).

[Demonjustin]

Dubious. It doesn't give me more reasons to log in. Even if I can max out more WS, that's not going to impact my current login rate. If it doesn't give me more reasons, it stands to reason that at least some other people aren't given more reasons. If not being able to max all weapon skills is pushing you towards not logging in, there is probably a lot more serious issues that have pushed you in that direction already.

That doesn't make a lot of sense. No one said that being unable to merit things is pushing them toward not logging in. There's a large difference between "this gives us more reasons to log in" and "without this, I don't want to log in as much". More things to merit means more things to do, which means more reasons to log in as a result. There's not a player in this game who wouldn't gain use from uncapping merit points as a whole, there aren't many who wouldn't benefit from uncapping weaponskill merits.

Dubious. The merit system doesn't really prevent anyone from doing this.

It also is at a dead end for most players right now and as a result gives less reason to do that content. I never do VW unless I need merits for MPNMs, that's not often. If I had more merits to get for WSs or to get my RDM more spells I'd do it in a heartbeat, instead I'm left with little benefit/incentive.

Opinion, not a fact.

Not really. I can't think of anything in this game really that limits you to one thing or another like merits do. We have 22 jobs, but we pick between them at will and can not only level them all to capped level but gear them to the maximum extreme. We have a few choices like what country we live in but that choice is minor especially now days, we have choices in what mission rewards we want but those are almost always worthless except for one option anyways. Job Points aren't limited at all, they are removing the cap on HP/MP basically, I mean to me it seems like it makes sense to say that the majority of merit points as a system are the only real 'specialized' system in this game. If they are, that by definition would mean they fall outside of the rest of FFXI's paradigm. At least that's how I see things.