A Few Merit Ideas!

[Scuro]

Ok well since pretty much most ofthe other merits (except Storm Surge) are kinda.... pointless. Why not allow SCHs to merit into Strategem capacity and Stragem Recharge rate (Much like Sneak Attack). I'm putting this up since I am assuming that new merits (tier 3) are not far from here. Let me know what you think.

[Merton9999]

I would naturally love to have both of these, but the problem I see is that no one would ever pick anything else. Not that there aren't obvious choices for other jobs, I just think for these two in particular for SCH they'd have to offer some pretty amazing alternatives for me to consider not selecting a buff to the most often used and job-defining JAs. In fact, I think I'd just prefer a flat recharge reduction and count increase at 99 without merits, and leave the merits for something else.

I'm actually hoping for something with a little more complexity in 99 merits, like here: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/th...specialization

I like the idea of being able to merit abilities that are divided into different specializations, and being able to swap specializations @Moogle:

Specialization1: Geomancer
Contains spells and abilities related to weather effects, like tier 2 storms, tier 2 helix, weather related JAs.

Specialization2: Calculator
Contains JAs that magnify the effect of existing spells based on current parameters. "Parameter: Enmity" magnifies the next healing or enhancing magic spell based on the target's current enmity value. "Parameter: HP" magnifies the next healing magic spell based on the target's current HP.

You'd be able to merit all abilities, but you'd have to pick a specialization in MH that gives you all of that specialization's abilities and none of the others'.

[Rambus]

merits at 99 does not fix the problems with the current merit choises.

I can say I have MAB helix 5/5, stormsurge 5/5 and enlightenment 1/5 and call SCH fully merited, the rest of our merits is really bad. (there is little to no benefit to maxing enlightenment)

if MV was not gimped to hell it would be good to merit that but that is not the case anymore.

[Raksha]

merits at 99 does not fix the problems with the current merit choises.

I can say I have MAB helix 5/5, stormsurge 5/5 and enlightenment 1/5 and call SCH fully merited, the rest of our merits is really bad. (there is little to no benefit to maxing enlightenment)

if MV was not gimped to hell it would be good to merit that but that is not the case anymore.

Am I the only one who loves my sublimation merits?

[Rambus]

Am I the only one who loves my sublimation merits?

I did not list that becasue i have no mp issues, so they would not benfit me.

[Raksha]

I did not list that becasue i have no mp issues, so they would not benfit me.

Bullshit, also what else are you gonna merit? grimoire recast?

[Sotek]

Bullshit, also what else are you gonna merit? grimoire recast?

Really? It's bullshit that someone wouldn't have MP issues? Have you played FFXI recently? Sublimation and Convert have both become next to useless for me. Even before Abyssea I never had any real MP problems, with Convert now as well +50 MP on Sublimation is just worthless, screw that, the Sublimation update alone probably suffices.
As it is Helix merits are the only ones that even do anything, +50 MP is a joke and Grimoire recast is worthless. I'd change it to one of them even though they're worthless but I actually have hope that everyones constant bitching about Modus will actually make them fix the damned thing. If not, I'm still not gaining anything by switching since both are worthless and you're going to have to be a god of persuasion to convince me otherwise.

[Merton9999]

Comments about MP being infinite or running out are always relative to what you're doing on any job. Before the sublimation update and /RDM 40, and obtaining any atmas, sure I enjoyed sublimation merits in Abyssea a bit. After those things though, of course I considered MP to be infinite, but only if I played the job the way I always did before that. Now that MP is so plentiful, I spam T3 nukes even in LA, and AOE Cure outside parties wildly to the point that I can run out of MP with perfect use of atmas, temps, and JAs that recover it, if I try. Can I cover what I'm supposed to or always did, and never run out? Of course. Can I blow it all by spamming spells for fun or extra utility? Of course.

With that in mind, I still currently don't look at sublimation merits as useful anymore. Even with spell spamming, a max sublimation is so miniscule I don't even notice it. I liked them in campaign, and in Aby before obtaining atmas and level 80, but now not so much, even after changing to constant spell spam.

In the end I agree the only useful merits in the current game are Helix acc/att, at least one in enlightenment, and stormsurge (mostly outside Aby, but then not even that great). IMO stormsurge should max at 15 and/or scale with enhancing magic skill, and should buff other traits and spells of the same element (resist traits, bar spells), possibly with the use of another JA.

In addition to the ones I mentioned above, I'd like to see merits for:

Klimaform duration and recast
This is also pretty useless in Aby right now with MACC being what it is, but the added effect on AF3 boots is nice. It just sucks that it can be taken advantage of so infrequently.

Animus and Adloquium potency
For these, I think an overhaul in effectiveness is in order. Either an increased base effect, or a JA set that enhances them based on current numerical parameters (target enmity, HP, TP% for example)