merits are getting you close to 85 caps. At that point, I've been pretty much soloing abyssea mobs a lot for skillups--unless I get a chance to smack crap in other aby parties. Capped katanas, evasion, and ninjutsu easily on the Glen Crabs in Grauberg (A)--kinda got me hooked on that zone for skillups after that. Got 1.5 in skillups to hit 332 staff on SMN (approaching 90 cap) doing a page of monitors in there today.