Suggestion: Merit Points

[Duelle]

Merits as presented in FFXI were inherently flawed in design. Most of the "choices" weren't real choices at all. A DRK could opt to spend their points in stuff like Souleater recast, or could waste them in Weapon Bash recast.

It was worse for mages because they were funneled into specific categories. BLMs were funneled into either Thunder Potency (then taking Blast II) or Ice Potency (then taking Freeze II) since that's what got you the most bang for your buck (which was a big "fuck you" from the game to you if you liked earth, fire,water or wind as your chosen element). RDMs had a similar problem, though it was basically just Ice Accuracy merits. I personally felt the sting from that one since I like fire on my mages. It's not a system I'd want to emulate.

Besides the obvious "Meritlvl10 or kick" for allsome content

Fixed. You and I both know this sort of thing trickles down.

*While yes there is WoW and their tree I was actually thinking more Diablo 3, a lot went wrong but being able to make a build without seppuku was nice imo. They made you live with your build during combat but beyond that just switch out whatever wasn't working for your style or team.

I'm more in favor of permanent choices rather than letting people change specs at will. Making it east to switch specs is part of why raiding turned into such a mess in WoW once they implemented dual specs. To XIV's benefit, we won't see raids telling people to spec for different roles (post-dual specs made being a paladin less fun, specially when all you wanted to do was smash faces with a light-imbued warhammer and they were asking you to get a healer or tank second spec), but it's still a pain.

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This said, I could go for something along the line of merit points gained from exp post-level cap, but only for RP-friendly or cosmetic stuff. Could be additional effects on certain abilities, different particle effects for certain spells (maybe have one where you can change the Stoneskin animations to be like they were in 1.0), or extra abilities exclusive to each job (say, give WHM the spell Float, but can only be used outside of combat and the effect fades as soon as you're attacked or you attack someone)

[Sylve]

The issue with such a grind (for a grind is what it is) post level cap, is that you segregate newer jobs from well established jobs.

What do i mean? Well, right now, a new job only needs to hit the level cap and catch up on gear.
With your Merit System, i would need to hit cap, get gear AND grind for months to get the boosts which would be mandatory for raiding. And dont kid yourself, they would be mandatory, if they weren't required to raid, Raids would be made too easy by having them. If they balance around Merits, It just adds further gates to reaching even the first level of raiding.

It makes it difficult for new players to join established communities, as those established players with their long playtimes on their Jobs have a statistical advantage over the newer player, who would then exclude the newer player for being at a significant disadvantage.

Please don't take that as me being against customization. I would like to see some customization, However they cannot be stat upgrades or power boosts. We cannot have Time = Power. Especially when we get a few expansions in.
If anything, We need the Materia System modified to to take a customization role.

[Kogasan]

Why do people want this game to be a copy paste of xi? I like this game how it is. Want it to be xi go play xi. It could use some love right now.

[Kaedan]

Why do people want this game to be a copy paste of xi? I like this game how it is. Want it to be xi go play xi. It could use some love right now.

No need for hyperbole. The most successful games in existence are games that take what other games have done well and implement them into their game. That's the primary reason WoW did so well for so long... it took the good ideas from all it's competitors implemented them into their game.

Whether or not the Merit system would be good to implement in FFXIV is up for debate. There are Pros and Cons about it just like anything else. But I think we can all agree that we shouldn't even consider it until whatever expansion happens that we don't get a level cap increase. It should only be used if they are going to stop increasing level caps, or don't plan to have level cap increases for a long time.

[Twilite]

Why do people want this game to be a copy paste of xi? I like this game how it is. Want it to be xi go play xi. It could use some love right now.

Because it has old dated graphics and is going to be shutdown in a few years.

[Kogasan]

Because it has old dated graphics and is going to be shutdown in a few years.

Well if you think xi is old and outdated stop trying to make this game xi then. Get outta the past and into the future. Final fantasy xi is over and done with the future is with xiv atm. So get with it.

[elemental10]

Merit points can be spent on something else than just build and improving our character's combat abilities.

For example, getting merit points for a glamor stuff? Or just reward merit points for a certain amount of exp scaling on the job's level. But merit points will cap at a certain number, like 10 or something.

1 merit = 2% of exp.
So at maximum, a job can instantly get 20% exp.

In order to get merit points, you'll have to run roulette and each day there is a cap on merit points. Make the cap small but reasonable. Each day, we have 6 (not counting PvP) roulettes to do. One roulette = one merit point. We do dailies with our 60, that's 6 points already and you're still doing the same things but now you get more from it.

20% exp for a job instantly is something not to be taken lightly..... especially when the job is post-50.

[FallenArisen0990]

One could argue the attribute points is a mini merit system.

[Lusavari]

If you really want to grind out something like Merit Points, do PVP. All PVP actions require grinding to maximize their potential, and you are forced to share your points across all jobs. As much as I appreciate the sound of being able to customize my abilities and be different from someone else... The Meta-game destroys the point of any customization. There is usually 1 clear spec set that is superior to all others. As was pointed out earlier, Black Mages only ever put points in Thunder and Ice, there were abilities like Weapon Bash you were never going to touch. How many Warriors ever merited Aggressive Aim? Almost 0, because Warriors had terrible Archery and Marksmanship to begin with, and it would be a waste of the ability to use it for the 1 ranged shot to pull... OR change out your precious Ammo slot to get maximum stat bonus from your item you didn't want to accidentally toss, like a Hedgehog bomb (I know they removed the ability to throw those, but it demonstrates a point)

[Xairos]

One could argue the attribute points is a mini merit system.

This. And we all saw the fallout over DRK: Str vs vit