So say I have fully merit pointed my warrior. In practice what would this mean?

General stats - cap str, dh if possible else crit. We don’t have great axe/great sword/scythe to consider because equipping those would make you a dark knight/reaper. Enemy crit rate hasn’t been a concern for some time.

Cooldown reduction would have to be severe to not mess up alignment - IR drifting out of buffs in the current combat design would be pretty catastrophic, so full merits would need it reduced from 60s to 30 or 40 (4 or 6 seconds per merit for argument’s sake).

Potency increase is pretty boring eg fell cleave 540 -> 600 (12 potency increase per)

Gauge gained increased could change how the job plays briefly until you get used to the new rotation, but since it’s just the fell cleave gauge now I can’t see it being as impactful as it might be.

Cooldown reduction - vengeance/nascent/equilibrium being up more often would probably tend towards flavour rather than being a must have unless fight design assumes this will be the priority choice.

Enmity increase/decrease. Not really a consideration.

Durations- might be cool depending. Specifically extending the holmgang bind would be hilarious if it didn’t touch the invuln component, I can see a longer vengeance being appreciated if only to catch an extra hit if you time it well. Berserk/inner release would have loved this prior to endwalker.

Stack increase. If your berserk/IR gets an extra stack it might be sought after, IR timing might be getting a bit tight with the follow ups though. Still if it caps at +3 that’s a second primal wrath…

Double/triple attack rate. I can just see people falling over themselves to cap it for that extra 1-2 autos. Would be very funny to drop an anvil on the excel enthusiasts like that though, particularly if it extended beyond autos, similar to the ruin bug on scholar a few patches back.

Overall it just seems very difficult to meaningfully accommodate merits in the current system. Rolling back to even just shadowbringers style might make it more impactful, but they’ve just spent three or more expansions heading in this direction. Clearer display of raid buffs (both trick/chain and embolden/arcane circle style) could allow it to function in uncoordinated groups, but I’m unconvinced user customisation and rigid timelines are particularly compatible. Maybe if you’re expected to cap everything’s merits, but at that point is it even worth introducing that system?