Merits For A Endgame RDM

Part of me still likes bio3 for pdt/def tanking/soloing. Alot of the mobs don't that hard when you go all out like that. Like even at 80 I could get say Thew bomblet Nms hits down to 0 most the time.

Ideal setup would be:
5/5 Convert
(elemental accuracy is to your own)
4/5 Slow2
5/5 Para2
1/5 Dia3

Can also do 4/5 Para2 and 2/5 Dia3.

para 2 is only superior to para 1 at 5/5
you don't down slow to 1 point instead of paralyze >.> slow is more important

The hell is going on in this thread? /sigh.. Let's look at every merit individually. It's not hard to do it logically. (With Abyssea as a main focus, and "other stuff" as a secondary.)

Group 1 Merits
Convert: Convert is an amazing ability that USED to be restricted to RDM. If you aren't putting merits in this, you may as well just go sch/rdm and be superior at.. everything. Seriously. Stop sucking and Merit CONVERT. Period.

Fire Magic Accuracy: Potentially useful with Fire IV around the corner. Addle is very accurate, so these merits are worthless for it. Worth the merits when Fire IV hits, even if temporary.

Ice Magic Accuracy: Pretty typical. This is most likely going to be our final merit of choice when Blizzard IV hits. One could argue Thunder IV being superior with those merits, but I would personally still take some added Bind/Paralyze. (Several abyssean NMs can be bound, and powerful binds do not break even after several nukes.)

Wind Magic Accuracy: Top dog at PRESENT, with our highest nuke being Aero IV. While several targets can be Grav'd, it is so few that one should not choose these merits for that. Likewise Silence.

Earth Magic Accuracy: Move on, this is always junk.

Lightning Magic Accuracy: As noted up in Ice, this may be a better choice than Ice when Thunder IV is available. Personal preference/Magian staff choices may dictate this being a better choice over Ice.

Water Magic Accuracy: Good merits. No. Really. Ever tried landing Poison? Fscking Poison I mean GOD DAMN. If anything, merit this if you are just pissed off at POISON NOT LANDING WITH SABOTEUR. (Note: If you don't complain about poison not landing, you aren't playing RDM properly!)

Group 2 Merits
Dia III: Somewhat outdated. Nothing in the game outside of perhaps AV requires a zerg, and that is most of what these merits are good for. If you do a lot of work with melee DDs and feel that an extra -5% defense on your target is worthwhile (So it dies faster and you can spend less time supporting them. Freaking needy DDs.) then pick up 1/5 of this. You won't have MP issues, and if DDs are on your target TP feed is not an issue. Just cast it more often.

Slow II: This is what makes a RDM better than a SCH at enfeebling. 4/5 or 5/5 this, or go level SCH. Seriously. They have more m.acc with landing Slow than we do, so maybe we should at LEAST have a more potent one? 4/5 Slow2 with SAB will allow capped Slow with Battlefield Elegy, 3/5 will not. Against an elegy-resistant target (There are a few), 4/5 is infinitely more useful than 1-3/5.

Paralyze II: I hate this spell. Placebo effects are just stupid. However, EYEBALLING says that it is worth at least 1/5 merits. Because I have not yet found good data on higher merit levels of this spell, I can only call those higher levels to be more placebo. Besides, it is always nice to overwrite Para1 from a weaker RDM in the MND department.

Phalanx II: Outdated. Not worth merits in any situation. If you want Phalanx on another person, you should be /sch to do it.

Bio III: Hot topic with Abyssea these days. Is it worth 5/5 anymore? Short answer is, No. Inside of Abyssea, the attack down is wonderful - but MP is plentiful, so just get a lower tier and recast it more often. The only situation 5/5 is useful are NMs you want to completely TP-starve, in which case.. You may not even want to cast Bio at all. Tier IV nukes are far more efficient Damage/TP ratio wise.

Blind II: Long overlooked, this merit may be making a comeback. (Doubtful, put more merits in Paralyze II, but first hear me out.) As a RDM, or many other jobs that aren't lolPLD, Abyssea NMs do NOT have capped hitrate! This means blind does matter. Also! Blind II is just an extra spell for trying to trigger grellow !!s, if merit spells are even an option for monster weakness. It may be worth 1/5ing, or more so if you work with evasion tanks.

Short version

Group 1:
Convert 5/5
Lightning/Ice 5/5 (Aero/Fire 5/5 if you want to move them around to fit our top nuke)

Group 2:
Slow II 4/5+
Bio III 3/5+
Dia III 1/5- (Preference, get it if you work for with DDs)
Blind II 1/5- (Preference, potentially useful if triggering !!s)
Paralyze II X/5 (X is whatever you didn't put in slow/bio/dia/blind)

EDIT1: Updated Dia III section, changed potential final build.

What.

Idk. Not worth the merits to me (who does nothing with melees anyway), and not worth the merits outside of a very specific role for RDM.. Which I would never fill. If you need Dia III merits, you aren't reading this thread for advice.

Screw your convert merits!!!

This should have been in your initial post for a bit of perspective. If you do anything that matters with melees, Dia III is useful.

The point still stands. If you are in a position of really needing Dia III, you won't be looking in this thread for advice. If you are looking for advice, the difference between Dia II and Dia III isn't likely to make your melee suck much less.

I'm bitter. I assume that melee are fail, and if they aren't.. Well, I don't see them outside of forums.

EDIT: Another point to bring up. I've heard that very powerful LS will kill NMs too fast, not allowing for people the time to proc !!s. In such situations, stronger Dia (Or even casting Dia period) is detrimental to the battle at hand.

What is this "need" stuff? You don't "need" merits even. Doesn't change the fact that 15% defense down is a hefty increase and that 5% increase over Dia II is a lot more mileage than you'd get out of, say... Using Bio III over Bio II given RDM's damage output these days (in their relevant situations), yet you recommended 3+ merits in that with minimal disclaimers. What gives?

EDIT: Depends on size of ls, etc. Only really relevant if you're going for grellow triggers with a large group, and even then there appear to be mechanics in place that give you a decent shot at procing grellow within the first few minutes of any given fight so it's a nonissue. Beyond that point kill speed vs proportional increase in drop rate becomes questionable.

I will concede. If you have melee in your group that Dia III merits may be useful to you.
I still will stand by putting no more than 1/5 in Dia III. In abyssea, you have the MP. Feeding TP is not an issue. Just cast it more often.

I'm just horribly bias toward melee in general. I figure they can suffer without the extra 5% defense reduction so I can be slightly more effective at doing stuff that doesn't involve them.

Bio III with 3+ was a fairly arbitrary number. The reason for more than 1/5 for the usefulness of the attack down is because when you ARE using it for this, you likely don't want to feed your target much TP with it.

iz
5/5 vert
5/5 ice
5/5 bio
1 para
4 slo

Lol nope. I'm sorry but para2 @1/5 is more potent than para1.

I see that everyone recommends "Convert 5/5", and it's cool b/c you can recast that ability quicker.

I been playing RDM enough time, and since w/Refresh2 came out everything changes, I mean, I haven't used convert to much these days having 6MP refresh/tick + Refresh gear, even better... I barely /heal in Abyssea b/c of the atmas, adding another 6MP refresh for a total of 12MP refresh + refresh gear.

I'm wondering if it's a good idea to move those merits to increase another element Magic Accuracy, I'll probably do this b/c I'm also working on the Magic Accuracy staves.

This is IMO the best option for me to re-organize my merits due to the way I play RDM. :)

I keep seeing this argument. "LOL VERT MERITS WHEN YOU DONT RUN OUT OF MP IN ABYSSEA", how bad is your gear that between atma, af3, cruor buffs, and ascestics drinks that you're having macc issues?

Why? Water for Poison2 maybe being an exception.

I maxed convert merits, and now all I do is Abyssea. Unless I'm soloing ***, I never run out of MP.

Sadly they aren't as useful to me as they once were.

Hmmm... found this thread by accident but it kinda enthralled me...

And on the front of Convert merits:

Granted they are useless, wank and inhibiting other potential boosts in abyssea.

But what about outside abyssea?

Yeah i know, everythings dying at abyssea's expense but i dunno...

Probably best to wait till 99cap and everything has been released to start moving stuff like that but then again, it's not like you can't merit at a ridiculus rate inside abyssea anyways so, yeah i guess convert merits are now, sadly obselete.

Yesterdays luxury is useless today; it's beginning to seem that way anyhow...

Your avatar is kinda cute ^.^

Ahuh ...