Returning RDM QuestionsFollow

Merit points rundown for RDM...

HP/MP: If you have any serious melee aspirations, they'd get more out of max HP than a mage will out of max MP. Personally, with the amount of idle refresh, spell refresh, and item based MP recovery available, I don't find the MP merits particularly appealing even as a career mage. I just don't need it.

Attributes: If you have any serious melee aspirations, they'd get more out of an attribute boost than a RDM will. If you're seriously RDM only, INT is nice for some extra mustard on your nukes and MAcc on your darkness based spells. If you don't nuke enough to care about 12 INT, MND is your other option for a little more potency and MAcc on your light based enfeebles. Though with how high Enfeebling caps, the amount of Enfeebling Skill and Magic Accuracy attainable in gear, and your base attributes on top of all that, the MAcc from Attribute merits are a drop in the bucket. 12 Attributes would make up 6 MAcc out of 720+ possible Enfeebling MAcc, for example. An increase of 0.8%.

Combat Skills: Better used for melee jobs. If you have them to burn, pair with your preferred WS(s).

Weapon Skills: These points are way better spent on a melee job, but Requiescat is a clear step up from Death Blossom for Sword RDMs. I never used Dagger on RDM much so I can't speak to RDM+Exenterator or how it compares to Evisceration.

Magic Skills: You can now have 3 magics fully merited. I go with Enfeebling, Elemental, and Dark because I play BLM, but I could see Enhancing replacing Dark as needed to hit 500 Enhancing which is the point at which quite a few enhancing spells cap. Most notably SCH's Embrava, and WHM's Boost/RDM's Gain line of spells. Enspell and Phalanx would also benefit if you melee.

Others: Most of these are personal preference, but if you melee -at all-, Crit Hit Rate is a must. Oh, and SE killed RDM/NIN tanking so you can forget about Enmity +, and think twice about Spell Interrupt Down.

RDM Group 1: I live comfortably without Convert merits, but if your mileage varies, go ahead and merit that. All 6 elements have their selling points, but I think the top choices are Lightning for Stun and Thunder IV MAcc (RDM is a great stunner in Voidwatch, but doesn't have the best Stun MAcc against some high end mobs), Ice for Para, Bind, and Blizzard IV, and Earth for Slow. Water for Poison, Fire for Addle, and Wind bring up the rear. Everything worth anything is Grav and Silence immune, btw.

RDM Group 2: One of each debuff is a good idea if you bring RDM to Voidwatch because they are procs which you are brought to hit. Aside from that, it's all personal preference, I enjoy a strong Phalanx II, others may prefer to get a smidge more Dia III duration, or Slow/Para MAcc/Potency. RDM Solos aren't as useful in the game any more, so Bio III should stay at 1.

Might be a good way to scare him, there. ;)

Anyway, since you're fresh back, I'd just prioritize getting to 99 first, then you can start dabbling with merits alongside trials for new gear. Magically, I went Enfeebling/Elemental/Enhancing and this is a pretty solid combo for BLM and SCH, too. WHM would also benefit from 2/3 (Meriting Healing even with recent adjustments probably isn't wise). Other magic schools are too job-specific if they're not your mains.

I don't see many people talking about 1:1 Convert ratios these days, but that can affect how you distribute your HP/MP. I was Hume, so I just balanced it out. I tend to find MP the more valuable resource, even with all the new auto-refresh gear, as translating that MP to HP through cures gives you an effectively larger HP pool. When it comes to AoEs that really want to kill you, it's a hell of a gamble assuming those HP merits will save you. Ideally, you just want to avoid the damage or be better prepared for it through buffs and -DT gear.

My personal melee aspirations for RDM aside, I find STR to be the universal best stat to boost via merits. INT only shines a little for the nuking jobs, with a lesser nod toward those who like the Shattersoul WS (RDM can't use). STR, however, is pretty much vital to anyone who ever even considers picking up a weapon, wiggling its way into added ATK and other calculations. MND fails because enfeebles cap and reaching such caps isn't too difficult with today's gear.

T1 Merit situation hasn't changed much since the old days. Convert has always been the most popular. Rest is up to you. Ice used to be the popular choice since nuking with the Aquilo's Staff also brought the +15 elemental skill, making Blizzard our most accurate nuke line. Even with our low end Dark skill, Stun is typically an accurate spell. Problems tend to arise more there on mobs who build immunities over time, which is also why I didn't suggest meriting this like Tert did. I wouldn't call chainspell stunning a frequent happening these days, either.

T2 merits are trickier. I can't recall if SE's implemented the proc changes to VW yet, but if they haven't, you'll basically need 1 point in every debuff in case it's a trigger proc. If they have, we wiggle back to older days where, if you're investing in Phalanx, it's 5/5 or not at all (I'm of the not at all camp since you'll probably be /SCH and can AoE T1 if you REALLY need -30+ DT on others). 2 in Dia III seems to be popular, giving it a minute duration. Bio III is another all or nothing, with only being useful for kite solos... which aren't really prominent anymore with other jobs being able to kill the same sh*t more quickly without other issues like claim loss or regens. Blind II isn't worth it since anything hard you'd want it on will probably have capped ACC anyway. Revisiting my comments on MND merits, this brings us to Slow and Paralyze. If you're going 2/5 in Dia III, this will leave you 8 points to fiddle with in these 2 spells. I'd personally suggest going 5/5 Para with the remaining 3 in Slow. Para would also benefit from the Ice magic merits if you did them. Either way, don't expect to rely on these spells with NMs until SE decides to roll out their enfeebling adjustment patch in some nebulous future point they've talking about for probably over a year now.

But yeah, for now, just focus on 99ing yourself. The merits will come as you do other things. On the magian end, you'll definitely want to work on your armor set. Immediate staff upgrades would involve Ice, Lightning, and Cure. Melee, if you're inclined, is an Almace (with Sword merits since I didn't mention those. Enhancing is also a must for RDM here between Enspells and Temper). You'll probably need to Atma hunt and handle various Abyssea clears, too. So that's something on your plate, as well. Basically kill all the zone bosses and do Shinryu. Might be tricky depending on how many friends you still have around, but not impossible.

Out of curiosity, what have you been fighting to see resists?

Later on into slower Bismarcks, the Provenance Caturae, Kalasutrax, Uptala, and Aello come to mind when I think of Stun resists.


Oh, and Ig-Alima.
Edited, May 31st 2012 2:32pm by tertoonetwothreefour



Edited, Jun 1st 2012 6:16am by tertoonetwothreefour

It should just be on the test server right now.

Figured I'd say it for any future readers, since Bio III and Blind II are no longer Voidwatch procs, don't merit them for that reason. I'm hesitant to say for any reason, but if there is a reason to merit them, I am unaware of it.