RDM Merits

What to merit and in what order? I see this question a lot on forums and get asked it in game from time to time so I thought I would throw my thoughts down into one post and refer to it as needed. Now this is just my suggestion and not the absolute way to do it. So with that in mind here is my sort of mini guide.

I think way back when I started to first merit I went with enfeebling first but I sure wouldn’t do that now if I had to start over. Of course that was pre ToAU so keep that in mind. With today’s fast paced parties I would definitely go with convert then mp first. If nothing else this will make your time meriting easier. I remember as a new to 75 RDM having about 750 mp and not much better with my convert gear. That would be rough to get away with in today’s party atmosphere. Remember its going to take well over a million xp for your RDM merits so anything to make it go by better is a good thing.

After that I would invest a bit here and there. Say like 3 in enfeebling then switch over and do some Group 1 or 2 merits. Usually upgrading something just 1 time gives no noticeable effect; it’s the combination of things that really add up. I also would avoid high cost upgrades and go to something else until you must spend the high cost merit points. For instance using 5 merit points to go from level 4 to 5 convert is probably less useful than using those five to say get level 1 and 2 mp(3 total merits) and boosting enfeebling form 1 (already upgraded once) to level 2 (another 2 merit points). If I had to map out a plan it may look something like this.

3 MP
3 Convert
3 Enfeebling
1 Slow II
3 Ice Accuracy

Total cost at this point is 27 merit points. This touches on all the basics for the job and gives back real benefits. You have given yourself a 10% increase in convert time, added a new spell, and made all your enfeebling spells better while adding more nuke accuracy for Blizzard III as well as increasing base mp.

From here I would work on capping vert, Enfeebling, and ice. Probably in that order unless you really want to go ahead and boost enfeebling first. Then after that just gradually work them all until capped. You may find boosting mp next will help you out more but you may not depending on what you do and who you party with. The problem with mp is it gets pretty costly going up to 5 merit points per upgrade for the last 4 upgrades making it not as cost efficient.

In the end my merits will look like many RDM 75

8/8 MP ( I am a big fan of mp. The more you have the more you can do)
8/8 Sword (though this is more for PLD)
8/8 Enfeebling (self explanatory)
8/8 Elemental (also leveling BLM so double usage)

5/5 Convert (goes with my MP philosophy. Not always used every time your timer is up, but when in intensive MP situations it makes things so much easier. Think of it this way. 1 Piece of refresh equipment gives you 1200 MP an hour. A max convert timer gives you 1 more convert in an hour than someone with out the upgrade. I have 1100+ convert MP so it’s like adding in another refresh piece over time. In a 30 minute BCNM I can get in 4 verts if I use one up immediately at start (through chainspell abuse). In long drawn out solo fights I can throw out nukes faster since I got more mp to burn. All in all there just isn’t any significant reason to not merit this in my opinion.)

5/5 Ice Accuracy (this is a no brainer as far as upgrades. Increases your blizzard III accuracy (most accurate of our nukes thanks to skill on ice staff) and bind, a random spell that you want to land ASAP when you need it. Also helps with paralyze accuracy. So boosting three useful spells is a win in my book)

3/3 Slow II (this is very useful at even one upgrade but not sure the final 2 are a big enough boost to warrant spending more merits on)

5/5 Para II (I know many don’t like this but I get some crazy procs on boss fights once in a while, the main benefit of going to level 5 is it gives more accuracy meaning you can drop some macc and skill gear in favor of more mnd for a better proc rate. The fact I have Ice accuracy merits makes this even easier.)

2/2 Phalanx II (very nice for salvage and other end game things. I only would go with 2 upgrades as this makes the duration of the spell equal to that of refresh making it easy to throw into a casting routine)

Everything else is being dedicated to other jobs so not really important here. That’s still 164 merit points for just RDM, or in terms of xp 1,640,000 spent. The amount and the time it takes to get there is why I suggest starting with convert and mp so you can make that journey a little easier. Of course if you use another job to merit on then you can adjust accordingly.

So as you may have noticed for RDM specific merits I didn’t put anything into wind or earth. Some RDM’s really like wind and a few boost earth because of slow II. Wind to me just doesn’t make sense and I’ll explain why. The 2 big wind spells for RDM are Silence and Gravity. Both are very good spells but have limitations that can’t be overcome no matter what. Gravity’s biggest downfall is that mobs (NM’s anyways where the accuracy matters) become resistant to gravity. No amount of gear or merits can make this built in game function go away. Also Gravity doesn’t increase in power in any way. Mobs don’t get more encumbered with higher skill or stats. The evasion effect is also not increased but static. So the only thing to gravity is whether you land it or you don’t. Very few mobs resist gravity unless they are immune, making the increase in accuracy wasted here. The same holds true for silence. Most mobs are easy to land silence on or they are immune to it, so once again wind merits just don’t cut it for me. Also for must land silence situations you can sub blm and use elemental seal for it (like for suzuku or whatnot).
.
As for earth merits the only reason people do this is for slow II. Slow 2 is already a very accurate spell so meriting it to land is redundant. The only reason you would merit earth is so you can drop some skill/accuracy equips in favor of more mnd to make for a stronger slow. It’s not a terrible way to spend merits but to be honest I don’t think it’s more beneficial than the others you can get. Also using merits for a chance to improve one spell seems like a waste.