Merits For A Endgame RDM

probly a stupid question but around how much mnd would you need to get that 35% then lol.

75dMND

Never said it was that important, this was in response to the guy who said extra merits do nothing other than provide magic acc.

And considering para 2 is probably also only adding 1% proc rate for every merit, it's not really worth it either, lol.

And the magic number is the mob's mnd + 75 if I recall.

ooohhhh so it'd depend on what your fighting :3
thanks :D

Well generally a lot of mobs tend to have rather low MND, but there's probably some stuff it'd be hard to cap on still.

In bold. If you're soloing something more than likely it is quite a few levels higher than you. There's no use having more mps at your disposal if you can't land the spells you're casting so in those situations without a doubt accuracy is more important. The accuracy merits also afford you the opportunity to gear potency instead of accuracy so the spells stick longer thus making it even less necessary to have the vert merits.

If you're a solo heavy RDM you really should have ACC in cat.1 and Bio3 in cat.2. This op has nothing to do with solo though..

Also Dasva is right on. If you're in an ally that expects you to do something specific and you're trying to use up all your mps so you can convert every single time the timer is up you're being irresponsible tbh. Cause there's a good chance that when ***does hit the fan, your convert wont be up because you're constantly using it.

People who call bs on almost never needing convert. Get rdm to 80. Get mp and conserve mp. Merit mps. sub scholar 40 and test it out. In an alliance you will hardly ever run out of mps even if you're curing/nuking/enfeebling/debuffing/buffing.

If you're concerned with pty only still merit convert. Just don't try to use it every time its up. If you do and it's not up when it needs to be up cause you're careless with mps you just failed the alliance.

That's still counterproductive logic. If you're in an uncontrolled scenario where ***does hit the fan, don't vert on a timer, yet you're still benefiting from vert being up again faster if it does happen again.

And yes, I agree people who are claiming to never need to vert are either BSing or playing inefficiently.

ok so... on the topic of merits...

5/5 vert
5/5 ice?

1/5 slow II
5/5 para II
4/5 bio III

that's sorta what i get outta this in my opinion. but i usually end up doing something wrong xD

I dunno, I just don't see how extra para merits are any better than extra slow merits, they're both just minor increases. If you do any sort of zerg/heavy melee situations, putting some in dia 3 seems better than multiple para 2 merits.

lol. so i guess i am actually doing something right for once :3

i've just heard that if you get dark skill high enough that the difference between bio II and bio III is like 1 dmg/ tick, meaning those 4 merits could be used somewhere else. i'm not sure D:

In bold. Nah I said the opposite. I do convert, but I hardly ever need to. Elvaan RDM with nearly 1100 mps in my mp build. /sch and conserve mp +10 I cast constantly cure/buff/nuke/debuff/enfeeble and almost never even drop to half mp left.

If you're an rdm who is relied on for situations where you need to be /drk though convert is used more often. Still maybe use it once every 15 mins.

Slow is a constant effect, so if your potency is overkill, all you do is really consistently overshoot what you need (only really applies to /NIN though) With para, it's a proc, so a higher rate increases the chance to completely negate an attack.

In the long run though, a mob with 25% slow and a mob with 25% para proc rate will end up attacking the same number of times. Slow doesn't just exist to have enough time to put ichi up. The only real difference in dmg reduction/# of attack reduction is in their consistency.

Bio3 is much more valuable than Bio2. Bio3 5/5 251+ dark magic skill you get 9 a tic damage for 2 and a half minutes. Bio2 at 291 dark magic skill would only do 8 damage a tic and would last half a minute less than Bio3 5/5.

Also Para2 even at 5/5 procs randomly. Slow2 5/5 is tested and proven to be effective all the time. The safer bet is always Slow2. Which is why nearly all RDM's merit slow2 over para2 any day.

Edit. Para2 is useful though. Just not as much as slow2. If you have decent mnd gear its easy enough to go even 3 or 4 of 5 on slow2 and put the other upgrades into para2.

Bio3 even at 3/5 is more valuable than a blms bio2. So solo rdm Bio3 is awesome.

I did say zerg/heavy melee, lol. Some people like to use Dia 3 for things other than just zergs, but that's not really feasible unless you actually have at least 2 or 3 merits in it.

And the things you said, all apply to para also. Depends if you care about, depends if someone else already has it merited. And front lines at zergs care about it the most, it's their e peen after all, lol. Even a tank's not gonna care if you have maxed para or not, noone can even tell the difference.

I'd take the consistency of slow over para for anything I'd be doing without /NIN /SAM tanks. Does lose it's edge somewhat with Elegy available too, in which case a unique effect like Paralyze would pull ahead. Situational etc

That might actually make sense if blind lowered acc cap! (Too bad it doesn't)

Para works on spells. Having a slowga or a damage ga spell get paraed is sweet. It's not consistent, just like it is with physical but a para proc can mean much when it happens and slow won't stop a spell from getting off ever.

That's true, but it's also inconsistent so you still have to take precautions against it somehow with a stun or a mdb/resist set which negates/reduces the effectiveness of para procing on spells. Para certainly isn't a bad thing, the extra merits just don't seem worth it for the small amount of return you get.

How is it much more though? One adds 4% proc rate, one adds 4% slow. They're both pretty minor in the scheme of things.