Merits For A Endgame RDM

I know Paralyze II looks good on paper, but if you guys have used it, you'd see that the effect length is pretty variable. When solo, land Paralyze II for 36 MP, 10-15 seconds later, it could wear without even proc'ing once. 36+36+36+36... adds up quick as hell and that MP you could be using to nuke. Slow II has a much much more stable duration.

4/5 Bio III and 5/5 Bio III is quite a difference in Damage/MP. In fact, 4/5 Bio III is comparable to just using Bio II, so why bother using the higher tier?

You guys are set in your ways, so I doubt I'll change your mind. Just some food for thought for the onlooking people reading this thread.

The cap is irrelevant though, I can't recall what the english text says but the japanese text specifically says, each merits add 1 to paralyze percentage. I'm just talking about the raw gains of adding merits.

You do agree that the duration is like throwing a dart on the wall(which is similar to the way the effect itself works). I love paralyze to death, but I'm not going to be throwing away all my MP in hopes of it proc'ing more often unless I'm in a party setting. I'd rather shoot for a quicker fight through use of nukes because when it comes down to it: hour fight with paralyze vs. hour and a quarter fight with paralyze II.

If you're needing to depend on paralyze to proc in order to win a fight, you're probably just doing it wrong.

And yeah, I'd use Slow II for fights that I know the monster could get close to me during kiting.

I never said to put full merits into slow either though, they both deserve only 1 merit in my opinion.

And like I said earlier, they both result in the same number of reduced attacks in the long run so how is it so much more important?

i just love how everyone finds something to *** about

Once your Slow is potent enough to cycle shadows easily, Paralyze is arguably far more valuable.

How is it obvious the gains are different? The text in the description of Para 2 is pretty straight forward. Adds 1 to paralyze percentage, period. And testing has shown that each merit in slow adds 1%. So we know how much the raw gains are. That's all that matters, the difference from having 1 merit to 5 merits, that's why they're the same, because they're both having 4% added to it.

Are you sure you've used Paralyze II? Anyone who's casted paralyze or Paralyze II can tell you that the duration is all over the place. Often times, you'll see it wear off immediately after a proc. Cast it a 100 times on any monster, I promise you'll see what I'm talking about.

Now cast Slow II 100 times on something. You'll see that it has a much more consistant duration. Only in the event of it being resisted will you see it wear off before ~2mins(iirc).


Why would I not cast Slow II on something that could rape my face otherwise? Zipacna could toss a Thunder/Ice Break.

http://zoome.jp/atseva/diary/27/
^Kite fight, maintains Slow II on it regardless of the situation.

That's why it's great for a group setting. If you're the main enfeebler for a group of people, then you can spend lots of time/mp recasting debuffs whenever they wear. When you're solo, throwing away 36 mp every other thirty seconds is going to ruin your damage output.

I dunno, it's the "far" part of that I don't quite agree on. If para proc worked like, every X attack got paralyzed I could see it but since you don't know when it's coming, you can only react to it after it happens. And if like you said, you can cycle shadows easily anyways, you don't need it, all it does is give you another 5 secondsish of empty time.

That's 5 seconds where you're not having to do something else. Sounds good to me.

If you can stun it, yes, it reduces the value. Some mobs are immune to stun though or have chainspell and at least this way you have a shot at it not going off rather than just having to turtle up an hope. I love resist sets and think they help an immense amount. My tank's love the little breaks a para proc will give and even more so on a spell that wipes shadows. Para is amazing on mobs like Lacovie, although you have to cast it quite a bit as it doesn't last terribly long on him.

I really want to know more about the formulas, tests and results of those tests to figure out what will give me the most for the situations I find myself in. If anyone has any links to testing or has more formula or numbers I'd be happy to see them.

Not when you are thinking with relativity in mind. Just pretend we knew the proc rate on paralyze 2 was 5%, not saying it is, this is just for argument's sake. If you gained 4 more, that's an 80% increase in effectiveness, in comparison to like a 9% increase for slow.

He's hitting you while you're bound/stunned, can't do anything about it, which is why slow would be helpful.

I'd be more thankful for para procs in that situation tbh

If you're not using Slow on Zip, one resist/mistake and he's going to *** you up at least a little bit. That said, there are different situations where Slow1 and Slow2 are better. You should ALWAYS keep at least Slow1 on a mob if it can be slowed, almost always.

If Zip catches you while stunned even if slow2 was a 50% slow is not likely to save you. Zip hits fast and hard and has a high DA rate. If I were to cast any enfeeb I'd go for para on this as a chance for a mitigated attack round that could have DA'ed is more likely to save me than the next attack going off slower. Slow is very useful and adds up fast when your face tanking but on a kite fight you rarely take 2 attack rounds. On Faust slow is even more useless as he spams tp attacks more than he ever swings a normal melee.

And that is IF I cast any enfeebs other than bio and poison. For kite fights like zip and faust where you basically bind and run an extended fight only serves to increase the likeliness that you will *** up or he will resist so your better spending your mp killing him.

Well yeah obviously keep slow on Zip, but I'd take a 5/5 para 2 on it over a 5/5 slow 2, since 4% of it's delay must be all of a quarter of a second.

You don't have to pay much attention to it to notice. Cast Slow II, then cast Paralyze II. Nine times out of ten, Paralyze II will wear before Slow II does, despite the fact that it was cast after Slow II. Often times, it will wear halfway into Slow II's duration. Devours the hell out of MP.

He also attacks fast as hell if he's on top of you while you're stunned or bound. Letting him wail on you without him having Slow on is just asking to get killed.


Didn't say he was, it's just a crystal clear example of someone using Slow II during a kite fight. He used Paralyze like two times in that fight when he had no other options to defend himself.

I'm guessing you have another character that has RDM leveled? Because I just noticed your RDM is 45.

Paralyze II, as I've said before is a MP hog. If you're planning on keeping it on Zipacna through 90%+ of the fight, you could just as well nuke to make the fight shorter. With how variable the duration of Paralyze II is, plus the fact of never knowing when you could be hit with Thunder/Ice Break, you'd be much better off keeping Slow II on him throughout the fight, and when ***starts to go bad, then opt for paralyze.

Faust is immune to slow. Paralyze won't proc on typhoon. He's a completely different scenario.

Every small preventative measure helps to increase your chance at success. I was just clarifying what he said, anyway.

No. Slow + PDT set will save you, 100%, unless you were almost dead anyway.