this is a post that an ex-ls leader made on our forums 6-18-2008. this is while my rdm was still low level and its what i based most of my knowledge about rdm enfeebles on. lemme know what you guys think:RDM and YOU: Merit skills
I made this post over at BG earlier in, but I thought I'd share it with everyone else even if you're not a red mage, perhaps you can learn something. I was replying to someone who was inquiring about RDM merit builds.
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To each their own on their RDM builds, one person's merit category should not serve as the guideline for all others, but I'm quite sure you already had that in mind.
Personally I think from your setup of having
-3 Paralyze II
-3 Phalanx II
-4 Slow II
is very well rounded. You have 3 of the spells to work with and it completely relies on the teams and setups that your LS has for what they do (IE Fafnir, etc).
But [going off tangent for a second here on the topic of RDM MERIT LAYOUT] the way from what I see about RDM merits, most spells have a certain flaw or downside to it one way or the other.
Examples:
-Bio III - Highly useful for soloing, otherwise "OK" for PT situations. Requires capped out and 211+ Dark Magic skill to make the best use of it solo. Source
-Dia III - Temporary defense down, last same duration as Bio3 merits + 30 seconds each merit. The potency of it seems rather redundant to build full merits into it though, unless you are a pure "Zerg Preparation" RDM. Little is discussed about the topic of Dia III in terms of potency.
-Phalanx II - Very nice spell, as each additional merit you have, the damage reduced goes higher.
[Full section devoted to Phalanx]
The maximum enhancing magic RDM can get that I know of is:
Base 256 (non merited)
Warlock's Tights/+1 - Skill +15
Duelist's Gloves/+1 - Skill +15
Enhancing Torque - Skill + 7
Merciful Cape - Skill +5
Glamor Jupon - Skill +3
Enhancing Earring (skipping out on spelling the name) - Skill +3
Yinyang neckpiece - Skill +1
Total for: +49 skill
[305 Non-merited] [321 Merited]
So applying Phalanx II calculation:
Quote:
Dmg reduced = (Enhancing Magic Skill/25) + 1 + (3 * merit level)
[-28.2 Non-merited] [-28.84 Merited] Rounds out to -28 DMG reduced either way, unless you can get 4 more skill to a max of 325 MERITED for -29 damage reduced.
Let's assume a Vanilla RDM with just 1 Merit in Phalanx II, and the only Enhancing item they have is Tights. This would make their damage reduction @ [-14.84 non-merited]
Now with the new frenzy of Ascencion SCH going around, they can simply do Aoe Phalanx for:
Base 210 (non merited)
Enhancing Torque - Skill + 7
Merciful Cape - Skill +5
Glamor Jupon - Skill +3
Enhancing Earring (skipping out on spelling the name) - Skill +3
Yinyang neckpiece - Skill +1
Total for : +19 Skill
Phalanx I math:
Quote:
Dmg reduce = (Enhancing Magic Skill/10) - 2
Say it's a vanilla SCH with no +Enhance gear
[-19 Non-merited vanilla]
+19 Enh. Skill SCH
[-20.9 Non-merited]
+19 Enh. Skill + 16 merits
[-22.5 Fully merited, fully geared]
Note that I may have left out any new gear added by the later updates. But basically what I'm trying to say is a vanilla SCH will have a stronger Phalanx if the RDM cannot get 3 merits or higher. And last thing I want to add, is Phalanx IMO (my own opinion) works the best with Aegis PLD.
[End Phalanx hijack]
- Slow II -
Quote:
From Kirschy:
-Slow I caps at 29%ish
-Slow II /w 1 merit caps at 35%ish (including +MND build, otherwise 29% without reaching dMND)
-Slow II /w 2 merits caps at 35%ish (dMND)
-Slow II /w 3 merits caps at 37%ish (dMND)
-Carnage Elegy caps at 50%ish
-Battlefield Elegy is 25%ish /w +0 Instrument
-Battlefield Elegy is 31%ish /w +2 Instrument
Following are my additions from kirschy's math:
- Slow II w/ 4 merits caps out at ~37-39% (Unknown)
- Slow II w/ 5 merits caps out at 39%
Downside: After 3 merits, it may seem like a waste for some to go for 5 merits if they weren't striving to have the perfect RDM Slow.
- Paralyze II - much is still unknown about this topic, due to the test format is still under debate on how to do it.
Source- Blind II <> Kurayami: Ni = -30 accuracy Source (Fairly useless in my opinion vs the other spells available for merit)
And that pretty much sums up the full RDM Merit discussion, to each their own.