Quick Merit Choices For Cat1

Looking for people's input on which category 1 to go with as well as what others have done for category 1

Personally i am thinking:
souleatter recast 5/5
last resort effect 5/5

This will keep my souleatter timer parallel to last resort as well as diabolic eye so it would sync up nicely.(this here is my strongest argument for those two above)

On the other hand i am thinking just lower last resort recast(instead of souleatter) for times when i got crap mage who just cant handle a souleatter WS and end up being more careful with souleatter usage. as well as gaining the slight atk speed bonus from desperate blows/atk boost slightly more often.(this is what is stopping me from picking the above set up)

each has pro and con every time i think it over and i'm just having trouble picking. Along with the upcoming lvls it has me more at a stand still with gaining more base hp and possibilities of new ja and spells, so looking for advice (and sadly i know of only 1 decent drk i was even able to ask in game)

thanks in advance~