BLM Merits

Is Ancient Magic II still worth it? And if it is which ones do you prefer? just wondering before i invest my merit points into them. Thank you.

Yes. Freeze II. But then again I have Atma of the beyond.

Also even though wiki doesn't list it I think they can trigger... I know I've trigger on T2agas and they don't list that so yeah.

I went ahead and kept my 5/5 Burst2 and Freeze2 merits. I think it's safe to say that we'll have Fire5 (at least) with the next update. That will give us a Tier4 and a Tier5/AM2 nuke for each element, which is useful when nuking is restricted to a particular element (or elements).

At 99, it's possible, although I believe it unlikely, that fully merited Burst2 and Freeze2 spells might still prove useful specifically when hitting magic bursts. This is just a guess on my part. If I'm wrong, it won't matter. It's trivial to rework AM2 merits, and at 99, they might not even matter anyways.

3 Burst, 3 Freeze, I unlocked the rest with 1 merit upgrade each.

I know we're getting Tier V's but I like having options. I like having another spell with which I can nuke and do dmg while waiting on the cooldown timer for another but that's just me.

Besides each addtional merit upgrade only 1) Raises the MAC of that AMII and 2) adds MB dmg.

With rise of elemental skill with level cap raise and new gears, I'm not worried about resist rate. As for MB dmg, SE still hasn't made enough changes to make it worthwhile to SC + MB. Not that many still playing have the talent and skill to pull it off, where it's worth the headache of implementing/ waiting on. As is, most BLM's just free nuke anyways so whatever bonus from extra merits is just wasted/ underutilized.

Anywho just my opinion...

I did 5/5 freeze and burst 2.Other AM are pretty worthless and merit spells doesnt trigger Grellow !! so ;p

It's not always about triggering Yellow. *wink* (srsly it's tomatoe/ tomato... we both know what we're doing here)

My point was about raw dmg, every spell has a use and the bonuses you get for 5/5 are no great shakes.

Seriously with a straight face do you really need 5/5 on either of those spells to land full dmg? Do you really take the time to setup/ execute SC + MB with those spells to take advantage of the dmg boost from 5/5? If you do, then good call but I'd be dubious of anyone claiming yes...

Seriously, the MM atma make conserving MP pointless. Just turn on the hose at let it loose! My lowman group Takes down Ulhuadshi with just me and 1 other BLM. I like that I can deploy Aero V > Tornado II > Tornado > Aeroga III> Aero IV > Aero III. If wind is one of the proc days, I've got my bases covered and I've kicked his ***. Plus I've got options for dmg as I wait on cooldown timers.

Granted I have to be careful with hate, but there's ways around that.

actually i tried just for the fun of it: lowered burst II to 0 again and got Flare II up. didnt really bring anything more. thought maybe freeze II lowering resistance to fire based magic brings a lot more. nope better stay with Burst II and Freeze II

I put one merit in each AM2 because I'm a sucker for having that full spell list -.- then I put Freeze/Burst at 3/5

It's still worth it. Since MP isn't really a problem you can get high numbers with it. Especially MBs if you have a SAM. That's pure fun. I have Freeze,Burst and Tornado unlocked. Rest isn't worth it imo.

Cat.2 would depend on a few things. What you merited in cat.1 for potency and if you do endgame events/still. I think the majority of BLM's that merited FreezeII and BurstII 5/5 also merited Ice and Thunder potency to 5/5 in cat.1. I also would imagine they initially did this for events like Dynamis where 1 shot kills are needed in situations.

In about 10 levels(which will be very soon) having FreezeII and BurstII @5/5 each will have very little use with Thunder5 and Blizzard5 incoming. Thunder5 and Blizzard5 will out damage BurstII and FreezeII even with 5/5 potency in cat.1 and 5/5 cat.2 and will cost less mps to do so. So this will make meriting cat.1 & 2 the way Malekith suggests above all the more useful. Then at least you have all elements covered during fights(cause some mobs are ice and thunder based :P) and more big damage spells available to ease the timer situation.

Having said all that. If I hadn't merited category 2 yet I would just wait to touch it until we are at level 99 to see what the new merits are going to do. Cause SE is either going to make Ancient Magic II spells completely and utterly worthless like they did with the tier 1's, or they're going to give them a boost. My money honestly is on the first option. (It's SE after all). I would definitely merit category 1 to 10/10 though @99 even if cat.2 proves to become completely pointless. Category 1 covers all damage spells of each element type so that's never going to become worthless. If you don't want to wait that long definitely go 10/10 in cat.1 before you touch cat.2 imo. GL

5/5 Freeze II, 5/5 Burst II, Ice and lightning potency capped. I split merits between enfeeb and elemental 4/8 each. 5/5 Int merits, -enmity capped, mp capped.

I really doubt that thunder 5 and blizzard 5 will cost less than AM2 when Aero 5 almost costs the same already. If you merit Am2 then it's only good if u get max 2 of them to cap them. Magic bursts are still good.

1 merit to each AM2 and 3/5 to freeze II and Burst II, just for the sake of having all spells and thunder and ice potency capped plus enfeebling and elemental magic skill capped. It's not like maxing merits is hard any more...

Granted BLM is my only mage job so no real need to ponder about magic merits.

AM2 is more like a 2nd set of Tier V spells, nice to have when waiting on recast. (Lucky you FinalVegeta if you got someone to still bother with SC.)

I guess they're still useful as a back up spell...but don't forget they cost more to cast than a V and their recast timer is a lot worse as well....If a bigger spell list is what your looking for though id do what I did on one of my two blms (other being the obvious ice and thdr), and merit fire potency along with ice, obviously your thunder V/IV wont be as strong as others but you'll have a third spell worth casting, which can also help in relation to the wide variety of mobs you can or will fight.

I used Tornado II trioing ulduashi yesterday, because the recast on Aero V wasn't up~

It was fun!