Red Mage Merits II

So, I've been looking through them and still unsure which would be ideal. I'd guess it would depend on preference still, but would like some insight. At the moment I have 5/5 on Slow II 1/5 on the rest. Any good reason why to change it around to others?

Literally preference, as far as phalanx 2 goes, if you aren't fcing it at 5/5, dont bother with it, phalanx is much better, if you dont have the gil it should be fine for the time being (again depending on preference)

Since rdm now is pretty much useless, I'm 5/5 Dia III and 5/5 Phalanx II. Meh. Which reminds me, I need to change those group 1 merits too actually, earth maacc for my no longer merited Slow II is rather pointless.

Break, duh.

Yes as Blind II / Bio III are no longer Voidwatch procs you can remove them completely from your list. Phalanx II is a waste, you'll be /SCH for anything your doing so accession phalanx 1 is better. Leaves you with

Slow II
Para II
Dia III

The only one that is significantly more potent then it's for-bearer is Dia III being a 5.9% increase in attack gain.

Personally I went 5/5 Dia III 3/5 Para II 2/5 Slow II. Seriously debating removing the slow II merits for more Para II. At 5/5 Dia III should last the entire fight and never need recasting which leaves saboteur open to be used with Slow II / Para II.

This is of course assuming RDM is actually useful in fights, which I rarely find to be true.

i have one for every spell 3 para 2 slow but will prolly update to 5/5 slow and para

Very very bad idea. Put at least 2 in Dia III so you can get 60s out of it. If SE ever makes RDM viable again, one of the most important debuffs you can throw out is Dia III. It stacks with all other forms of defense down and is the highest form of Dia you can get.

Defense down scales similar to haste, the more you have the more potent each additional amount becomes, until you hit Ratio cap.

Ex:

10% Dia is (100/90) = 1.1111 (11.11%) increase in attack
15% Dia is (100/85) = 1.1764 (17.64%) increase in attack
20% Defense down (Agnon) is (100/80) = 1.25 (25%) increase in attack

Agnon + Dia II = 30% Defense down (100/70) = 1.4285 (42.85%) increase in attack.
Agnon + Dia III = 35% Defense down (100/65) = 1.5384 (53.85%) increase in attack.
Augmented Agnon + Dia III = 40% Defense down (100/60) = 1.6666 (66.66%) increase in attack.

Going from Dia II to Dia III is anywhere from 6.53% to 12.81% increase in attack power.

None of the other merits get anywhere close to doing what Dia III can do. Unresistable increase in the attack power of the entire alliance, including pets and all Blue Magic. A RDM without Dia III is like a Bard without Minuet.

Dia III is a must for sure.

5/5 Paralyze

1/5 Slow

4/5 Dia

Putting merits into anything other than those three is silly, barring extremely specific circumstances.

3 Dia
1 Slow/Para
5 Phalanx

Most I would do is drop slow/para, it's not like either is being used in the first place (or rdm).

I have 5/5 Bio3, 2 Dia3, 2 Slow2, and 1 Para2. These decisions are based on a few decisions from now and from a while ago.

5/5 Bio3 is pretty much because I primarily see RDM as a solo toy for older content and weaker, still gravity-able newer content where the increased DoT will matter. Plus, the Initial damage from Bio3 is relatively decent for the MP spent.

2 merits in Dia3 is enough for the duration. MP isn't an issue, recasting Dia3 once a minute is not a problem. For a zerg fight you probably aren't even recasting it.

I haven't seen a need to do more than unlock para2. Especially with Sabateur. I do like having it though, nothing like a killer paralyze hit to wreck a mob and even having that happen 50% of the time is enough to justify it for me.

two merits in slow2 is lackluster I realize, but with having so much MND gear now I just don't feel the need to max it to 5/5. This also goes to back in the day when two other RDMs in my shell went 5/5 in slow2 so there was no need for me to do so. At that time my merits were spread to 2 bio3, 2 dia3, 2 slow2, 1 para2, 3 phalanx2. This was prior to plds getting phalanx (and PLDs mattered in endgame). My merits were a complete jumble, and really resembled more of an ADD approach.

I'm happy with where they are now. I see no need to extend dia3 any more, in fact I may drop it to one merit as again, MP is so little of a concern I really wouldn't care if it only lasted 30 seconds (extra merits only affecting duration, not potency) and then adding another to para or slow if I did anything. Bio3 isn't going anywhere though. That's the one thing I'm 100% sure of.


edit:

oh, and earth macc merits were always ridiculous. Convert recast and then ice or wind was standard, I could see thunder these days, but never earth.

Is it confirmed that all Para/Slow/Blind merits do is give you 'bonus MND/INT' for the respective spells? Or do they directly increase the potency? Like if you were already near or at the dMND and dINT cap for those spells, there's be no difference between 5/5 slow2 and 1/5 slow2 right?