WHM Merits

I dinged 75WHM on Sunday morning. Now comes the joy of merits.

What merits should I get and in what order? I think my biggest problem is going to be the non-job specific merits. So far the first DD job I'm leveling to 75 will be DNC (currently 52. BLM is 50.).

HP/MP:
I'm thinking all MP? I'm Elvaan so I think for most purposes I have a decent amount of HP.

Attributes:
I have no idea what do for this.

At the least I want to balance it between WHM and BLM. Also, if I decide to take SCH beyond 37 and up to 75, it would be in the equation as well. Though I think balancing WHM and BLM will take care of SCH. Maybe 3/5 MND 2/5 INT?

I don't see tossing anything out there for DNC that would benefit my WHM/BLM/SCH

Combat skills:

I'm holding off on this for now.

Magic skills:

This is another that I'm not sure about. Using gear to compare cures, I don't think healing magic is honestly worth it unless I was willing to put the max of 8 points into it (I know the group has 16 max). Again, difficult to balance WHM/BLM in my mind. I don't have near the BLM experience I need to make a decision on this yet.

Others:
Enmity Decrease - 4 points (max per item)

That leaves me with 4. I would either toss them in crit hit rate (for DNC) or spell interruption rate.

Job Specific:

Group 1 (max 10, 5/item):

Cure cast time - 5 points
Is regen the next best thing to put points in?

Group 2 (max 10, 5/item):
Protectra V
Shellra V
Martyr
Devotion

I obviously want all of those. That knocks out 4 points right there. How should I allocate the other 6?

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Priorities:

My LS told me to get Pro/Shell first. After that which merits should I focus on?

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If you see something wrong with something I've said, I don't mind you telling me so and stating why. Just don't be rude and unhelpful about it. The whole reason I'm posting this is to improve my ability as a WHM (while not putting myself in a bind when I level BLM / DNC).

- cure casting time obviously , it kinda a toss up on regan and bar spell lot end game stuff benefits from bar spell merits. But at same time regen merits can help cut down on mp use and leting u handle more stuff at once. Personally i rely heavily on regen when curing.

edit: also devotion comes in real handy at times shell5 from what im told is preferred over pro5.

I did cure cast time and regen merits.
some ppl do bar spells instead of the cure cast, but everyone usually does the regen merits. I like the regen merits, espcially with relic body.

Get cap shellera V.
Other than that, I did
Shellera V cap
devotion, martyr, protectra V one each >.>"
The rest I am thinking of putting in pro V so makes it 3 merits in it.

I never touch the enimity - and + stuff. In case i want to lvl a tank or something , dont want that messed up. I have max crit hit up, the other 4 I would do spell interruption rate.

devotion didnt seem worth it till had more merts in it . martyr maybe easy way to trigger med ring.

I was going to do -

5/5 Regen
5/5 -Cure Recast

1/5 Protectra V (I never saw +2 Def as a huge upgrade, especially when half the time the Pld is /Nin. Don't go with any more than 1 merit on this)
5/5 Shellra V (Super helpful)
4/5 Devotion

I didn't bother with Martyr.

As for basic merits:

Full +MP of course.
- Enmity and Crit rate for other jobs. (unless you plan on leveling Pld)
I wouldn't even bother with + Healing Magic, ever, unless Whm is literally your only job.

It depends what you use your WHM for, but a general purpose EG WHM should look something like:

Group 1 (HNM)
5/5 Regen
5/5 Bar spell

Group 1 (Event shell)
5/5 Regen
5/5 Cure cast

Group 2
5/5 Shellra V
3/5 Martyr
1/5 Devotion
1/5 Protectra V

Group 1
Regen is great. The most efficient way to cure some one in the game (sans SCH AOE)

Cure timer vs bar spell depends on what you do. With HNMs there is likely to be big magic attacks, so bar makes sense. In events like dynamis/limbus etc you are more likely to need to through out fast cures as the fight moves and changes.

Group 2
Protect V is cool, but defence isn't a realistic way to reduce damage against the high level mobs, unlock it, but don't waste points on upgrading it.

5/5 Shell is essential for all those working out their MDT builds (they aim for 25% and assume their WHM has enough merits to cover the other 25%)

Martyr and Devotion are pretty subjective, you can go 2 on each or 3 and 1 (either way). Your call based on how you play the job.

You're elvaan, so max MP for sure.

Attributes and combat skills can wait until you have dnc and blm at 75.

Magic skills, well elemental and enfeebling will do more for your blm than healing will do for your whm, so again, I'd probably wait on that, who knows, you might love whm and hate blm.

I would do enmity - only if you're sure you'll never need to tank on dnc or any other job, but it's not an overly expensive section, so you can always change it down the road if you level nin or pld (Any other job you could still get away with having -enmity in most cases). Then the other 4 I'd probably put into interruption rate, but again, that depends on your love for dnc.

Whm specific I'm definitely not the best source of info for, but I'll give my 2 cents anyway :p It's definitely a toss up between cure, bar spell and regen. Regen is great for your mp efficiency and overall party health, as you should know full well by now. Bar spell is excellent in a lot of situations, especially in end-game, but if your end-game shell already has a whm with fully merited barspells, then you won't have much use for it. Cure cast time on the other hand will help you get that cure V off just that tiny bit faster in order to save someones life. Good reaction speed and you can probably skip this one.

Martyr seems a bit silly to me honestly, if your tank drops to red HP I'd assume you want to spam a cure V at them asap without stopping to hit a ja first. And in this situation any other support jobs will probably be throwing cure III's and IV's his way too... so yeah <_<

As a blu, I love devotion, so even at 20 minute recast you'll find this comes in handy in those drawn out battles where everyones MP is running a little low.

And of course pro and shellra V you'll definitely want to a bare minimum of V. I'd probably cap out shellra over protectra, so you could go 1 devotion, 4 pro, 5 shell.

Anyway, I totally didn't help <_< good luck with your decisions :p

I know for sure Krizz won't be on the HNM scene, lol.

Clearing post until I can read the posts that were just posted

Well if that's true then:

5/5 Cure Cast Time
5/5 Regen
5/5 Shellra V
5/5 Devotion
4/4 Enmity Minus
8/8 MP

Why do you say that?

Oohhh totally misunderstood how martyr worked, as an elvaan you should definitely have at least 1 merit in that <_<

You are a casual player, atleast that's what you seem to be to me.
HNM is serious business - sitting in areas for hours, waiting for something to appear.

O.O Ack! I never thought of that! ~considers what I plan to merit now @.@~

I would say of all things Save Stats for latter, they take alot of merits and there's generaly little effect. Since you don't have BLM & SCH at 75 I would also say wait till you have them there, but when you do if you like both you may want to go 5/5 INT, MND isn't going to help your WHM Terribly much on cures(It will somewhat, although I think the INT really helps for the Nukes having seen what a Taru BLM with INT Merits does @.@, personaly I've not gotten to meriting that stuff)

on the same lines of that, if you like BLM & SCH Ele Skill and Enf Skill would be great for both. If you look at a Cure chart +16 Healing magic skill is only worth 3 points on your Cure formula(3 points doesn't mean it's 3 HP Higher either) and the Enf Skill would help your WHM Mostlikly if you debuff a bit

If you like DNC when you hit 75 Dagger merits are probably really good for you.

a Friend said to me that Prot V is kind'a worthless unless you put alot of merits into it, I'm kind'a agreeing with him on it having looked it up. I plan to do 5/5 Devo 5/5 Shell V @.@ But I'm not 100% sure, working on SCH Merits Atm anyway <.< slowly but surely.

Good luck with your WHMy stuff, try not to think about the other merits until you've finished them probably XD.

Yeah I can see a Galka or an Elvaan having some use for it.
But as a Taru, only time I run out of MP is if I don't have anyone to refresh me. And my shitty HP won't get much off anyway.

Appearances can be deceiving. I have no problem doing HNMs. The only problem I would have is if it conflicts with work.

well lot ths also depends on gear u have or can get like bar spell merits without relic pants and the body off ah is kinda a moot point, -cure with cure clogs or even rostrums/ laq earring . devotion is great specialy asumign u in the plds party for drawn out fights or kiting sometimes for blms and rdms to or even a 2nd whm who can trade back and forth devotion. rege about the only one that good all on its own.

Sneaky sneaky!
Well I recommend doing an average Whm's merits, then if you do indeed get into an HNM linkshell (I don't know how picky they are) then change your merits up. Group 1 merits are cheap so it's nothing that'll give a headache to get.

How is hate with martyr? With my current HP, I'd take ~250 damage and heal the person for ~500. How does the mob react?

Yeah, don't expect to see Iza doing much HNM stuff. She's the one without the patience to sit in one spot for very long.

Krizz would be in the HNM scene before I would be.

I'd cap Shell V, regen and cure recast. Factor in that you're an elvaan so if you plan on 75BLM then I'd cap INT and screw MND. If you really are serious about DNC then don't do either one. Cap Devotion, unlock Martyr and the rest is up to you.

I couldn't do it.
I can't bot anyway so I really can't D:

* 25% of the user's current HP is taken as "damage" upon use. The amount is then doubled and granted to the target.

* Stoneskin may be used to absorb damage the user takes, with no penalty to amount healed.
* If user's current HP is less than 4, it will have no effect.

* The maximum recast reduction through merits is 0:10:00.
* Handy as an emergency "Cure" when spellcasting is not possible/advisable, such as when silenced, or in environments with magic aggro.
* HP restored with this ability counts toward building a charge for Afflatus Solace.

Was there a point to this post? I have wiki up right now on that page as well.

They didn't know you have wiki up and just providing the benefits of martyr.

All I wanna know is how if affects hate.

It shouldn't be that much.
Even then, I seldomly got hate after full blessed/merits and as long as the Pld is something worthwhile.

Check the discussion tab on martyr. Someone usually adds stuff like that. I'd say it's minimum hate if anything. Would be stupid to add high enm that benediction already gives.

Im surprised at the amount of "regen 5/5" before everybody was like "lolregenmerits" regen merits are great for that first floor in salvage man. Cast regen3 and rest, that was my main reason for doing it.

I split it up between cure cast time, barspells, regen and I might have a divine seal recast...I forget.

I unlocked everything in group 2, then put the rest in shellra and devotion.

I think Id unlock ShellV first and then maybe devotion. Protect really isnt all that important :P you could save a persons life with martyr even before proV is useful.