WHM Merits

On the pro/shell side, I definitely understand why shellra V is more important. Looking at the stat increase it's more worth it by a long shot.

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

I think that'll work for group 2.

Protectra IV: 65mp - 55 def
Protectra V: 84mp - 60 def (70 is 5/5)

Simply a waste. As for martyr, in 2+ years of doing everything from loldynamis to kings and wyrms, I've never seen one serious WHM use it. 5/5 on both devotion and shellra is where the smart money is.

As for regen vs. barspell, it's really a matter of preference. Barspell is really only going to shine in usefulness if you fight things that require it on a regular basis, and the only such things that come to mind are wyrms, some temenos zones and other various NMs.

Not going to lie - I got Protectra V because I wanted the shiney buff.

lol i've heard other whms make this same statment.

just had a thought about martyr it could screw up your subligation on /sch if u have use t for some reason while charging. would mostly liky shut off the charging.

Yeah but the damage received is absorbed by stoneskin, with 1k max HP, that's 250 damage, you'll still have 100 left on your stoneskin. And if you've just taken a beating from aoe or whatever, that's broken your stoneskin, then you probably won't be at max HP and aren't going to want to use it anyway I guess.

I'm not going to say I know how sublimation works, but how would it 'shut it off'? the only time I see this happening is if you drop below 50% HP. In that case I would keep myself cured up and/or stoneskin up prior to martyr.

I won't be /sch for a while.

Edit: And what Blazza said.

oh i still say whm needs a shed enemity ja... or better yet transfer enemity!! be like thf but in reverse send your enemity to the pld or to that annoying person in the party...

All I'm going to say is - out of my one year of being Whm - not once have I ever said to myself "Damn, I really wish I had Martyr right now."

I've been WHM since NA PS2 release (don't let my level progression fool you). I have had several instances where I can look back and say that it would've helped. Now don't get me wrong, devotion probably would've prevented several of those situations. Just saying.

I believe sublimination goes off current HP rather than max HP, so not only does it shut-off if you get below 50%, if at any stage while it's on you get down to 51% it'll take that amount of HP as your upper limit, and your MP return will be based on that. So for best sublimination you want to MAINTAIN as high HP as you possibly can.

(I could sooo be wrong on that, but pretty sure that's how it was explained to me <_<)

my sub does around 270-300 300 is if im purposely doing it with max hp and hp gear.

Wiki says it caps at 25% of your max HP (not current) or if your HP drops below 50%. If you have SS up then I don't see it dropping you below the 50% mark either way. Worst case you get hit by something that wipes SS. In that case I would SS back up before using martyr. Either way it would be a sucky situation.

I mean as a 75 Whm. MP in the endgame scene is much easier, since you will generally have a Brd, Cor, or Rdm refreshing you at all times. Unless they toss you in the full DD party - then prepare to cry.

Does /SCH give more HP than /BLM? If it's about the same then I would get ~250 back right now. I have -65 HP worth in gear.

ud have read the info on wiki theres a ton of it for subli

also theres a reason why sch gets regan 2 at a lower level and no stoneskin at all...

True. I know for Dyna I'm usually in the random DD party. I don't blame them since I started Dyna at ~69 and I'm the weakest out of the WHMs. Aside from occasionally having a DNC I'm on my own. Of course that PT doesn't take as much damage (cept for the damn SAMs that make me flip when they are suddenly 2-shotted) so I'm usually good on MP.

As long as you have a nice +hMP set, you'll be good. If you do get Martyr, be sure to get it later/last.

sorry think i have to clarify ,i meant if im going into something that i have time to fully charge subi first. i'll get my max hp high as can go to charge it.

The 25% also applies to armor with +HP. For instance, Gigant Mantle has +80HP, 25% of 80 = 20MP from charging. (intensfying good for this the 30mp/hp one)

Tier 1 -

5/5 Regen (10/tick for 15 MP = Amazing!, 25/tick for Regen III on tanks is equally amazing!)

Split the rest between Barspells/MDB and Cure Cast Time.

If you do a LOT of endgame/HNM on WHM, I recommend more Barspell/MDB and less CCT.

Tier 2 -

I think you're pretty much on track.

5/5 Shellra V
3/5 Devotion (increase to 4 or 5 if you can live without Martyr or Pro 5)
1/5 Protectra V (None is really fine, but it feels good to have tier 5)
1/5 Martyr

Afterthoughts:

In order to get the most out of your Devotion and Martyr, you really want to look into a Max HP setup. Being able to push 350 MP instead of 200 MP is a big difference. With meritted Regen, usually you can cast Regen II on yourself and swap into HP gear, and you'll be ready to push in short order.

You should see the recast timers and be able to plan it out accordingly fairly well. Having Devotion meritted down a fair amount is really helpful, especially if you do things where that may be the difference between 2-4 of them and 1-2 of them, and especially in Dynamis.

Also, make sure you communicate with your intended Devotion targets. If you have, say, two RDM/PLDs tanking JoL, you don't want to push the MP to the one closest to having Convert up, you want to hit the other one. Likewise, a PLD might be clinging to that last bit of MP, so if you're about to push them a full load, let em know it's safe to spend it all.

I really wanna upgrade my hmp set from full yigit, but since I actually use three of the pieces quite a lot, I don't know how my poor inventory will take it ; ;

Ive used martyr in nyzul mostly. We've gotten "no whitemagic" several times and once on a boss floor.

I've used it in salvage also on unlucky boss runs where Im low on mp.

Ouch. I bet that wasn't a very fun boss. I just did Nyzul Friday for the first time. Worst we got was no-JAs.

You know, I just thought of it...why isn't "Cure Potency" a merit. >.>;

Because SE hates us.

I agree with this for the most part.

If you're not fighting HNM's or Ultima, you don't really need the Bar Spell merits and can go Cure Cast time instead. Remember, the Bar spell merits gives an added overall Magic Defense Bonus +2 for each level for a max of +10 when it's at lvl 5. This is GREAT for Ninja Mijin Gakure in Dyna as well.

Shellra V is similar to your Bar Spell merit. It's very situational and only useful on big HNM's or Ultima with a 'semi-usefulness' in Dynamis. Shellra V going from lvl 1 to 5 isn't THAT big of an increase tbh. You get ~24.2% with lvl 1 Shellra V and ~27.34% with lvl 5 Shellra V. If you're taking a 1000 dmg hit, you're going to take 758 dmg w/ lvl 1 Shellra V and 727 dmg w/ lvl 5 Shellra V. That's a difference of a whopping 31 dmg for a 1000 dmg hit. If you really want to max it, go for it. It's not going to be a huge difference that you'll notice though.

Protectra V is similar as well. You get 60 defense with lvl 1 and 68 defense with lvl 5. Get lvl 1, don't really worry about maxing it.

I do agree that Regen is very useful and maxing it is a good idea.

As for the Devotion/Martyr merits... I'd unlock both first and decide later how each of them impacts your play style / events you do.

For general merits... I wouldn't bother throwing anything in Mnd unless you're Rdm and focus primarily on enfeebling with Para/Slow/Silence/etc. A couple extra Mnd will NOT be useful on your Whm. If you do lvl Blm and Sch to 75, maxing your Int will be MUCH more valuable.

Looks like you're primarily focusing on jobs that could benefit from Enmity -, so that would be a good idea.

I'd stay away from the Combat / Magic skills until you have other jobs that can use them. Whm doesn't really benefit from them.

Because if it were a merit all Whm's would have it maxed at 5% along with Regen at 5hp/tic. Then you'd have people choosing Whm over other mages for healing! /gasp!

We got no White Magic and no Ninjutsu on same floor, F80 Cerberus... Yeah, that's pretty brutal. We managed to get it down to about 15% even with that happening. our BLU had to change spell-set and try to do what she could to keep people alive.

Better question...

Why isn't it the following?

HP, MP, hHP, hMP

8 Max, 12or 16 Total

I'd totally take 8 hMP merits even if that was the only option. 8 hMP fulltime would be so much more amazing than 80 MP.

Imma little late to the game on this but here goes anyway..

I am elvaan too so I did 8/8 MP and I've never looked back.

you said something about 3/5 and 2/5 int personally that is a waste. I guess you can go for a complete MND+ for whm but being elvaan and thinking of doing blm save these merits for 5/5 Int, in the end you will benefit from 2 more int than 3 more mnd(imo of course)

Cat1:
I can see why ppl do Regen after all with af2 body it can be way nice. I did..
5/5 Cure Cast
5/5 Barspell-Having barspell maxed with af2 legs is crazy for lots of stuff. I wouldn't do it any other way, and for some things like Kirin, KS99, KB, Faf and lot of other things having maxed barspell will make it so much easier on the group.

Cat2
I mixed it up alot and ppl will question me for this..I did
5/5 Devotion
3/5 Shellra
1/5 Protect
1/5 Martyr

The reason I picked Devotion over shell is at the time I was in the tank Pt with rdm/nin's alot and a 10 min Devotion is amazing. I've thought about changing it back but it's so incredibly nice for ZNM, Sea, Sky, Assaults and expecially Nyzul Isle runs..Right now if I was going to change anything I'd drop Martyr for 1 more shell but I like having Martyr for emergency situations.