*Sobs* I want to get 75 WHM but I can't.

[Keavy]

39K exp is all that seperates me from 75 WHM and my first FFXI Achievement but damnit, everytime I go to play FFXI another game draws me away. Right now its Dead Rising. Killing zombies and saving people is too much fun. Oh, and then there's Obilvion and the knowledge that all I have to do is finish the Thieve's Guild quest (Waiting for GOTY version to come out to do Shivering Isles). Then SOTN and its "Beat the game as Richter" achievement call out to me and Geometry Wars...I know with enough practice I'll get super good at that game.

Its only gonna get worse. Bioshock, Blue Dragon, Halo 3, Eternal Sonata, Mass Effect. Thank god GTA IV has been delayed.

Why oh why must all these good games tear me away from FFXI? WHY?!? Oh, and then there's all the RL crap that keeps me from playing games period. Friends, jobs, girlfriends, family, etc. Damn them all!

Also, have any of you ever had this happen? You want to play but real life or other games keep you away?

[Finwich]

Oh hush up and level.

Besides, I have a new endgame ls if you're ever looking to try something new.

[Keavy]

Oh hush up and level.

Besides, I have a new endgame ls if you're ever looking to try something new.

I might check out Endgame someday *Stares off into the distance longingly*

[Kintrra]

lol, I have the opposite problem. I keep wanting to play other games, but I keep playing FFXI instead. I guess having the viewpoint that my other games will still be there when FFXI gets shut down is part of what keeps me goin.

[Shirai]

Heh, don't worry too much about that 39k exp.

One or two party in the mire and you get your level, probably with a decent buffer as well.
As Kintrra sais, the other games will be there.

I just alternate between games, tv, reading and ffxi.
Currently ninja is my new love so most of my time goes to that now.

[Fiye]

Sit that ass of yours, put that LFP sign up, and I guarentee within eight hours you will be 75.

Just stay away from Caedarva Mire. That place is hell unless you're in a DAMN good party. Mamool Jas do fine.

[Keavy]

I'll probably get to 75 this weekend. Now that I have the Real Mega Buster in Dead Rising I have no real desire to play it anymore (Made short work of the Psychopaths *Evil Grin*) and that's mainly due to the fact that to get the f***ing Real Mega Buster you have to do something that sounds like a ton of fun but is actually boring as hell: Kill 53,500 Zombies.

The only other game that may pull me away from FFXI is Hexic 2 but I have an easier time saying no to Arcade games then I do full retail games.

This holiday season I won't be doing much meriting or leveling of Red Mage, I can tell you that right now. Blue Dragon, Bioshock, Eternal Sonata, Halo 3, Beautiful Katamari, and Mass Effect will all be vying for my precious time. Oh, and there's also my friends and loved ones. Gotta give them attention, too I guess.

I don't know why, but when I played FFXI on PS2 I had an easier time devoting much of my free time to it. I only really stopped playing when FFXII came out. For some reason I find it harder to sit down and play on 360.

[Pheonixhawk]

Only 39k exp? Get yer lazy butt in a meripo party. They will take you. Just say you died and delved to 74 or something

[Keavy]

Only 39k exp? Get yer lazy butt in a meripo party. They will take you. Just say you died and delved to 74 or something

I had one Meripo that broke up after fifteen minutes because the Bard was a total moron at best. Kept pulling mobs even though we had 3-4 already queue'd up and wouldn't recast her Sleepga song on the queue'd ones. NIN had a hard time keeping up shadows because he was still in "I must tank" mode and that combined with the fact that I only ever got Ballad II once led to the party wiping with the Bard throwing a fit and leaving.

So I'd like to avoid Meripo and Bards if I can.

[Kintrra]

That was an isolated incident Keavy, I can assure you ( unless your server is really full of dumbasses, at which point....eh....jump servers? X.x).

[Fiye]

I had that happen today. Not only that, but we were also managing links.
But, its a rare occurence to be honest.

[Keavy]

That was an isolated incident Keavy, I can assure you ( unless your server is really full of dumbasses, at which point....eh....jump servers? X.x).

I know, I know but until I can dump some merits into increasing the HP that Regen renews and reducing Cure recast I don't want to do another Meripo like that again.

[Sugami]

You had 3 or 4 mobs hanging around? They were either bringing 2 at a time or you guys weren't killing fast enough

[Keavy]

You had 3 or 4 mobs hanging around? They were either bringing 2 at a time or you guys weren't killing fast enough

The Bard was casting songs on every bird in the area, bringing it back to camp, casting lullaby on it, then immediately ran out and got another one. IF we weren't killing them fast enough it was from a lack of stat-boosting songs from this Bard.

[Fiye]

That was an isolated incident Keavy, I can assure you ( unless your server is really full of dumbasses, at which point....eh....jump servers? X.x).

I know, I know but until I can dump some merits into increasing the HP that Regen renews and reducing Cure recast I don't want to do another Meripo like that again.

Um... Even with both of those spells maxed out. You'd still be assed out.

if you want to max out regen, might as well go all out and chase after that piece of WHM Relic that increases Regen as well. I think it boosts it by 2 or 3 points. I'd have to check ffxiclopedia for that though.

As far as cure recast goes... I find no use for it. If the melee can't put up Utsusemi with Haste active, better off letting the party dying. Better be in no party than a shitty one. (At least, as far as I'm concerned.)

[Shirai]

Um... Even with both of those spells maxed out. You'd still be assed out.

if you want to max out regen, might as well go all out and chase after that piece of WHM Relic that increases Regen as well. I think it boosts it by 2 or 3 points. I'd have to check ffxiclopedia for that though.

For exp with a Paladin tank maxed out regen is a blessing, you toss this on a tank every fight (even without the briault) and the paladin can basicly take care of himself.

On HNM/Gods this saves you quite a bit of MP over time.

As far as cure recast goes... I find no use for it. If the melee can't put up Utsusemi with Haste active, better off letting the party dying. Better be in no party than a shitty one. (At least, as far as I'm concerned.)

This however is not a merit for exp/merit parties but for actual endgame stuff,
I tend to agree with Fiye that if you can't keep up shadows during exp (it can happen that both timers are down keep that in mind Fiye, one does not controll a mob's movement and/or AoE's, 2 frenetic rips back to back can make a ninja go without shadows with more then 10 seconds left on their recasts.)
However many HNM have moves that either ignore or even completely wipe shadows.
Those most of the time can do up to 800 or more damage so a quick cure is very desirable here.

Mobs like Kirin and CoP Grand dragons (Wyrms) can do these back to back even.
And it happens a lot that the tank you're trying to save ends up dead because your cast isn't finished yet.

[Keavy]

It took nine hours thanks to a ton of Meripo parties camping on top of each other but...

White Mage 75 Achievement Unlocked!

The party I was in was exhausted when I was 3K away but they stuck with me until I dinged. 39 exp in lol. Tomorrow I'll look for another party (Meripo or Exp) and stay in EXP mode until I get at least a 10% buffer.

First on the Merit agenda is more MP. KEAVY NEED MORE MP!!! Then probably Regen, Cure, Pro/Shell V, and Enhancing/Enfeebling (For RDM)

[Shirai]

Congrats

[Keavy]

Congrats

Thanks

I gotta say, those 30 GS I got for 75WHM are the most satisfying I've ever earned in any game. Now, I want more!

Look out, FFXI. Here comes Keavy!

Honestly, though I think that break did me good. Right before I left to play Dead Rising all my LS mates were talking about were their BST and BLU level 75 achievements and what they were going to merit and there I was stuck either standing around in Aht Urghan with my flag up or getting yelled at because the Ninja died after five mobs decided to hit him with five critical hits while I was casting Cure V which hit one second after he hit the ground.

Now I feel renewed and our BST's are now BLU/BST who are playing it like BST with their static and talking about spells and our BLU's are either SAM's or RNG's discussing either their insane damage, debating bow vs. xbow, or talking about how their job is better than the other.

Its like a whole new game for me right now.

[ScarlettPheonix]

Congratulations!!!

...and Enhancing/Enfeebling (For RDM)

From a strictly RDM point of view, Enhancing Magic merits don't do much for us unless you plan on being an exclusively solo oriented RDM.

Stoneskin is easily maxed using the gear/food (both skill and MND) that's easily obtainable already.

With max'd skill and my AF tights Phalanx absorbs 25 damage. With full merits that jumps to 26. Its possible to get up to 27 damage absorbed with more gear, but I personally don't have enough space for that much gear.

Base en-spell damage is 18 unresisted, with full merits that increases to 19. You'd see similar (if not better) results from mob weakness, day of the week/weather bonuses honestly.

Base Barspell protection is 94- with full merits it'd go up to 97, but again that's a small difference in my opinion.*

Its usually recommended to merit Enfeebling and Elemental (now that we can do two ) since full elemental merits is a huuugggee increase to our nuking capabilities.

Again, that's just from my RDM point of view. A lot of players I know merit for more than one job, so do what will boost your jobs performances the best.

*I used this calculator for my numbers. Its pretty accurate and easy to use.

[Keavy]

I really don't want to dump a ton of merits into Healing magic since as a WHM I primarily use Regen spells to cure.

I'll do some more research before I decide what else to merit but I know for sure I want more MP merits, Pro/Shell V, and the one that increases Regen's HP.

[Okuza]

Regen is for XP. If you ever do any big hitters (sky gods and harder), regen is a pointless waste of time. It's all about Cure-V speed and efficiency there. If your tank isn't at 100% HP on things that can one-shot the tank, you're not doing a good job as a WHM. If you're regening a tank that's at 100%, your regen isn't doing anything.

'Course it also makes sense to hype the things you do the most as opposed to those you rarely or never do. I only mentioned the regen v. cure efficiency in case you have plans for end-game stuff AFTER you finish up with merits.

I really didn't want to randomly get merits and then have to redo them. So, I rated the ones by usefulness to me:

• Merits that help get more merits.
• Merits that help across many jobs.
• Merits that help level sub-jobs.
• Merits that help on capped BC’s.
• High value / low cost merits before high cost / low value.
• Merits for jobs that can’t get merits

After I rated them, I went out and focused on getting them in the order of my own ratings. The less time you want to spend getting XP for merits, the more important I think it is to plan them out all in advance.

For example, HP/MP merits really don't help hardly at all at level 75. However, they're HUGE for leveling sub-jobs. I had a ton of subs I wanted to level and still do, so I did 4/4 in HP/MP before I did a lot of other merits. I probably spent about 4-8H over a couple days reading up on merit effects and fiddling with my personal ratings before I decided what to do and in what order.

[Keavy]

Since I'm primarily a mage person I'm gonna stick with all MP+ Merits. An LS leader told me if I'm gonna do Pro/Shell V I need to go all the way or not even bother. Unlock then upgrade each twice then start using them.

He suggested not even bothering with Healing Magic since I still have my AF gloves and can use those in a pinch if needed. Right now I'm leaning more towards faster Cures. I had a few moments in my Meripo tonight where a faster Cure would have definitely helped. Might do half and half for now.

Once I get that stuff settled I'll work on more MP merits. Right now my only merit is in MP because I wanted it for my first.

[Fiye]

Oh yes.

FOR GODS SAKE KEAVY GET DEVOTION!!!

That Job Ability is THE SEX!

Edit: Also, a Tamas Ring would do you pretty nice.

[Okuza]

Hmm. I'd suggest making your own list and evaluations on all the merits you could get. BTW, I think Prot-V is worthless. It's only an extra 5-9 DEF over Prot-IV which translates to less than 1% improvement in damage reduction for a typical def-tank.

We have a whm with it and we don't even bother to swap him in for it before a fight anymore. He was all excited when he got it. We swapped him in for it a few times, but it's honestly not worth the 10-20s of swapping effort.

Can't say about Shell-V, though. We don't fight any magic-spammers. An extra 3% on MDB won't matter to us, but might to some.

Here's my take on what our shell would want from a WHM. We're semi end-game -- do lots of scheduled stuff, but ignore claim-fights: Cure:5 Martyr:3 Devotion:3 in pretty much that order.

WHM get lots of nice choices for merits. The only outright duds I see are Prot-V and Banish. I'm jealous. My NIN gets a big fat nothing from job-merits.

[Sugami]

What you talking about? You get all the elemental San spells, expending shadows for damage and cheapass trait

[Shirai]

Sange actually isn't that great as you aren't actually throwing your shadows.
Instead it throws the amount of throwing ammunition you have equiped on you in accordance with the number of shadows you have.

Let's say you have a fresh Utsusemi: Ni casted and have Shuriken in your ammo slot you will throw 5 (4 Shadows +1) Shuriken towards the mob when you use ranged attacks.
Which unless you want to invest in Shuriken (Which are almost never on AH on titan thus expensive as hell if you want decent stuff to throw.) and have throwing capped is probably extremely useless.

* Throws Ranged Attack ammo equal to the number of shadows remaining (+1) during next Ranged Attack with effect active.
* Throwing ammo must be equipped (includes Shuriken, darts, etc.). Does not work with chakrams or boomerangs.
* Damage of equipped ammo does matter.

Sauce: http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/Sange

The most useful merits I saw are Subtle Blow and Ninja tool expertise really....
And Subtle blow is mostly useful when you solo because in party/alliance situations there are other jobs feeding the mob TP anyway.

Elemental: san nukes... meh I don't think they are really worth it.

[Keavy]

Here's my take on what our shell would want from a WHM. We're semi end-game -- do lots of scheduled stuff, but ignore claim-fights: Cure:5 Martyr:3 Devotion:3 in pretty much that order.

OK now I'm confused. I've heard from other people that Martyr and Devotion are lol abilities due to the poor returns but then again, I do have close to 1K each of HP and MP so that would be, like, 250MP* and 500HP to a party member every 15 minutes.

*Probably gonna be more than that when fully merited. Still exhausted from Meripo last night and have work and my Meripo static after work Meripo = Virtual crack confirmed.

OK so taking what Okuza said in mind, that would mean: Cure 5, Regen 5, Martyr 3, Devotion 3, MP 8 would be my main focuses giving me -20% casting time on Cure spells, 25HP per tic on Regen III, and the ability to heal someone for ~500HP and up to ~250 MP every fifteen minutes. As cool looking as Pro and Shell V are, (Its like a cocoon of Protect and Shell!) I'd much rather be useful to my party and with those abilities I could save a Paladin near death whose also out of MP. Or give that MP to a BLM or RDM to assist with the nuking and untimely death of our foe.

OK, next up is my gear. Here's a link to my current setup but keep in mind that the MP they show is way off. In-game my MP is one point lower than my HP. http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/db/profile_e ... har=176686 There's one piece that is next on my list but I have to wait until some stuff sells to get it: http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?fitem=3125 which will be macroed in for healing. Other than that I really can't think of anything else that isn't either hard to get ahold of that I really really want *Cough*Hedgehog Bomb*Cough* or a +1 of a current piece of gear that's way overpriced for what bonus it offers. Yes, kids. Keavy refuses to spend 10-20x the NQ's price for an extra hMP or a few more MP.

Overall I think with your kind assistance and guidance I am ready for my life as a high-level White Mage. Once I get those 8 MP merits into WHM (Right after I get -20% Cure Casting time, +5 HP per tic Regen, 15 Minute recast Martyr and Devotion) I'll resume leveling RDM because after that much Meripo combined with the BCNM runs my LS wants to do I will have the kind of cash required to pimp my RDM out...in some very nice NQ gear (HQ rings when I can find them) and then when RDM hits Meripo I'll decide what job to level next. Probably BLU, DRK, or PLD. After that much time as a Mage I'll be looking for a Mage job that can inflict PAIN!

[Okuza]

I'd weigh them all individually if I were you -- including the general merits -- based on your own playstyle and intentions for endgame. The only hole I'd shoot in your original plan is to ditch Prot-V, since I don't see that being useful anywhere in game.

For you and from your comments, your original regen:5 sounded good. You plan on doing a lot of merit parties and regen is godly for xp'ing. It's only meh for HNM.

BTW, devotion and martyr come in really handy when you're doing a lot of stuff where you can't sit down much. Dynamis, hard BCs, some assaults, etc.. They don't do a whole lot for XP'ing. Same with Cure5. It's nice to cast quicker, but that's really not a need until you're doing HNM.

What you talking about? You get all the elemental San spells, expending shadows for damage and cheapass trait

Well, the San spells actually do LESS overall damage over time than the Ni spells because they take so much longer to cast. The only good thing about them is their debuff lasts a whole 2s longer than Ni. Typically what a NIN will do is eventually merit one San to 3 and one regular ninjutsu to 5. Then you can keep a -30 elemental debuff on the critter nearly full time so your BLM can go wild. It's something that only makes sense if you're in an HNM shell that has a lot of BLM and gets a lot of it's damage on many fights from one particular elemental type. Ice & Thunder are the popular ones. Still, it's a lot of merits to do something that really helps not at all for the vast majority of even HNM fights. You merit it because there's nothing else better to spend it on and your friends keep asking you to come merit with them.

Sange? It's utterly pointless. You need a TON of ranged acc/atk gear and ultra expensive shuriken for a mediocre DD burst every 15m. It basically doesn't work on HNM (misses too much or doesn't hit hard enough). Most NINs are already at 58/60 on gear. Carrying that much extra stuff and burning even more gil for a 15m DD burst on XP is a waste of effort.

Tool mastery is what NINs typically do first. It's the only one that actually helps a little. Koga+tools cuts NIN costs by ~50%.

Subtle blow is the other thing a NIN will typically max right after tool mastery, but it's another pointless merit you only do after everything else is fully capped. It's at most a 5% reduction in critter TP even when capped. It hardly matters even when you're solo. You certainly will never notice the effect and can't really even parse the difference. It's too small to measure.

[Sugami]

Sarcasm is lost on your people