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

[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

[Shirai]

About whm merits:
Merit what you think is best for the way you use whm.
We can all say merit this and merit that!
But in the end it's all suggestions and it might not fit the way you play the job in accordance to how we play it.
Everyone plays the job with a different approach.

A thing I can suggest is, start using different macro bars for different situations.
Healing during merit parties can work differently then healing during (H)NM fights.
I also suggest to take a look at swapping gear for several spells, like on Cure V and Stoneskin I like to stock up on MND gear because MND has a great effect on these.
On Bar-spells I equip in my Cleric's Duckbils for the +10 enhancing magic.
(Which equals +2 resist to bar spells, it's not that much but still +2 extra resistance.)
(Cleric's pantaloons too eventually when I get those (+20 resistance to elemental bar-spells))
For regular cures and casts I slip into my fast cast gear. (Rostrum pumps and Loquacious earring.)

Back to merits:
Devotion and Martyr:
Good abilities to have, Devotion helps greatly when your fellow mage is getting low on MP, for example the rdm gets low and the convert timer isn't up yet, Bam!! Devotion and your RDM can last an extra fight or 3/4.
During (H)NM and endurance fights you usually share the healing tasks with another whm, devotion helps amazingly when you switch healing tasks.
(As in one whm heals one rests.)

Martyr is very handy in a pinch, tank hit by a damaging move and you need a cure faster then you can cast, Martyr can be a good lifesaver as it can be as potent as a Cure IV or higher with minimal hate also it's instant where you have a casting delay on cures.

The best part about these abilities, stoneskin absorbs the HP drain!
However you do need full HP to get max benefit out of them as it's 25% of your current HP converted.
(Martyr turns 25% of your current HP into a cure that doubles this number.)

Protectra V, I merited it but as others said it is kinda meh, the animation is pretty cool tho.
Shellra V, might be handy to merit as a lot of endgame mobs like to use magic based damage, the extra MDEF will certainly prove useful.
Also in stuff like Dynamis during a nin's Mijin Gakure.

As for group one:
Decide yourself which suits your playstyle best.

Gear:
Some good gear which isn't too hard to attain:
The Blessed set is a good starter set for whm.
Noble's tunic isn't as expensive anymore as it used to be, if it still is there are several ENM you can do every week if you have a few good friends who are willing to go with you.
An easy one is in Attohwa chasm called Like the wind, a 3 preson ENM that can drop Maneater.
Rostrum pumps:
If you can get a group together with a little experience on this NM these are very good boots.
The fast cast isn't that notable but still enough to make a small differense.
Templar Mace:
Drops from an NM in arrapago reef, or you can buy it on AH.
Either way with this you can equip a shield for extra defense.

[Keavy]

Right now with WHM Merits I want what's useful and I don't want to waste them getting stuff I later have to remove.

I haven't gone to an endgame shell yet because every one on my server that I've checked into requires that you have at least 2 level 75 jobs, which is a problem for me, as you can see. If I force myself to play every night and all weekend every weekend I could probably get WHM fully merited and RDM up to 75 and start meriting it by Halloween.

Even though I can be a total bitch I do have a good reputation for sticking it out with parties and more often than not I'm there when they start and leave when they break.

If I could find an endgame shell on my server that would let me join on a probation period to let me see if its something I enjoy that would be great. I just don't want to join an endgame shell, find that I hate it, then have them get mad at me for leaving because they'd planned on me being there for a while.

As for Rostrum Pumps I got the pop item for free from an LS mate. I PL'd his BLU after his dunes party left him 1K to 20 and kept him alive while learning some spells so he gave it to me as a reward.

So if anyone on Phoenix *Cough*Finwich*Cough* knows of an endgame LS that's willing to take me on for a probationary period let me know and I'll give it a shot.

[ScarlettPheonix]

Daaa-yyaamn, your endgame shells are picky. Even the most hated and arrogant HNM shell on my server doesn't require that to join

Take your time getting into end-game, there's no real need to dive right in.

You might want to look around a bit more and find a shell that's newer too. It sounds like most of the ones you've looked at have been established for some time, a newer shell or one just starting out would be more willing to take single jobs and more lenient towards any mistakes while you're learning the ropes I'd think.

Still, take the time to enjoy being 75, get a buffer/some merits and do some crazy WHM stuff