DRG Merits, Help?

I ust recently got DRG to 75. And I dont know how to distribute my merits in the groups. I currently have "High Jump Recast" 1/5 and "Angon" 1/5. I was wondering what were some good combinations for it.

I don't have DRG at 75.

At a guess I would put 5/5 Jump and 5/5 High Jump for group 1, then 5/5 Angon and 5/5 Strafe for group 2.

Deep Breathing is nice to have.

He went to bed, Ill let him know. But he was wondering if strafe was only on offensive breaths or both offensive and defensive.

Most likely only offensive. I'm not DRG myself, so I'm guessing based off the description

He was curious, since the Saurian helm says wyvern breath attacks, and the merit abbilty says breaths. But thanks for the replies.

Like I said, I was only guessing.

The description of the Job Trait refers to the Accuracy of the breath, and defensive breaths can't be resisted.

http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Strafe

"Effect: Decreases the chance that your wyvern's breath attacks will be resisted."

I guess?

Yeah, He's read about it, And was still unsure.

i like how people just start posting answers whether they know anything or not. cute forum

Just trying to help until the experts rock up ^^

depends on play style. if he plans to solo a lot, spirit link and deep breathing. angon is considered a must, but again it depends on what he likes. oh wow and you guys are from the same server as me, just hit me up with a /t whenever i'm on.

If you're a solo DRG I would definitely go with 5/5 Deep Breathing. With a Saurian Helm (or even better DRG Relic helm) you can easily reach 600+ Healing Breaths whenever you can use it. I would also go with Angon 5/5 as well...works nicely on Endgame things, HNMs, Gods, Salvage bosses, etc. Especially when it's fully merited and lasts a decent amount of time. I don't find Empathy and Strafe are anywhere near as useful as DB and Angon. As for the first group, Jump and high jump are very awesome abilities for quick TP gain so I would merit those 5/5, or depending your preference maybe Spirit Link recast instead of High Jump recast (I wouldn't tho). Arcane Circle and Super Jump recasts aren't worth it imo.

people with top rate gear merit super jump and high jump fully (and make full use of these abilities). i would work on jump and high jump, though.. generally i think it's best to capitalize on two sorts of jumps, anyways. jump ALMOST feels like it comes around enough at 5/5.

i've heard of strafe being used to great effect- and i've also heard of it never paying off without it being fully merit'd, so that's a problem.

angon is one of the most fantastic abilities you have, 3/5 would be a prudent minimum.

deep breathing would indeed be good to have unlocked. i actually put a merit into empathy because i enjoy giving my wyvern max hp boost (for enhanced healing breath) when i can.

though the MOST important thing you can start to merit as a newly 75 dragoon is polearm, 8 times exactly. moreover, you will want 4/4 critical hit.

angon 5/5 is a waste, go 3/5 on that. if you do any endgame empathy is nice to give wyvern pro and shell lets face it 3 aoe in any dyna will almost wipe your bird. spirit link also nice to merit to get that timer down. high jump so you can get rid of a little hate a little sooner. polearm 8/8 crit hit 4/4 if you solo max your mp merits and really the rest is up to you

5/5 Jump + H Jump
5/5 Deep Breathing
3/5 Angon
2/5 Empathy

Here is what I plan to do... eventually...

HP/MP
HP 8/8
(Very useful for higher healing breath trigger and not being dead.)
MP 0/8
(You might consider tossing a few in here, but auto-refresh from Sanction/Sigil or FoV book should keep you supplied with all the MP you need.)

Attributes
STR 5/5 (You are a DD this is a must.)
DEX 0/5 (If you are considering this, get STR.)
VIT 0/5 (Read comment for DEX.)
AGI 0/5 (Same as VIT.)
INT 0/5 (NO +1)
MND 0/5 (NO)
CHR 0/5 (LOL)

Combat Skills
Polearm 8/8 (DO THIS FIRST!)
Other Weapons 0/8 (You mean there are "Other Weapons"? Why has noone told me about this?)

Guard 0/4 (You aren't a MNK.)
Evasion 4/4 (If you feel like it.)
Shield 0/4 (What's that?)
Parrying 4/4 (Kinda like Evasion.)

Magic Skills
LOL (8/8) (Everyone could use a good laugh.)
ROFL (8/8) (See LOL.)

Other (Okay back to being "serious.")
Enmity Increase 0/4
(DRG has no problem getting hate on its own thank you.)
Enmity Decrease 0/4
(With High Jump and Super Jump, DRG does not need this as much as other DD's.)
Critical Hit Rate 4/4
(This will help to increase the damage you deal.)
Enemy Critical Hit Rate 0/4
(You might consider this instead of Spell Interruption Rate. It stinks to get hit with a Crit. Hit when trying to do a Healing Breath, and you die before it goes off.)
Spell Interruption Rate 4/4
(This will greatly increase your safety while soloing, and will reduce the chance that your Healing Breath triggers will get interrupted {often resulting in death}.)

DRAGOON

Group 1
Ancient Circle Recast 0/5
(Worthless.)
Jump Recast 5/5
(I love this move. Oh yeah, and it will increase your damage output and TP gain.)
High Jump Recast 5/5
(Same as Jump Recast, but with the added benefit of hate mitigation.)
Super Jump Recast 0/5
(Would be nice, but you really should not be needing it this often.)
Spirit Link 0/5
(You should be taking better care of your wyvern.)

Group 2
Deep Breathing 5/5
(Elemental Seal and Divine Seal wrapped up into one for your wyvern.)
Angon 5/5
(GET THIS! {at least 1} No excuses. No other job can do something this awesome. 20% Def Down for 30 secs at 1/5 or 90 secs at 5/5.)
Empathy 0/5
(You look at it and think, "Oh, that's nice," but it requires constant reapplication of Spirit Link which is inadvisable in solo, and you may get WHM hate in parties.)
Strafe 0/5
(Pretty worthless. Deep Breathing is better.)

Recommended Order:
1. Angon At least 1
2. Polearm All 8
3. Critical Hit Rate All 4
4. Angon Finish getting all that you want.
5. Make sure you did 1-4 before advancing.
6. STR and HP Finish these off. (In this order preferably.)
7. Jump Recast and High Jump Recast
8. Anything else that was mentioned.

I hope this is helpful. It was formed mostly by experience, partly by research. This is by no means the best set-up out there (there is no such thing), but I feel that it is the ideal for solo, party, and end-game. Feel free to modify it however you wish. Have fun!

All these DRG questions lately...

Combat Skill
Polearm 8/8

Group 2
Angon at least 3/5
Empathy at least 1/5 - (ever Empathy'd a Giant's Drink or Body Boost before?)
Deep Breathing at least 4/5

Group 1
High Jump 5/5
Super Jump 5/5

Attributes
STR 5/5

Other
Crit 4/4
Enemy Crit 4/4

Order
Unlock Angon & Deep Breathing > Polearm Skill > Crit > Finish Group 2's > Attributes > Enemy Crit = Group 1's = HP

Personal preference comes into play with the Group 2's. I wouldn't deviate from the others however.

spell interruption rate merits: wasted time. lern2trigger. the same goes for HP merits really. hp is so easy to have, lose, regain. dragoon doesn't have a native mp pool, you're lucky if you have enough for raise.

spirit link doesn't lose you hp if your wyvern is full (and you have empathy). just a note. it is only so likely your wyvern is full hp. but empathy is not a sin, it is a virtue. consider the possibilities. besides, maxing group 2 merits is a pain. i don't even have 1 in deep breathing, i consider it a special move. i try to get my healing breath to be good routinely with gear.. when i deep breathing it is because i want 1k~. that actually isn't that often.. offensively i'm not sure how strategic that is.

the reasoning behind keeping angon at a kosher 3/5: it should be dead already or something is very wrong. there are situations this is not so, though, granted. solo? 5/5 = pig orgasm.

To address the aforementioned concerns:

Spell Interruption Merits are very helpful if a link is pulled or you are facing a mob with a fast attack speed. In these situations, "lern2trigger" is not very helpful.

HP gives you more time to heal yourself, and it raises the trigger. With the exception being Raise, you should not be spending all your MP if you are smart. Auto-Refresh is very easy to get nowadays.

I could have been clearer about Empathy. I has its applications. I just prefer Deep Breathing. Defensively, it increases HP gained significantly. Offensively, it increases the power, and reduces the resist rate as well.

About Angon...

If you noticed, I said, "solo, party, and end-game." Many end-game mobs last longer than 1 minute, so a longer Angon is very noticeable. 2 skilled DRGs with 5/5 Angon can keep a NM permanently 20% Def. Down.

As mentioned in my post, "Feel free to modify it however you wish." Also, I am willing to accept advice given in a polite manner. Anyways, I hope this helps DRGs out there.

I personally did this with my group 2s

Capped Deep Breathing to 5 minute recast
Unlocked Angon
Unlocked Empathy
Capped (or put the rest into, I can't remember) Strafe. The accuracy the Wyvern gets applies to healing breaths as well as offensive from what I could tell. I see a consistent 200+ Offensive breath whereas others get resisted much more often as well.

I would have done Angon, but most things I fight in groups that would use the ability die fast enough for me to not have needed to cap it, and I prefer healing myself for more with the Strafe merits. Hasn't failed me yet, but the group 2s are very "how you want to play" ish, so it's all based on how you want to play the job imo.

Some nice advice. My Drg is almost lvl 75 so I started thinking how to get my DRG setup. Look like alot of ppl agree with Jump and high Jump capping at 5/5 but when it comes down to Group 2 ppl don't see eye to eye.

Must agree that Angon is a must. I think I will just unlock them all for now to get a feel of it. Then work on Polearm being merit.

Another Question, I have SAM, WAR, and Soon to be DRG @ 75...I think I can only cap out 2 weapons. I know SAM is a must (it is alreay bad *** w/o cap) So, should I focus on DRG>WAR?

The thing I see silly about doing Jump and High Jump over High Jump and Super Jump is that you put 5 merits into a 15 second reduction. Much better put to use in High and Super so they both get the 30 second shave instead imo

Meriting super jump is bad and you should feel bad for telling other people to do it.

It completely depends on your goal for what you want to do with it. If you plan on just namely soloing then you still want Angon, but dont go 5/5, just 1/5 all it does is add 15 seconds to the duration of the defense down. Now if you plan on doing a lot of end game and your favorite subjobs are /war and /sam, then by all means go 5/5 angon. Again for the first group, if your doing end game, go 5/5 on jump and high jump, if your soloing you wanna look at your spirit link timer and jump timer. Yes when you have enough wyvern hp+ gear and your wyvern is doing 400-500 heals without deep breathing, he/she tends to rip something fierce like a whm spamming cure IV on a HNM. For the second branch, if your soloing, 5/5 deep breathing, 1/5 angon, might wanna put 1/5 strafe and then rest into empathy to give your wyvern more survivability. But back to if your more into end game, you'll still want at least 1/5 Deep breathing cause your wyvern can MB and ive seen them do well almost 1k damage on a good day. (With deep breathing, unresisted, and Mbing is the example, which is a hellshot but still happens) But i would 5/5 angon and put the rest into strafe for enhancing wyvern breath damage, anything you can do to enhance your wyvern, helps a ton. The only reason you really wouldnt care about putting anything into strafe if you solo a lot is cause as /mage, he does NOT use offensive breaths which means you cant exactly resist a healing breath, so would be utterly useless. If your gonna be a hybrid, well just be prepared to spend a heck of a lot more merits to erase what u spent, then regaining new ones.

Have an actual rationale or are you just dittoheading someone?

News flash: This job has more use than "winning a parse".

Let him think what he wants, Mogue. I wasn't telling anyone to do anything, just my opinion on why I think spending 5 merits on a 15 second recast reduction is a waste.

The 15 second reduction on Jump is equal to the 30 second reduction on High Jump because meritng both to max means you'll be doing 12 more Jumps/Hr(or 6 more of each if you can't keep up). Unless you feel the need to SJ 6 more times an hour I don't see the point in meriting it. The benefits of more consistent damage greatly outweigh the benefits of situational hate loss.

If you're jumping on stuff continuously for an hour, then I'm impressed. I feel that having the 30 second reduction helps more in the event you take hate often during events when that 30 seconds on a Super can save you or not.

Besides, I can't think of a single person who's engaged every time Jump resets, which makes that 15 seconds negligible, but on the same token it can go for Super. Both are situational on how you prefer to play the job.

Group 1 Merits don't add anything extreme, they're just minor tweaks to be used as the user sees fit.

***'s situational I suppose. I use DRG mainly for merits and solo since I am usually on BLM or BRD for events.