DRG Merits, Help?

I use DRG for everything. My merits are:

5/5 jump
5/5 high jump
5/5 angon
5/5 empathy

I find deep breathing to be worthless in most cases. After 1000 exp, 505 HB is usually more than enough for me, and if I am low in HP, I don't wanna take the extra second to do a JA. I have main healed 5DD+brd merit parties with no issues and even do backup healing in my Nyzul static no issues (yes, I do drg/whm in Nyzul). I like being able to build more TP with the jumps and have more surviving buffs on my wyvern.

Also, for solo, strafe is 100% worthless (never do offensive breaths, doesn't do anything to healing breath), but I couldn't answer for offensive cause the group I do things with likes my drg/mage stuff so I never really play anything else :)

i use
5/5 jump recast
5/5 HJ recast
5/5 angon
5/5 DB

either way its up to u how u merit ure drg more solo side or more party side. jump and hj recast is by far better i dont see y people do super jump. if u have hate tank like a pro and stop bein a wimp.

"and I prefer healing myself for more with the Strafe merits."

thread over.

there are people who need 5/5 super jump to even play ffxi at all, no lie. it's a great ability. though, none among you need that much super jump more than you can get away with having more jump :] mmm tp.. i admit i have a full jump tp bonus set going on. i find it is the tactical edge of dding on the job.

let's say you are the kind of dragoon who doesn't only solo or merit (and that is the kind of dragoon we should always be talking about).. if you have 5/5 in it i hope you're using it to dodge every spell being cast on/at you. for better or worse.

And just a not on this. Wyvern Healing Breath is hate free. I can spam it all day and never worry about my wyvern getting hate (doing 505 after that 1k exp).

And Strafe does NOTHING unless you are using an offensive breath. It does not affect Healing Breath at all.

The FIRST thing you do befor starting on DRG merits itelf, is cap polearm and then crit hit and STR. After that, Angon caped is a seksy seksy thing, spesialy on zergs, though usealy its dead long befor angon wears, but hey! seksy!

Im soloing alot myself, and whit wyrm armet + deep breathing i get up to 800 hp back, amaizing. Compear deep breathing VS strafe, it will pretty much be the same, exept deep breathing is spike damage while strafe is DoT. Deep breathing is also very helpfull in soloing situations where you spirit link mid fight, to get hp back asap

I also have 1 merit in empaty, mainly to give my wyvern shell when soloing stuff like flys, imps, pukes ect, to lower the AoE damage my wyvern takes. Also keep in mind 80 more hp is good, not only in meriting as DD, but also to activate healing breath on higher HP.

Whit this i hope i helped just a lill bit, enjoy meriting on DRG, its the awesomest job there is ;)

^ This fo sho. Definetly want jump and high jump maxed. Deep Breathing is well worth maxing. 490-515 Wyvern Breath and up to 880 Healing Breaths every 5 minz is just plain badass.

Angon DOES NOT have to be maxed. Seriously, unless you're doing sky or sea, or if your HNM shell makes you come DRG, its pretty much worthless. 3 Should be as high as you go with that. 2 Empathy is nice, gives wyverns magic spells that are casted on you as well as JA's.

Personally, I did 2 Angon and 1 Strafe, just cuz I kinda burnt myself out on meriting that week and didnt feel like making 5 merits /sigh.

What I find to be the most useful:

Category 1:
Jump Recast 5/5
High Jump Recast 5/5
(More jumps=more tp)

Category 2:
Angon 5/5
(-20% monster defense down for 1 min 30 secs, obvious choice)
Empathy 5/5
(Lets you buff your wyvern and fully level him to 5 in one Spirit Link;
Fully buffed Wyvern gives YOU: Attack +20%, Defense +20%, Haste +10%, [DA +15%, with job point master])

are we doing that thing where we find 8-10 year old threads and necro-ing them again?

What do you mean by "we"? >:p

I dropped a merit in Angon and put one in Deep Breathing. That occasional forced full-cure can be a lifesaver at times, and the 15 second loss from Angon isn't too much of a loss. Especially if you're partying with a BLU, SAM, WAR, or DNC

my HBs already do 2k+ why would you bother with deep breathing?

I actually reduced my healing breath gear purely because it's so ludicrous without trying that I wanted more DT in the set in case I get hit in a HB set.

The drg guide has the merits. /thread pls delete

I think it probably had value 'back in the day'. The only possible use I can imagine for it now is perhaps to attempt to MB with the Wyvern? But that has never produced a very potent result for me haha.

Probably because magic bursting a breath only adds M.acc. There's no damage bonus, sadly.