Merit Help!

So the wife decided she wanted DRG as her first two handed DD job and I am proud she is moving away from mnk...>.> Anyway, I know nothing about the job and I am wanting to know what she should merit! Also, any tips would be appreciated. Thanks.

Deep Breathing 5/5 Angon 5/5 and jump/high jump recast time

Deep breathing merits past the first are largely pointless. Healing breaths already cure so much, a player's max HP is rarely enough to take a full DB breath.

And using DB for DPS purposes is extremely miniscule. you'd be looking at an extra 440 or so dmg every 5 mins. That's 1.4 extra damage per second. Just the ja delay from using DB would negate that. Even ignoring the chance of letting a melee hit land in breath gear and the resulting haste/stp loss.

I'd recommend 1 merit in DB(just for general utility), and 4 in empathy(5/5 in Angon is a given). More wyvern buffs for increased survivability and DD buffs.

Although, some ppl like to only do 1 empathy so that they can spirit link 5 times before spirit link starts consuming the players HP.(explanation: Each Empathy merit grants 200 exp to the wyvern on spirit link use, triggering his temporary parameter boots. This functions like a level up, in that it fill his HP to full. When the wyverns HP is full, spirit link doesn't consume player HP. The exp bonus caps at 1k exp, or 5 level ups. So at 1/5 empathy, you have 5 spirit links before you start losing HP. Makes keeping the wyvern alive safer.)

But personally, I like to get the wyvern to max strength faster. So 4/5 means only 2 spirit links before the wyvern is at max potential. And you can copy 4 buffs to the wyvern at once.

Honestly.. After angon 5/5 it becomes a matter of personal taste. I for one don't use deep breathing at all because healing breath lands for 1400+ and I only have 1600 hp as a tarutaru.

I did 5/5 angon and 5/5 empathy and if spirit link takes some of my hp so be it. The only time that actually matters I normally have a whm with me. (eg delve aoe damage)

Capping parameters instantly is also extremely useful for situations where you know you will have to use healing breath at its max level. For instance, I use it all te time while farming for ADL pops as the whm is typically running around pre-occupied. The other dds really appreciate the occasional 800-1400 heal.

If they ever make wyvern breath stronger or let strafe effect healing, then that will be the way to go. But at the moment, most of the other t2 merits outside of angon don't matter much.

You may want to check these threads about the same subject:

Merits

Merits-for-drg

drg-merits-strafe

dragoon-merits