Dragoon Merits

I am having trouble deciding what to Merit on Dragoon. so far if just been putting points in Crit. Hit rate and Polearm skill, but i was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on what would be Meritable.

angon

!!

crit and polearm yes.

jump and high jump 5/5

angon, 3 times is good.
unlock deep breathing.
don't do strafe unless you're crazy.
empathy twice or so if you want.

str 5/5 if you have the attention span. that is what i did, pretty simple

i maxed polearm and stuffs but mostly what charlottie said :o

Thanks for the input. I greatly appreciate it!

Been lvling drg but stopped at 50 for now.. been wondering about merits myself eventually.

Crit/Polearm/STR are a given and the same group1s.. but for group 2.. I don't see how spreading them around makes much sense.

Why not get Angon and Empaty 5/5? Can do them both in the least amount of time and keep that DMG up?

Strafe is just no.. I agree with that, but don't really see the point in Deep Breathing? Every 15 mins. ok but it seems an only OSHIT type thing..

I thought about the same with THF.. maybe get Aura Steel to Dispel something if I'm really in trouble. But, that never happens really so I was glad I did 5/5 in two other things.

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Edit kinda: SO yea I see Empathy is connected with Spirit Link so.. and like you'll have 5 things to copy..

So yup, seem about right at least unlocking Deep Breathing.

Angon 5/5
Deep Breathing 1/5
But wait... that's only 6.. 4 more!
Empaty 3/5
Strafe 1/5
...Empathy more than 3 seems kinda 'why bother' so stick that one in Strafe for good measure? o.o

OSHIT happens a lot. 15 minutes isn't a bad timer for that sort of thing. it's nice when you have a good HB set to get back up to full hp, though sometimes just a psychological benefit. divine seal for wyvern = yes prz

angon max'd, well, as awesome as that is, most things are long dead by the time it wears. things that aren't, well bring another dragoon and have a rotation!

strafe is actually arguably quite effective i've heard if you're willing to get at least 4/5. but who would?

Aura steel is awesome. You dont just dispel a lot of the time you take the effect onto yourself. Like Charybdis's regen or a gods evasion boost.
sorry for the thread high jack just hate seeing people say something isn't useful when its an awesome thing :)

On the topic of DRG group 2 merits:

Angon: This is an absolute must to any DRG. 3 is fine for most, though 5 is well worth it.

Deep Breathing: It's basicly a divine/elemental seal for your wyvern. A huge benefit to any DRG. 5/5 puts it at a 5 min timer.

Empathy: Good for solo, but Deep Breathing will crush any offensive bonuses this will add to your wyvern. 2 to be useful, but no more than 3.

Strafe: DON'T DO IT. It's trash. Does nothing for healing breath and next to nothing for ele breaths.

Just to give you an idea of how good Deep Breathing can be, here's a link to a recent dyna-xarc parse. Keep in mind this is with wyverns often at low HP and vs very resistant mobs.

Angon - because sometimes it lags and looks like you throw your polearm instead O.O

Sometimes Angon looks like it throws my Smart Granade.

My personal recommendation for DRG merits are as follows:

General

Polearm 8/8
Crit Hit+ 4/4
STR 5/5

These ones are just obvious... the rest are really at your choice.

DRG Specific - Group 1

I recommend Super Jump 5/5 personally, more because I find myself pulling hate or something at a potentially bad time and death is never fun for anyone. Usually that pops the hate right back to the tank if they're any good. With that I'd go 2 on each Jump and High jump, put that point somewhere else... I don't know, really. If you don't pull hate often enough, then go 5 on Jump and High Jump.

DRG specific - Group 2

Angon 3/5 - A full minute of defense down... yeah, I know that you can go for 1:30, but the reason why I only suggest 3/5 is because of the other distributions...

Deep Breathing 5/5 - This may be a last-resort thing, but that five-minute recast can save your life if you've found yourself in a sticky situation.

Empathy 2/5 - This is fairly useful if your wyvern dies a lot. Get your Protect/Shell, and make sure they're the ones on the far left of your buff line before you use Spirit Link. Haste tends to go before the two, so if you want your wyvern attacking even faster, have at it. I'd prefer to make mine a bit more survivable, since I like the source of extra damage/healing.

Just a side tip for the wyverns always dying, a good /dnc sub can toss those sambas onto the wyvern as well with those empathies. Not a preferable sub, but a good bonus to those campaign/solo/duo moments

8/8 Polearm 4/4 Crit 5/5 Jump High Jump Angon and Deep Breathing
Dont even think about Empathy or Strafe they are useless compared to an extra 30s on Angon or a 5Min recast on Deep Breathing
If your doing something where your wyvern gets hit alot then stop summoning it and stop being an MP sponge with spirit link

angon for sure, crit hit an polearm also, deep breathing, then imo i say the rest is up to you and how u play your drg, i personally dont do endgame things with my drg so...like i said kinda depends on ur play style of drg :)

Depends on what you do with your drg rly. If you just merit with it for example, 5/5 angon is a total waste, as nothing you fight will live long enough to warrant meriting it to lv 5.

however if u fighting PW it could save you some time and money

You could just spend all that xp into lvling a real DD job...

fyi a real job can't be leveled, it involves getting up and going to work

on a more serious note, you have to stop wanting to believe this is still 2005, otherwise you may as well just stop playing if you're so outdated with the way the game has become... I lead and cleared 75% of CoP with a DRG, my pet even killed Bahamut v1 and guess what? it was FUN :)

no matter what an outdated, frustrated, "I cleared everything when it was hard >.>" type of tired nostalgic "done-it-all in 2003 and still playing" can say today, DRG is easily one of the hottest jobs in the game as we speak

if you don't think it's fun, it's probably because you haven't tried it for the past 2 years, or maybe you aren't looking for FUN

so stop the nonsense and try out DRG when you're bored, chances are you'll like it like everybody else who plays it as their main job

but come on... a real job? you realize none of the jobs in FF11 are real? :P

P.S. if your reply involves any more trolling, I'm not answering it ^^;

Angon is very nice (should eventually be fully merited) and other DDs are actually happy when you use it because they can deal more damage, also get a minimum of 40 MP merit, you'll probably be using DRG for a lot of soloing, and swapping out gears for WS pretty much defeats the purpose of having Serket Ring and things like that.

I know I'll MP merit 8/8 as the HP is not that useful for DRG. Well that's what I think. If you pay attention to the fight you shouldn't die anyway, no matter how much HP you have, you're a DRG... you're supposed to die only from a full pt/alliance wipe.

Having tons of MP, on the other hand, allows you to solo a LOT of things other DD jobs can't really deal with on their own, as long as you gear yourself accordingly, also supposing it doesn't have an extremely low delay or enfeebles you with statuses that prevent you from casting.

Lol it was a joke cause of all the loldrg stuff, though I love that response. Though I can't agree with it. I mean really you go in everyday and you grind. If you don't do good enough you get fired(lose xp/delvl) If you do adequate you eventual work your way up and get promoted(lvl up) and if you do really good it happens faster. Actually I plan on lvling drg or rng next not sure. Rng is already 40 and I have some gear for it. However I also have full homam and stuff and like to solo/duo. I mean me and a drg duod simmy for 30 days straight only taking 12-15min to kill when other full pts would almost wipe and almost rage it lol.

5/5 Angon - Great for Endgame and increased DPS output if you like. Also good for upping your /mage damage when solo.

5/5 Deep Breathing - Honestly, I love this JA. I wouldn't even consider empathy and strafe over going 5/5 on this. I love solo dragoon however, and this coupled with Relic Helm on DRG makes your healing breath godly.

8/8 polearm - This is almost essential if your DRG is going to be your main, or at least 2nd job. 16acc/atk is extremely helpful. The acc is godly for multi-hit WSs and helps you reach Acc cap much sooner. This can allow you to eat atk food much more safely increasing DPS even further.

Crit hit 4/4 Every DD should get this. Very nice bonus, and let's face it, "Other Category" isn't exactly exploding with great merits.. Unless you're wanting to mess with your emnity.

Group one merits is totally your preferance. I personally would say Jump & High Jump for extra DPS and TP gain, but merriting Super Jump wouldn't be a terrible idea, allowing you to keep your emnity lower. Spirit Link merits 'could' be useful if you're mainly a soloist. AoE attacks, or Super Jumping and finding your wyvern to have hate can often whittle your wyvern down, and keeping him alive is essential. Just please, PLEASE, don't merit Ancient Circle, kay?

well, I actually did..

Str 5/5
Crit 4/4
polearm 8/8
jump 5/5
high jump 5/5
angon 5/5 (for eg shell)
deep breathing 5/5

Been wondering about STR merits, since thief is going to be my next 75, I've been thinking about going for 3/5 STR and 2/5 DEX or something like that. The extra DEX would still help with Drakesbane as it's critical based damage, but is it worth it? I know STR comes into play a lot on thf too once you reach the higher levels.

I could be wrong and way off the mark here though...

In all honesty, I'd say it is a bad idea. It's the only merit in the game that lowers your DPS (since you're not DDing during Super Jump). 5/5 Jump and High Jump all the way; if High Jump and Super Jump aren't enough to keep hate off you in situations where it actually matters (read: mobs don't die in <30s) you have Seigan and PDT gear.

G2 merits are pretty wide open though. If you mostly take DRG to events like Dynamis, Einherjar, and zergs, you can afford to only go 2-3/5 in it because mobs will either be dead by the time it wears off or you'll be applying another Defense Down effect once it wears off via 2hr'd Jump. If you're often fighting more durable mobs, 5/5 may be useful. I also recommend 3/5 Deep Breathing to get it down to a 10 minute recast; fill your remaining slots with some mixture of Empathy and Strafe. As a general rule I prefer Strafe over Empathy but it's up to you.

EDIT: Also, merit HP over MP... seriously, if you're dying for MP when solo work for Ethereal Earring and you'll never run out of MP again. 80 HP raises your HB trigger level by 40 and is generally a good thing to merit for DDs. Only merit MP if you have other MP-based jobs.

The last 2 merits into STR would probably do more for your THF. As for DRG, it depends on what you do with it and your gear but 5/5 STR is likely the way to go here as well.

I diiiiiiid

Polearm 8/8
STR 5/5
crit rate 4/4
Jump 5/5
H jump 5/5
angon 5/5
deep breathing 5/5

:)

This + 5/5 STR, 8/8 Polearm, 4/4 crit, jump 5/5, high jump 5/5 and either 4/8 HP 4/8 MP or a combo that fits your race and other jobs.