WHM Merits! Please Help!

Recently I have capped all merits on my other leveled jobs leaving only White Mage group 1&2 left for merits. I have heard so many diffirent ways to merit this group from ls mates, so I decided to ask here. Which ability/spells are worth spending my merits on?

Cure Cast Time 5/5
Bar Spell Effect 5/5

Shellra V 5/5
Protectra V 1/5
Martyr 1/5
Devotion 3/5



No matter what you do, go 5/5 on barspell and Shellra V, some people argue about details beyond that but very few serious WHMs argue with these.


Some people cap fast cast without Cure Cast Time merits so they don't bother with those to me the rest are kinda dumb.

Some say don't Protecta V at all because you can Protect V + Accession etc.

Some say no need for Martyr, I keep one in case I ever need it outside Abyssea or something I honestly rarely use it, I also don't use Devotion much anymore but it's nice in some outside Abyssea fights when people don't have tons of refresh.

Lastly, more info listed on the subject here with some additional discussion and opinions on merits.

This is my opinion so,

5/5 cure cast
5/5 barspells

5/5 shellra5
3/5 devo
1/5 mar
1/5 prot5

Prot5 is for when you aren't /sch and don't want to waste MP (yeah MP is unlimited for most part, but outside it counts and we will be outside soon enough. Devo for shorter recast time, its useful for blms or when we go outside. Martyr just incase of near magic aggro and need to wake someone up, low mp and because there's not much else

o good, picked up my friends WHM account to dual box with only
2 cure cast merits on it and was planning on this anyways

5 cure, 5 barspell, 5 shell, 5 devotion.

I find martyr and protectra5 useless, i'm almost always /sch and when I'm not, ~6 def won't make or break anything. and martyr.. well i can just cast cure <_<

5/5 Cure
5/5 Barspell (Regen is optional instead of Barspells depending on what you do)

5/5 Shellra V (Not negotiable)
4/5 Devotion
1/5 Martyr (Good for the "No MP" or "Silenced" cure - Though you should carry as many Echoes as feasibly possible)


Protectra V is a waste of a spell and a waste of merits in general.

My apologize Michizane for a quick WHM derail in your topic.


I just saw this and I was just going to do an topic on the subject and a WHM's sub


The merit part I understand now, but what I'm not quite certain on is, either to go as sub /SCH or /RDM?

Purpouse with this charter is to allways have an healer with me so I can dulebox during events such as sky, limbus, dynamis etc.. And I seen alot of WHM who goes /SCH sense they have the abillity to use accession with different stuff. So I wanted to hear your opinnions regarding this, my first tought howevere was to go/sch for sublimation and Accession uses.


Appriciate the awnsers and thank you!

If you can pay good attention to your WHM while dual boxing, /SCH would definitely be the better choice imo, otherwise it would offer very little over /RDM (in fact, I'd say /RDM would be the better choice if you weren't using Stratagems while dual boxing).

It's a tough decision, /SCH gives you MP efficiency and utility, /RDM gives you MP conservation and speed (5% more off your casting time).

I doubt anyone would complain at you for either SJ, but my personal choice would be /SCH.

Hi Hit,

Well yeah I understand. Well tbh I woulden't have time to use to much stuff really, because its an olde laptop I'm using and I just wanted to make this as an extra backup if any mages for some strange reasosn should die, or if should need the extra hands. But sense I'm doing him from scratch it is alot easier just to go on RDM, then to unlock SCH.

But thank you for the advice. :)

Quick question, how does the "bar spell effect" work? Is the extra 10 MDB you get from 5/5 element-base or is it general MDB? In other words: If I use baraera but it uses firaga, will I get any bonus?

Sincerely doubt it. That being said, it should have no effect on merit choice. Bar-spell effect is a must-have

I used the wrong example: the real situation I find myself wondering that is when I'm fighting a mob that uses a dark-based attack such as Diabolos (Maere). It's not really important enough for me to do testing, I was hoping it was a well-known fact thank you though.

I'm pretty sure it's only vs the corresponding element. Honestly though, I've never really looked into it and simply assumed that's how it worked, so I could be terribly wrong (though it is the most logical idea imo)

Get these covered first. Once you get enough fast cast and cure cast time equipment pieces you can get rid of Cure Cast Time merits and put them into regen. If you feel like your not casting as fast as you did before you might be lagging too much and would be better off with the merits instead. Honestly its up to your system and the player to determine if you can drop the merits or not. I personally do not use them any longer and cast just as fast as I did with them with all the new gear.

True, Protectra V does suck but I'm a sucker for having that complete spell list so I put one merit in it anyway. It's not like Devotion or Martyr recasts really matter all that much anymore.

Why bother casting Protect full stop?

The only reason anyone gets it from me is when I'm super bored or I don't want to waste time listening to them complain about how they don't have it.


It really doesn't serve any purpose past Lv.30, maybe 40 (and then you still need higher tiers than you get access to if you want to see a difference).

5/5 Cure Cast
5/5 Barspell

IMO regen isn't worth it.

5/5 Shellra
4/5 Devotion
1/5 Protect for when not /sch

Martyr can be good but imo not worth a merit anymore..I still think Devotion is so much better. I know that MP is almost unlimited but with HP gears on whm I can give 800mp back..its nice for those times where your blm comes /brd to help with procs, Or when your blm blows thru MP once Red is done.

what's wrong with protectra iv? >_> also i don't see how casting pro5 wastes time, it's not like they can't do anything else while getting single target protect.

Tbh, people really still merit Devotion ? You really need MP in Abyssea these days?

inb4 PLD in Abyssea
But who use PLD now? lol

because abyssea is the only content, because blm/brds never run out of mp, and you'd only ever use devotion with a pld in the party?

as if a ja cure, and a miniscule amount of defense are any better.

I use it for BLM's cuz they may have MM and other refresh but still cost 300mp to cast some spells and for mana wall for them. I have saved my friend on a nuber of occasions with it.

@ Cerelyn,

1st question I will, ( why nice to be able to give some MP to someone else, example an BLM or PLD)

2nd one I'am (working on a new PLD atm)

3rd Not every player is a devoted Abyssea spender, I do alot of old content still with my lowman shell, so yes to them all :P


But huge thanks for the replies regarding WHM.

This is what i did

5/5 cure cast
5/5 regen

5/5 shellra5
3/5 devo
1/5 mar
1/5 prot5


I chose regen above bar-spells because i'm only dual boxing my whm. and i dont have the luxury of running up and recasting bar spells anyway.

Its a simple cure mule

If you are serous about WHM i would do bar-spells instead.



This too. since my "party" (2-3ppl) has no dedicated healer its mostly my cure mule +blm going /whm to do debuff's (i cant be fast enough dual boxing)
i have had occasion i needed to devote the blm.
its rare but what else is there really to put merrits into in that group ?

If your BLM's, RDM's and SCH's aren't "needing" devotion (read: burning MP as fast as possible in most cases), they're doing it horribly wrong.

With a THF and the amount of Enmity- available, a BLM should be able to empty at least 1.5~2 bars of MP before having to lighten up, some of the crappier BLM's I've seen can empty 2.5 bars without needing to stop (MP -> Convert -> Devotion), though they're being resisted almost constantly (not like I care, they were only there to proc and then speed it up).

While you want to be so picky Cerelyn, explain to me when the last time 6 defence (I believe that's the difference between 1 merit of Prot5 and Prot4?) saved lives?

it's 5.

5 *** defense. i used to have 1 pro5 merit, because i was afraid of people complaining about not having 5 extra defense. but a better solution is to merit devotion or 1 in martyr, and tell those people to *** off.

nothing is wrong, people are HELP I AM TRAPPED IN 2006 PLEASE SEND A TIME MACHINE and think 5 defense are going to make a difference

(not that protect works on anything higher than DC without corresponding stats)