Why Will S.E Not Uncap Merits

how do players get OP'd? worst thing that can happen is people become able to defeat NPC monsters easier. (don't even talk about ballista)

The way I see it is since FFxiv is about to come out and it will take users from ffxi, they should go crazy and give us super large xp bonus rings and uncap merits and increase all drop rates... and slash entry prices for events again too.

It's bad enough practically everything can be zerged and it's become the norm. You really want this game to get ANY easier?

Possibly because they want to keep it fairer for the casual gamer. If it was actually uncapped, those who had the time/lack of life, to actually max out all merits would be at too much of an advantage over people who play casually. It's not that I wouldn't love to be able to max out my magic merits, I am a full time mage, so choices are difficult, I can just see where they're coming from unlike some people. They just want us to specialise, which is fair enough.

I mean, seriously, why don't we raise the lvl cap to 80 if we're going to do that, and while we're at it give us 2hrs from both our main and our subjob. Sure the game wouldn't be so hard anymore, but hell, nobody seems to want a challenge anyways..

Okay so you've found 12 sets of jobs that somebody could level and merit completely, only 388 more combinations to go.

The combat section isn't so bad imo, as you can fully merit 2 weapons and one defensive trait, so that at least gives you the option of levelling two melee jobs to their fullest. Alternatively you could cap sword/evasion/shield/parrying as PLD for instance, and those evasion/parrying/shield can still help out quite a lot for other melee jobs (not so much shield).

But magic skills, as soon as you merit brd, rdm, blm, sch or whm, you're *** for other mage jobs. rdm, blm and sch will all work together, but brd is stand alone, whm is stand alone (could benefit rdm a little, but moreso if you're just a pink mage). Smn, blu, nin will all take up half your magic merits which are completely useless to any other job (but I just love seeing that 16 blue magic skill on my 75rdm <_<).

Merits are supposed to be a choice to go above and beyond the norm, but they're such an integral part of the job system that they really are required to be sufficient at that job in high end situations. Blm, rdm, sch can all be levelled and remain at this top level, but if you have those fully merited you can't be a fully merited blu, smn, brd, nin, drk or whm.

If they raised the magic skills to 24, it would open up a lot more job options for people that already have those jobs, and would only really advantage 4 jobs if spent all for one job: blm, rdm, sch and brd (lolstring).

But what they could also do is stick wind, singing, string, summoning, ninjutsu and blue into their own category and allow you to fully merit all of them. Each one of those skills only benefits one job and wouldn't put anyone at an unfair disadvantage on other jobs by having them levelled. (Not like an extra 16 skill means a damn thing for sub job)

Sorry for the WoT, I'm just really pissed that I can't merit enfeebling and elemental skill for my rdm and blm because I have blu. I also can't touch a single merit on brd because I have rdm.

*Ahem* 75?!

Hey now! It'll be 75 by the next time my character updates, no-one needed to know it's not already <_<

Casual gamer or not doesn't change anything. I just personally don't like the fact that -anyone- can be as efficient as -anyone else-, I like compromise, situations where you have to choose between A or B.

For instance, merits. I don't want someone who play BLM once a month to be able to have 8/8 Elemental magic. I want people to have career jobs and "secondary" jobs, the latest ones being less effective. Otherwise everyone would just be the same player, and could be replaced by anyone.

You cannot replace someone fully merited with his job with someone who have like no merits in it. While we're at it, let's introduce race change ! When you switch to BLM, be taru :d Then switch back np !

FF XI offer no specialization template at all beside merits (and race kinda). Playing a Clone Army MMO ? No thanks.

Well said.

lololol. But seriously, that seems to be what some people are suggesting.

I gotta disagree with you on this one Antipika, your argument completely ignores player skill, which I think you of all people should know the importance of.

Besides, you're like, the only person I've ever heard of with only one 75 and no plans to level another. I totally respect your play-style, but it would seem it's far from the general player attitude.

Skill + nothing < Skill + merits.

We're talking about merits, others factors are irrelevant otherwise this is a never-ending debate.

Having 1 job level to 75 have nothing to do with my point of view. I've played shitload of MMOs, had several "class" in these (well several characters actually), I just liked the fact that my MAIN character was -very- powerful, while my alt were "average". (but still ok and fully playable).

I just can't stand games where everyone is able to do everything while remaining completely efficient.

I like the few limitations FFXI have preventing players with lots of jobs to be able to compete with people having 2-3 career jobs.

-Merits
-Race
-Inventory restrictions
-And off course time, provided you have a life.


It would be like playing Diablo 2 and having the ability to fill up the skill tree completely. This would just be HELP I AM TRAPPED IN 2006 PLEASE SEND A TIME MACHINE.

If you guys want unlimited merits so badly, level up another character.

Indeed. lol. Something I can't have, god forbid.. Why should my BLM be as pimped out as someone for whom it is their main and love? Specialising is what makes us different. I have WHM, RDM, SCH, BLM, BRD, SMN all at 75, and you don't hear me whining that I can't level my Wind skill to max. If it was my favourite job, fair enough, but it's not so I'm not going to. Individuality where?

Just because I don't have those few small merits doesn't mean I cant do my job adequately.

@Antipika

Okay I know where you're coming from, and I agree, but the thing is I only want 2-3 career jobs (blu > rdm > blm > brd, in order of importance). But with my blu merits, I have to divide 8 points between enfeebling and elemental. Going 8 enfeebling and 0 elemental isn't as bad as it could be for rdm, but it sucks pretty bad for rdm. They're all similar jobs (well, half of blu is very similar to blm) and have a lot of the same gear (my rdm is really quite well equipped, all from gear I already had from blu).

Now as Azulmagia says, as a fully merited blu, I could level and fully merit pretty much any DD job and both would be 100% (perhaps missing 4 defensive combat merits), I could also fully merit smn. If I hadn't leveled blu and picked rdm, blm, sch as my main, I could fully merit all three, AND fully merit damn near any DD job, but because I have one of those jobs that require their own special magic skill, it *** me over for a few other options.

I see your point, Blaz, and while I generally agree with Pika, I do think it's kind of *** that some mage setups can get stuck having to pick between choices. With that said adding another set of 8 or bumping the cap up to 3 sets of 8 merits means specifically for jobs like RDM, BLM and SCH they all have access to multiple categories to take advantage of, while in the situation with melee you're generally limited to only take advantage of one set of combat merits at a time. (Swapping mid-battle between weapon-types assuming you're randomly facing different damage-type mobs would be kind of asinine and wasteful over time, you know?)

I think the need for BLM and RDM to do Elemental AND enfeebling is what screws the pooch in most instances and in that case I can't really sympathize given they get access to and can take advantage of both majorly, while even if a melee like DRK had both G.Sword and Scythe, both which can't really be applied *well* to any other job, they still couldn't use them interchangeably. Even if using something more broad like Sword, Dagger or Ranged skills, they're more like extra, helpful bonuses to the spread of jobs that can use them as opposed to the melees that specialize in them. Because of that I think it's fair to say that it's simply a matter of preference and needing to make a decision about whether the bonuses mages get from multiple category access is worth shutting out an unrelated job like BRD/SMN/BLU.

Anyhow, I'd be piiiiissed having dumped 2 sets of combat merits into SAM melee (GK/Pole) and only having 4 leftover for my 3 other melees. Despite that I'm okay with having to make up for it on other jobs; I like having an incredibly strong specialization, similar to Pika's wordies.

When you started playing, the first thing you realized was that there isn't much you can do on your own in this game. SE wanted that and they were always very reluctant to add more soloing options. Making sure that you can't be good at every job at once is part of the original concept. I admire the fact that they are sticking to it because this is exactly what makes FF11 interesting.

And even if you could max out every stat, how would it make the game any more attractive? Anyone could still do it... You wouldn't be special.

Would be like giving 10M$ to every single person on Earth. Money would simply lose it's value and then a chocolate bar would cost 500000$. The concept isn't that hard to grasp. Frustrating? Yes. Unfair? Yes. Stupid? Hell no.

But... but... I can only level up to 16 characters on a PoL account, how can I enjoy the game, I feel way too limited in what I can do in it... ; _ ;

Then re-do quests, re-aquire Rare/Ex gear, re-do Missions (Zilart, Nation, CoP, WoTG, ASA, ACP, MKD). People want to be able to merit their jobs, not have to do everything they have already done over again.

Me? I have 8/8 Elemental and 8/8 Summoning Magic. Would love Enfeebling for Solo on BLM, but it was a choice I had to make. I can live with it and I dont really mind it. I sure as ***wouldn't complain if SE raised the merit cap though. I'd welcome it with open arms.

Telling people to level others characters is the most HELP I AM TRAPPED IN 2006 PLEASE SEND A TIME MACHINE reasoning against it there is. At least "SE is trying to make you specilise" is a resonable argument. Stupid, but resonable.

might I suggest getting another CC for another PoL account

How is it HELP I AM TRAPPED IN 2006 PLEASE SEND A TIME MACHINE? You can specialize your characters around different jobs.

If you want an easy MMO, go play one. But stop trying to make this MMO a pre-school playground because you're indecisive.

*caoughmaplestorycough*

*COUGHWoWCOUGH*

Yes, being flexible makes the game into a preschool playground. It's exactally the same as leveling 5 new characters, but you dont have to repeat the same things over and over again.
Why are people so stupid to think that timesink = Difficulty.
Making monsters/Fights harder increases dificulty. Doing the exact same thing (XP, the same missions, the same easy sky/sea gods) doesn't add difficulty, just time.
Case and Point: Salvage. Some of the Chariots are sometimes interisting, especially if you're low maning. The fact you have to kill them 500 times before you see anything doesn't make them harder, it just makes it take longer.

I dont want to run though CoP for 5 different characters so that I can be flexible for endgame/missions/fights.

Before Merits, which are relativly new, you could have the exact same proficienty in *every* job. Good thing you knew SE's original intent though, seemingly before they did as well. We're lucky to have you around.

The very fact that SE allowed you to change jobs, without repurcussions, is testiment to the fact that they wanted you to enjoy and be able to play every job, with the same vigor.

You are probably the only person in here not suffering from the limitations in merit caps, lol.

Point out where I said timesink = difficulty. Go ahead. Point out the post where I said exactly that.

SE wasn't even expecting people to level all jobs to Maat's cap level, let alone to 75 and fully merit them.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Maat's Cap introduced before merits? Clearly they were.