Monk Merits

Was wondering the opinion on monks group 2 merits.

Formless is a must but Otherwise I dont see the point in maxing any, Maybe Penace, but eh.

Any opinions on em?

I know our Salvage/Nyzul Isle MNK tank has Penance but I don't know the ratio. Depends on what you plan on doing though. If you spend more time solo'ing I'd go for Invigorate instead.

1 Formless Strikes
4 Invigorate
5 Penance

Be the best monk you can be.

Personally I'm going 5 on Penance 4 Invigorate and 1 on Formless Strikes although i'm focused on other merits first: h2h, kick attacks, str, crit rate, etc..

i was thinking of going

1 Formless Strikes
5 Invigorate
4 Penance

what would you guys do for recast merits?

i'm not touching anything else that isn't MNK specific until after i've leveled and done job specific merits on all my other dd jobs, that way i do the ones that apply to most. pretty sure DEX is agiven

5 Penance is better then 5 Invigorate.

This.

A shame Mantra is so useless.

As far as recast or Group 1 merits I think its almost a given to get 5 counter and 5 kick attacks.

Of course ^^
That's a given. Goes without saying.

Yea i know but boundsoul asked the question about recast merits unless they were talking about somthin else lol i am kinda tired sitting here at work. =p

What situations do you all find yourselves using Formless Strikes? I haven't merited group 2 yet, but I haven't been in a situation where I'm like "Damn if only I had formless, we could have won!".

I'm not a monk myself but Penance is a big help vs salvage bosses. The rate at which they accumulate TP is astounding. With monks natural subtle blow, a corsair's monk's roll and gear it really gives me a break on cures.

Formless Stikes is very helpful
Soloing 5-2 when helping others, elemental for blm af hat is one that is nasty w/o it just a cpl that come to mind. Really it speeds up killing elementals or highly physical resistant mobs, it can help shave off alot of time during nyzul when u get unlucky and get a bunch of slimes or somthin dumb like that.

the only reason i asked about group 1 is i honestly haven't looked at it in a while and forgot what was there, but yeah my bad, counter and kicks are given.

my Mnk is basically a Salvage Mnk only.. and Formless Strike is basically useless there. 5/5 invigroate and Penance here. the extra regen helps alot especially when in first floor.

Temenos as well. There many floors full of elementals and H2H resisted mobs. Flat out: Formless Strikes is useful.

Dex = Fail. If you main any DD job always STR. but the merits for monk are right. you can never go wrong with Penance and formless strikes may not be used often but your party will thank you for it when it is needed. however, there is no need to fully merit Formless Strikes.

DEX is a somewhat underestimated stat. I'm not saying that you should merit DEX over STR, but.. STR is used as a base modifier for all WS, from what I've been told anyway, and has an effect on Attack.

DEX is your modifier for Accuracy and Critical Hits, prolly some other stuff too >_>

(Note: I'm too lazy to find any sort of Ratio for DEX:Critical Hit Rate)

It all depends on what you need most out of your merits. If you intend on levelling THF, or NIN, meriting DEX could prove more useful than meriting STR. If you don't, and you intend on being a MNK main forever, then STR and Critical Hit Rate are pretty much 2 of the better choices you could pick.

Just looking at your profile, I see you have both DRG and MNK at 75, so STR+ would be an advantage for you, especially with Penta Thrust being partially modded by STR.

At the end of the day, it's your choice. I know you're here for opinions, but don't forget that you may want to merit something else in the same category for another job, where one stat is slightly less useful than another.

Example: STR 5 would be great for your MNK, but if you decide to take up say THF, you may prefer to have AGI+ or DEX+ for the bit of extra bonus damage on SA/TA/DE etc.

Or if you decided to take up BLM, you might want a completely different stat bonus for it, like INT+. STR has no use for a BLM in any sort of "standard" circumstance, so it would be a toss up between the pair.

went :
1 formless strikes
5 invigorate
4 penance

if you are more solo roeinted the invigorate (1 lvl = 80HP-regen) is godly.
If you go to salvage, well the +- 20 sec penance won't make or break your team.
Generally it is thought: invigorate/penance lvl4(+1 to either) and lvl 1 formless

I would just check out the Vanadiel Census and the what all the 75 monks have merited

http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/guide/development/census/09/4.html

in general, i preffer DEX over STR, whats all the STR worth in WSs when u have trouble hitting the mob and cant builing tp plus Crittical hits are allways sattisfiing

Depends on what you tbh. if you solo or ballista as much as I do, Invig is going to be better. And any situation that you have a 2nd mnk, that has lv 5 penance, you can still keep it up full time between lv 4 and lv 5. You don't need 2 level 5s to keep it up the whole fight



mantra needs to hit a lot of people in order to get any kind of decent hate from it. That combined w/ its 10 min recast makes it unworth merit, imo

5DEX won't do as much as 5STR. Need to stack DEX in order to see a new teir of crit. hits and the acc is only going to be +3 if that.

If you can't figure out why all the things 5 STR provides is > 2~4 acc then kill yourself.

Str Merits will outweigh Dex merits. Higher base damage vs a little acc. If you want a Crit build, you can accomplish that from the slew of +Dex/Crit gear out there. Don't get me wrong, a strong Crit hit build can be sick. But also look at other DD jobs, where Str is going to be much better in the long run.

As for G2 merits, I personally like:

1 Formless Strikes (great for physical resistant/Pld 2hour mobs)

4 Invigorate (Great for soloing, meh in situations where you have a dedicated healer)

5 Penance (Awesome for any type of Boss/NM fight)

Penance is extremely useful is a lot of situations, be it Boss/NM or solo fights. That combined with Mnk Subtle Blow and you will notice a lot less TP spam. Increasing the duration of the TP inhibitor just pushes the duration closer to the next use of Chi Blast. With 2 Mnks on a Salvage Boss w/ 5/5 Penance merits, you can almost keep it on the Boss full time.

yeah, the answer is already out there, but I will clarify...

Group 2 MNK Merits...

1). Formless Strikes(2 levels to max)
2). Invigorate(max)
3). Penance(2 levels to max)
4). Mantra(optional[2 levels])

Group 1 MNK Merits...
1). Counter(max)
2). Kick Attacks(max)
3). Chakra(2 levels to max)

Additional Merits...
1). STR(max)
2). VIT(2 levels to max)
3). DEX(2 levels to max)

This will have you hitting harder, take less damage, and regain more HP with Chakra.

Lrn2Math

Can only do 10 merits in G1 and G2 and 5 in Stat Merits...

Sometimes... people just don't need to give advice.

I'm full merited on mnk myself.

Group one... to me was obvious as many pointed out. Kick attacks & Counter capped at 5 each.

Group two... Penance is a godsend on mobs with nasty tp moves. Lvl 5 for me. Invigorate is very sexy too.. helps alot for mp usage and solo stuff alike. I wish I could put 5 in this as well. Last went to Formless. As mentioned, it's a useful skill to have. I wish i could have more in it, but learn your zones and use it appropriately and you'll do great.

As for other merits. STR I capped as soon as I could. Went with critical hits to cap as well.

In a fast moving merit party I am only outparsed by SAM's usually. Drk's can keep up only using kclub, and even then.. they have to work at it. RNG's are another that can outparse me, but they must be well geared. Usually I can keep up with them as well purely on DOT.

Granted there are other exceptions out there, but so far my parses I've done very well with this set up. Something else that's been debated heavily is use of osode vs. togi. My parses have shown osode to have a slight advantage over togi. Genome has a very nice blog about his career monk. I must say that guy knows his stuff and has done alot of research. Once I get the rest of my usukane gear I'm anxious to see what I can do. 25% haste on monk.... SEXY!

Last thing to think about... opionions are like *** and elbows...everyone has one. This game is suppose to be fun... seek out information and do your own research...in the end it'll be alot more satisfying for you. Good luck.