Str Or Dex Merits?

I'm just about to start meriting my stats for my Thf, and I was going to merit Dex, but people have stopped me saying that I should merit Str instead.

After asking a few other people, I've been getting an equal difference in people suggesting Str and Dex merits, so I thought I'd ask here to get a few more ideas.

I don't have a Mandau I thought I should add.

You should think about any future jobs you want to level
How many jobs does DEX benefit vs STR?
Saying that, i'd go with STR

QFT

In general you will get more out of Str merits than you will from Dex. This is taken from the view of eventually leveling other jobs, Str is the primary mod for ALL WS's.

In the case of Thf, this means you'll hit your effective Str cap for daggers with less gear, and be able to wear more Dex/Agi/etc. during your WS's. As far as what you'll notice during non-WS melee, Str or Dex are likely not going to make a significant impact on parse data, unless the Dex breaks you to the next Crit Tier.

so... basically you'll see more benefit from Str merits but it's not going to be a huge swing either way. If you think you'll have more fun with Dex merits do that.


The only real debate (i think) is Str or Int for those who play Blm/Sch/Rdm & Sam/Drg/War/etc.

STR

Thanks so much for the input, I know what to do now then. I was leaning more on Str as Mnk is a job I plan to take to 75 anyway.

agreed.

more of a debate when u have mage/DD jobs and dont know what to merit.
exmaple: i have a taru thats mnk main on asura server but also have blm. i dont do alot of blm things unless its needed in Ls events or what not, but i did 5/5 int just because of the fact that 5/5 str wont have a big impact on my mnk... it would turn a base stat of 65 and make it into a base stat of 70 like my old charater (elvaan). how i ultimally decided to merit a stat i took time and thought about that stat was strongest to my race and just made it even stronger.

for example of a mithra, mithra's have A+ dex (think its 80 base on a thf) i would merit a mithra's dex even more just to make it A++ if u know where im coming from >.>; now if ur a race like taru and only have DD jobs i wouldnt recommended it doing it my way, but then again why would u be a taru and not have 1 single mage job >.>;

Since I have DRG and NIN (and DRK) I'm gonna do 2 DEX 3 STR to help out my Jin and Drakesbane (when I get the damn lance to drop >_>). Depends on what jobs you're planning to level, have lvled and what gear you have available imo.

STR is an all-around good choice when it comes to merits. Think about it, a THF with loldaggers being able to hit harder with more STR merits.

Chose DEX5 and never turned back nor will (Elvaan by the way).
There's enough STR on Hecatomb and/or Enkidu as far as STR+ goes for THF.
(Yes low fSTR cap).
CAN be argued based on race,mains,your mod focus,etc..
EVERYONE will tell you one or the other,or both.

My Friends Tell Me Not To Give Into Peer Pressure.

So you give in to the peer pressure of your friends, by not giving in to the peer pressure of the rest of the ppl! Creating a paradox :O

Yeah, because you're Elvaan. If someone was Hume, Taru, or Galka, the STR merits would benefit them more. You still should have gone 3DEX/2STR, but it is your character. Even being Elvaan myself, I'd still have chosen STR, despite the awesome base they have. STR is much commonly more important than DEX.

Much more commonly important? Eh?
Because that ONE attack is just so amazing?
I never liked SAM/WAR/DRK jobs,not my cup.
I must be paying for the game incorrectly.

STR (If you're mainly on melee jobs)
INT (If you're mainly on mage jobs)

Never should anyone merit anything other than those two.

heh? what about MND ? somes RDMs merit MND 5/5 just to cap it.

INT for RDM too unless you do nothing but *** yourself out to Merit parties or Endgame stuff where Sleep/Gravity/Bind has no meaning.

Well, you probably just don't know about the math behind every single melee swing.

Let me introduce you to fSTR. It's part of what determines your weapon's base damage, and the more STR you have, the higher your weapon's base damage will be, allowing you to peak higher on WS and normal swings.

If the only melee job your gunna lvl is thf and you have no plan to get mandau ie using DE. Since its what 4-6 str to get 1 more fstr. Efectively making it somehwere between 16-25% ws mod. 5 dex will increase your DE dmg more even without SA. With SA the difference is even greater and ws like SB which is even more heavily dex modded its even bigger difference. Well dex is pretty good for blu too. Also its pretty easy for thf to get to fstr caps on loldags on most xp lvlish mobs so at that point str is only gonna be giving you a little more attack.

That's very true. I didn't really think outside the box, because it's hard to imagine someone having only one melee at 75 >_>;

<--- 75 rdm blm thf blu. So yeah I thought about it. But I felt like epeening on blm more so int it was though I did used to have 2str and 1 dex lol. Plus it makes my drain bolts do more!!!

That being said dex will also increase your acc and crit hit rate on all melee jobs too.

Honestly though, if I was Mithra I wouldn't even worry about it. Hume is too neutral to not go both ways (lolgay), and Elvaan really could use the DEX. I'm a SAM main, so I'm going with the STR.

Lol sam it isn't even a question. You get the fstr mods higher fstr caps and decent str mods for your ws... while dex gives you um 3acc... yeah.

Thf and maybe dnc or blu are the only times this question should even be asked really.

If you're a career single-job, then it's not really a question.

There's on reason for a BRD-only player to merit INT, for instance.

That being said, if you have at least 2 75s, chances are one of them will be either a melee or a mage that use STR or INT, so in most cases you will never stray from the two options.

Sorta like getting Bushinomimi from DM. Only get it if you never plan on leveling any Dual Wield job.

I'd take bushi over suppa if I planned on being a career sam and was super pimped out just to make it that much more cash. And I wasn't taru. And didn't use blu so much

O hay, I don't belong in this argument.

Someone on my server got screwed when someone stole his account because of that.

What like a GM because he has 2 earrings your not supposed to have more then 1 of?

Nawh he used his item recall or whatever time to get two earrings and got screwed out of a character restore/item restore. Hacker dropped his Aegis along with other important shinies he'll never get back.

It's not really hard to do, just gotta think about it. Then plan accordingly, and don't eff it up. Keep plans to yourselves though, it shouldn't be used widely.