Hey guys,

I heard a rumor one time that a smn friend of mine once tested out physical attack merits, the friend has recently been MIA a lot and I haven't been able to find him online to confirm whether the rumor is true or not. Basically he duoed with a smn that had merits in attack while he didn't have any merits, same lvl and gear on same mobs, the lvl 70 physical bps were doing on average the same damage for them both. Leading some to suspect that physical attack merits may only effect melee.

A few nights ago while fighting rostrum pumps NM, I was doing consistently less dmg with spinning dive than another lvl 75 smn in the LS with merits in accuracy. Her theory is that the avatar is bound to her stats and that enhancing stats for herself will enhance avatar performance, I know a lot of folks dismiss this notion, and in my own studies I've never found boosting any attribute to enhance or handicap any of my avatars performance. But it did make me think of another theory: What if, our avatars are bound to us in the same way that Guardian Forces worked in FFVIII? This would mean that the more you used a particular avatar the better it would perform for you as your "affection rating" with the avatar rose (or maybe the avatar has it's own set of skill lvls that are invisible). I've also heard a lot of folks say that at times when duoing with other SMNs they noticed that sometimes the damage would be exactly the same and other times one would greatly out damage the other for no discernable reason.

Basically I'm just wondering if anyone has done any real testing (with provable results) as to how merits improve our avatars performance (this means melee accuracy and attack, physical BP accuracy and attack, magical BP accuracy and attack) I just want to be sure how my merits will be benefitting me before i go foolishly dumping them into something and being dissapointed with the results.

Thanks a bunch,
Jim

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Me and crim did a basic of test on this, but nothing provable I guess.

Basically crim was the ultimate exp whore, he had full merits on attk and acc+ and af2 feet and hands (( the acc and attk+ af))

And I am the lazy loser with absolutely no merits, and no af2 gloves or boots. (( I also took off my af1 spats ))

What happened bloodpact wise? Nothin, infact i think I outdamaged him most of the time lol. 70 bloodpacts are way too random damage and accuracy wise to even care, honestly. Now what did happen? His carby was hitting for a hell of alot more than mine on golems in sky, and hit more often.

Now the *proof* for me....was this:

I like to solo ose, ask anyone, I solo him alot. I find it fun for some odd reason, even though it can take as much as an hour on bad days.

One day I was noticing carby was hitting for shit, and most of the time not even hitting at all (( melee)). I thought " Damn what the hell this is so retarded." Ose was taking double the time it normally takes. Then i noticed something. And a huge bell rang in my head. I was wearing Zenith Slacks, not my af1 spats. Believe it or not, I put them on, and carby was hitting for normal again. There was an actual and very noticable difference in melee accuracy.
My opinion? Nothin, no equips, no merits, nada effects phisical bloodpacts. Magic ones on the other hand are ofcourse strengthened by merit and the Astral Pot.
Again no real "proof" though, just my personal speculation.

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No sig because 3 sigs in a row people make me change my sig and I refuse to have a pony sig!

Thanks a bunch Madi. and coincidentally you were the "friend" I'd heard that rumor about omglolz.

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lol;;sorry yeah I have not been online much;; I have a job and a baby squirrel to take care of >-< hard find time for ffxi lol

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No sig because 3 sigs in a row people make me change my sig and I refuse to have a pony sig!

oo madi do you have a son ?

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Master Swordsman, Zelphes
PLD75/WAR37~WAR75/NIN37~DRK61/THF37

Bastok Rank 10 /Sky: O /Sea: O
http://www.valour-ifrit.net/

lol kinda. Adopted I guess you could say :p

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No sig because 3 sigs in a row people make me change my sig and I refuse to have a pony sig!

omg cutex2 <3<3

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-_- o m g