Category:Merit Weapon Skill

Much in the fashion of WSNMs or Mythic Weapon Skills that required the player to unlock weapon skills via quests, Merit Weapon Skills requires the player to undergo the quest, Martial Mastery, before being able to use them. Unlike WSNMs, which have no restriction save for being completed one at a time, a player may only have three fully upgraded Merit Weapon Skills or all fourteen unlocked at their minimum power.

Weapon Skill availability is restricted to specific jobs and the player must have a skill of 357 or higher with the respective weapon type.
Twenty Merit Points are required to unlock a Merit weapon skill with the base Weapon Skill Attribute Modifier of 73%; and further upgrades require 22, 24, 27, and 30 merits, successively raising the Weapon Skill Attribute Modifier by 3% to a maximum of 85%.

15 upgrades are available within the category to start (e.g. three fully upgraded weapon skills), and you can expand it further with Primer on Martial Techniques and Treatise on Martial Techniques for another 5 upgrades each, for a total of 25 within the category.

These Weapon Skills are also linked to the fifth Utimate Weapon class: Aeonic Weapons. While equipped with an Aeonic Weapon, the player gains full potency from these Weapon Skills; with their Weapon Skill Attribute Modifier being set to the maximum of 85%, regardless of skill level or any merits placed within the category.
(e.g. A player equipping an Aeneas with a dagger skill of 200 and 0/5 merits in Exenterator would gain use of Exenterator at 5/5 merits in potency.)

Furthermore, these Weapon Skills are used to initiate the effects of Aeonic Aftermath. And while under its effects, these Weapon Skills gain Skillchain Properties typically reserved only for Relic and Empyrean Weapon Skills: Light and Darkness.
With one or the other property bestowed based on the specific Weapon Skill, these properties are applied to the Weapon Skill that activates the Aftermath in addition to when used during the Aftermath's duration^[1]; meaning that for all intents and purposes, just using the associated weapon skill with an Aeonic Weapon grants the linked Weapon Skill Level 3 Skillchain properties.