Talk:Community Scholar Guide

Stormsurge and stat value for merits recommendation - heavy disagreement

Been reading the guide after being back after a small hiatus and I intensely disagree with the merits reccomendation:

"Given how high our stats are these days, an extra +~12 of a stat is going to be negligible." I think this is fundamentally wrong. 99% of the gearing in this game is finding the +2 STR for a modifier of a ws, going out of our way spending millions, a +12 STR or DEX or whatever modifier on a ws is akin to buying millions of gil of items in some circumstances or heavy augs to improve gear sets. Other merits are frankly irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. I don't think anyone besides starter sch's are going to struggle landing paralyze and in what content you even NEED, not want it, that you won't either have the gear or a RDM to land it? Also immunobreak makes that even more of a moot point. I think for being a guide we're recommending the wrong things to players as +12 STR is significantly much better than altruism, and I don't think mathematically this is arguable in most cases. I could concede the point of writing in the guide "if you started out and can't land for crap this might help" but I think stormsurge is a must have. --Neviskio (talk) 15:42, 21 March 2023 (UTC)

• I didn't write it, but I believe Stormsurge merits are an absolute waste. Focalization and Altruism are far better. --Spicyryan (talk) 17:30, 21 March 2023 (UTC)

• • I wrote it and I believe that Stormsurge's minor stat boost is not relevant in the majority of content. The guide addresses topics in general, not extremely specific scenarios. I would absolutely agree with its value for squeezing out a few more stats for something like V25 Arebati or Bumba. You don't even have debuffs to use Altruism for in those fights. But if you are Scholar at that point in the game's content, you should be able to understand your job's kit and know when to move merits around. In more general and accessible content like W3 Dynamis, Altruism can help you land Silence on a dangerous mage. You don't always have a Red Mage, and even if you do you cannot always rely on them to do their job. I promise you that not a single player is going to notice the difference if you have Stormsurge merited or not. If you find you need it more than Altruism for the content you are doing, go ahead and swap out. The merit category is just suggestions for ideal point use, not the end-all be-all. --Hya 3/21/2023 (sign this for me spicy)

• • I find the argument a bit weak for the community guide I must say, it's like the DRK discussion on ffxiah again, if the guide is made for experts on the job, it doesn't matter what merits are written, the pros will know, if it's a guide for new players I don't think saying "12 str is irrelevant" is a good lesson, in good faith we recommend to the community to spreadsheet everything to find the +3 str from a ring to improve a WS modifier and now 12 is irrelevant (again for a new SCH or someone that is not a main SCH and knows all the intricacies). Meanwhile I don't think in the last 5 years I've ever seen a sch use focalization/altruism on pretty much any content, even the main SCH's. I think the fact people won't notice an effect is not a very objective way to look at it especially since the game is about optimizing the +2 of a stats. Anyway I'm not going to keep fighting for my argument but I find it very odd on the double standard of items vs merits <.< --Neviskio (talk) 16:31, 26 March 2023 (UTC)