Most people who’ve leveled Red Mage in the past 2 years have heard of Avesta, often due to people half-jokingly telling them to go do what he does. I have based my merit point plan on his due to wanting to solo stuff at some point as well.
If you look at his page, he lists his out under “Others.” For those who can’t read Japanese, I’ll repost them here and my comments on them:
HP/MP
HP: 8 – Avesta is a Tarutaru, so this only makes sense.
Status
INT: 5 – Avesta also has Black Mage at 75, so this also makes sense.
Magic Skill
Enfeebling Magic Skill: 8 – Beneficial to both Red Mage and Black Mage.
Combat Skill
Sword Skill: 8 – Avesta does a large amount of melee solos and has both Joyeuse and Justice Sword.
Dagger Skill: 8 – Pairing an enspell with a Ceremonial Dagger to give as little TP as possible to a mob is a very common solo strategy.
Others
Enemy Critical Hit Rate: 4 – A 4% decrease in enemy critical hit rate adds up over time.
Spell Interruption Rate: 4 – An 8% decrease in spell interruption rate combined with Red Mage’s very high cast speed is a very potent combination.
Red Mage Group 1
Convert Recast: 5 – 8:20 Convert timer is insane for overall survivability.
Earth Magic Accuracy: 5 – This one I’m not too sure on. He used to have 5 in Ice Magic Accuracy, I presume for Bind and Paralyze, so my only guess as to why he switched to Earth is that Slow II is awesome.
Red Mage Group 2
Slow II: 5 – 39% slow is pretty crazy, and maxing the merits allows for greater accuracy and potency paired with 5 earth accuracy merits.
Bio III: 5 – While it’s only 8MP/tick, if you have full merits it lasts as long as Bio II (I believe), but it adds up more over time, not to mention has a higher initial damage.
I’ll leave out his Black Mage merits for now.
The point I’ll expound on is his choice to switch to Earth Accuracy from Ice Accuracy. I personally see Ice Accuracy as more beneficial to Red Mage than Earth Accuracy based on three spells: Bind, Paralyze, and Blizzard III, while Earth Accuracy only affects Slow and Slow II. I have little difficulty landing Slow II with only one merit on things not immune to it with either a Mythic Wand +1 or an Earth (yes, not Terra’s!) Staff in MND gear even! All this said, I will probably stick with maxing Ice Accuracy as I consider Bind sticking with duration more important than Slow II sticking, not to mention having stronger Blizzard III’s in Dynamis or for sleep/nuke soloing.
Convert 5/5 is a lock, mostly because it would allow me to free-nuke in Dynamis more often and be a slightly more aggressive sleeper.
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While I would agree sticking Bind for solos that you are using it is very important, if you’re going head to head with Bune (or whatever) having Slow on is much more important than an extra Para proc. As Slow is guarranteed and Para is not.
I think it’s mostly personal preference really though.