DRG Merits: Strafe

isnt 5/5 deep breathing + 5/5 angon just so much better anyways?

To each their own I guess, most people I usually ask just dismiss Strafe completely and say go with Deep Breathing or some other combination. I'm just curious to see if there are any actual tests for Strafe. Personally I've liked the trait and I think it's worth another look.

does strafe improve the potency of healing breath?

Nope. However, back when I did have Deep Breathing merits my regular healing breath was able to recover about 55% of my Taru HP. Long story short I didn't find Deep Breathing to be a huge asset for me when I did solo as Drg. Also HP merits are out of the question since I went with MP merits for my main job.

I do have a question though regarding the Wyvern macc from Strafe and the dmg from Deep Breathing. 5/5 Deep Breathing has a 5 min recast right? With Drg/Sam as it is now with Spirit/Soul feeding us TP like crazy, would the x2 dmg Deep Breathing every five mins do more DOT than the higher macc breaths from all the WSs done within a five min period? Can be in exp or HNMs, my experience with the latter is rather limited when it comes to Drg.

Edit: I'm still thinking each lvl of Strafe increases the breath macc by a set amount, I'm assuming it does.

You do know that Hasso only gives a bonus to two handed weapons, so it does nothing for your wyvern right?

Please stop pretending strafe does anything of use whatsoever. It's just awful.

simply put...I really don't think so... strafe will simply lower the resist rate, but deep breathing actually enhances potency by quite a lot

Why merit strafe when you can use DRACHEN ROLL!!
lawl

So is your Ulthalam's Ring.
Quite possibly. Wyvern TP influences elemental breath macc, so it's conceivable that you'd see a decent boost. Deep Breathing is indeed a potent boost, but 1) it's every 5 minutes and 2) cuts into your melee time with JA delay. Any time you don't use Deep Breathing at recast, it's weakened further. Nice for soloing though.

or you can get 5/5 deep breathing AND 5/5 strafe and say f-you angon!! lol... i wouldn't..just sayin..its doable lol

Less than 5/5 Angon honestly isn't the worst idea. A lot of ***dies in under a minute and many people have defense down weapons, which override Angon. It's still fantastic for zergs, epeening, and even general use so obviously 0 merits in it is a terrible idea like you said, but arguments for 5/5 are pretty tenuous these days as well unless nobody in your shell uses defense down weapons *and* you take DRG to big non-zerged NMs on a regular basis. Mine hasn't seen the light of day outside zergs, exp, and trials in a long time, so I'm happy with 2/5.

Does Empathy have any modern appeal now? Some of the given effects added to your wyvern would be nifty and would contribute somewhat significantly to overall DPS.

Getting the right buffs to transfer is too much of a hassle imo. Didn't bother with it.

Yeah. Too many end up being redundant and do nothing to assist your DPS.

NO

I feel so speshul.

Late reply to a quote as I just now noticed it. link for you~

also note: i said hasso is transferable, i NEVER said it did anything >_>

I feel like it's worth noting that 5/5 Angon helps with NMs a lot and I think should be higher priority than anything else on cat2.

It also stacks with Dia III for super rape.

5/5 Angon allowed me to do ACP final fight zerg method at 75. I was thinking doing Empathy 2/5 and Deep Breathing 3/5 and leaving Strafe.

Also having the Angon I think maybe helps with the new Abyssea NMs when u want a smaller party to not have as much Cast Lots competition on seals.

Again, this depends on what you use your DRG for. If ***isn't lasting longer than one minute, anything beyond 2/5 is useless.
DRG would be one of the first jobs I'd cut out of such an equation tbh. Angon isn't exactly critical to success, especially if you have other sources of defense down. Beyond that, all DRG contributes is damage. Better to bring jobs that can fulfill multiple critical roles at once, such as DD + tank.

im gonna do 5/5 DB 3/5 empathy and 2/5 angon only time i have problems with wyvern elemental breath is when it uses a HELP I AM TRAPPED IN 2006 PLEASE SEND A TIME MACHINE breath, and outside of abyssea pts im always /mage anyways

Deep Breathing 4/5
Angon 5/5
Empathy 1/5

I can't justify Strafe really, it's just not something that would matter much. Unless the HNM is effectively melee only without dangerous AOEs and your wyvern isn't dying, it's worthless.

Empathy on it's own is fairly worthless, but comes in handy for certain things... Cocoon, SS, Haste.

Still a shame Hasso doesn't work with it though...

However, keeping your Deep Breathing high, will allow you actually produce higher breath damage over time. With the use of Dragoon's Earring also, it doesn't really do much for you or your wyvern.

It's funny, but for a long time people got Strafe because they believed it gave them +5 Accuracy per level. (Lol)

Anyways, it's always interesting to see how people set up their merits. In a way it just depends on playstyle, but some are more effective dependant on situation than others.

Thats what I went with.

I ended up going..
5/5 Deep Breathing
4/5 Angon
1/5 Empathy

I don't ever regret getting empathy..its nice using Spirit Link when your pet has full health..George gets my buffs and I get Georges TP..its way nice.

Imo Strafe is a waste of merits.