@Nalien
That's not entirely correct.
For the trial WSs such as Steel Cyclone/Decimation/Impulse Drive ect. your base skill is what counts, not your merits.
To the question that was originally the answer is yes. You have always been able to do this as long as I can remember since they added merits.
lol, yall are funny i was asking if the merits have anything to do with having sidewinder at 165 skill. I was goin there to skill up archery because im lvling rng atm.
even with merits dumped into a skill. if you have not got said skill excluding the lvl 290-300 weapon skills you will not have it. that is unless they have changed it.