from FINAL FANTASY XI Development Team
Merit Point Additions (07/22/2006)

With the upcoming merit point additions, you will be able to improve your character even further with all-new abilities and spells in the existing 15 job categories.
Merit point job categories will also become available for blue mages, corsairs, and puppetmasters.

Merit Point Categories

The existing 15 job categories will be improved to allow players the opportunity to further customize their level 75 characters with unique abilities.
These improved categories will include 4 to 8 abilities for each job. Depending on the distribution of merit points, it will be possible for players to access multiple new abilities.
Check out the upcoming version update news for what's in store.

- Subcategories
The 15 existing job categories will be divided into subcategories. Group 1 will include conventional abilities, while Group 2 will include the new job abilities, job traits, and spells.

- Accessing New Abilities
You can access Group 2 abilities by spending 1 point on the ability you wish to learn. Additional points spent on the same ability will shorten the recast time or enhance the effect (refer to the help text for each ability to learn the specific bonus).
Lowering the number of merit points in an ability to zero will cause it to disappear from your ability list.

- Ability Point Maximums
The Group 1 and Group 2 subcategories have separate totals for the maximum number of possible ability increases. Spending merit points to improve conventional abilities will not affect the acquisition of the new abilities.

Merit Points for Blue Mages, Corsairs, and Puppetmasters

In the upcoming version update, merit point job categories will be added for the three new jobs introduced in the Treasures of Aht Urhgan expansion disc.
These categories will initially contain only the Group 1 subcategory, allowing players to improve the basic abilities for these jobs.