Best use for Merits?

If got a couple of characters that have built up a good deal of Merits (as in, over 200 each)... It's about time I began using them - but how would be the best way? While I've got some IOs I'm looking for, purchasing the recipes outright looks like a loosing proposition.

So how should I go about trading these merits for something useful?

The most bang for your buck (provided those characters are level 50) would be random recipe rolls in the 35-39 range. It's the best in terms of influence per merit.

If you want to get something to resell and don't want to risk getting a bunch of crap recipes from random rolls, a low level Luck of the Gambler is always worth the merits.

But remember, no matter how much inf you get, it is useless if what you are needing simply is not available (I'm looking at you, Unbounded Leap and Celerity Stealth recipes).

Traditional Market technique is one of two things:

1) Roll a bunch of times at level 50 (usually the 35-39 bracket), sell what you don't need, buy what you do. I prefer this, but I don't have the current numbers to say if it's the actual right thing to do compared to 2).
2) Pick a specific expensive recipe, sell it and buy what you need. Usual choices are minimum level Miracle: +Recovery, Luck of the Gambler: 7.5% Global, Numina: +recov/+regen. I think Blessing of the Zephyr: KB is also in that range (c.150-200 million crafted) but do your own research. It varies from week to week.

If you're under level 41, there is option
3) I buy rare rolls, 15 million per roll, paid in advance. That works out to about 180 million for a LoTG, which is ... close... to market price. I lose money on it but it amuses me.

Edit to clarify: Level 50 recipes sell for more than lower levels, almost always, even if they shouldn't. So people roll at level 50 and that's why there's nothing for sale below level 50. That's why I can both be underpaying slightly for merit rolls (depending on the market) AND be losing money on them.

The only thing that Merits can do that Influence can't is buy things that aren't in supply at the market. So I'd first look through your build and see if there are any recipes you want that have nonexistent or highly unreliable market supply (usually Pool Cs at low levels).

Beyond that, you're right that buying recipes outright is usually a waste of merits. You can try converting your merits into influence by buying high-value recipes with merits, selling them on the market, and buying stuff with the inf. At least blueside, LotG 7.5% (200 merits) is one of the better ones, though I'm not sure if it's the best.

I tend to recommend this over random rolls because it's difficult for the anti-market crowd (whose goal it is to manipulate you into not using the market at any cost) to contest.

I had a little over 300 merits on my MM so I bought a Luck of the Gambler 7.5 Global Recharge and sold it and made 130 mill. Thought that was a pretty good deal. And I still have merits left if I need some other things.

With merits they took away the random rolls at the end of TFs.

Anyway, if you are going to mess around with random rolls, go to here. It's the list of what is in what range.

I random roll all of the time, but I also have a good flow of merits at all times. I do feel that I have some good luck, but comes in waves.

This month flavor of the month blaster that I am working on is lvl 33 and already has 214 merits.

My last blaster had ver 500 merits at this time.

But DXP does help on gaining lots of lvls.

I gave up on random rolls, I don't have much luck. Now, I just save up the 200 merits for a 7.5 because I'm always in need of them.

Heraclea - you could also roll 25-29 - that would get you the bits that cap at 30 without all the 30-35 stuff you don't want.