One of my favorite FFXI jobs is MNK. I have it to 75 on my main. Now, I'm 0/7 on Byakko's Haidate. I save up gil, buy a pop set and shout for a group. They've yet to drop for me. That's a lot of gil down the drain. I'm not rich by any means.
My alternate character, the one I acquired from a friend several months ago, has a B.Haidate. I'm thinking I'll just level that MNK to 75. My friends think it's dumb, but I can likely get it to 75 before I can get the pants on my main. I recently hit DRK75 on my main, and it's already better geared than my MNK. So this way, my main (PLD DRK MNK BLM BLU) can have Scythe, Sword, and Shield capped merits, and my alt (RDM BLM NIN MNK) can have Katana, H2H, and Evasion capped merits. This seems like the best method to maximize the jobs I like. Eventually my alt will have RNG75, and then I'll have to worry about swapping some combat merits. I'll probably swap Katana for Archery, since I hardly ever use NIN anyway.
Bleh.