Returning player looking for info

Hi there everyone, glad to be back (and with friends!) to FFXI. I noticed this forum doesn't see many posts, but it does appear the community rep does talk to the dev team and seems to care what we say. That's awesome. To be honest i would have expected little to no interaction from the dev team, but that's neither here nor there.

So i've noticed that we now have recycle, and get it fairly low in level. That's awesome to hear, since even with selling spark gear i am still going to be plowing through my gil buying bullets. My question regarding Recycle is i know it climbs to about 55% by level 99, and an additional 25% with merits (additive?). But what about when i get it at 20? I know most players now a days are either 99 in every class or have someone who can take them somewhere and get them there in a few hours, but there are some people like myself who have to/want to level the old fashioned way: With my friends. So how that ability helps us out at low level would be awesome.

In terms of damage, where are rangers right now? Based on my reading it appears we are essentially in line with other damage dealers, but unlike them we have the detriment of having to pay for our ammo. This cannot be right, is it? Are we out damaged by classes and still have to rely on crafting/mountains of gil to do equal or sub-par damage? I do hope that's not the case, and any info on that would be awesome.

So moving on to enmity. Again, from my reading which is staggered between 2009 to present, it seems that our biggest thing is having to pull more hate than the tank, except when we get a certain weapon that gives us a weapon skill that causes next to no hate. Is this by design? Or just what people have been doing? Also, just how easy is it for us to pull hate? I always loved guns, but remember that with their enormously increased damage came super high costs so i could never play it. With RoE i already have 5 stacks of bullets waiting for me to hit 22 and giggle like a schoolgirl as i rip through something. Will i be forced to sit back and do nothing for some time while my group/trusts get enough enmity that i can actually participate?

Speaking of guns, is there any indication that this "Sweet spot" crap will be removed? I remember i was actually playing my ranger when it came about. I didn't like it then and it still makes little sense. Especially seeing as the gun's sweet spot is pretty much using it to perform dental work. One of the things i loved about ranger was demolishing people from Waaaaaay back. I dunno why, it was just fun to me. But i guess the sweet spot thing really also hinges on whether or not it's a buff to our damage or just something we have to abide by in order to deal okay damage. If it's the latter than honestly why have it? Mages don't need to be at exactly 10 yalms as they launch off stone V to deal the damage they are designed to. Not to mention their ammo regenerates. For free. I know with the addition to Recycle and scavenge i shouldn't have to worry about ammo once i get to 99, but that's still quite a road.

On the topic of firearm dental work, being that close to an enemy... Should i utilize my weapons to build TP toward my next weapon skill? I'm thinking that's the best bet since the range on guns is so incredibly short i may just be in it while i swing daggers or whatever i have on hand. But if i'm wrong i'd like to strike that from my head asap.

Aaaand finally, two last questions. One: is there still a big huge difference between guns, bows, and crossbows? Last i remember, guns were there for "holy crap where did the mob go?" level of damage. Crossbows were for strange effect bolts... sort of like a pseudo spellcaster. And bows were for faster shots and cheaper ammo. Is this still true? Or has time leveled out the playground and now guns are just more expensive bows for no reason? And two, the technical question: with damage and delay calculation, do i just add the bullets to the gun? Or is there some form of interaction between the two? That's just one that has been irking me forever now.

Looking forward to hearing from you guys on this one!

Don't think anyone has bothered testing it at a lower levels. Yes recycle is additive and with hat too but seems to cap at around 90%.

Except in specific situations rngs aren't nor will they likely every be the best dmg because they have other advantages. Also they aren't that expensive anymore. 90% recycle rate combine with the scavenge changes makes ammo last a really long time.

Not really sure what you mean it sounds like you are wanting to pull hate? Rngs design is quite the opposite. The ability to deal dmg out of range of the mobs AoEs while pulling as little hate as possible using decoy shot and relic ws. You can still pull hate if you want to fairly easy though. Again ammo isn't as much a concern anymore especially compared to things like food or gear

Sweet spot has been around for what 9 years now? It's not going away anytime soon because you can overcome the penalties with enough ratt/-def. And with true shot it gives you bonus dmg. Kinda hard to use logic to compare magic with shooting bullets <.<. Also they need mp to cast.

You mean mainhand melee weapons? Um no you shouldn't be in melee range. Gun sweet spot is not in melee range to begin with and that takes away one of the biggest reasons to actually bring a rng.

That wasn't really true at anytime. Bolts were for fast dps and pulling with some hard to parse additional dmg that made them nice dmg but kind of niche use but rarely did rngs use them for debuffs (though thfs and drks occasionally did). Comparing bows and guns they had similar overall dps but iirc bows had slightly better ws and guns had better shooting dps. Right now xbows kinda suck because they haven't gotten much. Between bows and guns it's still fairly similar dmg though bows probably have the most powerful ws but guns get access to nice magical ws to mix it up. For dmg yes you add the ranged with the ammo. For how long it takes to shoot just the ranged weapon. For tp calculations it uses the delay of the ammo and ranged weapon.