Taking up Ranger as a new job.

[Miera]

Hello, when I was doing an LS abyssea event a few days before tehy had to shut down the servers I had a conversation with a few LS mates about how nice it would be to have a Ranger in the LS. It struck an idea, I have been playing Mage jobs for far too long and the only non-mage jobs I do have leveled are jobs that people usually don't want in their Parties.

So I said i wanted to level RNG, back then I kept hearing rumors of how Ranger is so expensive and it'll eat your wallet but now money isn't an issue with me as much anymore, I have plenty of WW friends who said they would help me make the items I need for ammo.

I had a friend who leveled the job and found it to be loads of fun so I decided to level it as well..

For all you fellow Rangers out there can anyone tell me how ranger is now, prior to abyssea?

I'd also like to get some advice on the job as well, bullet, and gear wise.

[Alkalinehoe]

Hey Miera!

First off, RNG isn't too expensive if you TP in some cheap ammo and save the good arrows for WS (You can get a stack of quivers of Scorpion arrows between 30-60k, and Antlion Arrows are at 20k/stack). You do need quite a bit of gear to make RNG compete with other DDs. First off since you will most likely be using it as a proc whore at first, leveling your skills will be your first priority. DD-wise, you're gong to want to stick to bows. Jishnu's Radiance is RNG's best WS, up to that point, I would use Sidewinder/Slug Shot. I never really liked guns, and if that's what you're aiming for, it is going to be much more expensive. WoE Bow should do better than any other available gun.

This is my Sidewinder set for reference:
http://www.ffxiah.com/members/item-sets?id=200316

[Washburn]

Well, Bow v/s Gun. Bow has cheaper ammo, lower delay, slightly lower dmg, and a further "sweet spot", which can keep you out of a lot of AoE's that would otherwise hurt you, which means, you need less DEF gear or /nin, or whatever... at least until you get the feel of it.

Emnity is something you have to feel out and kinda know your RNG and the mobs you're fighting.

Gun on the other hand has a much higher delay, more expensive, rarer ammo and puts you almost always within 10 distance of the mob... which can be more dangerous. The worst part about it is sitting through a 600 delay time then missing. Skilling up sucks, which is why i wouldnt recommend using a gun until you're capped marksmanship, use an xbow.

obviously almost full AF3+2 is your main goal. Sidewinder / slugshot both use AGI and STR as modifiers so you'll want a nice balance of those, and more AGI if you're missing a lot, or dont have merits in whichever you're using most (gun/bow)

Also keep in mind that Detonator and Empyreal Arrow are both triggers for blue !!, so you'll need to unlock both.

Arrows are by far easier to get and make, theyre supprisingly cheap if you're on the inside loop of crafters. I would HIGHLY suggest getting synergy to 40+ as it will cut the cost of arrows by about 80%. Those stacks of antlion arrows you see on the AH going for 20-30k per stack... well, I can make them for about 5k a stack or less. so long as you have a friend who has bonecraft and another with cloth, then another with wood.

I know i'm kinda bouncing all over here, I'm trying to rush through everything and have some sushi with my name on it, and the g.f is on the way over, so i'm not even going to get into atmas, store TP, etc... but basically... get an osode, get af3 asap, ditch the osode when you +1 the body, work on bataleur +2... it's pretty beast for the work you put into it, and it'll hold you over til you do relic,emp, or whatnot, if you dont decide to, it's pretty much the next best thing.

[Hoshi]

When you say prior to abyssea I'm guessing you mean from 1-30? From 1-30 your best bet is probably to use crossbows. (I used bow all the way to obow btw). If you use a crossbow you can spam acid bolts for your party and they'll really appreciate it. If you choose to go the arrow route there are arrows that give ranged acc (like beetle arrows) and that's pretty nice too. Before nocturnal gear I don't think there's any set that really benefits ranger to the point where it's worth getting. You'll want to use a vulcan's staff once you can equip (51) it but before that archer's knives and hawkers knives are very nice. As a rule of thumb if you're not hitting things add more ranged acc but the moment you can hit things with your current gear start focusing on ranged atk (I don't think there's any snapshot gear at lower levels but to be honest I leveled ranger well before snapshot was added to the game).

At higher levels you'll probably want to switch weapons. If you can get an emp, the bow is very nice... in fact even the -1 ws is quite nice. I love the gun but a jishnu's radiance ranger is going to come out top on damage (and hate lol). For your final gear setup there are several stats you should focus on. Snapshot is the ranger version of haste, so it's quite good to have. If you're really good with macros you ought to be able to start your attack in snapshot and swap to whatever stat you want for the ranged attack just like you can do with fastcast (but configuring that will take time). Just like other DD if you can lower your hit build with store TP then it's a good idea to use store TP gear. Once your skill is capped you should have good accuracy with very little extra ranged acc gear (esp if you merit your skill). Fill your other slots with ranged atk where possible... a little bit of -enmity can't go wrong either. The empyrian ranger legs, head, and body are quite nice if you +2 them. The hands are useful if you can get a hit build from them (otherwise it's just a ws piece)... the back is also quite nice. I forget if the feet are better than relic atm. The ffxiah ranger forum is very friendly though so if you don't find the answers you want here you might check there.

[Miera]

Thanks for the advice guys, I really appreciate it.

When I said Prior to abbyssea I mean, I know back then there used to be plenty of Rangers out and they were all very much needed.

Now since we have Abyssea you don't see many and since we have Atmas gear choices do sometimes change. What I want to know is, are there needs for RNGs anymore? are they in demand or are they pretty much thrown out of Linkshells now since people just want MNKs and WHMs?

I'm not looking to Level my Ranger in Abyssea until Its 70+ Right now It is at 42 and I've been skilling up my Marksmanship and Archery. I am using Archer's Knives which are pretty dang neat and I did notice that there weren't much for Rangers before the Noct gear. Also the AH is pretty low on pretty much everything which is frustrating but all and all I am actually liking the job, it's quite a nice and different pace from the other jobs I had leveled.

[Mirabelle]

RNG aren't much in demand in Abyssea. They can proc Blue in Abyssea but most LS's just wait until night and use Blunt WS to proc blue weaknesses.
I haven't been invited to come to an event on RNG in months. And I have COR and RDM as my other jobs which are also so-so for Abyssea but my LS always prefers me on those two jobs (COR for regain whore and RDM for stun, backup heals). Admittedly we've been mostly procing red and yellow for KI's and +2 items these days so the real need for Blue procs has been minimal.

As far as low level gear is concerned: get Hunters knives and Noct +1 gear. That can last you until AF and axes/Vulcan's staff levels.

[Swords]

Bow and Gun/Xbow each have their advantages and disadvantages, but leveling both is essential. As a bit of advice, I would steer completely clear of any guns you might come across until your marksmanship is near capped at 90. As others mentioned, the delay is high, ammo is expensive, and it sucks to pull and skillup with. Crossbows on the other hand are great to skillup with, they're fast, have a large array of status effect bolts to use, and bolts are dirt cheap in comparison to bullets.

When choosing a bow/xbow, in most cases you want to pick the +1 versions. The reason being is the +1 versions usually have a heafty amount of ranged attack which is hard to come by in early levels, and the +1 versions are usually not very expensive anyways.

Ammunition is pretty much left to your discretion and pocketbook, its overall best to get something that gives you the best power for your buck allowing you to buy larger quantities. If your just skilling up however, just use cheap low level arrows and go easy on your coin-purse.

You have a much larger array of endgame bows, guns, and Xbows since abyssea came out. I think the general order of power for each is.

Bows:
Gandiva > Harrier +1 > Yoichinoyumi (lv90) > Vision bow > Murti Bow > Siege Bow > Vali's/Eurytos' Bow

Crossbows:
Gastraphetes (85) > Virtus Crossbow > Othinus' Bow

Guns:
Armageddon > Bedlam +2 > Annihilator (90) > Exequy Gun

You might come across a gun called Culverin/+1, while this is a good gun in it's own right it only uses Cannon/Heavy Shell ammunition. The drawback however is Shells are rare and expensive, additionally new releases of bullets beat Shells in power.

[Hoshi]

You might come across a gun called Culverin/+1, while this is a good gun in it's own right it only uses Cannon/Heavy Shell ammunition. The drawback however is Shells are rare and expensive, additionally new releases of bullets beat Shells in power.

Culverin is only useful in a zerg situation because cannon shells only stack to 12. Also damage from culverin+1 + cannon shells is only 141. Armageddon (lv 90) + silver bullets will put you at 145 damage. If you can get your hands on some of the newer bullets (which is nearly impossible to do on my server) you're looking at 154 damage. Of course with culverin's slightly higher TP per hit you might make an x-hit build easier. Regardless it's probably not worth using a culverin anymore.

[Washburn]

Bataleur +2 is very nice and smokes all but relic/emp

Darkwing +1 is also nice.

[Miera]

Thanks you guys for all the info. I just ran into a RNG woe a few days ago lol and I accidentally fired my Aeolus Arrow during an Unlimited Shot macro and I died a little inside lol

I was in Abyssea Mis doing an XP party and during my Unlimited shot macro I noticed all my JAs had been stolen including Unlimited shot.,,, Soooo It never triggered and My Arrow is now lost because someone decided to fight an Empheral Octopus thing behind me...