A few issues with Ranger. Clear them up?

[Sornus]

Hey guys, I have just recently (And by recently I mean within the past four months) started ranger. I got woodworking up to 50 in an attempt to supply my own arrows, have got ninja, samurai and warrior leveld up, and I just hit 60 with Ranger today. So far I am loving it, really get a kick out of this job. There are a few things that are bugging me though that maybe you guys can help me with.

First off, I've known a few people who level up Samurai to 55 and then sub ranger and with Soboro just spam sidewinder and do pretty incredible damage. Because Soboro gains TP at such an incredible rate they get to WS more than we do normally. Now it seems like an awesome combo, but what I want to know is what makes us better than some Samurai using /ranger spamming sidewinder? Do we have some big differentiator that makes us better than that combo or what?

The other thing I am worried about is as much as I love this job a lot of what I read about it is that it does not go anywhere. It is not an Abyssea friendly job and apparently our damage equals out to other melee jobs endgame, the only difference being that we have to pay for our damage with every hit while they do not. Is Ranger a dead end job to continue on? I actually dropped Dark Knight in order to level Ranger because I was bored of it, but I really do not want to get to 75 or 80 or any higher level and find out that there is no use for my job in the game.

So to sum up, what makes Ranger a better combo than some Samurai/Ranger spamming sidewinder with Soboro? And is there a use for ranger endgame?

Hopefully some of this can be cleared up, thanks.

-- Sornus of Diabolos

[Washburn]

To start, you wont be feeding the mob as much TP with RNG.

RNG has more ranged accuracy, and seeing as how Sidewinder is a low accuracy WS, SAM will miss a LOT compared to RNG.

RNG gets Eurytos' Bow. Sam gets War Bow.

RNG gets to stay back and get the distance damage bonus.

the drawback is, you use a lot of ammo.

[Hoshi]

I love ranger too and find it to be lots of fun. The drawback is that you will almost never play it because as you pointed out it is useless in abyssea. People will argue that it can proc lots of blue !!! but so can mnk + whm during blunt time and your ls will probably find other things to do that require red or yellow !!! outside of blunt mode.

[Mirabelle]

In order for a SAM/RNG to hit Sidewinder reasonably well, they need a ton of RACC which they don't have as much access to. So while the RNG is stacking RATT and STR, the SAM needs to stack RACC, diminishing damage despite more freq WS. Soboro SAM/RNG is fun but it will be superceded in damage by a proper SAM/WAR with a magian weapon.

As far as RNG in endgame, the job will likely have to wait until everyone leaves Abyssea for the "Next Great Thing" TM.
Inside Abyssea its role is quite limited. I haven't been out on RNG in months.

[Cream_Soda]

despite more freq WS. Soboro SAM/RNG is fun but it will be superceded in damage by a proper SAM/WAR with a magian weapon.

Well, he's talking about level 60ish, so magians aren't an option for sam. The correct answer is that the same should be using polearm, and out dd'ing sam/rngs and rngs

[Feliciaa]

Honestly, I love RNG and it was the very first job I took to 75 when the game first came out in NA. I watched the job go from a must have to lolRNG over the years....

Mainly our mechanics are very flawed and don't flow with the game at all.. I.E. There is no auto-ranged atk and Ranged atks act just like JAs so you can't really do anything during the "Aim phase" nor 1-2 seconds after it. This means no other JA or spell such as third eye or shadows can be used.

We don't mesh well with other DD too because standing in the best dmg spot for us usually ends up moving the mob because we have no kind of noteworthy hate control/shedding tools at all and this causes every other DD to lose atk rounds or WSs.

Lastly, while we do gain access to snapshot it's very very very hard to compete with a DD who is getting magical haste in the form of haste spell, march song, and haste samba. AND they also have cap gear haste...

Sorry if it sounds like a bunch of QQ lol. This is just basic stuff that's being said on just about every NA + JP forum atm.
Instead of growing with the game we got Bounty Shot. >.>

[Mirabelle]

Well, he's talking about level 60ish, so magians aren't an option for sam. The correct answer is that the same should be using polearm, and out dd'ing sam/rngs and rngs

Well given a person remains 60ish for about 3 hours these days, it likely doesn't matter what he uses until endgame and then a Magian wins.
In old Vanadiel a polearm SAM ruled on colibri though.

[Cream_Soda]

Well given a person remains 60ish for about 3 hours these days, it likely doesn't matter what he uses until endgame and then a Magian wins.
In old Vanadiel a polearm SAM ruled on colibri though.

You're totally missing the point. I was referring to the OP's current position and nothing else, where as your post was referring to a completely different scenario, that was in no way shape or form related.

[Mirabelle]

You're totally missing the point. I was referring to the OP's current position and nothing else, where as your post was referring to a completely different scenario, that was in no way shape or form related.

Actually neither of us were referring to the OP's post which simply wanted to know if soboro SAM/RNG was better than RNG. My point was, that even if it was better at that stage, as time went on a Soboro SAM/RNG would be less useful than a regular SAM/WAR. That being said I agree that at 60 a polearm SAM is better than a RNG which is better than a SAM/RNG.