Why so few Rangers?

[Zath]

Hello, I'm new to the forums, but already I've noticed that RNG doesn't seem to see much action in our own grouping, nor, from my experience, does it appear often in game.

Noone in my Linkshell thinks highly of RNG ("It's too expensive", "It doesn't seem very fun", etc) so I'm curious to hear from other Rangers why you think we're not very popular.

I'm a Tarutaru, so I'm crappy, and I started life as a BLM, so I'm kind of a crappy melee, but I was instantly attracted to Ranger because it seemed the most dramatic job---what other job lets me strike a pose as I pull back the string on my bow before launching enough damage at my opponent that even as a crappy Tarutaru the mob often takes notice of me?

I'm a little put off by the fact that now that I've returned to the game the level-cap has been raised to such a degree that Samurai has become not only viable but a sub-job of choice for MOST of us, forcing me to learn a job I know almost nothing about; I will do it (of course!) because nothing is too good for my most beloved job and though I'm small and crappy I want to be the best (small and crappy) Ranger I can be.

Again, I just want your thoughts, people. What's wrong with our job that is keeping folks from wanting to emulate us? I love this job, and I search every site I can for more information to improve my rangery-ness.

Props to you all for staying on a sinking ship. But WHY is it sinking? I did a /sea all RNG shortly before the servers shutdown and I was only finding like 10 on my server. Where have you all gone! T.T

[Catsby]

Short answer: arbitrarily set limitations on the ranged attacking.
long answer: see the thread I started.

[Neisan_Quetz]

Not a desired job for lowman situations.

[Karumac]

I love to point out the time I was RNG in a semi-lowman situation and BlueProc was Archery.

[Hoshi]

Ranger is still my favorite job. I rarely play it because my linkshell's playstyle rarely uses rangers. It is not the expense of ranger that makes it less desirable, it's the fact that traditional DD buffs don't benefit ranger and rangers have a nasty habit of moving the monster. The real ranger killer though is the fact that no ranged weapon skill is able to proc red !!!.

[Mirabelle]

i agree with the sentiments expressed above.

To me, the big killers for RNG are the inability to keep the mob from moving (i.e. enmity control) and the inability to proc red or yellow in Abyssea.
The fact that we pay for damage that is no better or worse than any other dedicated melee is just icing on the cake. Then add in the fact that we can do little other than use shadows to fend off damage, and doing so significantly nerfs our damage due to the lack of auto-attack, well, you can see the picture.
There is very little in the game that needs kiting and damage from a distance anymore. In Abyssea, brews, endless MP WHM's and super high HP MNK's have negated the need for kiting most of the time. Outside Abyssea, nothing is overpowering to level 90's save AV and PW.
ANd being a dedicated Xbow RNG, SE really killed us with no magian XBow weapons at all.

[Kitkat]

I love playing rng, but the utility, enmity generation, and the fact we are only good for Blue !! proc makes it a less than desirable job most of the time. Yes, a rng can wield a dagger/axe/sword/club also, but with JA and skills that favor ranged attack over melee (and sorry kclub does not apply here) who would want to use them?

Rng can still do pretty decent damage, but can't really put out when the mob is clawing your eyes out and either the following occurs: You take it like a champ and keep shooting until the bitter end, or you stop all actions and try to stay alive until it decides to gnaw on someone else.

Rng could really use some -enmity Job abilities (other than stealth shot) and should have some Weaponskills shifted from Physical to Magical so that we can be desired for more than just Blue !! This baffles me the most that we have no WS that is considered Red !! even though the description of Flaming Arrow is "Deals fire elemental damage to enemy. Damage varies with TP. " I have Abyssite of decernment and using this weaponskill gives me the message for Blue !! =/

[Trellosaurus]

I very much agree with the sentiment on the lack of xbow Magian weapons. I love this job with a burning passion but it's not desirable because of it's durability (which is bad: paper-thin gear and crap evasion), lack of enmity control (even with stealth shot), and a low range of weapons able to activate many stagger conditions, if any at all. I think the reason Ranger is seen so rarely these days is because the people that like to play it remember the old days and love to get out there and throw around some huge numbers no matter how inconvenient it is for everyone. Although when it's serious business time I tend to go for MNK or NIN because RNG well.. I hate to say it's impractical in Abyssea but... well you decide. I love RNG.

[Mirabelle]

I love my ranged attacker jobs too. But its toolset has been completely dismissed by the general population.
I hate it when SE wrecks a job so it loses its popularity. Seems so hard to get it back. Not that I want RNG to be a huge bandwagon job again, but some balance would be nice.

[noodles355]

Ranged damage is calulated differently from melee damage. STR is essentially twice as affective and our weapons have DMG ratings in the 160s. The highest melee DMG weapon is Apocalypse with 140. Our damage output per hit does not reflect this, however. Crit hits also add very little damage.

The damage is lower than a melees, and yet we still have to pay for ammunition. 240k stack of arrow quivers. 120k stack silver bullet pouches. 40k for one stack of dark adaman bullets.

Our trump card (shooting out or range) becomes irrelevant because everyone is doing much more damage (Atma, Buffs) but the hate cap has not been raised. Ranger has no means to shed enmity other than High Jump from /Drg.

Ranger is very flawed. And it pisses me off because I love the job.

[Catsby]

bunch of stuff.

this.

I'm fairly certain that Ranger hasn't received any actual attention in years and Bounty shot was shoehorned in at the last moment to make it seem otherwise. Abyssea makes all of it blatantly obvious though as others have shown in other threads. I'm half tempted to go rebuild all my tests that got erased and post the metrics again just to show how old Ranger is.

[Mirabelle]

I note the Dev's haven't even bothered to acknowledge any of these threads in the RNG forum. Another indication they are sticking their heads in the sand about the job. Working as intended I guess.

Got my 9th coin of ardor the other day. Spent it on the COR frac rather than the RNG Sayon. Why use AF+2 items on a job just getting mothballed day by day.

[Glamdring]

I'm gonna take a wild guess: a. it costs a fortune for your main job, b. it costs a fortune for your /nin, c. you die alot solo (which is how you are probably gonna level your early levels), d. party leaders look for blm before they start looking for rng and there are plenty available, and e. rng damage gives TP but magic is generally safer.

Sucks, I love partying with rangers, although every once in a while I run across one with no concept of hate control; you get that from every job, but ranger has the tools to pull hate in 1-2 attacks and keep it for awhile, if they live long enough to keep it once they have the mob's attention.

Good advice from a range buddy of mine: get WW to 100 before you start the job and make friends with lots of other crafters. If you meet someone who's a good farmer it wouldn't hurt to be on good terms with them, too.