Ranger wan-... NEEDS.

[Catsby]

A few weeks back, I did between 2800 and 3200 dmg with an Empyreal Arrow to the Iron Giant in Abyssea-Altepa...I can't remember which is was, it was just really friggin high. This is with /NIN sub.

WS damage is only part of your damage output and any other DD can hit those numbers.

The purpose of this thread was to point on how fundamentally broken RNG is when compared to other jobs in the same category and how little attention it has received lately. Back then it had options to compliment play styles. Your bows and bowguns were quick and had additional effects like elemental damage or various status effects. Guns kind of made you into a glass cannon if you burned all your JA with them. Those types of playstyles haven't transitioned well over the years because;

1) gear, weapons and ammo remained somewhat stagnate.
Examples; the damage/add.eff on elemental bolts/arrows doesn't increase with level and has a cap. Ebow was the best well into ToM (reminder: it's level 55). somebody already brought up kclub and that's pretty self explanatory.

2) very old restrictions remained in place.
Examples; Ranger is forced to wait several seconds before continuing primary functions. In that time several melee attack rounds can occur.
Go into abyssea on your favorite melee class and use these atmas; razed ruins and gnarled horn. Let a couple thousand attack rounds occur and parse your critical hit rate and then do the same with ranger. note the staggering difference.

3) all the other jobs were improved. (this one is just depressing)
Example; Look at any damage dealer other than Ranger around ToAU and then now. Chances are that job received a multitude of new abilities, traits, weapon skills, spells, gear and adjustments that extended across multiple jobs. Ranger received an unimpressive ability to slightly enhance ranged attacks and... bounty shot. Outstanding...

[Virjunior]

Double Shot. I can crit for around 650. Rapid Shot. Snapshot. Maybe I might not feel like I'm doing a ton of damage, but I can still pull hate from a Thief that never stops attacking (RR, VV, Alpha & Omega). They can do crazy amounts of DoT, but I still manage to take hate off of them, even with about -15 enmity on my gear. Sure, crazy DDs can put out 4000s or 5000s, but I don't see that outside of an insane WAR in my shell who spends more of his time eating dirt than fighting (Double Attack at work), or the leader (MNK with fully upgraded 90 Spharai, and Ascetic's Fury). We can also produce a bunch of damage from nowhere in the form of Barrage, which might as well be a paid Sekkanoki or Meditate of sorts.

When it comes to melee WSes or DoT, those are the only 2 who beat me. When I play DRK, I can crit for the same amount as my RNG, and of course around 900-1000ish with a Magnus Scythe, but for all intents and purposes, I find Ranger more interesting, and more versatile than DRK sometimes. If a friend goes to do Carabosse, I can save our RDM and MNK-tank some stress by firing off some acid and blind bolts. It actually does help, and if I need to heal a bit, I can use bloodies. If I need more damage, I'll pull out my longbow. True, I almost always miss Drain I/II, Dread Spikes and Stun, but you can't have everything...

I'm just hoping I can get some +2 stuff to check out:
"Set: Augments Rapid Shot"
"Enhances Velocity Shot effect"
"Enhances Snapshot effect"
"Enhances Double Shot effect"
"'True Shot' +1"

I really don't see how RNGs might complain, often thinking that because they used to pay for broken damage, anything less is for peasants. I agree that additional effects should scale up, as putting on an extra 40 MND hasn't made any changes to Holy Bolts that I can see. Aside from that, I'm just surprised how many people don't want to show restraint in their damage, and each DD expects to be able to dismantle nearly anything by themselves. I wouldn't play this game if things were like that, or it'd be too easy. That, or it'd be WoW.

I like cooperating with others, and of course I like the feeling of saving a mage's ass with a well timed Stun on an add. Still, I wouldn't want a single-player game that just happens to be online, and find plenty of great usefulness for my RNG over my DRK. I find the opposite true in other cases, and that's why I leveled both. I like them both for their different styles and where they can each be awesome at completely different things, at different times, and in different situations.

Clumping together all non-mage DDs and expecting them to all perform the same would invalidate the very fact that there are seperate DD jobs. Not to mention, it would make for a shite game.