Ranger wan-... NEEDS.

[Catsby]

Many years ago Ranger was an awesome job but for both mathematical and strategical reasons it was declared "broken" and subjected to the most ham-fisted nerfs in the game's history. Some of that nerf has been undone but not much has been seen to improve or even maintain /ra. As a result Ranger and ranged attacks in general have become largely superfluous. Here is what I believe would vastly improve Ranger and at least make it comparable to other jobs in it's category.

1. More ranged attack.

Ranger requires a huge amount of ranged attack in order to reach the full end of its potential. That amount is completely unrealistic by current standards. By completely unrealistic I mean it requires 2 other players in the party on support jobs, food, temporary items, job abilities on by main and sub job, cruor enhancements, atmas and amazing gear. If you manage to gather all that you can create a small window of time where a Ranger is almost as effective as any other damage dealer with half the amount of enhancements. This is partly due to the fact that Ranger has very limited access to ranged attack gear that it desperately needs. Ranged attack knives/axes are absent from magian trials and many newer pieces of gear actually offer less ranged attack than older and lower level counterparts.

2. Automated attacking.

Another reason Ranger falls far behind other jobs is because it needs to maintain appropriate distance from its target, get input from the player before it can initiate each attack round and then must remain still once the attack round begins. Other melee jobs can run circles around their targets while attacking but a Ranger is penalized if their character doesn't stop moving before or starts moving after they try to shoot. This problem is further complicated when a player wants to shoot multiple times but lacks the accuracy or precision of a computer so valuable seconds are wasted in between shots. To make matters worse there are global cooldowns after job abilities and interrupts which slow down Ranger even more.

3. More ammunition.

One of the most crippling problems with Ranger is the lack of ammunition available. A trip to the auction house will show you that higher level arrows and bullets are either extremely expensive or simply not available. This is probably because of Ranger's general lack of popularity but also because the materials require to make most ammunition are difficult to obtain. Making NPCs that sell or synthesize ammo for you would be awesome. Not only is the lack of ammunition a problem but the lack of variety is as well. Ranger has dozens of bolts, arrows and bullets they can use from level 1 until 60. All of them with different effects and server different purposes. From 60 to 90 ammo quickly boils down to highest base damage. Having higher level equivalents to status effect and elemental effect ammo would be extremely cool.


That about sums up my feelings toward Ranger right now. It was my first job to 75 years ago and it's depressing to see it in it's current state. I'm sure a bunch of other people share my opinion or have very similar thoughts.

tl;dr version

1. Ranger needs more ranged attack gear. badly.
2. Human error hurts Ranger proficiency more than other damage dealers
3. Ammo selection and availability is terrible right now.

[Bilonn]

My thoughts. I know I've not gotten ranger far yet, but I'm looking at doing so eventually. (Ammo and has been my main reason for delay.)

#1 doesn't concern me as much. I don't say it's not important, but it's not as big of a limiter as the other two for me.

#2 should be an additional pair of traits... say something like..

Passive Traits:
Moving Shot I: RNG Lvl 40
Ranged Attack is not interrupted when moving at walking speed (Auto-Run turned Off)
Moving Shot II: RNG Lvl 80
Ranged Attack is not interrupted when moving.

Also agree that an auto-attack option needs to be explored for rng. Maybe set it as an option for /ra, such as '/ra on' and '/ra off' for us to use as macros, but tie these to a passive trait given to rangers at lvl 1.
Thus, using /ra on as a war does nothing... Make it a ranger thing.. or maybe even a RNG/COR ability. Help them out too.

Constant Barrage: RNG Lvl 1, COR Lvl 1
Allows Ranged Auto-Attacking (Trait not available unless Ranger or Corsair is Main Job)

#3 could be, as you say, NPCs. I would say that they would sell lvl 60-70 ammo, and barter materials for lvl 70+ ammo. Really would be useful.

[Hinabi]

Ok well I wrote a nice long reply to this but when I tried to post, it redirected me and said I wasn't logged in so I'll summarize.

#1
I've noticed a lack in power compared to other DDs, this could be the solution.

#2
I don't agree here. I think it separates <Ranger> from other DD jobs that can just auto-engage and AFK. It feels like it actually requires a bit of skill to pull of smooth consecutive shots.

#3
I'd like to see some revisions to current ammo recipes and some new high level status bolts.
Even if an alchemist decided to skillup on Wind Arrowheads and puts them on AH, they will never be turned into arrows because Dogwood Lumber is far too expensive to justify it. Let me use Arrowwood Lumber to craft all arrows and Ash Lumber for all bolts. Also, why can't elemental arrows be turned into quivers? I can't carry twelve stacks of arrows and party leaders get upset when I craft during battle. I could enjoy some level 75 bind and slow bolts or even advanced element arrows: Blizzard Arrows do ice damage and paralyze.

[Mirabelle]

My biggest beef with RNG is that we have no way to do good damage and still keep the mob at optimum ranged distance for best damage. One successful barrage and mob is peeling away from other DD's straight for you. Even BLM's (the other ranged DDer) has access to more -enm gear and Enmity Douse/Mana Wall to help with that problem.

SE needs to solve that more than anything.

So I'd propose that Ranged attacks do 1/4 the enmity they currently do. Even better, Slugwinder should have the acc penalty removed and have a enmity down TP modifier like Wildfire does. If I can shoot at will and not worry about pulling the mob away fro the melee (causing them to miss WS), I'm more likely to get an invite. That and put Hot shot/Flaming arrow on the red proc list.

[Maginmartin]

Bilonn's suggestions are good. Hell, everyone's suggestions here are good.

As for the enmity thing, in a previous update our overall enmity was to be reduced, instead we got left with the Camouflague effect - it's a nice little thing, but I believe it should be changed to allow WSs and barrage to work w/out it wearing off, i.e. make it a 3min -enmity down thing. Either that, or leave it as is and just have ranged attacks generate less enmity, like your previous plans.

Come on SE, RNG needs some love, we've fallen far far far behind other DDs, and we would really appreciate a boost!

[xbobx]

What about crits. You have RR and GA which does wonders for Melee, but not as much for Ranged. Maybe it is time to let Ranged attack do full crits like melee?

[Kyoshin]

What about crits. You have RR and GA which does wonders for Melee, but not as much for Ranged. Maybe it is time to let Ranged attack do full crits like melee?

Since you're referencing atma we'll delve into Abyssea use only. Perhaps enhance the RAtk values on those specific atma to numbers where it'll actually help to compete?

[Dais]

As a corsair, I support most of these Suggestions. We corsairs share in your ammunition frustrations, they have us shooting gold literally now.
I have come to accept my low ranged attack but rangers are there just for attacking and not buffing too. I can sympathize with your issues, I think most of it comes from how ranged damage calculations differ from melee damage. I'm unsure about auto attacking ranged attacks but maybe something along the lines of instantly shooting a second shot as soon as it's ready if you /ra <t> while aiming the first shot? keep the speed mechanical but the choice to shoot intentional.
I like that moving shot trait idea, it would aid in my swashbuckling. as long as I could interrupt my aim on purpose by turning away or something.

[Lascivious]

I agree with Mirabelle on the enmity problem with Ranger, but I think that extends beyond Ranger into how enmity works in this game. At about 7-8k damage or so you cap your enmity, and at that point you will pull hate with every last action. SE really needs to increase the cap on enmity through damage so ALL melees aren't capping it so easily ( especially since 8000 damage is so feasible for everyone inside Abyssea ), which would actually help PLD be a better tank. A solution to this seems like it can only be solved with a complete overhaul of the enmity system, which might just be a pipe dream at the moment! Perhaps making the camouflauge enmity effect/duration a LOT stronger? Or a job trait that affects the amount of enmity you generate based on your positioning in accordance with the monster ( 1/4 enmity per shot when directly behind )?

I can't offer much input as far as enmity, but what I do want to address is Ranger's inability to keep up with other DDs. I think RNG does fine as far as how much damage it deals per shot/critical hits, it's simply the rate at which you can shoot. Snapshot and Rapidshot are nice, but they are hardly as effective as a standard melee's haste or even double attack/triple attack and also not nearly as available without having to sacrifice a lot of damage per shot. We all know dual wield is practically king in Abyssea, and it's unfortunate that Ranger cannot even come close to compare to the amount of damage Ninjas and Thieves put out. I think Double Shot becoming a fulltime buff just like Velocity Shot would put RNG a bit over the top... but it'd be nice! Maybe a double shot effect when True Shot is in effect?

The problem with tweaking RNG is that a small amount will probably go a long way, and if tweaked too much RNG will be top once again ( which will cause an impending nerf! ). I would think that something like reducing the delay after ranged attacks when the next one can be started would be subtle enough to help RNG out a lot. It was great back then when RNG didn't have to rely on DoT for their overall damage, but lately Sidewinder has been falling back behind everything else. Even Arching Arrow in Abyssea, although it puts out better numbers than Sidewinder, isn't significantly stronger. Jishnu's Radiance is on par with other good Empyrean WSs, but that just means it all comes back to how much damage you're doing outside of weapon skills which puts us far behind simply because of the volume of attacks. I don't know really. I'll come back if I have ideas that aren't stupid! Feel free to critique my suggestions.

And by the way, movement while ranged attacking is never going to happen... although the thought makes me drool, that's just completely broken! Infinite arrow kiting!

[Kitkat]

Outside of Abyssea, my DD capabilities are either on par with "decent" geared melee DD, but maybe only 2/3 the capabilities of Uber geared melee DD. I'll agree that the recent addition of 15 levels on Rng has actually seen a decrease in Ratt on gear in favor of Racc or STP+. I love Emp. Artifact armor for Rng, but at the same time I find myself Questioning if the full set is worth using over certain older pieces (C.C.A/P.P.A, Skadi or Relic Feet/A. Mantle) mainly due to the loss of Ratt in the slots. My new Rng set sports an amazing -40Enmity, easy 6hit build, and nice chunk of Racc/str/agi/skill, but only +46~50ratt compared to the alternative of +68~80ratt using older options?

I wonder on the -Enmity since I noticed little difference in the amount of hate I could pull prior to having any -enmity.

DD in abyssea seems ok in the sense of DoT. High 200~400 (high is crits) per hit (based off fighting buffalo in Abbysea - U. Range), but my blu does 120~240 (high is crits) and attacks much more often. WS damage is where I see the weakest numbers, but still relatively strong for a single hit WS, 1800~2900 (Full buffs+stalwarts+flashy shot), but the average is in the 1400~1700 range. This seems...rather low considering the 97D bow and 40D arrow I'm using. I would just like to see better numbers out of a Rng wearing +60Str, +50Agi, +50ratt using a 97+40D weapon (pre-atma).

Maybe the utter lack of +Ratt, or lower Delineation of Str affecting Ratt Dmg is the issue. Being as the Bow is technically considered a 2Hand weapon maybe SE needs to give it the same .75 buff that Scyth/GK/Gaxe/Polearm got a few years back.