Archery in exp parties?

[CidBahamut]

A crazy concept I know, but it's one I've been kicking around for a while now.

I've often found myself in situations where I'm sitting around twiddling my thumbs in parties because everything else is taken care of. Everyone has their HP up, is refreshed/hasted(/regened). The mob is a gibbering pile of status ailments. However sometimes I also can't afford to sit down for a tick of MP because I'm going to need to dispel in about 10 seconds. So I'm gonna be on my feet anyway, but MP isn't plentiful enough that I can opt to nuke.

Has anyone else found themselves in this situation before? I know it happens to me from time to time. I don't like sitting around idle in a party, it feels like I'm not contributing. So I've been toying around with the idea of bringing along a bow and arrow for these times. Not so much to focus on, but just something quick and convenient to fill those odd gaps and help contribute some damage without frivolously burning through my MP.

Am I totally off my rocker here, or is this an acceptable alternative to standing around picking my nose?

 

[Wagewar47]

A crazy concept I know, but it's one I've been kicking around for a while now.

I've often found myself in situations where I'm sitting around twiddling my thumbs in parties because everything else is taken care of. Everyone has their HP up, is refreshed/hasted(/regened). The mob is a gibbering pile of status ailments. However sometimes I also can't afford to sit down for a tick of MP because I'm going to need to dispel in about 10 seconds. So I'm gonna be on my feet anyway, but MP isn't plentiful enough that I can opt to nuke.

Has anyone else found themselves in this situation before? I know it happens to me from time to time. I don't like sitting around idle in a party, it feels like I'm not contributing. So I've been toying around with the idea of bringing along a bow and arrow for these times. Not so much to focus on, but just something quick and convenient to fill those odd gaps and help contribute some damage without frivolously burning through my MP.

Am I totally off my rocker here, or is this an acceptable alternative to standing around picking my nose?

I think it's fine if:

a) you make the party and tell them you are doing it. or
b) ask the party leader if they are cool with it.

It's a nice gesture that you want to contribute more, but I think it sets you up for the "Why is this freakin noob shooting arrows" crap from the mouth-breathers in the party. Also RDM's Archery skill only has a D rating, if you are lucky enough to hit a mob, it will probably be for 0 damage, going on the assumption that you are not wearing/macroing Ranged ACC+ gear.

A wise rapper once said "Sit back, relax, catch a contact, sip some Cognac..." I say relax in the back and enjoy that you do have some free time , because it doesn't happen often.

 

[Nyosan~]

You're not going to reliably hit anything at a VT/IT level with RDM's archery. At worst, you're throwing money and missing. At best, you're doing slight damage and feeding TP to the target.

Grab a knee, and get some of that less-than-plentiful MP back. If you need to jump back up to throw a dispel before you get a tick, so be it. There'll be a much shorter delay on casting the dispel when you're standing up from resting than if you've just hit that ranged attack macro, and have to wait for the shot to miss, and then for the delay that is imposed after the attack.

 

[CidBahamut]

I don't really buy the whole "feeding the mob TP" argument in general, but I suspect folks on the front line would probably be a better judge of that than me. Then again, my rate of fire would probably be something along the lines of one arrow every two or three mobs, possibly less.

The delay after firing the arrow I did not know about however, and that's good to know. I was under the impression that I was only delayed until the end of the animation. I guess I'll just stick to soloing with it then as something of a hobby rather than getting folks all riled up in parties.

 

[K. Ishitar]

lower levels like pre 40s maybe not a terrible big deal but as you get higher level you get more spells and dd seem to get squishier so you get more busy, higher you get up it wouldnt matter really in terms of enhancing effectiveness due to skill and the gear slots possibly wasted on enhancing a part of rdm at the cost of its stronger points like mnd,int,mph,etc. since you have only so many slots for gear

 

[mckenzie]

i've played around with rdm/rng for nm camping when i have a TH4 mule handy or it's not an issue. there are some potentially decent setups that rdm can put together for this purpose. the introduction of the failnaught is very nice for rdms, in addition to the -enm, it also has subtle blow (which defeats the feeding tp argument somewhat.)

joy/genbu/failnaught
O hat, peacock amulet/charm or hope torque,
pahluwan body, W-hands, some racc rings,
amemet mantle+1, buccaneers belt, amemet mantle+1, dusk/oily trousers

rdm doesn't really get access to good racc daggers (if i remember right?), so goin with your fav weapon or vulcan's staff/axe grip works.

but what it all boils down to is that in an xp setting: /rng is moderately worthless to your casting. if you want to macro some stuff in, and skill some archery, more power to you. just remember, your party wanted a rdm, so just like meleeing, make sure you've taken care of your magerly duties first, refresh/haste, debuff, cures/regens as needed, then you can do other stuff. i had a lot of fun tooling around rdm/rng, but it was all on my own time, camping and screwing around, not in xp