Ranger 1-37

[Shadow1psc]

How should I play this? In all my FFXI time I don't think I've ever taken ranger past level 15 or so. I'm leveling it only as a sub for Samurai, and the time will come soon. I have essential rare/ex gear, and plan to sub war and ninja (mostly ninja after level 24). Have Bounding Boots and Emp Pin, AGI rings (or are the +racc rings better?) and the random armor for up to 30. Anything out of the ordinary I should get? I know to use the +1 greatbows and best arrows, but should I melee? I have sword and dagger skill capped, but what do I use before hawkers? Lot of questions I know heh, but lookin for some personal experiences and expert no-bullshit advice I like to play seriously and with standards (not ellitist, but definitely not gimp), and since I can (and probably will) solo most (if not all) 1-25 at the least, I basically need gear and playstile advice if i've missed anything h34r:

 

[Bajaratt]

+racc rings would be better than +agility. I believe they lessened the damage penalty from using ranged weapons up close, so you can melee again; but standing further back at the optimum distance would still yield the best ranged damage.

 

[Shadow1psc]

Speaking of which, what is the optimal distance now? I was there when the range nerf hit, but quit when they changed it again (for the better, right?).

And what to melee with? Or no melee?

 

[Bajaratt]

I don't know, I didn't play ranger after the nerf, so I never bothered to find out the correct distances.

As for what to melee in, axes are probably the best weapons since swords and daggers blow. If you find out the proper distance(wiki should have it) then you can check what your optimum damage is versus the damage in melee range and see if you think it's worth the per-hit damage loss for the increase in TP gain. The melee damage might even make up for the damage lost from each shot, but you'd have to test that; but rng is by far the easiest job to test for.

 

[Shadow1psc]

Sound advice, 1haxe good to range before hawkers then? And pretty much hawkers until 37?

 

[Bajaratt]

Archer's knives at 28, hawkers are crafted from the archers and only add 1 agility and 1 ranged accuracy, so you could buy archer's and have an alchemy buddy synth you up some hawker's. That's about all that'd be useful I think.

 

[ds083roadkill]

the r/e body from the slime in horoto ruins is nice until noct.

beestinger dose well till 28 i found.

acid/blind/sleep/venom/holy bolts are so good to use crossbow with.

lv 22 bullets are some freaky high dmg

 

[Inunabe]

If you're using a bow and don't have a windower and the distance mod about 7-8 paces from the mob is the best distance. If you have the distance mod up that'll be between 10-12 from the mob.

If you're using xbow it's about 3-4 paces from the mob. With the distance plugin that's about 5-6 from the mob.

Gun is pretty much right next to the mob.

You could melee fine if you're using a xbow and holy bolts, or a gun. With a bow it's not really an option. Also if you're using a bow, str is one of the modifiers, while agi is for guns, and I think a mix of str and agi is best for xbow. Not entirely sure on that. Honestly though, go for as much racc as possible to begin with.

 

[Shadow1psc]

Thanks for the info Inunabe, very helpful