Sniper Rings...

[Thelps]

Ok, I'm a DRK/WAR who has just broken lvl 30 and I'm keen to try and get at least one sniper ring by the time I hit 40. The only problem is, I cant see how I can do that given I need to burn around 70k on new armor and another 70k ish at lvl 40 for new armor again (not to mention Sniper rings go for between 275-300k on my server).

Now, I'm sure everyone's sick of get-rich-quick style questions on these boards so all I was wondering is, how did you get your Sniper Rings? I've spent the last week farming NMs (Lizzie, Jaggedy eared Jack and Stray Mary) and have so far got a pair of Leaping Boots (only sell for 150-200k on Gilgamesh ) and some Mary's milk (which only sells for 6k rather than the purported 10k...). The boots won't even sell either (had them on auction 6 days now, there are 9 other boots on sale with it...). Jaggedy Eared Jack has been killed 17 times by me with no drop yet (except the occasional Rabbit Hide...).

I was thinking of buying a pair of Archer Rings and getting a 90+ leathercrafter to convert them to Snipers but then I found out Archer Rings sell for 250k each anyway on my server so I might as well just spend the extra 25-50k to buy Snipers straight off...

So, I'm at my wits end. I sadly don't have any jobs higher than 30 so hunting any NM tougher than Valkurm Emperor is out of the question (I'd have to lvl some to kill VE anyway...). I have cooking at lvl 34 but apart from the Lizzie's boots I only have about 10k in gil. Should I just give up and make a sucky elvaan DRK that misses constantly? (I currently average 1 hit for every 8 misses on an IT...) cuz without Sniper Rings it looks like that's all I'll be.

[Zafron]

My Equipment as a Level 32 DRK:

Emp Hairpin
Spike necklace
2 Beetle earings+1
Steam Scale mail
Kingdom gloves
2 archer rings
wolf mantle +1
WAR belt +1
Cent Leggings
Leaping boots

It took me 3 months to save up enough to buy all this equipment, i did it through crafting, gardening, farming, and fishing. In the meantime i leveled my subs. Right now i am about 1M away from argus charm and I don't plan on leveling again until i get it.

Patience is the answer. If you want Snipers take your character to lv39 then break from leveling for a month and farm in Batalia or Rollenberry. Everyone always seems to be in a hurry to get to high levels. Ive been playing since December and my highest level job is only 37 lol.

Fastest way to get your sniper rings is probably to level up without them until you are high enouph level where you can farm the tougher mobs with the better drops. I would rather take the time to equip myself and develop a reputation for being a quality player to group with, of course I plan on this game lasting me several years so i am in no hurry.

People might think how I play is stupid but i don't care, I enjoy being the best Equiped DRK at my level, and like i said i am in no hurry.

[csBahamut]

I do the same, Zafron, with my jobs. I just stop and farm till I can get pretty close to the best, if not the best. Being a PLD with good gear will give me a reputation of being a hard working, skilled PLD with excellent gear. Same with my RDM. I stoped leveling RDM at 31 to farm for Dispel. I've been playing FFXI since day one of the US release, and my highest job is only level 40 still! (Waiting on my sis to catch her RDM up) Just have patience and keep farming. My brother is in the same position as you with sniper rings for his DRG. He's got like 290K saved up now, but he's waiting for the next big batch of snipers to be made so he doesn't have to pay 300K+. Good luck.

[Mithrael]

I bought my first sniper ring at lv.38 and my second at lv.43. Both were paid for by farming. At the time, the most time-efficient means for me to farm was to go to buburimu with a thief subjob.

I ran up and down the east coast. Kill dhalmels durring normal weather, sort often. Every time you get full on Meat, Hides, and Femurs, run into town and sell them all off. Keep one dhalmel saliva in your inventory until the end since you'll get a million of them if you keep dropping them. Drop all papika grass as soon as you get it; it's totally worthless.

Kill Air Elementals when they pop, and sell the clusters in either Windurst or San d'Oria (whichever has the higher price atm). They sell slower in jeuno and the AH tax makes them impractical compared to the other nations.

During wind weather, kill crawlers when you see no elementals nearby. The drop rate on silk seems to be higher during weather effects (I know, call me crazy...). Sell stacks of silk in windurst. Again, they sell faster in the towns than they do in Jueno, and the AH tax for a stack of 12 items is too high to be worth selling it in jeuno, even if more convenient.

Finally, when you run low on MP, run behind a Goblin Gambler and attempt to steal a Silver Beastcoin. Sell stacks of beastcoins in Bastok. Aspir from him then finish him off. Don't do this with leechers, blink is a major timesink unless you have poisonga, and you shouldn't be wasting that much MP on one mob at lv.30-40. Overall, you should have to sit for MP about once an hour. Once every 2 hours, use your 2-hr to save downtime when you run out of MP. Make good use of Sneak Attack to reduce battle time by about one swing.

This method netted me about 15-30k an hour depending on the frequency of wind weather and the number of others camping the elementals. The elemental campers are your biggest competition, there are spawn points all over the map, it's mostly luck of the draw on who gets them, just depends on where you are vs. where they pop. Everything else pops so fast that it doesn't matter much if there are 20 others there killing.

Finally, I think the most important thing to do is to set a daily goal for yourself. After farming 600+k of dhalmels, you'll want to claw your eyes out. The only thing that makes this easier is saying to yourself "I'll stop farming when I make 50k today." This method of money-making is not for everyone... Best thing to do is to get into a rythym and watch TV while doing it.

Note: oh yeah, the best weapon skill to use for this is Nightmare Scythe. Slice and Nightmare Scythe do pretty much exactly the same damage at 100% tp. Nightmare blinds the mob, so you'll get hit less. Less hits = less mp used on drain = less downtime per hour.

Hope that helps some.

[Daeyeth]

i dunno if you're strong enough, but if you farm in batallia for 6 days (just straight farming) or so you can easily afford 2 sniper rings by killing tigers.

[Lantuere]

What's the technique on farming tigers? You guys must have come up with some pattern of circling the map.

Also, do we know the preferred level to farm in battalia? I hear there is some difference between that and Jugner, though I'm not sure how great or even if it's better.

[Zafron]

Battalia is like Rolandberry and Champlaign. It it is a struggle for me as SAM37. Truthfully not worth the downtime. DRK is probably better cause of Drain and Aspir, but i would imagine it would still be more trouble then it is worth until lv39-40.

A big factor is in level 37 the easy preys still aggro so SA loses all effectiveness adding to the difficulty.

Junger is definately easier, as well as marshlands which is one of my favorite places to farm. I target moss, cuttings, silk, and silver beastcoins. At lv37 i tear through goobues, crawlers and quadavs with SA+Enpi.

[Mithrael]

Until lv.45, batallia is a total wash. At level 55, i can make one full round before needing MP (then i just aspir a crab). At lv.45 it may begin to be reasonable, but at lv.35, forget it.

[Thelps]

Wow, thanks for all the farming tips !

I didn't think from the beginning that getting two 300K items would be easy or quick to do so I'm quite pleased with the responses on this thread. I figured Pashow would be a good place to farm when I'm a few levels higher and don't get Quadav aggro. For the time being I can make about 10-15k an hour selling the drops from Thunder Elementals and Rams in Konschtat which comes out to a fairly reasonable 50k a day so hopefully I'll have money for my first sniper ring + lvl 30 armor in a few days (assuming my Leaping Boots sell).

I'm probably going to level to around 40 and then hit Battalia farming Tigers as suggested, I probably won't bother to get Archer rings and make do with 2 balance rings until 40, even though I won't be the most attractive DRK on the block for that time.

Any more suggestions are definitely welcome though.

[Sabre]

I'm a fan of the get rich quick philosophy. I've hunted a couple NMs to get most of my gil. I've gotten 5 pairs of leaping boots and 1 emperor hairpin. I got my first two pairs of leaping boots right before I started levelling DRK. That has supplied me with any equipment that I needed. I started hunting stroper chymes for archer's rings because the price of Sniper Rings were over 300K! I got real lucky one night last week and I got 2 archer's rings drops in a row!! I was about to soil myself. Anyway, that in itself paid for my Sniper Rings.

A lot of those farming techniques will help you at your level. My gil farming method currently is to mine Gusgen in the back (lvl 50+) for ores/rocks. With 4 stacks of pickaxes, I can net around at least 50K profit in a couple hours. I would recommend a mule for selling all your ores and put the good stuff in the AH (darksteel, rocks, gold). When I'm waiting for a party, I usually do something like this. Mining is quicker if you can have a couple friends help you camp points, so you don't have to run as much.

[Thorrion]

What level are archer rings campable? haven't looked into that one...

Other than that, I'm thinking farming reliable things (battalia/bub/pashhow) is better than NM camping, since there's less competition, and more certain drop chances than camping a "possible" 200k drop which in truth is unlikely to show.

[Tonkz]

Camp Hoo Mjuu the Torrent ... after it spawns log off, and come back in 1 hour. I did it for 3 days and got the staff =D ... around 450k on my server. Camping NM's is fun, especially when there's like 5-10 other ppl watching you pull it away from them

[Donkylips]

Hmmm 2 Archer rings in a row? I've spent X hours there(too embarassed to give actual #) and am almost certain it is a timed drop. I've got a pattern written down but am still trying to prove it. Cmon man come clean or should I throw my pattern out?

[Anya]

It's certainly not timed. Some days I've gotten two in two hours, other days I've gotten zero in eight hours (only lost one spawn, too). With TH2 I'm running about a 0.9% drop rate, which isn't great at all. My sample rate has now hit 4 digits ><

If you get really lucky with chyme, you can make a pile of gil. However, in the long run, you'll average out to an equal gil rate (or less..) as normal farming, but with a hell of a lot more aggravation. Sucks.

[Donkylips]

Allright I stand corrected. Eight hours w/ zero rings and one loss proves all my work wrong but I appreciate your response, Thx.