Money Test

[kyus]

I read a lot of boards on 'money is so hard' and 'how do you make money?' and 'don't play ranger unless you are ready to spend lots of gil' and 'use iron arrows, they are not that much worse.'

These are some of the top concerns and questions about making money, so Yava and I (Kiky) decided to run a test on making money.

I was farming with a 30 RNG / 15 THI in Tahrongi.
Yava is a 30 THI / 15 NIN, and was farming in Ghelsba.

We are both on the Pandemonium server.

First, we both cleared out all of our AH inventory and tossed all our Gil on a mule. We both have multiple players (an extra 3 dollars a month to put a character in each town is VERY worth it, I pay 4 dollars and have one in Jueno as well). Then we decided on a time limit, 4 hours. We timed it by firing off our 2H to start, and stopped when we shot off the 2H for the 3rd time. (so it might be a few minutes after 4 hours). Yava had to leave around the 3 hour mark.

Techniques:

I took advantage of my Ranger widescan and hunted Wind Elementals in Tahrongi. I killed them with bone arrows. I did not even bother with Earth. When there was not wind weather, I would kill bee's and mands. I also used Steal every 5 minutes on mands to steal Sagu Cotton. At night I killed Ghosts. Also, I killed Crawlers when I had 100+ TP to burn a flame arrow on them.

Wind Cluster = 1.5k average drop was 2 of these per Air Elemental.
Sagu Cotton (dropped off mands) = 4k a stack
Cotton Squares (dropped off ghosts) = 7.5k a stack
Bee Chips (dropped off bee's) = 4k a stack
Honey (Dropped off bee's) = 1k a stack
Silk (Dropped off Crawlers) = 10k a stack

I sold Wind in San Doria, Cotton and Chips in Windurst, leftovers in Bastok. I had around 30 slots of items in the AH. (Thank you Kikysan, Kikyba, Kikywi, and Skyler *smirk*)

Also, I have 2 accounts (a lvl 15 whm) so I could lower downtime on elements by healing myself and have extra space before running to town.

After I was done, I put all stacks I made in 4 hours into the AH, and put the rest in a Bazzar mode and went to sleep.

--

Yava mass killed beastmen in Ghelsba. He also got many garlic drops and (doing this from memory) black slack drops (3k a pop). I'm unsure how much garlic goes for, but I know it was his money maker along with BeastCoins (~1k a stack) and Silver BeastCoints (~5k a stack). However, his money did not mainly come from selling items like mine, his money came from Gil Finder and killing beastmen. On average, the gil drops were ~40 gil. He did NOT have a 2nd character helping him. At the end of 3 hours (he had to leave early) he posted everything in the AH (on multiple characters, 7 slots just isn't enough), put the rest in Bazzar mode, and went to bed.

--

We farmed hard and non-stop. We did not chat on our LS much at all, and did not watch TV or get up to get a soda every 5 minutes. We went at this hardcore for 3-4 hours.

--

The next morning, I woke up and EVERYTHING sold in the AH, and I had a very few things left in Bazzar mode.

Yava sold most of his stuff, but had a few black slacks left over. (I hate saying black slacks, because I know it was something else but was close to black slacks ;p)

--

Summary:

In 4 hours, with 0 Gil on my main character, and nothing in the AH but stuff I farmed in 4 hours - I made 68,000 Gil.

In 3 hours, with 0 Gil on his character, and nothing in the AH but stuff he farmed in 3 - 3.5 hours - Yava made 42,000 Gil.

I took my earnings, and made 4 stacks of quivered Silver Arrows (durning my lunch break) : 4742 arrows (can finally make beetle now! Can't wait to be able to make horn ^^, btw: Silver Arrows are also _more_ expensive than Horn to make) and made a stack and some Shihei (since I'm RNG/NIN for exp, I failed on some of my makes on Shihei, since I was only 29-30 WW) My average game day is ~4 hours of play. In 1 day I made enough money for 4742 arrows (quivered) and plenty of Blink Powder (which I don't even use that much unless we don't have enough provokers or one good enough to hold aggro).

I have no idea how long 4742 arrows is going to last me since I have not level my ranger past 30, but I hope it is for at least 3-4 days of play. Because by 4 days of leveling, I'll be ready to woop some more elemental butt! This time, in La Theine!

Not sure what Yava did with his money, but I'm sure I could find a use for it ^^

[Biterman]

Hey, cool post dude. 68k gil is a nice figure for 4 hours of regular mob farming. NM hunting can yield you more, but hey, at least regular mobs in Tahrongi arent camped to death. ^^

[tonka]

Nice test, looks like a Ranger with scan could be a very good money job to help offset those costs.

One question, how much does garlic actually go for on your server? On Garuda depending on whether or not Kolshushu is beastman or not, garlic fluctuates from 1.5k per stack to 7k per stack.

[Negorath]

CAN is a big factor when NM hunting >_<

[Cobalt Katze]

Re: Money Test

I have no idea how long 4742 arrows is going to last me since I have not level my ranger past 30, but I hope it is for at least 3-4 days of play.

Once you get barrage, it'll probably be averaging 2 stacks every hour. This is considering you shoot once, melee hit once, then shoot again.. on average anyways. Having also played mage jobs, you really get to notice where the hate of the enemy's pointing. So if I think I can get away with more ranged hits, I'll take the opportunity. If I've just gained a whole bunch of hate from WS or Barrage, I'll usually slow down my rate of fire to compensate and let the tank establish some more hate.

Congrats on raising your carpentry skill though. It's a bit more expensive for ya, as far as aquiring arrows, but once you can make beetle>horn>scorp>demon(eventually) arrows I'm sure it'll pay off.

[Sadeira]

i say rng/thf have an easier time farming than most other classes. wide scan helps you find mobs that you want to hunt and th1 just helps in general drop wise. but then again, rng/thf also have to make the most money to keep their bows or guns up to date and to have enough ammo to keep going. high level thf have the easiest time making money because of th2/steal/gil finder. my friend always steals mythril beastcoins in badeaux from quadavs. he's only level 38 but he has made some major cash by doing so even if there is a chance steal will fail. and if nothing else, he subs rng and kills rams in konschtat or la theine.

[Sinzer]

Slightly unfair test really seen as Tahrongi has better drops than Ghelsba IMO. Most of the stuff in Tahrongi drops wanted quest and craftskill items.

Windy is the place to farm around 30, Giddeous is actually pretty good as well if you want to level cloth on the side.

Thanks for the tips on Ghost tho didn't realise they dropped cloth squares

Now if I only I could find something that dropped linen.

[Sadeira]

if you want linen cloth, just bring some sickles, wear some harvesting eq, and run around giddeus like a yagudo with your head cut off. i got a stack of flax flowers with 6 sickles and no eq in one day. i haven't sold them because i want to use them for cloth crafting

[kyus]

"plenty of Blink Powder (which I don't even use that much unless we don't have enough provokers or one good enough to hold aggro)."

I can not believe how WRONG I was about this. Shooting silver arrows with Meat Mithkabobs hit for about 90-100 damage on Siege Bats in the Citadel. My Barrage does from 250 - 400 damage. Piercing Arrow does 240+ charged.

I was in a group with PLD, BLM, RNG (Me), RNG (with Bone Arrows /cry), WHM, DRK.

At first I tried to control aggro, it was so bad that I had to shoot then melee twice. Even then I would pull aggro when I used my WS. I dropped down to Beetle Arrows (cheaper than silver) to shoot off my barrage, and would still draw aggro.

---
BTW: At level 32 with EXACT equipment and Sub (NIN) and both eating Meat Kabobs, I was shooting silvers and hitting for 90-92, the other Ranger with Bone arrows was shooting bone arrows and hitting for 72-74 vs Siege Bats. Versus Beetles I was hitting for 52's and the other ranger was hitting for 42's. Arrows make a huge difference; please fellow rangers, use good arrows.
---

We were doing lots of damage with 2 RNGs, BLM, DRK so the bats were going down pretty fast, but the bats were ping-ponging all over.

Finally, I said, 'Let me Tank'. Of course I got all kinds of giggles, but they finally said, 'Sure ;p'. I would pull, PLD would voke it off, I Blinked and unloaded. Took about 2-3 shots and I had aggro. I would shoot a couple more times, then re-blink. I took about 3 hits after the 2nd blink fell until the bat was dead. We had virtually NO downtime. About 30 minutes later, our PLD had to leave - we replaced him with another BLM. I continued to tank for the next 4-5 hours.

I went through about 2 quiver stacks of silver arrows, 3 stacks of Shiehi (ms) for blink, and a stack of Meat Mithkabobs. Our party consisted of BLM, BLM, RNG, RNG, DRK, WHM. I made 3 and a half levels. Was probably the fasting leveling I did since lvl 16-20 in the Maze soloing worms.

I know I will probably never get a chance to tank again as ranger, but for 5 hours, I played main tank and it was a blast =)

I still have 2 stacks of silver quivers, and a LOT of meatmithkabobs (I always thought these were expensive until I found out how LONG a stack of 12 goes for, 6 hours of leveling = LOTS of arrows and blink powder, making meatmithkabobs very cheap in comparison. It is amazing how much more damage you can do with meatmithkabobs. I'm 100% addicted to them and even farm with them) I had to make trips back to Jueno to buy more sheihi (note to self: Make A LOT more blink powder next time) Jueno they are 5.5k a stack of 99 (damn tax)! I can make them for MUCH cheaper.

If it wasn't for the fact I need to farm for Drone Earrings now, I think I have another 2-3 levels in me from the farming I did on the 'Money Test'. 1 day of farming let me fire off top of the line arrows, eat top of the line meat, and tank a party for almost 4 levels, and I KNOW I can use the same arrows, meat and blink powder for at least another 3 levels. 1 Day of farming for levels 32-39.

Cost an issue for rangers up to level 40? Hardley. More then most classes? Of course.

Am I going to get an invite before the RNG shooting bone arrows who didn't have ninja blink? I guarentee it.

Money for a Ranger goes to feed Damage, Livability (is that a word?), accuracy and usefullness. It also goes into an invisible pool called Karma. The more you bring to a party, the less downtime you have looking for a party.

Final Phrase: Don't be cheap, this is a game where the value you add to a party buys you reputation, and in the end it doesn't matter how much damage you do, how uber you are, how much money you have, how well you tank; it matters how many friends you have, because you can not accomplish anything alone in this game. And you build that friend-base in the PreGame and MidGame.

[Sadeira]

this is very true. when i see a mage hanging around the crawlers' nest waiting for a party wearing linen gear, i only think one thing... CHEAPSKATE. level chasers may not have the latest spells because they look cheap and will not have anything to offer to parties. if you have nothing to offer, then you cannot possibly level because no one will invite you. rng and mages require a lot of gil to maintain and if one is not willing to go gil farming to keep up with their eq and spells then they don't deserve to get in parties.

[kyus]

Hi Sinzer

"Slightly unfair test really seen as Tahrongi has better drops than Ghelsba IMO. Most of the stuff in Tahrongi drops wanted quest and craftskill items."

Our aim in the test was not to compete, but to optimize our income for our classes. I could not have made the money he did mass killing for Gil, and he could not have made the money I did using Wide Scan for elementals. (He could have! but didnt' have RNG sub or a 2nd character to mule around) Honestly, we made simular rates, because I went for 4 hours and he went for 3 hours. I also had an advantage with a WHM running around with me and an additional 25 slots of inventory. (I'm so used to playing 2 characters, did it in EQ and DAoC as well =)

Hi Sadeira

I am leveling my thief to 30 now! After seeing the success Yava had with his thief, I'm going to rush my thief sub to 30 and start farming with Thi/Rng. I personally think this is probably the best combo for farming Gil. Minus of course NM hunting, but I have terrible luck camping items, so I try to find more stable source of income =)


PS: I would really like to hear from some AE farmers and Dia/Blaze Spike farmers. I have heard good things about the money you guys can bring in, and I'm curious on how well you guys do and some areas you guys AE/DS kill in =)

[Sinzer]

I don't find mass killing for gil all that helpful.

The most money I make is from simply running around in Tahrongi killing anything that moves

You get the real nice items like Gob armour and Femur bones, simply get a choco back to town put on AH and go out again, takes about 10 mins to get back and forth if you farm near the crag. I call them nice cos they sell in about 30secs, you can put them on go back out and it is cleared straight away.

62K for 4 hours is pretty good though.

[Negorath]

PS: I would really like to hear from some AE farmers and Dia/Blaze Spike farmers. I have heard good things about the money you guys can bring in, and I'm curious on how well you guys do and some areas you guys AE/DS kill in =)

I have a friend doing this (BLM) all he does is go to some lowbie area where mostly all the monsters link, make a HUGE! train, I'm talking like 30-50 monsters at a time, train them to an open area, make them stand in a group, Fireaga II! mass deathage. I'm not sure on how much he's making though, haven't bothered asking, but he's been doing this in Valkurm etc.

[FeralisCallidus]

Yeah, but it seems that ever since the patch it is harder to hold aggro~ a bee will go off on a tangent about 5 minutes after I maim it, making it difficult to mass-train.

[Brer Fox]

They should actually fix that, kind of an exploit. If they haven't already. I, too, have noticed most creature-type enemies give up so easily now, they de-aggro if you get fifty feet on them. From what I've seen, undead and beastmen are slacking off as well.

It also leads to mass lamage by training a platoon of aggro to a zone or something.