to much money to spend to be fun?

[poppipo]

I was wondering, im gunna be a future ranger but have pondered being a blm for qite a while also. The reason for this, is becuasue iv heard at higher lvs, its almost ridiculous how much money u have to spend to be a ranger. How much do u have to farm? how much does the overall job cost?

[PhoR]

well at first it really doesn't seem all that expensive because mobs die quickly and it doesn't take much exp to level up. You really don't have to buy much gear at the beginning (1-30) and even some of the very best gear isn't very expensive.
BUT after a while it starts to add up very quickly. when you get to the point when you can afford some of the better bows, e-bow, sargna, etc.. the prices will seem rediculious, but if you really think about it, those items aren't a whole lot more expensive than the best items you can get for other classes.

The real cost of ranger comes in the form of shihei from ninja sub, and arrows/bullets/bolts.
arrows don't seem expensive at first, but when you start having to buy 2.5K+ per stack, it starts adding up very quickly because you burn through stacks of arrows VERY fast.. (and that's only for decent arrows at mid levels... if you want to use bullets, the price shoots up ten fold)

at around level 30, I probably spent 8k per level in arrows and shihei alone... and that's stuff that's consumable, and you'll never get that gil back (unlike armor or weapons that you can sell back to the AH for gil after you're done with them).. and on top of that you still have to buy meat mithkabobs (if you're a self respecting ranger)

and that's only around early levels... after 45, arrows get much more expensive, and having the best bows gets outrageous in the mid 50's.

Now I don't want to discourage you from playing ranger.. getting to level 30 won't cost you an arm and a leg to use the best gear/arrows.. it'll probably end up being around 150k total if you use the best bow/arrow and use mithkabob and shihei the entire way you can(not counting emperor hairpin and leaping boots, but they really won't make THAT much of a difference early on).

But after that the prices start getting more and more daunting.

[maytrix]

Learn woodworking. That'll help.

[poppipo]

heh

lol, i wish i could just pull the arrows out of all the mobs! that would be awsome!

[Stormwalker]

Originally posted by PhoR
at around level 30, I probably spent 8k per level in arrows and shihei alone... and that's stuff that's consumable, and you'll never get that gil back (unlike armor or weapons that you can sell back to the AH for gil after you're done with them).. and on top of that you still have to buy meat mithkabobs (if you're a self respecting ranger)

Honestly, that number doesn't seem so bad. I mean, I spend more than that just on my spells as a White Mage. Though I'm sure, as you say, the numbers get considerably higher as the levels increase, especially above 50 when the exp-to-level goes up dramatically and the cost of consumables would increase similarly.

Still, I think I am going to have to put some more time into my Ranger sometime, maybe after I hit 50 WHM, since I'm planning to take a break for my LS to catch up to me around that time.

[poweryoga]

you spend considerably more on a spell, but you don't have to keep on buying the spell just to use it. rangers have an "upkeep" while mages have a one time spending cost.

[Stormwalker]

Yes, but we were talking about a per-level number.

As a WHM, I spend somewhere in the neighborhood of 30-40k per level on spells. For example, at level 40 I gained two spells, Banishga II and Haste. Both are vendor-sold spells, both sell for approximately 20k.

Considering how poor of a farmer WHM is, that can be hard to come up with.

And I did agree that as the levels get higher... I'm quite certain that RNG and NIN outpace all job expenses above 50, just because it takes so long to gain a level and you have to use a ton of arrows/ninja tools in that time. But it sounds to me like your consumable expense in the lower (under 40) level ranges isn't that much higher than a WHM's. Probably higher, yes. But not so much higher to turn me off of playing the job.

[Timoham]

I've spent more money per level than my LS's WHM, RDM, BRD, WAR, DRK, and BLM individually. That's not including spells such as Erase and Phalanx... But most people don't get those until much later on anyway when farming is easier or what not, and even then, a RNG spends a lot more money per level. Only job in the LS that has spent more money than me TOTAL is the RDM because he bought Phalanx, Valk mask, Red Cape +1, and a few other extremely costly items.

[poweryoga]

Again, you keep the spells when you use it. You don't get 20k spells every single level. You never get arrows back.

How do we farm? With arrows. How do we do BCNMs? With arrows. How do we do AF runs? With arrows. How do we do Genkais? With arrows.

You can get stuck on genkai 1 or 2 and spend weeks doing it and have no loss. Meanwhile, 5 hours for ranger on genkai 1 = using up maybe 10 stacks of arrows.

Not saying what you're saying is wrong. WHM have extremely expensive spells, but again... you keep those spells, we never get arrows back, and you don't get extremely expensive spells every level.

[Stormwalker]

First of all, I don't see why you are so adamant about defending the position of "I spend more gil than everyone else." But that's another story.

As for not getting 20k spells every level? Actually, let's look at that.

Level 37 - Shell II - approx. 18k from vendor
Level 37 - Shellra II - approx. 14k from vendor
Level 38 - Teleport-Altep - approx. 25k from AH on my server or do quest (I did the quest, myself)
Level 38 - Teleport-Yhoat - approx. 25k from AH on my server or do quest (bought this one, I can't safely solo Ivory Lizards yet).
Level 39 - Barvira - approx. 9600 gil from vendor
Level 39 - Stona - approx. 19k from vendor
Level 40 - Banishga II - approx. 20k from vendor
Level 40 - Haste - approx. 20k from vendor
Level 41 - Cure IV - approx 23k from vendor
Level 42 - Teleport-Vahzl - dunno the AH price, but I'll bet it's high, and the quest is certainly no cakewalk.
Level 43 - Barpetra - approx. 15k from vendor
Level 44 - Regen II - approx. 9k from vendor (a cheap one! nice!) or dropped. Dunno AH price, not this high yet.

In an 8 level span, even assuming I ONLY buy the spells which cannot be quested... total gil expenditure on spells is...

139k.

So no, not quite 20k per level, unless I buy all three of my teleports, at which point it's going to be well over that. But certainly not cheap. And I'm not even bringing things like Erase and it's 350k price tag into the mix.

Besides, my point was NEVER to claim that you don't spend more gil than any other job. I fully acknowledge that you do, I just don't think the difference is quite as extreme as some people make it out to be (and I already disclaimed that at high level when your arrow--and heaven forbid, bullet--prices get very high, this changes).

The only point I was ever trying to make is that as a White Mage, I am accustomed to spending money on my spells (not to mention my gear. When I hit level 40 I dropped 100k on gear upgrades alone, and I don't even have all the stuff I get yet.). As someone who is used to spending a lot of money to buy items I can't resell later (spell scrolls, in this case), the thought of spending money to level Ranger doesn't bother me. And THAT is the point I am trying to make. Especially since Ranger is a FAR more effective farmer than WHM could ever dream of being.

Try gil farming as a WHM/THF sometime. It's not fun. It takes forever to kill things, even "too weak" things, and taking on easy prey is taking one's life into one's own hands. About the only thing I can get a high rate of monetary gain off of is Elementals, and trying to find those without Wide Scan is no fun at all.

Ranger's a great job, and I have a lot of respect for those of you who spend the time farming to have the gil for the best equipment and to use the best arrows and really do the job right. Don't mistake this for an attack, because it isn't. I'm just saying that the cost doesn't deter me from trying my hand at the job, and I'm looking forward to doing exactly that.

Edit: evidently I can't count.

[poweryoga]

well then, all i can say is have fun when the time comes.

[oozma]

to me ranger never seemed to expensive at all... till we were all done leveling and my friends have 5+million and insane gear and i have.... 1million -_-;;

[TaruSGonEWilD]

well I just got my taru to 30 whm yesterday and I went straight for rng when I got 30 and I have to say that I can see the class growing in expense extremely fast. I just invested 7k in a stack of bullets mainly becuase I wanted to test my lvl 6 gun. Heh, let me say to any new rangers, dont bother with guns until serpentine, they just aren't worth it, they don't do as much dmg and they surely don't hit as much. For 7k/stack I would have expected a little bit better dmg output especially considering that arrows are only 850/stack right now (yeah I'm still below lvl 7 so I'm using wooden arrows). Rng can be rewarding if you have the money and equip, I have 4 other rngs in my LS and they all love it and preform very well. But I can also say there similarties don't end at there great gear and dmg output, they all have a lvl 45+ thf backing there ranger. :sweat:

[Timoham]

Guns really suck until you can get Bullets at 22. Most of the gun damage comes from the bullet, especially when you're able to use Cannon Shells. @_@

[TaruSGonEWilD]

oh so its my 7k/stack that just sucks, great and I was hoping that it was my much cheaper gun. Oh well i'll have that stack to fool around with whenever I get around to wanting to use guns again.