STR vs Acc

[Lynsy]

Im currently a L34 Taru RNG/NIN with the following...um...problem, I suppose.
I have, depending on mob, somewhere between an 84 and 92% hit rate (based on all PTs data from parse between 28 and 34). I think thats fairly decent, but the problem is what I hit for-my damage cap is ridiculously tiny. My weakest hit on altepa beetles during L33 (except for one fight when I forgot food ;x) was 84. My highest, excluding crits, barrage, EES or WSs was 87. Ive been told this means I need to increase my STR since appearances would be that I am hitting at the top of my damage curve, but there just isn't a shit load of STR gear available to RNGs...especially not at 34. Being a taru, STR is my lowest stat, lower than my VIT which made me sad inside.

I can't quite decide what it is I can do to raise STR, at least without cutting my AGI/Accuracy. I have already done so some places, but Id like advice as to what I can do or where to trade off. Currently my gear is as follows:
Main: Archers Knife
Sub: Archers Knife
Ranged: Great Bow + 1 (main)
Zamburak +1 (capping marksmanship)
Serpentine Gun (looking cute)
Ammo: Horn Arrows (And I have 17 quivers left, I think Im using them forever)
Sleep > Acid > Venom > Holy/(drain when taking hits) Bolts
Bullets
Head: Emp Hairpin
Neck: Ranger's Necklace
Earrings: Shield Earrings (+HP) until 35, the drone
Body: Noct Doublet +1
Hands: Taru RSE (+12 HP, +3STR)
Rings: Beetle Rings +1 (Horn Rings +1 at 35)
Back: Nomads Mantle
Waist: Mercanaries Captains Belt
Legs: Noct Brais +1
Feet: Was Leaping Boots then decided to go with taru RSE because my AGI was over twice my STR pre-food so the +20 HP, +2 STR was more important to me
There is no +STR RNG equipable gear for Head, Body, Earring, Back, Waist, or Feet (except because of RSE), at least not up to my level or soon there after. That makes most of those choises no-brainers, just go with max +AGI or R.Accuracy and aren't really needing to be discussed (except maybe feet).
For hands, should I stick with RSE (what I think makes sense) or get Noct +1 gloves (+2 RAcc) or Mages Cuffs (+2 AGI, if they ever sell)?
For Feet, should I stick with RSE and take the +2 STR/+20 HP over the +3Agi of Leaping?
For rings, should I keep using my +RAcc rings or use the HQ +STR rings I have as well (2x+2 now, 2x+3 at 36 for 4 or 6 STR versus 8 or 10 RAcc)?
I've debated getting dual hawkers and selling off Archers, but since my hit rate is so high already, Im not sure if the marginal utility is worth the significant cost increase, but I might do it in order to cut myself more slack for doing something like replacing a RAcc ring with a +3 STR ring.
I know there will be some responses of "you're so newb, get blah blah blah because thats teh 1337 RNG gear" or "wear what you want, everyone is a unique butterfly...flap your wings and be free of the restrictive cocoon of social expectations" but I'm looking for honest suggestions of what to help my situation.
Part of me says to get all of it and keep it on me so as situations change, I can go from STR to Accuracy if I cant hit as well or Accuracy to STR if Im hitting consistantly but want to hit harder, but that is economically and inventory intensive, the later of the two being of bigger concern.
Thanks for any suggestions
~Lynsy

[imac2much]

Lynsy, I SPT with Nsxtasy (taru RNG), so I can somewhat understand where you're coming from. Starting around the mid 40's we noticed a minor discrepancy in our damage per hit. However, 1 STR only increases damage by 1 point... it's not entire significant. It does increase WS damage too but not by much, he can still do sidewinders as damaging as mine (around 1500 on a skimmer the other day). In my honest opinion, I say go for ACC. You can NEVER have enough ACC. He has nearly your exact same equipment, which is very good for RNG and has lots of ACC. He also has more AGI than me, but thanks to peacock charm and hawker+1 my acc% is still higher in parsings. It's not incredibly noticeable (and definitely not worth the price tag on these items) but it's there. So I say you can never have enough acc, because if there's a cap to it, we sure haven't hit it yet.

I wouldn't worry too much about STR. Even at our levels my shots only do a couple points more damage than him when we both have e-bows on. At your level, you're fighting a lot of high defense monsters now compared to the mandragora cheese you used to fight; I recommend you use xbow for those levels because the added effect damage from holy bolts will make more of a significant impact, in addition to the defense down from acid bolts.

Just my two cents

[Kuaiffxi]

As a mithra i sort of had the same problems after garleige but things picked up after 40 and the +1 bow and scorpion arrows.

[sekaran]

I'm a Taru RNG too.. lv31 and like you, would also like more STR.. here's my equip so far..

http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/profile.xml?62250

I use a Brave Belt rather than Merc. Belt.. I'd rather have the +2STR and -1AGI than just +1AGI from the Merc. Belt. I have dual hawkers and nomad's +1 so it evens out using the RSE boots instead of Leaping boots. Honestly, I'd rather have the +STR than Leaping/Noct Gloves+1.

[wstussyb]

I had the same feeling, but it came to me when I thought back to what I felt in dunes..
I find it better to keep hitting, then hitting for a lot and missing more then your hitting
in dunes I was sick of the missing, sure I did x3 dmg then drks and so forth, but I at times I would miss like 4 or 5 times in a row
Qufim I was missing less and still doing x3 dmg, but again times I missed 3 or 4 times..
now post 35 im doing x2 dmg, but there are times I can go 10-15 shots without missing
in all I might be doing less dmg to mobs compared to other jobs per hit, but you are hitting so much without missing
Had a elve in pt last week, he was doing 105-120 a hit, while I was doing 95-110, but he would miss a lot more then me, only gear I had that
was different was dual hawkers and I have martial slacks( I hate the look of Noct pants) and he had the +1 noct, so in all the only different was +1 R. acc
also food , I hear meat Chf is better then meat Mik. thinking of switching and making it even more exp
you can wear STR gear and use the jack o laterns you got from halloween event, I presume they are +10 acc +10 R acc and +10 evasion?

[imac2much]

In my opinion, meat chiefka is hardly better than meat mithka for a RNG.

Here are stats:
Meat mithkabob: +5 STR, +2 AGI, -1 VIT, -1 INT, +21.9% ATK, lasts 30 min
Meat chiefkabob: +5 STR, +2 AGI, -1 VIT, +1 INT, +1 CHR, +22% ATK, lasts 1hr

Hehe I don't think we need that INT and CHR. 0.1% ATK won't really make any difference IMO. I'd say meat mithkabob is just as good :p

[greysenn]

lasts 1hr

Thats what makes the difference right there.
Thats 1/2 as many barrages, weaponskills, pulls etc that I have food fade almost immediately before I use. I also hate messing with the stuff in general.

[imac2much]

Oh.. I dunno about your server, but on Midgard, chiefkas are about 2x price as meat mithka, so it's the same :p

In regards to performance, the duration of food makes no difference. Just eat 2 meat mithka instead of 1 meat chiefka.. same thing :p

[Lynsy]

I did have Nomads +1, but never Hawkers because my RNG had stopped at 28 before worldshift and I had let a friend of my borrow my Nomads +1, Leaping Boots and Emp hairpin and some other stuff to level his NIN -- then he disappeared and never came back without sending them too me, so I had to rebuy some stuff and didn't feel like spending a couple mil...again...with marginal increases.
ATM I have roughly 1mil (also considering its not my only job), where do you think I would be best off spending it.
Hawkers: 180k
Nomads Mantle +1: 400k
Genin Earring : (I forget exactly, but I >think< they were ~200k)
Other things Im not remembering...

[nsxtasy]

Get the Genin and Hawkers. Nomads...meh. I still used Night Cape til Amemit. You'll keep genin and hawkers til the end anyways.

Also, I use the RSE gloves for +3 STR Lyns.

The most important stuff will definately be your Bows/Xbows and arrows. You can pretty much ride Noct+1 stuffs and Hawkers etc. til AF. All you really upgrade is Rings and Bows. So to that end, rng really isn't that expensive til high 50's when you get to the larger amounts of xp to level and use a ton of ammo.
Rugal and I didn't start feeling the cost of ammo really until we started using Demon Arrows at 60 ; ;.

[greysenn]

In regards to performance, the duration of food makes no difference

When it interrupts or wears off before my high damage attacks, it does. (Which it does, without fail, every single time)

Price comes out about 20% more than eating miths for the same duration, so it's worth it for me.

[imac2much]

Bah I used silver bullets for chain4/5's since 50's :p But with gun's insane delay I guess I go through demon arrows a lot faster than bullets x_x

Greysen I see your point and all I can say is... to each his own. It takes me no more than 5 seconds to press alt+I and use a meat mithka mid fight. If I really wanted to, I could just macro it. It's not that big of a deal and it doesn't affect my performance. If it affects yours, then by all means get the HQ mithkas... I'm just pointing out chiefkas don't add any significant extra ATK over regular mithka like some people believe.

[greysenn]

I was in no way saying the regular ones suck, just that they have radar for my WS or barrage timing. (WS, late in chain usually)

But yeah, performance wise they're pretty much identical if you can stand 30 min duration.

Edit: To the original poster. With the RSE boots and gloves, you will have higher str than most rangers until significantly later in the game. Your setup looks quite good as is.

[Ixaera]

That's odd though, as everytime I use a meat chiefkabob my calculator insists I'm getting 25% attack added, and not 22% >< I think MT/alla is wrong on the %att added with this food.

Still, that's not too much unless your ranged attack is already high enough that 3% is 10+

Probably wouldn't occur until level 59+ as you'd need about 325 ranged attack for 3% to be 10 or more attack and that sounds like about the right level for 325, don't you think? (There isn't a way to check ranged attack that I know of, I'm going off of melee job's attack scores.)

[imac2much]

I just tested. With 255 base attack, meat mithka gave me 313. Met chiefka gave me 313. That's approximately 22%. (a little more because the added STR also raises ATK)

No difference between the two.