A few questions about my playing style and how to improve.

[jaks6888]

I hit 58 the other day, and got my AF body WOOT!!
I have always aimed to be the best ranger i can be, to an extent.
I would say for my level my equipment was above average but i had a few questions.

I normally eat yellow curry, but once i hit cape terrigan i started missing a hell of alot of slugs, so i was recommended to try squid sushi, was this a good choice to make? or is there something better out there?

My main weapon of choice is musketeer+1 with silver bullets,i am amazed at some of the damage i can do. A normal shot on an IT+ ranges from anywere between 110-150.
If i let a slug of at about 100-150tp it seems to do about 690 average but 200+ and it can go up to 800+ damage.
But the delay is pretty big. this helps in some ways because I can sometimes Slugshot >>> barrage >>> shoot >>> slugshot which is always nice and impressive

When I level archery i go for war bow+1(should i use sargna when the time comes?) and lightning arrows but i dont like the low damage and accuracy compared to my gun.
Cost wise this would be the way i go, sometime i use a bow before i break out the gun just to make sure i dont waste precious silver bullets on a party thats not going anywere.

Now I have always be proud of the damage I do and my abilities as a ranger and have received many compliments due to my playing style.

But.... there is another ranger lvl 63 now i think mithra.(im hume)
Who seems to think i am playing completely wrong.
She is a crossbow ranger, power crossbow+1 i presume she seems to think she can shoot off 3-4 bolts per my 1 bullet almost dealing double my damage, now i have never seen her in action but apparently she can do over 1000 damage slugs with her crossbow and reach 110 damage + 50 additional effect with holy bots using some MND+ gear.

All this talk has led me to believe that i ave been playing it all wrong trying to be the best i can be, should i just put away my gun and grab a crossbow?

Also i normally use a shikaree aketon but last night I got my hunters jerkin, my idea was to macro the jerkin into barrage and slugshot/sidewinder macros, should I do that, or do u have any better suggestions?

So basicly I want you guys to help me in anyway possible to become as good as i can be. Any information is welcome
thanks in advance

[Lightseeker]

I highly doubt the claims of the 63 mithra ranger, and I think your play style is just fine.

Food: I changed from yellow curry to squid sushi at about level 58, because I saw no additional damage with it. Squid is a good choice b/c you get AGI+5 as well as the RACC boost. RATT seems to do nothing for me at this point. AGI is the base stat for marksmanship WS, so the more, the better. Then again, I'm elvaan so I have a naturally low AGI that I have to make up for.

Weapons: I tried the Sarnga recently and was unimpressed. The damage is slightly higher but the delay is not worth it. Stick with war bow+1. When I parsed the two, I did more damage overall with war bow+1. I carry all 3 weapons - war bow+1, Musk+1, and Arbalest+1 (saving up for heavy xbow+1). If I'm using gun, I use my AF hat for the increased rapid shot (though it seldom seems to kick in) and I use emp pin the rest of the time. The RATT on the hat does nothing for me.

RATT vs RACC: I found a few levels ago that the only way to increase my damage per shot was to increase my STR (or use higher damage arrows, in the case of bow)- I seem to have capped my RATT. In general, I think it's more important to hit than to do higher damage per shot, so I tend to favor RACC over RATT all the time. I don't have the Shikaree Aketon available yet though. Keep in mind at 61 you'll have access to Amemit Mantle, which is RATT+10. If you find your damage is higher with the aketon, then cool, macro it in. But at 61 you might want to retire it for the mantle.

Here's my gear atm:
Hawker knife x2
Scorpion Ring+1 x2
RK belt+1
AF pants, boots, body
Noct gloves +1(AF hands macrod for Shadowbind)
AF hat / Emp Pin
Ranger Necklace
Federation Mantle / Amemit Mantle (still experimenting with these)
Genin earring
Drone earring

Don't let the mithra get to you. I've seen so many mithra rangers who think they're all that, then miss 40% of their Sidewinders.

:spin:

[Thegod]

XBOW user doing 1k+ slugs at 63???????

sounds like BS to me as well.

wow you must of read my post, i had the exact same problem at your level because i was still eating sushi(thinking the jerkin would actually help lol)

anyway i switched from curry to sole sushi(squid is fine too, the only difference is squid gives agi not str, sole str not sgi, and squid gives 10 more hps i think)

sushi will make it so that slug>>barrage>>shoot>>slug combo turns into:

slug>>barrage>>melee>slug for a much faster duel slugs since with sushi you can land at least one of your duel wielding hits just about everytime.

bow is fine too, i would go with the warbow+1 over the sarnga IMO its a better bow especially if your being cheap and using elemental arrows...=p

here's my gear set, dunno a few others might have seen the old one i was using, but changed it up a bit....DIDNT NOTICE SHYT but meh it looks a tad different on my character....lol


hawkers+1
fran axe
Af hat
jaged gorg
must+2(tryna buy ebow tonight)
mage's cuffs(switched from nocts+1s about a week ago, agi over rng acc when eating sushi IMO)
republic pants (same thing, i wear these full time now for the agi)
winged boots(i took these off and i swear my crits went down, dunno i just feel better with these on, i wear savage gaitors and AF sometimes
r.k.+2
amemet mantle+1
scorp+1 rings x2
genin earring
drone

[Anakron]

Re: A few questions about my playing style and how to improve.

Originally posted by jaks6888
But.... there is another ranger lvl 63 now i think mithra.(im hume)
Who seems to think i am playing completely wrong.
She is a crossbow ranger, power crossbow+1 i presume she seems to think she can shoot off 3-4 bolts per my 1 bullet almost dealing double my damage, now i have never seen her in action but apparently she can do over 1000 damage slugs with her crossbow and reach 110 damage + 50 additional effect with holy bots using some MND+ gear.

You might want to tell her to stop fighting EMs.

Keep the Hunter's Jerkin on all the time. The Ranged Accuracy is definitely better than the Ranged Attack.

Try using the Jerkin and see how your accuracy is. If it's still bad, try sushi. You'd definitely want sushi when you level off of Toramas in Onzozo, though.

War Bow+1 will generally outdamage Sarnga over time, sometimes even on a per-shot basis (I noticed this myself, and both RNGs had very similar equipment).

[Thegod]

AGREED, GOING TO ONZO W/O SUSHI WILL GIVE YOU THE HEADACHE OF ALL HEADACHES....

oops caps

ima mithra

[Apple Pie]

XBOW user doing 1k+ slugs at 63???????

sounds like BS to me as well.

Well, I must play a different game or something then. I didn't even have GMB at that time although there seemed to be crits on it.
http://www5.sppd.ne.jp/grendal/FF11/ws.gif

It is true that the combo of xbow and bolts has the lowest base damage but it has something very important that other ranged weapons don't have access to. That's Acid Bolt without doubt.

We know that lowering mob's defence is as important as increasing our RATK because the damage multiplier, PDIF (as Rugal defined), is determined by the ratio between our ATK/RATK and target's DEF. The effect of Acid Bolt becomes more noticable in conjunction with Dia II because both DEF down effects stack (-22.5% DEF total).

As a result, a RNG with xbow in one PT can outperform RNGs with either bow or gun in the other PT lacking in Acid Bolt. What is more, any attackers can benefit from it and overall performance is improved. That's why there're a lot of xbow users around.

110 damage + 50 additional effect

I doubt this claim by the way. 110 damage can be achieved against flying creatures that are weak on piercing weapons but it cannot be done on others unless he/she has BRD singing double Minuet or WAR shooting Armor Break (do not always work).

GOING TO ONZO W/O SUSHI WILL GIVE YOU THE HEADACHE OF ALL HEADACHES....

It's not the type of mobs determining what foods I eat but the difference of LV between myself and mobs.

When the difference is less than 10, I eat Boiled Cockatrice.
When the difference is 10 or larger, I eat Sole Sushi.
When I have a BRD, I eat Sole Sushi and ask he/she to sing double Minuet.

[Koroco]

First, an Xbow shouldn't outdamage a gun ever. Your friend might be doing 1k+ slugs like apple pie said, Dia II and Acid Bolts help a ton, plus if you have a BRD playing minuet(s) you will be doing great damage. I see Xbow is good for both uses of being the only RNG in the PT or a PT with more rangers. If you can try to get a PT with an Xbow RNG. Leeching off of his acid bolts you will no doubt will be doing more DMG then him otherwise if your the solo RNG, you might be doing the best DMG you can with an Xbow.

I am suprised in the over-use of sushi today, leveling nin back up to ranks I see RNG using Sushi onry. I used to use a Sargna with the combo of my af hat for rapidshot (really helps for that slow of a bow), and I cycled through unlimited shot CP arrow and Sharpshot for Sidewinders, and only missed a few times in a night.

I am just not used to seeing these side/slugs 60-70% of what it actually could do. But there is some that go down other roads and if you really having problems connecting with damage, eat the sole sushi. I am sure I would never give up Yellow Curry in any exp situation. Even though now @75 you really don't have to worry about missing on VT Weapons that much

[poweryoga]

thats some funny bullshit.

X-bow rarely hits 1k+ slugshots, except when you have minuets. or exping on flies.

She also can't fire off 3-4 shots in 1 bullet. The delay times don't even add up.

Mithra with +50 damage on holy bolts? oh please. stop the bullshit.

i hate how these retarded rangers that try to make the class sound more powerful than they actually are. lets be more realistic here.

[Lightseeker]

DD-Ranged____ __Total __Avg.[High/Low}] __Accu.________
Hume___________ _41014 __86.9[_145/__57]_88.7%[_472/_532]
Vaanthalas_______47281 _131.0[_181/_103]_93.0%[_361/_388]

DD-Other__ ____________________ __Total __ Avg.[High/Low] __Accu.___________
Hume_____________ Eagle Eye________1162 _581.0[_581/_581] 100.0%[___2/___2]
________________ Sidewinder____ _16053 _764.4[_837/_660] _91.3%[__21/__23]
________________ Slugshot_______28831 _640.7[_820/_537] _93.8%[__45/__48]
________________ Added Damage___2832 __14.0[__37/___1] 100.0%[_202/_202]
________________ Barrage_________2400 _342.9[_420/_240] _63.6%[___7/__11]
Vaanthalas________Eagle Eye_____ ___718 _718.0[_718/_718] 100.0%[___1/___1]
________________ Sidewinder____ _13046 _724.8[_891/_640] _90.0%[__18/__20]
________________ Slugshot_______39509 _840.6[1066/_700] _95.9%[__47/__49]
________________ Added Damage_ ___221 __18.4[__37/___2] 100.0%[__12/__12]
________________ Barrage_______ _10245 _569.2[_756/_286] _90.0%[__18/__20]

This is an exerpt from a parser I took a couple of weeks ago. Party is level 61, fighting perytons and raptors in Valley of Sorrows. The hume is rng/nin, used heavy xbow+1 with CP bolt for slugs, acid bolts, and (I think) holy bolts. She wore AF hat and Shikaree Aketon, but otherwise our gear was the same. I'm rng/nin, wore AF hat and body, was using musk gun+1 and silver bullets. Toward the end of the session, she changed to E-bow and I changed to Sarnga (to test it out). We both ate squid sushi. (Sorry it's a bit messy, hard to line it all up in the post window.)

Edit: Realized I shouldn't post her name w/o permission, changed the other ranger's name to "Hume".

[Fire]

I like how everyone allways says the way to solve your problems now adays is to eat sushi. curry thx

Also I never had a real problem missing slug/sidewinder untill I think 64? Trying to fight IT+++ stuff D:

[Lightseeker]

Originally posted by Fire
I like how everyone allways says the way to solve your problems now adays is to eat sushi. curry thx

I don't think anyone in this thread DID say this, but if you're eating RATT food, and your damage is no different than with NO food, why are you eating it? THIS is why I changed from curry to sushi.

[Thegod]

1. sorry not used to reading parser because they dont show gear listings or mobs being faught....

so forgive me but where does it show 1k+ slugs it seems to me the average was 8?? for the xbow user, correct me if i'm wrong.

2. I went back to curry last night seeing as how i'm 63 and figured my racc problems are over, but my total damage i'm sure was al great deal lower then with sushi, not only did i miss more sluggs eating curry, but my barrages didnt hit consistenly for all 5 shots...

so my damage done to each mob was greater with sushi then curry, even though curry added 20-30 points more then each normal shot, and 100+ to my slugs i still know i was doing more dmg with sushi just by being more accurate and being able to fire off slugshot alot sooner then with curry.

3. a party of 61s in the valley is to high for me IMO, i'm sure your xp was great, but at 60 those perytons give dam near 300xp for chain 4, that drops a grrrrrrrrrrrrrreat deal the moment you hit 61.


i'm sticking with sushi till i find i can land slugs at around 100% tp and land them consistently.

[ClydeArrowny]

high slug dmg 1047 ~~low slug dmg 702 ~~ average slug dmg 822.3 according to that parser log

[poweryoga]

sushi is good for IT++ mobs where you have problem with evasion.

I don't really need much accuracy and never got to see how much difference sushi made. :\

[Apple Pie]

so forgive me but where does it show 1k+ slugs it seems to me the average was 8?? for the xbow user, correct me if i'm wrong.

The highest one at LV60 was 1,047 points of damage as Clyde wrote. It is done without BRD, of course. The PT consisted of NIN, RNG, THF, RDM*2 and SMN.

Because the difference of LV between me and the strongest mob was 9 (69 - 60), I ate Boiled Cockatrice (since it is recommended till LV69 in our guide BTW). Total accuracy of my ranged attack was 91.2% (916 / 1004), which was close to the cap (94.0 - 96.0%) and I don't think sushi was necessary at that time.

I love to eat Sushi when there's a BRD in my PT as I said. I prefer sushi + double Minuet to Boiled Cockatrice + Minuet/Prelude because sushi increases accuracy as well as ranged accuracy. I know my Trailer's Kukris are weak but TP I gain from them is important for my Slugshots.