So I'm a lolRNG now....

[Malacite]

Re: So I'm a lolRNG now....

90% of the time I'd say Xbow wins out for EXP (the other 10% being Puks/Colibri or if you have a weapon that's supremely better such as using Ebow for the 1st time at 55)

Don't worry so much about your crossbow damage. You should be able to use venom bolts soon, which you'll be swapping in after applying def down from acids (these are a cheap bridge ammo until you hit 30 and can fire holy bolts)


The basic strategy of a crossbow user is as follows:

- Fire acid bolts until the def down procs (reapply as needed)
- Switch to Holy Bolts for TP (or venoms pre-30)
- WS and Barrage with Darksteel or Mythril Bolts (or holy bolts pre-40)


Don't forget that the def down effect from acid bolts overrides defense up abilities like Scissor Guard and Cocoon (and vice versa, so you'll need to reapply) giving you a pseudo Dispel ability. It makes such a huge difference in those early levels against pugs and crabs it's not funny. Those def up moves really suck and it's nice being able to replace them with a defense down and increase everyone's damage.

That's why I see Bow as kind of a "selfish" weapon. Except for a few levels (or against certain mobs like puks and colibri who are immune/resistant to acid bolts) crossbow really does win out for EXP. That said, it's not like the high damage from bows (and especially guns) isn't worth it, especially when you have a BRD handy to buff everyone. You can also use bloody bolts to heal yourself and sleep bolts too if you're in a pinch or to solo.

In short, it's crossbow's overall utility that makes it the better weapon for most stages of EXP. Guns and Bows are for everything else (and puks/colibri ^^) I find, or if you really just love hitting for obscenely high numbers (3k Slugshot ftw)

[hongman]

Re: So I'm a lolRNG now....

Ok, so iv been on RNG all this time in-game, and without visiting here I have found my niche and it does correspond to what you guys have said.

I can easily cap both in pt. No prob.

WS's still miss a lot, i found I did more consistent damage on WS with Red Lotus Blade in Qufim. But when they do land, its real nice.

Damage for me is Bow -> Xbow. Not tried gun yet. I still use Xbow in exp parties though, for acids and bloody bolts (I love those things).

I actually swap every so often now even when they are capped - on Mandies, where they dont do DEF up - just keeps me interested in using both, the whole placebo effect on ACC is gone now.

I love ranger.

[ItazuraNhomango]

Re: So I'm a lolRNG now....

When I was playing RNG (only got to Lv.20), I ran in really close for WS. Sad, but true. And, yes, still missed a bit.

The damage weren't all that impressive at that range, so it was mostly for SC's sake I used weapon skills.

* * *

Come to think of it, I forgot to find out if Archery/Marksmanship WS can be done while moving around. Want to test that for me, Hongman?

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: So I'm a lolRNG now....

Missing on WS is going to be a bit common until 30ish. The first Accuracy Bonus Trait isnt really too much by itself, but once you get the Archer's Knives and Noct Set you'll really feel a difference.

Also, try Flounder Meuniere around your current level, its good stuff

[Malacite]

Re: So I'm a lolRNG now....

I see you're lv 24 now. You're right in the prime gun levels. If you can grab a decent gun like Pirate's Gun, Bullets will absolutely destroy mandies. Nothing in the game can match Gun's damage from levels 22-29 especially with rice dumplings on.

Pirate's Gun is lv 27, so you'll be fine with a bandit or platoon gun (1 point damage difference, big whup)

Bullets have a whopping 46 DMG rating, so you'd have a combined DMG of 60/61. I can personally vouch for the utter sickness of this. When I tried this in yhoator even at lv 25 I was shooting mandies (with rice dumplings on) for over 100 damage a shot easily. I managed to break 200 dmg on weaponskills, it was disgusting and I reveled in the sheer destructive power.


That said, you're definitely going to need /NIN to survive doing that much damage. I was crazy and used /SAM to reduce the shots I needed to 100 TP by 1.

[hongman]

Re: So I'm a lolRNG now....

Thanks for the replies.

Ita - Not sure what you mean by "moving around"? All I know as its annoying as hell when I get the "Too Far Away" message, no WS goes off and my TP is suddenly 0. Grr.

Omg - I will try that food - it looks exactly like what I need. The -Emn will come in handy too...

Malacite - wow, I guess Ill try a gun for 28-30 - I'm 28 now (actually I delvled to 27, but only like 100tnl) and I have my 2 Archer's. Sounds mean!

Anyone have experience soloing Abyss Worms -> Parties? Looks cool to me, but after dieing about 5 times getting to camp (meh...blame it on lack of concentration) I gave up for the hour I was on last night.

[Nuriko]

Re: So I'm a lolRNG now....

That "too far away" and loss of TP happens for melee WS as well...

[hongman]

Re: So I'm a lolRNG now....

Yeah, SE should really fix that.

I can see how where people say RNG is expensive @.@ I lost count of how much money Iv dumped into Ammo so far. Worse is trying to judge how much Im going to use without being left short in a pt, but with little surplus as possible before moving onto the next range of arrows.

Inv space is, lol. If I ever take RNG (and THF...) to 75 I think ima need a seperate mule dedicated to each one. Or a lot of mannequins. Sucky.

[Omni]

Re: So I'm a lolRNG now....

Yawn@all the finger pointing and personality judgement. srsly guys.

You will miss a lot up until 30 as most ppl have said. Once you get to 28, you'll have access to archer's knives which can be a possible +20rng acc if you sub nin. Then at 30 there is the acc. trait kitty talked about.

Dmg wise, regular shot dmg should be pretty good if not the highest among all the jobs. WS will really suck until lv.55 when you get slugwinder. So if you can stick it out for 55 lvls of lame ws, you'll make it all up once you get your 1 and only true ws.

I used pretty much all weapons through all ranges. xbow, bow, gun. power bow is pretty decent when stacking acid bolts and spamming holy bolts. every 10 lvls theres a good long bow to get also, until u get to 50. then at 55 theres e-bow and 60 for s-bow. At 34, theres your first good gun imo, serpentine's gun. iirc it has 10rng acc and 10rng atk. Just find out what you like in these levels. Once you get to the 50s, you'll want to use a muskteer's gun since u get access to silver bullets then. If you can get your hands on an e-bow(or s-bow), that will be your end-all weapon at that point if you really wanted to just stick with 1 skill. At 67, you can get an o-bow which will be a great XP weapon and is nice to add some variety to your weaponry. Not the greatest for end-game stuff though.

Personally, I carry an s-bow and o-bow around when I'm on rng. I have all my merits in archery so that's what i use for end-game stuff. o-bow for everything else that doesnt really matter.

Happy hunting!

[hongman]

Re: So I'm a lolRNG now....

Thanks Omni.

I am currently making a list to print out for myself so I know when I need to upgrade and with what ammo to TP/WS in, for all 3 weapons - and I do have all the weapons you have mentioned in there

I am making my own judgement calls, Im not going for every single upgrade available, as Im trying to not over-do it in costs but not being gimp.

I'll post it here when I have a chance for your perusal, see if I have missed out anything major.

O-bow, S-Bow, E-Bow...I get confused at which is which lol >.>

[Tsrwedge]

Re: So I'm a lolRNG now....

Haven't seen anyone post this, but distance from the mob does change your damage.


(dang it, I still can't post URLs... go to FFXIclopedia and enter this in your address bar after "org" : Distance#Distance_and_Ranged_Attack)

[Omni]

Re: So I'm a lolRNG now....

Usually if you get either an Selene's Bow or Euryote's Bow, having 1 is fine. Don't need both unless you just want to have them.

Othinus' Bow is the x-bow, which is the best x-bow in the game. Nothing comes close before and after.

If you stick to just the new +1 longbow at 30, 40 and 50 you should be fine for archery. Good guns are a bit more spaced out lvl wise. serpentine (34) > muskteers/+1/+2 (50,52) > hellfire (70? i forget, never liked hellfire as it sits on one of my mules). x-bow is kind of iffy... i used power bow for a while, dabbled with some of the +1 x-bows but nothing really spectacular until o-bow.

taru edit: distance does affect dmg/acc but not as much as it did before after the nerf. it's a lot more forgiving now. the semi-unnerf a year ago helped things quite a bit. I typically stand ~6-9 distance for gun/xbow and 11-13 for bow.

[KingOfZeal]

Re: So I'm a lolRNG now....

VZX's post (the first reply in the thread) said this. And, for reference and a quick link:
http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/Distanc..._Ranged_Attack

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: So I'm a lolRNG now....

Once you get to the 50s, you'll want to use a muskteer's gun since u get access to silver bullets then. If you can get your hands on an e-bow(or s-bow), that will be your end-all weapon at that point if you really wanted to just stick with 1 skill. At 67, you can get an o-bow which will be a great XP weapon and is nice to add some variety to your weaponry. Not the greatest for end-game stuff though.

You're still going to want to keep Xbow on hand for crabs and defoliators, crabs in the early 50s and defoliators in the early 60s. Keep in mind that 50-55 is that nasty set of levels where jobs like RDM, BRD and COR just breeze on through and you likely may not get one. And your main target there is the crabs, which spam Defense Boost, so Acid Bolts will help you a lot there.

Guns and bow will serve you better on colibri, imps and puks. Xbow works well in mire, but I generally favor gun/bow in Mamool/Troll camps.

As for endgame stuff, I've personally found that for Dynamis cities and Limbus Xbow is very useful. Temenos is always Double Light Element and tends to have high HP/High Def mobs within, Xbow + Acid/Holy setup is great there. Double light, a nice MND build + light staff can give you some real nice holy bolt damage in there.

I've done bow there and it was OK, but Xbow lent better overall functionality in Temeno and Dyna cities. Just about every RNG I've met get excited to use O-Bow in Temenos.

[Malacite]

Re: So I'm a lolRNG now....

Don't bother using gun past lv 29 until at least lv 50.

The reason is at 30 you'll get access to Holy Bolts finally, along with new and better bows (and the arrows and bolts are way cheaper than bullets)

From 30-40 Xbow + Holy Bolts will just plain dominate, especially on bats in garlaige.