Leveling ranged?

[lufia22]

Well, I know SAM/RNG can be a viable combination (not to mention it sounds fun) later on, but my main problem right now is actually keeping ranged leveled up. Any tips for keeping it at least semi-leveled or should I just wait until I level ranger up to bother with it? If I only take RNG to lvl 37, will that even be enough skill at lvl 60 SAM to be viable?

[Mog]

Re: Leveling ranged?

Well, I know SAM/RNG can be a viable combination (not to mention it sounds fun) later on, but my main problem right now is actually keeping ranged leveled up. Any tips for keeping it at least semi-leveled or should I just wait until I level ranger up to bother with it? If I only take RNG to lvl 37, will that even be enough skill at lvl 60 SAM to be viable?

my advice to you would be to use ranged in your spare time, and use it while fighting xp mobs, just as long as it doesn't detract from your main job.

Also, a key piece of advice that I learned from a friend. Whatever your skill is, divide it by 3 and that's the level mob you should be fighting.

Ex: My Enfeebling skill is 120. (Quite shitty, yes) If I have the urge to skill up, I will divide that number by 3 and get 40. Wherever I leveled at 40 (Crawlers nest, i think) is where I wanna go to level it up. Simple as that. Once you get into the higher levels, just join skillup parties and you'll be set for the rest of the game.

[tdh]

Re: Leveling ranged?

Well, RNG has an A- Skill in Archery according to Somepage. SAM has a C+ Skill in Archery. So that works out like this:

RNG37: Archery Lv.114
SAM60: Archery Lv.190

So, RNG37 will give you a big head start, but you would still have to level Archery as SAM.

RNG67 will cap Archery for every job that has an Archery Skill. I've been meaning to do this with RDM. Would be easy for me, just Silence Worms, and fire away. They'd never eat through my Stoneskin, and I'd be set for SAM for quite a while.

[Aeni]

Re: Leveling ranged?

Ummm ... I've been keeping ranged capped or near capped on my SAM using the SAM/WAR combination and easily can keep it capped as a SAM/RNG without issues ... and my SAM's only level 21 >.>

In other words, if you're not using range attacks in exp PT, you're gimping yourself.

[lufia22]

Re: Leveling ranged?

Well, I actually haven't been in PTs yet (lvl 10). You're thinking, "yeah, usually nothing is capped at that level unless you had it previously leveled." However, I noticed Archery wasn't leveling up no matter how many time I land a hit on an enemy. My GKT was the same level gaining skill on the same enemies. So yeah, it'll definitely level faster when I start taking on T+ enemies, but my problem was with how often should I use it and if it is indeed harder to level up than GKT, how I was going to keep it capped without spamming it too often.

In other words, I might have made this topic too soon. But here's a question: How often do you shoot it to keep it capped? Shooting a bow cuts into your main-hand weapon delay does it not? Therefore you're hitting less with a weapon you're more proficient in so you can hit more with a less proficient weapon. So while I see the advantages of having Archery for pulling, a quick damage spike or TP gain (if the bow you have has less delay than the GKT) or with RNG sub, I don't really see how it makes you that much more gimp not to have it.

Though perhaps my understanding of ranged attacks is incorrect, though I seem to notice that when I use a ranged attack that is pauses the delay countdown on my GKT and resumes when the ranged attack is over.

Feel free to correct or enlighten me. And don't get me wrong, it's not that I don't want to level it up (I've already bought arrows and have a power bow +1 lined up), I'm just trying to understand how to be both proficient at damage and not underlevel my archery skill.

EDIT:

Yep, having a little trouble keeping it leveled. I'm level 15 with lvl 30 archery. Thinking of just going to LaTheine or Konch at pigging a few Worms or something (hopefully they still elvel me up well). I think pnce I get it up to around capped I should be able to hit frequently enough to keep it leveled well enough. I think my problem was that lvl 10-12 I missed often (like any newbie to the dunes with uncapped skills) with both weapons and since I was using archery not as frequent, it got behind.

[Itatchi]

Re: Leveling ranged?

you really don't have to worry about rng attacks unless you intend to pursue sam/rng

Though it is nice, if your pulling, or a mob is incoming, to get off an arrow or 2, and some extra TP, before you whip out your GKT. Your going to do more dmg with GKT than ranged.. plus to do decent DMG w/ archery, you have to run away from the mob, too far to swing GKT. And than if ya miss.. blarg.. again not too worth it since they made 'changes' (or as some of you say, nerfed) ranged attack.

Except in ballista. ... goto www.killingifrit.com and look up some threads about sam/rng by a Samurai named Deleinquiox or whatever.

[lufia22]

Re: Leveling ranged?

Well, I got it capped by pulling EM+ in the dunes to the zone and just shooting them until I was almost dead and zoning. I actually Soloed some Ts and a VT thanks to bomb toss failing XD. Goblin Ambushers make for a really good arrow match, but they chicken out after about halfway and go melee, lol. It took me a while though and I notice that I still miss a ton, even on just Ts.

I was stressing out too much about leveling ranged that I was gimping my damage pretty badly before this, so I may take your advice and just forget about it if I can't keep it naturally leveled up.

Oh, and if I may take the time to ask another question: Should I be using STR or DEX rings pre-sniper/woodsman? I know I hear people with sniper/woodsman keep both their ACC rings and STR rings, one for TP and one for WS, but I wasn't sure if that was really important at this level. I've been just using STR rings, as I wouldn't think the +2 ACC from the DEX rings at this level would do much.

[seq]

Re: Leveling ranged?

to shoot you have to be far away (Archery spot) and to melee you have to be waaaaay too close to the mob.
back when i was leveling RNG from 1 to 37 (a support job for fun for THF!!!) i found my WS's missing alot even at the sweetspot with a caped A skill... think a SAM won't? with a C skill >.>? i even see RNG main miss Sidewinders (Many!!) with A- skill, think a SAM with C+ won't?
maybe SAM/RNG was cool, but that's before the Ranged attack patch.. not anymore for EXP PT.
anyways about skilling it, skill it solo/duo with someone 'till you are at or near the cap then while in EXP when the puller or you pull, while the mob is far away try shooting it :D
assuming your skill is 40
go to this page choose Archery and SAM/RNG as a job, put your lvl as hmmmm 30 or something. if the skill is 40 or less from your current skill, take the lvl you choose randomly and go to this page choose the mob family as a Worm and put the same lvl you choose in the first page (30?).
go to that mob and skill up on it 'till you get caped for that level, repeat.

[Lmnop]

Re: Leveling ranged?

I think I've abused those Goblin Ambushers for leveling all 3 ranged weapons now (throwing, archery, marksmanship).

Before I leveled SAM, I busted out my WAR and got a good head start on leveling Archery (if your first job to 30 was either war or thf, you can use them for this with level 1 arrows bought from an npc for dirt-cheap). Since I never really do more than 4 levels/week on any job leveling, I have lots of time to do things inbetween such as help skill up, so maybe that helped. But anywho, my archery ended up always being capped or close to cap all the way to 38 where I stopped playing SAM.

I think I only shot 2 arrows per monster. If I was pulling, I'd shoot to pull, run past the party, and fire off another arrow. Tank vokes before 2nd arrow fires off. If I'm not pulling, then it's just fire an arrow off while pull comes in. This sucks because it's hard to measure "Sweetspot" on a mob giving chase. However, I don't believe in sacrificing Great Katana time for a chance with the bow. I think if you find yourself spending half the fight with your bow out, it's usually a bad thing. Mind you, as with all my jobs, I was equip swapping on every bit of ranged accuracy+ gear that a Samurai can wear (not much) for every arrow, and replacing them all for melee gear when I wasn't shooting. 30+, I believe I was even using Tentacle Sushi (I only saw double attack proc once in about 3 hours of using that stuff, btw) and I'd still be lucky to hit 70% of the time. Of course, I'm elvaan at levels where race actually matters. I don't think you should ever be considered gimp for not shooting all the time. I definately like shooting once/mob at least though (it's nice when your mele hits for 50 and your /ra hits for 92).