Ridill Rangers Post-Velocity Shot:

[Ryany]

I’d like to hear about the playstyles on xp mobs of ridill rangers post-velocity shot. Right now I’ve been messing with play styles and have not yet found a clear-cut best play style. Before velocity shot (also before I dinged 70), I found it most efficient to use a gun and silver bullets and get tp through meleeing via the francisca and M.Kris. I’ve been having a hard time finding the best style post-70. The style I expected to give me the best performance (tping in ridill/M.Kris w/ a gun and silver bullets) did not turn out that way. (did not use V.shot while meleeing).

I'm currently 71 and I do realize that I’ll have a lot more haste at 75 between dusk/haidate/turban for the melee tp style, so I’m sure things will be a lot different at 75.

My question is about what style other ridill rangers have found the best between the following:
O.Bow Non-Stop Shooting (w/ V.Shot)
O.Bow Melee TP (no V.Shot / ridill/M.Kris)
O.Bow Melee TP (w/ V.Shot ridill/M.Kris)
Hellfire Non-Stop Shooting (w/ V.Shot)
Hellfire Melee TP (no V.Shot / ridill/M.Kris)
Hellfire Melee TP (w/ V.Shot ridill/M.Kris)
Any other melee weapon setup (such as kreigsbeil/ridill or something)
Any other style I may not be thinking of.

I don’t expect melee tping w/ V.Shot up to be decent with how much v.shot slows your swings down, but I put it in there just in case I’m somehow way off. This is also under assumption that you are using the best ammo for each. I didn't include cannon shells due to them not stacking high enough. I didn't include bows either because I don't like how the sweet spot is too far outside of melee range. I'm 0/47 on the kraken club BC, so that is out of the question unless I somehow get lucky.

Disclaimer:
In case there are any allakazam-styled flames about how I shouldn’t have one if I don’t know how to use it, I got it for my warrior back when my ranger was 15.

[Sanjiyan]

Don't use it?

[RKenshin]

Honestly I've never really been a fan of the melee RNG thing outside of owning a KC and the proper gear to use it... But even more now than before I don't with the introduction of Velocity Shot.

But that aside, my choice of the ones available is definitely going for shooting with Hellfire non-stop and keeping Velocity Shot up full-time.

[maddadon]

totally agree. VShot is just plain kick ass. outside kclub melee/culvern+1 kinda deal- I wouldn't mess w/ melee tp.

ranger also has a great amount of meritable coolness-- meritable ranged haste, and rapid shot are really nice.

beyond that- there is those little annoying things like AOE that ranger has the ability to continue to lay the smack down and not get hit w/ - thus giving more mp to use on the tanks where it belongs as opposed to curing stupid melees (as long as they arn't dumb and draw hate).

[Seditedi]

They don't take any damage, but a Ranged attack gives a mob like 20 TP/shot, so they will probably be TPing more often than compared to having like 2 SAMs meleeing.

[Shuemue]

Out of interest, do Store TP and Subtle Blow work on ranged attacks?

[Callisto]

Out of interest, do Store TP and Subtle Blow work on ranged attacks?

Store TP does for sure, with a lucky SAM roll on COR I get 25 tp/bullet, I would assume that Subtle Blow does as well.

[RKenshin]

I can confirm what Callisto said, and yeah I believe Subtle Blow does too.

They don't take any damage, but a Ranged attack gives a mob like 20 TP/shot, so they will probably be TPing more often than compared to having like 2 SAMs meleeing.

In any exp PT with 3 or more melees a mob is breaking 100 TP every 10-15 seconds, if not less. Attempting to control mob TP in an exp PT is pretty futile, the only thing that can really lower the occurence of TP attacks is faster fights.

The most TP attacks you'll ever see in exp PT fights isn't in a PT with multiple multi-attack weapons (whether they're KClubs or Ridills with max haste gear or what), it's in a PT where the fights are long. A mob isn't using a TP attack every time they get TP (except below ~25%?), it's more of an over time thing.

In fact RNG is one of the most TP efficient jobs outside of the use of Barrage (which is a one-hit deal so even then it's not so bad). Melee jobs can and do take advantage of all forms of haste through equipment, spells, and songs in combination with forms of DA, TA, Zanshin, etc. All of this combined multiplies their TP output by significant amounts... To the point where I'm sure even your average 2h user will average ~2 attacks per a single hit of RNG. Rapid Shot doesn't compare to any of that at all even if you're using all the gear available, and nor does the miniscule amount that Snap Shot upgrades provide. Especially since RNG lacks an auto-attack feature.

Personally I think I'm close to 3 if not more hits per single RNG shot on SAM under a normal PT situation, as my typical delay is in the high 1xx range along with 15% DA and Zanshin traits. Which ends up being 33 TP given vs. 15-18 or so per shot of RNG.

[Seditedi]

Obviously I wasn't talking about a mob TPing too much in exp because it doesn't really matter there, but on some fights (Salvage mega bosses being one) RNG can make things spam like crazy.

[VZX]

Obviously I wasn't talking about a mob TPing too much in exp because it doesn't really matter there, but on some fights (Salvage mega bosses being one) RNG can make things spam like crazy.

That's weird, because theoretically, with the same amount of subtle blow, a DD who require less hit to reach 100% TP give mob TP the least.

[SeraphusRagnarok]

Subtle Blow even works on magic damage!

[RKenshin]

Obviously I wasn't talking about a mob TPing too much in exp because it doesn't really matter there, but on some fights (Salvage mega bosses being one) RNG can make things spam like crazy.

But my point is they won't feed it fast TP any more than most normal DDs with the only exceptions probably being MNK and BLM. And that in fact, they're probably one of the most TP efficient jobs. Especially if you scale it in a damage done/TP feeded ratio.

As I elaborated on earlier a typical 2h melee in an average situation is going to get ~2 swings for every single RNG shot. Which ends up being way more TP over time than a RNG will give.

[Neisan]

But wouldn't you then be the worst in damage done/TP feeded ratio?

[RKenshin]

No, WAR's dual wielding and/or using Ridill or Joyese are... Or any melee using a multi-attack weapon.

I will however agree that SAM isn't too TP efficient in comparison. Though they're not the worst due to the bulk of their output coming from weapon skill damage, which is incredibly TP efficient since it's a one-hit low-TP WS that averages for high damage. I'd still rank RNG, MNK, and BLM far above SAM though. Not sure how I'd compare it to other jobs at the moment, a little drunk!

[VZX]

But wouldn't you then be the worst in damage done/TP feeded ratio?

In that case those who have higher base damage and high attack weapon will win. That is too say, RNG and 2h weapon DRK (though you can argue about WAR and DRG too)

[Neisan]

Admittedly their ratio is worse; although while feeding the mob TP they can still do good damage from the feeding to make up for it.