From my own personal testing experience, it seems blatantly obvious that sylvan caban +2 increases ranged attack (or damage in some way), yet nobody seems to believe me. I wrote these numbers down in notepad so forgive the spacing. I took pictures as well if anyone needs further verification.
For gear I simply swapped caban and dux +1 body back and forth, but for the dux swap I also equipped thaumas gloves for the remaining two STR (in both sets thaumas kecks were equipped). Thus, both sets had exactly the same STR and ranged attack.
lvl 80 pachypodium (abyssea - tah)
distance: 2.8
caban:
reg: 212 202 206 199 196 198 208 209 205 200 212 205 198 212 208 209 211 204 211 198 206 203 201 198 196 210 205 200 199 198 209 209 202 199 202 212 202 202 209 199 196 199 211 210 211 197 199 198 209 197 198 210 209 207 207 211
total/ave: 11433/57 = 200.5789
crit: 359 384 355 371 384 371 363 362 366 372 384 358 378
average: 369.769
dux +1
reg: 196 192 196 201 192 195 195 195 200 199 201 189 199 195 189 187 192 191 191 192 197 196 190 199 189 197 186 199 195 194 199 192 195 191 195 189 197 195 188 202 186 187 195 194 199 186 190 187 192 197 186
total/ave: 9871/51 = 193.5490
crit:
337 355 342 365 365 350 342 359 359 363 340 358 355 336 337 345
average: 350.5
For this test, I wasn't so much interested in what the boost was. I'm just tired of trying to convince people that caban does boost damage/ranged attack. I did however, compare tessera vs caban for last stand, and caban won, so the boost is enough to offset 17(.5) ranged attack and 1 STR.
Do I need to shoot more things, or can we settle this? I have more data but vs different mobs.