For the harcore rangers...

[Falaras]

meh Hellfire+1, Ebow, and Obow are gonna parse the same on merit mobs for the most part...Ebow rocks the HNMs though especially kited. MC Bow looks ghey so people buy Gendawa+1s! Whiteboxes > Short bows duh

[Sonomaa]

gonna post my gear later, need to finally finish my pure ranged attack macro and tweak the gear a little bit, its not horribly impressive and now that I see it, its very acc oriented over attack/str

I need my kitty sister to come give me some advice too

[Beckwin]

I hate gun. Ebow beats the hell out of it in xp (only exception is KC).

HNM? If you're gonna do RNG on HNM, chances are its either a) a kite fight, where bow wins or b) there are benefits to being at distances greater than 10.0.

[Alathar]

I hate gun. Ebow beats the hell out of it in xp (only exception is KC).

HNM? If you're gonna do RNG on HNM, chances are its either a) a kite fight, where bow wins or b) there are benefits to being at distances greater than 10.0.

There are almost always benefits to being at greater than 10.0 since that tends to be the range on a lot of mob AoEs. The only real exception would be on something like faf. Or wyrms (saw another shell using a RNG on Timmy ... it was pretty funny).

[Matricide]

i actually cant remember the last time i really meleed on rng without kc setup, and if im using a kc im using hellfire+1. chances are if i take my ranger to an event (with some exceptions) i put on my racc gear with staff and i stand at a distance (mainly to avoid aoe, hi2u 20.6 on cerb). otherwise i will take my war. this is the latest and im kinda done with a couple exceptions..

http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/5...gear2tl.th.jpg

kcTP kcWS and hnmTP

[Vertabreaker]

I think I'm one of the only RNGs left who doesn't rock the Fire/Vulcan.

[Raizins]

I hate gun. Ebow beats the hell out of it in xp (only exception is KC).

HNM? If you're gonna do RNG on HNM, chances are its either a) a kite fight, where bow wins or b) there are benefits to being at distances greater than 10.0.

For HNM:

a) What do you fight that's kited? Off the top of my head, I can think of only a few. KB (if your ls can claim it), BC99, and Behemoth boss in limbus. Everything else is straight tanked pretty much. Damage on Behemoth boss in limbus sucks anyway.

b) For fights where you shoot from a farther range and avoid taking damage from AoE, hate is still the limiting factor for how much damage a ranger can do. Most of the ToAU HNMs, I don't spam ranged attack and WS because it throws hate off after some time, especially because you are taking 0 damage for the duration of the fight. Also, after the most recent patch, damage variation from distance is not as significant as it used to be.

[othellojr]

i actually cant remember the last time i really meleed on rng without kc setup, and if im using a kc im using hellfire+1. chances are if i take my ranger to an event (with some exceptions) i put on my racc gear with staff and i stand at a distance (mainly to avoid aoe, hi2u 20.6 on cerb). otherwise i will take my war. this is the latest and im kinda done with a couple exceptions..

http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/5...gear2tl.th.jpg

kcTP kcWS and hnmTP

I have similar setups except for a few new pieces (Assault pieces I should say); after I quit my hnm shell I sold my ebow while it was still worth 18 mil since even when I was doing hnms, I was either Blm for most events, Samurai for when melee was needed, or Smn for wyrms so I could no longer think of a reason for it; as far as merits, I always merit on Mnk(war sometimes now too), so Rng has taken a very far backseat to my other jobs (have war now too, and Brd coming up, so I just didn't see the point to keeping Ebow when I can just use guns for that rare occasion where rng is needed).

[vegetaa]

I think I'm one of the only RNGs left who doesn't rock the Fire/Vulcan.

I tried Vulcan's on RNG a few times, and I was not very pleased with the result :/ Accuracy is really an issue when I equip it.

I have zero archery merits, and can't really afford the RAcc loss...I usually equip Kriegsbeil/Francisca, and even switch to dual Hawker's +1 on most evasive mobs.

[Rishi]

I think I'm one of the only RNGs left who doesn't rock the Fire/Vulcan.

I tried Vulcan's on RNG a few times, and I was not very pleased with the result :/ Accuracy is really an issue when I equip it.

I have zero archery merits, and can't really afford the RAcc loss...I usually equip Kriegsbeil/Francisca, and even switch to dual Hawker's +1 on most evasive mobs.

C&P from KI : http://www.killingifrit.com/forums.php?m=posts&q=145701

Difference boils down to STR+5 (Vulcan) vs. AGI+5 R.Acc+11 RAtk+5 (2x Axe). Given that +11 acc means you can swap OHat/AFbody/BeheRing/etc for a STR ring and still come ahead in overall AGI/RAcc/RAtk, not to mention lets you melee for substantial added damage, 2x Axe > Vulcan. However, Vulcan beats each individual Axe, so.

Krieg/Fran whenever you're subbing NIN, Vulcan when you're not.

[Sonomaa]

I dont use a vulcan but I end up subbing nin 99% of the time, but I use krieg/ridill. I guess I should break down and bring both axes and the sword. Going to get my dusty str helm out of the mulekitty too. Ive been using 1 acc ring for my sides to make sure they hit, guess Ill take some more risk

[Sonomaa]

i actually cant remember the last time i really meleed on rng without kc setup, and if im using a kc im using hellfire+1. chances are if i take my ranger to an event (with some exceptions) i put on my racc gear with staff and i stand at a distance (mainly to avoid aoe, hi2u 20.6 on cerb). otherwise i will take my war. this is the latest and im kinda done with a couple exceptions..

http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/5...gear2tl.th.jpg

kcTP kcWS and hnmTP

what is on ears

[Credos]

i actually cant remember the last time i really meleed on rng without kc setup, and if im using a kc im using hellfire+1. chances are if i take my ranger to an event (with some exceptions) i put on my racc gear with staff and i stand at a distance (mainly to avoid aoe, hi2u 20.6 on cerb). otherwise i will take my war. this is the latest and im kinda done with a couple exceptions..

http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/5...gear2tl.th.jpg

kcTP kcWS and hnmTP

what is on ears

Looks like Bush / Brutal in the top pic, with Bush and Vampire in the bottom two.

[Alathar]

i actually cant remember the last time i really meleed on rng without kc setup, and if im using a kc im using hellfire+1. chances are if i take my ranger to an event (with some exceptions) i put on my racc gear with staff and i stand at a distance (mainly to avoid aoe, hi2u 20.6 on cerb). otherwise i will take my war. this is the latest and im kinda done with a couple exceptions..

http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/5...gear2tl.th.jpg

kcTP kcWS and hnmTP

what is on ears

Looks like Bush / Brutal in the top pic, with Bush and Vampire in the bottom two.

That would make more sense than my guesses. I was thinking suppa in the top pic and that the vampire was a vision earring (whatever the racc+2 one is).

[Credos]

i actually cant remember the last time i really meleed on rng without kc setup, and if im using a kc im using hellfire+1. chances are if i take my ranger to an event (with some exceptions) i put on my racc gear with staff and i stand at a distance (mainly to avoid aoe, hi2u 20.6 on cerb). otherwise i will take my war. this is the latest and im kinda done with a couple exceptions..

http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/5...gear2tl.th.jpg

kcTP kcWS and hnmTP

what is on ears

Looks like Bush / Brutal in the top pic, with Bush and Vampire in the bottom two.

That would make more sense than my guesses. I was thinking suppa in the top pic and that the vampire was a vision earring (whatever the racc+2 one is).

Yeah, it could be Vision or Vampire, but it just wouldn't make sense to have Supp on /war.

[Vertabreaker]

I dont use a vulcan but I end up subbing nin 99% of the time, but I use krieg/ridill. I guess I should break down and bring both axes and the sword. Going to get my dusty str helm out of the mulekitty too. Ive been using 1 acc ring for my sides to make sure they hit, guess Ill take some more risk

If you're rocking the Ridill offhand you're already losing the Racc and Ratk from the Frany so I would keep 1 Racc Ring on for sides but that's just my personal preference. I've tried 2 x Flames and I wasn't happy with the misses I was seeing even with 8/8 Archery Merits.

[dietvanillapepsi]

Does anyone else besides me put stock into the DPS numbers posted by ffxi.somepage.com? I find it's the easiest tool to determine the best DoT weapon w/o factoring in ws of course. So if we look at bows, we have this:

http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/1226/bowdps2cq.png

It would seem that MCB is the next best bow after Ebow. Then Selene (or Imperial) and then the G+1. Imperial and Selene might be about equal. Imperial has higher base dmg but Selene occasionally has att bonuses. I have never been a bow guy myself but I would be interested in testing the MCB theory.


BTW, anyone try out the Machine Crossbow? Looks like a great weapon for solo'ing. Prolly not good for merit due to low ws dmg. The sexy low delay would make it great for bloody bolt spamming. I haven't looked into new rng weapons in years so I would like to hear anyone's testimony on this crossbow.

[Quixotic]

Those don't take into account the +ratk and such that bows like Ebow and Sbow have. While variable, the +ratk/+racc on Sbow from moon phase puts it right behind ebow in my opinion.

[Rishi]

Somepage's DPS figures don't even come close to reflecting how weapons perform in-game, don't reflect the use of stats on the weapons, don't account for the effects of STR/Atk gear on picking low delay weapons over high delay weapons, and they're more useless for Rangers than any other job since ammo isn't factored in, so ....

[edit] beat to the punch, omigaw.

[Quixotic]

Just to add some input as a bow ranger, the only time I brought culverin + heavy shells to dynamis lord, I was very, very unimpressed. I didn't think archery merits and the tiny STR modifier on sidewinder would make much of a difference, but my ebow sidewinders did a decent chunk more than the culverin slugshots (I'm talking 100-300 more if I remember right). I actually have a heavy shell in my posession (I've had it for a while now), but I haven't been able to get the chance to use it on anything major (and I rarely use it anyways because I don't want to lose it).