Snapshot and RNG

[ringthree]

There has to be a better way to do it, assuming you don't have a good manual grasp of the timing, but for me just screwing around, it didn't seem worth the investment time. It just opened my eyes to just how annoying using a ranged weapon is to a melee one.

Can you make any kind of Windower macro that detects when an ability is ready to be used? I mean that is basically what Recast and Yarnball do right? What is Ranged Attack considered? It has it's own button, does it have an internal timer anywhere or is that all handled server-side?

[ringthree]

I love Rng, but yeah, not having auto fire sucks. If people in WoW can do it, I don't see why FFXI can't. It's a pain to play RNG in long events like dyna. Heh, then you have to buy ammo, have to adjust distance, and stomach the range nerf.

You can't really compare WoW and FFXI like that. The programming is infinitely different.

Edit: I fucking Ridill posted again. >.<

[Seraph]

Can you make any kind of Windower macro that detects when an ability is ready to be used? I mean that is basically what Recast and Yarnball do right? What is Ranged Attack considered? It has it's own button, does it have an internal timer anywhere or is that all handled server-side?

I don't use windower macros because I consider them immoral (or more realistically I'm too damn lazy to set up the XML file). Not sure if the Ranged Attack delay is stored client side anywhere. When I mean primitive macro, I mean like:

/ra <t>
/wait 6
/ra <t>
/wait 6
/ra <t>
/echo *** Hit the damn button again... ***


Took me about 30 seconds to make, and I never looked back. It's terrible, but it worked for what I needed it for.

[Raylinn]

Can you make any kind of Windower macro that detects when an ability is ready to be used? I mean that is basically what Recast and Yarnball do right? What is Ranged Attack considered? It has it's own button, does it have an internal timer anywhere or is that all handled server-side?

I haven't gone digging through memory to make sure, but it looks to be handled server side. When you hit your ranged macro, it sends the command to the server which responds by saying you can't do that yet, giving you that unhappy message which makes people rip their hair out.

[Kirschy]

I'm suprised no one has mentioned how the Ranged Attack calculations completely triumph regular melee. Even with the 2H Boost, fSTR on ranged attacks is still much better than 2H and twice as powerful as 1H. Ranged attacks also cap out at 3.0 and 3.25(Crit) pdif, which is signifigantly higher than 1Hers and 2Hers. Not to mention Slugwinder are the highest fTP WS. (Bow/Gun + Ammo also lends to the highest DMG combos possible.)

Not being able to "auto-ranged attack" does hurt the speed benefits of velo shot/snapshot/rapid shot, but manual firing isn't too far off if done well. (Also allows for greater control of your hate compared to a melee who needs to unlock and spin, or disengage.)

Creating a macro or script to auto-fire will never be as powerful as manual fire due to slight variations and lag for the final phase duration. Like it was said before, if you try to fire too soon there's an additional delay before you can fire again. (This is seen /w magic and JA too.) A macro/script for auto-firing wouldn't be as efficient as manual firing, but would help for a more relaxed/lazy playing style.

When I did some basic testing, Velocity Shot and Snapshot were hard to nail down with limited testing. What I believe was rapid shot kept varying the duration of each shot while on RNG. Ranged shots on DRK were much more consistant :/. I'd definetly like to see some testing or data on Velo/Rapid/Snap shots, and how they interact each other on delay.

[draxyl]

Those are all good points Kirschy, but you have to understand - it's HARD to keep hitting the ranged attack macro AND pack/smoke a bowl at the same time. I can still manage decently, but its a pain in the butt and I inevitably miss out on the bonus speed from rapid/velocity/snapshot because I'm not paying close attention.

[Sonomaa]

every time playing ranger annoys me I go merit on some lolibri
http://sonomaa.com/random/barrage.jpg
works every time

[Spider-Dan]

I'm suprised no one has mentioned how the Ranged Attack calculations completely triumph regular melee. Even with the 2H Boost, fSTR on ranged attacks is still much better than 2H and twice as powerful as 1H. Ranged attacks also cap out at 3.0 and 3.25(Crit) pdif, which is signifigantly higher than 1Hers and 2Hers.

However, ranged crits suck; they are a straight +25% to damage, instead of +1.0 to rate.

If you're fighting garbage mobs, ranged crits are great. On anything that matters, they blow.

[Callisto]

In terms of overall efficiency I really do wonder if it may be worth just doing an automated deal that takes your Snapshot into account but wastes your Rapid Shot procs. Does Rapid Shot even proc enough to where getting the most of it would be better than always firing automatically right on time for the remainder of the shots that don't?

[matix]

i love my RS procs, but ive also been pretty die hard about timing my shots. the automated thing would be a good idea in the sense there is nothing else like that, but still its like being okay with wasting potental speed, where (ranged in this case)attack speed seems to be king of all in ffxi

[aalryn]

you could in theory make a g15 macro that starts ranged attacks then stops them with a different key press

This is what I do. I have a macro that hits my RA macro every 1 1/2 seconds to 2 seconds. I've gone afk for entire parties at lower levels when I didn't have to use weaponskills.

[Malacite]

Jesus H Christ epic barrage there...

Set up? And if enough people e-mail SE asking for auto-ranged it might happen. They do *occasionally* read the suggestions people send in.

[Fooobos]

So whats the verdict on the % snapshot from ZGB? Any proper testing done on it? No one seems to know for a fact what the %, probably because the actual testing is hard to do.
Would be nice if we could find out a way and work towards finding the %, because the results could be a deciding factor into choosing the MKD hat augments (that is, make it a TP/barrage piece, or a WS piece, for us RNG mains).

[Pocketrockets]

Jesus H Christ epic barrage there...

Set up? And if enough people e-mail SE asking for auto-ranged it might happen. They do *occasionally* read the suggestions people send in.

I'm going to assume that was a triple proc with relic bow.