Increase Ranger Damage Output With Bow.

Hello!

I'm interested in increasing my damage output for ranger.
I recently recorded my damage outputs in a Dynamis, they are as followed;

RNG75/NIN37 (taru)
STR:57+26
AGI:76+21

Regular range attack with Velocity Shot, 90-120. With critical hits averaging 120-180.
SideWinder 300-950
Barrage 100-890

TP Gear;
Weapon: Fire Staff + Axe Grip, Fransisca + Hawker's Knife
Range: Vali's bow + Demon Arrows
Head: Wyvern helm
Neck: Hope Torq.
Earring: Bushinomimi + Vision Earring
Body: Mirke (Range attack +10, Snap shot +5)
Hands: Hunter's bracers +1
Rings: Behemoth Ringx2
Back: Amemet mantle +1
Waist: Royal Knight's belt
Legs: Scout's Braccae
Feet: Scout's socks

Archery : 290 (7/8 Archery merits)

Now since, I'm new to endgame RNG, I don't have many merits and I lack a WS Gear swap. For when the fact I changed my Rings for STR. I saw a increase in misses and I felt I rather hit more then do more Damage. But is there a way I can do both? And what if any of Ranger should I merit?

Any help is appreciated.

Thank you.

That seems like a solid setup to me, better gear than I use anyway. What food do you eat?

dont /nin.

This, times a million. /NIN stopped being useful at about LV50 if you're going pure DD.

Edit: Prioritize STR over AGI, and R.Attack over STR. /WAR and use Meat. Even then, you will not miss on any non-HNM, and I even have an 80% hit rate on Kirin with meat and /WAR.

I see.

RNG/WAR ftw.

Now, I'm no RNG.. Don't intend on taking it past 37 after I get SAM to 75, but..

Would RNG/SAM not do better than /WAR? They have a fairly similar Base STR, and /SAM gives Hasso which adds +5STR at 75 (I think, maybe +6). Admittedly it's missing out on Berserk, but from my understanding Attack and Ranged Attack don't compliment each other, do they?

/SAM also has Meditate, Store TP and Seigan. So more WS's, and more damage mitigation for the "Oh ***" moments.

Once again though,

rng/war will always out perform /sam in situations where your purely going for all out Damage spike. /sam is usually favored for when u cant hit as often for tp, so you get your tp in the easier fashion by just meditating (/sam is also useful for meditate + WS so tanks can have easier time holding hate)

/SAM ist more prefered the higher you get. More defensive capabilities and meditate can give a constant flow of dmg. I have no experience in subbing war as rng, tho too much damage can get you in danger, therefore i think /sam is good to go with.

Can anyone answer Hitetsu's questions more specifically as to WHY /war is better than /sam for damage? His points seem quite valid so I'm really interested to know myself.

Cause some guy tried /war and /sam with parser on and said "By George! Subbing Warrior for my Ranger is so much more effecient than subbing Samurai!" (He said it in an english accent of course)

Linx plxkthxbai.

On a more serious note, can someone who has RNG, prefferably 70+ when /SAM and /WAR both get everything other than a few STR, please comment? >.>

I agree wholeheartedly with the statement that STR and R.Atk are king. Also, /WAR WILL give you far better result than /NIN... however for survival sake you DO have to take into consideration what you're doing. In Dynamis I would still /nin because you're likely to pull hate often and get beat in the face... HOWEVER, for something like DYnamis Lord I would probably warp and change to /WAR. For the most part, I /WAR as much as is possible without being completely stupid about it. There ARE situations where /NIN is the better option... just remember, a dead DD does no damage~ When it comes down to crunch and I'm hauling Ixion halfway across a zone to meet a tank that's all the way at the other end... I'm gonna be thankful for that /NIN.



Imo, not a bad setup. I'd probably ditch the R.Acc rings and the earrings and go for STR wherever and however you can. Upgrade to a Vulcan's when you can as well. Ditch the Hawker's/Franny and fulltime staff. If you can get your hands on a Buccaneer's Belt or Scout's Belt, even better. Pahluwan pants aren't a horrible option for the legs... they're no Hachiryu... but they've got a little bit of STR to go with your R.Acc.

Recently I've been using a food called Pot-au-feu and have had good result. It adds a good chunk of R.Atk and R.Acc. It won't frustrated you as much as meat but you'll still post some of the pretty numbers.

Anyway, late for work.

Hope this helps.

A.

CFG/BFG would be a good investment as well esp if you can get from your sky shell without buying.

For the question as to why /WAR is better than /SAM for doing more dmg, /WAR's has a higher base STR, the JA's of /WAR directly add a +% to ranged attack dmg(compared with hasso only adding +5STR at lvl 75). Yes you can spam WS's faster with /SAM, but quality over quantity is my personal opinion.

/SAM:
-Hasso
-Meditate
-Store TP
-Seigan & Third Eye (for those moments when you pulled hate more than expected... but dont expect it to save you every time as third eye isnt always reliable)

/WAR:
-Attack Bonus(Job Trait that directly increases r.att)
-Berserk(straight +25% increase to r.att for 3 minutes)
-Warcry(adds another +5.5%ish att... also adds a bit of hate but helps others if you're trying to set up a good SC)

/NIN:
-Utsusemi
-Dual Wield
-------(/NIN is mostly only for situations where the mob will one-shot you if you pull even the slightest bit of hate)

This is definately a biased post because I love the dmg i do with /WAR and simply put /SAM bores the hell out of me.

I believe the general consensus was that Berserk and Warcry's attack boosts greatly outweighed Hasso's STR boost and a TP boost. There's math and nerd stuff out there to show this in greater detail, but none of that matters.

In response to all the "don't /NIN," subbing NIN - while not optimal for damage output - is useful in some situations, so don't sell your gear for it or anything.

In response to /SAM's defensive capabilities, the idea with /WAR is things die before they have a chance to do too much damage.

But i love so much RNG/sam O_O
Sidewinder > Barrage > Sidewinder > Meditate + 2Ratk > Sidewinder O_O
and seigan thid eye ^^

tho its 1200+1200+1200+1200

As RNG/war it might be:
Sidewinder 1800 > Barrage 1800 > sidewinder 1800 lol

well... my first 75 was ranger. is still my pride and joy(mostly my zerg kit) but i am also still missing pieces. whether it be from bad lots, or not seeing drops, what have you. this is what i TP in and what i WS in. not perfect. but i like the balance of accuracy and damage i get. PS: i rotate between sushi and hedgehog pies as food primarily. basically bc my mum makes em and i get em for free XD

TP kit
WS kit

but most ppl said it already. a few HQ pieces here and there wouldnt hurt. a WS macro set will help you quite a bit. get rid of the AF+1 cept for barrage macro. get your hands on some C/BFGs and/or s-kote. p-legs are a nice choice for WS regardless. only reason i use o-hat is bc im still missing the 2nd half of my RNG limbus item for AF+1. and for TP, i really dont merit on rng so i don't really worry about that end of the deal. But regardless you have a decent set to start with. Just build on it a bit and pick up a few pieces to optimize your performance and you'll be alright. You already have a higher base AGI, but the loss of STR as a taru is where you're going to notice your dmg drop off(you know this already).

so in short; my suggestions:
STR rings.
vulcans staff
osode
C/BFGs/S-kote
bucc belt at the least
p-legs
rutter feet

granted this is all about damage max. If you see yourself missing more than you'd like. sub in a Racc ring instead of a STR ring, or play with the kit a bit til you find a happy medium.

and curse you for having Scout socks >.> been trying for those damn near my entire ffxi career and have only seen 3 drop

ninjer edit: for raw damage purposes /war will outdamage /sam. even if you are on key with meditate you just get more out of /war. Situational survivability /sam takes the cake. only time i ever use /nin is for ixion. I have quite a few zerg's under my belt and i always come out higher as /war. longer fights i have seen similar results. so in the end... do what feels comfortable for you and what satisfies your playstyle. i like /war but i wont knock the extra perks of /sam. so whichever you like better, have at it!

Edit : I'm a slow typer, others have said most of this already before i posted it, nvm.

My thoughts on this.

Don't dismiss any of the 3 mentioned subjobs for rng. They all have their place and depends on what your doing.

Quite simply for pure damage, /war all the way. The increase from beserk and warcry on your weaponskills alone > any other subjob buff.

/sam as you said gives you meditate and third eye. You'll get more chances to WS but less overall damage than /war per WS because of the loss of beserk and the odd warcry when its up.

It would be interseting to see a parsed result of WS / Dot for a rng/war vs a rng/sam.

While /war deals the numbers, /sam deals the quantity.. i imagine it wouldn't be that far apart, but i might be wrong(?!)

I'm still a great fan of /nin because of shadows and 1 other reason - /nin with dual axes, daggers has a place in the times you fight a mob and suddenly your arrows hit for 0 damage (eg. Airy shield). Ain't going to do much damage swinging that high delay staff now are we? You'll have the benefit of a secodary way of still getting some tp as long till the mobs buff wears or it's dead. (Ok, now I'm not saying we are good close melee, just the conmsideration of that instance where suddenly we can't use arrows)

BUT - thinking about that /war gives you double attack, at the expense in that situatiopn of losing any tp you've gained by removing your staff to equip a weapon that will hit the mob...well...thats is open for comment in that situation)

Btw, you have some lovely gear for your ranger - please not critising or saying this is better (b ut i love mine) could i suggest if you are not already doing so, do eihnherjar to get a lovely buccy belt to replace the belt you are currently using. Until you get a coveted Scouts belt that is!

What arrowe do you WS with? Kabura? PPA+Unlimited shot? I assume you switch to higher for the actual WS.

Do you have some sky gear? the AF+1 gloves are nice for barrage but i'd consider a pair of crimson/blood gloves for rng acc/att for tp build and Seiryu's kote for the actual WS. Now thats just my setup I'm not saying it's the best setup!

I don't have the coat you do have from ACP for my ranger, but im sure, you'd proc more damage on ws by macroing an Kirin's Osode and then switrching back to your coat or a kyudogi for tp build.

So, i'd look for increasing your damage at :

Buccy belt (realistically obtainable) /scouts belt (one day!)

Kirin's Osode

S Kote

Crimson/Blood finger Gauntlets

That rng acc/att ring from finish of TAU if you didn't get one of the others (can't remember what its called)

I'd balance your earings just going for one Triumph str one and keep one of your others on for acc, like you said i have had similar str/acc issues on sidewinder when removing acc for str equip.

Obviously Hq of the variants of your current equip always nice if you have cash to do so.

Merit Str? Merit Str! Merit Str.

Archery Merits. Yummy.

Specific rng ones for Snaopshot, Rapid shot, Flashy Shot and recycle, but not in any particular order.

Hope some of this is of use. If not, it passed half an hour of a very quiet day in the office for me hehhe, not a bad thing :)

Well I'm sure all three SJ's are situational. /war for pure damage, /nin for survivability, /sam for more WS's with less tp feed.

I think the short answer to Hitetsu's original question was that Berserk and Warcry effect ratk as well as just atk.

please dont tell me u said dogi to TP in >.< i hate seeing a rng wearing that...

as for merits: do snapshot and rapid shot first (i personally say snapshot first). that directly effects the speed you can let fly. flashy shot is nice for a good zerg or a single e-peen shot. really no reason to merit more than once. Recycle is debatable and personal preference. i can make all my own ammo so i dont stress it. stealth shot can have a use here and there, but i didnt waste merits on it. the rest are preference calls. if u want it, merit it. but snap/rapid are definately a must. Archery/Marks(i saw you use v-bow so obvious choice here) and STR would help if u dont need the att merits elsewhere.

<i dont do birds, then again... i didnt put #s up. just generalizations from zergs/kings/gods i have done over the years.

then again... zergs are entirely different from a regular mega-boss type fight. and even my gear varies greatly there.

ninjer: lol i couldnt help but look back at the posts. and see that like 60% of the replies, people who have replied are currently on mage jobs. /facepalm

Like wise, I'm refereing to rng experiences in Dynamis (airy shield on Beau Boss eg) Limbus Mobs that have the rng attack resist buff etc..

Take mine! My 37 RNG isnt getting much use of them and im sure more will drop before i level it. *hide* <3



As i just stated my rng is only 37, and the gear i have is just hoarding waiting to level it, so this is the opinion of a MELEE DD. the problem "I" see with the comparison above for /sam vs. /war damage output is the hate youre going to pull. I havent subbed /war on DRG in a LOOOONNG time. If i had to i would only be able to WS when an exp mob was at 30% hp or less and i have jumps to shed hate. If you do 1800 sidewinder then 1800 barrage if the bird isnt dead youre going to take a beating. If youre in dynamis you could have an angry MNK or RNG turn on you as it 2 hours. With /sam if im doing 1800 Drakesbanes at least i have Seigan/Third Eye when jump timers down. If i was doing 2400~ as /war and jumps were down i would either 1) eat massive damage and be an mp sinc thus slowing kill rate or exp based on event/exp or 2) have to take off berserk to prevent this and lose out on the attack bonus.

To my understanding if you sub ninja you can melee as well as shoot. The new updates haste/snapshot helm would greatly facilitate this as well along with items such as skadi pants/head or denali pieces which work well for both melee and racc/ratt (or failuwan pants too).

That being said again i want to reiterate that i am NOT a 75 RNG and just offering my perspective.

well, with velocity shot up, Melee'ing for TP is haphazard at best. dual-wielding axes/knives arent going to get you the TP you might plan on getting, and the damage you would be doing is negligible. /nin is solely for shadows. if a mob throws up airy shield, oh well. you arent going to do enough damage melee to warrant getting up close and personal with the mob(airy shield and knucklehead gigas in limbus) as you will most likely end up taking damage and being an MP sink regardless. best to hang back, and dish out the damage while you can, if you can't and you are /sam. med it up. if you are /war wait for the next mob, or that shield to drop.

I'm sure it's already been answered, but I'll say it too! Lol.

/WAR is better than /SAM. Hands-down. For one quite obvious reason.

Berserk. 25% damage for 3 out of every 5 minutes, that evens out to a 15% increase, combined with the 15% from Velocity Shot.

All things taken into account, my Sidewinders do mid-3k (3200-3800) on average on Greater Colibri with /WAR, and only around 2200 with /SAM. You can argue that /SAM can do them more often, but on RNG, it's really not even worth mentioning. You cut one ranged attack per 100 TP. Big whoop. (Besides, that's 400-500 damage extra you'd be doing with /WAR). And for meditate, while it can lead to some truly epic damage going Sidewinder >> Barrage >> Sidewinder >> Meditate >> Sidewinder, it's only up every 3 minutes. Not worth wasting a sub for.

And no, RNG/NIN cannot melee AND ranged at the same time. c.c RNG nerf like 4 years ago = -50% damage and R.ACC when using a ranged attack in melee range.

Edit: The one exception where RNG SHOULD melee, is if you have a Kclub and Culverin+1. Melee 100 TP, drop back, pop a 5k Slug Shot, melee 100 TP, lather, rinse, repeat.

See i didnt even think of that :/

This is rediculous. I am rng/nin only and i am still workin on final merits and still have a few pieces of gear to pick up. That being said i pull hate as Rng/Nin on pretty much every mob i fight, be it merit birds to high defense/phys immune. If i was to go anything other then /nin it would be /sam so i could try for atleast one more WS before i die.

The only time /war works is if your to gimp to pull hate as /nin and need that extra power.

I know your title read "with bow" But theres only so far a Bow can take you unless you get Relic Bow. Honestly get yourself a hellfire+1, some silver bullets and watch that damage jump to the next level. Also need to know gun has an added hidden Racc bonus making it possible to switch out some of those Racc equips for Str/Ratt equips. And/or depending on setup makes eating meat a great food option to Racc food.

Nedit: I should be fair and say /war does work great if you are killing fast enough that it has doughnuts before you do.
If you have never tried out a Gun then i strongly suggest doing so.

Hey Kindle I see you around Remora /tell me if you need help on Ranger stuff but to put it on an easier more understanding note:

At level 75 if you want to have the best output dmg.

Stack on STR and Range Attack. Loose the r.accuracy rings, it's rare for RNG's to miss at 75, unless the mob/NM has high evasion. If you keep missing the mob, then that's when you switch to range accuracy gears.

For weapon Skills if your using Bow, Sidewinder is 16% STR 25% AGI modifier so stack on almost half and half STR AGI when your going to weapon skill. Slugshots are pure AGI modifier 30% so different WS macro there.

RNG/WAR has best output dmg stack with berserk and warcry ofcourse, and even great with BRD/COR buffs. Also another missing piece is the type food you eat.
Sole Sushi gives you added STR and range accuracy. Squid gives you added AGI and range accuracy. I usually intake sole sushi for good dmg, and not miss so much.

But you can go fancy and go with Dragon Soup that gives you a huge amount of STR and Range ATTACK% but you will miss quite often so instead of stacking STR range attack you'll want to stack on range accuracy gears, and hopes for Prelude. But I gaurantee your weapon skill if you hit will get you killed lol..

As far as your armors goes I don't know if your willing to spend a few gils.

If you can try to get your hand on Vulcan Staff, Triumph Earring, Scouters Belt (Einherjar Ampoules), I use Hachiryu Sune-Ate, For Bow Seiryu's Kote, Flame Ring, that body's nice for TP gain with the snapshop +5 but I would choose an Osode over that. Maats cap if you have it.

Merits I have 8/8 STR, Max Archery, I had max Marksmanship but Bullets got to expensive so I sold the Hellfire +1 and just ended keeping E-bow. Snapshot, and Rapidshot max those out.

Also doing mobs like einherjar mobs where I try not to get hate, I use pretty much RNG AF2 will -enmity, and af hat to stack the rapidshot. I shoot faster, and not get hate and stack on TP then macro out for output dmg. Anywho hope this helps.

I was doing 1200+ barrage | 1500+ Sidewinders on Dark Lord with str/r.attack setup. as RNG/WAR