The Death of Ranger...

I mentioned in my previous post that I had started levelling RNG again. I always used to like it when I first got it to 37 (and delevelled it in Promyvion) but that was months ago, back before the R.Attack "nerf".

Got into a party t'other day. Decent setup. DRG, PLD, RDM, BLM, WHM, RNG. Fighting crawlers in the nest pulled in ok XP at 37, but not a great deal. Various suggestions were offered: beetles being the main one, in the Nest, or in Altepa.

I don't like beetles. I have never liked beetles. I offered a somewhat radical alternative: bats and flies in Gustav Tunnel.

Normally I try and do Gustav at 38-41, but I know both RNG and DRG are strong versus flies and bats, so figured we'd be ok to try it early. There was no one in Gustav (there never is) so we hopped over there to see what we could see (though our DRG had apparently not bothered getting the Crag of Dem Gatecrystal so we managed to leave her behind in the Nest when we teleported out, prompting a good 30 minutes wait since she was the party leader. ><)

So, Gustav Tunnel. I will not lie and say the XP was bad. It wasn't. DRG and RNG tore flies and bats and even goblins to shreds. I was constantly tearing hate off the PLD and gettings "ooohs" and "aaaahs" from various (some experienced!) party members with my ranged attacks of 70-80 damage on IT bats and Barrages of 200-300 points.

But I wasn't enjoying it. At all. I couldn't figure out why, but fortunately I had Sage Saikyo to talk to during the party and I think he hit the nail on the head, having fallen afoul of the same issue in some ways whilst playing BRD.

Ranger doesn't have much to do in a party, but it has JUST enough to be irritating. Unlike Warrior where I can sit back, pound an enemy on Auto-Attack, fire off the odd Acid Bolt if I think I'll hit, use Warcry and Berserk before skillchains, Ranger is infuriating because you have to constantly press Ctrl+D. 2 of RNG's abilities - Camoflauge and Scavenge - are of no use whatsoever in XP parties really. Barrage and Sharpshot are awesome, but on a 5min timer. Overall damage is great, and most people know I'm all about the big numbers on FFXI.

But there's no resting at all for RNG - that CONSTANT Ctrl+D keeps you just slightly TOO busy. This isn't me being lazy, but you repetetively press the same key every 10-30 seconds depending on your hate threshold and you see how annoying it becomes. And of course, to get the best damage on RNG, you HAVE to stand back and shoot, so your melee swings are out of range. On WAR or DRK I can slip AFK mid-fight to grab a drink and no one would be any the wiser unless the mob moves. On RNG, you stand there like a complete dumbass doing nothing.

I drink a lot of liquids while playing FFXI. I always have done. And thus I regularly nip AFK to get drinks (though I didn't on RDM and WHM, for obvious reasons).

So yes, little things narked me a great deal about RNG. I ended that party in Gustav Tunnel with a 400 point Eagle Eyed Shot that tore through the last 25% of the mob's health, dinged 39, and announced I was quitting RNG for good.

All my equipment was put on the AH as soon as I got back and, fortunately, most of it has sold already.

I still want to level COR at some point, just for the AF, but I don't know whether I'll really play a ranged attack job again... even if there's more to Corsair than simply standing there and pressing Ctrl+D.

~Dema