I haven't done a list post in a long time, but what should I do a list about? I have already gone over everything that I am looking forward to in the next update. Hell, I have already gone over a lot of things. But there are a lot of things that still need to be completed before the next update. That would make a good list!
10. Finish Kurodachi - DONE - This one was my main focus for the last couple of days. I got all my Krabkatoa shells and turned them in on Monday. I love it so far. I can't say whether the damage is better or worse over time than Hagun, but it is looking good so far.
9. Finish meriting BLM - This should have been done a long time ago. I did just dump 8 more merits into Thunder and Ice potency, but I still need 10 more to top that off. Then I need to do Enfeebling Magic merits. And then I have to see what I want to do with tier 2 merits.
8. Finish Radennotachi - Haven't even started working on this, and it is probably going to be back burner for other Magian weapons I need to get done. My math shows that it is slightly better than Hagun, but not by much. Even with Kurodachi, there are still places for the Radennotachi, like on Salvage bosses or just about any place that you don't want to feed mobs a lot of TP.
7. Finish the Cure Potency Teiwaz - This is probably my next highest priority not only because it is an amazing piece of equipment, but also because Omoi has one and we are close to being on the same stage. She owes me some dead Trents. :)
6. Finish the Thunder Potency Teiwaz - Another hot piece of gear that I need to get done. Especially if the weapons are going to get better as SE extends trial of the Magians. My BLM would love this, especially now that I am getting closer to having a good Elemental set on my BLM.
5. Finish the OAT Goshawk - This weapon is just insanely good, but you have to understand the math to understand why. 600 Delay makes it look really slow, but for a job that can get to a 5-hit build the extra Delay means you have a lot more space to mess around with the Store TP you are wearing. This one is going to kill a whole lot of RNG.
4. Finish the Wings Missions - While this one isn't as important for this update, unless they require the current mission set complete to finish the Wings quests, it is still good to be ready for the end when it does come. I don't want to be locked out of Walk of Echoes when it is opened.
3. Finish the Wings Quests - I am all caught up in Bastok, but I still need to finish the Sandy and Windy quest lines. Iz is almost caught up to me on the Sandy quest line so I will probably do that with him, but Omoi is way past me on the Windy storyline. Maybe she will help me go back and finish them. :)
2. Start really meriting my RNG - While my gear is great on my RNG, my merits for the job are pretty lacking. I will occasionally toss a merit hear or there, but it's really time I knuckle down and get them done, especially because the tier 1's are pretty darn good for RNG.
1. Finish my Morrigan's set - I don't know if I will get this done in time, but it is a pretty big goal for me. I already have two ingots and I should be able to get at least 1 more before the end of the week, but I am only getting about 1 or so a week, and I will never be able to get all 12 before the update. And then I need to get the O. Ingots for the head.
Those are what I wish I could accomplish before the June 2010 Update, but I won't be able to finish them all. What do you wish you could finish before you have to level all your jobs to 80?
Wednesday, June 02, 2010
The End is Coming... Are You Wearing Clean Underwear?
Monday, May 24, 2010
So, what did I miss?
I am back, slightly more tan, slightly more drunk and wishing I was still on vacation. But time marches on, and as it does so comes the version update notes. Let's review what happened last week and toss in a little dash of Ring meta-commentary for some spice!
First, SE gave a little more information about the first Abyssea expansion, Visions of Abyssea. The information provided was not that deep to say the least. I didn't really expect all that much, but all we got was basically a generic blurb about darkness, bleakness, anguish, destruction, and harrowing...ness. Hell, they even used the called the skies sanguine. Hey SE, you are making a game for a bunch of previously teen now sadly older video game nerds that just can't let go. How are they supposed to know what sanguine even means... wait... ok, maybe they are going to be the only people in the word that knows what sanguine means. Alrighty SE, go ahead, what were you saying? Anyway, we get a lot of big, nasty, scary words and not much of anything of substance. I mean honestly, the drawn picture of the new expansion gives us a better impression of what we can expect than the words that you choose to write about the damn thing! I felt like I was reading some kind of spooky-evil-demonic-underworld former baseball player trying to answer direct questions about steroids at a congressional hearing.
That isn't to say that I am not looking forward to the expansion, because I am totally geeking out for the damn things. An entire set of expansions designed around end-game? Where do I sign up? After finally doing some of my Wings missions (my god do those missions get INSANELY good after Lilith is introduced) and getting a better idea of what is going on, I am firmly of the opinion that Abyssea is the memories of the current time in Lilith's time-line that Atomos has already swallowed up. Yeah, those were spoilers there, but seriously something needs to get you guys motivated to do those missions and quests already! If you look at the background painting of the Abyssea website you will also see all sorts of new weapons as well as in the pictures on the Visions of Abyssea page. 
First and foremost, there is the sword the size of a small elephant in the hand of a particularly white Paladin. The gear is definitely in the .dats already, but that sword is not. That sword would give the bulbous-Nerf-cartoon weapons from WoW penis envy. Sure, sure, the taru is wearing purple Baron's gear, and he has an all new club model, but what is really interesting is the fist full o' giant spikes the MNK is using. Oh, and the nasty, demon Behemoth... that's interesting too.
Well, that was my report on one picture... man I can be long winded. That doesn't mean I am going to stop though. :) Our second pic is interesting in all new and equally long-winded ways! 
Ok, first of all there is the new mob, which is just the center mob in this picture from the back. 
But do we really care about non-series-related mobs? No, we don't. We care about big-bladed choppy sticks, the Yagudo-wannabe's that wield them and their... pink "power" Ranger friends? Seriously, ok, white haubs? Weird, but whatever, they do look good. Aqua-marine Baron's gear (and I don't give a fuck what color E. Body is, but I am not stepping into that war either)? That's fine by me. But I swear to god SE, I will fucking fly to Japan and I will piss in all of your fucking sake if put even one decent fucking stat on that pink holocaust. It's Noct gear, a cool design if in somewhat boring colors, but it's been made FABULOUS! Don't you fucking dare! Skadi is already way more pink than it should be... Ranger's are awesome archers with a little wilderness stealth and a whole bunch of shoot-you-in-the-face damage tossed in. This is what SE said about RNG's at VanaFest:
We also plan on adding new equipment designed for both form and function, with attributes and appearance befitting these lethal hunters and huntresses.If this shit makes it into the game, then we know that SE really has been fucking with us all this time. Form and function? Attributes and appearance? Fuck me gently with a chainsaw... So, the RNG gets tossed into the dressing room at Benetton but the BST beats him up, steals his lunch money, rapes a Yagudo and then wears it's skin like Buffalo Bill and gets a "that's not an axe, THIS is an axe" axe to top it all off. The BST gear in that model-line is notorious for massive suckage, but man there is no way they can put bad stats on a coat made out of a fucking Yagudo. It would be an even bigger crime than making "Rosy the Ranger" gear.
Yeah, that was long-winded, so what? Don't make me stab you. I have been out of the loop for a week. Tomorrow, I might go over the new quests update, or I might just skip it because I don't know if it's worth a whole blog post, and I do need to cover the CoP areas getting uncapped and the money I now owe Iceblazek. Fucking SE!
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Sub-Routine: Corsair
Fine Rob, I will do Corsair next. I am still right though, it's going to look great on paper, but in function it just isn't going to make a difference. Corsair is much more likely to sub another buffing job like BRD than another job is to use Corsair. For the most part other jobs are expected to bring certain things that one buff from Corsair just won't cover. Also remember that some Corsair buffs are effected by level difference between the caster and the recipient, so it's not like you will get full strength buffs either. You can also get most of the sweet Corsair buffs from other subs like Refresh will be coming from RDM. While Corsair will have some decent buffs, only getting one roll and having it at a decreased potency just undercuts the notion of using it as a sub job a lot.
That said, some people are going to still want to use it, so lets see what Corsair is going to get and you can make your own judgment.
Quick Draw @ 40.
Damage shots, plus a light-based Sleep and a Dispel? How could you go wrong? Well, you can go pretty wrong, actually. The accuracy for Quick Draw is based on your AGI which for a wide variety of jobs this is going to mean that you are going to miss a whole lot. In the end, these shots are not going to be very effective at all for all but one job, Ranger. Ranger on the other hand has access to a huge amount of AGI gear, much better gear than even COR gets. That means that RNG shots have a very good chance of landing the Sleep and Dispel effects. Even for the damage shots a RNG should be able to get shots with at least the accuracy of a COR if not better. This will definitely require a gun-based RNG because you would be losing TP every time you switch weapons to use QD if you were using a bow or cross-bow. COR might actually turn out to be a decent sub for RNG for this reason. They would get the job-enhanced Hunter's Roll (but this will be nerfed because of the level difference between the RNG main and COR sub) and access to these bonus shots. Of course SAM and WAR would still be better DD sub jobs, but in our world in which RNG are increasingly unable to do their max damage because they will get their faces eaten, subbing COR might be an option. Just remember you are going to need cards for this to work.
Evoker's Roll @40.
The reason that Rob thinks that COR is going to be so great as a subjob. It looks good on paper sure, but it doesn't consider that it will be literally the only thing you will be getting out of your sub job. You will be losing the MP pool from a mage subjob, you will be losing all of the associated spells from a mage subjob, you will be losing all of the abilities from other sub jobs. The only job I can think that would even consider it would be RDM, but even with the extra refresh it just isn't going to be equal to losing all of the base MP and you are going to lose Erase, Curagas, and any JA's that SE does end up giving to WHM. And that all assume you are going to get a full strength Evoker's Roll while subbing COR. It is the same notion as subbing BRD, a little bit better but still just a niche for low-manning things.
Rogue's Roll @43.
A boost to Crit hit rate, which is nice if you would ever use it. Maybe a BRD subbing COR would use it if they don't have to do anything else. It's a nice bonus, but probably won't be used over other rolls.
Warlock's Roll @46.
Magic accuracy is always nice, and if you are a BRD stuck in an all BLM party then this could be a nice roll to have. Ok, Rob outside of RNG that is another place that people might sub COR.
Fighter's Roll @49.
Much like Rogue's roll, this is another damage booster for when the situation is going to occur. The extra DA is going to be nice, but again, it's not going to be make or break.
Resist Paralyze III @ 45.
Hey, it's more than DRG gets. LOL
So, subbing Corsair will probably have a few more niche roles than it does now, but it will still suffer from the nerf caused by level difference in buffer and buffee. RNG could see some good use out of it if they are already using a gun, and depending on their role BRD could use it too. RDM? I just don't see it happening Rob, sorry.
The picture for this post? Why it's a F4U Corsair of course! :)
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Cost-Benefit Analysis: Black Mage.
Recently I made the decision to switch from perfecting my RNG to perfecting my BLM. The problems I have had with RNG are two-fold. First, I was having problems coming to grips with the difficulty involved with getting some of the final pieces of gear that I needed to complete my RNG. The Mekki Shakki was one of these issues with it's low drop rate, it's difficulty in obtaining and being rare/ex (as opposed to something like the Organics). Also, getting a Hope Torque was pretty high on my list but because of scheduling I have been unable to attend events to get it.
Second, RNG is a hard job to control. The problem is that when it is well played you will quickly gain so much hate that it becomes very difficult to play your job properly. I suppose that is part of playing the job well, and I do try to find the break point and then hold it under that, but it is a little bit frustrating that a job that is designed to put out this much damage is more limited by itself than other factors. I had started looking into getting a variety of enmity reduction items that wouldn't effect my damage all that much but in the end, I have put that on hold because I can use those points to be more useful on BLM.
BLM is a ranged DD as much as a RNG is, but it does have an inherent limitation that RNG does not have that works to limit it's hate gain. Simply, that is MP. I can burn through everything I have then I have to rest for MP. Even if I have a ton of refresh, I will inevitably get to a point where resting to full is more efficient than just trying to wait for the next cast. Of course over time you can build enough hate to become the target of an angry dragon's rage, but it doesn't feel like it is going to inevitably happen after the next Sidewinder.
There was a simple breaking point at which I decided to go full-bore BLM and leave my RNG as it is. Not to long ago, I was able to pick up a pair of Herald's Gaiters for my BLM, and I was torn as to whether I should take them or save my points for a Faith Torque I might never see. I mulled this over until we did a Silver Sea Remnants in which I got the last piece for my Morrigan's Slops which I needed to complete my Morrigan's set. This bit of luck locked it up for me. It wasn't like I felt that it was a sign (it totally was, God told me so), but it was going to be a lot easier for me to finish my Morrigan's set (lies, all lies) than it was going to be to get what I really wanted to be able to better commit dragon-assisted-suicide.
All of this is pretext to the real cost benefit analysis for BLM. The question now that I have decided to go with gearing up my BLM is what should I do next. My Morrigan's Slops are already made, but I still need to finish my Coronal and even more expensive my Morrigan's Robe. The most efficient way for me to get my Morrigan's Robe would be to use my points to buy gil packets which are a great deal that my LS offers it's members (we used to get a normal pay out too but our bank got nuked as an RMT bot... yeah, that's a bitch-fest for another day). It will take a while to get all the gil I need, but it will definitely help out to getting this thing done in a reasonable amount of time. The problem with spending points is the opportunity cost involved. I could save the points and get a Novio Earring. Now that is the first real question about BLM I have in the short term.
Oh, and the picture at the top of the post? Yep, I got my Sorcerer's Petasos last night. Does this qualify me as a real BLM now? :)
Monday, November 16, 2009
Let's talk about Ranger: What to Shoot.
This has been a long time coming, and I still don't feel that comfortable talking about it but I need to do this so I might as well dive right in. This post is the beginning in a series of Ranger articles, because there is just too much to talk about for Ranger in just one post, or even a couple.
I will say it right now, and this might change in a couple of days but I am not positive that it will so I am going to say it anyway: Ranger is one of the most complicated jobs in the game. It is complicated because of the gearing, it is complicated because of the amount of hate that it can quickly generate, it is complicated because of the wide variety of ways to play it, and it is complicated because it is the only job that essentially does not have auto-attack. There may be jobs that are more busy than Ranger, or require more gear than Ranger, but there are no jobs that have three viable weapon builds before you consider subjobs or even their main weapon slot.
Ok, if Ranger is so complicated where do you start a discussion about Ranger? I think the best place to start is deciding what you are going to be shooting at things. All three of the potential options are viable in reality, and there is a lot of preference that is involved in this decision-making process. I believe there are three relatively easily accessible end-game weapons for each of the builds and I will go over each of them. The most important thing to remember is that I am approaching this from a "On the cheap" perspective. There may be better, more expensive or harder to get weapons available, but if you are reading this guide for information on how to gear your Ranger you may not have access to these yet. The options that I am suggesting are ones that should be available to anyone that just hit 75.
Archery: Selene's Bow
The Selene's Bow really is an easy to get alternative to the Eurytos' Bow. There are two things that make it stand out; the damage and, oddly enough, the longer delay. The damage is pretty high for a bow, even higher than a Eurytos' Bow, and this means more damage per shot and more damage per WS. The longer delay is actually good because it makes it that much easier to get to an X-hit build, either 6 or 5 depending on what sub job you want to use. We will get into gearing for a 6 or 5 hit build in another post.
There are of course other alternatives to the Selene's Bow, like the Eurytos' Bow like I mentioned above, as well as the Fay Gendawa when it is properly augmented. As for ammunition I think Demon Arrows are great here. They can get a bit pricey but if you can get them while they are low they can have a very good/shot ratio. For WS, you can use Kabura Arrows which are nice, but can get to be very pricey. Some people even like to use Kabura for building TP, but this is really expensive and isn't really something I would encourage. Finally, try picking up a Patriarch Protector Arrow too, but be careful with it and don't just shoot it off without Unlimited Shot up. :)
Crossbow: There is a lot more variety when it comes to good Crossbows, but when it comes to the best it is always going to be the Othinus' Bow. It has the highest damage for a Crossbow in the game, but it also has the highest delay. Hell, it's damage and delay are even better than Annihilator. I think the stats on the O Bow may be a relic from a past time in FFXI when the programmers had something else planned for the stats in the game, because it is radically out of line with other crossbows in the game. While the delay is higher, it still isn't that bad and it increases your TP per shot meaning you can get WS more often with more Store TP.
The ammo options for Crossbow are two-fold. You can go with the traditional Darksteel Bolt build, which will next you very good damage but it is still rather expensive. I am not positive what the comparison is to Kabura Arrows, but Demon Arrows are a better fill in than what you have after Darksteel Bolts. The traditional alternative are Holy Bolts. The thing about Holy Bolts is that it requires a different build than normal, meaning you need more gear with more MND on it to increase the additional effect. This is up to you, one is very cheap but has a lot more variation in damage, the other is pretty expensive but has much more reliable damage. For WS you can still use Darksteel Bolts, or you can use a Gold Musketeer's Bolt for when Unlimited Shot is up.
Guns: This is where my knowledge really lacks because I have never been willing to give up the gil necessary to get to the extra damage that Gun builds can offer. That being said, there are several decent Guns that are available to RNG but Hellfire +1 really stands out with good base stats and good additional stats. A Murderer might be an option too, but I don't really know how well compare. In the end these guns are very strong because of their high damage ammo, not so much because of their individual stats.
The ammo for guns is even more limited than Crossbows or Bows. I would assume the default are Silver Bullets. This is a very expensive option but it is the way to go for Guns I assume. You could use Steel Bullets too, but I think that would actually be more expensive for less damage on most servers. Your WS can still use Silver Bullets because those are the highest damage bullets out there, and there is no CP reward bullet either.
The Culverin? Skip it for now, that is almost worth another post in itself.
Tuesday, November 03, 2009
POL News: Ranger Love.
SE loves Rangers more than they love you. Well, Ranger's did get the biggest shaft in the universe back in the day. I don't even know if that many people remember it or where even around for it, but this new update looks pretty good but also appears to be very interesting for Rangers.
Ranger's are getting a pretty big buff in the coming update but it's not in the standard form of just another job ability. This is quite a bit different than most of their changes in the past, but it's a good idea. There are many jobs that have useless or near useless job abilities, and though you can say that SE started revising them with the last update and the changes to the circle effects, this is the first major overhaul that we have seen to a whole set of JA's to make them completely different or improved. And not only JA's have been affected, but some major changes that should have been made when they originally changed RNG back in the day have been fixed.
Let's dive right into the meat of the changes after the break.Job Ability Adjustments
- Velocity Shot
The duration of this ability will be increased from five minutes to two hours.
This is a good quality of life improvement overall for RNG even if it doesn't really improve anything damage-wise. The five minute duration was pretty annoying because you had to stay on top of it along with all of your other JA's like Hasso or Berserk, but it didn't have a diminishing effect and couldn't be cast over itself to justify having it on a 5 minute timer and 5 minute recast. The real question I have is what is the recast on the ability, because if you lose it to a status effect wipe then can't cast it again for a long time then the situation really isn't fixed at all. I would think it's going to be on a 5 minute recast because that just seems right. It could be less because there are no alternative JA's that can balance with it like some other jobs get, but then it would just mean that it would always be up and there really wouldn't be a need for the JA and it should just be made base line for all RNG. So 5 minutes would seem right for a recast.- Unlimited Shot
Once activated, this ability will remain in effect until you successfully hit your mark.
This one looks a lot better than it is in reality. When you use Unlimited Shot, you use it to fire off one of those really devastating Conquest Points ammo for a WS. The problem with WS's as you well know is that hit or miss that WS is going to take all of your TP. So keeping the effect until you sucessfully hit would be awesome if you know you kept your TP too, but sense you don't it really isn't that great. I really don't get this one that much, I guess you can still shoot that CP item ammo even if you miss your WS but it just isn't going to be like using it for a WS.- Camouflage
Rangers with this ability in effect will incur less enmity for ranged attacks. There will be a chance that the ability remains in effect even after a ranged attack, depending on your position relative to your target.
Now this is when things get really interesting. Before this update Camouflage was a crappy invisible that wore really quickly and basically just saved you one sneak oil or ninjutsu tool every 5 minutes. Now it will be quite interesting and hopefully helpful when you are ready to unload a big Sidewinder or Slugshot without pulling hate. The distance factor is the really interesting part, as it will probably mean that the further away from the target you are the less likely you are to lose your Camouflage effect. This is pretty good as is, but it seems like it will stack well with the other changes that were made in this update. Ranged Attack Adjustments
- Ranged attack enmity
Less enmity will be incurred the further away you are from the target of your ranged attacks.
I find this one a bit interesting because the further you are away from the target the less damage you will do anyway, so your enmity is going to be lower to begin with. This obviously goes much farther than this simple mechanic though. This will make Iz happy I hope because when the RNGs start showing up for events Iz starts getting pissed at us for not knowing how to control our own damage. :) A lot of fights that require you to be at a distance (like the SCNM fights) are very good for RNG but they can build up a lot of hate too. This will mean that they will build up less hate over time and maybe Odin won't try to come and bash my brains in as often.- Detailed damage messages for ranged attacks
Damage messages displayed after a successful ranged attack will indicate the effectiveness of the attack, allowing for players to better gauge their positioning. Critical hit and missed attack messages will remain unchanged.
This change is at the same time probably the most mundane and the most helpful change for RNG in the entire update. For years us RNG have been fiddling with our ranged attack distance. What is the best for damage? Does it change for larger mobs (I am almost positive that it does)? This will now tell us the best place to stand without having to use Distance and then adjust for different sized mobs. It's pretty basic, but it is something that has been needed for a while and I glad to see it finally show up now.
That is it for the Ranger changes in the November update, but BST and SMN still need to be discussed. Look for those tomorrow!
Friday, August 07, 2009
Morning in Vana'diel: How Good is RNG?
Morning in Vana'diel is your daily dose of FFXI and all things Vana'diel. Give us your thoughts on the interesting topics of the day! Is Ranger the most neglected job in the game? Is it the new Dragoon? Is it time that people take notice of it's strength in almost every aspect of the game? Ring thinks so.
So I have been playing my RNG a little more lately, and after I do some gear tweaking I would like to play it a lot more. The reasoning is simple: RNG is incredibly powerful. You might not really realize this anymore, because everyone bases damage off of their XP parties instead of things that have real defense and require real gear choices. Why do I say this? Because I can’t stop from pulling hate off of the tanks while fighting Odin.
Odin provides the perfect example of the difference between were most people judge gear and most people use. In an XP party, RNGs are at a general disadvantage. They have to constantly reposition themselves, they have to constantly be using a ranged attack macro and they can’t really get any consistency going. In a fight like Odin, a RNG can put themselves in position, even if it is at a sub-optimal range, and just fire away. Melee on Odin are the ones that have to constantly move in and out and can not take full advantage of their greatest strengths.
I often find myself pulling hate at Odin and that is not because I am being aggressive or stacking abilities, it is just through general damage done. There are many different fights were RNG can really take advantage of that but for some reason melee are still preferred, but this is mainly because of TP accumulation problems. I think that if SE creates more mobs especially HNM were TP is less of an issue (Odin has different moves, but the main concerns are the HP related moves that he does so TP is far less of a concern) so that more jobs can shine. Or they need to at least fix the issue were ranged attacks give more TP than equivalent melee attacks.
Whatever is done, I think it is time to reconsider the relative strength of RNG. If you ask a RNG they will tell you that this has been the case for a long time and that people are just ignorant. I definitely believe this is true for the most part. And I think it is time for the damage output of RNG in all situations, not just XP situations, to be considered.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
You Are Not Your Selene' Bow.
You are not your... is a series of articles dedicated to profiling a variety of equipment. Brought to you every Monday, this series will discuss why it is a good piece of gear, why it fills your needs, why you should get it or any other reason it could be useful. It could be something obvious, or it could be something off the beaten path, but it will always be useful in some way or another. A day late, but not short of anything, this week we bring you a bow made from the souls of cute, innocent bunnies. Hey, you requested it! Not me!
This weeks "You Are Not Your..." comes by request from Leybot, the Selene's Bow.
The Stats: The Selene's Bow on it's face looks decent, but nothing that exceptional, but seems to be quite a trend for this column. The design is a plain wooden looking bow with the same design as an Eurytos' Bow but with slightly lower base stats and none of the extra Ranged Attack. The base damage is slightly higher than the E Bow, but it must be said that the extra STR on the E Bow pretty much makes up for that because not only does it add a little more Ranged Attack, but it also is half of a fSTR point for ranged, which means it is half way to the next increase in weapon damage because of STR. The Selene's Bow does fall behind quite a bit with it's higher delay though. The most interesting thing about the Selene's Bow though is the comment of "Ranged Accuracy and Ranged Attack varies with the phases of the moon" on the weapon.
Normally this just isn't a good stat, but in the case of the Selene's Bow SE made an exception. 
So as you can see, depending on the moon phase you can actually get pretty close to the E bows normal stats, but in the wrong moon phase you aren't going to get much beside the additional Accuracy, which is nice for making sure that Sidewinder always lands but not for your damage. The difference in damage was rather famously noted in the following graph: 
The most interesting thing about the Selene's Bow though is that because of it's higher delay it is much easier to get a 5-hit build for it. The debate for a 5-hit build in XP and HNM situations is too much for this column and should be saved for another day.
The Get: This is a lot more interesting than most of the items in this column. The Selene's Bow is a rather rare drop from White Coney and Black Coney. These are NM's in Uleguerand Range that are spawned by trading a San d'Orian Carrot to a randomly moving targetable object called "Rabbit Footprint" that only appears during Full and New Moon. During Full Moon trading the Carrot will cause White Coney to appear, and during New Moon Black Coney will appear. White Coney tends to spam the healing move Wild Carrot and Black Coney will spam only damaging TP moves. The Coney's can generally be duoed but the Black Coney can be a bit tough because it can use Whirl Claws which can do decent AoE damage. Just keep spawning them until it finally drops your Selene's Bow.
If you like this series, but are wondering why you never see the items you are looking for, then leave a comments and we might just feature you favorite item next week!
Wednesday, July 08, 2009
Morning in Vana'diel: Ranger, the Poor Unloved Brother of the Melee.
Morning in Vana'diel is your daily dose of FFXI and all things Vana'diel. Give us your thoughts on the interesting topics of the day! Today, Ring wonders why the melee don't have to push a button every time that have to swing? Rangers have to hit a button every time they want to shoot! It's Rangerism!
Ranger gets it the short end of the stick. They used to be the little Gods of FFXI. They had their own parties, they could kill anything, didn't have to stand at a certain distance, and their main defense of this was that they were shooting their gil away, as if that was a reason for them to dominate all DD's by a mile. And then SE came around with a huge nerf bat and knocked them into next week. It was a while before we ever found them again, after SE took pity on them and let them be what they are today: a sub-par DD in general, but one that can DD at a distance and without wasting the mana of the mages.
Ranger has become much like BLM, stand far back, do good burst damage, but nothing compared to what a melee can do. But I am not here to lament the damage of RNG. I am here to lament the play-style of RNG. There is no ability for RNG to auto-shoot at all in FFXI. Every time you want to shoot an arrow, fire a bolt or put a bullet into a mobs brain, you have to hit the Ranged Attack button. The worst part is that it is treated like a JA but it doesn't have a timer, so there is no way to even make a macro to adjust for your delay or more importantly your Rapid Shot procs. You just have to guess when to shoot next, and with practice you can get it down pretty well, but even then if you hit it a fraction of a second too soon you will get that "You can not perform that action yet" message and the built-in delay that comes with it. I don't know about you, but I play FFXI because I suck at games like Rock Band, this kind of keeping an internal rhythm is not something I look forward to doing every time I am on RNG.
SE really needs to level the playing field between melee and RNG. I am sure that when RNG was conceived there was a good reason to have auto-shooting, but like many things in FFXI that good reason is a bad reason now. Maybe SE expected RNG to melee for TP then just shoot for WS? I have no idea what their motivation was for sure but it is time SE fixed the issue. Give RNG auto-shooting that takes advantage of their Snapshot like melee's get with haste and also factors in Rapid Shot procs. I can't imagine this would be difficult, but it would have to be handled server-side because we don't get exact delay information on the client-side.
Do you think RNG need auto-shooting? Do you think RNG deserve auto-shooting? Do you even care if RNG gets anything at all? Do you still think RNG deserves to be nerf from their ancient days of glory? Leave a comment and tell us what you think!
#1 ~ Monk
#2 ~ Samurai
#3 ~ Ninja
#4 ~ Dragoon
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