User:Zatias/Ranger

Overview
Leveling Ranger has been one of my most expensive works yet. Shooting gil at the enemy at first did not interest me, but my high-dd nature drew me to play this job. Attacking from a distance was a nice change from all my melee jobs, though grabbing hate was a little more dangerous... and easy. Out of all the jobs at 75, I am least experienced at Ranger, as it is my most recent one. Furthermore, do not take my word on how to play the job; I play it the way that's most fun to me.

The Lone Ranger: How I play the job
To be a ranger means to attack from a distance, often killing the foe before it reaches you. In Final Fantasy, this means if you are going to pull hate, make sure the mob is going to die before it gets a chance to damage you! Ranger defense is extremely weak, with very low evasion skill and no natural parrying ability. In other words, holding hate for more than 20 seconds usually means you are either dead or soaking up your mage's MP. Neither is really desired... Early in my ranger career, I soloed T-IT worms. Since they cannot move, they are pretty easy to defeat if you know what you are doing. Vivos and I also duoed T-VT Mandragoras with little or no trouble. The trick is to distance yourselves apart so when the mob shifts hate it will have to run a fair distance before it can hit you. This allows the use of utsusemi or, if lucky, hate that shifts so often that neither of the rangers will be struck. As I advanced as ranger and began to party more rather than solo or duo, I kept both archery and marksmanship capped. I found it most effective to use low level weaponskills only to skillchain, as their damage was generally weak. This doesn't mean don't weaponskill if there's no one to skillchain with, it means save TP and chain with someone if you can. Once you get Sidewinder/Slug Shot, skillchaining is still very effective but not necessary. Just be careful with hate as always (that means don't pull with these powerful abilities >.>). Timing Barrage after a weaponskill is risky to the ranger but can be extremely effective and can lead to yet another Sidewinder/Slug Shot. It is wisest to save this move until the mob has 50% HP or less. Depending on your damage, this can finish it off quickly. Pulling on ranger can be difficult because you will have some hate with your damaging ranged attacks, making it hard on the tank. My advice is to bring some low damage ammo for your pulls (this also saves a lot of money in the long run). Your ranged delay can also be a problem and slow pulls, though if you know how to time pulls for chains it shouldn't effect the party negatively. When I pulled, I would leave the mob at around 10% (or lower depending on pull distance) and grab another, running back to weaponskill the party mob to finish it off just as the new mob trailed behind me. If I did not have TP, shadowbind came in handy. It is the only move rangers can use to hold a mob in waiting, and it can only be used every 5 minutes, so best use it wisely. Endgame ranger has a few good uses. First off, the sky "winds" used to dispel gods can be used with nice accuracy. Sharpshot and Unlimited Shot increase your chance to hit the god, should you miss your first attempt. They also do a nice chunk of damage if they land.
 * Antarctic Wind > Genbu
 * Arctic Wind > Suzaku
 * East Wind > Byakko
 * Zephyr > Seiryu

Ranger has its greatest use on kited battles and against monsters that have high evasion/use Perfect Dodge. Ranged attacks are accurate and do nice damage... at the cost of your gil. Shadowbind also has its uses on gods as well as HNMS. Binding the monster when it 2-hours is key in some fights. Widescan is very useful for hunting NMs, allowing you to check if the monster is even up, and where it is. This feature can also help you navigate, should you not have a map of a zone. All in all, ranger is an extremely powerful and useful job if you know what to do. This is true with all jobs, of course, but unlike a melee you have to be pressing the shoot button if you want to do damage (unless you are a melee ranger!)