Ranger: Hunter's Handbook by Tyson

{| border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" align="center" width="100%"
 * valign="top" width="25%" |


 * valign="top" width="75%"|

Introductions

 * Welcome to the Hunter's Handbook - Your guide to the Ranger job! Let me start by introducing myself - I'm Tyson from the Fairy server, and this guide will tell you all you need to know when leveling Ranger.
 * I hope that my guide will be helpful and wish you luck in your endeavors as a Ranger, one of the potentially strongest jobs in the game!

Ranger? What?

 * A Ranger's primary role is the damage dealer. This is done by the use of Marksmanship, which includes Xbows (i.e.Crossbow) and Guns (i.e. Bandit's Gun, and archery which is just Bows (i.e. Longbow). All equipment is based around enhancing ranged accuracy, ranged attack, strength and agility. You will find yourself tanking in some situations due to the extreme hate gained from various moves and hard-hitting attacks, but that just adds to the fun!
 * A Ranger's secondary role is to pull. However, this should not be done if another job is able to pull instead. If there is a Thief in the party, they should be pulling instead. Why? Ranger takes a long time to fire off a shot. So what if they have wide scan? You will, honestly, hardly ever use it. Thief have evasion bonus, flee, and hardly ever take hate, therefore they can leave early to pull again without dragging the mob with them. Also, less hate is pulled if another job takes over, as ranger pulls hate enough!
 * Ranged attack delays are different from that of normal melee attacks. Slow and Haste do NOT affect ranged attacks at all. Also, melee weapons delay are calculated as 60 delay = 1 second in real time. Ranged delays range from 70-100 delay to 1 real time second, therefore a DRK with a scythe delay of 540 might be attacking slower than your bow at 570 and an arrow of 90!
 * Ammunition delay is how long you must wait before being able to fire off another shot. The weapon delay is how long it takes for you to fire the shot (includes as you start preparing to fire).
 * }

What to use?

 * What to use, bow, xbow or gun? The answer is, all 3. They have their uses in different situations, and especially at different levels, when a gun would by far out damage the other alternatives till a certain level, which thereafter another weapon takes it's place. Here are a few advantages and disadvantages of the trio:

Bow

 * Decent delay, decent damage, and at later levels, the Vali's Bow/Eurytos' Bow prove handy as one of the most efficient weapons for ranger in the game.
 * Interesting status effects, such as wind damage, silence and attack down being available later on. (Wind Arrow, Kabura Arrow, Demon Arrow)
 * Lower levels, provides the most damage compared to xbow until holy bolts, but can still match them very closely.
 * Optimum distance to stand is around 7-9 feet away from the mob (see: distance for more info). Point-blank range can shave off up to 20 damage without food.

Xbow

 * Low delay, lowest damage. Very effective in party situations, as acid bolts, blind bolts and even bloody bolts make up for the damage that is lacking on the main bulk of the weapon.
 * Generally a choice for a ranger who does not care about awesome damage, but more for helping the party out with defense -12.5% and decent damage, if hate wants to be avoided with the use of holy bolts (additional effects don't add hate!)
 * Optimum distance to stand is around 5-7 feet away from the mob. Point blank range can shave off at most 10 damage or so, very little changes. No chance in additional effect proc, however.

Gun

 * Highest delay, highest damage. Very, very powerful at later levels, but seems to be useless pre-50. The ability to access silver bullets and musketeer's gun makes this ALOT more useful, for a small time.
 * People who want to do OH MY GOD I DID XXXXX DAMAGE!, as it's pure-DD. The only effect bullets that's available is stun (see: Spartan Bullet), and it is very weak and not worth the delay in normal EXP situations.
 * Optimum distance to stand is around 4-5 feet away from the mob. Point blank range produces very little differences, if you stand just inside max melee range. Best weapon if you want to add some melee hits in (e.g. you have very cool axes such as Fransisca)

Eagle Eye Shot - Level 1

 * This move is one of the best possible spike-damage moves you can pull off instantly. It deals a little less than Sidewinder does, but has incredible accuracy (but can still miss!). Recommend NOT to use when blinded, and time it carefully as it can pull alot of hate.

Sharpshot - Level 1

 * This move takes away the distance variable that affects accuracy, and also gives x amount to your ranged accuracy. This move generates some hate, but not that much, therefore hate issues don't really need to be considered when using this.
 * The AF Legs only need to be worn when activating sharpshot for the effect enhancement to work. It is unknown what they actually do, however, but may aswell use them, right?
 * If you don't suffer from accuracy issues, then this ability need not be used as frequently, and just use for those important weapon skills that just have to hit. If your accuracy isn't that great, then using it whenever it's up just before you weapon skill is a good idea. I recommend no matter what the situation is, if you are really going to use this ability, it should be up during a weapon skill! Especially something like Sidewinder!

Barrage - Level 30

 * This JA makes you fire mulitple shots off at an enemy at once, giving you the potential to get alot of tp back. (TP rate is the same as a normal shot x number of shots hit.)
 * Generates ALOT of hate, possibly equal to that of half or more of a provoke, upon preparing the JA. Upon firing, depending on the amount hit, adds up to alot of potential hate problems.
 * Because of the enmity problems associated with this ability, I advise not to use unless the mob will surely die. A good technique I use is Sharpshot - Unlimited shot - WS - Barrage - (If full hits) another shot - WS. Obviously, this is insane on the hate scale, and you WILL die if you are unlucky, and if the mob doesn't die very fast by that point!
 * A different statagy, most effective if you don't have all mighty survival skills or a PLD tank with solid hate keeping abilities, is to use Barrage IF you miss your weapon skill.
 * Always use sharpshot with barrage, otherwise, you will probably miss most of your hits.
 * Practice makes perfect. Figure the right times to use this. With a Paladin tank, you can use this more freely, but still, I hardly use it unless I need to. Most frequent use is if missing a WS to make up for the loss.
 * Does NOT stack with Unlimited Shot. Use them seperately, otherwise the one most recently used will overwrite it.