Ranger's UnitedFollow

Hey y'all.
Alright, got my ranger up to lvl 12 last night from lvl 10 - and went through about 400 arrows. Also died twice, but that was just bad luck.
It's true, we go through arrows like a SAM50 through wild hares, but it doesn't have to be that bad. Some guidelines I try to follow:
1) Learn to make your arrows. If you can, learn to make your armor too. This can be really expensive to start with, but so far, I've been living on a shoestring budget (never more than 7k gil, and more often around 34 gil :P) and managed to survive. Know where to buy your materials cheap and don't be afraid to stock up when you do have the gil.
2) Take up fishing. Okay, yes, fishing is EXPENSIVE to start - the rod, the bait, etc. But, at the moment, a stack of moat carp goes for 4k on Unicorn in San d'Oria and costs about 800 gil in bait to catch (just made lvl 1 in fishing skill). Not a bad profit margin, and it's something to do while you're waiting for your AH items to sell :)
3) You've got that sword/dagger, USE IT. Not all dmg a ranger does needs to be with the bow. A DRG friend and I team up and kill tough mobs and, generally, I get away with 2 or 3 arrows a mob by throwing in a few melee blows as well. Granted, the dmg isn't as high, but when you're in a party, you aren't the only person dealing dmg either. Know when you need to fire and when you can get away with a stab. Your arrows are expensive, so don't just waste them.
4) Wide scan is your friend. No, really. If you're farming for synth materials or trying to make some money, use widescan and the track function to locate and kill the mobs with the best drops. Also, if you're pulling for a pt, use widescan to make sure there's no unexpected mobs in the area you're heading to. Not 100% effective, but far better than flying blind.
5) If you're REALLY concerned about gil shortages, get a THF05 or higher as your sub. Gilfinder works. Go farm orcs or gobs and start raking it in. There's no shame in hunting for money. Also, "Steal" comes in handy for sellable or synthable items.
6) Be prepared to tank. No, we don't have the HP for it. But we deal THE most damage of any melee class and, since we're also usually the pullers and getting first shot(s), we're probably going to get aggro and hold it a while. Make sure your equipment is up-to-spec, your hp is as close to healed after every battle as possible, and that you watch the mages' MP for any sudden dips.

Rangers really do get the short end of the stick. Few other classes *HAVE* to spend the equivalent of thousands of gil per level just to fight, and most other classes get more respect in pt. Because you're so likely to get aggro, WARs can look at you as another liability and WHM may get tired of healing you EVERY fight. Rangers aren't really "melee" and aren't casters, so the pt dynamics take a little more effort and thought.
It is worth it, though. Watch your team's jaws drop the first time you do an eagle eye shot, or as you rake a mob with arrows. As we learned during our quest, rangers exist for the hunt and excel at it where others are only mediocre in comparison.
Live by the fang, die by the fang, leave only the fang behind.

PLEASE etha or someone! I need to know how to make arrows or what crafts I need to do! I need guide lines if you will, I am aspiring to become a ranger but I want to be prepared, I dont want to jump out by the seat of my pants. I wanna be able to hit level 1 ranger and be well off to start with in making arrows having equipment even if its made by my own hands, I get around 5 hours a day to play this game (YES I have no life! go me!) anyways, I heard do it in you spare time, to me I really dont have spare time...I exp and exp and exp but if crafting will be the easier route I want to know how to do it. I have seen no websites that can set me some guide lines. If you want to send me info by email thats fine to. BUT I need guide lines, what crafts to get to what how much time should i really spend, or should I hit to level 30 THEN start doing the crafting? Im confused >.> so please help me out

-Aspiring Ranger o_O

As a starting Ranger myself I can attest to the horrible upkeep of arrows, then again...I was wasting alot until I realized my Shortbow was a waste of time and money, so I bought a better bow :P Later I'll be using scan to farm Zhuu Duu to get the Hunter's Bow. Either way you slice it, being a Ranger is about committment. How much you are committed to the job.

Like all jobs, the people who are the most committed are the people who will stay on past 15-20.

And by the way, in Bastok on my server, you can buy Beetle Arrows (+5 RA, 17DMG) for 800 gil at the auction house. Much better than Iron Arrows, which, for some reason go for almost twice as much.

Hideously expensive. I'm a pauper now! Beetle rings, making furniture because there seemed to be an opportunity there, and watching the market crash once it was found most furniture only adds one slot of storage, arrows arrows arrows...... new bow, farming crystals for sale and use.....

Rangering takes a lot of work! I think maybe ninja is as expensive. Ranger/Ninja must be the most incredibly expensive combo imaginable.

There is no reason to use the bow continuously. I build up TP using my Beestinger on merely tough mobs, then when sharpshot is up, let loose a deadly barrage of highly accurate arrows to take down the next VT/IT mob. Sure, I guess doing 51+ points of damage will take down tough mobs easier than plinking away at them with my dagger, but they're dying fast anyway, and I'd rather save the TP for mobs that need it most.

I keep a stack or two of bone arrows for emergencies, but use iron arrows usually. They can be cheaply bought (I suspect more cheaply than they can be made), and unlike bone arrows, you can make quivers from them to hold vast amounts of arrows in one inventory slot.

I don't get enough crystals in normal play to afford anything. Qufim on Asura is beastman controlled; no crystals. Nothing but a pair of smelly Gigas socks dropped in the Delkfut Tower group I was in, and in Kazham tonight, all we got were near-worthless earth crystals. Sometimes, the mandragora would drop five at a time... So I have to use another character to solo newbie areas for crystals and salable loot, which takes time. So I spare my arrows, using maybe 4-5 a fight, until Sharp Shot and Piercing Arrow are up, for a VT or IT mob. And then I give it everything. Very effective.