Leveling both Bow/MarksmanshipFollow

I am about to hit 30 and ready to switch to ranger. I got the gil, I have lvl 3 bow lvl 2 marksmanship (hard to lvl these as a War and I just bought a bow too :(

So here is my question how do I lvl up my combat skill in both areas.

My idea....

I buy the nicest xbow and nicest bow for my lvl (plenty o' gil). I then buy bolts that give like defense down or poison and use the xbow the first half of the fight (until it has half health). And then switch to my bow to finish it off.

The reason for this is I can lvl up both skills. And also manage my hate since i dont do very much damage with xbow I can let the tank get enough hate so that I can unleesh all my might later on. Also it enfeebles the mob.

The problems I can see is will this effect my TP?? Since I am switchin weapons (I know it does it for main weapon but dont know about with ranged) And if it does should I scratch this idea.

If this is not a good idea plz share urs with me.

(btw dont worry about my gil like I said I have plenty and can make more.....but probobly won't have to)

That is what I did with my scythe...its just so time consuming :(.

Or if we are doing good for example fighting T-ITs with no trouble at all i will ask if I can switch weapons so I can build Combat skill.

Usually I pt with friends so this is not a problem. And I am not going to reply to my other post cause I dont want 2 goin at once (sry must have double clicked)

Kamena I am looking forward to usin guns (silver bullets) later on that is why i want my Marksmenship up. They ARE better then bows later on (more expensive but who cares im rich)

I have taken a tack similar to the original poster. I have the best bow and crossbow I can get and use the best ammunition. With real XP parties, I use the crossbow exclusively after levelling until that skill caps then switch to the bow. I don't see this as a sacrifice at all. The damage I get from the crossbow is actuallly quite equivalent to the bow when you consider the speed of the weapon. Plus, the bolts I use have the defense down status effect on the mob which can greatly speed things ups.

I find that if you keep at it and always max your skill at each level, it doesn't take much time to cap them again once you level up. Also, the only way that you can level the skilll that last bit to the cap is to be fighting those high level mobs you need for xp.

This way, you are always contributing at max output with your party (and spreading the ranger good name) and you'll have no down time trying to level a skill from 0 to 70 to align with the level of the job.

Switching crossbow and bow will also work. You can set up a macro to do this quite easily. I don't think your TP will not reset to 0 when you change your ranged weapon but it will if you change your main weapon. I'll have to try it and see.

Your tp resets when you change ranged weapons fyi, i wouldnt recommend switching during a fight if you dont have to. Simply max one and move to the next, or rotate them every handful of fights, but unless you use ur tp then switch, you will be wasting alot of tp in the end switching in a fight.

Ferrious