Ranger SoloFollow

First off, let me extend my appreciation to all of you that post on these boards. 3+ years of EQ boards made me hesitant at reading boards, lots of flamers and negative people in EQ (IMO) But here in FFXI, overall you all have some really GREAT advice, tips and suggestions on characters, levelling, gil, jobs, etc. So thank you.

Now, I am by nature a solo player, grouping not too frequently. or just hooking up with a few RL friends. My first love is the Ranger. So I have a lvl 12.5 theif now and will be going Ranger when I get to the apprioate level and keeping him as my main. Gil finder and TH is going to be great to offset my arrow cost, as well as my angler expertise...already a 12 in fishing (toots own horn for sitting around for 36 hours! lol)

I guess my question is this: Is the Ranger in FFXI able to solo effectively later on at higher levels? I did alot of Bow Kiting in EQ and found it a very good way to Solo till i could hack the mob to peices. I haven't seen anything that states ranger have a "snare" type of ability or spell. If not then Bow Kiting is out.

That leads to a second question off the hip...if the Ranger cannot solo effectively, what job or combo can? I do not mind the downtime of healing that much...(wife and 2 year old afterall need some attention! =) so WHM is not somehting I am looking into. Casting spells is not my fortay (sp?) I'll leave that to you real healers out ehre =)

Well, that has to be the longest post I have ever done. Sorry for the eye strain and carpal tunnel. Thank you all again for bringing back my confidence in the message boards.

If you see a Hume Ranger running from a mob, wave and say hello!!

Kalluyen Shureshot
12 THF/3 WAR - (ranger in training)

Not too sure about it... my lvl 17 ranger at the time could solo the hares in Valkrum, as Decent challenges... watch out for the random superkick, that knocked me down from 90 to 30hp and brought the fight a LOT closer than it should've :P


At around level 12, i often managed close, but winnable fights against tier 2 yagudos in giddeus (mendicant/piper/persecutor).

Mostly due to the absolute obscene damage the ranger does, especially if you have the Hunter's Longbow at that level... that will probably stay with you until lvl 30 ;)

All in all, easy preys are of course what the name implies, and you *might* be able to solo Decent challenges... WAR would add a nice def/HP boost, WHM of course goes for any solo char for the healing. Can't think of anything else though.

Hey I'm a lvl 30 thf/ 18 rng at the moment

So far I could only say you won't be able to solo if you are looking for good exp.. only if u will take enough with low exp

I have no idea what he root ability at lvl 40 will give, but before this level you will hardly be able to level up by solo-ing
A ranger can only fire 1 or maybe 2 arrows before the Mob reaches you. A ranger also has a very slow (yet very hard ^^) attack. You could solo IF you could use your 2hour ability every battle.. but since u can't .. I seriously wouldn't try to take on more than 1 Tough monster every 2 hours.. unless it's a Mob that doesn't move

The only good solo-ers in my opinion are the Beastmaster and then the BLM and maybe summoner

Hopefully that helped you a bit
And btw I am leveling my ranger now, hope to get it to lvl 50+ because it will be my main job although its not good at solo-ing :)

At lower levels, RNG is really, really good at soloing... as long as you're willing to dump money into ammo. RNG can one-shot mobs for minimum exp, but since you don't have to engage/disengage, and you don't lose any life, you can kill mobs literally as fast as you can point and shoot. Somewhere around level 3 or 5, I leveled by grabbing a crossbow and shooting mobs as fast as I could reload. Multiplying the exp per kill by the rate I was killing, it worked out to about 3500xp/hr (of course, I leveled way before an hour was up, and those mobs quickly became too weak to be worthwhile).

Even in early to mid-teens, you can do the same with the appropriate lowbie mobs (bees, mandies, and rarabs in Tahrongi). It's a pretty fast way to gain one level, but you go through a LOT of arrows, and once you level, the mobs that were just barely hard enough to be "easy prey" are now "too weak to be worthwhile."

Lowby Ranger here (11) checking in. I was able to power-solo all the way to 11 at a nice clip. But I seem to have hit a wall at level 11. The mobs in Taronghi that check Decent Challenge to me have been absolutely beating me down. I was able to mow down Tough's at level 10 with a Sharpshot effect, but it seems like even with Sharpshot, a Decent Challenge battle is still a crap shoot at level 11.

I'm hoping this just has to do with my gear (I'm wearing all Leather + Royal Footman's Gloves). I've still got the Self Bow + Bone Arrows and am also guessing that this is part of the problem. I think my damage output will nearly double with the Hunter's Longbow.

Did anyone else experience this? What armor should I use at this level to avoid sweating through each Decent Challenge?

Advice would be appreciated ^^

I think I was wearing leather at that level too...

If you're having trouble with decents...I can only guess that maybe you're not putting out enough DMG. I'd concentrate on boosting that up ahead of your DEF if you're tight on cash.

The idea is that you want to kill those things as fast as possible before you're put in the position of taking the hits.

If you can, I'd swap that Self Bow out and try to get the Self-Bow +1 instead. Unless you want to just hold out for one more level till you get the Hunter Bow +1. I managed to get by with the SB +1 up until level 16 where I picked up the PowerBow +1.

As a whole, all the "+1" weapons are well worth the cost of picking up because they'll last you a bunch of levels and the attributes you get from them really make a noticable difference. Not to mention the resale value of these weapons are good...you can pretty much get everything back when you sell them off.

I don't think you HAVE to party just yet...but I agree soloing is slower then a good PT after level 10. At 11 I'd investigate orcs and those pink bird things in LaThiene. OR the top of Fort Ghelsba where the Chief Vatgit guy is.

You might be one or two levels short of taking on those rabbits in Valk by yourself. If you can find a PT in Valk at level 12 it's super good xp.

Another solution could be finding a whm that you could duo with. That way you two can go kill worms up through at least qufim together. As long as he silences them/heals you then you can just sit in range and keep firing away.

Are you eating mithkabobs? The extra dmg and accuracy could really help.

For the record, I had a longbow at your level, which is a bit more damage at expense of delay (but that won't matter).

At LV11 you should buy a bunch of bone arrows (2-3 stacks), run back into E.Saruta, and kill anything that doesn't con as too weak to be worthwhile. Don't engage, just point and shoot. At LV12, you can probably stay in E.Saruta for one more level (try going to the ruins in the SE part of E.Saruta for mobs that con Easy at LV12).

It's a LOT easier mowing down easies in 1-2 shots than playing the healing game after every fight vs. a DC mob.

Yes rangers can solo, in fact I have for the most part soloed my ranger to lvl 25. Here is what I did:

lvl 1-10
Ran around outside windurst killing everything i can in E. Saru

lvl 10-12
Partied with people killing dhalmel in the Tahrongi Canyon

lvl 12-14
Partied with people in the Shakrami Maze killing Maze Makers

lvl 14-15.5
Partied with people in the Valkurm dunes chaining clippers, then damselflies, then gobs

lvl 15.5 to 19
Soloed Maze Makers in the Shakrami Maze

lvl 19-20
Partied in Qufim

lvl 20-25
Soloed the landworms in the Korroloka Tunnels

Soloing worms is amazing xp for rangers. With my whm sub, meat kabobs, and all the best equipment I was able to get xp chain 4's on tough worms occasionally. Watch out for the Stoneagas, they really hurt. Having a whm sub allows you to cast barstone and eventually cure 2. The general rule of thumb is if the worms con T and you are using good equipment and kabobs they will be no problem. If they VT then it'll be a close fight. Don't mess with IT worms ;)