New to RNGFollow

Loxley bow is just for claiming. There is no reason to use it for anything else. Selene's bow is pretty easy to get, and it's good to have a decent bow to use.

Xbow is generally the cheapest of the three weapons since you can use acid and holy bolts, however, it generally suffers from colibri's magic resistance - gimping a large portion of your damage.

Octave club will be good for a couple months and then will go back to being a DRK zerg weapon, so personally I wouldn't suggest putting merits into club when you could just work on marksmanship or cat1/2. Kraken club rangers do cap out club along with marks|archery.

I also wouldn't go out of your way to get Shikaree Aketon. It's useful for the 50's and a bit for the 60's when you overcamp birds, but given the time necessary to go kill the fomors and the current necessity to have several people go with you to help makes it highly probable that you could have just used your AF body and gotten 1-5 levels with less effort. The update message this morning looks like they might actually be removing or increasing the level cap for sacrarium to where you could easily solo farm the pieces within an hour, making it a good option for level syncing to lesser colibri if you did want one (they do look pretty sharp).

You'll want to be aiming to have a Kirin's Osode at 75, so you would benefit more from farming the 1.4~2 mil to buy one than to farm up gear that you will out level. Pahluwan from assault missions are all pretty decent pieces, the legs are basically best easy end game option, shoes are okay as well.

Prepare to spend a large amount of time having to skill up marksmanship outside of your XP parties. It just isn't efficient to level on non-colibri mobs at the moment, which means you will be synced to 36-42, 53-60, or 61-67 until you're 75.

If you're looking for gear that could last you a little longer, look into Fields of Valor'ing Hawker's knives, RSE, noct+1 gear. If you can get anything with +str/ratk it can last you the majority of your leveling career.

Thanks for the replies guys!

Yeah I know loxley is just for claiming, but I do a lot of NM hunting (I love it) and that is why i got it. I know Selene's is a decent alternative to Vali's which is why we got it for my friend. Had a lot of fun trying to claim the rabbit markings before another party and went 1/3.

I should probably mention that I don't do much endgame outside of solo, duo trio NMs BCNMs etc/exp. I just can't commit to set times because of school/work, so basically I'd be using things like the OC for fun/faster exp when I can use it. I use"d" it as a zerg weapon on DRK72 and that is basically what I mainly have it for, just figured it could be a fun addition to RNG when it can be used, since I already have it.

When it comes to the meriting I would merit marksmanship first, but I didn't think it was possible to put points into a weapon you can't wear on the jobs you have at 75? Maybe I am completely wrong, but if not I will put my points into marksmanship for sure. I just assumed it wasn't possible which is why I asked for alternatives.

Like I said I won't touch a bow, outside of Loxley for claiming so meriting bow is not something I will do. I do realize the best RNG will have both skilled, but I just don't enjoy it and won't do endgame with it, so I will just stick to gun(I know it will cost me, but I'd rather pause my leveling and get money if I need to rather than use a bow) on birds and xbow when not on birds. Hopefully my obow will come to good use when the cap raises and new leveling areas are introduced. I mean, obow is still a good weapon isn't it? Outside of bird parties? Would hate to have spent time camping and getting it to find out now I just wasted my time lol.

Kirin's Osode is something I am already working on/close to getting and so is Pahluwan legs (read some guides which suggested both of those) and considering I am only RNG 32 atm, I don't think i will have any problems attaining both items long before I ding 75. Would have had the Osode if I hadn't bought Utsu:ni for my brother and a Saurian helm for a friend a few days ago. But like I said, I have time before I need them so it was worth it because we have had awesome fun running around fighting NMs BCNMs etc the last couple of days. :)

I guess I will pass on the Shikaree for now then, like you guys said I might as well spend the time leveling or soloing for gil. Although, like you said, it does look sharp. Tbh I was hoping a little you would say it is great just so it would be worth my time haha.

Awesome tip about FoV augments, hadn't thought about it at all, seems like a fun way to get some nice equipment to last even longer.

Sole sushi sounds good, the added STR should do my taru Slugs some good too. :)

Thanks alot!

Edited, May 24th 2010 10:59am by Belcrono

Okay, albeit understandable that it works that way with merits, its too bad. Would have been nice to get Slugshot a little earlier, not to mention more acc never hurts. Do you have any suggestions for what I could put merits in from my other jobs then? I guess club skill wouldn't be optimal, but what about STR, or is there something else that could be good?

Good to hear my hours spent on obow camping wasn't for a lost cause! I was so happy when I got it, got a little worried there for a minute. :) I will definatley look into Hellfire +1. At levels where Hellfire can be used unsynced would you suggest this over obow (Aside from OC levels I mean)?

Yes, I did of course mean sushi for OC levels. About the Pot-au-feu, what levels do you suggest starting to use that as food? Right away at 32 (where I most likely will be spending my time in Qufim) or what would you do?

Thanks again for all the input, really appreciate the help.

For merits, if your only 75s are rdm and sch, you are a bit limited. You could do STR, club, dagger, or HP.

Remember you can only have 5 stat merits, which go 3/6/9/9/9 merits each...so it's a very large commitment for relatively little gain. You don't want to ever remove them since it takes effort to get each higher tier. Personally I would suggest getting RNG to 75 before even considering meriting for STR merits. For reference, to go 5/5 STR will take you as much XP as taking RNG from 32 to 66 (~360K).

If you have drk at 72 then you should definitely consider club merits. You could also try to get the last 3 levels on drk to do some extra meriting since you'll likely want to take drk to 80 (where it will be just as good as KC drks). Note, drk has marks skill!

I guess it depends on what you plan to spend your time doing. If you find yourself doing a lot of meriting or events on your mages and end up with a surplus of merits, sure go for the above, though if you're more on the fence between XPing RNG and meriting, I would say just get RNG done ASAP.

O. bow is 54/432 18 ratk and can use 50 damage ammo, total 104
E. bow is 71/490 3str/agi 2racc 23 ratk and 38 damage 3racc ammo, total 110.5
Hell fire is 41(42)/660(640) 5(6)racc 15(17)ratk and 81 damage ammo, total 122(123)

As you can see above, O. bow is a solid option, though the typical ammo is holy bolts which face magic resistance. Gun is better damage and potentially easier to make an X-hit with, but bullets are significantly more expensive. Bow is more accurate. Of the three, O. bow actually ends up significantly ahead with the use of acid bolts boosting not only your own damage, but also party members.

As far as math to actually game play, gun can easily get a 5 hit, making it the easiest to spam slugwinder (which it also has the strongest slugwinders).

And what the OP has stated multiple times:



Assuming he competently gears for marksmanship there isn't really any problems, just that he will prolly spend more money on ammo.

For marks, they are actually better. They do take forever to get though, but I guess if you enjoy camping!

Archery's WSC is 16% STR, 25% AGI, however because 2 STR = 1 ranged fSTR you can basically consider it 66% STR.
4*0.66 = 2.64 base damage and 2 ratk. (if fSTR capped, only 0.64 base damage)
8*0.25 = 2 base damage, 1 ratk, and 5 racc

Marksmanship is 30% AGI, but fSTR makes it 50% STR.
4*0.5 = 2 base damage and 2 ratk
8*0.3 = 2.4 base damage 1 ratk and 5 racc

For Archery triumphs could potentially increase your damage by 3 points, though they are slightly less accurate.

For Marksmanship the dolf set could potentially increase your base damage by 3 points and is more accurate.

In either case where your fSTR is capped, the agility set wins. Of course you could also augment your triumph in the hopes of getting racc, ratk, or agi...or just do ACP7 a bunch to get a str/ratk.

It occurred to me yesterday, you could also consider meriting enmity - or spell interruption down. Both of which could affect your mages and your ranger. Critical hit rate should eventually be merited as well since it is just awesome for any physical job.

Finish DRK to 75, DRK has innate marksmanship and you will be able to merit it.

your merits:

STR > Marksmanship > (when you hit 75) Snap shot > Rapid shot > Camouflage recast

Then your spell interruption, crit hit rate etc.


Shikaree aketon isnt the end all be all, its nice at 50, but you'll probably be over camping at the time and you're going to want the racc from Noct +1. The enmity doesnt really matter since the update to camouflage.

With the advent of trial of the magians, we have several new weapons at our disposal that we didnt have before and you may want to look into the dragonmaw with OAT on it. It could be a decent replaement for HF +1 but FAR FAR more expensive in terms of ammo useage.

If you do ever decide to go end game and you want to use rng, you may want to look into at least having a decent archery option. I know in my shell we do alot with rng's and the vast majority of the time it's to stay out of aoe range, usually in the 15+ range, which means with xbow you're losing roughly 2%, with gun 4% of your damage due to range penalties. Just a suggestion.

Also i would suggest that if you are going to stick with the O.bow all the time, that you level your woodworking to at least 16 to make your own status bolts, even not HQ'ing you still save a ton of money. Darksteel are a 63 synth so... yeah.

I use my OBow a lot and the use of Holies vs DS really depends on what you are fighting. Magic resistant mobs will resist holy bolt effect and therefore DS is better. So Colibri and many high level mobs are not great for holy damage. Dark based mobs and those without high magic defense are good option for holy bolts. Dynamis, limbus and campaign mobs come immediately to mind as a good group for holy bolt use.

You don't need a machine xbow for holy use. As long as your added effect averages about 24 (i'm sure RVW will correct me if I'm wrong), you will outdo DS with an OBow. The Machine Xbow/ Holy combo basically shines when dealing with physical resistant mobs where holy damage will be outdoing your weapon damage. I personally haven't used RNG in that situation (usually on COR buffing the BLM's), but its a useful option to have.

So in the words of Green Day, "Know your Enemy", and you can pick the right main ammo for your bow.

I believe it's 22~24 Holy Damage per 100 Physical Damage to outperform DS.

A bit curious about Culverin. How possible is it to use during a regular exp PT when using a KC(or OC in my case)? No idea how many bullets I would fire off in a say 2-2.5h party as a RNG, what do you guys think, is it possible or is culverin only for zergs?

Money wise I have no idea what it would mean, IF it was possible, just curious.

Edited, May 27th 2010 7:46am by Belcrono

Okay, lol yeah I didn't even think of Barrage.

Speaking of trying to keep the cost down on ammo, I just found a r/e item called "Frugal Cape" apparently it adds the recycle trait and again it is an NM(sparked my interest even more lol). I was wondering how good is something like this? I can imagine that without merits it would not be very good, but considering the only other alternative until level 50 or so is Nomad+1 which only really gives 2AGI, I guess it would have to depend on activation rate of recycle. Anyone who knows how well it works?

Do you think this could be a decent piece to use or should I just stick with Nomad+1? I mean, not that it really matters that much, but yeah.

Edited, May 27th 2010 8:56am by Belcrono

@KC/Culverin in exp, you shouldn't have the time to shoot off a barrage unless your puller is slow.

The biggest problem with Culverin in xp is that Cannon shells stack to 12 and not to 99. You should go through a fair amount even if you are just shooting for WS and Barrage (if you can get one off). That's a lot of inventory space. Culverin is a great zerg weapon because typically you are only shooting a few WS's before the mob is dead so you rarely go through more than a few stacks.

But KC/HF+1 is a nice xp combo (not that I have a KC but I've seen them in action).

Will admit that I don't quite understand how to place the Evolith in a socket(I had none at the time, and wiki is confusing), but I was able to easily etch a Hellfire with like, 1 skill. Synergy is really hard to fail at unless there are conflicting or absurdly high elemental targets. And either way, you don't lose anything at all.

Ended up reverting mine not long after(and then sold, Rng couldn't even equip yet) since it was just for skillups.

Lyft Crossbow is a free alternative to a Machine Crossbow and gives a TP/MND Bonus based on the number of members in a party.

All of the Lyft weapon(or most at least) testing was done on BG. I really don't know why it's not on Wiki yet though.

Unless it's because of the varying suggestions for activation and the actual stats. There was a lot of confusion(and lies) about that when the weapons were first released. I only see the latent for Lyft Sainti listed on Wiki for whatever reason. Not going to add info to the others as I have no first hand experience with the weapons.

This is pretty much all the info on a Lyft Crossbow. The base crossbow is slightly faster and with the MND Bonus + TP Bonus, this weapon is tailored for a holy bolt/trueflight build.