You'll Shoot Your Eye Out! - New FFXI RNG Guide

29K white damage per attack round is pretty bonkers indeed. I hope the spreadsheet math is correct - really makes me want to build a Gandiva. And yea, it looks like Tellen wins for white damage when true shot range is feasible.

Regardless of whether or not your ranged delay calculation is correct. 29K per attack round is going to equate to insanely high DPS.

Yeah only added the adhemar feet in there for visual on total true shot. Would be a hard sell over the enmity and total crit rate of oshosi

I'll try to replicate this in the game see how it works
and also, by attack round are you referring to one shot being fired and triple shot gets activated? Please explain

Thank you

I mean time between shots. Regardless if ds/ts activates or not. Basically time between moments you get tp from shot. This is bound to human timing too tho, unless you use some really good ra automation.

I have seen 23k crit on dble shot using Arma and 21-22k on Gandi, will re test though.

The timing of the shooting animation cycle on human side is like a skill base action rpg that other dps jobs don't have to deal with. It's kind of a sport where you gotta practice shooting a lot to get that timing very perfected between shots. This is why when I'm shooting from distance I don't use engage nor idle sets because swapping too many things every second will get jammed the swaps wont go through from pre shot to midshot properly. And the speed, it changes between bow,xbow,gun flurry/no flurry. Normal dps jobs just stand there while the math rans behind the animation and u can see that on KC a lot where one swing animation plays but log shows 4+ attacks.

So you said yesterday that Arma beats out Gandiva, but your spreadsheet is showing Gandiva wins. Did you mean Arma with WS spam beats Gandiva white damage spam?

Also as a side note I forgot nisroch has +5 true shot as well so it’s more like 30-32 true shot depending on what feet you use.

this is all wonderful news- and does raise the question of a hybridized TP set of True Shot/AM3/DT gear to allow one to stand at ideal range for more fights. Definitely adds another layer of complexity to the job, and its much appreciated.

I have a feeling you switched to Gandiva, but not switched the bullet to arrow? :)

You're right and I'm slightly disappointed. Looks like I'm making Arma instead...

Is there any argument for making Gandiva instead then? Arma being good for COR as well, and better white damage, I'm failing to see why one would bother to make a Gandiva.

Calling down thunder from the heavens with your bow is the only reason I made one. I just filter out the damage and pretend I am a demigod

Well in order to utilize true shot with a gun the distance requires is like cut in half versus Gandiva

To pretend that somehow bows are viable in 2021.

We've all secretly wanna cosplay as Legolas and fire down hell from the ramparts....and it just feels better with a fancy bow :)


oh....yeah and that. ^^

You really love DEX instead of AGI? Seriously, I don't really see a great argument either, aside from just "I like bows and want to rain down thunder" / gotta catch 'em all. Which, fine, I totally get that! And it's not as if Gandiva is bad if you want a physical damage ranged option...

But in addition to comparing white damage, Arma just has more versatility in general.
- Better SC options (for Darkness AND Light)
- Better enmity management (use Wildfire if you need to cool it on the enmity for a bit)
- Better Racc
- Better able to use multiple WS (AGI as a mod for everything Marksmanship, versus Gandiva DEX only helping for JR)
- Better ranged crit rate (AGI again)
- Good for 2 jobs, as you mentioned

My slow *** has 2 ranged RMEA (R15 Arma and Fomal), will finish a Gastra and Anni this year for the full set of RNG Marksmanship options... But Arma has always been my favorite, likely always will be, and I'm thrilled to see more people coming around on it.

its supposed to be a secret!!!

Please stop, I was almost excited about making a Gandiva.

Don't worry- the Foma/Gastra-onry crowd will come in soon enough and whiff us with their kclubs of reason...

K-club actually is a good reason for Gandiva over Arma, Arma true shot range leaves you still in range of most aoes and may as well just do the K-club thing (assuming you have the buffs available to support) instead then since you are getting hit regardless, Gandiva true shot range puts you just under 12 yalms out and outside of at least some AOEs which can be important in some fights. edit I meant Arma not Anni

I'm thoroughly confused by this entire statement. We've spent a page plus talking about Empyrean aftermaths affecting ranged white damage, posting spreadsheets on such ranged damage, as well as a discussion about making true shot viable- then the moment someone even jokingly mentions a kclub, sure enough someone jumps in ignoring all previous discussion to espouse the benefits of a kclub.

The ONLY time such a move is justified (giving up white damage) comes from using completely overpowered WSs such as Savage Blade builds for physical damage or Trueflight builds for magical- both situations where even with traditional main/sub weapon choices the WS:TP damage split is still around 80:20.

Gandiva, Armageddon, and yes even Annihilator all make up for less potent attached weaponskills with their aftermaths affecting shooting TP damage. If you are meleeing and using one of these options, you're literally ignoring the entire reason to build these weapons. The only exception being Armageddon at times for meleeing Wildfire situations like many CORs use in Dynamis-D wave3, but if they had Gastraphetes, they'd stop that in a heartbeat.

You really need some solid buffs for KC, while for ranged you have an option for utility or def buffs. Ranged pew pew on RNG can also be almost hateless, if you use Decoy Shot to transfer white dps hate to tank and you can use Dirge for -50 enmity at WS.

What I'm saying is one of the reasons (besides lack of buffs which is definitely something you need a build for) that I would use a build other than K-club savage blade or K-club Trueflight builds is so that I can stand outside certain aoes, gandiva's optimal range is further away and avoids more aoes than arma's so may fullfill that roll better, of course its still too short for many other aoes and may fall behind again at max range compared to arma and as already mentioned Arma has a lot of other advantages I was just trying to make a reason to support the bow but I guess K-club is a very divisive issue to bring up.

I think the past few pages have been interesting and produced a lot of useful tests and research for optimizing non k-club builds which I think is awesome, I don't want rng to be a one trick pony and I want to improve my builds for the many, many times ranged or buff concerns mean not using the K-club.

Now I read this. Just finished Gandiva few weeks ago...

Being that I also have COR I have no idea why I didn't do Armageddon

R15 Arma's AGI is pretty nuts for Last Stand.

Great. Now after Gastraphetes I have to make an Armageddon... :D

You guys are all making viable sense as to why I love ranger. The versatility.

Melee? Sure, Shoot, Sure.

take dynamis for example... melee getting beat up... step back and pew pew for very good DPS allowing recovery etc..

the ONLY two viable options for kclub are for trueflight and savage blade. I will admit I love using that build, but my RNG fits many many other party setups with a distance DPS build.

I had Gandiva made for like a decade or so, I felt obligated to get it to the RP stage (its like R6 now). Never really considered it for serious endgame, just when I wanted to use lolbow. Reading these comments, I will have to invest in an Annihilator and Armageddon soon. Sounds like fun weapons to use.

I literally find place for all of my RNG weapons (i have all r15 except yochi). With a simple hotkey I swap weps and and already adding to DPS. They are all fun and all have a place. We as a community should stop "has to be best or has no place".

I dont see anything bad in comparing weapons and presenting arguments of their usefulness. Not everyone has enough time/gils to invest into all ranged REMA, especially to R15 (or any other REMA for different job) and want to know which weapon will be best for what. Then such person can make a decision what weapon suits him/her the most with lower risk of disappointment.

The majority of the contribution to this thread is from BIS or career rng, so I wouldn't put stock into thinking that "has to be best or has no place" comment. For someone like me who really enjoys the job, but doesn't put maximum effort into it, I'm getting invaluable information here being able to tweak my own sets and knowing what to push for and what to avoid. If you post your sets and ask advice or ask advice about situations, nobody is going to tell you "you have no place". I promise you you'll get help and support.