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

2-3% on one piece is huge difference, not marginal. IF you would have that difference on 60% of your pieces, that would be 20-30% more damage total. 3% is difference between 35MAB/5WSD and some godly 10WSD/30MAB DM augment for example.

Not sure how gaining 2-3% bonus across 60% of your gear is relevant. I'm not encouraging people to downgrade all their gear or even saying that relic+3 is better from a pure damage perspective. I was simply stating the increase in WS damage and the individual can decide if that's worth rolling for the Herc legs or not. For people who already have an augmented pair its a no-brainer, and the main page sets should probably be updated to reflect that.

I think the more important part (to me) would be... does the gear in question have enough relevancy to warrant an inventory slot? no joke

I have a +8 wsd +17? mab pair in the stash for when i finally bother with cor. I feel like rng needs the macc more given how many tf resists i run into randomly like THE flying pigs...

Herculean wsd/mab legs is one of the heaviest used multijob piece. It's literally for every job that can use it and can use aeolian edge, then leaden/wildfire on cor, Trueflight/wildfire on rng, then niche things like cataslysm on mnk, Lunge/swipe/sanguineblade on RUN. So it's more of a question, what jobs you play.

I guess that came out wrong. I personally have relic+3 and 5/5 herc augmented with macc/mab/wsd.

Im in agreement that the herc > relic.

The point I failed to make, is if people are very tight on space (probably all of us) and they only play ranger. They might opt for the relic legs over the herc because the margin of gain doesnt warrant the extra slot.

If they only play ranger, then I'm not sure why they'd be low on inventory space.

The conversation context is around jobs that can use herculean gear. mnk/thf/rng/nin/blu/cor/pup/dnc/run. Their drobes (if purchased) could contain gear from other jobs that can't wear herculean. And their inventory and storages could be full of random items for crafting and farmed etc..

"just play ranger" is in context to herculean gear.

I technically only play ranger but i have other jobs geared. def a severe lack of space.

Is it possible to hit a 3 hit build with Gandiva? edit: without buffs

I have the midcast ranged set from front page except:
Relic head is still +1
Neck rank 13/25
and swapped Malignance Trousers for Adhemar

I am falling short of 1000 TP after 3 rounds. ~317 TP per shot. I should mention I am using Voluspa Arrows vs. Chrono as I do not have the Aeonic, yet.

Will the fully upgraded relic head and augmented neck tip the scales or is there something I may be missing? I do manage to get 1000 TP w/ Fomal after 3 hits maybe from the additional STP? Gastra also falling just shy.

well, a few thoughts.

#1. your neck isn't at max STP from its augment, so yes, you'll gain more STP there.

#2. Going from Adhemar+1 path C legs to Malignance legs will also net you 2 more STP.

But here's the big one- why? Jishnu's Radiance, while incredibly fun to use for easy chaining, is peanuts compared to the white damage of a Gandiva in AM3 mode. If anything, most will sacrifice an x-hit build for white damage on empyrean weapons. I understand the desire to have a "pre-aftermath" set to build TP as fast as possible at the sacrifice of damage, but once you're rocking the AM, its time to switch over to a focus on White Damage in TP phase vs TP building.

In terms of why some fall short and others don't in your current gear, just look at the weapons. Fomalhaut has +10STP on it- your other weapons you mention don't.

Well, the reason I ask is I was having trouble self skillchaining Jishnu's when I was testing a bit last night and so I wanted to look at my base midcast set. I guess this could also be a component of my precast, but tp gain seemed slow to me.

It'll be tough with just shooting when solo during "normal" times. Meaning, without doubleshot up and/or getting Samurai Roll from a Corsair. Its why most Rangers when going out solo w/ trusts (because Quldata is a jackass and will NEVER give you SAM roll) will melee for TP- they'll give you buffs more suited for meleeing vs shooting to allow self-chaining.

Of course, once you opt for meleeing vs shooting, Gandiva's benefits aren't seen. You'd get better DPS results meleeing with a Fomalhaut and popping AM1 or AM2 to constantly self-chain Last Stand (AM3 will cause it to produce Radiance, resulting in losing your Aftermath after each Radiance, and needing to get it back up, meaning 3 WSs for 1 chain every time).

Solo RNG is tough- it has its moments but often if I'm going out solo I opt for COR over RNG. Ranger is a job that is very buff-dependent to truly shine. Corsair brings its own quality buffs while still having good DPS...so its more suited to functioning alone.

The sad part to my story is my testing was with friends as GEO,COR,BRD - flurry 1, fury/frailty, SAM roll, minuets and dextrous etudes iirc - this prompted me to see what my TP gain was without buffs.

In this buffed situation, I still had trouble chaining Jishnu's and as I learn more about the weapon it sounds like perhaps it isn't best to even worry with skillchains, is this about right? Once you get AM3 up, at what point do you use the weaponskill? As soon as you get to 1000 or save to 3k each one? Is it worthwhile to focus on doing the light skillchain?

I use Gandiva sparingly, but it does shine in some moments-

-mobs that spam amnesia moves. Get AM up prior to that Amnesia, and then ride quality white damage while others lament not being able to weaponskill.
-hate transfer. Again, with AM up, riding white damage during Decoy Shot to glue extra hate on a tank for various reasons (newer tank that needs some help, hate reset moves come to mind)

Typically, I'll build to 3k TP, pop a Jishnu's Radiance for AM3 purposes, then ride white damage unless I can close someone else's WS to produce a light. This is different than what most do which is spam a WS at a key TP point, whatever that TP point is. Also, if doubleshot is up, I often don't WS at all. Since JR doesn't scale with TP like Last Stand or Trueflight, there's little damage benefit to saving up to 3k for every WS as one may do with Gastra.

Don't get wrong- its a lovely weapon, its just hard to use effectively vs the relative ease of using Gastraphetes or Fomalhaut.

My intention of making it has always been to use it on w2 dyna bosses. I probably should have made Armageddon first, but that is on my to-do list.

What fights in particular have you used yours on?

Wave2 works. Especially since the benefit of you WS'ing with an oddball weaponskill would be to reset the damage potential of people using mutiple of the same WS.

You may not get epeen jinshu's, but you will help others maintain high WS damage on theirs. The white damage of gandiva shouldn't be underrated either, just pew pew all day long if thats your best option.

You could also just use a WS that benefits chain properties of someone else, or perhaps dulling arrow to lower the mob INT levels.

I watched a video awhile back on a 6-man clearing w3 and they were using a Gandiva RNG to basically solo DD the w2 boss. I was sold! I believe that was Windy.

Granted, that was before I even leveled my RNG so I was completely clueless. Still feel like I am a bit.

Can you link it here please?

Not sure if this is exactly who they are referencing, but this group has 6 man videos for Bastok and Jeuno:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUNSm3oprIf2GPAlvVOIGmg

Looks like RUN SCH GEO RDM COR RNG for Jeuno, they change the RNG to COR for Bastok. Not sure if they needed extra rolls or just felt like it/availability. One uses Wildfire more frequently for obvious reasons so should be able to flex RNG/COR as long as the extra rolls aren't vital.

I've used Gandiva on the following recently:

-wave2 dyna-D bosses in San d'Oria and Jeuno. Our shell uses RNG+COR magical damage in wave3, so we're already set up for ranged damage and often use height differential in those zones because its just naturally easy- just a buff swap that's going to happen anyways. A well timed AM-up shot from gandiva can be a huge help on Sandy's hate reset, and @Kaldaek's comment about throwing in an uncommon WS helps everyone in the group.

-Fu. While I prefer Annihilator (due to Coronach being a lot more friendly enmity-wise), again the Decoy Shot mechanic can help while you're dropping massive damage that makes the tank holding him a challenge at times.

-Glassy Craver. While he's a cakewalk, it sure is fun to slap him around and be out of range of his AoEs (not to mention he's piercing weak....yeah all our physical damage is piercing, I've just been trying to find more places it works). This one is just more of a fun thing than a benefit.

I've tried to find times in Reisenjima HELMs where it can work- let's face it, most Rangers pick up the job and want to fire arrows from the ramparts, and then discover how much more effective Marksmanship is (much to our chagrin). I thought maybe Schah, but its too dangerous to use on his adds as hate is loose. I may give it a whirl on Schah himself next cycle, as that longer bit of the fight means your tank has a chance to really get a hold of him. Anyone try out Gandiva on other stuff?

It was a twitch account 'Mindslaver' was the name, but I think he took it down.

Think same setup Masunasu mentioned.

If only more NA players who do DynaD W3 played so coordinated and actually utilized jobs properly like that JP team does on those vids. Most of the people are on auto spam 1k tp back to back while watching Netflix... don't care bro i win the parse bro R15 or bust bro TP overflow bro the new meta bro... The egos are so high and tight its unbelievable...

Any chance anyone knows the skillchains being used on Obstarix?

I can see lead>seraph>lead. But then it goes right into fusion>trueflight. What is making the fusion?

I completely agree with you, but I will say one thing- its a lot easier to coordinate 6-8 vs 18, so yeah, spammage and brute force often wins the day vs strategy.

Leaden > Seraph (Distortion) > COR Last Stand (Fusion) > RNG Trueflight (Light)

AH thank you now I see it!

I don't see a video for windy, but can I assume the exact same strategy can be applied?

Anyone who plays Ranger should also have Corsair available, and MAB herc pants are certainly worthwhile for that.