My Mid Ranger Crisis

[kkow]

I'm having a bit of a dilemma. I'm currently a 48 ranger who only mains rifles. I haven't paid much attention to grinding/ability fixing my gear. I mostly play solo, but I hear advance quests requires a well geared party. This is most concerning since I'm already a WB bot in parties, and starting to feel my worthlessness even in solo play. Not sure if this is due to my weapon choice or from gear.


War funds: 1 mil meseta + 4 stacks of grinders.
1. Keep maining rifles

1a. MPA leech for a better rifle

1b. Grind my +5 Tigredor to +10
2. Give in and use a zzzzzzlauncher

2a. MPA leech for a better launcher

2b. Grind my only launcher, the all class rappy one
3. Be lazy and camp DF for pyroxene rifle or launcher
4. Ignore and continue leveling to cap where riches and fame come naturally
5. Screw ranger, gunner your way to victory!
^no but srsly, ER aoe one-shot everything... sega fffuu on game balance


Any advice for a casual player on the most efficient approach appreciated

[gigawuts]

I have some good news for you - red weapons are super cheap and easy to max out, just for players in your position. 1m can get you a +10 red rifle, which will far and away top out over even a +10 tigredor, even despite the dex penalty red weapons have. It's a great, affordable stepping stone for anyone looking to upgrade their gear.

Then my advise would be to evenly level gu & ra, do enough falz runs to get 20 iritistas to redeem for an iritista launcher (craft plosion), and then grab some red mechs when you can afford 'em. Then go with gu/ra, for the mechgun boss killing option. I wouldn't worry about grinding the craft plosion, since it's 10*, but you can buy pre-ground red mechs.

I have a lot of fun with a comparable setup, in fact I tend to stick with my rifle despite mechs being so much stronger a lot of the time. You can absolutely keep up the pace with red weapons, too. They're fantastic for anyone that doesn't yet have a 10* or something of equivalent strength, and since the grinder cost nerf they're even cheap to +10 (I'd buy one that's already +10 in your position, as 1m still may result in failure + bankruptcy). They drop constantly in AQ's so they're cheap to grind up the element, too.

Just checked the market. If you're on ship 2 you can get a 50 lightning, +10 red rifle with exp boost and poison II for 1.05m. For 1.26m you can get a 50 fire OR light +10 red rifle with fang soul and shoot III,

[Husq]

I'm having a bit of a dilemma. I'm currently a 48 ranger who only mains rifles. I haven't paid much attention to grinding/ability fixing my gear. I mostly play solo, but I hear advance quests requires a well geared party. This is most concerning since I'm already a WB bot in parties, and starting to feel my worthlessness even in solo play. Not sure if this is due to my weapon choice or from gear.

If you want to solo AQ, get a launcher. You will clear mobs faster that way, with a combination of clusters bullets, rodeo dive/drive(?) and divine launcher. You will still need a rifle for killing off/applying WB onto enemies with higher HP, mini bosses and bosses. What is also handy is to have a pair of lambda aresvis for some situations, preferably with some kind of status effect.

[SociableTyrannosaur]

Do you have a subclass at all?

[kkow]

gigawuts: That makes a lot of sense. With this, hopefully I can get the ball rolling again.

Husq: What status effects would you recommend for the lambda aresvis? Shock? Poison? What advantage would it have over a red rifle like giga mentioned? In the end, you both recommend getting a launcher huh... If only rifles had better cc PAs :/

SociableTyrannosaur: GU HU in the 30s, the rest in the 20s. Why?

[SociableTyrannosaur]

just sounded like something was off only having a tigrador.


Yeah red weapons. if you dont like running Gu, then sub Fi. Huge damage boost without having to alter your style at all.

[Husq]

Husq: What status effects would you recommend for the lambda aresvis? Shock? Poison? What advantage would it have over a red rifle like giga mentioned? In the end, you both recommend getting a launcher huh... If only rifles had better cc PAs :/

Personally I prefer fire or poison, but it is up to you. Shock can be useful for shocking eldar falz, as both aresvis' are all class weapons.
You should have one rifle, one launcher, maybe a pair of mechguns and a gunslash with you.
A launcher is handy for clearing mobs, that way the PSE level increases, which gives various benefits, like items drops having better abilities on them. I know launcher sounds dull to play, but you can make it fun, like rushing with rodeo dive/drive into or through mobs and then hitting them with a volley of cluster bullets. If you don't want to use launchers, you can use a gunslash. Some GS PAs have attacks that covers surface area.
But in the end it is really up to you and how you prefer to play. Problem with RA is if you want to play more actively in a MPA, a launcher or gunslash gives you to feel to be more invovled. Rifle on the other hand, as you mentioned yourself, puts you in a support role. Both roles are useful in a MPA and in single parties, so don't write either roles off.

[holmwood]

If you think about it, you spend most of your time killing mobs , not killing bosses.

You have two choices for mob clearing: gunslash or cannon.
Gunslash for addition bullet and thrillsplode (both have good radius), and Cannon for Rodeo Drive and Cluster Bullet.

That's totally up to you, but personally I prefer the cannon.

Here's a video of a RaFi soloing Naberius II TA using a combination of Gunslash and Cannon: http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm20182038

Fo/Fi can beat Ra/Fi by a good minute, but remember that Rangers were never meant for mob clearing... so I still think it's amazing.

One thing to note is that cannons have very bad pp regen. Thats why its best to alternate between gunslash and cannon for mob killing; cannons first for burst fire and gunslash for sustained killing.

Another thing to note is that in bossfights, homing emission is king. :P It'll be the best use of weak bullet when soloing. You'll see it in the video.



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ON TOPIC:

I would get a better cannon personally. If you can one-two shot mobs, you'll zoom through maps.