Bow Questions.

So I recently came back and have been playing ranger but I have been mainly gun. What is the current good bows to use now a days? Not counting REMA bows I'm talking like from drops. I have the alluvion bow but I'm having a ton of problems getting any DMG+ augments what stones are the best? Any advice is appreciated.

paloma +1 would probably be my first choice

Wouldn't the damage from alluvion beat that by a lot?

yeah but i wouldn't be bothered to augment when Steinthor is also an option later on

In order of increasing goodness:
Paloma+1 (Borealis Shadow UNM)
Hangaku-no-yumi (Tenzen Hard Mode Fight)
Vijaya Bow (Escha Ru'Aun T2)
Nobility (Sinister Reign)
Teller (Reisenjima T2)
Steinthor (Reisenjima HELM)

I personally am using a near max augmented Nobility while I work on afterglowing my Yoichi. Be sure to unlock Jishnu's Radiance, it's the main Archery WS these days.

Have jishnus. Surprised to see the alluvion bow isn't even in the list with all the augments you can get.

probably because that's time and money you're not using on relic how(if you're pursuing one) instead when there are several free or nearly free options available

Have relic gun with AG just looking for a bow that's relatively easy to get and use. And I thought alluvion was one of the better options besides ARME weapons. But if that's not the case then I won't bother augmenting it. If it is better than most of that list I don't mind spending a bit of Gil to get an augment. If it isn't then of course I'll move on.

Alluvion bow is also by far the highest delay bow in the game (735). Even with the maximum +DMG augment its DPS is actually somewhere around a non-afterglow RMEA. If i were to add it to my previous list, it would slot in somewhere between Tenzen and escha sky bow.

Speaking of bow ws, I keep wanting to see how good Refulgent arrow can be, I think with a high str set and enough tp bonus it could do pretty well, it's interesting in that fSTR favors RNG so much more than melee, and that it's the only purely STR based ranged WS. The WS properties are pretty lame though.

How about Fail not? Its my next aeonic only for completion of rng weapons but it seems like a nice weapon.

Love mine. Jishnu's Radiance closing Radiance skillchains is quite fun, and 10 STP on the bow just makes it easier. I haven't done T4 reisen, WoC,or Kirin,but up to T3 no issues with accuracy (yoichi being the "accuracy" legendary bow), esp with the accuracy changes and I'm not anywhere near done worth job points.

Edit- haven't five those mobs on RNG

Sorry to revive a dead thread, but with the vw campaign going on, wanted to see if am afterglow Gandiva would be worth it or a waste.

I realize I could just make anni, but my Gandiva is already lvl 90 and I could take advantage of the current campaign to accumulate my hmp/cinder.

I have reis t4 bow right now, so it's a good filler. Just wanted to see how competitive Gandiva is nowadays

Both ranged empy are crazy good, actually. I fairly recently did Armageddon (which I preferred mainly due to use on two jobs that I play) and I love it. Does require some different thinking, and use of ranged crit sets with AM3 up - the white damage during AM3, with 50% triple damage rate on a ranged crit proc.... mmmmm, that's what makes the empys so good. My time with Arma actually made me kinda covet a Gandiva for physical focus with JR spam.

That being said, in comparing the empy options, Arma has more flexibility in that it's very good for all of TP, physical WS (Last Stand), and magical WS (Trueflight, Wildfire) - not to mention working for COR with the same flexibility. Gandiva is really going all in on physical /ra and JR, and if you're fighting something with strong physical resistance but susceptible to magic it will falter a bit. Still a damn fine bow though. JR is also a little quirky with the DEX mod, so requires some different gearing/augments for WS, but of course that applies to any bow.

For most people, I think Anni is probably less useful these days since enmity control isn't as big of a problem in the current game, and DPS is lower than empy/mythic/aeonic. True, there are situations where that isn't the case (master trial, as I understand, is highly focused on enmity control) - but those are fairly rare for most people doing standard endgame stuff with a competent tank.

Of course, looking at Verda's excellent contribution to the RNG community, you'll see that Gastra often has best performance of all the RMEA for RNG. It's just geared very differently to focus on Trueflight spam.

One last note, you don't really have to focus on Empy due to the VW campaign either. Can still farm HMP/cinder/dross and turn them into gil for whatever you want. I think the bigger benefit from campaigns is for people BUYING the materials, since a lot of bandwagon farmers will sell quick, so you'll see a temporary drop in prices and increase in availability.

Thanks for the response. I was just trying to get an idea of where I wanted to take my RNG, if it was worth it. Like I said, I have 90 Empyrean (which honestly is more than 75% of the headache with those weapons to begin with). I figure now is peak time to collect en masse and just see where I'm at. I know for a while, Gandiva was considered the worst of all the options for end game RNG, due to the "your gonna die" stigma attached to the damage+enmity from JR spam. Even to this day, the guide still reflects Gandiva is not very good, though its outdated.

I'll work on Gandiva because RNG is always a very valuable job for certain things, and I've always liked it. I just didn't want to be laughed at for sinking over 100+m into something that isn't even good end-game wise.

So many Fomalhauts... the game could use more Gandivas! :)

I would certainly recommend a Gandiva as a great 2nd or 3rd REMA to make for a dedicated RNG. Really don't care if you prefer bows or guns, I just feel that while it is incredibly worthwhile at what it does (I mean, my god, RNGs just don't walk around shitting out 50 DEX for JR in a single slot), its not as versatile as any of the following-

Fomalhaut- Great in the world of both physical and magical attacking weaponskills, its powerful for both Last Stand and Trueflight.
Annihilator- Great option for your Last Stands with the uniqueness of Coronach's emnity control that simply can't be duplicated with another gun.
Yoichi-Tops in Racc for any weapon you'll find (though, doubt you'll need that racc much these days...it does in theory make other slots more flexible) and again paired with a great -emnity weaponskill.
Fail-Not-Skillchain monster with most bandwagon melees these days makes up for it being 2nd place in JR raw damage to the Gandiva. This one, though, as an owner, I might put below the aforementioned three.

Now, I didn't mention Armageddon, Gandiva, or Gastra. I personally think Gastra in the right circumstances is our most powerful weapon (and what my resources are currently dedicated towards)...but I wouldn't recommend it to a RNG without other REMA options. Other weapons are more versatile. I feel the same way about the Empys as well (although, Armageddon brings something to the table that only Fomalhaut does- the fact that another job can equip it. Very valuable in terms of effort->effect if you play both jobs). They are great weapons for a specific niche role, and at that role they excel. So if you wanna whip it out when you're facing a purely physical attack strategy, great. Especially because you have that Armageddon to use Trueflight/Wildfire if and when the time demands it.

edit- saw your comment "I don't want to sink 100m+ gil into something I'll be laughed at for using at endgame" (sic)- I would certainly never laugh off a fellow RNG who was properly equipped using an AG Gandiva if our strat was JR.

I recently finished Yoichinoyumi afterglow and I love it. The AM gives such a monster boost in ranged acc you can strip a ton of ranged acc out of your normal TP sets and still be deadly accurate; as well as the 5% Snapshot allows for some to be replaced with Rapid Shot. Namas doesn't hit all that hard, but being able to stack critical rate and damage in places of ranged accuracy for Jishnu's Radiance. I see about a 7-8k difference in my AM vs non-AM Jishnu's. Not to mention it gives you a Distortion property, which opens up a lot of skillchain options.

Yeah, I think you have it right that those thoughts are a bit outdated. Guessing most of that "established" thinking was back before the major enmity system changes, and before Empy AM3 became Occ. deals 3x damage. Those two things above all else really boosted Gandiva/Arma. With my Arma, I don't find myself running into serious hate issues with solid tanks, and I like to think I'm not THAT awful at doing damage that the mobs would just ignore me ;)

I certainly wouldn't laugh at any otherwise well geared Gandiva RNG. Won't lie, it would be really helpful for you to have another option for marksmanship and magical WS, whether Aeonic, Empy, or Mythic... But for straight up let's shoot this thing down with physical ranged attacks? Gandiva and a good AM3 crit set is a real beast.