Marksmanship, Archery, or Throwing?

[Eauijhkuu]

Salutations

Eauijhkuu here.

Just wondering how many of you guys who play THF take the time to skill up your ranged skills.

Finding Marksmanship to be one of the most effective of ranges personally, Has anyone used archery over marksmanship at higher levels? I've seen and noticed that there are some really nice arrows at the higher levels that seem to be uber effective, but you never really see anyone crafting or using them at all.

And what about those nifty boomerangs/chakrams?

What's your preference?

[Jei]

throwing for cheap pull.
marksmanship for drain/sleep/defense down bolts.

[tdh]

Marksmenship

Acid Bolts are awesome! Bloody Bolts are awesome! Sleep Bolts are awesome!

On top of that, THF's highest "Ranged Attack" skill is Marksmanship at Lv.230. I've seen some THFs use Sleep Bolts to solo mobs, or land Sleep Bolts on Maat so they can SA Dancing Edge on him, or even completely maintain themselves with Bloody Bolts.

For me, it's Marksmanship all the way.

[Vyuru]

Hmmm, I see some samurai using archery with some kind of arrow that has an att-down effect on it, which is nice. But I think I would be more inclined to go with crossbows myself, I believe they have a shorter delay, and I like the status bolt line (acid, holy, bloody)

And if I wanted to do a cheap pull (which I normally don't) I'd just go with the really cheap bolts you can buy for 1gil each or something like that.

[Caspian]

Use marksmanship 99% of the time. THF doesn't have a very good rating at all in archery. Use acids routinely in xp parties and keep a stack of sleep bolts for adds. Bloody's are great for solo, as TDH pointed out.

Oh, and the attack down arrows of which Vyuru speaks are Demon arrows.

[Murphie]

I'm a big fan of Marksmanship (which seems to be the popular favorite), personally. Status bolts are just too nice to pass up.

[Armando]

I concur. Status Bolts are just too good. Especially Acid Bolts.

[Sabaron]

Marksmanship can be a little expensive. Status bolts aren't terribly cheap and neither are high quality crossbows. Both are worth it over the short bows that a THF gets. Since THF pulls a lot, in areas where there is competition over mobs it's also nice to have the quick-draw Marksmanship speed on a pull. A THF's ranged skills break down to Marksmanship [C+], Bow (short only) [C-], Throwing [D]. Play with throwing when you're a NIN and do bow when you are a SAM or RNG. Of course, if you like to be capped out on multiple skills you can try more than one, but with ammunition attacks it gets a little complicated since you'll have to carry a good deal of extra ammo (Gobbiebags are a must). You can easily add a boomerang and switch to it every once in a while... no one will care terribly much because they're slavering over your SATA not your ranged attacks.

[Caspian]

Also important to note that its good if you have a ranged attack macro that puts in as much ranged accuracy as you can pour on. Atleast the r. acc. rings and a piece or two of noct gear or whatever is available at your level.
Since virtually all ammos are quiverable now, space isn't as tight as it once was. Plus, in xp you'll probably only be shooting for pulls and to reapply defense down. You shouldn't burn through ammo too terribly quickly and you'll increase not only your own damage, but also that of every other melee in your party.
Btw, after a certain point Gobbiebags should be practically mandatory anyway. If not for ammo space, you'll want them for equipment switches.

[711rocks]

Marksmenship is ftw
I have a CCB+2 too lol don't use it anymore though.

[Lmnop]

-must use R.acc+ gears

-I've seen a thf/rng 60 in 60 cap Leujam(sp?) cleansing (the worms fight thing). I toss out 600-1k Rampages, THf tosses out 800ish Sidewinders and does normal SATA for decent damage. Can't help but think that thief would do better with SATADE and bow for tp building (since it's significantly better than dagger). Even then, have to wonder what Xbow woulda done instead. Btw, Rng main was doing 1200-1600 on those worms.

This was post-nerf, pre-nerf-fix.

[Eauijhkuu]

If you really look at the grade ratings.

Marskmanship C+
Archery C-

I've been wanting to grab some of those higher level arrows for some damage and some exclusive enfeebles. :D

Besides. Archery is just awesome and cool looking.

But yeah. Marskmanship 80%. Archery 15%. Throwing 5%

[tdh]

Another reason for my Marksmanship vote is because I'm Elvaan! ^^ Elvaan xbow stance is just too sweet!

I agree that Gobby bags are required though. 8 Elememtal staves, Acc & Atk foods, 2 to 4 different sets of rings, Cloaking items (Oils & Powders), multiple weapons, ammo, various other meds, and the list goes on! Heck as RDM I could use another 10 to 15 more slots!

[JennifARGH]

I've been throwing boomerangs at the start, as it's my first job and I'm a very poor thief. I had really good fun skilling up solo in Tahrongi around 20-25, I think? (my invite rate was baaaad). I've just unlocked Ranger and will be starting to incorporate the Archery and Marksmanship skills I get from that into Thief.

[Mhurron]

Marksmanship can be a little expensive. Status bolts aren't terribly cheap I don't know, they seem cheap enough that I won't bother making them any more.

[Eauijhkuu]

I don't think that Boomerang is a horrible choice to range with. heck. I used to carry one around when I couldn't afford quivers of bolts or arrows, due the fact that if I needed unlimited ammo to pull, I had it at my disposal.

But things quickly change once you start running into mobs with Defense Boosting techniques. SO then you grab your trusty Acid Bolts.

Which, if you have the accuracy for it, will certainly mean alot pre 40, when mages don't have the means to negate it.

[Humar]

The only reason i put Throwing is because just recently got an NM drop throwing wep which was better than my Shortbow and doesnt require arrows( i REALLY need to do the gobbybag thing as soon as i can and then find another source of money and then i MIGHT change to marksmenship seeing as its the preferd ranged attck for THF)

[Kaickul]

Different situations call for different uses of the ranged slot. For the most part I use an xbow. In situations where THF 230 Marksmanship skill just doesnt do much of shit I will either equip Lightning Bow +1 for the 3 Dex or Bomb Core for the +12 attack. The 3 Dex would be for those situations where Shark Bite is the better option for WS than Dancing Edge with Bomb Core.

[Konie]

thf doesnt get the cheap ammo x.x all thf ammo has a status effect, not as expensive as they used to be but allot more expensive then the 1gil bolts lol (maybe worth 70-100g each shot)

Xbow is your best bet, Acid bolts for pts, Sleep bolts to interupt spells soloing, or to solo SA+WS, blind bolts to start fights soloing DC+ especially if your not using eva gear ( i max haste for utsusemi recast) bloody bolts for making your downtime soloing easier, or to be a vampire and leach a weak mob to death while soloing a fierce NM that seems to dodge evry r attack, Venom Bolts are possibly usefull in pt... i wouldnt use them tho if you think u may need to sleep the mob at some point

Bow's are not without their uses, if you dont mind a fight dragging out you can switch bows and crossbows so that you have silence arrows avialable as well as all your normal bolts, this really helps on BLM Mobs and Mages in ballista (not 100% sure thf can use those arrows this is speculation) they are however extremly usefull on some SEA gods, where melee'ing is a bad idea (the arrows thf gets actually have dmg scores higher then 1 unlike our bolts) JoL i think is the one that this shines on because of AoE Charm

Throwing, usefull for many things, saving money, scratching your head as you wonder why its the only type of weapon without WS's...

... Oh! and some have nice stats like Ratt+ or Racc+...

did i mention head-scratching? also a good skill to have when u accidently throw that Goblin Bomb... or that Lucky egg, if your gonna throw a hard to get item might as well have it hit somthing >.>

[Eohmer]

Honestly I just use Throwing. The only reason is because I want to skill up on that also. I'm a ranger as well so my Marksmanship is already up there. I agree with with the status bolts, but I still would rather use Throwing for THF. Cheaper. :)