PLEASE READ..equipment questions for Ranger

[MeleeFighterFF]

Hey guys...well, as i posted my message the other day that i was on the ranger quest, now I can post one and proudly say I'm a lvl 10 ranger now heh

I LOVE the job....i've finally found what it is I'm going to do in this game for the next 3 years or so

Coming from a war/mnk background to begin my career, this is what my question was for you since I'm clueless about how to apply this knowledge to a ranger:
What kinds of armor do i wear?

at 10rng/5war right now im in all leather gear with a sandy ring, copper ring, and the wing pendant (neck) and i use the royal archer's longbow, the royal archers sword, and the bone arrows. First off, how long will the royal archer's sword be good to use for me (till what lvl) and second off, what should be the next set of armor i get? Ive seen the Scale Armor and Brass stuff but this is what i wore as a war, and really dont think that a faceguard and all scale armor really fits the bill for a ranger heh. ...please get back to me, i was thinking something like a cool cloak that only 4 jobs can wear, and some slops, or linen pants...are these more along the lines of what a rng wears? (i also am lvling up thf for farming, and to chip away at...my goal is to have ranger and thf both at 70+ one day) so some of this kind of gear could be worn by my thief as well. Please get back to me as i was at the AH last night and saw scale armor and brass armor as the next thing and said "wait a minute...heh, my smart, balanced, patient, deadly ranger is going to wear metal on his body?" heh.

thanks for any help you guys may give...im also pretty tired right now and my english is usually very well put, but if by chance anyone needs any of my question clarified then i will do so

thanks again guys, and thanks again on helping me make the decision to go ranger...told you, couldn't imagine doing any other job now (when i get rng high enough i think ill even farm with thf/rng ...would be nice to see a thf shooting 2 arrows into an orc, then fleeing around the corner to trap him with another arrow heh)

[poweryoga]

advice: level axe and dagger. You shoudl be wearing the normal war equipment but here are a few notes:

As soon as you can get +R Acc rings, use them until the world ends.

Lvl 28: Archer's Knive. You'll be using this until you find hawker's knives. (or fransisca)

Other stuff that has +agi (drone earrings) are good.

[PhoR]

armor really isn't that important.
practically every job has to wear scale, brass, bone, lizard, beetle gear early on. You don't start getting ranger-like armor until you get higher level.
there are only a few pieces of armor pre-30 that increase agility like martial slacks and royal archers headband that you don't want to miss out on. (don't forget to switch to your rangers necklace at 14)
It won't matter much what else you wear as far as armor goes until level 30+. In fact rng can't wear very many body armors until lvl 30+. (i was still wearing lizard armor at 29)

some things you need to concentrate spending money on:
make sure you have the MOST DMG +1 longbow you can get.
(hunters longbow at 12, power bow +1 at 16, great bow +1 at 30)
ALSO make sure you have the best +1 ranged accuracy rings you can get. (bone ring +1 at 16, beetle ring +1 at 21)
ALSO use good arrows, don't stick with lower level arrows because they're cheaper. It'll make your damage output much lower.

one more thing, i would suggest you use a 1handed axe (or two one handed axe's with nin sub). until you get archer knives at 28, 1handed axe will do far better damage than a sword will.

that's my suggestions

[MeleeFighterFF]

ok thanks guys, appreciate your input...

and it works out well anyway, because my 1h axe skills are over 65 already anyway, too bad i can't use a g.axe with ranger though...heh, g.axe skill's over 175 heh.

one more thing though (since your answers beg the question)

once i get the royal archer's knife, do i continue to use that and the 1h axe, or solely use daggers from that point forward in the game?

thanks guys...appreciate all the input.

[Timoham]

You can check out the gear in my signature as a bit of an idea. I still use the Royal Footman's Bandana and will continue to until I either get money for an emperor's hairpin or my AF hat. At lower levels, I used a beestinger until I was able to get an archer's knife. Centurion gear is awesome at 30, since it has really nice DEF (especially for a RNG) and +1 agi for the leggings and +2 for the boots, I believe. Also, IMO, martial slacks are not the best buy for your money for a RNG. The +agi and +evasion isn't much compared to the defense of other stuff at higher levels and centurion leggings have the +1 agi the slacks do. +Evasion stuff is really not that great for RNGs since they have an E in the skill. If you get aggro, expect to be hit. So you either want /NIN or all the DEF you can get as /WAR.

But also, keep in mind that rangers are glass cannons and their defense will always suck. I'm pretty sure they have the third or second worst DEF in the game. :X And worse evasion >.< So mostly go for anything that gives you +agi, then go for the defense.