could i party in dunes with an xbow?

[Arson]

i really dont need archery I just need this to level marksmanship

[Murphie]

Sure. I used Marksmanship leveling my WAR through there (and I plan on using it on my THF as well). Just pick up some Bone Rings (+1 if you can) to swap into your ranged attack macro. It won't ensure you'll hit every time, but it can't hurt.

I assume you mean on something other than your DRG, of course, since they can't use Marksmanship. :p

[VZX]

definitely. not to mention that acid bolt rewrite crab's defense boost. acid bolt is perfectly fine.

[TenchiHawkwing]

Crossbow is preferred(at least by me!) most of the game. There's very few times I'd rather see a ranger using a bow/gun rather than the trusty Crossbow(Acid, Holy, Darksteel, GMB)

[tdh]

Nothing says you can't, however a Bow will usually be much more damaging at that level, and you lose RngAcc from bow and arrows. At Lv.15 and Lv.17 arrows have RngAcc+5. Power Bow has RngAcc+2 and RngAtk+9. I don't know of any X-Bows with stats like that at that level. HQ or otherwise.

But again, there's nothing to say you can't do it. Acid Bolts will be quite helpful, just they don't have great damage on them.

[TenchiHawkwing]

You might not do as much DMG by yourself, but those acids make your party as a whole do more dmg, especially with them being able to dispel the crab DEF UP move.

[Arson]

cool thanks

[Gawaine]

I would hit the mob with an acid bolt then change to bow but it will reset ur TP so make sure u change after one shot that hits and does DEF down

[Jei]

I was able to cap both my bow and gun skill while levelling my ranger in the dunes. Skill up came quite easy, and arrows are very cheap too. I recommend you keep both up just in case one day you decide to play ranger. You don't have to go back and train your skill on weak mobs.

[VZX]

IIRC, acid bolt spam + defense down effect has the same damage per hit with my power bow+1 +fang on qufim. the difference was only faster delay(xbow) vs more accuracy (bow)
WS wise, bow win by a bit

[Helmon]

I pretty much swore by xbows from 1-25. Keeping both capped is simple. Whenever you level switch between bow and xbow until they are both capped. It's probably 'refreshing' for the party too. They'll notice the importance/usefulness of acid bolts very quickly this way.