They can easily rain down death from afar in the blink of an eye. And they have access to an incredible range of damage since they’re capable of inflicting both physical and magical hits, in addition to being able to weapon skill with lots of frequency. As their role would imply, a ranger usually focuses on subjobs that enhance their damage. Or maybe chooses subs that could give their otherwise barren choice of defensive options some attention. Let’s check out some of the best choices for rangers in FFXI!
5. Samurai
Samurai used to be a very popular subjob for rangers. But this has fallen a little by the wayside since rangers now have a lot of ways to get many of the same features this job offers. With that being said, samurai still offers value to ranger, especially if you happen to be using a 2-handed melee weapon such as a staff, though this is situational. With the use of a 2-handed weapon, Hasso’s strength bonus aids in all physical damage including ranged. Seigan and/or Third eye are also great defensive tools when rangers suddenly gain the attention of an enemy. And Zanshin II allows you to hit multiple times should you happen to miss an enemy while using auto attacks. The Store TP II trait also helps a lot in reducing the amount of attacks (or ranged attacks) you need in order to weapon skill, often allowing you to create low hit rangers that build TP in as few hits as possible! Meditate and Sekkanoki also serve as wonderful TP tools here, which can allow you to reliably participate in skillchains more frequently.
4. Dragoon
With the addition of the Weapon Skill Damage Bonus trait offering a large 7% increase, this subjob has suddenly (but welcomingly) risen in popularity. Dragoon is an especially great choice to use with zerging strategies, but since they aren’t always the first course of action, this subjob remains fairly situational. Just as importantly, using Dragoon also grants access to High Jump – which adds to ranger’s already-impressive enmity control capabilities by shedding up to 30% of their current enmity. It’s also worth noting that the range of this ability is 11’5, so sometimes you do have to move in a little closer. Caution is advised when dangerous mid-range AoE is something you’ll be seeing a lot.
3. Ninja
Generally, a ranger will want access to two weapons for a majority of the content they’ll be participating in. And that’s where one of ninja’s two strengths come into play: Ninja’s Dual Wield III trait allows rangers to use a secondary weapon. This greatly changes the dynamics of your ranger, giving them access to new weapon types, or even access to some that you’d use just for the bonus stats or traits they provide. This goes a long way in increasing your damage capabilities, as if using a shield isn’t enough. Secondly, a ninja subjob can be used to cover ranger’s glaring weakness: their defenses. In fights where high amounts of unavoidable damage are prevalent, Utsusemi shadows will see their worries away. Ninja also grants Subtle Blow II, which reduces the TP they give to enemies. It’s incredibly useful when paired with ranger’s Double Shot or Barrage abilities!
2. Dancer
Here’s another great dual wield option for rangers. Even if the tier dancer offers is one lower than a ninja’s, the additional utility—something rangers lack much of—grants it some favor when shadows aren’t necessary. Most importantly, dancer offers the Skillchain Bonus trait. This is a fantastic way for a ranger to increase their DPS when they close skillchains with their powerful weapon skills. Because of a ranger’s fantastic TP generation, this job is capable of using TP a little more freely than others. So you can frequently use Waltzes, Sambas, or Steps, without hindering DPS too much. Curing Waltz allows rangers to safely heal from a distance, while Healing Waltz allows them to remove nasty status ailments – and may even help support a party too. Additionally, Divine Waltz allows you to AoE heal, which is an incredibly effective way to wake up sleeping party members. Rangers will mostly be standing at a safe distance out of AoE range, so they can easily move in and out of the backlines like this. Haste Samba is great too, as it provides a 5% job haste effect. But you’d have to be in melee range for this effect to be applied. Without much care, this can lead to a ranger taking unnecessary damage or dying. So it requires some timing to use well. Similarly, Steps and Flourishes require the same amount of care since you’d need to be close to enemies for extended periods of time. Rangers with a dancer sub will also gain access to Evasion Bonus II and Subtle Blow II, offering some minor defensive traits. And as one additional point, dancer also provides Spectral Jig: a much more effective tool at sneaking past enemies or through dangerous areas than ranger’s Camouflage ability.
1. Warrior
The damage potential from using warrior as a subjob works so well with a ranger, that it’ll be the most used subjob in most party content. Berserk and Warcry both increase not only attack, but ranged attack too. The perfect choice for bolstering DPS considerably. Due to the physical nature of a warrior, physical ranged weapon skills like Last Stand or Coronach will see the most dramatic changes. Warrior’s Fencer trait synergizes quite well with a ranger too, because they’ll lose the ability to dual wield without the use of ninja or dancer as a subjob. Yet the TP Bonus you get with Fencer makes up for it, as it works on physical ranged weapon skills! There are also plenty of shields at a ranger’s disposal that offer great ranged stats – most notably the Nusku Shield.
