Leviathan.Celebrindal said:
»yes make them all!.
Hehe, yeah RNG is probably the job with the greatest number of truly viable RMEA choices (i.e., different situational BiS options). If you're hardcore RNG-4-ever? Go for Gandiva, go for em all! When you get a chance to go all out physical damage, Gandiva will be a freaking beast. I'd prob recommend having other RMEA options too though, for when JR spam isn't the ideal approach.
Personally, while I really like RNG, I struggle to commit to multiple RMEA for one job when I could make more RMEA for a wider variety of non-ranged jobs. I'd love to have the full array of ranged RMEAs, just don't have enough of a laser focus on RNG to pull the trigger (pun sort of intended) on options that all have their situational uses. For anyone in a similar situation, I think Fomalhaut and Armageddon are both pretty appealing since they do a little bit of everything at a pretty high level, marksmanship has lots of SC flexibility, and they work for two jobs. YMMV on whether Aeonic or Empy is easier for you to get a hold of, but either is a fine choice.
Assuming you want to really dive into RNG though...
Fomalhaut: best Last Stand (and gets Light/Radiance), great all around option
(downside: Last Stand spam generates a lot of hate)
Armageddon: best white damage with Empy AM3/crit set, AGI+50 adds a lot of racc/crit rate and is WS mod for all Marksmanship WS, great all around option, decent hate control (distant 2nd to Anni)
(downside: not the best at any of the key WS except Wildfire, which is really only useful over TF if needed due to SC properties or mob that resists light)
Gastraphetes: best DPS when Trueflight is viable, pretty good all around choice
(downside: ideally used with magic buffs/debuffs, which doesn't do much for TP phase and may not be ideal for other non-Gastra ranged users in your group)
Annihilator: best enmity control
(downside: that enmity mitigation comes at the cost of lower dps than the other RMEA options)
Gandiva: for max physical damage via JR and Empy AM3
(downside: zero flexibility, can be rough on enmity unless managing decoy shot well)
Fail-Not: for some SC situations, and for the ammo if you have a Gandiva!
(downside: outside of specific archery SC situations, will prob lose to other options)
Yoichi: um... prob the last RMEA you'd actually need these days, but it does have a niche for mega accuracy
(downside: DPS falls off if acc isn't a big concern)
EDIT: looking back at this, I kinda dig how the first SIX options are each the best choice for a completely different WS that each have viable uses.
Leviathan.Celebrindal said:
»nah just glow a farsha and /lockstyle that baby over your Perun. Glowy problem solved! ;)
Damn, you're right... 7 ranged RMEA arent enough. But... but... what about when using daggers? Gonna have to account for that too.