The Ranger is a savage physical-based job that targets monster families to improve damage. Stat-wise, it has high Dexterity, decent Strength and Agility and average or below average everything else. It’s also a dab hand with bows and daggers.

Rangers used to be a great mid-game job since they have many abilities that deal 1.5 times more damage to most monster families. Now that every weapon deals 1.5 times more damage to at least one monster family and the effects don’t stack, they’re less useful, but still handy to have around.

Specialty: Precision¶

When all hits from a conventional attack reach their target, damage increses by 3% for each hit (up to 48% for 16 hits or 96% for 32 hits).

This ability can be hard to get your head around. When using the Attack command, depending on various factors such as the character’s job level and Agility, the character may inflict multiple hits with each attack–normally, up to 16 hits per attack.

You may also notice that the number of hits can vary wildly even during the same battle. This is because of the character’s accuracy and the enemy’s evade making some of the hits miss. When all of the hits reach their target, Precision will kick in.

To make the most of this ability, you’ll want to wield weapons with high accuracy and, luckily, bows and daggers fit that criteria. If you have space, you should also equip the Hawkeye’s Eagle Eye to vastly improve your accuracy.

Level 1: Berserk¶

The user becomes berserk for 6 turns, boosting their Physical Attack by 50%, but they ignore all commands and attack a random enemy once per turn. The boost from Berserk can be combined with other stat boosts.

When you don’t need to be elegant about things, this isn’t a bad option. Just keep in mind that your character won’t be able to Brave or Default and won’t use any of their offensive abilities.

One way to abuse it is by equipping the Red Mage’s BP Recovery to gain 1 BP the moment the character becomes berserked. If applied to your whole party, you can potentially chain infinite battles if your berserked party can clear mobs in one turn.

Level 2: Targeting¶

Attack one enemy, always inflicting critical (double) damage.

This essentially inflicts 1 times damage per turn, so it’s not really that special. If you attack normally, you can occasionally trigger critical hits anyway and take advantage of Precision.

Level 3: Bug Slayer¶

Attack one enemy, inflicting 50% more damage if they’re a member of the bug family. Does not stack with weapons with the same effect.

Bugs aren’t really that common, nor are they particular threatening, but 50% more damage for a paltry amount of MP is fantastic. Spears (and rods) do the same thing though and allow you to use other offensive abilities. Still, it’s useful when facing a wide variety of enemies.

Level 4: Plant Slayer¶

Attack one enemy, inflicting 50% more damage if they’re a member of the plant family. Does not stack with weapons with the same effect.

Plants are even rarer than bugs, but some species are pretty dangerous–especially the man-eating ones. Axes can do the same job and give you space to unleash other offensive abilities, but it comes in handy when exploring a diverse ecosystem.

Level 5: Beast Slayer¶

Attack one enemy, inflicting 50% more damage if they’re a member of the beast family. Does not stack with weapons with the same effect.

Beasts are fairly common foes and some of them are quite mean, so this is a fine way to scare them away. As with previous Slayer abilities, you’ve got weapons–in this case, daggers–that do the same thing, making it largely pointless. OK when exploring unknown areas though.

Level 6: Aquatic Slayer¶

Attack one enemy, inflicting 50% more damage if they’re a member of the aquatic family. Does not stack with weapons with the same effect.

Aquatic foes are generally restricted to the sea, where they typically only appear alongside aerial foes. As such, you should be prepared to take them out with katanas or lightning attacks, rendering this ability redundant.

Level 7: Precision¶

When all hits from a conventional attack reach their target, damage increses by 3% for each hit (up to 48% for 16 hits or 96% for 32 hits).

Hopefully you read our description earlier, when it was the Ranger’s Specialty. As before, this is best used with Eagle Eye, but having both at the same time is expensive. So you’ll probably want to be a Ranger or Hawkeye to have one of them as a Specialty. Or maybe a Ninja.

Level 8: Dragon Slayer¶

Attack one enemy, inflicting 50% more damage if they’re a member of the dragon family. Does not stack with weapons with the same effect.

The final Slayer ability should have been the best since dragons are some of the strongest foes. However, because they are so formidable, you’ll probably want to wield a greatsword instead and use other (better) offensive abilities on top of that.

Level 9: Bow Lore¶

Increase the user’s bow proficiency to S.

If you like bows, but don’t like Rangers, equip this to get more oomph from your bow.

Level 10: Multiburst¶

Deal 0.6 times damage to four random targets.

If you do the maths, that’s 2.4 times damage for the cost of 2 turns or 1.2 times damage per turn, so a 20% damage boost. Perhaps not very impressive, but each of the four hits can reach the damage cap, potentially inflicting 4 x 9999 damage.

Level 11: Savage Beast¶

When berserked, the user has a 80% chance of using certain physical attack abilities without paying their usual cost. Abilities are selected at random and consume 1 BP when used.

The abilities that can trigger are pooled from your character’s primary and secondary job. This makes Berserk a bit more viable to use. However it’s ultimately too unwieldy to use during late-game, where actual strategy is more important than rampaging around like a madman.