Bowman Guide
A Guide for Bowmen
Warning: This guide has pictures, but is not made fun. It is information only. You will get lots of information, though.
When starting your character, keep your Luck and Intelligence at a four or a five, and your Strength and Dexterity as high as possible. For clothing, I have never done a female character as a bowman, but what I can suggest from my experience with male bowmen, what I suggest is bet clothes that cover your body more (for example, rubber boots over leather sandals). Your hairstyle does not matter. In that category you can do what looks good.
This guide is not only to help you get your bowman, but to get you to bowman fast. So, go to the training camp, and do what you need to there, all the quests and talk to Roger, but get out of there as fast as possible. It doesn't help training on weaker monsters such as the tutorial Leattys and Drum Bunnies. Get out of there and train on snails.
I'm not going to be specific about quests, as bowmen need to have some freedom in training and not be locked into a particular set of instructions. So, do all the quests with every NPC, just when you see them, and involve your training in doing the quests. This is easy on Killing quests. Speaking of which, start on the killing quests as soon as possible (Sam's Suggestion, Mai's Training). Otherwise, it's a waste of time, killing what you need and then having to kill it all over again.
You should be level two or three by the time you leave the Training Camp, so keep killing snails until level five. Each time you level up, make sure your Strength is five more than your level if you plan to be a Hunter for your second job, and equal to your level if you're going to be a crossbowman. Training on snails, I don't mean just the pathetic little green ones. Train on Blue Snails, too. Shroooms are also a good thing to kill, given Mai's Training. Red Snails are one of the harder things to kill on Maple Island. You never have to kill those for a quest, so leave them alone until level 8 or so.
When you get your Skill Points, in any order, maximize Nimble Feet and Recovery. Three Snails is a waste of Skill Points for bowmen, given that once you make the job advancement, your life revolves around Ranged attacks.
When you have to kill Orange Mushrooms, you want to finish this quest as soon as possible, but by the time it's started, Orange Mushrooms are likely a big threat to you. If they take out more than 15-17, then there is a safe place to train. In The Field West of Amherst, up at the top, there are two long platforms. Orange Mushrooms hang out there a lot. There is a little standing platform in the middle. You can stand there and kill the Mushrooms without getting hit. The Mushrooms can't jump onto that platform.
Okay, let's skip some time. You've finished all the quests, and you're ready to go to Victoria Island. Go to Southperry and talk to Shanks. He'll make you give him 150 mesos, and then he'll take you to Victoria Island. You'll be in Lith Harbor. Talk to Olaf there, and do his thing. Regardless of your level, go to all the Lith Harbor hunting grounds. At A Split Road, go all the way to the right, and you'll be in Henseys area. Keep going right, and you'll end up in Henseys. You need to be level ten by the time you're there, so stall in Henseys Hunting Ground One. By now, your Dexterity needs to be 25. Go to the portal under the Mushroom Park sign. In there, go all the way to the right and there's a tree with a portal. Go in that portal. You'll find Athena Pearce. Talk to her. Finish Olaf's quest. Make sure you have more than 300 XP to go. You don't want to be level 11 when you become a bowman, then you lose 3 Skill Points. So, then when Olaf's quest is done, talk to her again, and she'll make you a b owman and all that stuff. Just listen to her from there on out.
Congratulations.
You're a bowman.