It's been a long time since I've played this version of MS and honestly I've forgotten. Any tips? Plan on becoming Xbowman!
My tip is to go pure dex. With the availability of maple weapons it'll be best if you go pure dex until you decide to make the switch from nishada to neschere/shiner cross at level 100/110. The nishada is actually slightly faster than the other crossbows so you can ride on your maple weapon for a long time without worry.
I started an unfunded xbowman not too long ago and I haven't had any problems with going low STR. Maple weapons (which have no STR requirement) are pretty common, so like Narutard said, you'll be able to use your maple weapons for a long time (1st-3rd job) without having to worry. It's fairly easy to make money on this server (w/ the NX you can get from voting) so upgrading your gear before getting endgame gear won't be a problem