Rain First build

I actually skipped Gryphon's and brought myself straight on over to Pirates with 4 Eruption. I was getting around 22% an hour, but the pot usage was extremely high. Now with 21 Eruption, and a zhelm the pot usage is extremely minimal and the profit is amazing.

I basically skipped Gryphons as well. Tried it but the % per hour increase (as opposed to zombies, which is where I went for the most part) wasn't really enough for me to endure the insanity of the map. I don't know about others, but training in that map stressed me out, so I don't recommend it. Pirates are definitely worth going early, although I didn't as good exp as Luscent.

I went the 21 rain build and from my personal experience, I would make the claim that:
21 Rain first = better money; but not much else. You do have the edge for a few levels in exp when 11 rain archers stop adding rain, but another ranger I saw there often, who went the 11 rain build, had barely worse % per hour than I had, while my 8x rates dropped severely when I stopped adding rain. Also, a higher strafe gives them access to alternative training spots that could be a refreshing experience.

Pirates are indeed a gold mine, and I'd add the mithril and steel ore drops, and mana elixirs, as another source of income, as they sell fast and easily fund your pots. You'd get tons of money drops as well, and they are around 300~400 each. A Zhelm is highly recommended for training at pirates and depending on how long you're there, you should make back what you spent on a zhelm easily from the savings.