Having spent a good few hours trying to find the information myself, but being stumped a bit by the massive changes to the items and mechanics that make ddowiki less relieble than it used to, I decided to take my questions here.

I am currently having fun levelling an elven arcane archer (lvl 10 atm) and planning to go pure ranger. I know that there are arguments both for and against that, but this is my character and I am having fun. So please be polite when you tell me how stupid that is.

One of the reasonably consistent pieces of advice on Ranger AA's is to know when to put the bow away and start hitting things with melee. The argument is that even without Tempest you will do more damage than you will when manyshot is out. The problem with that is survivability. I put 14 points in Con, used a +2 tome at lvl 7, took toughness at lvl 9 because I felt squishy and took the Toughness enhancements. I even run around in a +4 Feycraft chainmail. I still die very fast in melee.

As long as I use a bow I can kite and can keep physically out of range of enemy melee. With rapiers or swords I get sliced, diced and ribboned almost to fast for the healer to keep up. I hope to do something about that so here are my questions about what I should hope to accomplish.

What I am doing:
- I had my wizard farm tapestry for a Minos Legens that is now in the hands of the ranger. +20 hp and Heavy Fort should help some I hope.
- Upgrading protection item to +5.
- Making sure I have the best false life item I can.
- Making sure I have the best +Con item I can.

What I need advice about:
- What armours should I look for and when? Before the update it was generally Mithral Breast Plate +5 of some type until Dex bonus was on 9 and you got your hands on a +6 armour bracers or robes with +6 armour bonus, or higher.
- Which of the old armours have been updated to be useful and which ones should I try for?

- Damage Reduction. Crafting will at least let me have some DR easily at hand. If I have to keep kiting I will use spearblock. But for how long is Invulnerability (DR/magic) useful? And are there other sources available for a pure Ranger before I can UMD Stoneskin scrolls/wands with some success rate? (Scrolls at least will be doable eventually.)

- Besides a shield, or Shield clickie/scroll/wand, Barkskin and Protection, what bonuses to AC are available now with so many items changed? And where should I farm to get them? (Massive question I know, but every little bit will help me.)

- Any advice on taking advantage of the permitted dodge chance my armour gives me. Where to get dodge and if it is so easy to get it high that a robe with armour bonus becomes useful.

The main reason I am making this post is that my searches in the forum and on the web in general all lead me to outdated information.