I ran STK on elite last night with a pug averaging lvls 5-7.Most of us where ranger hybrids myself a 2/3 rge ranger with decent trap skills( id performed well in many quest up to hard with about 70% success taking traps with a disable skill equal to a lvl 3 pure rogue with decent spot and search(though im starting to think spot is just moot when there is almost always at least one party member who knows where to search for a box already). However we also had a 6/1 rge ftr who was a strong if not master trapsmith. almost every trap we encountered took several trys for the rogue and several blew on him one actually killing a ranger ftr who was standing to close who had been at more then half life( i had no idea the boxes where blowing for so much dmg until then). When we reached the final chapter and got to the acid trap across from the shrine and the box blew there we ended up suffering many fatalities jsut trying to get through and deal with the onslaught of hob goblins on the other side when every attempt to run for and get through to the level after the fire trap ladder cost our rogue another death( I to kept pitting my evasion and 17 ref save agaisnt the rain of spells and the fire trap while trying to reach the lever).

Eventually we beat the hobies back and somehow i made the top of the ladder and took hit the switch and leapt for my life as there where a few shamans left on the top tier who made lingering dangerous. It was however complete and utter disaster when we reached the great room of flaming death pillars. Once upon a time even on elite I had similar builds as my current ranger rogue dance through the flame my evasion being more then enough as it should be even on elite. Now not even our rogue with all the buffs our wizard could summon where enough to give protection enough for the rogue to reach even the first box, my own best run with fire pro and fire resist a cats grace, bears endurance, false life, aid, my 17 ref save with the trapblast goggles id twinked from an old version of my build, couldnt reach past the first spike trap before the flame barrages caught me( maybe my jumping skills are rusty but I doubt I could of done much more to avoid all the fire) and turned me to bacon. after our rogue tried valiantly to recover stones at the least or even jsut run across all failed and he died countless times we had to admit defeat. Now I know STK on elite is around a lvl 7 challenge but that shouldnt mean it takes a devoted trap smith who couldnt of done much in any of the hard fights to take the traps that have to be taken to jsut reach the boss.

My suggestion make even elite trap dcs low again, make it alot more xp to disable each one so people wont want to see a trap skipped through for the sake of xp. Id bet make each trap grant a 20%/30%/40% xp bonus depending on challenge rating would make hybrid rogues invaluable as hell as long as the skill it takes isnt askign us to forsake our combat skills. Rogue are two things thief and ninja and must be able to do both not one or the other. If folks still would rather zerg then see 2 or 3 times the base xp of a quest let em, we rogues can then expect to level faster from one run then they will zerging 3 times.