Frustration: How do I survive in melee?

[ArkoHighStar]

If you have under 45 AC and 275 HP, stay out of melee. Take out a bow or something.

my rogue has 260 unbuffed and does just fine soloing the vale and in all end game raids

[SableShadow]

For your ranger, snag a Treason off the Reaver raid. It drops a fair amount and folks that want them usually already have them, so you've got a fair chance of picking one up.

Only 80% of Treason's damage counts toward agro, and the Deception portion does an auto-bluff on ~7% of hits. It is also a +5 ss w/ backstabbing +3 and keen; puts out decent dps for a non-2 hander. Go S&B with it when you don't want to range.

[Narwe]

My approach to this problem with my rogue was to take the displacement dragonmark. I can do 5 extended displacements of over 3 minutes each. This lets you stand in toe to toe when necessary though the above mentioned aggro techniques are still the way to go. I decided to get the extend feat by adding in 6 ranger levels. This allows extended ram's might to bring my strength up to 24 along with extending the displacements. Bow strength, improved evasion, sneak attack, umd, 266 hp (soon over 300 with shroud item). Very versatile and survivable. Add in a radiance rapier and the mobs just stand there and take their medicine. Though I can manyshot the pit fiend, I mostly melee him.