Is exploiter still viable?

[Teharahma]

A well built, well equipped Blitz build is a thing of beauty, poetry of death in motion.

My god Junk, you DO care. Q_Q

[grodon9999]

Only if built for str... Then again that's how I've always felt about melee rangers in general. Dex rangers are wimpy in the dps department. It's possible to get a high enough AC to tank as an exploiter ranger, but there are much better builds to get a high AC that do a metric ton more damage than a dex ranger, so to me dex ranger is not a build I'd want. Dump AC, go for STR, DPS, HP and utility. Finesse is for the weak. Khopesh wins. Make sure you have over 425 HP or so for raiding (standing with ship buffs, before raid buffs). Your saves, death ward, poison resist, greater heroism, resistance spells and evasion will enable a lot of the spellcasting dps to bounce off. Anything below this and you'll die any time a heal lags or a healer messes up. You may get away with it sometimes, but low HP always catches up to you. Then again, my caster has 400HP (with buffs) so maybe I take it a little too far. 450 fully buffed with healing amp is the minimum sweet spot for a ranger with greater resistance, evasion, poison resist, gh, and good reflex saves. You'll die with any less unless you have really good healers or you are really lucky. If your healing amp isn't up to par you will be a mana sponge. If your saves suck and you don't have evasion I think the consensus is 550+ or so.

The STR/AC thing is NOT and either/or with the amount of gear we have now. My Elf is a TR who started with 16 STR who's sustainable STR (once I get an Epic Red Helm or an LR for some stat-fudging) is 46. She also can get and 85+ power attack AC. She just can't do both at the same time My 32-point human is differently geared and is close to her on both.

That said, forget finesse. It's is a waste of a feat if nothing else. Start with 15-16 STR and all level-ups go here.

At 400 HP your evasion might save your ass, at 500 HP your evasion WILL save you so gear up for it.

And don't forget the healing meta-magic, can't stress this enough.