Looking for a ranger (?) build

[Sarzor]

So, what I'm looking for is a build I can hit things with, and still be easily self-sufficient. I understand that's broad, but I have comparatively little experience with really healing myself as for a while I've only been playing casters, in particular pale masters. I don't want to be "making it work" like I feel, perhaps incorrectly, I would be doing with some other classes. I've gotten the impression splashed rangers are good for this sort of thing.

The toon in question has three past lives (2x wiz, 1 sorc) so looking for a ranger build is odd I know. He has a fair bit of gear, and while much of it is caster-oriented, the con-opp/hp/sp green steel should carry over as well as I have a few pieces of currently-unused gear which would likely be applicable, such as a chaosblade. and a piece of INT-skill greensteel I accidentally made.

I've looked through a number of threads, and had been looking at the Tempest Trapmonkey (18/1/1 rgr/rog/ftr, http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=277496), a variant of which seems interesting for the ability to also do traps. I was also looking at favored soul, but I do not own warforged, and the majority of melee-capable builds seem to go WF for lord of blades. I'm looking to take a bit of a different tact than FvS-caster. A melee-capable FvS would be interesting though.

So, what I am looking for:

1) What builds would be good for this, keeping in mind my experience with melees is limited. I also don't want to be stopping every 3 seconds to heal myself 3 times to get to full health. I understand I can't take as much mobs/damage as I can when Pale Master.
2) Care more about leveling than epics. May do epics, but may also just farm tokens before I TR into melee class so I can bypass endgame. I do need to be viable for 4.4 million xp though.
3) What gear would I need? What gear would I want? I understand this is based on build, but I'd be interested in knowing what would be necessary/advantageous. I.e. - Farming/building some khopeshes before TRing.

I would likely try out a build at least somewhat on a new toon so I'm not investing months into a build I end up hating, so an idea of strength in early/mid/late-game would be useful for a suggested build. I understand the gear on a new toon is worse, but should give me an idea.

Thanks for any help!

[karl_k0ch]

To my experience, there are three major approaches to melee and self-healing:

• Maximized (and possibly Quickened) Cure Serious Wounds
• Silver Flame Pots
• Heal Scrolls

You can do the first point on the build you linked as early as level 16, if you rearrange your feats a bit.
You can do the second point on the build you linked as soon as you can make sure that the pot doesn't incap you.
You can do the third point on the build you linked as soon as you hit 39ish UMD, which should be around level 15:

18 skill ranks
4 gh
2 luck
3 cha (base 8, +2 tome, +6 item)
3 competence (eg from Persuasion item)
6 GS charisma skills item
3 skill focus: UMD (instead of the maximize feat, taken at level 15)
----
39

A pair of Lit2 Khopeshes is a very neat choice for leveling a Melee, and Torc/Concopp will help for the Maximized CSW option.

[ltlFox]

also helps to take human for heal amp & ranger healing dmg AP line

with maximize heal preaty good - but drain alot mana , 1 torc can't keep my mana up long , but can w/o metamagick - even works in epics - when byoh party or healer low on mp

i also like bodyfeeder weapon with wide crit range (15-20 with imp crit feat) for main hand - can craft one by cannith & buy one weapon made of flame toughed iron in chrono , other bonuses on that weapon up to you

[Sarzor]

Thanks for the thoughts.

So, the link I mentioned, would that you think be a viable build, or easy-ish to level? And with the torc/con-op, is it likely I would be able to survive reasonably well without having a babysitting healer? Obviously I have to go a bit slower than as a caster.