Deep build?

Does anyone have any advice for a good ranger build for The Deep (preferably without Prophecies elites)? I’ve been using an interrupt build, which has done okay, but I haven’t gotten that far into it yet (90% of the time my group doesn’t even make it past the starting chambers, and I haven’t been with a group that’s made it to the second chest yet) so I don’t really know what to expect...

My personal suggestion is to switch to a monk, necro, warrior, or ele character. I love rangers to death, but they just aren't the best choice in profession for a deep run. They can work, but you'll likely be waiting forever to find a group. Even after you find a group, it likely won't be the most organized if they choose a ranger.

The only way I've heard people who do regular Deep runs use a ranger is by either having a trapper or a barrage ranger. As someone that has had a barrage ranger in his group, I can honestly say that they really can only play the role of a very weak nuker at best in this mission. Barrage can rock enemies some places, but it just doesn't work out as successfully here.

Trapper works awesomely there. I used an oathshot trapper to keep Whirling Defense up all the time but sinec Oni have that stupid Demonic Agility or whatever it's not very effective against them. Also since you only want Factions elites Oathshot is out of your reach. Spike trap however is a core skill and a build utilizing:

Spike Trap
Flame Trap
Barbed Trap
Viper's Nest

Would work alright, but without serpent's quickness or oathshot the recharge times for your traps would be too long for you to be of much help. Also the loss of Dust Trap hurts the most because it nullifies the mobs of oni that you fight against. You would be forced to bring both quickening zephyr and energizing win to speed up your trap recharges making you a more stationary than offensive trapper which does work at certain parts of the Deep but is risky at other parts.

In general with only factions skills you'd have a subpar trapper that might get yelled at by your teammates when they figure out you don't have dust trap and that you're putting down half as many traps as a regular trapper.

I agree with XvAArchonvX that you should change your class if you want to go into the deep. You can make a decent monk or warrior using only factions skills. Necromancer and ele you need spiteful spirit and meteor shower which aren't in factions.

Yeah, generally teams looking for a ranger want a trapper. I did oath shot trapping as well, but I find a martyr build way more efficient, provided you're really used to trap in melees. Here is the build I used:

1/ Dust trap
2/ Flame trap
3/ Barded trap
4/ Serpents Quickness
5/ Throw Dirt
6/ Martyr
7/ Troll ungent
8/ Some kind of rez

Your warriors wil be blinded a lot, and conditions there a many, which make Martyr so efficient there. As you have noticed, I do not carry a condition remover - because there is no room for that, but also because as a martyr trapper conditions like blindness or even deep wound etc do not matter that much. And a 10 arows troll unguent can handle the other conditions.

I dont bring viper nest as it's a beastmastery skill. I find focussing on WS traps more efficient, but others may disagree.

As you probably have noticed, I don't have WD either, and actually no defensive stance at all. 2 reasons: 1/ stances don't stack and I already use SQ to be able to spam traps (if you don't have either oath shot or serpents quickness, you'll be watching the fights most of the time, waiting for your traps to recharge), and 2/ surprisingly, if you do well your job, foes won't hurt you. Just don't rush before the tanks and that will do the job. Throw dirt is here to help your teammates attacked, but also to make you able to drop a first dust trap when things are going bad for you (ie: if despite the tanks a foe decide to attack you).

The only flaw of this build is when you're split in teams of 3 at the beginning. You can trap enough to quickly kill the frogs, but then the spirits of the Irkanjis will most likely target you and you wonj't be able to trap much. But once out of this room, you'll be able to trap in melee normally.

Of course I wear a druid armor, a staff and have 16 WS and 13 expertise.

By the way: has anyone figured out wether a touch ranger would work against the last boss as it had been suggested a while ago?

R/E
Equipment: Druid's Set, Archer's Mask
Runes: Sup. Vigor, Sup. Marksmanship, Sup. Expertise, Minor Wilderness Survival
Weapons:
Sundering Longbow of Fortitude
Vampiric Hornbow of Fortitude

Attributes:
Expertise: 11+3
Marksmanship: 11+4
Wilderness Survival: 7+1
Air Magic: 5

Skills:
Dual Shot
Punishing Shot [E]
Needling Shot
Whirling Defense
Gale
Res. Sig
Troll Unguent
Read the Wind

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