I maybe doing this wrong, but I have never had a worse time playing a character than a range rogue in this game. Holy crap. I’m 63, have been playing ranged since Lvl 1. I do not exactly play many ranged chars, but wanted to try something out.
I tried the Pen Shot build. Currently running Rapid Shot with the split aspect. I am in WT4. I am getting shredded. I mean, I get it, I’m supposed to flap like a flan in a cupboard, but damn.
How do you guys keep ANY mobs off you, most of them are too fast and are chewing your face off.
Not going to delete my rogue, since I figure they will probably do something about the ranged thing, but at the moment I am going to roll a barb.
Sorry, wanted to vent. This was a frustrating experience =P
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Playing Rapid Fire atm, and I just murder them before the get to me. I mow through t45-50 at level 88
You’re trying to Hybrid to much…Pick one set of skills and stick with it…
Forceful Arrow 5 Enhanced 1 Fundamental 1
Penetrating Shot 5 Enhanced 1 Improved 1
Sturdy 3 Siphon 3 Weapon Mastery 3
Dark Shroud 5 Enhanced 1 Subverting 1
Shadow Imbue 5 Enhanced 1 Blended 1 Crash 3 Consuming 1
Precision 3 Innervation 3 Adrenaline 1 Haste 3
Victimize
Combo Points
Spread last points to something you want, I did Concussive
Gear Wise:
Dagger 1 Edgemaster
Dagger 2 Corruption
Helm Protector
Chest Crowded Sage
Legs Cruel Sustenance
Arms Rapid
Boots Wind Strider
Bow Trickshot
Neck Inner Calm
Ring 1 Ravenous
Ring 2 Accelerating
Works Fine For Me…
Yup, only 4 skills…Pure Bow, not that HYBRID bs everyone’s posting…
Same way you survive as a melee rogue…You stack Damage Reduction and defensive aspects on Helm, Chest, Pants, Boots and Amulet and use both Dash and Shadow Step for mobility.
Hard agree, biggest mistake I made early was trying to tech into multiple core skills. Get one and lean into it, barrage and pen shot are pretty simple to do (not sure how viable a rapid fire build is end game). There are certain legendary aspects that really boost each core skill, for example trickshot pretty much makes the pen shot build.
Currently the game is best played by having a basic skill, one or two damage skills, and the rest of your skills as either support or mobility.
Here is an example, in my pen shot build I run
-Poison imbue
-Shadow imbue
-Shadowstep
-Poison trap
-Forceful arrow
-Penetrsting shot
Poison trap is only used for its proc abilities not for damage, and forceful arrow is for combo points and vulnerable. So in this build the entire skill group is set up to support one skill, penetrating shot. A barrage/rapid fire build is going to look very similar conceptually by running lots of support skills, trying to juggle multiple damage skills will probably end in failure as you go up in difficulty
I’ve been doing mostly rapid fire and am at level 73 doing tier 30s now, it pairs with a trap build really well.
I keep mobs off of me by having tons of mobility and CC,
Rapid Fire
Dash
Poison trap /w knockdown
Death Trap /w vortex
Caltrops /w chill + chill effectiveness skills
Shadow Step
Gear like Frostburns, CC spreading aspects, etc.
No basic attack equipped, using the skill for energy return on attacking vulnerable + exploit + the aspect that gives vulnerable for attacking enemies affected by traps = no need for a basic
Stacking all of this, enemies have a hard time 
I’m kind of wondering if it is going to keep being awesome though, it’s the only core attack for Rogue that locks you in place and sometimes I get clipped by stuff just from attacking. That seems like it will fall apart later?
Swapping to wt4 at 63, that is the reason why you are getting shredded. Only certain builds/classes can punch above their level with ease. When you are 73 wt4 will seem easy.
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I found rapid fire to perform really well with very high attack speeds. Not having to worry about energy means you got to maximize number of attacks. I put accelerating aspect on my bow (not crossbow) to get ~45% more attack speed on crit.
I am pumping out 3 rapid fire shots every 2 seconds. Combine that with rapid aspect on amulet (~50% chance to ricochet), it’s actually pretty effective for aoe crowds.
I am running imbuement and shadow clone. And it’s pretty good for bosses too.
I am only at ~tier 35 NM (comfortable at level 77, don’t think I can push past 45+) though. So we’ll see how it plays out.
Im at the same point i can rip t20+ Nm dungeons on t3 , but in torrment i get ripped, Im running a pure rapid fire build, with double imbue, i seem super squishy , i can melt enemies but if they do get to me its pretty much over. i run caltrops that helps but if they get to me, im dead, i think we need one more skill slot and we would be a much better class, but with limited to 7 slots hurts
Pen shot rogue at 86 doing NMD 50s (leveling glyphs). My survivability comes from basic giving 20% damage reduction, armor stacking 50%, and dark shroud procs from marksman on neck (75%), lastly high life on kill on my helm. My aspects and general defensive gear helps control general damage and anything that gets risky is usually mitigated by bulk killing with shadow imbued pen shots.
I think that maybe the problem also. I figured if I get some gear maybe I can compare since a lot of your power comes from that. WT3 just does not drop many upgrades anymore. Maybe I just need to grit it out and just head back to WT3.
I’m Lvl 100 doing 60+ NM using a pen-shot build. Ranged is essentially a farce where you’re going to be in melee distance 95% of the time so definitely pack the powerful defensive aspects onto your helm/chest/legs. A good chest/leg can reduce your damage taken by an incredible amount. Gloves/Rings/Weapons are where you want to pack your offensive rolls.
i’ve run rapid fire and barrage. both of these skills shred. barrage does insane damage if you shotgun it on a boss. i didn’t quite like penetrating shot, but I may give it another go when season 1 starts. currently lv77 on rogue.
Im a TB rogue lvl80 and doing 50-55 . Pen shot is hot garbo
Playing Barrage Rogue, I’m lvl 99 and it’s fun! Need to try Pen shot as well. Twisting blades is boring.
I am playing a build with barage and pene shot and its fun and easy clear, weak in mono, although it works quite well when you’re very close to the boss
You can take my advice if you want, or ignore it and listen to all of the people here who are literally telling you they arent max level and that ranged is great because they’re “shredding” level-appropriate content.
Most people on this game aren’t 100 yet and don’t understand how the scaling works.
(Btw, I’m not trying to badmouth these people. They simply haven’t played the game enough to experience the absolute solid concrete wall that everyone is running into. How can you have a concept of something you haven’t experienced yet?)
Doing a tier 50 at 75-85 is perfectly normal, and within expectations for a decent video game player. How do I know this? I consider myself to be decent and I was doing tier 50 at level 81 using barrage.
The problem is that the ranged skills other than pen shot just fall off hard. Their base damage isn’t high enough to last in melee range, or kill things in a meaningful amount of time.
Pen shot is your only option if you want to do NM dungeons past like 75.
I’m sure I’m going to get some dude who has no idea what he’s talking about who is like level 78 coming in here to tell me that they “figured the code out” and we’re all just playing the game wrong, and if we would just look at poison trap ONE MORE TIME…yadda yadda yadda.
Give up on ranged rogue for now unless you want to play pen shot. This is coming from someone who leveled from 1-100 only using barrage.
It’s clear, just as with every other class, that large portions of the skill tree went underdeveloped or underbaked. Ranged rogue is one of those things.
I think your problem is using barrage the worst of the 3 ranged skills. Rapid fire has the luxury of generating more energy then you spend making it perfect for preparation. It also has the highest base damage of all rogue skills. I’m able to keep 90% uptime on shadow clone. Penetrating shot suffers from needing to waste time using basic skills while also wasting your precision stacks. For context I’m level 88 farming 60 sigils for glyph experience but have completed level 78 sigils. I could probably go higher but I want to hit 100 first.
Cold imbuement is amazing on rapid fire. 3 shots will cause a freeze and a necklace with +3 frigid you’re getting a higher multiplier than poison without waiting for dot. Paragon glyph also has a 20x multiplier and another 10x from boots.
There are many people on youtube doing 90+ sigils with rapid fire.
You are 63 fighting level 73 mobs. Unless youre kitted out in ancestrals, then youre going to get wrecked.
Been playing ranged also since level 1. Went into wt4 at 67 and i had to be real careful. Got a lot better at 70 as i found ancestral replacements.
In my opinion. As a rogue (87) and a barbarian(76) you will find it quite hard as a barbarian too. You need to invest time in levelling weapons to come close to the damage that rogue naturally has and figure out a fury/fort generation that works for your build
I’d ask you to also look into your gear choice on legs neck and chest.
You should be trying for as much
damage reduction close
Damage reduction
Armor
Health
Dodge close
damage reduction range
Dodge
In that order. And flat dex is good for damage and gives some dodge.
Jewellery is always with skulls. Anything else will be subpar till season 2 rework.
If you pick up armour and health or health on kill on the helmet it will also help.
I think the early game tricks a lot of people into just stacking damage everywhere is fine. It’s not going to work if you want to do the cap stone and nightmare dungeons past tier 30. Also levelling. Levels add base stats and health to the character.
And look at what’s killing you? Poisons/fire DOT? have you tried amethyst in some armour slots or picking up 15% DoT damage reduction passive
Locked in place by CC. Have you tried topaz in armour and dropping a skill for an unstoppable skill like cloak? Even trying shadow clone instead of Rain of arrows for a time.
Just getting swamped. Have you tried the improved cold variant of caltrops it freezes a lot more now and can save you. Just make sure you’re facing the enemies before deploying it. 
Even little things like are you using the highest level health potions since you turned 60.
Anyway sorry for long post I know you were just venting and hope you can resolve the squishy feeling