Tasha

Race Selection

The Hunter Ranger in general and especially the one following the Trapper path is a class that has to offer consisted DPS, Crowd Control (CC), and Utility.

Wood Elf: +2 DEX / +2 WIS -- 5 points in DEX, 5 points in WIS
Drow: +2 DEX / +2 WIS -- 5 points in DEX, 5 points in WIS

Starting Ability Roll: 16 DEX - 16 WIS - 12 STR (Racial bonuses not included)

Both Paragon Paths, Stormwarden and Pathfinder are viable to play as a Trapper HR. The Pathfinder path has some skills that will help to improve a bit the dps/utility of your teammates with Aspect of the Pack, Hunter's Teamwork/Careful Attack and Slasher's Mark The Stormwarden Path focuses only (and possibly offers a bit more of the following) on personal dps by replacing Aspect of the Pack with Twin-Blade Storm.

Paragon Path

There are a couple of rotations you can use with this build and be quite effective depending on the situation you 're in and which are your party's needs.

Skill Rotation

At-Wills: Hunter's Teamwork/Careful Attack(PF) or Split Shot/Split Strike(SW) , Aimed Shot/Aimed Strike
Encounters: Constricting Arrow/Steel Breeze - Hindering Shot/Hindering Strike, Cordon of Arrows/Plant Growth
Class Features: Aspect of the Serpent, Aspect of the Pack (replace Aspect of the Pack with Twin-Blade Storm for Stormwarden)
Dailies: Seismic Shot, Slasher's Mark (replace Slasher's Mark with Forest Ghost for Stormwarden)

AoE DPS

At-Wills: Hunter's Teamwork/Careful Attack(PF) or Split Shot/Split Strike(SW) , Aimed Shot/Aimed Strike
Encounters: Fox's Cunning/Fox Shift - Hindering Shot/Hindering Strike, Cordon of Arrows/Plant Growth
Class Features: Aspect of the Serpent, Aspect of the Pack (replace Aspect of the Pack with Twin-Blade Storm if you are Stormwarden)
Dailies: Seismic Shot, Slasher's Mark (replace Slasher's Mark with Forest Ghost for Stormwarden)

AoE Utility

Race Selection

Notes

Important Stats: Power, Critical Strike, Critical Severity, Recovery, Armor Penetration.

Power: 400 Power stat = 1% Power
Critical Strike: 400 Crit. Strike = 1% Crit. Strike
Critical Severity: As much % as you can achieve.
Recovery: 200 Recovery = 1% Recovery
Armor Penetration: 100 ArP. = 1% ArP.

Power and Critical are top priority second is coming Recovery. (Try to have at least 40% critical and increase as you get better gear/enchants/companions). A good amount of recovery is needed to help you with the Hindering Shot and Cordon of Arrows charges. Recovery will enable you to make more rotations before you find yourself waiting for a skill to recharge and ultimately this will increase dps quite a bit.

Critical Severity is also very important. For this build we focus on geting as much as possible crit. strike, but a high number of crit. strike requires a good amount of Crit. Severity to give it's full dps potential. Ways to get crit. severity is through weapon enchant - Vorpal, Companions, Boons.

Last is coming Armor Pen. and to be honest as a Hunter Ranger you don't need to concern yourself much with ArP since it's coming naturally for HR. STR stat is giving 1% dps for every point after 10 and I recommend the lostmauth set which has a good amount of ArP (note: Lostmauth Set is not working well with the Trapper's Roots but it 's still the best choice and will ultimately increase dps by 5% - 8% depending on how much Crit. the HR has. Regarding ArP just keep in mind 40% is needed for trash mobs and up to 60% for bosses so there is no need to aim for something over 60% (there are also a lot of buffs while being in a party that will buff your ArP against enemies).

Defensive Stats: Lifesteal, Health Points. Lifesteal : 400 Lifesteal = 1% Lifesteal. Lifesteal was changed at Mod 6 and now our powers have a 30% chance to proc it's benefit but it still remains one of the best survivability tools along with a good amount of HP. Anywhere between 15% - 25% is good to have (or at least try to have a 10% minimum).

Health Points are also good since you might survive a Red circle and give time to your party's support tank/healer to protect you. (I didn't include defense since after Mod 6 defense won't help much classes like the HR to survive and we would have to give up some dps stats to get Defense at a good point where we 'll benefit from it. Also Deflection was not mentioned even though it's good to have a certain amount of it you would need something over 25% - 30% to feel it's benefits. It is possible to achieve a high amount of deflection if you use the class feature Aspect of the Lone Wolf but it 's not recommended since you sacrifice a good amount of dps for that).

The HR Trapper's playstyle is straightforward enough and fast paced. I 'll talk from a Pathfinder Trapper's Point of view mostly since it has a few more details to be noted over Stormwarden, if you are a Stormwarden just ignore the part with Hunter's Teamwork/Careful Attack and use Split Shot to replace this one the rest is the same for both. Encounters: Usually 90% of the time the rotation used is the AoE dps for maximum dps and the AoE utility with fox mostly for boss fights or with a party having survivability problems throughout a Dungeon/Skirmish run. That being said let's take a look at how the Encounters Rotation plays out. When entering the fight use Constricting Arrow - Hindering Shot - change to melee stance go close to the mobs and use a full melee rotation starting with Plant Growth --> Hindering Strike --> Steel Breeze after that swap stances and either use Seismic Shot if you have AP or use Cordon of Arrows to gather the mobs close and then use Seismic Shot(note: Seismic Shot is using Aspect of the Serpent stacks) then continue with Constricting Shot - Hindering Shot then melee stance and repeat (better explained at conclussion below).

How to use At-Wills:

When you are about to enter the fight you can use Careful Attack - on the toughest opponent - and then proceed with your skill rotation. What I usually do though is to make a rotation first especially if I have Cordon bellow full charges and then use Careful Attack on the toughest opponent. Aimed Strike: This one is used 70% of the time at bosses or tough opponents that take a bit to be killed. Other than that it is used when many of my skills are on cooldown (Hindering Shot, Cordon of Arrows mostly), the Stormwarden in place of aimed strike while skills are on cooldown and can't make a proper rotation better use split shot (just tap click and release no need to make a fully charged split shot since it's slow and you will have more dps if you fire them in quick succession).

Dailies:

Being a Trapper your AP meter will be full quite fast after the use of a Daily power. The go to daily is Seismic Shot and should be casted after finishing a melee rotation because Seismic Shot is benefited from Aspect of the Serpent passive stacks. Using this one positioning is important in order to hit as many targets as possible. Something else you could do is to use a well placed Cordon to gather mobs and then use Seismic Shot. For Pathfinders secondary Daily is Slasher's Mark. Slasher's Mark is an amazing daily to help your party, cast it always on tough opponents and bosses to help your team replenish their stamina adding to their survivability and also help your party's GF (if there is one) have his shield meter refilled which is vital for the GF's survivability and ultimately the party's survivability. For Stormwardens secondary Daily would be Forest Ghost which is a daily that adds personal survivability and some dps mostly used to escape a tight spot. Some prefer to use it to open a fight (if used that way better use it with full AP meter to refill fast for a follow up with Seismic Shot).

Playstyle

Conclusion

Following what was mentioned above the rotation you will use when entering a fight should look like this (starting with 0 Aspect of the Serpent Stacks): Constricting Arrow - Hindering Shot - Change Stance - Plant Growth - Hindering Strike - Steel Breeze - change stance - Seismic Shot (if AP full) - Cordon of Arrows (you can swap the order here and use Cordon 1st to gather the mobs close and follow with a Seismic Shot) - Constricting Shot - Hindering Shot. After these use your at-wills if needed as noted above depending your paragon path. This rotation is taking full advantage of Aspect of the Serpent class feature and is very strong when the Hunter is able to perform it the right way.