[11.1] Aimlessgun's Dagger Melee Ranger (Ons/An/HC/SC) [Videos!]

As of 11.2, this build is now viable both as Acrobatics and evasion, or as the old Iron Reflexes build. Here's the updated Acro/EV one.

'Finished' build at level 90.

Basically the build goes from Iron Reflexes in the south to the dagger nodes in the north, getting all the available life on the way. Bandits are Help Oak/Help Kraityn/Kill All.

Build at ~30
Build at ~50
Build at 75, starting maps.

Double Strike
Core Supports: Melee Splash, Multistrike, Life Gain on Hit or Life Leech.

If possible, get a quality Melee Splash early. It is by far the most important quality gem you can get, giving 20% area radius, basically 20% more damage. Multistrike is core over Melee Physical because the autotargeting is helpful to cover up some annoying behavior from Melee Splash.

Fifth Link: Melee Physical Damage or Faster Attacks. Melee Physical is ideal, but if you cannot get 4 red links (while using pure EV armor, for example), you can settle for FA.

The 6th link has a lot of options. It can be Increased Crit Damage, Faster Attacks, or Increased Area of effect. Or for utility you might use Blind.

Frenzy
Core Supports: Melee Physical Damage, Multistrike, Blind

This is your single target attack and is used primarily for building and maintaining Frenzy charges. Blind is there to severely reduce damage from uniques and bosses.

Auras
Ideally you will run Grace from your HP using the Covenant. On mana you want Hatred, Determination, and later on Purity.

Grace + Determination is the big armor combo with IR. Hatred allows you to chill/freeze enemies with your high crit.

Curses

Critical Weakness: DPS curse. Quality is amazing. Don't cast this on reflect enemies. You can link to Blood Magic to make mana management easier.

Enfeeble: Your defensive curse. I tend to use Enfeeble more than CW, since the build invests more passives in offense than most HC builds.

Utility and Movement
Staying alive and maximizing DPS requires effective movement and positioning. Flicker Strike and Whirling Blades are the skills you use to engage, escape, and hit priority targets. Whirling Blades also gets your around the map faster than running in a low movespeed setup. Link both to Faster Attacks if you can.

Also, Flicker Strike can be linked to Elemental Proliferation and Weapon Elemental Damage. This will proliferate any freezes from Flicker Strike, and with over 60% crit on a quality flicker, I often freeze entire packs as soon as I flicker in.

Decoy Totem is helpful in rough situations. Devouring Totem can be nice in groups for HP regen if you aren't getting enough flask charges.

Enduring Cry is useful but so annoying I couldn't bring myself to keep it up.

This build is moderately gear dependent, and scales very well with great gear. Balancing HP, resists, and accuracy can be difficult without twink gear.

Weapon:
You want high physical damage and critical chance, with attack speed a close third. Faster daggers are generally better but 1.2 speed ones work fine.

There are two fairly cheap twink daggers you can buy: Ungils Guache at 20, and Mightflay at 35. Mightflay can be used all the way to lvl 60, though you won't enjoy it the last few levels :P

Shield:
Crest of Perandus will pretty much carry you all the way to maps. Otherwise look for HP/res/block/evasion. Replacing Crest of Perandus is difficult. Lioneye Remorse is solid, or a 1500+ EV shield with HP/res.

Neck
HP and Crit damage are priority. You can craft a blue HP/critdmg amulet with alterations. After that, look for phys dmg, accuracy, resists and mana. You will likely need to use a STR/INT base.

Ring:
HP/res and accuracy. Gravy is phys dmg, attack speed and mana.

Belt:
Meginord's Girdle gives amazing DPS, takes care of your STR needs, and has decent life. Only issue is resists. If you don't have Meginord's, just look for HP/res.

Gloves/Hat
HP and res are priority, but try to find accuracy as well. Gloves with phys dmg or attack speed are a bonus. Evasion gear preferred, because your EV passives and agility will multiply it.

Hat/Boots:
As much HP and resist as possible. EV preferred for boots, chest you can do pure EV and suffer many chrome rolls, or EV/AR for easier coloring.

Bringer of Rain:
If you can get your hands on one, this is a great hat. However, you need to have excellent resists on your other gear, as you won't be getting any from your hat and chest. The block and damage from Bringer are amazing, and the supports are perfect for the build. And don't underestimate the Blind on Bringer: it's one of the best parts of the unique.

Stat requirements:
You need to end up with 150 STR. DEX and INT will likely be ok on their own, but you'll need a lot of INT for some dagger types, up to 180 or so.

Leech:
Getting leech, mana or life, on gloves, rings or ammy is very nice, but not required at endgame. The mana leech passive alone is enough once you get good enough DPS.

You're going to be melee. And not Cleave, Lightning Strike or Groundslam melee. True melee, right in their face breathing down their necks melee. This generally means more risk and requires you to be on your toes at all times. Whirl out of combat and come back in with a more favorable position if things look likely to go badly. Be ready to flicker to dangerous ranged enemies and away from heavy hitting melee. Keep your fingers on your seething button :)

However, Life Gain on Hit is going to give you a lot of instant healing. As long as you're hitting a few enemies, you can keep yourself alive through a great deal of damage.

To maximize Melee Splash, hit enemies at the center of packs when possible.

Don't forget to keep Frenzy Charges up! This gives you 20% increased evasion as well as the DPS.

Dangerous Shit:
High physical damage hits that bypass your armor are extremely dangerous. Always read the mods on rare golems! Crit damage and extra damage golems can deal upwards of 3k damage in a single attack.

Chaos damage comes second: be ready to whirl away from alchemist bombs and poison arrow clouds.

Fast attack speed also makes lightning thorns a danger. Flicker to the mages and kill them first.

Dangerous Mods: This build can solo any map mods. There are a few that are more troublesome that others:
-Blood Magic will require you to give up Purity, Determination and Hatred.
-Physical reflect with a physical reflect rare requires caution. Without double reflect though, with multistrike and doublestrike splitting your hits into many small strikes, your armor will mitigate reflect very well.
-Enfeeble is way worse for you than it is for RT characters, reducing your crit and hit chance. A very annoying mod, if not that dangerous.
-Vulnerability makes you prone to being stunned. Usually a life build won't get stunned much, but in a Vuln map be careful on stunlocks.

Dangerous Enemies:
-Dungeon/Colonade Brutus: Decoy, enfeeble, try to get him blinded, always be ready to whirl out.
-Maze Vaal: Let your ranged partymembers handle that :P
-Temple Piety: swap on Saffels Frame, otherwise don't fight her.
Sadly I wasn't able to fight Shrine Piety and Megara before dying. Saffels should make Megara fine in theory though.