You guys are giving me way too much credit. I have successful chars and unsuccessful chars.

My successful ragers are typically semi-cookie-cutter builds - levelsitting duergar, giant sword berserker, pincersvirf defender.

I've never played a scout because I'm not sure I'd do well with one - for some of the reasons others listed below. Specifically, the big weapon in a scout's arsenal seems to be critical hit, and with that being a 2-round active skill (as opposed to a passive one like deathblow) I feel like it takes away from other moves a person might do (like kote/kans/throw on an assassin).

The really scary scout builds I've played against have been classes that didn't have a whole lot of other options in terms of active skills. A polearm spec or parting-block-thief or that sort of thing. And most of them were scary to my warriors/thieves (who couldn't just "c word" as soon as the critical hits started coming out).

I imagine that nowadays a scout would do well the first few times they surprised a mage by hitting them for DEVAS when they have full ABS, but soon would find the mages just avoiding the fight/bringing allies to bash them down.

I may try a scout sometime in the future - not to "prove how awesome they are" but because I haven't ever played one, and that's somewhat uncommon for me.