ranger dps = steady damange flow. dont expect to burn things down even with your best 2 dots up and DD spell spam.

My Live side guild leader was a Ranger. Always having the best gear available etc. He did great damage and actually saved the day a few times on bosses by tanking for a few seconds. He also took a Death Touch to every now and then though... haha ;)
Its basically the mind frame that you have of the Ranger that depicts how well you play the class. Everyone has a different opinion and the Ranger changed its appearance and play style throughout the game. So for the most part, a lot of people are terrible at the class due to not knowing what their role is. Identity crisis if you will.

In my opinion, during classic; they are off tanks and primarily DPS within a group. They are also a huge benefit to a group with a Warrior tank. That is especially true when their is no enchanter present. Not to say a Ranger cannot tank, but it is indeed a hindrance on the healer of a group versus having a War/Pal/SK. I personally wouldnt ever tell someone to not play a Ranger, because I love having a quick root, a snare and some in combat fighting going. Versus having a caster that you have no idea if they are even there, they might even be afk and you would never know.

this is why i loved playing a ranger, they are kinda like a bard in the sense of jack of all master of none fitting in groups dynamics.

you wanna solo? CHECK
you wanna group with all pet classes without getting hit? CHECK
you wanna group in a all kiter group? CHECK
you wanna wanna main tank? CHECK
you wanna pull or just dps? DOUBLE CHECK

now getting a group or a group to let you in(assuming they arent exp greedy) is more harder then actually adjusting your playing style.

also cant wait to main slow when kunark comes outhttp://common.allakhazam.com/images/...85bf125a78.png

Speaking as someone who's always played a healer class of some sort, while rangers might want to tank, I don't want to heal them if they are.

As soon as I get enough pp to slightly twink my first character its going to be a ranger. As someone said earlier they play kinda like rogues without backstab. Their spells are pretty useful and rangers will get a little better once kunark is released.

One of the best tanks I knew on live was a ranger. His preferred off tank was a ranger, too. We took down a lot of stuff with relatively few people actually, although there was a high ratio of healer types in our little cadre, heh. ( Ranger / Ranger / Druid (me) / Druid / Cleric / Chanter )

Thats some squad lol. I like it!

I would have liked to see a parse on that group. I wouldnt blatantly call it a terrible group... but thats what Im thinking as I read that group make up. A ranger cannot wear most of the gear a War/Sk/Pal can so even though those druids(you) were probably doing some damage; Im sure they(you) were healing as well. Missing out on the mana for that extra dot/nuke. Its odd how you dont vividly notice an extra minute to a kill in EQ, or how downtime is expected; perceived to not be a penalty for having a bad group makeup. Imagine how much quicker things would have died with only a cleric healing in that group, not only being the only one.. but healing less often as well.

I never once said a Ranger "should" MT or that its ok, and in fact.. a few seconds is an eternity when fighting bosses with a Ranger as the tank. Everyones stomach is in a knot because the raid force doesnt know whether they are going to wipe or not. Where with a warrior; you at least have a higher degree of certainty that you wont fail. I agree with Ghesta, in that I would never openly want any Ranger to tank over a Warrior at lvl 35+. Pal / Sk is a completely different story at 50, so lets just leave them out of this for now.

Also, another issue is that I dont mind having a Ranger or any other hybrid in my group simply because I do not share their exp burden in P1999 like you said. Your exp penalty is yours and yours alone. Love your enthusiasm though! Just stick to DPS / Utility... :)

Thanks for proving my point. :)