Low level Ranger weapons?
 

Ok, so I managed to get my Ranger to level 9 without excessive dying.
Now i have my spells and about 100 plat I'd like to invest in a decent weapon.
Is there anything I should watch for in the auction window or should i just invest in some Fine Steel from a vendor?

I've always played casters. This is my first real foray into melee.

Grab a Silver Swiftblade, 16/24 2H slash weapon that goes for around 100-150pp. Will carry you till 20, maybe a little further.

The silver swiftblade is cruise control till level 20

Green Jade Broadsword (11/25) in main hand with a polished granite tomahawk or something like that off hand at level 17 to provide a useful proc until your duel wield skill gets high enough to actually produce a decent amount of swings. Can be bought in EC very cheap.

Silver Swiftblade is great value for money too, I picked one up on my ranger for 100pp, it's decent. Skills 2hs up nice and quick!

The typical progression is, Silver swiftblade till 20, then woodsman staff (7k) till epics. A good substitute for woodsman is the Springwood stave (apx 300-500p). Dual wielding looks cool, but 2hd with one of the above will be more dps than most wep combos till lvl 55. At 55+ your dual wield and double attack skill is high enough to compensate against the 2hd dmg bonus.

http://wiki.project1999.com/Springwood_Stave

http://wiki.project1999.com/Woodsman%27s_Staff

There is another advantage to 2hb/2hs. It is much easier to cast spells between swings (so adding utility/healing/spell dps without sacrificing melee dps). You also riposte better and get riposted less. Less damage taken from damage shields too.

Oh I just remembered something else relevant to my previous post. Last time I checked duel wield would still get skill ups with a shield equipped in the off hand, so that's another way to grind that skill. Not quite as handy for rangers since they can't bash though.

where does a Swarmcaller rank on desirability?

+1 on the silver swiftblade. Fantastic and cheap! Woodsman is great after that but is quite a price jump.

Once you level past damage caps Swarmcaller should outpace Silver Swiftblade because of a superior ratio, but w/o the proc it is inferior (albeit slightly) to a Springwood Stave.

Most rangers gonna end up buying a Swarmcaller anyway for procs pre-Earthcaller, and it might be a useful alternate to Springwood pre-Woodsman... but the downside being that you're not getting the 2hb skillups you'd get from Springwood to prep for Woodsman.

It's a crap weapon, but necessary if you wanna solo. I wouldn't use it until the level it procs, 46. Proc a slow and switch to woodsman.