Personally I'd fix the ranger as a class and try to make the class a true archer with some melee capability. I'd use talent trees (basically AA's) to give rangers focuses:
1) Archery/Scouting
2) Nature magic/knowledge
3) Defensive melee, disengages
Main points:
PVE - Most rangers know that you can pretty much kill anything that can be snared in classic eq, but its boring. I'd rather have a situation where a ranger needs to set up and use cover to aim a major shot that can either kill an easy opponent out right or severely wound a harder opponent (like a dark blue) then the ranger could use their faster shots, nature magic and limited melee to finish off an opponent. A moving opponent has a much higher miss check than one who has stopped. A ranger that misses this sniper shot would have a much tougher time killing an opponent.
Group role/raid role - I wouldn't want rangers to have "tank" abilities so when I say defensive melee I'm talking more slash their eyes and jump backwards or blade shield stuff. Their group role would be using their big shots to finish off targets and defensive skills to pry things off healers/casters... not to be tanked but to give them a moment. In a raid I'd make rangers gain knowledge of raid targets based on type and how often the ranger has attacked said target type. This knowledge would allow a ranger's sniper type shots to debuff raid targets for short durations in a unique way.
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