Most rangers probably could stay ranged DPS till the darkglint blade dropped in Ikkinz. The infamous elf shoe. That said, many didn't, because you could easily approach ranged dps with time weapons and very few guilds didn't have everyone equipped with gear by the time you could start raiding GoD.
http://zam.zamimg.com/images/5/0/50a...f200dfb084.png
As for ranger AAs, click snare and insta-invis were pretty game changing for me. I'm sure AM3/EQ were at the time, but in the long run snare/camo were insanely powerful abilities.