[YendorLootmonkey]

A few things from the perspective of someone who played a ranger from 1-65 from classic to just before GoD...

As far as "need jboots/sow potions pre-39"... most of the time, if you get into trouble, you're going to snare/rootpark mobs and book it to the zone line. If you're pulling outdoors, you're going to harmony stuff to EZ-mode pull singles. Having SoW available that early is just going to make you sloppy, and it's important to be a well-played ranger if you want to find groups, because a poorly-played ranger offers very little for that 40% XP penalty you're sharing with the group.

SO, for those reasons, unless you've got money to blow, you're not going to get J-Boots or SoW potions for your ranger pre-39. There's gear you need to blow your money on first to make your ranger viable -- armor, HP/STA/STR gear, haste item, and some good weapons. Wait for a pair of 9/19 lammies to come down in price in Kunark... if you can't wait for that, shell out for fangs for a pair of 7/21 EBWs. Don't go for anything that procs... after about level 40, the stuff you have to kill to get XP, you won't want to draw aggro on unless you plan on getting twinked out with nice Kunark gear and maybe then you'd be good until level 50ish in classic zones tanking.

Your biggest issue will be the 40% XP penalty in terms of leveling and finding groups, especially when the server is full of min-maxers who, even despite everything a ranger has to offer in terms of versatility (most of it's already mentioned above, so I won't rehash it here), will still opt for the Holy Trinity (Warrior/Shaman/Cleric) in Kunark and then round out the group with monks/rogues/enchanters/bards for DPS/crowd control/mana regen. That being said, there will be a niche role for certain levels of rangers pulling in the outdoors zones, especially the hunter/forager cycle in TT in Kunark and maybe the named cycle in Frontier Mountains.

The biggest advantage is, of course, the lack of competition for ranger items in XP groups and raids.

Managing your aggro outside of "auto attack off and backing up when the mob starts turning towards you" doesn't become an option until level 55 when you get your first tool to reduce aggro... Jolt. And even then, it's not going to work on magic resistant mobs (which is why Cinder Jolt, the fire-based version, was added in Velious). In fact, you risk a resist and drawing even MORE aggro. So with haste and fast weapons, and double attack/dual wield, if you are not careful you will have aggro issues with Kunark content until you reach 55 and mem Jolt. This is where SK/Pal tanks are nicer to have in groups for you, but then you've got two hybrids in the group and the min-maxing pure classes will go slit their wrists.

This gets even better when you find out your epics are swords that have... 41% haste and a slow proc. Great, more aggro generation without the damage mitigation!

Sparkin's forgetting the hybrid disciplines don't get put in until Velious, so you won't even have the Trueshot or Weaponshield discs in Kunark to look forward to. The best thing to happen to rangers aside from Jolt is the double-damage modifier to archery for stationary, non-rooted mobs... and arguments can be made that unless you have Windstriker (oops, stun proc... more aggro!) or one of the top Kunark bows available, you're still going to max out DPS with melee vs. archery -- although then archery would be at least somewhat viable if you want to still do damage outside of AoE range on a raid.

Is it all worth it? To me, yes, since it's a really fun class and very useful when played by a player willing to adapt to the different roles you can play in a raid/group at a moment's notice. Which is why I rolled one here, knowing full well the hand rangers got dealt a d--

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