Taking into account all things waybackmachined, rangers probably should do a bit more damage with bows on p99, even without factoring rooted dragons in to that equation. The fact that rangers were given two epics, both being melee weapons, suggests that close quarters combat was meant to be their go-to method of damage, with the bow serving as a backup option (and yet their class icon is bow + quiver). Even the ranger-only item off Vulak is a sword.
Despite an emphasis being placed on melee damage, rangers were only briefly allowed to have triple attack in Velious, with monks being spared that nerf. They have the ability to taunt, but also two versions of jolt and a few weapons with similar proc effects. Of course, the more versatile the hybrid class, the more it can appear to be a walking contradiction.
In retrospect, the devs seemed to be figuring out the ranger class as they went, more so than any of the other classes, even monk which abandoned its classic minimalism to join in the loot fest, having some of the most desirable drops in Velious.
It's common knowledge that the devs often fought over design decisions, reportedly even coming to blows on occasion. So it's likely that they had the same or similar arguments about which class should get what, no different from what's posted on Allakhazam or these forums. Robe of Living Fungus got nerfed but then, one expansion later, there was an even better monk robe in ST with the same worn effect, Shroud of Longevity. The ranger epic wasn't a bow, but then BFG was shoehorned into Velious and Oakwynd was made a reward at GM events for each server. The list goes on.
IMO the ranger epic should have been two-in-one, like the warrior's, with the bow being broken in half to create two 1hb weapons.
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