What's the purpose of a Ranger?

[YendorLootmonkey]

Fine, I'll take the bait.

Most of it has been said already, but I think Bubbles put it best in a different thread (and also mentioned by stormlord above) when he said that if you're filling out your group with 5-6 people, you're probably going to want the "specialists". If you've only got a duo or trio, grab a ranger since they are so versatile that they can fill multiple roles as needed.

One of the clutch roles stormlord neglected was that we can also slow mobs with a Swarmcaller proc (and later, one of our epics). It's not reliable, but it sure helps the healer conserve mana over time.

My view is... for the person playing the ranger, the versatility makes the class fun and interesting. The problem is the people looking for people to fill out their 5- or 6-man groups don't give a rat's ass about your versatility. In raid scenarios, I tend to play crowd control first (snare/kite shit until your chanters get it under control, peel a mob off a chanter after a failed resist, etc) because I like having that situational awareness, then revert to DPS once everything is under control, but that's just my personal playstyle.

It's a rough road to take. There is a reason there's not many active 55+ rangers on the server. It's not for everyone. You either love the class and all the crap that comes with it, or you don't and it makes you want to /wrist during your 7th hour LFG.