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.

Can we now have this thread stickied?

Can we now have JenJen stickied?

Oh, almost forgot. Comic relief.

I have a friend still playing on Live as a 90 ranger. He took alot of crap in the military so he was well prepared for it. I am thinking they might have brainwashed him...

More like your 700th hour LFG.

I once accidentally left myself /lfg and not /afk hiding in KC for roughly 24 hours. When I came back the next day I had received -zero- tells.

The purpose of a ranger is to sit LFG and pretend like you want to play EQ, but really you need to get other stuff done at home so you pick a class that has zero danger of ever being invited to a group.

Visage has this covered

No need for thick skin now, Ranger dps on live > ....everything

Being the only class that can port themselves to LFaydark with Trak BP? Oh yeah, and DTs. I wouldn't even associate them with tracking so much, since I'd be happy with a druid or bard anyway. Tracking Range is rarely an issue unless we're talking Quillmane.

Would be so much easier to be a druid. Better buffs, more income potential, more desired groupability, and no crazy 40% Hybrid XP Penalty. Rangers didn't start getting their own niche until Luclin AAs imo.

They're there to make everyone else feel better about their class.