If you don't have a group of friends and you're going to be relying on pickup groups for your ranger, you may encounter difficulty reliably finding groups for him.
At some point in Velious, a ranger can fear kite animals quite well and solo to 60.
Also, I wouldn't be too hasty to conclude that simply because a shadowknight can solo 50+ mobs, they can realistically grind out that exp as a way to level. You have a 40% xp penalty as a dark elf, you kill slowly, and your location options are limited. The amount of time it takes to accumulate significant amounts of solo xp on a 54+ SK is mind-boggling.
I have played both these classes 50+. Think about which one you might enjoy more at 60, when you are done leveling. From a practical outlook, monks outshine both these classes at everything. Which playstyle is more fun for you? I liked rangers because the class gave me a lot to do without necessarily having a lot of responsibility. It was a nice break from playing my shaman and buffing everyone, and I was an exceptional outdoor puller.
Being a shadowknight became quite frustrating to me after 54 or so because of how good monks are. They can do 3x your dps, mitigate roughly as well as you, provide adequate agro for any group content, and pull. Even a ranger will outperform you as a tank in a low-moderate damage situation with slowers/clerics around, simply because they provide the same agro as you plus considerably more DPS.
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