Rangers? Rangers! Rangers.

[quellren]

Against my better judgement I'll start this here, and hope some decent discussion happens before it gets banished to the R&F dungeon by assclowns who's only input is 'Good for the DT'. Save yourself the key strokes if you're that guy.

So, I've always been curious about Rangers. They seemed like a great class on paper, and I have zero heartburn with one in my groups. The seem to do pretty much everything well enough to get the job done. They track and pull, they DPS well, they snare/root park, they offtank, they spot heal... they give me foraged food and water...
So I rolled one and he's been a blast to play. But now he's in his mid 20's and I'm running into the stereotypical Ranger-hate. I've recently soloed alot because my /ooc LFG's go unanswered. Even in outdoor zones where tracking, harmony and pulling is key.

I chatted up a few rangers, all in their 50's, and almost every one of them painted a dreary picture of 'get good weapons and learn to use a bow, because all you'll do is solo light blues and get made fun of".... yet they themselves were 52, 53, even 57... If it's so bad, why play?

So my TL;DR question is: Where's the disconnect? Why is public perception so much different than what I've personally experienced on both sides of the coin?