Yeah I love my Ranger. I think I have a Magic arrow for just about everything (I feel like the Green Arrow). Course I have a mage and a warrior henchman also. Together with my Cleric (the other PC) I think I'm doing ok.
Well that's fine, certainly rangers won't suffer from some of the problems I listed above, but my main point for this thread wasn't that mages are OP, it was that melee is terrible, and is currently a pointless waste of time.