I`ve played for 30+ hours as a melee hunter ranger and I couldn't agree more about how hunters mark is the only good spell in the rangers kit this early on. Its just like vanilla 5e where everything in the level one spellcasting list is garbage or is very situational.
My solution for this problem is giving rangers the variant of hunters mark which is you get charges of hunters mark equal to your wisdom modifier and it doesn't affect your spells used, plus its not concentration. This means Rangers are able to free up their bonus action and use something else, however the problem here is that there's nothing to use because how poor the ranger spell list is so Larian should introduce the Xanthan's guide to everything spell called Zephyr Strike which is Once before the spell ends, you can give yourself advantage on one weapon attack roll on your turn. That attack deals an extra 1d8 force damage on a hit. Whether you hit or miss, your walking speed increases by 30 feet until the end of that turn. WoTC also gave rangers smites at level 1 spell casting which is also a good alternative.
