Rangers are really strong if you go Hunter, but yeah I can agree that their niche is limited to blasting marked targets with arrows. I personally find that their healing and other utilities are nice to have since Shadowheart is a Cleric made of paper.
cracks me up and I agree..Shadowheart spends most of my fights dead after she casts about 2 spells and that is fully buffed. My Ranger I made the mistake of going Beastmaster and while I enjoy it, it's been rough going to level 4. Now she's a Beast though.