Ranger wan-... NEEDS.

[Swords]

I think theres kind of a decaying effect with alot of the updates SE had did to jobs in the past like ranger. If you've been around in FFXI as long as I have you may or may not recall the old Arrowburn parties and how RNG was the big bandwagon job due to their insane power at the time. Now keeping in mind the game was originally designed around level 50, RNG became overpowered because the mechanics designed for level 50 tipped the scales in their favor when the caps were raised to 75. However, the update to ranged attacks balanced out the damage and only the good RNG's could still put out good damage. The problem is the fix for ranged attacks were intended and designed for level 75, now the level cap has risen the mechanics that were designed for 75 comes back to haunt us at 90+.

[Catsby]

...The problem is the fix for ranged attacks were intended and designed for level 75, now the level cap has risen the mechanics that were designed for 75 comes back to haunt us at 90+.

Like not getting a 2-hander bonus for ranged weapons, having distance affect damage, terrible ranged weaponskills and other intentionally lower limits on capabilities compared to melee damage dealers. Keep in mind that all of the jobs couldn't do what they do now when Ranger was first nerfed and if Ranger was never nerfed and all the jobs altered/added in the way they are now Ranger would still probably be bottom tier. Back then you hardly ever saw bards, an X-hit build didn't exist and people tanked sky gods with warrior so naturally being able to get tp from melee+ranged seemed "broken".