Ranger

Rangers deal damage, then they deal some more damage. Finally, on occasion, they deal a whole lot of damage.

Rangers do this using Bows and Bullets which have very high damage values. If you have tried one of these ranged weapons with another class you probably noticed they have abysmal accuracy. The ranger gets some bonuses to this, but also depends on having a very high agility to increase hitrate.

Dealing all this damage will gain the attention of the monster once in a while, and a good ranger tries to time their bigger hits (such as barrage) towards the end of a fight or in coordination with a Paladin's Cover or a Theif's Trick Attack. I recommend asking your party what playstyle they want you to use - all out attacking that will require more healing, or pacing to ensure the main tank can keep the hate.

UPDATE: Ranger damage is now affected by the distance between you and the enemy. Each weapon has an ideal range at which the maximum damage will be dealt. Too far away or (more importantly) too close, and the damage is greatly reduced (about 30% less). This has a most dramtic impact on soloing, as ranger now sucks quite a bit at soloing. It does not have a major affect on damage in standard parties. You will see a little less melee damage and TP gain, but overall it's not a "horrible nerf" to what remains the strongest DD class. You will have to practice with each of your ranged weapons to find the ideal distance.

One more thing to mention is Wide Scan. This is an ability that no other class (besides bst - but they have less range) has access to - something that basically breaks one of the rules of the game. In some areas it's of little use and in other locations it has nearly infinite value. Be warned, however: you may beceome addicted to having this ability if you play a ranger too long. Scan is an ability that's worth getting from subbing a ranger. You might see this from soloers looking for an NM or from questers trying to find NPCs in town.

(Past level 60, samurai benefit a lot for subbing ranger. They can use all their TP for sidewinder (clearly the highest damage WS in the game), though they need a big armor-swapping macro to put on +ranged accuracy gear. Also, some ninjas past lvl 28 have subbed ranger and used a gun with two archer knives in order to keep hate. I applaud this, and all other non-standard job combinations.) Note this is no longer true. The recent 7/21 changes to Ranger damage have made this a very poor proposition.

Active Job Abilities

Notes on active abilities

Track & Remote Scan After you scan you can select a monster from a list and then are given 2 more options: Track and Remote Scan. Track puts an arrow on your radar leading to the monster (or NPC) you selected from Wide Scan. It does not target anything and so you will not know if the monster is claimed until you reach it. Remote Scan only works if you have a map of the area. Without a map you will get an empty list when you try to use it. Remote Scan is also useless at low levels. At high levels (past 30) your scan radius will be so large that it becomes hard to scroll through to find what's near you. You can then use Remote Scan to choose a smaller area nearby for review.

Scavenge They changed the items you can get with scavenge on 12/8/04! Now you seem to be able to get all the parts for all arrow and bolt types, plus firesand (no silver ingots though). If you carry around earth crystals and have high woodworking, you can make the occasional arrow or bolt from what you scavenge. The higher level location you are in, the better stuff you can get (firesand and demon arrowheads generally being the best). I send them all to a mule until I get a full stack, then either craft them or just sell them off at AH.

Shadowbind At first you'll think this is pretty useless. It doesn't usually bind IT monsters for more than a few seconds and you rarely care about binding things you're farming. I'll tell you my little secret: Shadowbind acquires the target ultra fast. Pretty much the instant you activate it you'll claim the monster. No more praying you can get the arrow off before your favorite NM is provoked by someone else. Shadowbind claims before the animation completes (like how weapon skill damage is often dealt before the animation starts). I believe Jump, Steal, and Chi Blast work this way as well, making these some of the fastest target claimers in the game.
Also, at higher levels I find Shadowbind starts to hold things really well. It will break if someone attacks the bound monsters, but if left alone it holds for about 30 seconds. You can use this while exping to delay a link from reaching the camp. Also if you get aggroed while alone you could bind and get clear so that you can use an instant warp scroll, or run to a zone. I recommend you get in the habit of finding uses for it early, it's much better than the bind spell because it can't really be resisted. HNM teams, when very very well coordinated use consecutive shadowbinds from their rangers to buy time when things go wrong or when an HNM uses hundred fists.

Passive Job Abilities

See Also:
Bard | Beastmaster | Black Mage | Blue Mage | Corsair | Dark Knight | Dragoon | Monk | Ninja | Paladin | Puppetmaster | Red Mage | Samurai | Summoner | Thief | Warrior | White Mage