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Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Ranger vs Mage - Single target damage math
Snekkers
Member, Alpha Two
I see many people saying ranger has good single target damage, and mage is the squishiest class in the game. I am a ranger main, but I want to find out the truth.
First, about mage being squishy. Yes, mage has a bit less HP, but the difference is small. Mage also has a shield that gives 500% power as shield. With 400 magic power, that's 2000 extra health.
Now, let's talk about single target damage. Let's assume both ranger and mage have 400 power. Let's give mage 4000 health and ranger 4400 health. The difference is actually smaller, but making it bigger here will make the math clear.
First, let's look at the ranger. Let's assume ranger starts casting Snipe, it takes about 3 seconds (sometimes more, but let's make it 3 seconds here).
Important to remember that -15% physical mitigation is not flat 15%, so it doesn't just increase damage by 15%.
Snipe deals 1600 damage. If we crit and use Hunt of the Tiger, it's 2880 damage. It's important to remember that using Hunt and Mark of the Tiger looks better in this example because we don't take resistance into account, so in practice these two will be less effective. Using Hunt of the Raven and Mark of the Bear might bring better results.
Now let's move to mage.
Let's start with Fireball.
Important to notice that damage on this screenshot is wrong. Actual number is 250% + 100%. With upgrade augment, it's 250% + 200%. Also good to notice that it costs less mana and has lower cooldown than Snipe. Cast time of Fireball is 2 seconds, and overall damage is 1000 + 800, or 1700 + 800 when crit (assuming DoT damage doesn't crit, because currently crit works weird in Ashes and when you crit with Fireball the burning effect will be perma critting, but I'm not quite sure, so I will act like DoTs can't crit).
Ranger will end his Snipe in 1 second, mage can use Combust now, which is instant cast.
That's additional 500 damage and it also consumes all the burning and increases it by 30%. So during 4 seconds from now ranger will receive 1040 burning damage. From just raw damage, ranger is left with 2900 health. And he didn't finish his Snipe cast yet.
At this point, mage can close distance and use Prismatic Beam to remove ranger like on videos below, but let's assume it's not the case. He stays at range of 30m and decides to cast Frostbolt.
Frostbolt takes 1.1 seconds to cast, so when we are done with Frostbolt cast, ranger's Snipe finishes. Let's assume it crit and also add 15% due to Shaken effect (like I said, it's never 15% more damage, but let's be generous), 3312 damage. Knowing that mage had his shield active, he only lost 880 health. Meanwhile, Frostbolt struck ranger by another 1000. Now question is, what will ranger do? It's hard to predict damage from Barrage, so I will guess later. Now let's assume ranger uses Lightning Reload and charges another Snipe to use his Mark of the Tiger to the fullest. Meanwhile, mage starts basic attacking to stack Frozen effect or casts Cone of Cold to apply Frozen (not sure if Frozen breaks Snipe, let's assume it doesn't).
Cone of Cold is instant cast and deals additional 500 damage. At the end, we cast 2 seconds long Lightning Strike, which should apply Shatter effect.
Together Lightning Strike and Shatter deal another 2400 damage. Ranger will finish his second Snipe in 1 second, so let's just assume in this time mage put Magma Field under him or something. Doesn't really matter.
The moment ranger finishes his second Snipe, the ticking of Conflagrate is also done. In total, ranger dealt 6192 damage, very nice, not enough to kill mage that used his shield. In total, mage dealt 6440, killing ranger far before he is done with his second Snipe.
Let's see if we can use better those 3 seconds instead of casting another Snipe. It will be very much a guess, not something reliable. Let's assume ranger took 20% more attack speed after Snipe. Then most logical thing is to instantly pop Barrage. From experience, it deals about 250-300% damage, so let's say 1200 damage. Then we can cast Vine Field for another 500 damage and Hemorraging.
Hemorraging damage is about 800 more damage. Now I think we have time for Headshot, but let's do double Headshot, give ranger some more time. I will elaborate how we can extend time with mage too. Double Headshot is 2800 damage, when we assume both crit, we get 5040. Looks insane. Now let's sum it up. 7540 from this burst, let's increase it by 15% from Shaken to get 8671, so in total ranger dealt 11,551. Huge!
But let's see how mage can use this additional time. First thing mage can do is start with Lightning spell dealing 700 damage, this will allow Fuze to activate.
When Fuze is active, we do normal combo, now our Conflagrate effect will deal 1560 damage instead. Other thing mage will get is Thermal Equilibrium, which will reset duration of our DoT when we freeze ranger.
That will be basically another 1000+ damage. Let's add that to summary, now mage total damage is 9700. As you can see, it's still lower than ranger. But it's important to keep in mind that all math was done in favor of ranger. We assumed every ranger attack was a crit and none of mage's attacks were crits. We also assumed Shaken increases damage by 15%, which would never happen. If we just remove this bonus from Shaken, we will end up with damage very similar to mage. And ranger is pure single target. What mage did here, he can do to some extent to the entire enemy party. Remember that I skipped the use of Prismatic Beam at all. Just for fun, let's sum ranger damage with only every second attack being a crit. 2880 from first Snipe, which makes sense, Snipe has very high crit chance. Then Barrage, we leave as it is, 1200 damage. Vine Field 500 damage, no crit this time. First Headshot 2520 due to crit, second one 1400, no crit. In total, ranger would deal 8500. 9775 if we assume Shaken increases damage by 15%. I most likely skipped some aspects because it's very complicated topic, but I tried to provide arguments and calculate possibilities for both sides.
First, about mage being squishy. Yes, mage has a bit less HP, but the difference is small. Mage also has a shield that gives 500% power as shield. With 400 magic power, that's 2000 extra health.
Now, let's talk about single target damage. Let's assume both ranger and mage have 400 power. Let's give mage 4000 health and ranger 4400 health. The difference is actually smaller, but making it bigger here will make the math clear.
First, let's look at the ranger. Let's assume ranger starts casting Snipe, it takes about 3 seconds (sometimes more, but let's make it 3 seconds here).
Important to remember that -15% physical mitigation is not flat 15%, so it doesn't just increase damage by 15%.
Snipe deals 1600 damage. If we crit and use Hunt of the Tiger, it's 2880 damage. It's important to remember that using Hunt and Mark of the Tiger looks better in this example because we don't take resistance into account, so in practice these two will be less effective. Using Hunt of the Raven and Mark of the Bear might bring better results.
Now let's move to mage.
Let's start with Fireball.
Important to notice that damage on this screenshot is wrong. Actual number is 250% + 100%. With upgrade augment, it's 250% + 200%. Also good to notice that it costs less mana and has lower cooldown than Snipe. Cast time of Fireball is 2 seconds, and overall damage is 1000 + 800, or 1700 + 800 when crit (assuming DoT damage doesn't crit, because currently crit works weird in Ashes and when you crit with Fireball the burning effect will be perma critting, but I'm not quite sure, so I will act like DoTs can't crit).
Ranger will end his Snipe in 1 second, mage can use Combust now, which is instant cast.
That's additional 500 damage and it also consumes all the burning and increases it by 30%. So during 4 seconds from now ranger will receive 1040 burning damage. From just raw damage, ranger is left with 2900 health. And he didn't finish his Snipe cast yet.
At this point, mage can close distance and use Prismatic Beam to remove ranger like on videos below, but let's assume it's not the case. He stays at range of 30m and decides to cast Frostbolt.
Frostbolt takes 1.1 seconds to cast, so when we are done with Frostbolt cast, ranger's Snipe finishes. Let's assume it crit and also add 15% due to Shaken effect (like I said, it's never 15% more damage, but let's be generous), 3312 damage. Knowing that mage had his shield active, he only lost 880 health. Meanwhile, Frostbolt struck ranger by another 1000. Now question is, what will ranger do? It's hard to predict damage from Barrage, so I will guess later. Now let's assume ranger uses Lightning Reload and charges another Snipe to use his Mark of the Tiger to the fullest. Meanwhile, mage starts basic attacking to stack Frozen effect or casts Cone of Cold to apply Frozen (not sure if Frozen breaks Snipe, let's assume it doesn't).
Cone of Cold is instant cast and deals additional 500 damage. At the end, we cast 2 seconds long Lightning Strike, which should apply Shatter effect.
Together Lightning Strike and Shatter deal another 2400 damage. Ranger will finish his second Snipe in 1 second, so let's just assume in this time mage put Magma Field under him or something. Doesn't really matter.
The moment ranger finishes his second Snipe, the ticking of Conflagrate is also done. In total, ranger dealt 6192 damage, very nice, not enough to kill mage that used his shield. In total, mage dealt 6440, killing ranger far before he is done with his second Snipe.
Let's see if we can use better those 3 seconds instead of casting another Snipe. It will be very much a guess, not something reliable. Let's assume ranger took 20% more attack speed after Snipe. Then most logical thing is to instantly pop Barrage. From experience, it deals about 250-300% damage, so let's say 1200 damage. Then we can cast Vine Field for another 500 damage and Hemorraging.
Hemorraging damage is about 800 more damage. Now I think we have time for Headshot, but let's do double Headshot, give ranger some more time. I will elaborate how we can extend time with mage too. Double Headshot is 2800 damage, when we assume both crit, we get 5040. Looks insane. Now let's sum it up. 7540 from this burst, let's increase it by 15% from Shaken to get 8671, so in total ranger dealt 11,551. Huge!
But let's see how mage can use this additional time. First thing mage can do is start with Lightning spell dealing 700 damage, this will allow Fuze to activate.
When Fuze is active, we do normal combo, now our Conflagrate effect will deal 1560 damage instead. Other thing mage will get is Thermal Equilibrium, which will reset duration of our DoT when we freeze ranger.
That will be basically another 1000+ damage. Let's add that to summary, now mage total damage is 9700. As you can see, it's still lower than ranger. But it's important to keep in mind that all math was done in favor of ranger. We assumed every ranger attack was a crit and none of mage's attacks were crits. We also assumed Shaken increases damage by 15%, which would never happen. If we just remove this bonus from Shaken, we will end up with damage very similar to mage. And ranger is pure single target. What mage did here, he can do to some extent to the entire enemy party. Remember that I skipped the use of Prismatic Beam at all. Just for fun, let's sum ranger damage with only every second attack being a crit. 2880 from first Snipe, which makes sense, Snipe has very high crit chance. Then Barrage, we leave as it is, 1200 damage. Vine Field 500 damage, no crit this time. First Headshot 2520 due to crit, second one 1400, no crit. In total, ranger would deal 8500. 9775 if we assume Shaken increases damage by 15%. I most likely skipped some aspects because it's very complicated topic, but I tried to provide arguments and calculate possibilities for both sides.
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Comments
Barrage is weird... It says 15% power per arrow, and it fires 13 arrows, but if you count the damage shown on the target is 9 damage popups. With your numbers that means each arrow hits with 60 power => 780 power if 13 arrows, 540 if 9 arrows. This is 150% power +/-. Not 250-300
Also, very important to understand: power != damage.
I don't understand the reasoning behind your post, why compare a ranger that 100% crits vs a mage that never crits? Make them equal. The whole thing is about comparing the mage and the ranger on the same foothold. The mage is always better than the ranger in any form: single target damage, aoe damage, status effects, cc, squishiness, and has a big shield that can definitely be used multiple times in a fight.
Lets not forget the most annoying thing: Mages use 1/4 less mana than rangers.
Another thing that you must take in consideration: The ranger can't move at all if is casting snipe. In this time, the mage can teleport near the ranger, push the ranger to interrupt the snipe, and there goes all the big damage of the ranger. Or, simply put the ranger to sleep...
Headshot is 200% damage. In your math that means 800 power. x2 that is 1600 power. Not 2800.
Also, crits don't double the damage. You have crit damage increase. That is 150% default. This means your damage when you crit is 1.5x not 2x.
But the most important thing, its not the power you need to multiply, it's the damage.
Power is a diminishing return stat.
Bleeding/hemorrhage does not do all the damage at once. They are dots. And if you transform bleeding into hemorrhage, the bleeding stacks go away until you apply another one.
1876 crit snipe
1262 snipe
315 power
My base pen: 8%
It seems there is no damage diff with the raven hunt or not (10% bonus pen).
806 armor
46% mitigation
667 snipe
1058 snipe crit
315 power
Also in regard with barrage i think the amount of arrows you fire i based on your attack speed bonus it seems i noticed i started shooting more as i leveled up and got other gear. Skill seems to work basicly u get insane attackspeed bonus but reduced damage while casting it so you get more arrows off if your base attack speed is lower atleast what seemed like to me
First of all, by the time the ranger would finish casting snipe, we'd be inscribing their name on the gravestone.
Mage shield lasts 15 seconds, no reason not to apply it immediately at the start of the duel. So mage has 6000 health here.
Fireball has no cast time due to blink which makes it insta cast. Bonus: ranger loses 30% crit chance, because you blink in his face. He'll either have to immediately cancel snipe and dodge or die as snipe finishes casting.
So we have an insta cast fireball to the face, instant 250% damage altho afaik fireball is 350%. Then another 200% as a DoT, followed by insta freeze from hoarfrost and cone of cold into an 0.2s cast 400% lightning strike (100% near insta lightning, 300% shatter). Btw, whether you immune the freeze or not after you got it is irrelevant, shatter triggers a few moments after freeze is removed as well. If you did not pre-immune it during hoarfrost you're cooked. At this point we can Combust cause why not, and end up with a prismatic beam to give the ranger a proper cooking and send-off.
So in 3 seconds the ranger did 400% snipe damage, in 3.5s the mage did around 1025% damage (not including burning or combust, prismatic beam not included, conflagrate not included, this math implies fireball dealt 250% damage instead of 350%, arcane volley not included, frostbolt not included, auto attacks not included).
Hey, i give all advantages to ranger and made math in favor to ranger to show that even if we give all advantages to ranger then it still is barely better.
In reality ranger is dead before end of first cast
Headshot damage is 250% if im not mistaken, but 25% (75% if we take the additional perk) more when below 50%.
I assumed we have some crit damage from gear, and we are using hunt of a tiger, so i used x1.8 (thats what i currently have in game)
I also included the fact that hemorrhage is DoT
i made this post to show that it is not true, mage has much higher burst, and its not even close, ranger is dead closly after first snipe, and this snipe will barely get through mage's shield
yea, even more damage to ranger, and when you blink you are in the face of the ranger, so you can do all those closer range abilities like prismatic beam, i just didnt include it to give as much edge to a ranger as i can. And it still barely won, lost if we remove 15% bonus damage from shaken as its realistically not 15% damage increase
i think thats a nice addition too, i didnt do that straight up scenario cuz obviously ranger stands no chance here, so i went with mage playing poorly to show that even then mage is better
but in retrospect i should add your example too
But again, that works unless the target is under 50% health.
Hunt of the tiger increases crit damage by 10%, so that 160% crit damage
Now, crit damage can be increased by gear if you have crit damage increase. But that's too subjective, same as with armor/mit.
was doing some duels last night, quite a few vs mage, and i have pretty much relised that ranger gets countered by every single arch type in duels, obviously you can win vs bad players, but there are hardly any out plays, a good mage will kill you before you can really do anything, the fact that ranger can't get an opener in duels makes our camo all but useless. its really sad to see
a tank just has 2 walk at u shooting u with a long bow
Yep, it's sad tbh, I am not sure who is building ranger but hopefully they put some love into the class like the tank tree has
Mage is less if a glass cannon than ranger, also mages can wear heavy armour if they choose in AOC, with a 3600 absorb shield they are quite a bit more tanky
I could also tell you that the Ranger can equip plate armor. However, the reality is that, although each class can equip different types of armor, what scales best in terms of stats for the Mage is cloth (intellect and wisdom), while for the Ranger, medium armor is ideal because it provides bonuses to dexterity and strength. It's a fact that any Ranger will have more HP than a Mage, as well as better defense. In fact, my Ranger has same HP that some Fighters in my guild. Regarding the Mage’s Shield ability, honestly, it’s not that impactful since it only lasts a few seconds and has a 45-second cooldown. I’ve played both Ranger and Mage, and the Ranger definitely handles damage better.
In fact, this is the case in many MMORPGs. For instance, in World of Warcraft, Mages are designed to be fragile but capable of delivering high damage at range (DPS), while Hunters (similar to Rangers) have better survivability thanks to their pets, mail armor, and mobility skills. And in WoW Classic, Ranger is the counter of Mage even with less DPS because in PvP the trinity doesn't matter as it does in PvE, and other traits such as mobility, CC, and survivability are more valued in duels.
In Guild Wars 2, Mages (Elementalists) excel at damage but require flawless positioning to survive, whereas Rangers are more versatile and have tools to mitigate damage, such as traps and evasion.
Lastly, I repeat: expecting the Mage to only be good at AOE limits the class. AOE damage is very situational, especially in PvP, and having a class that only excels at area damage while being the weakest makes it inefficient. In my opinion, the purpose of the Ranger should be to focus more on providing utility, with strong marks, good CC, and the ability to apply multiple DOTs like bleeds. Meanwhile, pure ranged damage should be the primary role of the Mage, just as melee damage is for the Fighter.
if you use a shortbow when u get arrowstorm ur optimal dps rotation is 1 button, AA combo then barrage AA combo then barrage thats it
Seems like you've changed your position from another thread you started saying in your opinion Rangers should be ST and high sustain and Mages AOE, but that's fine we can all change our opinion.
As of right now, we've discussed in this thread and others, that the Ranger is lacking compared to the Mage in pretty much every category. I agree that playing a Mage and a Ranger should feel different but they are both ranged DPS and should have advantages and weaknesses to consider before picking, right now Mage just wins.
In my opinion, and yours from another thread, Rangers should be Rangers single target specialist with some AoE ability. Mages should be AoE damage specialists with some single target ability.
The perspective you present is simplistic and doesn’t make sense from an MMORPG balance point of view. Traditionally, the mage has always been designed as a Glass Cannon: a class that sacrifices survivability for the highest damage output. If a Glass Cannon isn’t the class dealing the most damage, then it loses its purpose, and there’s no reason to choose it.
In games like World of Warcraft, and specifically in WoW Classic, the mage consistently dealt more damage than the Ranger (Hunter) in ST and AoE. However, in PvP, the Ranger was often the mage’s counter. This demonstrates that the Ranger doesn’t need to deal the most damage to excel in PvP. PvP dynamics differ greatly from PvE, where the “Holy Trinity” of tank, healer, and DPS is more rigid. In PvP, factors like utility, mobility, and crowd control often play a bigger role than raw damage output.
What doesn’t make sense is suggesting that a cloth-wearing class, with less health (even with a magic shield) and lower mobility, should also have less single-target damage. According to your argument, the mage is fine now and “wins,” but if the game were changed to work as some suggest, in a one-on-one scenario, the Ranger would always beat the mage. This would happen because the Ranger would have higher single-target damage, stronger attacks, higher crit chance, more health, a similar level of crowd control, and far more mobility. In that case, the Ranger would clearly be superior, and the mage would be relegated to being a class focused solely on AoE damage. This would make it practically useless in many scenarios, as its PvP impact would be drastically diminished.
If you want some advice, both for yourself and for other players who choose Ranger, it’s worth noting the type of players this class tends to attract. Many want a class that deals massive ranged damage, has long range, great crowd control, and medium armor for significant defense. This desire for an all-powerful class often leads to constant complaints whenever the class isn’t at the top. And let’s be honest: Legolas has done a lot of damage to this archetype. Many players want to emulate the fantasy of being the perfect, infallible archer capable of dominating any fight, but that simply isn’t realistic in a balanced game.
In summary, if the game aims to stay balanced, the Ranger shouldn’t outperform the mage in damage, whether single-target or AoE. Its role, especially in PvP, should revolve around providing utility to the team, taking advantage of its high mobility, and excelling at applying damage-over-time (DoT) effects like bleeds and other debuffs. Asking for the Ranger to be superior in every aspect would simply break the balance of the game.
Unlike many others here, I have a balanced and unbiased perspective, as I’ve leveled a warrior, a mage, and a ranger to level 18. I care about a balanced game, you care only about being the Legolas of Verra, to the point of asking for other classes to be nerfed (worry about your own class)
The thing is, the mage is superior from all points of view compared to the ranger.
Currently, it makes no sense to play a ranger when the mage excels at every single thing compared to the ranger.
The ranger is supposed to be the glass cannon for single target, physical damage. And it is supposed to be squishy. Well. It is not right now. Not only from numbers point of view, but from the skill set point of view.
The Mage isn’t superior in health (regardless of the magic shield, which is just skill), nor in crit chance, mobility, or crowd control (CC). So let’s clear this up: the Ranger is not a Glass Cannon. If you want a class that sacrifices durability for high damage, play the Mage. The Ranger, with its medium armor and focus on strength and dexterity, sits in a balanced middle ground between damage and survivability. It delivers consistent physical damage but isn’t designed to have the highest single-target DPS—that’s the Mage’s role.
If the Ranger is meant to balance damage, mobility, and utility, it makes no sense for it to have the highest damage output. That would contradict its role and disrupt the game’s balance. Steven and the design team understand this. Taking damage away from the class with the least health, like the Mage, would make it unplayable.
The Ranger has a clear kit and defined role. It’s not going to become an overpowered hybrid with the longest range, highest single-target damage, best mobility, and strongest CC—all while maintaining decent health. That’s unrealistic and not aligned with the game’s design.
No, you won’t be one-shotting tanks from a kilometer away while flipping out of danger. And yes, the Ranger has cast times for its powerful abilities because instant high-damage ranged attacks would make it absurdly overpowered. Complaining about these mechanics ignores the core principles of class balance.
The Mage is designed to be a Glass Cannon, and this is reflected in its ability to maintain high DPS numbers in single-target encounters. The Hunter, while competitive, has a more versatile design, balancing its damage with utility and mobility.
Class balance is essential for a healthy MMORPG. The Ranger excels in consistent damage, mobility, and utility without overshadowing the Mage’s pure damage potential. If you expect the Ranger to dominate every aspect while retaining survivability, the problem isn’t the class—it’s your expectations.
The problem is not the class, is you and your expectations of it.
In my view, Ranger and Mage should have distinct roles: Mage should be more focused on AoE and casting, while Ranger should excel at single-target and sustained DPS. However, this might not be the case currently. So, I’m opening this thread with this survey and, of course, feel free to share your opinions.
You literally said the above in another thread you started...
The balance makes perfect sense from a rock paper scissors view that Ashes has.
The health difference isn't really noticeable and the shield and blink the Mage has is far better than disengage and a small movement buff the Ranger has. I'm not asking for the Mage to be nerfed but the Ranger to be buffed.
As an FYI I've played all classes apart from the Bard so have a pretty good idea of how the DPS classes compare to eachother and how they play against the Tank and Cleric. And you should also know, I main Melee DPS in every MMO I play.
What it seems to me is, that you've been repeatedly been asking for which has the highest damage Ranger or Mage for a few months now, and it seems you're a bit of a Mage main and want it to stay in top.
The Mage is a more straightforward class designed to deal damage, sacrificing mobility, utility, and survivability to maximize its offensive potential. On the other hand, the Ranger is a more versatile and balanced class: it deals decent damage but also offers mobility, crowd control (CC), and higher survivability thanks to its medium armor. If the Ranger, on top of all this, also led in single target damage, it would become an OP class and break the game’s balance.
This type of class balance isn’t new, and a clear example can be found in World of Warcraft, a game that, while not everyone’s favorite, has over 20 years of history and multiple patches focused on class balancing. In WoW, the Mage is a more asymmetrical class, with a clear focus on maximizing damage at the cost of having fewer mobility and survivability tools. The Hunter (the equivalent of the Ranger) is more versatile, balancing moderate damage with utility and greater resilience. This balance allows both classes to have a purpose in PvE and PvP. In fact, in PvP, the Hunter often acts as a counter to the Mage thanks to its mobility and crowd control.
It’s worth noting that in World of Warcraft, the only time the Hunter outperformed the Mage in single target damage was during the expansion The Burning Crusade. This happened because the Beast Mastery specialization had a strong synergy with pets, allowing Hunters to surpass Mages in long fights. However, outside of this exception, the Mage has consistently led in single target damage due to its Glass Cannon design.
Proposing that the Ranger should be the top single target damage dealer while relegating the Mage to area damage would be a serious mistake. This would not only break the Mage’s design, which is meant to lead in all forms of damage, but it would also make the Ranger overly self-sufficient and without any real weaknesses. The key is to maintain balance: the Mage excels in raw damage, while the Ranger is more adaptable, with a versatile kit that combines damage, mobility, and utility.
Finally, save your personal assessments about my intentions or what I want. Focus on the discussion. For your information, I have played a Ranger, a Mage, and a Warrior, and the character I’m currently playing and leveling the most is the Ranger. My goal is not to favor one class over another but to discuss the balance objectively.
I'm focused on it because you literally said you wanted Rangers to be highest ST and Mages AoE so no idea why you don't acknowledge that now but hey ho you do you good budd I'm here to test and give feedback.
Also didn't say Ranger should be exclusively ST and Mage AoE. Ranger should be best at ST whilst having some AoE capability and the Mage the opposite.
I've played all classes except the Bard and my feedback is that the Ranger is the worst of the 3 and needs buffing.