I also played a ranger in EQ and have carried on the tradition here in EQ2.
I can't speak for the end game since my ranger is only lvl 22 but I can tell you that so far, he is every bit as much fun to play as I hoped he would be.
Rangers in EQ2 are truely masters of the bow and most of your combat arts will center around giving you an overwhelming edge in ranged combat. I just checked my stats and my highest hit to date is 233 with a bow. (But now that I've moved up a notch in arrow quality, I expect that to improve even further!)
I tend to solo my ranger a lot since there already was one in the group I usually play with. I play a warden, (druid), in that group and I'm having a ball with that character too.
As far as soloing goes, I find it easy to take out white and yellow con mobs and orange/red mobs are doable but difficult.
Best advice I could give you would be to keep your gear & your spells up to snuff and you'll be able to travel anywhere you like without fear!
Check out the SOE boards for details on high level rangers if you need to, but my advice would be just do it!
Edited, Mon May 23 05:22:04 2005 by OldBlueDragon