I play a ranger, (currently lvl 25), but also play a warden, (currently lvl 24), in a regular trio with a guardian and a ranger.
As a ranger, I can do fairly good damage with my bow, (my highest bow shot to date was about 330 and I average around 250), but I would never give up the dps I can do with a fast pair of swords to stand in front of a mob and get beat on!
By pulling with a pristine imbued bow and then dual wielding a pair of quick pristine imbued T3 weapons while using orange con poison, I can solo any white or yellow con mob and tend to carve them up pretty fast. I can take on orange and red con mobs but they are by no means a lock, and things do tend to get... exciting!
In a group situation, I imagine you could tank but a warrior will always have better mitigation so my recomendation would be, let the tank absorb the punishment and stick to what you do best... which is dishing out damage.
In my regular trio, the ranger does all the pulling, tracking and selecting mobs for us and then bringing them back to camp, where he hands them off to the tank before jumping back in for the slice and dice! Between the two of them, I rarely have to take a swing at a single mob and usually only melee if there are unexpected adds.
During those sessions, I mostly heal and loot. Life is good!
Regarding a rangers "role", you can track, pull and dish out a healthy level of dps. And well geared, you should be able to solo quite well. Ranger has long been my favorite class and here in EQ2, I still like them just fine!