I know my post is very late in the game, but hopefully it still is applicable.

First of all, welcome to Carrion Fields, and thank you for your kind words. I cannot being to describe how many hours I have blown of my life playing this...more then a game...game.

I have very simple advice, as I found everyone's playstyle differs. Play what you like. If you find a ranger or warrior boring to play, don't. Death is fairly guarantee no matter what class you pick, though of course death happens more swiftly with certain classes. I don't recommend classes that have lots of enemies, though(necromancers, anti paladins).

I bring this point solely because my experience as a newbie in this game. I was told assassins were a good class for newbies(which is thereotically true), so I rolled one. I couldn't be a worse assassin...I lasted...oh 13 ranks and was probably looking at 8 con, or something just as ridiculous. My next character was a gnome invoker. This character was much more successful, and in fact I stayed with this character for over 150 hours(and when I deleted I had 18 con, if I remember correctly, lots of trains as a gnome). I can't say I was great with her, but I did much better then I would if I had chosen another assassin or any other class. In fact, I got my first pk with this character at rank 18(and let me tell you, that was cause for celebration). So if you find out warriors aren't your idea of fun, but shifters are, then by all means play a shifter(Though I cannot guarantee the survivability of the character, just the entertainment value of it).

Next, once you chose a character that suits your needs/wants(or stick with the ranger, if that does it for you), stick with it. I cannot express how important patience can be. For every death you take and you get back up and dust yourself off...you learn something. Though, if the character becomes boring, don't torture yourself by continuing playing the character. Delete if you must, but don't delete out of frustration, but only after you know that you cannot get any enjoyment from playing the character.

The learning curve is steep, this is true, but a lot of the game is how much effort you put into it. It is still just a game, though, so don't take it too seriously and forget to go back to work.