Ranger

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Description
The Ranger is a more combat oritentated version of the Druid class. The initial skills of a Ranger allow for greater damage against all Orc units and increased movement speed.

Nature Magic allows the Ranger to act more like a tougher Druid at level 5 if the player wishes that to be so.

Griffonmaster gives a +3 XP boost to all Griffons produced per point in the skill.

Lastly, the Taming skill gives +2 XP to all monster produced.

Stats and Skills
The attribute changes you get by choosing this class:

The abilities you get by choosing this class:

Overall
The Ranger is a somewhat more difficult hero class to muster at early stages. The initial skills available to a Ranger are mostly orientated around running across the map and stealing mines. At this time, it may be wiser to rely on the race's initial skills unless running around the map stealing mines is what you want the hero to be doing. Orcslayer is basically a useless filler skill for what it's worth, which leaves the Ranger with a mixture of available skills. The advantages of this are that the enemy will rarely ever know what combo you've gone for (supporter, wizard, mine thief or any combination of those. If you're braver, maybe even a quick-footed fighter). Use this to its maximum advantage and the Ranger should be a worthy adversary.

Races
The Wood Elves are probably the best and most obvious choice for the Ranger class. They benefit from a tough, high speed hero capable of capturing enemy mines at great speed. The Ranger can be adapted to fulfill many different roles. Running and Dexterity allows the Ranger to act as a tough-ish mine thief, Intelligence and Nature Magic can make for a semi-Druid fighter. Lastly, the Forest Rune, Griffonmaster and Sky Rune skills and a high Charisma stat can allow the Ranger to be a semi-tough supporting hero capable of chucking out seriously tough Treants and/or Griffons (considering the terrible Wood Elf economy, this option is probably the most reasonable).

Other than that, it may be possible to abuse a high level Taming combo with a monster-filled race (Daemons?).

A surprising combo is a Barbarian Ranger, not only because of a Running synergy. They start with good strength and dexterity, further improved as Rangers, making them more effective at low levels (Reave also helps against pesky large units that spell doom for low level heroes). Later on, they remain potent, as Nature provides useful units, like Treants (better builders than thralls), Unicorns (to awe and heal) and Elementals (to compensate for a lack of siege and strong ranged units). On top of that, Taming can catapult War Dogs and Pegasi (other fliers too) to great heights, but requires much investement. The only drawbacks are the low Intellignece and Charisma stats, which can be softened with mana researches and the Horse Lord skill.

Counters

 * Highly ineffective at low levels and the skills tend to be quite specific.
 * The Ranger may be tougher than many heroes, but cannot withstand near as much as a full Warrior class
 * Learn the orientation of the ranger (supporter, wizard or mine thief) and use that knowledge to assassinate, assault or defend against them.