I been playing a ranger and have been auto training bow during my leveling process. as i near the chance to go to the Battle Groups i was thinking of which Realm Skills i should be choosing then came to the conclusion i never yet really decided what type of ranger i wanted to be. I was wondering which spec ( Hybrid or Bow) You would suggest and the advantages and disadvantages of both.. also a break down of which RA's are traditionally used for those specs would be great too.. Thank you very much for your time!

You're going to get hammered by SEARCH FORUM BEFORE ASKING THIS QUESTION FOR THE 200TH TIME, so i better answer fast heh.

My spec atm:
35steath
35bow
39pierce
18cd
40pf

. . .capped stealth when rr5, high crit shot and rapid fire 1, high weap spec, enough cd for side stun. and all yellow buffs. I'm also celt, still do nice damage as pierce. For myself melee was too 1 dimensional for me, even though they can beat people down nicely. Opening up at range for huge damage before they get to you is too good to pass up for me. I like having the option of high crit shot\rapid fire when camo is up. And can melee them down when they get close. I respecced out of hybrid to melee for a bit, booooring.

My RA's
MOS4
IP2
. . .only 4L5 atm. Yes I know I don't have purge, lw or physical defense. Too low rr atm and i hate purge1 I might as well wait for purge2. High mos for crit\rapid fire whether or not camo is up (if you hide for 10mins waiting for camo timer, too boring for me).
I can only tell you what MY preference for ranger is. There are countless ways to skill\ra, so no sense in asking what the best way to go is. I'm positive you'll get more responses, or find another one of these RANGER topics.

Hojo1 wrote:...as i near the chance to go to the Battle Groups...

I think you meant Battlegrounds

By the way, nobody can tell you what is the best ranger spec for you, only experience can help you understand which will be your favourite gameplay. So, if you haven't still played in battlegrounds, you had no occasion to gain the right experience to elaborate.
Keep on autotraining, finish at least Wilton and then you will have a vague idea of what gameplay is best for you.
Even at 50, you might find the need to change your spec after a while, as, for example, i did, because i found that hybrid spec was no good for me and wanted a more melee character. But don't worry, at level 50, respec stones are very easy to obtain

Not a fan of hybrid, especially at low RR: it performs poorly.
I'd suggest you try a full melee at least at the beginning (40+PF, 39 CD), rank up a bit and switch to bow (35) at rr5+ or to even more melee (50CD).

Go for 50stealth, 48pathfinding and max recurve. RAs would be LW2 -> MoS5 -> FE4 -> purge1.