I really don't have too much problems with range. I'm a pretty slow two-hander/polearm user, with my shield skill at 3. What I do is keep my shield up, move from cover to cover, and/or run through the rain in a spontaneous pattern and hope for the best. Switching from my shield to the weapon I have sheathed is all about wise judgement; I somewhat learned when to switch depending on who's closer (melee or range), who's distracted, and who's not a threat (farmers/low-levels aren't my priority). Then, when I have my weapon out, I usually will face a group of melee's (3-5) with my allies (0-5); there'll be one or two rangers not too far away. My strategy at this point will be to eliminate the immediate threat, then kill the rangers. If I survive the melee (I usually do), I'll switch back to shield and go up to them (sometimes, if I'm lazy, I'll just run up to the archers). At this point, I may or may not be battered up depending on my armor/playability. Either way, the only way to die here is to get shot or get stabbed from behind (that's why it's nice to have a finger on the "~" key). I'll switch back to weapon ONLY after they've fired their last shot; if they're stalling, I'd bump them then switch. There, I will proceed with an overhead, then maybe we'd go into a duel. This would be one of my good runs, which I encounter not too often, but not rarely. After dispatching the rangers, I would go on to another fight or take down ladders if it was a siege game.
There are scenarios where I go straight for the rangers, letting my teammates fight the enemy melee. There's one time a crossbowman, one roof away from me, shot me once for over half my health. So for payback, I walked up the ladder, over the roof, knocked out two of his mooks, and gave him a bonk on the head.
I have no real complaints about cRPG and it's mechanics; I often rant about, to my brother, "Why can't there be a West Coast server?" or "Medium speed? Why not faster?", but mostly "Gawddaummut, lag!" I find rangers not to be that much of a problem (I often do get headshotted by both allies and enemies during a melee), but if I have to fight against 50+ rangers, then I'm screwed. Still, I can dodge plenty of arrows despite my sluggishness. Just deal with the problems; the world's not going to change for you (whoever's complaining about rangers), YOU have to change for the world (or learn2block, it's always my advice).
semi-TLDR: You know what we surfers here say, "Go with the flow, bro."