Rangers = meh
Bought the new PHB a few days ago. In general I am a big ranger fan. I have read all the classes several times. My opinion on ranger:
Meh. One of the weaker combat classes. Because of the ranger spells, definitely better with ranged weapons than melee weapons.
Hunter > Beast Master.
For hunter, Giant Killer, Multi-attack defense, Volley and Evasion will be the abilities to take. Uncanny dodge requires a bonus action, so you wont be able to use a 2nd bonus action in the same round to cast one of your tasty bonus-action spells. Evasion simply works...doesnt require any action.
Hail of Thorns will be your DPR spell. Combined with Volley, or simply with more than one attack, you will be raining decent damage on plenty of combatants in a single round
Swift quiver is nice, but doesnt kick in until the round after you cast it. Swift quiver costs a bonus action to cast. You can then shoot two extra arrows with a bonus action each round, but since swift quiver is a bonus action in the first place, and you can only take one bonus action each round, your wont start getting the extra two shots until the round after you cast swift quiver. With swift quiver, the round after you cast it, a ranger can get 4 shots a round.
Stoneskin could be useful depending on how many monsters have attacks which count as magical attacks.
Vanish could be fantastic, if a player can hide during combat. The hide rules for 5.0 are a mess. The official D&D boards are raging with players trying to figure out all the details of how hide works in 5.0
Ranger burst damage stinks.
Rangers are a role-playing class. Oh well. I will learn to deal with it. Personally, my character will be 18 levels of ranger, and 2 levels of rogue. That should still make for a decent combat character with loads of roleplaying potential.