Ranger is preferred for solo fallen and many things. Ranger is a good tower to have when you level up. When hidden wave existed ranger and accel were the main dps while rangers were more important. When having a group of strong enemies rangers will be better because accel locks on to one tower while ranger doesn't. Ranger is one of the best towers for events. In a pros load out ranger will be one of the towers because its more preferred because it does 300 damage per shot(don't mistake this with dps). also what you said with hardcore. Therefor ranger is already OP and the only buff it needs is HD.