Deepwood sniper as is can't get high end,mid game or even low level love.
Tempest is in place and most wanted due to melee mechanics such as BABs system.
Also the melee granted feats push all rangers in a melee direction.That is fine in itself.
It has 3 tiers and all follow the BABs system to make you a melee class 1st,ranged is situational only!
This is accomplished as with all melee,to benefit from strength.It directly effects all melee with + to hit
and + to damage.That makes the tempest lean twared a strength build.
Not a bad choice for a dex based class!You get two weapon fighting granted,and so strength = + to hit
and + to damage for each weapon in each hand as the BABs progresses. This = more attacks,more chances to
crit and more damage done.

The Arcane Archer is in place as a middle of the road choice.Through magical means you improve your ranged
ability slightly.The + to hit from summoned arrows and the + to damage through imbueing said arrows.
An increase in your mana pool is granted,as well as the true strike shot you can take.It's nice to know you
get a + 20 to hit from time to time.But this build is still in need of STR due to the lack of damage, from ranged
single shot per round compared to extra attacks with TWF and BABs progression.That includes extra crit chances
and don't forget the STR,+ to hit and + to DAMAGE for each weapon that swings in a melee round.
Even as an AA you still don't have a reason to take that one more shot with your bow,to use the point blank shot feat rather than switching to swords.The damage difference still goes to melee weapons and you'll be expected
to sword up by your group/guild/raid or risk solo as a way of life.

Deepwood sniper should logically be the Ranged version of the 3 choices.As of now ranged in the game is
underpowered compared to melee.The damage is so limited and the shot speed can't hope to = melee DPS.
Why you ask? Due to melee gets STR to increase not only to hit but DAMAGE as well.Also getting an extra
weapon and chances to crit don't hurt.
The sniper as of now only gets a sniper shot every 10 seconds.A +4 to hit and +2 to crit conferm and +1
to multiplier.Not a garontee to crit but helpful if you do on that one shot.But that one shot every 10 seconds
Still will not compare to the damage output of melee by anymeans.

simple solution would be to make DWS ranged based 1st,melee situational.
Give the DWS a reason to stay dex based.A reason to take one more shot with point blank shot,before going to
the swords!
Keep the sniper shot but include a new feat only for DWS. Call it Sniper Mastery or the like.It's simple since there
is bow strength,Sniper Mastery would allow DWS only to use DEX bonus for Damage! Keep the same set up as
tempest.A 3 tier system.At DWS 1 you get the spot,move silently,hide bonus and sniper shot + Sniper Mastery.
That would change out the bow strength thats a granted to Sniper Mastery,so DEX bonus is applied to damage
ONLY for the DWS.It makes sense and is exactly the same as how melee gets bonus to damage from STR.
It only effects ranged and DWS.The max for STR is 18.The max for DEX is 20.That will not make any difference
below 6th level since it's not attainable till then and only to DWS.
Give us a reason to take the ranged feats. Give us a reason to not be swords 1st,Ranged Situational.
Give the groups/raids/guilds a reason to take us instead of another melee if we are not tempest build.
DWS 2 and 3 can be as easy as the route taken by tempest.Improve DWS bow damage link it shot on the run.
Give a reason to take precision as an active like power attack.

That would bring Ranged back into the picture if DWS path is chosen.
i can't see why this is not doable in the next patch.
Thanks for the read and don't nerf....Just improve.