Just use steel, it doesn't matter if you don't go against deep reds or purple and if the rest of your gear has enough accuracy you can dispatch even purples. I don't know what they smoke at daum, but ranger mounted spammable combat move is ridicolously overpowered. The only thing you really need to do is a bunch of carrots, because your horse will drain its stamina quickly (not that quick, just a lot faster than normal).
Post 21 you can go on with EES if you are in confined spaces and if you want to actually loot shit (and you should), but going Legolas from horseback is always an option if you have to grind fast.
I mean, the witch is more fun and varied, plus it's visually speaking a thousand times better (meteor shower alone wins a prize, together with the black rage ultimate lightning storm).
I'm in a small guild with friends, so we just take it easy and I roll alts while I wait for them to catch up, that's why my ranger was born. I'm a sucker for ranged classes, so I'll keep playing this one on and off as well.
Sometimes I'd be tempted to buy an army of minipets and level all of them, but it's a headache to feed them regularly, because pet food is annoying to farm materials for and it requires Apprentice cooking at the very least, plus those little fuckers eat like lions.
I'll still suck it up and get a hawk.