They make an excellent choice for soloing in outdoor zones because of their ability to track, heal and fight. They have the widest assortment of hybrid spells and are also the only hybrid which can duel wield. Well it's not much of a decision as there are only three races in the game which can be rangers, those being humans, half elves and wood elves. Humans will ease the experience penalty and have the highest strength and stamina. Half elves have the worst ability scores but do offer infravision and the ability to start on the mainland.
Wood elves are the best choice ability wise.
Wood elves will start off with the ability to forage and hide as it is their natural abilities. This will ease the failures when you first gain the skills and also allow you to take advantage of these two ranger skills from level 1. Wood elves also have the highest overall skills of the three in the longrun. Although humans have an extra 10 strength and stamina wood elves have a 20 point agility advantage, and 5 point advantags in both dexterity and wisdom. My suggestion would be to create a wood elf and put all of your points into strength.