Necro/Ranger Profession

So I decided to make a Necro with Ranger as my secondary profession (mostly because I love pets and having my wolf and a bunch of undead beasties is fun!) Saying that though I am having trouble deciding what kind of weapon to use. I have been using a bow so I can use the Ignite Arrows skill and some of the other Ranger skills from afar while I sit there and make pets and occasionally cast a curse or two. But saying this as much as I like the bow I am not sure it is the best weapon for a N/R... Anyone have a recommendation on what would be a good weapon to use? I would love to put something like a shield or one of my +8 energy idols in my offhand but since all bows are two-handed I am pretty much SOL. Any other N/R's have feedback on what they use?

You don't see a lot of N/R's out there. I'm level 9 and just started post-sear yesterday. In post-sear towns you see others classes and level above their heads. I've been using a bow for the first couple of shots as it seems to have better range, then changing to a truncheon for hand-to-hand.

A lot is going to depend on whether you go out with large enough groups that you can hang back, cast spells and shoot arrows, or whether you go out with your pet (and your slightly uglier, temporary pets) and need to cause some close up damage.

As you progress let me know how your N/R combination works and any other strategies you discover

I am level 12 now and I am really happy with the N/R profession so far. The combo of a Ranger pet and Bone Minions seems to have really nice dmg output. Group that with the Necro curse that slows down mobs hitting and raining ignited arrows (which hit everything adjacent to the target mob) and mark of pain for shadow dmg you can really be a contributor to the group. Only problem I have is that I don't really keep anything other than one lifetap spell up when I go out...

Me, I'm a N/R, and I love it. I focus on Death Magic, and Marksmanship for my character. I've had a farely good time with him. Oh, congrats on chosing the best proffesions evah

I am a lvl 12 N/R, and I like her a lot so far. at first, I was using a bow like you, but i was pumping marksmenship just to increase the bow dmg and wasnt really using any marksmenship skills (havent found the better ones yet), so i took points out of that and am currently 8 blood magic and 8 beast mastery. i use a trunchon (linked skill blood magic) and a +6 eng thing in other hand. she seems pretty good so far, Im debating wether to make my 3rd attribute i pump as death magic for minions, curses for support, or wilderness survival for healing and other assorted goodies. currently i debuff with life siphon, then do a bleeding attack with my wolf, and vamp gaze them till they die, then do a blood well, and everyone in my party has good regain of hp. so far that works well. but, any advice on my 3rd attribute?

I dont have the game, I am wating for the IGN review. anyway, as soon as I saw that both the necro and ranger could have pets, that is the first combo that jumped to my mind if and when i pick up the game. What do you think of going ranger as primary and necro as secondary? Good luck