a melee in hides is using something from another part of the triangle to gain an advantage. if a mage brought range as well as mystic he could still fairly accurately entangle this meleer (in splitbark and granite shield I still entangle full hiders 3/4 of the time) and range their newly lowered range defense due to the hides. if he switches, you switch. it all works out. I do agree a little bit though. rangers should lose 20~ mage defense points for full hides in exchange for a special on the crystal bow and a few more offensive perks, but nothing too drastic. take out mage pot and antipoison because mage pot pking isnt gonna give up any kills anyway and no one uses dagger with scims to cut webs and spec with (or maul to spec with and scim to fight with). if anything super energy would be used, but mages have so little weight it doesnt matter. mages also have less food because they dont get hit thanks to the entangle you mentioned, and if they do (my splitbark pk style for example) then they greatly outdo meleers in damage and wont need to eat as much anyway.