As alluded to above, in order, my personal top three weapon choices would be:
1. New one-handed javelin/throwing spear (Hey, dragonblood spears were added to some PoF content, there are NPC and enemy Paragons chucking spears in the Domain of Istan, and the revenant's underwater spear has 4 ranged, throwing attacks, so it's not that farfetched, right?)
--Sticking to weapons already in the game, after that--
2. Scepter
3. Focus
You keep mentioning nostalgia for the GW1 ranger, but really, besides a pet attack skill or two, the bunny thumper just used warrior skills with reduced energy requirement due to the expertise stat. A greatsword core ranger of GW2 feels close enough to that for me in functionality.
The same would be the case if the underwater spear was allowed for land-use as I've seen some call for, as to my mind, it's pretty much the same thing as the greatsword for the ranger apart from a short whirl and reflect on skill 2.
I also just greatly prefer more ranged combat, myself. I'm with DeanBB in that the only hammer I'd want to see would be a thrown one.