When my hunter uses ranged abilities, it defaults to the melee auto attack regardless of range.
I’m currently only able to start ranged auto attacking if I use the ability itself.
In case anyone ends up here:
Deselecting the “Auto Attack/Auto Shot” option causes your hunter to default to melee auto attacking instead of ranged auto attacking.
Enabling the option technically fixed my issue, but this means that you can’t leave it unchecked (else needing to use the ranged ‘Auto Shot’ ability manually).