Huh, what's wrong with Ranger? IIRC the tornado thrown out from the tornado path did knockup, which actually made it pretty decent. Did he get gimped in TT or SC?
In TT his tornado doesn't damage enemies just spins them around for a brief amount of time (and it often backfires by flinging the enemies at you)
In the new TAAG Presentation, it is stated there are "a variety of different ways" to inlock special attacks. (Maybe you don't need a sensei to teach them those abilities)