Now, I’m not going to have a companion named Mr. Bonkers, although the temptation is high just to get a few laughs out of everyone now and then, but to say that I will be taking my pets lightly is an extreme understatement. The information given out so far by ArenaNet about the Ranger and how he or she will interact with their loyal companions of nature has me thinking on the possibilities open to the Ranger in terms of customization and how this will affect the ability of Rangers to meet challenges in Guild Wars 2.

If you haven’t really read into the Ranger profession at all basic information can be found here.

A ranger will be able to acquire many types of animal companion, including bears, moas, devourers, and sharks. The animal companions no longer evolve, and so much for the ability to press "B" to cancel evolution. . . Your pets have access to the abilities available to their family type as well as an ability specific to them such as the polar bear’s icy roar and now level up alongside your character instead.

This intrigues me as I can imagine so many possibilities for a Ranger to customize their pet load outs for specific situations and the ability to switch two pets out during combat allows the Ranger to react to the ebb and flow of battle by bringing forth a pet that might be able to debuff a particular enemy or absorb a significant amount of incoming damage instead of the Ranger’s party.

While this sounds great and I can’t wait to see what animal companions I will find the most useful for the way I end up playing my ranger, I can’t help feeling as if my Ranger might be invalid if he doesn’t have a pet available for some reason.

When you switch out your pets the one out of action will have its health renewed when it is called again to battle so the possibility of a Ranger being found without his or her pet seems rare if almost impossible unless the Ranger chooses to. But I almost hope that the Ranger is balanced for the possibility of not having a pet out and still being useful in terms of reacting to the flow of combat and being a contributing member of the party.

This isn’t to say that I’m not going to have a pet, but I would almost be a little disappointed if the Ranger couldn’t be a valid and balanced class without his or her animal companions available and present. This might be trying to circumvent a primary feature of the Ranger class but I feel as if a companion-less Ranger should be possible and also viable as well versus other classes and PvE content.

The Ranger has the ability to summon spirits of nature as well as access to utility skills such as traps to influence the flow of battle and I don’t think the Ranger would be too boring if the pet was made to be a particular class option rather than mandatory. I suppose it all comes down to synergy with the group a Ranger is running with and the ability to not have a pet isn’t troubling in the least so much as I’m playing the devil’s advocate for the people that don’t want to have a pet but still want to be a Ranger.

Overall the pet system as we know it now looks very robust and interesting, the ability to customize your pets to a certain degree based on your own particular play style shines out as a perfect example of why Guild Wars 2 will be the game for people to watch out for when it releases. So grab your bow and bring forth your favorite pet and let’s get ready to dish out some hurt!

-Ravenflame