Guild Wars 2

You see these threads pop up from time to time, and they usually devolve into flamefest back-and-forth about whether pets should be ‘required’ or ‘optional’ for the class.

Primarily, you see a lot of, frankly, simple-minded comments about how pets are the “ranger mechanic” and as such an option to play a ranger without them shouldn’t be considered.

Here’s my two cents:

Firstly, pets may be a unique ranger mechanic, but they are not the only defining characteristic of the class. On a more holistic level, rangers are wilderness themed hunters, survivalists, scavengers, ambushers, roamers, archers, etc. You get the idea, there are many, many things that go into the “ranger” archetype, and pets are only one of those things. Removing the pet does not suddenly change the archetype, they are still a thematically unique class, so telling someone to “play a warrior or a thief” instead is pretty silly.

Secondly, the class mechanic, while it does help define the class, in many cases is much more passive. As an example, consider the warrior’s adrenaline. Warriors get special attacks from their buildup of adrenaline, and that operates as their “class mechanic”. However, you are not required to use those adrenaline attacks to be effective, and there are in fact multiple traits that help you gain benefits for not using your adrenaline. Other class mechanics may play a larger role (again, depending on the class), but in most cases it’s something very thematically integral to the classes’ unique powers, while the pet is just one of a kit of tools at the Ranger’s disposal. I.e. an elementalist without affinities/attunements is no longer an elementalist, but a ranger without a pet is still a ranger.

So, in conclusion, asking for Rangers to be playable without a pet is not unreasonable. There are many people out there who would like to play a ranger-themed character without being forced to micromanage a pet all the time (it’s also a visual annoyance at times). It would be very easy to, without significantly altering the current version of the Ranger, allow the ability to stow your pet indefinitely while adding a few traits that give you some benefit when your pet is stowed. It’s not even necessary that a ranger without a pet be as ‘optimal’ as a ranger with a pet, but it should be playable.

There is nothing whatsoever unreasonable about that request, and anyone who acts like there is is just being petulant and single-minded.