Rangers are not completely dependent on pets. However you can fully slot your traits to boost your pet for one of the best ranger builds ever. My Mountain Lion run faster than me, hits harder and crit more often than me, and survives longer than me.
Basically beast masters are their pets pet.
I really don’t mind playing like that especially in sPVP as people focus on ranger and ignore the pet critting them for 3k. With Sick Em’ and Rampage As One in full swing one of my highest pet crits was around 5.6k in sPvP