This edition of The Scrying Pool wonders why we haven't seen Ranger pets for sale in Guild Wars 2.

In each article of The Scrying Pool, I look at what is and what could be. After taking a look at what is present in Guild Wars 2 now, be that lore or game mechanics, I then ask What If? What if this happened in the lore or this feature was added in a future patch.

Cosmetic items have been a big part of Guild Wars 2’s gem store. Through this cash shop players have been able to buy new weapon and armor skins and things like unlimited use finishers and harvesting tools that have unique animations and flair. Something that I’m surprised hasn’t been sold in the gem store is new pet skins for the Ranger pets.

Having new skins for existing pets is not a foreign idea in GW2 with the existence of the Hall of Monuments (HoM). Players who played the original Guild Wars could gain unique reward items in GW2 by filling out their HoM in GW1. These rewards included weapon and armor skins, miniature pets and unique Ranger pets.

These pets are only available to players who unlocked them through the HoM, but are not unique pets based on their skills. The Black Moa, for example, has the same skills and attributes of the Pink Moa that any Ranger can acquire through normal gameplay within GW2. The only difference is their appearance.

The pets sold in the gem store would be similar to the HoM pets in that they would be identical to an in-game pet in terms of skills and stats. For example, during the holidays, a Wintersday Bear could be sold that is identical to the Polar Bear, with the addition of it wearing a santa hat and maybe red bow and bell around its neck similar to the Jingle Bear from GW1.

Buying these pets shouldn’t just automatically unlock the pet for use. Even the HoM pets required players to buy the original games and put in a deal of effort to unlock them before having to travel to the HoM in GW2 to tame them. Not only is automatically unlocking them a little cheap and lazy, but a big part of the Ranger experience, in my opinion, is actually going out and taming these beasts.

The easiest way would probably be for these pets to appear in the HoM for players to go and tame after purchasing. Not only would this fulfill in-part the Ranger initiative, it would allow for this pet to always be available on an account for future Ranger characters that may be created.

Here at The Scrying Pool, however, we don’t automatically go for the easy path, but the potentially epic path. What if, when players purchased one of these pets, they were sent a map through

in-game mail? These maps would be a simple item that, when used, would give hints to a location somewhere in the world. With the map in hand, a player would go to the specified location and cause a unique event to spawn. Remember that Wintersday Bear? Maybe going to the map’s hinted location in Snowden Drifts caused a pack of Wintersday Bears to spawn and attack the player. The player would then need to hold off the attacks of the animals until one last bear emerges. Like the other bears, the player would need to attack it, but instead of being killed the bear would become an ally before dying, submitting to the player. Completing the event would then turn the map into a summoning bell that the player can use to unlock the new pet.

How awesome would that be!?

With the Hall of Monument precedent already set, I am surprised that there have not already been new pet skins sold through the gem store. Pets are the only HoM reward type that players cannot buy since weapon skins, armor skins and miniature pets have long since been available through the gem store.

Of course, these pets would be mostly limited to only players that play a Ranger. I wouldn’t think a re-skin of an existing pet would require so much effort that a limited audience would turn ArenaNet away from selling them. And if ArenaNet made something epic to unlock these pets like my event idea above, then I could see some players buying a cool pet, if just for the journey to catch it.

Matt "Mattsta" Adams finished the Great Jungle Wurm meta, but hasn't gotten a full kill on it yet.

I was concerned that Tequatl wouldn't be killed much after the initial wave of players trying to defeat it. My concerns have proven to be unfounded, but even now my concern for the new world boss, the Great Jungle Wurm, grows. It has already been over a couple weeks and it has only been killed a handful of times. How long will players continue to fight a boss that they are more than likely going to fail to kill?

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