Guild Wars Character Profile: The Ranger

GameSpot brings us another character profile for ArenaNet's Guild Wars, this time focusing on the game's Ranger profession. Here's a bit to get you started:
Rangers are the only class in the game to possess beast mastery, which is the ability to go into the wild to tame a permanent animal companion. Currently, Guild Wars offers three kinds of "pets": a warthog, a bird of prey, and a lynx. An animal companion will be persistent throughout the life of your character, and it will actually gain experience levels and become stronger over time...if it survives.

The ranger is also the only profession in the game that possesses nature lore--which is a line of "global enchantment" skills--far-reachingsorceries that affect the entire world, or, at least, all characters in a specific mission or battle. A ranger may have only one of these powerful spells in place at a time.