I play DS2 solo as a pure melee class. I'm about 10 lvl IIRC, and now I have "The Plague" obligatory quest, so I have to enter the Elven Shrine to find a cure. But the door to the Elven Shrine is restricted only for a Ranged 6 lvl character to open.

Does it mean that DS2 can not be played through solo as a pure melee character?

You can use ranged pets to attack doors, same for nature and combat doors. Hire them and hen just dismiss them after you're done.

You could just drag around pets and maybe just set them not to attack or defend, so you now have extra storage space lol.

I've stopped playing the original version and now only play modded GOG version, so I don't know if what I mentioned above is 100% fact or not. I believe it is though.
.

Damn, I forgot about pets completely. Thank you for a reminder.

DS wiki tells me that the only ranged pet available in the whole game is Scorpion Queen. The good part is that it is available just from the start, in Eirulan town. The bad part is that it has 3rd level initially, and I need 6th Ranged to open that door, and DS2 is unlike Diablo and has no resurrecting mobs* to grind the needed levels.

All of this means that I have to scrap my character, start again and hire the Scorpion Queen right from the start, just to get beyond this obligatory quest. A shame.

* I noticed that some mobs ARE resurrected in fact but they are too few to grind levels effectively.

Man, I have an IQ of a pack mule...

That door is just a side door to a loot room, there is another door to the main corridor, it's just not so easy to notice.

And pets are always the same level as your main character.

So, the journey continues. This game is really very fun, I just grew tired a little of this Dryad town and jungles.

Yeah, the loot doors are really just optional, nothing that will stop you from progressing and missing the loot won't mean much. I'm a completionist, so I have to open all doors, discover all secrets etc. lol.

I too enjoyed the game the first time I played it, but later playthroughs I ended up getting pet mods (they act as companions w/ tons of inventory pages also), drop mods (more and better loot), harder monster mods (adjustable if you have the mod tools), etc.that made the game even more interesting.

I don't know if the companions had any quests, but if they did, that would be the only reason I use them for temporarily. Again, completionist here lol.
.

Yeah, the loot seems rather wanting so far. And barrels with 1 gold within are not fun anymore :D

Oh one other thing, I don't think you have to share your exp with pets. That includes the pet mods as well. Not 100% sure, so you may want to verify it yourself. :)
.

Yes, the DS Wiki tells the same. Although I still can't fully grasp how pets get 'experience' or whatever they get to 'mature'.

If I recall correctly, you feed them items and this will influence their growth. You can use several types of items, but the type you use the most will have the greatest effect in the end for each stage.

Here's an example, but again, verify it lol.

For example:
- For melee pets like a Mule, you'd want their STR to increase - So you'd feed it melee weapons and str base armors for the majority of its progress bar (maybe like 51%) and for the rest of the bar you can feed it anything else.
- As long as melee or Str based items outweight the majority of items fed to the pet, STR will grow the most. I think the other attributes grow also, but to a less extent.
- For ranged pet's like the Dryad (or Scorpion?) - you'd use Ranged weapons or DEX armor. I think you get the idea.
- Nature and Combat pets may be fed the same type, but I'm not 100% sure on that. By same type, I mean magic based or INT items.

I think you can max our a pet early or the players level may put a restriction on the growth, but not 100% sure. BTW, the progress bar doesn't show as a percentage, so you'd have to just go beyond the middle point as far as majority when it comes to type of item fed to pet.
.