Guild Wars 2

Pets and AoE damage in GW2 are oil and water. No matter the combination, it doesn’t seem to work well.

In PVE pets die to quickly in dungeons and the like due to AoE mechanics.

In WvW they melt in zergs (exception: zerg of pet classes) due to AoE
In WvW solo encounters, pets are extremely formidable due to the lack of AoE

In PvP, they are very strong and, while they do melt in AoE situations, they can oftentimes occupy an ‘aoe cap’ slot, preventing actual players from taking damage.

What can be done to resolve this such that pets are more balanced in the game?

A couple of thoughts:

[global] Damaging a pet is not counted toward the AoE cap.
[PvE] Reduce pet damage due to AoE by LARGE (e.g. 75)

Other ideas?