Guild Wars 2

Well for PvE I think the pets (ranger pets/necro pets/ranger spirits) in general needs a buff to them because they die easy, especially in AoE encounters like Alpha. I think AoE protection would make using pets more of a viable option in higher level encounters.

In PvP/WvW it would be an indirect nerf to AoE. I know the devs have been talking about how they want to see AoE toned down a little bit. This could be one way to reduce it somewhat. The idea would be that if you really want to kill a pet that you should single target attack it. This would increase the opportunity cost of using AoE spells without messing with the damage numbers. I know that increasing the pet AoE resistance alone probably isn’t enough but it’s a good direction I think. It causes players to act differently in different situations as opposed to just putting a blanket nerf. Pets that spawn from runes should also have the AoE resistance so that not only certain classes benefit. But so that people know that pets have AoE resistance it should show that they do under their name like how bosses have text under their name detailing the boss mechanics.

I think this would actually balance a lot of things in WvW.

With AoE mechanics that have a maximum number of damagable targets (arrowcarts, many aoe skills, catapults, etc), It’s a pain to see a necromancer’s minions soak up all the damage thats supposed to be hitting the flame ram on your gates.

If pets/minions/illusions didn’t “count” as a target in AoE situations but still received damage, this could alleviate this problem.

It would also be nice if they didnt soak up the already sparse AoE heals we see.

Most games with pets, also have pets take 50% less aoe damage. It is a blanket protection for lack of direct control. This protection usually comes with a slight cost of damage potential but most pets in this game already have low scale damage.

Illusions do not count as pets and should count as targets.

This and tracking.