Guild Wars 2

Firstly, i am the one who against idea of perma-stowing in any form. It’s not even what you call “simple”, it’s primitive, while ranger’s mechanics already not very complex. By the way, i should admit – i never seen any professions but ranger complaining about their F-mechanics is hindering. They can call it boring or weak but never – hindering. Only rangers feel encumbered by their own F-mechanics.
I have the idea how to revamp birds. Despite the fact that i suggesting it, i don’t find it perfect. Also, it’s even too similar with perma-stowing. I just hope it could inspire ANet game designers for something better.
So. Bird isn’t real pet anymore, it becomes additional skill bar. It has animation of flying around, pecking ground, sometimes sitting on ranger’s arm or shoulder, but isn’t present in game as unit, it’s untargetable and can’t attack. “Attack My Target”, pet’s skill and “Return to Me” on F-bar replaced by another set of skills. F1 is “Swoop” – bird strikes enemy once and applying a condition, F2 is “Mark a target” – bird strikes enemy once than you gain attack of opportunity, F3 is “Enter combat” – bird becomes a targetable unit, enable to attack, with stats of current bird pets, if it killed returns to its previous state after cooldown.