I feel there should be evolution’s for your pet, perhaps just skins or something but maybe an actual level up mechanic. You get a trainer who can help train your pet, and help it evolve and become even more potent in combat. Give it a quest chain to follow with various things you need to do (( like achievements)) that will give you various things to help your pet grow. Example of how the Evolution can go is as follows
Juvenile Shark==> Matriarch Shark===> Megoladon
Juvenile Wyvern==> Adolescent Wyvern=> Adult Wyvern
This dose not mean make them huge like the world bosses, but make them larger and give them different features to set them apart. Make them big enough to be larger than a big as you can get charr/norn and give them like stripes, or more detailed hides as they go. Maybe even armor or they grow horns/spikes, anything to make them a bit different form their original selves. Perhaps make it an ascended mechanic, where its not required but recommended? Much like various aspects of the game it dose not force you to go through with it, but rewards you should you decide to spend the hours toiling for it.
This ideal to some extent could be implemented on the other classes as well, such as the elementist and their familiars, the necromancers minions and the messmers clones.
For example((going to be vague because this is more about the ranger, but i feel i should address this.)) Messmers rather than clones of themselves are able to cause/incite hallucinations which has been seen both in the original story-line for guild wars 2 when we were tricked into mortaring our own soldiers? Make it like when we had to fight the toxic krait/nightmare court with the screen changing when targeted and summoned beasts coming at you. Make it more about the caster by making them stand out, rather than blend in with their clones.
Necromancer? Simple. Make their undead minions more closely related to the original guild wars minons, or maybe legit skeletons? Perhapse even one of the seven reapers which we met in orr?
Elementisits familiars should grow from a air element, to a storm elemental or even from a fire to a djiin? Giving them more attacks and perhaps more skills to use to help the companions, even lesser elemental to greater elemental makes them feel like they have improved. Again not required but a granted boost/power up should you want it, i know they would have to make something for the other classes to counter balance it. But im sure there are plenty of ways they could do this, and make it fair while also keeping the immersion of a ranger/summoners pets/companions from growing more stale because they are still a baby despite all we have went through. I mean you run around siphoning skill/hero points from spirits of old, people coming out of the mists with otherworldly powers? I don’t see why we cant enhance our pets with nature magic, and train them to be even more potent/powerful. Thanks for reading guys, and may your steps be relentless.
