I’ve posted this thread here instead of in the suggestion sub-forum because it’s about a specific feature of a specific profession so I think it’s better placed in that profession’s sub-forum.
First off I consider making pets more responsive to F2 and F3 commands and more consistent hits against moving targets bug fixes so I’ll ignore them here.
This is a collage of various suggestions to improve Ranger pets that are independent of each other, some may contradict each other, some may be redundant if others would be implemented so please keep that in mind if you read the suggestions.
F2 pet weapon bar
Pressing F2 replaces your first 5 skills with the attacks of your pet. Skill #1-#3 are the pet family skills (the ones your pet uses on its own currently), Skill #4 is the F2 skill. Skill #5 is a shared between all pets and functions like a dodge; your pet cannot attack but become immune to attacks for ~2 seconds (just like a dodge roll of a player character but the pet stays stationary). You can enable and disable the AI use of skills #1-#3 just as you can enable and disable auto attack on your own weapon bars. Pressing F2 again will activate skill #4 and closes the pet weapon bar, and switch weapon just closes it.
What would this suggestion offer?
Players who don’t want to micro their pet would hardly be hampered by this; instead of pressing F2 once they simply have to press it twice to command their pet using their F2 skill. But players who want to micro their pet have the option to manually use every single skill of their pet, and it offers a much needed dodge to pets so that the can compete against some of the bosses.
Consistent Follow Me
If you have commanded your pet to follow you (F3) it stays close and always directly in front of you (or directly behind you) and not slightly to the side.
What would this suggestion offer?
By moving or turning around you could ensure that your pet moves out of AoEs, currently it’s luck-based if you can convince your pet to move out of AoEs.
F3 Dodge Roll
Calling your pet back makes it immune to attacks for ~2 seconds but it cannot attack during that time period and has a 10-20 seconds cooldown (for comparison, without additional endurance regeneration a player character can dodge every 10 seconds). The cooldown is shown on the F3 icon just like the cooldowns of skills but you can still call your pet back, it just doesn’t get the immunity.
What would this suggestion offer?
By quickly pressing F3 and F1 you can tell your pet to evade bosses’ big attacks.
Follow Me Dodge
If you have commanded your pet to follow you (F3) and it’s close to you (300-600 range) a dodge roll from the Ranger itself offers invulnerability to the pet, too.
What would this suggestion offer?
If you dodge an AoE successfully your pet does evade it, too.