I don’t like this idea at all as my PET companion is what makes the ranger unique!
You would still have a graphical representation of your pet just “spiritified” and it would still pull off its special attack. So in essence you have a pet just a different sort and I posted above:
“For people who really want a physical pet they can drop a trait in a talent line that allows our pets to manifest as physical entities while we get a dmg% reduction while the pet is manifested.”
While I don’t think this is a bad idea for a new game where there aren’t already preconceptions about class roles, it’s too late for something like this in GW2. It would certainly work much better mechanically, and much of the support is from us Rangers drooling over the massive DPS (and overall power increase) we’d get as a result of this change.
However, we have to remember when making suggestions that just because a change would make us more powerful and consistent, doesn’t mean it’s good for the game as a whole. Despite the fact that Rangers are the weakest class, they’re also the most played class (at least that’s what I heard). Many players don’t care about the power level, they just want a ranged class w/pet.
Even if you could trait to let the pet attack, it wouldn’t be the same. For one thing, new players wouldn’t have access to this, and those expecting a real pet would be disappointed by the spirits. Many of them might reroll or quit before getting enough trait points, or even knowing trait points exist. The other problem is that this trait would be a blatant power decrease, unless the DPS of the pet isn’t completely transferred over to our attacks.
In fact, for this idea to work at all, we can’t get ALL of our pets DPS incorporated into our regular attacks, or we’d be too powerful. A ranger is a powerful force on stationary targets, our pets do very significant DPS: if all of that was added to our auto-attack we’d be OP. Everyone in support of this idea must be comfortable with the fact that you wouldn’t be getting ALL of your pet’s DPS.
Finally, and most importantly, this change would remove much of the Ranger class’s depth. I get that many Rangers look at their pets as “DPS + F2” already, and so they don’t see themselves as missing out on anything. However, our pets are much more than just DPS and a special attack. Their other 3 attacks are significant too, and give us access to a # of abilities, combo-fields, buffs, and heals.
As someone who really enjoys the diversity offered by the other 3 abilities our pets have, in addition to their variation in stats, attack speed, movement, etc. I would be disappointed by this change. I would much prefer a fix to pet pathing so that our pets aren’t so easily avoided and don’t always miss their attacks on moving targets. They shouldn’t be unblockable, but some improvements to pathing, accuracy, and responsiveness are needed. I don’t think this fix is easy, but I’m not convinced this suggestion is any easier.
tldr
What you’re suggesting is nothing short of a class overhaul: every weapon skill, every trait, every learned skill would have to be revisited. With the move away from a corporeal pet with its own stats, “weapon skills,” and activated abilities that provide a wide range of boons, conditions, combo fields, tanking ability, etc. much of the depth of the Ranger class would be lost in the process.
Again, it’s not a “bad” idea, but it’s simply unfeasible at this stage in the game. It would upset more people than most here might imagine and the workload is out of proportion to the possible benefits, especially when improvements to pet AI/pathing/responsiveness would have the same result without abolishing the unique interplay of pet combat.
D