Guild Wars 2

I am currently a level 15 beast mastery ranger who uses a long bow. My concern is no matter what the enemy is my pet takes so much damage and dies in like 8-9 shots. This happens quite often. so what am i doing wrong. Any advice would be greatly appreciated .

oh i forgot my pet is a drake(giant lizard)

Early on I noticed the same trouble, but later on they will be acceptable in general PvE. In high-end PvE (dungeons/fractals) it will be pretty hard to keep your pet alive without careful micro-management. A reality of playing a ranger is that you will have to pay attention to your pet a lot, so many say ranger has one of the highest learning curves.

My suggestion is to use F3 to make your pet retreat when needed. With that, the monsters will come after you. So, use your LB #3, cripple from LB #5, and any utilities you have(Lightning Reflexes, Spike Trap, Muddy Terrain), to keep the enemy away from you. When you can’t keep them back anymore, send your pet back in. Hopefully, your pet has recovered a bit from any heal skills you used, or the enemy is very close to dead. Controlling your enemy and controlling your pet are the staples of a Ranger. Get good at both and you’ll do a lot better.

Early game, stick with bears and drakes (they are the most tanky). Once you get higher, you can use a bunch of different pets, but I will say drakes remain awesome (decent damage along with tankiness).

TLDR:
That’s the way it is, especially early on. Use more controlling options, and micro-manage your pet more.

Signet of the Wild provides passive healing for your pet that is much higher than it is for the player. That is really the most helpful (and not repetitive) thing I can suggest trying to get early on.