I feel that these idea’s haven’t got much focus but are undoubtedly great idea’s that don’t involve much work but would greatly help rangers.
Allow the current functionality of “Signet of the Beastmaster” and “Fortifying Bond” to be inherit abilities of the Ranger Class.
If we and the pet are described as working as one(Sharing damage in this case), then it makes no sense that we have to trait just to be able to share in boons and the use of signets. With the traits now free, we can create functionality that will benefit us in groups, an area we are weak in.
Allow the ranger the ability to make the pet dodge/blur(F3:Return to Me) for 3 seconds with a cooldown of 6 seconds(cooldown begins at start of blur for downtime of 3 seconds).
By using blur, we give the pet a way to evade that is in the players hands that can help the pet when both fighting and retreating. (For example, need a quick way to make the pet evade and keep attacking? Simple use F3->F1 in quick succession)
Bonus points if Anet can find a way to incorporate a pet endurance bar into the mix instead of straight cooldowns.
Consider reworking some skills to make them more active and interesting.
Lets take “Search and Rescue” for instance. It’s a fairly boring skill that can be occasionally useful but risks the downed player and the pet due to the speed of the revive. Now, here is a functionality I quickly brainstormed.
Search and Assist: Runs to the nearest downed player and revives them at a slow speed.
Rescue: (Search and Assist flips to this when the pet begins healing a downed player) Upon activation of this skill, the pet and downed player are shadowstepped to the rangers current location.
As above, we have just created a niche for a Ranger that allows him to move a downed player out of a potentially bad situation. Much more creative then the current skill.
Another skill that is lackluster, is “Protect Me”. While it is useful, it shares base traited functionality with “Signet of Stone” with the added bonus of potentially killing your pet. Why not expand the functionality from a selfish use to a party based use?
Protect: Instead of attacking, your pet will protect the current lowest health party member by absorbing all damage they would take. (Defaults to the Ranger if everyone in the party is at 100% health or the ranger is not in a party)
Now the above skill is much more interesting since if someone is struggling to maintain health, the ranger could use this skill to their party members benefit.
These skills were just simple examples of skills where changes could make them much more fun and interesting for rangers and party members alike.
I framed these ideas from the feeling that Anet shouldn’t only look at number tweaks for the ranger but go further and examine base functionality where pet problems occur and figure methods that can be used to help the pet survive and contribute all while promoting skillful and tactical play from the ranger player himself.
