Guild Wars 2

This may seem extreme but I say give it a good thought. What if pets did no damage and provided a boon instead. They were invincible as well. Different pets give different boons, some group based some not etc. Spirits still remained the same, upside is you would be providing two buffs at once to be more supportive for groups. From a fellow lover of the bow slinging archetypes in mmo’s I would like this approach. It seems pets and their mechanics cause more trouble than they need too. It also seems, from what I have been reading, that people would really like the option of having a pet present or not without affecting their damage output. If this approach was taken, some of the really cool thought put into the current pet abilities could fill out some of the “not so useful” utilities currently for the ranger itself. This is a magical universe so I don’t think giving the ranger the ability to cast some of those cool nature spells the pets have would bother anyone, I would welcome it actually. Hope this gets seen. Thanks for reading.

TL;DR

Pets give boons. No direct damage. Spirits stay the same. Spirit + Pet = 2 boons for groups = Rangers better in groups. Pets don’t die. Could spec a non pet build this way too.

Rangers get some love in the magic corner. Some of the really cool pet spells could be usable by the ranger as utility spells. Replacing some of the less useful options. Casting “Icy Talons” for example, an owl would fly out of the sky at your enemy and apply the slow affect and fly away.