This is a fairly dumb idea and will never happen but I thought I would share.
Instead of Ranger pets having a physical presence instead make them animal spirits.
The pet itself still has a visible representation just like our utility spirits do now and like our utility spirits they don’t attack or do dmg themselves, instead the spirit of the animal provides use with bonuses based on the animal we have supporting us.
As an example:
Bears give toughness/vitality
Canines give power/vitality
Birds give speed/precision
Cats give precision/power
On top of this they can still provide a unique F2 ability based on pet. For example if you have a raven spirit when you hit F2 the raven shoots forward and blinds your target etc.
Keep pet switching as is allowing us to change between two spirits but with the same cooldown on switching.
Then just fold in the lost pet dps directly into the ranger.
This would accomplish a few things that the ranger pet system currently has problems with.
1. Pet survivability would no longer be a problem
2. The problem with pets unable to hit moving targets would become a non issue
3. Dumb pathing and pets being an aggro magnet would also vanish