Ok I love rangers I’ve played the profession since the BWE’s and something has always erked me about the pets mechanics. The problem I have is that they do damage. Strange thing to complain about right? Let me explain. Pets as they are now I would describe as damage supplements. They deal damage with an array of AI controlled abilities to improve the Rangers damage output. This is probably the reason for the low damage coming from some of the Rangers weapons(like the Greatsword) to account for the fact that the pet is also doing damage. I feel that pets should not occupy a damaging role on the battle field, they should instead serve as support tools.
Pets should not have any AI auto attack abilities. Instead they should constantly remain by the Rangers side and provide differing passive bonuses depending on pet family and the specific pet. Ex an eagle could provide a buff to precision while a raven could provide a buff to crit damage. Both pets are part of the same family and so provide crit based buffs but they each provide their own specific benefit. Now that the pets no longer have their own auto attacks F1,F2 and F3 are now open. For these there should be special abilities, F1 and F2 would provide a targeted damage ability and F3 would provide a buff for the player. Ex and eagle could provide a bleed(F1) a blind(F2) and swiftness(F3) or a pig could provide a knockdown (F1) a stun (F2) and on F3 activation he could scurry off and find a truffle to bring back and give the player regen. Each of these abilities would be activated the pet would run in and do its thing and then return to the players side and then receive a cool down time appropriate for their effect, with F3 buffs probably having the longest cooldown.
By doing this pets would now be safe with the ranger you would no longer have them dying lost in the heat of battle leaving you without your pet damage supplement (as can happen now) and pets would no longer pull mobs because they are constantly by the ranger in a passive state until ordered. This would make pet selection much more important and would create real reason to use a raven over a hawk for example. I do think they should still have health bars and be susceptible to downing but if they die you would no longer be left without some of your damage, but you would now lack the special abilities they offer you. And finally these changes would allow the damage of some of the Rangers weapons (like the greatsword) to be improved because the player is now the only source of constant damage output.
Well that was quite a bit of text thank you for reading. I really think this would be a great change to pets making them something more interesting and giving them greater relevance on the battlefield.