Rework core pets please?

Since we aren't getting an expansion anytime soon, and classes have had new mechanics lumped onto them with fixes to boot could we please see non-expansion pets be brought to the level of the expansion ones? We have some cool pets and as someone who likes a few of them (Drakes, and bears) it sucks that they are so worthless, in general the expansion animals VASTLY are superior to them when they are in use (Im not aiming this at soul-beast) Im talking for Druid and for Core.

Im hoping you can make them viable, and fun as well as keeping them unique within their families. But as it stands right now there are so many worthless ones who just can't compete or even be used to any real affect outside of perhaps a few things you get from their command skill. Id like to see a day where rangers could run whatever pet they wanted, that fit their play-style and that the pets on their own have complimentary playstyles. You choose X pet because you're build is Y but the pet benefits you by bringing either something complimenting your build OR something you lack in a large way that it can fill the gap.

an Example~

Bear: Is able to get into the thick of the fight and has large AoE swiping attacks with its claws, and lots of CC. Its decently fast but is better in medium to close range and can be a great plus 1 to an encounter. It provides a solid front-line for you so that you can trust its ability to fight an enemy with you and become a bastion in times of need, so it would need something like a tackle/trample. (Id say a tackling grapple which it basically body slams you and mauls you.) Or anything that makes them capable in combat, as now they are LITERALLY walking up and slapping an enemy every maybe ten seconds. (Not viable in anything, even overworld PvE can't make the bear actually work the way it should.)

Id love to see the pets get some love and be spruced up to modern GW2 standard of gameplay, I know its something kinda off the beaten path. But it is a core part of the ranger and I feel it could solve a lot of issues to just rework most of them or at least the families and combat styles to make them viable in their own way. Plus it would add a ton of diversity to the current pets we see a lot of; As well could bring a lot of hype and theory-crafting as well.

After 7 years I don't think this is possible otherwise it would have already happenedA new class mechanic or giving us new pets directly would be simpler and less dispensious in my opinion

@Revolution.5409 said:After 7 years I don't think this is possible otherwise it would have already happenedA new class mechanic or giving us new pets directly would be simpler and less dispensious in my opinion

Well they won't give us new anything, no expansion = no new pets. We aren't getting a new elite spec so Id rather them fix this and let us run what we want and have fun that continue to lie about whats coming. Face it we are getting living world~ That means our classes will remain as they are pretty much for the next two or so years until either A a new expansion comes or another Saga starts (Which means it wont change any further.)

As it stands now they could just remove the other pets, leave the expansion ones and call it good if they go by what you say which heck fine then. Not like they are opposed to removing things for the sake of doing so~

Ravens or both good in combination with owl for core ranger

@Thornwolf.9721 said:

@Revolution.5409 said:After 7 years I don't think this is possible otherwise it would have already happenedA new class mechanic or giving us new pets directly would be simpler and less dispensious in my opinion

One thing does not exclude the other, Anet does not need xpac to give Ranger new pets in the world of GW2 there are many pets that can be used .. wargs and griffons to give an example.

If there's a lot of code baggage that can't be touched, perhaps core pets could be replaced with what are technically new creatures with spiffier and easier maintained code bases, designed in mind with "new" features like Quickness and such.

Pair it with replacing the original models for the old creature roster with something new to meet the current visual standards. They're visually dated, especially so in the wake of PoF. This might get me burned at the stake for writing this, but for ArenaNet there could be gem store opportunities for refactoring ranger pets like this. Ranger pets are conceptually very similar to mounts and I would think there is significant overlap between people who buy mount variants and people who play ranger.

On designs and balance, my thoughts would be to figure out how to condense the core creature roster into a more manageable list. If I were to put together an exclusion list of core creatures to just drop or roll into a base type, it would be something like this: https://i.imgur.com/ubJSIMx.png

The idea here being to only keep creatures that have significant difference between their special abilities. In this example, Rock Drake doesn't make the cut because its special ability is nearly identical to the Poison Drake's. The Salamander Drake survives as its breath attack is a cone, rather than a series of homing projectiles. Polar Bear loses out to Arctodus as the two just simply "Maul" a target with a different condition output (Chill vs Bleed.) Drakehound and Arctic Wolf lose out to Wolf as the former 2 are just crowd control variants. Hyena and Fernhound bring different functionality to the table compared to other canines, so they make the cut.

Let the models/skins of creatures that end up on the exclusion list survive as visual variants. Such as Reef Drakes being a visual variant of Salamander Drakes. Or Polar Bears becoming a visual variant of Arctodus.

In theory all of this would reduce balance/design clutter in the long run. The Gem Store would have another market to tap into. Though admittedly it would be a lot of development effort for something that already "works" and would all too likely cause an avalanche of bugs, exploits, complaints, and fine tuning. As we see with HoT and PoF pets the issues with core pets can be "solved" simply by having the expansion pack pets overtake old creatures.

That said, each creature does convey a specific personality. It's the 1 thing that cannot really be replaced by a shiny expansion pack pet, especially as HoT and PoF pets are obviously fantasy monsters. They're not plausible animal creatures like the core pet roster is.