Some other comments are true… pets are dead in seconds in the pvp that Ive been to.
Even in pve (raiding) pets can die too easily in some encounters (e.g. Heigan)

My suggestions/thoughts (and I would appreciate if someone can pass them on to US forums as Im EU here) – Just to point out these suggestions are not all cumulative.. some are variations on the same theme to give different options

Pet survivability in pvp needs dramatic improvement

Pet survivability in pve needs minor improvement for ferocity/cunning and greater for tenacity. Buffed raid Health for dps pets should be around 20-22k and for Tenacity pets should be around 30k.

Avoidance should work on encounter damage with area effects that arent considered aoe (e.g. Heigan Lava, Grobbulus Clouds etc)

Pet damage mitigation should be higher for pets but especially Tenacity pets i.e. Increased armour, Increased dodge (suggestion the talents – AotM/AotDH for dodge, Aspect Mastery & Survival Instincts for damage reduction – are carried over to the pet much like Hit% is)

Tenacity pets should be capable of tanking heroics and OT in raids (some of the above mitigation is to facilitate this)

Mend Pet increased – Pets only generally benefit from aoe heals. In the rest of the cases it is up to a hunter to heal the pet. The ticks on this are no where near high or fast enough to keep a pet alive if (a) it draws aggro in heroics/raids (b) it takes aoe/encounter damage on some raid bosses

Pets should not benefit from buffs but scale with hunter gear/stats better instead. (There must be some coding already in place as pets dont get Thaddius charge debuff)

Aspect of the Beast V1.1 Ranged damage -50% (like AotV), Tanking stats of pet increased e.g. +100% Armour, +75% health, reduces chance to be critically hit by melee by 6%, reduces duration of stun and snare by 50%, bonus dodge (the damage reduction brings the hunter down to a tanks level of damage whilst giving them a tanking option)

Aspect of the Beast V2.1 Melee damage improvement for pet & hunter e.g. +50% or 100% melee damage, cannot use ranged weapon

Aspect of the Beast V1.2/2.2 As per v1.1/2.1 but instead of a traditional Aspect it becomes a Spell with a cooldown or duration. It could act like the Warlock Demon Sacrifice spell but instead it provides the hunter with the bonuses as per v1.1 if a tenacity pet is sacrificed or v1.2 if a ferocity/cunning pet is sacrificed. (i.e. something like +200% armour +50% health, +24% dodge (instead of IAotM))

With any of the versions of above I would recommend removing the aspect from general hunter abilities (cos I doubt many hunters use it anyway) and put it as 31, 41 or 51 point BM talent. This will allow hunters a different role such as melee or tanking using pet/themeselves and also gives a viable reason for Dual Spec to actually have value for a hunter. My preference is V1.1/1.2 although for the pet lovers here I would have thought V1.1 would their choice.

Pet Collars/Armour – Pets could be given armour slots or a slot for collars. Alternatively Collars could be a hunter trinket OR if the ammo slot & quiver goes completely then could be used like Librams etc
These items would buff the pets abilities/stats. Initially they could be slotted into boss loot tables or just as token vendor items.
Gemstones could be created to improve pet abilites/stats and hunters could slot those at the expense of their own stats. The programming is there as early Tier items used to have pet buffs.

If anyone thinks I have any valid ideas I would be happy for you to post them to the appropriate US Blizz suggestion forums as I am from the EU.

Cheers

1. pet skills: To make the wolf not a pet topped by battle shout or blessing or might, make furious howl a skill that increases damage taken for enemies, god knows lots of mobs have it and a raid type of debuff would be useful, couple amour reduction with increased damaged for scorpids to counter the stack reduction, and make dust cloud deal minor damage to hold threat for tall striders. Also give crocolisks the ability to hit the nearest 5 enemies every 5 seconds for bad attitude instead of the current skill, allows easier aggro control. right there are 3-4 new ways to hold aggro, making gorillas not the only aggro pet out there. also, i agree chimeras are like hyenas, therefore, froststorm should freeze for 3 seconds, then daze for several seconds,giving a exotic pet better skills and distinguishing the chimera.

2. Pet Trees: lots of peple say that theres not enough aggro, or pets die too much, etc. so heres what i think: make the turtle invulnerable for a short time, and take its 50% damge negated and replace improved cower with it, having growl a 10 yard radious around the pet would be good, and intercept generate aggro. also, since ferocity pets have lick you wounds, shorten the CD on it and switch bloodthirsty with owls focus on cunning. After all, owls focus is like the SV lock and load skill, more suited to dps, while a boosted bloodthirsty cunning pets would survive longer.

3. The bigger picture: make exotic pets tameable by all hunters, and have a skill for BM to raise dps or armour pircing for thier pets, make mend pet an instant heal i.e short casting time then instant heal instead of healing time. Finally (and a couple people have mentioned it) make all pet trees available for every pet, but with one difference: even if we do that, it wont restore the hunters freedom and control over thier pet manegment and raising. To trully accomplish that, we need to have each pet’s special skill be part of a slot that can be overwritten with another skill (that the pet could reasonably learn i.e a scorpid couldn’t lean a bears swipe, but could learn a snakes poisen spit, or a worms acid spit) and give pets talent points every 2-3 lvls instead of 4 so they could be more versatile, and maybe duel pec in 2 trees.

P.S i disagree with the idea of getting rid of pet lvling, blizzard put in the 5 lvl max difference so a lvl 12 wouldnt have to be trained to 70 or 80, but hunters will still not abandon an pet they grow bored of, because having to train a new pet another 5 lvls is a bit time consuming. Also, part of the joy of being a hunter is watching your pet grow. Take away that, and you might as well give them random names like lock pets or DK ghouls.

I have found shes almost as good as the gorilla for keeping group agro. The dust up that he does for mobs to miss is great. Its odd but she stays alive longer too due to the heal she does on himself. I found in some cases, my gorilla just drops to fast even with me healing him.

I would think as a tanking (tenacity) pet they would stay alive longer.

Now, it may just be me but when I think of Bird of Prey, I think of something more… ferocious than a vulture or raven. To say that a buzzard can take down an eagle is false in real life, and if Blizz tries to base WoW in real life at all, I think something needs to happen here. This is true for snatch and screech too. Carrion birds snatch up dead things (shiny objects in the case of ravens) and take them away. Owls and eagles strike their prey quickly and efficiently, crippling if not killing them… much like screech. Furthermore, in the Cunning tree lies the talent… Carrion Feeder! It’s counterintuitive that Birds of Prey and not Carrion Birds have access to that.

I realize that this may seem like one of the most trivial points to be made about WoW, but GC asked for feedback on pets and here is some. Coming from a long-time hunter who is very attentive to detail, this has been bugging me since 3.0 hit.

What I would like to see done is just a switch of the two families. Straight across. All Birds of Prey become Carrion Birds and vice versa. The raven skin is a toss up to Blizz b/c I think they have it shared with a Hawk (Bird of Prey). I think it would be a very sensible move for Blizz to make this change.