TL;DR version: Splitting the Attack Pet line into Tanker/Melee DPS/Ranged DPS lines and having all pets available from TL1 through TL7.
I've been doing some thinking, inspired by the news about splitting the mezz pet into different lines, and thought "why the heck not split the Attack Pet lines too?"
Looking at the MP toolset when it comes to the Attack Pet, it's pretty straightforward but limited: The 'main' attack pet we get for most of our time isn't very suited to tanking, and the tanking type pets we get are intended almost solely for endgame play in the ages before expansions came in. Nevermind the lack of taunting capacity or how taunts and pets work.
Not counting Urn or SL pets (basically an attempt at making more of a DD based pet for pvp with the Urn pets and some damage/tank hybrid for SL) the pets are limited in scope with the needs of the modern day MP, and especially with relation to the plans the developers have in mind for the profession in the future, where Damage-to-Pet and pet taunting from perks looks to be an option.
I got the idea that extending the Demon line down towards TL1 would be a good idea, giving MPs more options for tanking things (the whole line would have to be rebalanced since RK demons only use one weapon) and would make the option of giving the MP pet taunting tools have a point, since the meatball attack pets aren't gifted with loads of HP or ACs that the demons are. So at this point the MP would be looking at 2 pet lines: Demons to tank but with lower damage and the classic meatball to put out more damage at the loss of the ability to tank. Nothing out of the ordinary except you'll have access to the demon line almost from the word go.
Not too long after this I found myself in the "In The Machine" instance, aka DB2 or Aune, and had the pleasure of watching my pet run around like crazy and do everything BUT actually find and hit Aune. Sure I could nuke, jump around, etc, but when it came to actually doing something with the pets vs. Aune, I was mostly a lump. Another situation which I had problems with pet range is the Beast, oddly enough. In order to get the attack pet to start hitting The Beast, I literally had to drag it up onto the platform where the Beast was standing, praying it didn't decide right then to drop it's infamous huge nuke or some other bit of nastiness.
A ranged attack pet would really have been nice to have about then. There's a request in the wishlist for a nuking pet option for the upcoming Utility Pet line, but I'm thinking of one that would be in the Attack pet line, also scaling from TL1-7, for times and situations when having long reach on the pet would be beneficial and useful vs just pure DD. My thinking on the damage is that you'd lose some damage to get the benefit of longer range. How that would work on the other hand, I'm not sure: I'm tempted to think either 2-3 "fists" like our current SL pets only with lower damage, or one 'fist' with a big hit, but long attack/recharge so the overall DPS is still going to be lower than the Melee pet. I think the Long Tom type pet probably should be more fragile than either the Tanking type or Melee type pet, and more reliant on a good tank in the team to be effective.
While I like the idea of having flexibility in more than just the Utility pet, I'm open to ideas on what the players of MPs would like to see their attack pet be able to do. Bear in mind, this is regarding the Attack Pet only, any ideas regarding the Utility Pet lines planned by the developers should probably go to the Utility Pet suggestion thread.
And on that note, Discuss!