Why not rework one of the crappy PvE only skills and give us ...

... the beast master skill everyone has been dying for since day one?
Charm and Comfort Animal - rolled into ONE sweet PvE skill!

Of course - the big question is - which skill could we kill without the loss for the game being too great? (I mean I kinda don't remember anyone out there ever mentioning using Radiation Field - BUT the concept is fairly interesting!)
Personally it would make the most sense if the skill was a Norn one - BUT I kinda don't see who out there is using Winds? Considering Aegis and Defensive Anthem exist - and the fact that a player can only bring 3 PvE only skills - Winds just strikes me as a waste.

I use radiation field for HM D-Core farming on my Ele...

Superb! That means I'll be hunt down by Winds fans next ...

lol not a winds fan here, but i think they will just keep it as 2 seperate skills to annoy us

Heal as One is a good BM skill that takes place of a heal and res, but it's an elite, and we still have that useless skill slot just sitting there not doing anything but keeping our animal with us.

Prophecies has no PvE skills.

Why not merge those into an unlinked new pvE skill...?

Something like... a skill that require you to charm with Charm Animal, but will bring the animal once you have charmed one, and resurrect it with your own health when you use the skill and the animal is dead.

Bring Companion
E:5 C:3 R:10
Skill. If your animal companion is dead, it will be resurrected with a health percentage equal to your energy percentage when activating the skill and you lose all your energy. If you have this skill equiped and a charmed animal companion, it will follow you. (PvE skill, Ranger, Unlinked)

Then it could be given as a reward for Titan Quests or Sorrow's Furnace. If you have already made those quests, you automatically get the skill.

Winds is a fairly silly skill-nice concept, but I can't see it having any practical use outside of Arachni's Haunt (even then it's questionable).

I like Mithran's idea-give proph some PvE skills.

How about a complete skill overhaul? Atm Never Rampage Alone is an extreamly subpar PvE skill that also happens to be ranger prof exclusive, making it a perfect candidate for the change.
Although pet damage and effectiveness would still tie in with BM, you could tie the skill's health res % to the sunspear track.
You could leave Charm Animal as the only way to tame a pet, but give NRA the secondary effect of bringing along any animal you already have tamed, along with the title based pet res I explained.
This makes it completely feasable as it still requires R/ or /R, and the skill name still makes sense. With this skill you'll never be alone, your pet will always be there right by your side.

Yeah Mith/shru that would be sweet.
I'd be up for a new or a reworked PvE skill - just so that I wouldn't have to carry Charm with me.
They probably always thought that having both skills in one is overpowered - and that's why having it as a PvE only skill would be superb! (Since they are overpowered by definition!)
Hell they could even remake Ursan into it! Two birds with one stone!

I don't think the reason people don't play a Beastmaster is because they only get to use 7 skills: I think its probably because there a bit rubbish - despite how much I Love Tiddles

i'm rather worried about a change for Wastrel's collapse

1. Yes, rangers have needed desperately to compress charm+comfort for a long time.

2. Never Rampage Alone seems like the obvious choice for rebuilding into charm+comfort. It's a ranger-only PvE skill; It totally sucks balls in its current form; and they wouldn't even have to change the name.

3. Winds and a fairly large number of other PvE skills suck badly enough I'd be happy to trade any of them out.

4. Adding a new PvE skill for this purpose would also work just fine.

5. Why not just add a pet-rez effect to charm? It's not like beastmasters are anywhere remotely close to overpowered in PvP anyway...

UM, yeah, Charm Animal is for balance.

Your pet is basically an extra attacker/attack skill, the Charm Animal slot is your penalty for the extra damage, like with "Frenzy" the draw back id double dmg. It's how everything works

No need to make one skill that does it all, even if it's just for PvE only

That's why it would be a superb PvE skill.
Sugarlumps > being insanely effective!

NRA would be a lot better if they reduced the energy cost. Increase attack speed 25% and +3 health regen for you and your pet is useful in a pure BM build.

Alright I see this as likely as Triple Bergen Spring Drops Weekend but if we were going to try and make a non-exploitable version of a skill:

Call Reinforcements: (10 Energy, 1/2 Cast Time, 60 Second Recharge)
Skill: For 5 times your Rank in Beast mastery Seconds your Animal Companion appears to help. He strikes for +2...24..30 Damage and attacks 33% Faster. If your pet dies while under the effect of this skill, it's instantly recharged.

Why Like this? A) Ursans atm tend to occasionally bring Pets - this skill shouldn't allow them to permanently have a powerful pet no matter what their Beast Mastery.

B) Problem with a PvE Skill not linked to a stat someway is that its likely it wouldn't be mostly rangers using it.

C) This skill is an alternative to bringing both charm and comfort: It meshes with the other BM Skills however

QFT

I don't mind giving up a skill slot for Mr Tiddlywinks.

This is actually quite good. The fact that it synergizes with enraged lunge makes it even better. However, I think the uptime ratio needs to be adjusted. A 40 sec recharge would work better, as it would give you 100% uptime at rank 8, which is about all you can expect from any ranger who isn't an exclusive beastmaster.

Thats sort of why I made it 60 secs: If your not an exclusive BM (12 in BM) then you don't get a permanent pet. Im trying to figure tho whether a pet would still be worth it DPS wise: Probably still not for HM etc

There have been a number of threads in the past asking for charm and comfort to be combined. Gaile has even supported the idea in the threads. As much as I would welcome the combining of these skills, if an insider like Gaile can't get her way over this, I doubt the general playing public will.

If you have a decent score in Expertise, the energy cost drops rather nicely.