Never thought I'd post this: Pet Ranger

I know whenever a mesmer is hacking on me I just run or they put on imagined burden and chop away. Maybe you were fighting me in the arena.

Looks like it could be interesting. Feral lunge (assuming thats the cripple pet attack) is going to be quite important as most people run when they are getting pounded by IW.

As far as elites go, ferocious strike is pretty decent. If you're going pet its quite viable to take it as an elite as use the energy to 'spam' a high energy spell. If they ever improve pet AI these builds might actually be viable Maiming Strike causes crippling on a moving target. Feral Lunge causes bleeding on an attacking target.

And yes, Ferocious Strike is ideal for spells from the second profession of a ranger. Because the energy-cost of spells is not effected by Expertise, most Rangers don't use their second profession. But with Ferocious Strike you will have enough energy for that. I use it on my R/N for some Curses spells that soften the target up for my pet (Weaken Armor, Barbs, Enfeeble, Faintheartedness, etc.). This also has the advantage that you can be more like a "real" beast master (meaning with a staff from your second professions, instead of a bow).

Sure, my skills are blacked out half the time by Tiger's Fury, but how often do I need to use them? Illusionary Weaponry once every 40 seconds, Conjure Phantasm once every 15 or so seconds (if I actually have the mana to spare), Call of Haste once every 30 seconds. Except for the Pet Attack everything in that build is a pretty long skill. I assume when you say your skills are long, you mean they have long durations.
If that's the case, why are you having energy issues at all? That's what you hinted at when you said you don't always have the mana to spare for Conjure Phantasm.
My guess is that you're spending most of your energy on Tiger's Fury- your first problem is that you're using a Major Expertise instead of a Superior Expertise. If you haven't unlocked it yet, go do that now. NOW.
Done yet? Good. Now you can get your expertise to 14 and your 10 energy skills (Tiger's Fury most importantly) will cost 4 energy instead of 5.

Otherwise, if you're having energy problems with the build AND you're not utilizing Expertise like you should, why are you even playing a ranger to begin with.

Seriously though, what is the pet there for? An extra 10DPS under ideal conditions? If that's what you want, switch to mesmer and strap on a superior illusion rune. You'll be doing more damage and you wont have to waste 2 skill slots on an unreliable damage source that also blacks your skills out. The easiest way to kill a pet? Fire one DOT attack at it and run away briefly til it gives up chasing you, then falls over and dies.

Switching to mesmer will also give you an extra pip of energy to use, and allow you to spread your attributes out more using runes. Illusion magic already has snares, so why are you debating using 4 slots to get one snare from your pet? (Charm+Comfort+Disrupt+Maim) Stop half-assing as ranger and use the Mesmer tools you already have. If you want interrupts, mesmers have plenty of those. If you want snares, illusion has it in spades.

The only reason I can think of to be a ranger primary for this character is to milk expertise (using it with something like Blackout) or for the runes, and you're not doing either.
Decide what you want to do with this character- you want damage while shutting someone down? Pack IW and Blackout. You want damage with the option to interrupt? Mesmer has that too.

If you really want a pet, then pack it on, but don't half ass it.
Whatever you do though, don't try splashing into wilderness survival for self healing- the last thing you want to do is spend 3 seconds casting troll unguent when you should be swinging with IW or spreading Conjure Phantasm around. Your character is fragile and will get a lot more mileage out of shutting down the other side and outdamaging them, rather than trying to outlast them with Troll Unguent.