The main role here is positioning to win. If you and your pet can jam an enemy into a corner, [happens to everyone ocassionally] then you can totally maul them.
The idea is to nearly double your damage output at the sacrifice of support skills and attack from the opposite side of your pet. [More chances at criticals and the like]
Positioning is the most important factor here and getting both you and your pet on the right part of the map will be the difference between killing, and being a nuisance. You will have to rely on teammate support for some high powered anti-melee defenses...
This idea came to me whilst fighting a melee-ranger and pet combo. As a mesmer pvp type, that sucked... lol
A powerhouse technique is to execute Exe. Strike and Scavenger's Strike simultaneously after you hit with dismember. Chomped off 150+hp in that second lol...
Of course, self-heals and dying are an issue since you're jammed to the jaw with nothing but offense so keep that in mind while playing this fun-fun build...
I've died with it numerous times in PvP and PvE but my own kill count was quite good with it regardless of having no self heal for either myself or my pet...
good build. i play a W/R with ferocious strike as well, but i went sword and wilderness survival. you should try using runes then going 8/9 WS for apply poison.
i was observing a top guild gvg earlier and they ha 4 R/Ws running similar skills, and raped the other team. It worked great, not sure why they went R/W, there has to be a reason, but W/R does seem more logical, nice build