They definitely help, especially if your pet is tanking named mobs, but you aren't crippled without them. The BL has plenty of pet buffs that go a long way.
the summoned mask with haste on is a big deal. the rest is very small boosts by comparison you shouldn't use the mage summoned belt - instead use a "real" belt, like from Teek dailies
trying to decide what to tote around with my beastlord on a FTP account. was thinking a mage for pocket toys when ever I want them and the extra pet/COTH
Bard provides more for the beast than mage toys and a second /petattack button!? I guess im intimidated by the positioning of two melee characters. watcha think? ive also had some recommend druid. my issue there is the inability to script targeting someone else's pet into the druids macros
Somewhat situational and a matter of circumstances. Just a for instance, a pet equipped with summoned weapons that process will occasionally take aggro away from a Journeyman tier 1 Mercenary tank even with taunt turned off. This is a good thing because overall it means the DPS is up with faster kills and leveling. I have a tendency to give a bow to a pet if the bow has stats on it. The pet doesn't shoot arrows of course but the extra stats seem to help. I even give pets the mage summoned Shard of the Core, not because they need to see invisible but because it has a couple of AC on it. Of the weapons you can get, I have never regretted when I've dropped a couple of The Blade of Walnum on a pet. Assuming you have at least a level 40 pet to use it, it processes a wind spell that stuns the MOB. All around useful in that it [DPS, aggro, stuns, damage mitigation] it even lets you outrun MOBs as they get bumped from behind by your pet. Most of this is for single pulls. If you draw a crowd you will probably still be in big trouble.
Yeah it’s looking like rolling a mage for the box for the beast Lord just for the toys, extra pet, and nuke dps may not be worth it. When I have a single mob, is awesome but more than one and I am pretty screwed. Rolled a heroic bard to try this evening