I had a mage and let me say, the pet sat there and kept me above 50% mp and gave me bts (lvl 5 I think). It ate a lot of spice, though the spice wasn't expensive. Only killer was it left pretty quick. I only played with it once as all this was pretty useless to me with a 2box se in tow.
The new pets are slow, have no patk and always die in a single blow but:
They look cute and:
They heal. Not much mind you, but for every budding melee trying to solo, heals are very very good. I think they will be popular.
Also at level 60+ you can go to Rune territory and try to tame a beast there. It is a dengerous thing to but those beasts heal AND buff. They will stay with you for a random period.