BK011 - Summoned & Tamed Pet Revisions & Bonuses

Right now the summoned pets are, well, not that great... It is truly in need of an upgrade. A lot of pets seem to die even to low level mobs. Not sure if that is intended as to not have someone summon a pet and them do most of the work for them... but, I dunno. For tamers, I would expect just that as that is what they specialize in. As for those that have specialized in a school and taken their pet up in skill, I would at least expect them to help out a good bit, maybe with a quarter to half the work load at least... do something. Seems like there could be a series of things each type could do, but really the only one that seems to do anything of any significance is the Water Elemental (healing) and that is a shame.

I would expect Ice Elementals to do some ice damage to the enemies, maybe freeze em all, create a zone of cold doing ice damage over time (DoTs), etc, slowing effects, etc. Not just one, but have a combination of things it could do. And where is Life's pet? Maybe a "Wandering Healer", hah. Seriously though, they should get one as well. Each spell skill tree should have specials and unique to their pet.

So what I would like to see is:

1. Summoned Pets more powerful.
   
   
2. Better AI on pets so they are being useful in combat or even in a passive stance.
   
   
3. More unique (to the pet's skill sphere) abilities that the pet does for combat, for groups, for the situation.
   
   
4. Pet's visible progression – A Tamed/Summoned pet at say, 1 skill should not look the same as a GM 100+ summoned/tamed pet. For tamed pets they do get those additional skills that make them beefier, but those skill levels should also affect how they look as the skill gets greater. Same with your summon skill. I think there should be a new look, getting bigger or better, more intimidating possibly, every 10-20 levels. Beyond 100 skill should truly get something epic at say like 120 and 140.
   
   
5. A few skills that do damage and some that offer support, like for group support for example. Could be a taunt, could be an intimidate that reduces nearby enemies attack or damage done. Things like that, and it should be shown on a pet tab...
   
   
6. Pet Tab with all sorts of info and visuals that also shows the specials of the creature. Also have meters that show dps and stats because... we are all scratching our heads wondering, "Wth is my pet doing? Is it even doing damage?"
   
   
7. Options in chat tabs for "pet tab information only" so we can see what it is or isnt doing. Right now scrolling through text logs is annoying and sometimes you dont always see stuff in the text (like its not recorded at all).
   
   
8. What is with the summoned pets "spirit binding RIBBON"? I always thought that look was out of place and like there was some anime in the game. Maybe have the option to turn it off or maybe different kinds of summon/binds for pets.
   
   
9. Although not necessary in the slightest, having optional visuals, colors, effects for pets would be nice instead of everyone with the exact same thing. But that's just polish for another day.