The pet skill savage is more often than not chosen as a “neutral” third skill as without the synergy of an attack skill (more specifically electric, attack close/mid/far) it will do nothing. While a heal/attack skill/savage pet may have its niche uses, the fact that the pet will get stuck on walls inside a dungeon or chase a monster outside its “return” range (rendering it impotent until you get within range to retrieve it) makes it useless in comparison to the utility of having mheal as a secondary pet skill.
Here are a few changes that I would propose to make savage more viable:
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Give it a “max chase duration”, after which the pet will ALWAYS return to the player. This will solve the problem of the pet getting stuck, as well as eliminate the long range perma-paralyze abuse. At common levels this could be 0.1 - 0.5 seconds, uncommon 0.5 - 0.75, rare- 0.75 - 1, legendary 1 - 1.25 and divine caps out at 1.5 seconds. Of course the pet movement speed should be adjusted to compensate for the max range that it should be travelling. Additionally, if the pet is not able to return within 1 tile of the player after the max chase duration, it will be teleported to the player to prevent getting stuck inside dungeon walls. With this change alone those that will choose to pair it with an actual attack skill will get to play ROTMG instead of hide and seek with pet. (when I equip my electric/heal/savage pet I spend as much time looking for the pet as shooting mobs)
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Giving a boost to attack skills during the chase duration:
-Paralyze would get double range while the pet charges
-Attack close/mid/far would fire 10 shots in a radial pattern (much like the jade statues) at their current attack speed and damage
-1 Full rising fury blast would be activated at the end of the pet charge for the pet skill “rising fury”
These small changes would give a savage pet a much needed boost in offensive capabilities to offset the lack of mheal. Take note that these buffs will only be active during the pet charge.
- Damage done during the charge will count towards soulbound. This will compensate for the lack of dps players will be getting from not having mheal.
Will this make pets with savage OP? Probably not, as ability spam + high level mheal will still be more useful in terms of utility and damage (for damage based abilities and buffs). Nevertheless the proposed changes will give a viable alternative to the “heal/mheal/electric” staple in pet choice.