I have always hated the idea of pets leveling. One of the things that attracted me to MO2 (and initially Ultima Online) was a skill based character. I believe this should be extended to pets. Pets could then be tamed with average skills that are decent but could then be min/maxed.
Want a better mount for traveling? Increase skills associated like endurance or sprinting and a complimentary skill to riding. Want a combat pet? Increase armor wearing skills and melee skills. Eventually this could extend to magical creatures being able to unlock skills.
It would also work well with breeding as a breeder could breed pets with a starting skillset that doesn't need to be trained. But it's not overpowered since a tamed pet could get training if so desired.
Obviously this is just an idea but I think has some interesting opportunities and helps alleviate the dull leveling system currently in place. Yes an argument could be made that this just complicates leveling but making more things to work on but the idea in my head is to start at a usable state where you can just tame and be ready to go with a decent pet. Training is for niche builds.
Want a better mount for traveling? Increase skills associated like endurance or sprinting and a complimentary skill to riding. Want a combat pet? Increase armor wearing skills and melee skills. Eventually this could extend to magical creatures being able to unlock skills.
It would also work well with breeding as a breeder could breed pets with a starting skillset that doesn't need to be trained. But it's not overpowered since a tamed pet could get training if so desired.
Obviously this is just an idea but I think has some interesting opportunities and helps alleviate the dull leveling system currently in place. Yes an argument could be made that this just complicates leveling but making more things to work on but the idea in my head is to start at a usable state where you can just tame and be ready to go with a decent pet. Training is for niche builds.
