maybe they want to give more initiative to the player. Like, if SM had a pet that could fly they could just sick after the enemy and nuke like in WoW (not in air obviously, but the mechanic is the point), but if the pet can't follow in the air it makes the SM have to assess more carefully. If its 1v1 and the enemy tries to evade the pet by flight that can be very helpful for classes without pets or casters, and as soon as the SM enters flight (maybe to goad the enemy back to them or to get a nuke off) the enemy may come back to take advantage of the SM's vulnerability of no-pet, but then depending on the players' class they may come to attack only to find the SM jets back to the ground to take advantage of their trapping moves and pet and it starts over. So, maybe they think it will give non-pet classes more of a shot at evading the pet while nudging the SM to be more strategic instead of: "sic pet bake cookies nuke pick nose die yawn" :) But then again if its a ranged class vs SM then it might be bad because then they could force flight-only combat while effectively lessening the SM's power (no pet) and keeping their own maximized. But, then again do we have any clue how reliant SM's will need to be with their pets? If they are made so that no-pet = big loss then it could be a problem of imbalance. But, if they are made so that no-pet isn't as devastating to their abilities, then it's probably not too big of an issue. But, then again this would probably only apply to ranged classes vs SM?
Sure it would be cool to have a flying pet, but I think the changes to SM will encourage a nice dynamic to battles between you and SM in general by making it ground AND air combat instead of just one or the other.
This post has been edited by justamemory: 09 August 2008 - 04:11 PM