I don’t think even a full zoo build has enough skill points to max all the pet skills (or even half of them!)
But that’s not really the point, I think. You aren’t supposed to be able to max everything so that’s fine. What is NOT fine is that those skills just aren’t worth the skill points in general. The benefit you get for them compared to almost all other options is just plain worse, EVEN WITHIN A FULL ZOO BUILD ITSELF, WHICH IS WHY EVEN FULL ZOO BUILDS DON’T TAKE THEM.
If everyones’ FULL ZOO BUILD consistently find it more worthwhile to point skill points elsewhere (like say, maxing a skill to buff pets or a pet passive like manipulation) instead of putting it into pets’ skills, something is wrong.
Really, considering the various factors in them (pet AI, cooldowns, not being able to target them, and cast times during which your pet won’t be attacking), the skill effects are simply usually too weak compared to what you can get by putting the skill points elsewhere. The exception is the one pet skill that doesn’t have those factors (the hound’s aura skill, which does not have to worry about pet AI because it’s always on, does not have to worry about cooldowns because it’s always on, does not have to worry about not being able to choose where to target it because it’s always on its targets, and does not have to worry about cast time because it has no cast time). The rest of them, if those factors aren’t going to be mitigated, then they’re going to need serious buffs elsewhere to make up for them.
My own suggestions:
Mend Flesh: Make the raven prioritize the player character first, as mentioned. Possibly increase it’s Area of Effect and give it a regeneration property as well, but also give it a small cooldown in addition to that.
Storm Spirit: The main issue I (and at least one other person in this thread) have with this is that the raven waits for it to wear off before re-casting it, which leaves a brief period in which your character, if relying on it for resists (one of its primary uses), is extremely vulnerable. I’m not sure if this is intended design or not, though.
Lightning Strike: Give it a cooldown (it doesn’t seem to have one at the moment) but greatly increase it’s damage. Right now, without a cooldown and increased damage to compensate, because the raven must spend time in its casting animation during which the raven can’t do anything else, it takes a ridiculous amount of skill points as far as I can tell to make this worth having over the opportunity cost of just saving the skill points and letting the raven do its auto attack. By switching it to a longer cooldown but stronger effect skill, the raven uses it less but gets greater effect from using it, which decreases the time the raven must be spending in its casting animation. As it is, because casting it takes time to do compared to the small benefit from casting it, the skill’s actually a DPS loss compared to the raven’s normal attack at lower skill point levels, and by the time you reach higher skill point levels, you really wish you had those skill points for other things.
Ember Claw: Probably just needs a damage increase or something. Not sure what else to do with it. At least the taunt works now when you have lots of skill points into it… kinda. Maybe this skill animation and effects also needs more visual oomph so you know when it’s gone off and your foes are taunted. Despite my zoo build being my primary character and using the pet skills for the hell of it to various degrees, I’m actually still not sure to this day what this skill looks like when used.
Hellfire: Again, the only pet skill that’s generally worth it because it doesn’t have to worry about the factors that kill all the other ones (pet AI, cooldown, can’t choose target, animation/casting time)
Infernal Breath: I’d rather this have 0 cast time and instead when the Hellhound activates it, it just starts belching the flames but can also do anything else too while it’s belching. After all, just because it’s mouth is breathing fire doesn’t mean the claws aren’t free and available. Might look kinda silly though. As it is, at the moment the long animation means you’re going to have to invest in a lot of skill points before this stops being a DPS loss over just letting the hell hound do normal attacks. It does really strong damage at ultimate ranks but good luck getting there when gear that gives + to Infernal Breath is nearly nonexistant.
Ground Slam: Same as Ember Claw.
Emboldening Roar: For a skill with 66% uptime at best (worse than that due to pet AI, casting time, etc), the effects of this buff aren’t really very good, IMHO. The resistances it gives have the same flaws as storm spirit, where relying on a not-100%-uptime buff for your resistances is extremely dicey because it’s not like you always know in advance when you’re going to get smooshed and when you aren’t so not knowing if that resistance buff will be on you when you need it seriously makes those skills less appealing. In this case, it’s probably intended (or else he would have had 100% buff uptime in the first place) but you’d think the offensive gains from the buff would be really nice to make up for it. Maybe this skill is just a victim of power creep on gear because these days +50% damage for 12 skill points with 66% uptime (at best) is really lame. I suggest adding a total speed component to it or something. That’d also make the skill more special and noticeable cause you’d feel your character zipping around faster 66% of the time.