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smeghead2
1) LesserSkele at lvl 1, get a few levels and make sure to lvl the skill asap > Skele 38 (equivelent to lvl 19 lvling wise), then you have dual pet already!, on x2 beta xp I went from 0-65 1 week with barely any effort to grinding > Shinshu lvl 70 > Shinshu lvl 3 (lvl 75). lvl 3 pets get an additional bonus debuff that will make you happy I'm sure, unlike on past Mirs that have the lvl 3 stay very static in damage and usefuless, more SC the more damage+resists btw.
2) Sorry didn't test this vs Wiz shield! All I'll say is Wiz's are meant to be rewarded heavily for casting the right shield vs the correct damage (physical/magic), fyi if they cast the wrong shield they only take 20% damage reduction, with their amount of HP! Also you made me curious if pets are hitting physical/magic (i guess shinny magic, skele physical, or could be just magical seeing as they are determined by SC, I'm surprised skele did barely any damage, it definetly does damage!).
3) Wrong advertisement on Portal, I'm with you on that! I think Portal is in a good state though and I feel their are other naggs to be working on right now. Plop the portal behind you (somewhere safe) as your watching your party member fighting, if he gets cc'd/low HP, you can drop a portal immediately on his head to get him to safety, or on yourself AND you can portal again shortly after because the 1st one is still alive! Also this scenerio : Cast Portal in a cave floor, RT, then tell a team mate your plopping down your 2nd Portal, tell him to enter the 1st one and transfer is complete! (remembering if anyone, including yourself enters the 1st Portal, the Portal spell is broken, the life of Portal is the 1st one).
4) We did have the exp skill much higher at 16%, but the decision to lower it to 8% was more suited and ends up making cash shop xp more worth (I believe it's going to be 20% xp pots max). I agree with you about longer duration, it got nerfed and now it should last longer because at lvl 1 you'll be screaming inside a bit at having to keep it up, I'm also a little dissapointed in a skill with it's only function giving XP, it could give additional functions like carrying weight+ or healthrecovery+ (off the top of my head could come up with better) for wasting a keybind.
The Tao before lvl 80 functions well enough honestly (after 80 the AoE utility is out like Curse/PC/Plague), you can't have them too useful, especially in the early or you are going to have bigger problems like more and more people picking Tao for easy grinding. Pet's are more useful for additional grinding deeps I promise you, you'll enjoy the new single target Holy Smite, increased lvls make Trap Hex relavent and AC/AMC buffs aren't a joke they are scaling buffs.
I'm a little concerned for how popular Tao is, other servers have skewed the system and made Tao and additional "force" equal in some fashion to the other classes, but Tao role was never meant to be that forced, it's primary role is to support, if you like getting kills on LoL and get fustrated over assists then I suggest you don't pick Tao.
Other classes have been given new life and are just as fun, even though pet auto's are a lovely and easy feature to get lured by, try and keep it together guys :P Tao is given love here, in the right way!