What I dont get is, stuff like percolator completly makes skilling up pup exactly as expected. With 3 water maneuvers up I can get about 20 points in 2 hrs. Without any water up, I get about 0.5-1 an hour.

So SE knows what it needs to be, but they want you to have 4 pieces of gear+food+moghancement just to get the same skill up rate you have on a pet.... My guard is at 257 and i pull 10 mobs at a time and might see 1 skill up per day. It is just stupid.

Needless time sinks are needless, and not fun. How many times and examples must be given to get this point across?