[Balimon]

The short answer is yes - it's game changing. It opens some doors and it generally kills faster and is stronger than the other pets. The longer answer is that it's complicated. The main advantage the epic pet has is that it's always the same level when you summon it, removing the randomness. I haven't parsed any data but I believe that a focused air pet actually tanks more effectively because it's a monk class versus the warrior class of the epic. When I first got epic I was kinda disappointed in how fast he loses health compared to the air which I used 100% of the time solo.

That being said, epic still has more hit points, higher level, and stronger DS and effects. It's more often the better DPS option than the other pets and tankier. Not being able to reclaim it is sad, but being able to 'store' a charge on a fresh orb summon is pretty amazing for difficult fights or for raiding. If all you're doing is planning on soloing I don't know if it's really worth it? The focused air pet is incredible for this already, but it doesn't kill as quickly.

I'm curious what other folks think about this question or what they've used the pet that they couldn't before. Personally I have used it to farm greens faster (duh!) kill the named wyverns in skyshrine, I've had it tank difficult mobs with a healer, duoed Tserrina with a wizard, kill the named wurms in GD. I know I could solo some named in chardok but haven't had time to try.