We all know it's frustrating to have a Spritely, Spell-Proof, Spell-Defy pet that becomes useless after hitting a "stats-boost" Talent at Epic...
This kind of overwhelming disappointment is what makes players lose faith (and sometimes quit). People don't mind raw deals as long as they Know it's a raw deal since the beginning. If you hint to a player that he might have a cookie and then you snatch it away at the last minute... Then you are playing with his loyalty to the game.
I understand that Wizard want players to train pets over and over in order to make Crowns (money). That's why I came up with a perfect system that will make both sides happy...
1) To make players happy...
Make Manifested talents always inherited ! All Manifested talents on the parents are inherited by default... The rest is randomly chosen from the pool of Talents left over.
This way players won't experience the "cliff-drop" disappointment... Because even if his/her pet is "ruined" at Epic with a bad Talent, it will still make a great breeding pet. See it as a "consolation prize". If you keep breeding pets with good manifested talents, you can more or less control the initial gene pool of the offspring. Thus player don't feel like they worked for nothing.
2) To make KI happy...
Even if the "initial" gene pool is predetermined, players still need to level their pets to Epic ! There will still be need for Mega-Snacks and pet breeding. In fact, players will get more exciting about leveling their pets, knowing its gene pool is more or less controlled. In fact, people might want to level MORE pets to Epic just to get a better idea of what Talents will go into the offspring ! If I am going to breed my Adult Sea Dragon with 2 good talents... I might as well level it to Epic so I can control the gene pool of its offsprings better !
KI would make even More money because there are less "unless" pets that people don't want to level anymore. My Sea Dragon got Accuracy boost at teen? Big deal... I will level it to Epic just to see if I can use it as a good breeder pet later on.