Animations and sound effects slow the game down, specifically they slow down how fast I can take my next turn. I haven't timed it but it probably takes a half a second between moves due to sound effects and animations. This is much worse when you have a pet. At this point I basically don't take the skills with pets because of this slow down. So I think what I really want is a mode where I can turn off the animations entirely so I can play faster or one where the pet and monsters attacking it won't animate or slow the game down unduly. Thoughts?
Press + to speed up the game's animations. Press - to slow them down again. I never play on anything less than + speed now, and sometimes even go to ++ if I'm waiting for a long cooldown to finish.