Why wouldn't my pet level before charming

I took Margrid into Ferndale last night and got her a white tiger. I want a dire pet for her, so I took off all my armor and let it attack me hoping to death level it. It was a level 5, dealing damage in the 6 to 10 range and wasn't doing much to my health meter, so I went AFK. I checked back about a half hour later. It was still at level 5, and my health hadn't moved. I checked back again in another half hour...still level 5 at which point I was pretty certain it wasn't going to level. Another odd thing that happened is its health never restored to 100% (from my initial attack).

So I let it attack me for the next two and a half hours to insure that it would have a higher damage output and lower damage intake by the time it hit level 15, then I let Margrid come and charm it.

From there I took the party to the Ice Tooth Caves and began leveling it (post-charmed) against the minotaurs. I equipped Margrid with a hammer so that she would get into melee range and take damage without outputting much. Everyone else in the party is equipped with heals and in passive mode, including me, so that Margrid and her tiger are the only ones dealing damage with the tiger dealing most and and taking least. It was at level 8 when I left this morning, but I'm certain it will be dire after I resume and get it to level 15.

In the meantime, has anyone besides me had a pet NOT level before charming or does anyone know why it didn't level? This is a first for me, and I want to understand.

Thanks!

I am not 100% sure but I think I read somewhere here in the forums they nerfed that, so now you have to level them yourself again.


EDIT: Why would you want a Dire pet anyway? In gvg or HA or almost anywhere if your pet gets to DP'ed and is dire it will die really fast, if you going to play RaO which is the only beast build worth playing you better off with a hearty pet so it can soak up more dmg and stay alive for you to use RaO.
I suppose a dire pet in TA would be ok thou because the matches tend to be short, just my 2 cents.

I believe they do get exp, but only the first time they kill you.

Not sure if I understood correctly. You were allowing it to kill you weren't you?

As for Legendary Ultimatum. Seeing as this pet is for a hero it's unlikely it will be seeing much pvp at all (except possible Hero battles).

Yes I didnt notice then, but then again who would care if your heroes pet is dire or not >.>

In the thread about Tigers in Pongmei Valley, the question of nerfed or un-nerfed? came up and seemed to be answered in the final post by the OP. The level 5 couldn't inflict enough damage to kill me, yet when I trained a level 3 stalker last year, she was able to kill me. I think I'm going to try again tonight w/ another hero.

Hi there LU...

I rarely play PvP, and you seem to be referencing only PvP. I much prefer PvE, and I've played all three evolutions, dire, elder and hearty in PvE. I prefer the one dire I have now because she gets the job done quickly. The dynamics of the +/- health and damage play out differently in PvE. When 'doing the math,' it would seem that it's 'six to one, half dozen to the other,' but I've observed my dire usually stays alive longer than hearties, and I suspect that's because she kills quicker with her '+damage' and before her '- health' even becomes a factor. Anyway, I rarely have a pet death because the hench healers in my party keep the pets alive, which, IMO, makes the hearty '+health' factor pretty much a moot point.

I would... obviously I'm all about dealing damage.

Trying to, but it couldn't. My health meter jumped right back up to max very quickly after every strike. And I had my heroes flagged too far away to be able to spam heals at me. Besides I was playing it super safe and disabled all their skills, Margrid's included, while I was trying to get the cat to kill me. It was weird.

So you don't think that 3-1/2 hours of attacking me (while I danced ) counted? Oh Ugh.

You are right, because DPS in PvE is king :P.

Besides from what i posted before, are you saying that the pet coudnt even kill you?