Elder Pet in 15 minutes + bug? + Dire evolution condition.

I tried the master guide to death leveling pets on the polar bear near Boreal station replacing the Mo/X w/ a Me/Mo and got the Dire pet evolution, when i tried to improve the metod i got the shaft but i managed to learn a thing or two.

Heres the story:

First i tried to get 1 R/N +3X/N and use Bip 3 times near a ress shrine, so everybody ended up w/ only 1 digit of hp and let the bear do the kill. It was fine and i got another dire bear but not that much quicker not to mention i had to pay attention to who i was sacking and it required a ress shrine. Then i came up w/ this:

1. you X/N - only skill you need is [skill]Blood is Power[/skill], any rank in Blood magic, might as well be 12+
2. R/N - The guy getting the pet, only needs [skill]Charm Animal[/skill] and Blood is power
3. Me/Rt - only needs max Fast Casting and [skill]Flesh of my Flesh[/skill]
4. Mo/X X/Mo [skill]Watchful Spirit[/skill] and [skill]Mending[/skill] 12+ Healing prayers

It works like this, get the pet-to-be somewhere safe, cast Mending and Watchful Spirit on the Mesmer Hero (this keeps him alive while saccing 1/2 his current health for FoMF and the animal attacks) and flag the monk far away (but in radar range), flag the mesmer and the ranger who will get the pet to you and sac yourself and the Ranger casting Blood is power in the mesmer hero (this kills you and keeps his Energy High to keeep the FoMF spam).

-THIS IS WHERE I NOTICED A BUG
Apparently heros can change the target of their spells during cast, When both you and the hero are dead the First Ress will always be aimed at you, when you are alive the mezmer will start casting Flesh of My Flesh on the Ranger hero, the only dead party member, but if you sac yourself before the cast is over you will be ressed instead o.O this makes it so every 2.5-3 seconds you will be ressed and be able to sacc again, the only thing you have to do is keep presing the bip key while targetting the mesmer w/o looking at the game. When you want to Tame the pet manualy force your mesmer to ress the hero and use charm animal.

The problem is i tried this 3 times and all pets became elder (no name evolution but w/ elder stats) then i read somewhere that sometimes it takes more then 15 levels for a evolution to trigger so i tried once till lvl 20 and still elder.
Then i re-read the Animal companion article on wiki and it said that the ratio of damage taken Vs damage dealt affected the pet evolution so i decided to get naked, have Mending and Watchful Spirit cast on me and tank the pet Attacking me for 5 minutes before starting and when it got to lvl 15 it was only elder ¬¬.

From my frustration i can only assume that the damage taken/recived thing is fake, i only hit the damn thing once for 4-5 damage and it atacked a 0 AL taget for a good 5 mins + 12 - 15 minutes of attacking the mesmer resser and turned out to be Elder every single time ,the only thing the Bears outside Boreal Station did that the other animals didnt was landing killing blows wich i can only assume its the only thing involved in this metod that really affects the evolutions.

From all my "runs" i came up w/:

1x Master Guide way: All kills were from the Bear till he was lvl 15 - Dire Evolution
1x Saccing you/heros till 1 digit hp and let the animal kill till he was lvl 15 - Dire Evolution
3x Saccing yourself till animal lvl 15 w/o letting the animal kill you - Elder Evolution
1x Saccing yourself till animal lvl 17 w/o letting the animal kill you - Elder Evolution
1x Saccing yourself till animal lvl 20 w/o letting the animal kill you - Elder Evolution
2x Letting animal hit naked target for 5 minutes then Saccing yourself till animal lvl 15 w/o letting the animal kill you - Elder Evolution

All tests w/ my build were with the mountian eagles outside the norn city, maybe the animal type has something to do? after launch ill try this again on the bear, but i rly want a eagle =/

This happens because you are actually killing yourself, and the pet ain't doing the killing. You could get your health down, then let the animal finish you off... not sure if that should help. But I think it is best for the animal to actually be the one to kill you no matter what your health is at, thats why it is quicker to use armor and runes to get your health down below 10hp when you hit 60dp. Only takes on hit to kill you no matter if you are healed or what your armor is, maybe for warrior or para it might take two hits... never actually tried it. But sacrificing yourself will level up your pet, but it will not allow the pet to evolve dire. All in all just let the animal do the killing, then you can go AFK and return 35 minutes later and have a lvl 20 dire pet all ready to tame.

If the animal is actually attacking someone in your group while you kill yourself it gets experience (obviously) but I never tested all the way up, just as a way to speed up the early stages and make sure the resser always has energy. I wonder if even one unique kill per level is enough to get the thing to dire, now I want to test again. Heehee. It's interesting that the old school dogma that # of kills doesn't matter just it's damage dealt/damage taken by pet is apparently not true anymore. It may be possible that the damage it dealt at level 1 wasn't enough and you just needed to let it deal a little bit at each level or perhaps ever other? I can see it not getting a second evolution though with that protocol.

Good to know how to get Elder...

But yeah, I think the pet needs to get the kill to get extra credit, and that might be the problem.