Optimal Method to Death Level Pets

With The Zaishen Menagerie now active, It seems there is a high demand for leveling pets up quickly. In this post I'll describe what seems to be the fastest way to get this done - death leveling with no shrines involved. I've posted a similar explanation on Wiki, I'll elaborate a bit more here.

The key point here is that if character X has 1 hp and then dies, then resurrecting X with a skill that gives less than 50% health will immediately kill X again. Some examples of such skills are Restore Life (with low healing prayers attribute) and resurrect. This makes the following death leveling procedure extremely fast.

Getting 1 hp on a character is easy, simply die (using a sacrifice skill such as Blood is Power) several times while wearing armor with many superior runes. Note that when you have 1/1 hp, you can't kill yourself with a sacrifice skill; in this case, you must switch 1 sup-rune-armor-piece to increase your heath, use BiP twice, re-wear the sup-rune-armor-piece and use BiP again to die.

In order to expedite things, use 2 mesmer heroes with high fast casting (reduces the resurrection skills' cast time by ~50%) and Healer's Boon (another 50% reduction in cast time for restore life). The third hero can be a Well of Power necro to feed energy into the resurrectors. If at the end of the process you wish to be resurrected and not die immediately then at least one hero should have a resurrection skill that gives 50% or more health to use at that time (such as renew life, which should be disabled until then).

More formally, here is the complete build (heroes on avoid combat):
1. Player (you) - [Blood is Power], ([Charm Animal] if you want to cap yourself and if you are a N/R or R/N)
2. Mesmer (Norgu) - [Restore Life], [Resurrect], [Renew Life] (disabled), [Healer's Boon]
3. Mesmer (Gwen) - same as Norgu
4. Necro - [Well of Power], ([Charm Animal] if you don't want or can't cap the pet yourself, this implies being a secondary Ranger)

The Mesmers should have high fast casting and the Necro should have high blood magic, other than that, attributes are meaningless. Both mesmers should each use 1 or 2 "halves spell recharge" modifiers to further expedite the process.

The entire tactic is as follows: get to the pet you want, you can do this inside the menagerie after you have capped a low level pet and released it, or outside, before you cap the pet; I recommend doing it inside the menagerie, a sterile environment where you won't be disturbed. attack the animal once so it becomes hostile (if you do this to a lvl. 5 pet in the menagerie, it won't attack but that's fine, otherwise, it will attack and Well of Power will compensate for this). Station heroes and yourself there. Wear sup-rune-armor and kill yourself using BiP several times until you have 1 HP and are killed immediately upon being resurrected. When the pet is level 20, capture it. If you did this in the menagerie to a level 5 pet, the pet will be hearty as it never attacked and this will unlock all of the evolutions for this pet.

Note that casting restore life will take ~ 1 second, and casting resurrect will take ~ 2.5 seconds. Leveling a pet from level 5 to 15 should take ~ 10 minutes and from level 5 to level 20 should take ~ 20 minutes (assuming the pet doesn't leave your agro bubble which is where it gains XP from your deaths). What's more, you can be AFK while death leveling.

While there are many ways to death level, this is to my knowledge the fastest way to do it.

Why Well of Power?

To give energy to the ressurectors.

As the mesmers are resurrecting you extremely fast, it consumes their energy. Other infusions of energy (BiP, Blood Ritual) require sacrificing of health by the caster and as there is no healing in the build (and no need to add it) the Necro can't use these skills effectively. Moreover, Well of Power only requires a corpse (no health sacrifice) and as you die every few seconds, there is an endless amount of those just waiting to be expoited. Furthermore, if the pet is attacking the heroes, Well of Power also induces health regeneration so I'd say it is an excellent skill to use here.

Aww...true...forgot that WoP doesn't heal pet...that's why I asked ^^

Good job, Lucia. Nice, easy to understand how-to thread.
I'm interested to see how this would work in the Menagerie if you let the animal kill you several times while you are at 1HP, versus saccing with BiP. Would it affect the evolution? Does that even matter now that you can unlock the evolutions through the Menagerie?

Do the pets in the managerie even attack? Ive gone around wanding them and they didn't even flinch.

other way to die at 1hp without needing to switch armor could be to use [Signet of Agony] or a similar skill to give you degen

Nice method.

In before the nerf!

Very fast leveling, thanks for the guide.

Good idea, I didn't think of that.

As you say, the evolution doesn't matter as long as it isn't "elder". Anything but "elder" unlocks the entire arsenal of evolutions. In this method, it turns out "hearty". Once you hand the pet to the tamer, all other evolutions are unlocked.

The level 5 pets in the menagerie don't attack and I've mentioned in my original post that this is inconsequential; the pet will level up whether it attacks you or not (as long as you attack it once and turn it from green to red). If you summon level 12 pet or higher in the menagerie, they will attack. Actually, this may be a way to level up a rainbow phoenix; as soon as you can summon a level 12 rainbow phoenix, you should be able to death level it in the menagerie. So rather than having to level it up from level 5 to 20, you just have to level it up to level 12, then hand it in at the menagerie and re-summon it while you have heroes with you and death level it from level 12 to level 20. I haven't tried this, but it seems like it should work

Or a vampiric weapon, which means you don't have to activate the skill yourself. To stop dying, you need to switch to another weapon.

I've been using Mesmer/Ritualists with Flesh of my Flesh. Gwen and Norgu each with 16 in fast casting, no other hero. There is no recharge for FomF, and the 5 energy cost is minimal. If one of the two runs out of energy, the other will be able to cast -- and by the time that cast is done, the first has regained enough energy to cast again. My Necro/Ranger with five superior runes, Blood is Power and Charm Animal. Aside from the 16 in Fast Casting for the mesmers, attributes don't matter at all. It could easily be a Ranger/Necro as well, no difference.

The end effect for this setup is that as soon as my necromancer falls, one of the mesmers casts FomF. I don't know exact casting times for FomF with 16 FC, but it's a lot faster than another character without FC. If I'm reading the wiki right, should be just under a 2 second cast. It's a very simple setup, and gives times about the same as listed in the OP (I wasn't paying close attention to times, but I do know it's very very quick).

This is a very good method as well. [Flesh of my Flesh] takes 4 seconds to cast. With 16 fast casting, it is reduced to 2 seconds. This is just a bit slower than what I proposed. Due to the use of [Healer's Boon], [Restore Life] casts in 1 second and [resurrect] (unaffected by [Healer's Boon]) casts in 2.5 seconds. On average this gives a 1.75 second cast time per rez spell as opposed to a 2 second cast time using your method.

After I level my next pet I'll create 20/20 healing wands and offhands for my resmers and bring Quickening Zephyr on the necro. These steps might seem insignificant but could skim considerable time off the total death leveling session.

How does the skill recharge affect the times? Seems like that would be the bottleneck to me, but I haven't tried it out yet.

Since each of the 4 rez skills (2 on each mesmer) takes 8 seconds to recharge, it seems that a rez every 2 seconds is viable. This would be equivalent to using [Flesh of my Flesh]

Getting a rez available in under 2 seconds requires weapon modifiers that reduce skill recharge (either 1 or 2, 20% chance each).

If you use a "halves skill recharge" (20%) mod on the weapon of each mesmer then you have a rez available every 1.8 seconds. The math is - [ 8 (second recharge) * 80% + 4 (sec. recharge) * 20% ] / 4 (rez skills) = 1.8. This is the setup I have been using, I'm too lazy to find a 40/40 set for my 2 mesmer heroes, they use hourglass staves instead.

If you use 2 mods on a wand and a focus item, then you have a rez available every 1.64 seconds. The math is - [ 8 (sec. recharge) * 64% + 4 (sec. recharge) * 36% ] / 4 (rez skills) = 1.64 (it's 64% because the 2*20% don't add up, but rather, the 80% multiply).

Anyway nkuvu, thanks for the input, I didn't mention the weapon modifiers in my original post, I'll edit it now.

By the way nkuvu, I've been thinking of 2 details about your build -

1. Don't you get to the stage (after about 9 casts) where [Flesh of my Flesh] causes your heroes to kill themselves due to the health loss?

2. Since you are rezzed with your heroes' current health, you don't die immediately, I'm assuming you use a vampiric weapon to finish the job each time. How long does it take for the vampiric weapon to kill you when you have 1 hp?

Pretty smart.

Anyone know how long it takes to get a pet to lvl 20 with this method?

Im pretty sure its about 40 minutes to an hour with this method, I did it to my phoenix and I think thats how long it took. Funny thing was that when I was done my phoenix was hearty

My original post contains the answer to this, it's ~ 20 minutes to get a pet from level 5 to level 20.

In 40 minutes to an hour you should be able to death level 2 to 3 pets...

I've been afk death leveling my zPets in the menagerie now and then on my PvP character set up with 5 superior runes, a vampiric axe and a Life is Pain offhand. I bring the two rezmer heroes and a N/Mo hero with [Blood is Power] [Blood Ritual] [Healing Touch] [Heal Area]. Giving each of the rezmers [Orison of Healing], too, seems to always keep everyone charged and alive.

Using a PvP character is great if your account is UAX or close - just use the PvP equip screen to set yourself and the heroes up.

It may not be the absolute fastest res cycle, but it's worth a laugh to use your vamp axe to die and set your rezmers up with [Unyielding Aura], (it's the PvE version in the grounds.) Start to level a pet, forget to set the party flag, go afk for 15 min. Come back and see they've carried your corpse off to some random area of the grounds, far away from the pets.

No, they never die from Flesh of my Flesh. They'll get down to 1 health occasionally, but still won't die from it. I presume it's similar to not being able to kill yourself with Blood is Power when you have 1 health.
I do use a vampiric weapon, yes. And it's ridiculously fast -- my character can't even stand up before dying again.

Somewhat interesting side note, every once in a while when switching to the non-vampiric weapon set, my character's health bar will display 1 health, but will not be full. I've seen half-empty (or half-full, if your prefer) health bar as well as an empty health bar.

meh, no armor on a res shrine with frenzy ;-)

I'm a bit confused on why the pet comes out hearty. Granted, it deals no damage. However, it also takes no damage. A balance like that should work out to elder/unevolved, just like using a junundu to level a freshly-charmed pet.

Perhaps that first, single attack does enough damage to swing the balance to the playful/hearty track. But, if that's the case, then people have been working too hard at pet leveling for years. They could have just "pre conditioned" the pet by having it either take a little damage while dealing less (hearty track) or deal a little damage while taking less (dire track), then used the junundu.

Either that, or something has changed regarding the way pets evolve. I have now leveled about 10 on the Boreal wurms, and every single one has hit final evolution (dire or hearty) at level 14.

This is interesting.

It might be a bug that has been introduced with the Menagerie/4th anniversary update.

I forgot to mention this part.

When I first aggro the animal, I use Charm Animal and cancel it, doing no damage at all. I've then locked a hero onto the animal and forced the hero to attack (while my character is busy dying). I bring the animal's health down to about 50%, then set the hero back to Avoid Combat.

So the way I'm death leveling the pets, they are taking some damage, and doing absolutely none. I'll try a session with just Charm Animal and then death leveling, doing no damage at all to see if it turns out as Elder.

I only attacked my jingle bear like once or twice after it was near 17-18 and it came out hearty. I would guess that even just using charm animal to aggro it would still turn out hearty (perhaps a bug). To be on the safe side though I would say just give it a few whacks before you start dying and it should work.

I always kill all but one of the animals of the same type, but I don't touch the one i'm going to charm. Maybe the go to hearty for being passive the whole time.

I've found the most effective method so far seems to be a rezmer with FomF, and a spare hero to keep it energized and the two of them alive. Wells don't work out so well, because you'll sometimes end up getting the health benefit of them and won't die until the pet comes to kill you or you move out of it. That means AFKing it that way would be slow.

I cap a pet in PvE, unlock it in the Menagerie, and then death level it 'till about 12. Then I unlock that tier, have Wynn spawn me an Aggressive or Dire evolution, and death level with that. I'll place the rezmer far enough away that the pet teleports back to the pen when it tries to attack it, but the rezmer will still try to res me. The other hero will be farther back so that they don't get hit, and they can still support the rezmer.

Lol this is so funny res'ing and dying within a second

I swear the zaishen trainer gave me some funny looks

[edit]

I just took a crocodile from level 5 to 15 hearty in 15 mins

So, I've noticed that my rezmers are running out of energy even with Well of Power.

Since I am death leveling a White Moa right now and can't test it; would putting Waste Not Want Not (along with Channeling) on the rezmeres and putting them on guard hinder the process? As in, will they attack the pets, or even use WNWN?

I run my Necro (MoW) with BiP and Blood Ritual and my Resmers have no problems with energy... Even whispers doesn't die (All set to Guard) I start to charm then cancel it once the pet turns red.

Where are you DLing the pets?

The level 5 ones, or the ones Wynn makes?

Neither I nor my heroes ever damaged the pets at all, and they all came out Hearty. I'd turn them hostile with Charm Animal, cancel it, then just die. Heroes stayed on avoid combat the whole time. I DL'ed at least 25 level 5 pets wandering the grounds to level 20 this way. Every one came out hearty. I never killed off the multiples either.

For a few pet types, I opted to DL a mid-level version from Wynn to get the final level 20. Those do start attacking you and your party once you start charming. So I started with a Level 12 aggressive pet shown in the yard, figuring the damage it did to my heroes while they ran around would push it to dire. Not so! I came back later to find a Level 20 *Elder* version. After turning in the elder pet, Wynn would show me Level 15 hearty or dire versions, so I had to DL one of those to get the top tier of unlocks. It sucked having to essentially redo that pet, so the few other cases where I charmed a <20 pet in order to turn it in and DL a version from Wynn, I always made sure I had a Level 15 Hearty to show Emryd first. Like I said, the pets on the grounds turned Hearty at Level 15. And any pets I fight with in PvE wind up Hearty without me having to alter my tactics much.

Something pushes them towards Hearty; I don't think I'm doing it, though. No damage inflicted to or by the pet and it becomes Hearty. No damage inflicted to an Aggressive pet, letting it damage my character and heroes, it becomes Elder. I didn't test to see what happens if I start with a Level 12 Elder from Wynn.

12,787 deaths and rising.

Anything requiring a rez shrine would be radically slower than what is mentioned here as it takes 10 seconds to be rezzed at a shrine. Armor level is meaningless as you are not taking damage at all, but rather, dying instantly after being rezzed.

As you are dying instantly when rezzed, you can never get the health benefit from the well.

The beautiful thing about the setup I proposed is that you don't need to place your heroes at specific locations, it's simple, it's death leveling on auto-pilot...

I'm using the level 5 ones. I will use the level 12 Wynn Rainbow Phoenix in order to death level it from level 12 to level 20 rather than having to do it with Junundu.

Super easy and some good lulz. I just go with the 2 resmers and well necro. Takes about 25 mins or so to get one pet from 5-20, give or take depending on if they stay in experience range the whole time.

Trying this out right now...I must say, it's rather hilarious watching my character stand up and immediately fall back over!

An interesting side note -

When more than 1 pet is in your aggro area - only 1 receives the xp from your deaths. This differs from the normal xp gain mechanic and could even be a bug.

I come to this conclusion since I just tried to death level a wolf and a black wolf together. The wolf became level 20 whereas the black wolf remained level 5. As soon as my hero charmed the wolf, the black wolf started to level up.

I'm assuming you mean different types of pet - because I'm doing this right now and am surrounded by level 15 Lynxes.

Wynn will not produce rainbownixes if there is a hero in your party. Good luck death levelling by yourself.