Optimal Method to Death Level 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.