Death leveling pets in the menagerie

[nkuvu]

I picked up this idea over on Guru, but I haven't seen a mention of it here. This approach will let you death level a pet from level 5 to Hearty level 20 in about twenty minutes in the menagerie. And obviously once you have a hearty level 20 pet you unlock all evolutions for that pet.


Equipment and skills:
The character dying should have five superior runes, and a vampiric weapon. A -50 health offhand would speed up the initial process, but getting 30% death penalty works as well.

It's quickest to set up if the death leveler has health sacrifice skills -- I used a Necromancer/Ranger with [[Blood is Power] and [[Charm Animal]. Just dying by vampiric weapon would be fine as well, but slow to start.

The heroes I chose were Gwen and Norgu, with 16 in Fast Casting. The only skill they have is [[Flesh of my Flesh (PvE)]. Weapons and armor ignored from defaults (aside from headgear giving superior Fast Casting rune, of course).


Setup:
Find the animal you want to charm, and start casting Charm Animal (cancel before it finishes). In many cases, all other animals of the same type will turn hostile. For example, if you start to charm a flamingo, all other flamingos will turn hostile. For quickest death leveling, kill all but one hostile animal.

Note that this is meant to be used on the level 5 pets -- not the pets summoned by Wynn. The difference is that the pets summoned by Wynn will attack the party, and with the low health caused by Flesh of my Flesh, it probably isn't going to work out too well. The level 5 pets roaming around the menagerie will turn red (hostile) but will not attack.

The animals all have a small area that they wander around in, you want to position yourself about in the middle of that area. The point is that if they walk outside of your aggro circle, they don't get experience.

Sacrifice yourself such that you have 1 health. With five superior runes and no -50 offhand, my necromancer needed 30% DP. Equip the vampiric weapon, go get a cup of coffee and a cookie.

With only one health, the vampiric weapon will kill you faster than the character can stand up. The heroes will use Flesh of my Flesh (FomF) and resurrect the character... only to have the character die again. FomF will not kill the heroes, ever. It seems that if FomF would kill a hero, the casting completes and you simply are not resurrected -- but by that time, the other hero has gained enough health to be able to cast FomF and resurrect you again.


Charming:
To stay alive to charm the level 20 animal, all you need to do is switch to a non-vampiric weapon slot. Another weapon, empty weapon slot, whatever. It may take a few tries to switch, since you can't switch weapons when you're dead. But it's not too difficult.

Then, of course, use Charm Animal as normal. Every single time I've done this, the pet has been Hearty, even if it took no damage at all.


Note that this approach will not work for the Rainbow Phoenix, which will not spawn if there are heroes in the party. With no resurrection shrine in the menagerie, dying will just give the "party defeated" message.

[Indigo Montari]

Nice, I was wondering on how to do the afk way. My own technique to death leveling the pets was to take them with me while farming the raptor cave in hard mode. Send them in to get killed off on the pack outside the cave, run away and when your skills recharge you can finish the run. Mind you get a lvl 20 elder pet out of this, To finish the evolution you take the pet back and trade them in for a lvl 15 dire version and finish some more farm runs.

[Tender Wolf]

Ooo cool! Thanks for the guide! Now I have a plan for tomorrow. :D I bought the pet unlock pack but I still have to level the exotics. Great guide!

[Reality Impaired]

Gwen and Norgu
Fast Casting 16:
Heal 0

Mantra of Recovery
Restore Life


with MoR RL has recharged on the preceeding hero in time for a second cast (your third death).


Rea

[Larqh]

Originally Posted by nkuvu

To stay alive to charm the level 20 animal, all you need to do is switch to a non-vampiric weapon slot. Another weapon, empty weapon slot, whatever. It may take a few tries to switch, since you can't switch weapons when you're dead. But it's not too difficult.

I can't remember. Are you able to take off your armor while dead? That would help get your health back up for charming, and give time to switch to a non-vamp weapon.

Thanks for posting this, nkuvu! I have a menagerie full of animals I need to level. :D

[nkuvu]

Originally Posted by Reality Impaired

Gwen and Norgu
Fast Casting 16:
Heal 0

Mantra of Recovery
Restore Life


with MoR RL has recharged on the preceeding hero in time for a second cast (your third death).

Any particular advantage to doing this, or just an alternative? Regenerating the 5 energy needed for Flesh of my Flesh is going to be faster than the 10 energy plus 5 energy for the two skills. I don't know the exact numbers off the top of my head, but 33% faster recharge on an 8 second recharge seems like it's going to be a lot longer than the zero second recharge for FomF.

But I may try this later to see how it compares.

Edit to add:
There's a few second pause for deaths. Resurrect, resurrect, pause for about three seconds. And I don't have a vampiric weapon equipped, but my character is dying over and over. So it's going to be impossible to stay alive unless I can swap out armor, or if I had a Resurrection Signet on the hero. I've been trying for the past few minutes, and can't swap out armor... so a res signet looks like it'll be necessary.

I'll stick with Flesh of my Flesh, it's simpler.

Originally Posted by Larqh

I can't remember. Are you able to take off your armor while dead? That would help get your health back up for charming, and give time to switch to a non-vamp weapon.

No, you can't change/remove armor while dead.

Health is a non-issue, really. The animals in the menagerie, if not summoned by Wynn, don't attack even though they're hostile. So you don't need to worry that you only have one health left (but the note about summoned pets from Wynn is something I forgot to mention, I'll update the OP in a second).

Switching to a non-vampiric weapon is really pretty easy, personally I spam the F-whatever button as my character is resurrected. If the vampiric weapon is in the first slot, for instance, spam F2.

[Larqh]

Yeah, I figured that out when I just tried it a bit ago. Not sure why I was worried about health to begin with. Brainfart, I guess. I just kept clicking a non vamp weapon and got it pretty quickly. So, all good. I did put MoR with FomF, just in case there is an energy problem. No idea if it's really been needed or not. Not paying attention. lol

I just got a phoenix from 5 to 20 (hearty) in 25 minutes, while I ate lunch. Working on a white tiger now. :)

[vader]

This works great. Thanks for posting it. Norgu was a bit surprised when I added him to my group though. :)

[Larqh]

LOL, would you believe I actually went out to complete the quest to get him for this?

[Kilme]

Thank you muchly. I'm working on some pets as we speak.