Guide:Death Leveling Pets

Death Leveling is a method to create Dire pets by allowing charmable animals to kill you to gain levels. Players commonly use Death Leveling to avoid Hearty evolutions ; pre-Searing characters also use it as they acquire the Legendary Defender of Ascalon title.

Core Skill(s)
[build prof=Any/r][Optional][Optional][Optional][Optional][Optional][Optional][Optional][Charm Animal][/build]



Tactics

 * First, find a rez shrine.
 * Second, Use Charm Animal to make the animal attack you( besure to flag Henchies/Heros, if you brought them, to a location so they wont attack it)and pull it near the rez shrine.If you are not near a rez shrine, See Hero Death Leveling on this page.
 * Second, Remove armor.
 * Third, Let yourself die.
 * Hopefully you will be rezed and the pet will attack and kill you again.
 * Finally, after a long time, charm the pet when it gets to level 15.

Hero Death Leveling
There are some pets that are not so easy to bring to a rez shrine. Examples are: Raven, Phoenix(Canthan), and others. To death level these pets you will need a Hero and to follow these steps.
 * Step1: Make sure one hero has a generic resurrection skill(Restore Life, Flesh of my Flesh, etc. NOT Resurrection Signet)
 * Step2: Flag Henchmen and Heroes to a safe location away from pet.
 * Step3: Bring the Hero with resurrection to your location and disable all skills but the Rez. Set Attack style to Avoid Combat.
 * Step4: Use Charm Animal to make Animal attack you, make sure you don't charm them yet.
 * Step5: Remove your armor.
 * Step6: You can now minimize Guild Wars and do something else for a while, be sure to check how it is coming along every once in a while.
 * Step7: Let pet kill you and your heroes resurrect you until pet is desired level.
 * Step8: Put armor on again and charm pet.
 * Use these steps to get pets for your heroes too.

Hero Skill Selection
Note: If you bring a Mesmer Hero, they should have maxed Fast Casting.

Monk

 * Not a good option, as it makes the hero lose all energy.
 * If Hero is attacked by Pet, it will out heal the damage(if this is used, make sure Hero has high Healing Prayers and disable after it is used on Hero)
 * Same thing as Mending.
 * If Hero is attacked by Pet, it will out heal the damage(if this is used, make sure Hero has high Healing Prayers and disable after it is used on Hero)
 * Same thing as Mending.
 * If Hero is attacked by Pet, it will out heal the damage(if this is used, make sure Hero has high Healing Prayers and disable after it is used on Hero)
 * Same thing as Mending.
 * Same thing as Mending.

Equipment selection
You will need the following:
 * Charm Animal.
 * +Energy Staff.
 * A Vampiric sword, axe, or spear, with the -50 HP Grim Cesta, can really speed this up.
 * A way to be resurrected.
 * And extra inventory space so you can take off your armor.
 * Minimum required player level is 10 to get pet to level 15 (but is very slow compared to if you're level 20).

For Quicker Death
For a quicker death, think about bringing the cheapest armor you can find and put superior runes on it to lower your Health. When you get 60% death penalty, you will have 1 HP. When you have 1 max HP and are resurrected with a skill that resurrects you with less than 50% hp you will be resurrected with less than 0.5HP, which Guild Wars rounds down to 0, so you will be killed instantly. Note that the pet still gains experience from this, making it beneficial to do this for a faster leveling.

If done this way, bring two heroes with Resurrect. They will alternate using Resurrect, rezzing you with 0 health. Here is an example bar:

Disable Orison of Healing until you die enough to have 1 max health. Then enable Orison and begin dying while setting your heroes to Avoid Combat. They will heal each other while resurrecting you with 0 health, enabling you to minimize Guild Wars and do something else.