Animal Training QuestionFollow

Your pet gains the same amount of xp that you do when you kill something. When your pet kills something with absolutley zero help from you, you don't gain any xp. From the sound of your post your just letting it kill stuff without helping at all, which when learning new pet skills, is the way to go, but trying to lvl up, simply go on killing stuff the way you normally would.

Hope this helps

You did 2 trials, so I'll explain both of them seperately, since something different happened each time.

Trial 1: Level 33 hunter, level 33 pet. Your pet won't gain XP until you hit level 34, because your pet can't level past you. Since your pet only has like 6 bars to go instead of 20 (and I think they're similar-ish) you could probably have a level 50 pet at level 37 or so if they didn't stop it gaining XP at your level.

Trial 2: Level 33 hunter, level 18 pet, assuming level 18 mobs being targeted. If a mob gives you no experience, it gives your pet no experience. However, your pet gains XP from the ratio of its level to the mob, not yours. Basically:
-Whether or not your pet will gain XP is determined by your level. If the mob is green or higher, your pet will gain XP.
-How much XP your pet gains is determined by your pet's level.
So if your pet is level 18 and you kill a level 18 mob, it wont gain XP. If you kill a level 30 mob, you'll gain the experience of a level 33 on a level 30, and your pet will gain a lot more because it's level 18 vs. level 30. That way your pets can catch up to you and don't lag behind in level.

So, if your pet is your level, it wont gain XP. If you fight gray mobs, your pet wont gain XP. Fight green mobs or higher to level your pet.

Welcome to the Hunter Community Trinlor.
Leave your sanity at the door, and also all notions of ever being accepted in any other class community. We are shunned. Also, never take anything said in here at face value, until you have read the post at least five times, scanning it for sarcasm, irony, or pure randomness.

Welcome, and enjoy your stay.

calabar rated you up (me too, but thats besides the point)

for the OP, before you ask any questions about the "best" pet:
w.a.y.w.a.y.p.w.i.y.s.a.a.h.t.a.l.
"there is no best pet, Carrion bird is the best pet"
and visit Petopia!

edit for color correction.

Edited, May 2nd 2007 1:40am by Aethien

Great post there skribs. I was curious as to how the xp worked and why my pet is always about half a level behind me.

If my memory serves me correctly, that was the case in diablo 2 with mercenaries. Since pets in here work similar to mercenaries in diablo 2, as far as XP goes and not being able to go past your level, etc. it makes sense to think that.

The reason I think they don't let your pet gain XP if it is your level, rather than gain XP to the point of being 1 kill behind you, is simply that it's easier coding-wise. They'd either have to have it check to see if it would level (every time probably) and if not give it the XP, or simply limit it to the amount it would gain -1. This would require a bit of extra coding, and if these devs are like the devs in other games I've played, solutions to problems (this problem being "how to keep a pet at your level or lower") are chosen based on what requires the least amount of coding. Now, all it has to check is if it's at your level, if so it gains no XP.
For this situation I think its okay for the devs to dake the path of least work, the current situation works fairly well and I've never had any problems with this aspect of pets. It's sometimes painful to buy the new passives and be unable to teach them to my pet yet, but overall its just an annoyance, nothing serious.