Vazil's Guide to Quick Pet Leveling

Vazil - Sanctuary
Vazil - Sanctuary Posts: 28 Arc User
edited August 2011 in Venomancer
Got a pet you need to level quickly? I put this guide together based on my experience leveling my HERC. Comments and suggestions welcome.

NOTE: This guide assumes you are at least level 40 since all the pet leveling will happing in the cube.

1. Get your pet and get it hatched.
2. Get your pet's loyalty to at least 960.
3. Have at least 20 tickets (or 10 mirage) for the cube.
4. Enter the cube.
5. Your goal is to get to room 4 (Mice Bashing). If you go past room 4, find a way to fail a room or die (last resort town portal) to get back to room 1. Rinse and continue until you reach room 4. Room 4 is called Mice Bashing. Full of a crapload of stones that only have like 20 HP but have a VERY HIGH evasion and are thus difficult to hit.
6. VERY IMPORTANT - Remove all your equipment. If you do not, you will be quite suprised at your equip repair bill!
7. Summon your pet. Put your pet on manual attack (you do not want your pet hitting the mobs as it will likely kill the mob).
8. VERY IMPORTANT - Make sure you keep Summer Sprint up at all times. You want to stay ahead of the mobs.
9. Attack mobs with your fists to create a "train". Mobs are non-aggro until hit. ALWAYS keep moving - I would target the next mob as soon as I started swinging on the current mob. Start slow (like 5 mobs) until you know how many you can handle. They only hit for 8-16 HP each, but it adds up when you have a bunch of them hitting you at once. An HP charm is useful, but not necessary. Once you have the train at the size you want (I was averaging about 15-20 at a time with 2500HP), run to the center of the largest group of stones you can find that you haven't hit yet.
10. Start casting Noxious Cloud (veno AOE) as soon as you stop running. The stones will catch up before it goes off and will quite often interrupt you - spam the spell until it goes off (watch your HP in case you need to pot to survive until spell goes off). Voila! Bunch of dead mobs that give full XP (15) to your pet.
11. Check your HP and get it where you need it for the next round. I could do about 3 runs before I needed to pot/infuse/etc.
12. Rinse and repeat.
13. If you run out of time, you can log out in this room and when you log back in, you will still be there.

NOTE: You can actually get lucky and kill a stone with your bare hands (VENO TANK) so if your Noxious Cloud isn't casting, make sure you have a mob in your train selected (I almost died figuring that one out).

Using this strategy, I was able to level my HERC from 1 to 41 in about 1.5 hours. I didn't use any charms and only a handful of pots (when I got spam interrupted from training too many mobs).

Good luck, and any additional hints/tips are welcome.
Post edited by Vazil - Sanctuary on
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Comments

  • BloodFire - Harshlands
    BloodFire - Harshlands Posts: 172 Arc User
    edited April 2009
    Great share<3.
    I am going to try this when I get my Herc ^^
  • _WillFire_ - Sanctuary
    _WillFire_ - Sanctuary Posts: 563 Arc User
    edited April 2009
    How about the phoenix?
    Mark 12:29-37
    _WillFire_ 8x Combat Medic
  • BloodFire - Harshlands
    BloodFire - Harshlands Posts: 172 Arc User
    edited April 2009
    How about the phoenix?
    As far as I know. There is no choice but to suffer the long way. But I do wonder do pets get the extra exp gain from grinding on mobs.
  • _WillFire_ - Sanctuary
    _WillFire_ - Sanctuary Posts: 563 Arc User
    edited April 2009
    As far as I know. There is no choice but to suffer the long way. But I do wonder do pets get the extra exp gain from grinding on mobs.

    As far as I know pets get a max of 15xp per kill when loyalty is high enough and grinding on mobs of equal level. As far as the Veno just mass killing stuff of lower levels and the pet getting xp for that...no clue.
    Mark 12:29-37
    _WillFire_ 8x Combat Medic
  • BloodFire - Harshlands
    BloodFire - Harshlands Posts: 172 Arc User
    edited April 2009
    As far as I know pets get a max of 15xp per kill when loyalty is high enough and grinding on mobs of equal level. As far as the Veno just mass killing stuff of lower levels and the pet getting xp for that...no clue.

    I am almost insane enough to try it. But I was also wondering about water + air mobs. We get a bonus correct but do they I wonder. Hummmm. So much math so little patience I have xD
  • _WillFire_ - Sanctuary
    _WillFire_ - Sanctuary Posts: 563 Arc User
    edited April 2009
    I am almost insane enough to try it. But I was also wondering about water + air mobs. We get a bonus correct but do they I wonder. Hummmm. So much math so little patience I have xD

    Ah...bonus for air and water. Unfortunately not. This I know ( or rather have watched for...thus far negative ).
    Mark 12:29-37
    _WillFire_ 8x Combat Medic
  • BloodFire - Harshlands
    BloodFire - Harshlands Posts: 172 Arc User
    edited April 2009
    Ah...bonus for air and water. Unfortunately not. This I know ( or rather have watched for...thus far negative ).

    Awww. To bad. I hope they come with with some kind of open air area. Something like a Land of the Dragons. With crazy exp gain for air pets or something because I know lvling a nix can be a pain.
  • BloodFire - Harshlands
    BloodFire - Harshlands Posts: 172 Arc User
    edited April 2009
    Giving you Credit of course. Can I link this in my guide on the Herc and Nix. Like I said before it's a great share.
  • Vazil - Sanctuary
    Vazil - Sanctuary Posts: 28 Arc User
    edited April 2009
    Bloodfire - Of course, this was intended to help everyone.

    To others: 15 is the max XP for a pet (with maxxed loyalty), regardless of terrain or pet. XP bonuses are for the player character only. If a mob is lower level than you, the XP for your pet decreases and at some point (don't know the formula) will get no XP (know for sure green mobs give no pet XP). As for leveling a Nix, you could certainly try a similar aoe tactic except the Nix would be initially hitting the mobs. The best place IMHO to do this is NightScream Island with the Pirate Minions. I experimented with aoe there with my Golem and was pretty successful with up to 5 mobs at a time (again, with a Golem!). The key here is to make sure the Nix spreads the damage around so that the mobs don't turn on you (if they do - just kite them until the Nix regains aggro).

    Hope that helps!
  • Kytalia - Heavens Tear
    Kytalia - Heavens Tear Posts: 5 Arc User
    edited April 2009
    AoE killing is slow, mice bashing is no exception.


    -The fastest way to make use of mice bashing is to attack with a bow. Light armor builds have an advantage here, but arcane builds with 48~% hit rate would still be fine since bramble guard reflect is 3-4 hit kill.

    -Put the attack action in the 1 hotkey slot. This makes your attack and pet attack shortcuts very easy to access, thus making things more quicker.
    -Put your bow weapon on another quickslot. When a buff wears off, deequip the bow with a button, then recast the buff, and reequip the bow.
    -Have your pet set on defensive mode. If you miss too often with the bow and your health is decreasing too fast, stop sending your pet after it's own targets and let it finish off ones that are attacking you.

    -Buffs to keep on are Summer Sprint and Bramble Guard.

    -Target the nearest enemy with the mouse and send the pet after it with Alt+1. Target the next enemy and press 1 to go after it with your bow. If you hit, you'll kill the stone. If you miss, the stone will still come after you, so go ahead and target the next enemy and go after it with either the pet or your bow.


    I managed to level one pet from 15 to 70(Oddfoot) and another from 52-70(Cactus) in about 2.5 hours like this.
  • Dioica - Sanctuary
    Dioica - Sanctuary Posts: 136 Arc User
    edited April 2009
    7. Summon your pet. Put your pet on manual attack (you do not want your pet hitting the mobs as it will likely kill the mob).

    I fail when I try understanding how this could be a problem.
  • Vixe - Heavens Tear
    Vixe - Heavens Tear Posts: 419 Arc User
    edited April 2009
    well, it's not really monsters that are below your level, but more like monsters that are below the pet's level.

    I've done some experimenting a while on my darkbreed wolf (yay for non-legendary pets!), and it seems that for monsters that are equal or higher to its level (not mine), it'd get full 15 exp. For monsters one or two levels lower, then the exp gained is 12, then 10 for monsters even lower to about 5 levels below. If the monster's lower than about 5 levels than the pet, then the pet gets no exp at all.

    ....yeah, that's my two cents. o.o
  • Surfer_Rosa - Sanctuary
    Surfer_Rosa - Sanctuary Posts: 227 Arc User
    edited April 2009
    Well, this seems to be nice and all, but wouldn't people benefit more from reading an actual cube of fate guide? Also, i disagree on noxious scarab as being effective because of it's small range and the fact you still need to target at least one doom. Five seems something something of a stretch for mid range levels.
  • BloodFire - Harshlands
    BloodFire - Harshlands Posts: 172 Arc User
    edited April 2009
  • Mer_Lina - Sanctuary
    Mer_Lina - Sanctuary Posts: 31 Arc User
    edited April 2009
    Thanks for the great post. It was a great location in leveling land pets. However, the method of using AOE to kill the mobs is not very effective. Also the above mentioned archery isn't the best for Robe builds since our accuary blows(no offense).

    The best way is to have the pet attack the mob (set it in defense mode). Here is what you do:

    1. Select target
    2. hit Alt+1 or hotkey to send pet to attack
    3. as soon as your pet goes toward the target, select another target.
    4. then as soon as you see your pet go into it's attack, repeat steps 2 and 3. *I recommend you turn off pet special attack, due to skill lag. Because your pet's normal attack can kill the mob in 1 hit.*

    Now, if you get good at this in between when the pet runs from one mob to next you can select another mob and cast your own spell. Either veno scarab or fumes.

    Some additional things you might want to do that was provided with the guide. Take off all your EQ to save the repair bill. Even nakked, your base attack spell will one shot the mobs. Since now you are using your pet to attack the mobs you don't take any damage, no need to rest. Don't think I need to mention if you run out of mana how to refill that. lol. ^^

    Here are some reasons why this works better if you don't know already:

    1. Why target, hit and run around getting spanked trying to cost AOE spell? Just target and send your pet to attack the mob (hotkey Alt+1).

    2. Instead of your char running to the mob, most of your land pets will have faster speed then you on the average.

    3. Your pets will kill the mob in less then 2 hits(trust me, I have used the cub to kill and it's been killing them within 1-2 hits). And if it doesn't, auto defense will kick in and kill it when there is a delay in targeting to the next mob.

    4. Who can hit with better accuary then your pet on physical attacks? My char sure can't.

    5. The respawn time on the mobs from what I can see is based on when they were killed. If you tag them and do the AOE, it delays their kill and delays the respawn. Less mobs to kill if their are more then one Veno in the room. Less to go around... lol

    I think that is enough reasons so far, you can add more if you like. If this isn't for you and are willing to risk getting killed to try and cast your AOE or do archery, be my guest. This is just a faster alternative to what was mentioned before.

    Best of Luck in leveling your pets! ^^ and of course Kodo's to Vazil for giving us this information. ^^
  • Yourmom - Lost City
    Yourmom - Lost City Posts: 1,655 Arc User
    edited April 2009
    no reason to get your pet to 960 loyalty, anything over 500 is the same.

    go in fox form, and your accuracy is buffed, you'd be surprised how much you'll hit things.

    try this with a bow, you don't have to run up to things, and you can one shot them with a lowbie bow.

    if you see someone else setting up one of these trains, that's a good time to aoe.

    btw, doing this at 80+ sucks and takes a long time no matter what you do.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • Solandri - Heavens Tear
    Solandri - Heavens Tear Posts: 2,843 Arc User
    edited April 2009
    I've tried the cube mouse room lots of different ways. Here's the method I finally settled on as quickest.

    First get your pet up to about level 20 or so - enough so it can hit and kill the dooms on its own. I probably have the ignominy of having the only herc on the server which died in the mouse room in its first ever fight. You can do this outside the cube - just find level 20ish stuff you can one-shot and have your pet follow you (only you attack). 501 loyalty will give it max bonus too, no need to wait until it's all the way to 960.

    Get a bow. If you have more than one pet to level or need to get it higher than about level 60, get more than one bow. It will wear out and there's no way to repair it up there. Don't forget to buy/make a few thousand arrows as well.

    Summon your pet and put it on defend.

    Target the doom and fire your bow at it. The moment you fire, move so you don't fire at it again. Pick a different target and fire at it. Repeat as quickly as you can.

    About half the time you'll kill the doom with your bow. When you don't, it will run to you and attack you. When it does, your pet will auto-attack it and (eventually) kill it. So all you have to worry about is targeting and firing at new mobs as quicikly as you can.

    If your pet is slow to kill, or you're running around a lot (the dooms can't hit you if you're running with Summer Sprint, meaning your pet won't attack them) you'll build up a collection of dooms which are chasing you. You can stop and let your pet kill them, or fire off an AOE spell to get them all at once. I do not recommend getting too many chasing you as the OP suggests because their respawn is tied to them getting killed. If you have a bunch chasing you, you're slowing down the respawn rate for everyone else.

    I found this method to be fastest because you don't waste any time waiting. As soon as you fire, you move on to the next mob. Your pet is working at the same time too without you having to coordinate both your and its attacks.
  • Tearvalerin - Sanctuary
    Tearvalerin - Sanctuary Posts: 3,787 Arc User
    edited April 2009
    The way I do it, summer sprint--> Punch them with my glaive--> mob ~10->Noxious.

    or

    Send pet on one, venomous another, noxious any grouped up:P.

    also you cant AOE level a phoenix on nightscream goofy >_>;
  • xstormweaver
    xstormweaver Posts: 3 Arc User
    edited April 2009
    Can you just bramble guard and bramble hood and run around? will that kill them through reflects?
  • Isala - Sanctuary
    Isala - Sanctuary Posts: 1,607 Arc User
    edited April 2009
    Wouldn't a high enough leveled befuddling mist do the job just as well, since the AoE fans out? You'd have a massive boost to your accuracy as well, allowing you to hit the mobs. Also, since all fox skills have more power independant of your own, since they are all Base Attack + solid number, you can do this naked, and it won't suck. Mist has a much shorter casting time than Nox, so less chance of getting interrupted. The only problem I can see is if you're targetting one in the back, instead of the front, or allow the mobs to get around you, instead of staying in front of you.
  • missqq
    missqq Posts: 277 Arc User
    edited April 2009
    What about flying pets?
  • Joria - Sanctuary
    Joria - Sanctuary Posts: 21 Arc User
    edited April 2009
    You can't use flying pets inside the cube :(

    Gotta do it the old fashioned way and level them outdoors.
  • BloodFire - Harshlands
    BloodFire - Harshlands Posts: 172 Arc User
    edited April 2009
    Wouldn't a high enough leveled befuddling mist do the job just as well, since the AoE fans out? You'd have a massive boost to your accuracy as well, allowing you to hit the mobs. Also, since all fox skills have more power independant of your own, since they are all Base Attack + solid number, you can do this naked, and it won't suck. Mist has a much shorter casting time than Nox, so less chance of getting interrupted. The only problem I can see is if you're targetting one in the back, instead of the front, or allow the mobs to get around you, instead of staying in front of you.

    Wow. I've never herd of doing it that way before. Do you think you can made a vid of this? I really want to see it in action.
  • Vazil - Sanctuary
    Vazil - Sanctuary Posts: 28 Arc User
    edited April 2009
    Thanks all for the input. There have been some very good additions and alternatives to the method I suggested.

    I have tried the pet on defend mode and single attack mobs; and yes, the pet kills the mob in 1-2 swings, but for some reason, this just seems to take a lot longer to level the pet than the aoe method - a lot of that might be because the mob is chasing me and the pet can't hit it.

    I have not tried the bow route, mainly because I certainly would have only a tiny chance of actually hitting the mob - but I can see how with a pet on autoattack mode it could be faster than running all over the place (or even for AOE method instead of bare hands). I do plan to try it just to see if it works better.

    Interesting idea with befuddling mist - don't believe I've ever used the spell since I've only recently began experimenting with veno AOE grinding.

    As for using Nightscream to AOE level the Pheonix - you are absolutely right - the Phoenix wouldn't be effective there until after you already leveled it..DOH!

    I would like to say that this whole leveling the HERC has certainly crushed the excitement from actually getting the darn thing. I have to force myself to level the HERC because it's necessary as the cube is sooooooooooo boring. Considering how much the HERC costs, they could have at least let it start at the owner's level at hatching!

    Well, only 15 more levels to go so not so bad.
  • Isala - Sanctuary
    Isala - Sanctuary Posts: 1,607 Arc User
    edited April 2009
    Wow. I've never herd of doing it that way before. Do you think you can made a vid of this? I really want to see it in action.

    I've never actually used it in the cube, but I use it in FB19 all the time. Pull entire rooms, run, make sure you've got the first in line targeted, and use Mist. Whacks everything. And I'll try to see if I can make a vid of that, because I haven't been messing with the cube lately... Saving my Mirages for Genies.

    Also, I'm kind of a Fox Form Junkie. My Mist and Fox Wallop are both at level 10. Now I just have to get Leech up that high...
  • Isala - Sanctuary
    Isala - Sanctuary Posts: 1,607 Arc User
    edited May 2009
    Sorry for the double post, but I've got the video. However Youtube is being major suckage, and won't convert a Fraps Video. Does anyone know any good Video Coverter Software I can use so Youtube can actually get this?
  • kstilios
    kstilios Posts: 3 Arc User
    edited May 2009
    As for using Nightscream to AOE level the Pheonix - you are absolutely right - the Phoenix wouldn't be effective there until after you already leveled it..DOH!

    The problem with that is... on Nightscream Island you cant use air pets period lol. It is treated as an instance so nixes are no-nos. So yes... it wouldn't be effective there =P
  • BloodFire - Harshlands
    BloodFire - Harshlands Posts: 172 Arc User
    edited May 2009
    Sorry for the double post, but I've got the video. However Youtube is being major suckage, and won't convert a Fraps Video. Does anyone know any good Video Coverter Software I can use so Youtube can actually get this?
    http://tr.youtube.com/watch?v=4t1w-fc_R8E&feature=related
    Virtual Dub
  • Isala - Sanctuary
    Isala - Sanctuary Posts: 1,607 Arc User
    edited May 2009
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUlSP8WT2zE

    It's up. Took a bit of effort to get it. First video I've ever recorded.

    Basically, what I did was run from the entrance to the end of the corridor/start of the first room. Then, I turned around, and gathered the mobs together. I accidentally hit them before I was recording, so they're already a bit wounded. But as you can see, I wipe out several with one attack. That's what I was referring to.
  • Hazon - Sanctuary
    Hazon - Sanctuary Posts: 62 Arc User
    edited May 2009
    This is a nice guide but I have another alt method which might be much faster n better than bows and arrows (I tried but my accuracy is horrible) or veno aoe, that is my genie skill's leaf dance..lol i dun rem the description but it is an aoe skill which cast damage around me if i stand in middle of the mobs ( cube of fate rm 4 ) and the cast time is fast.. just my little contribution

    there might be other genie skill which i dunno, anyone can share? b:victory