Death leveling

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Death leveling is the process of leveling up a monster by dying repeatedly in its presence. Once the foe's level is high enough, you can kill it for experience or, in the case of animal companions, charm it as a pet. There are only two practical applications:

  • In pre-Searing Ascalon, death leveling can be used to help maximize progress in the Defender of Ascalon title track. However, it is easier to use Lieutenant Langmar's daily quests for this purpose.
  • Death leveling can also be used to quickly create a level 20 pet. This is useful in both pre-Searing (to bring a charmable animal to the player's level) and post-Searing (to create a Dire pet and/or to unlock other evolutions).

Pet leveling in the Zaishen Menagerie[edit]

The easiest way to get every evolutionary stage of any pet is to level it to 20 and then release it to Emryd the Tamer in the Zaishen Menagerie Grounds. Afterwards, you can visit Wynn to release a charmable animal with your choice of evolution, ready to be charmed. Although you cannot charm a charmable animal that is more than four levels higher than yours, this limit is usually not a practical obstacle outside of pre-Searing.

Party, skill, and equipment setup[edit]

The fastest way to death level a charmable animal is by use of heroes and sacrificial equipment or skills:

  • Bring a vampiric weapon and a sacrifice skill (e.g. Blood is Power).
  • Remove any health runes or insignias and equip as many superior runes as possible (this lowers your health and makes it easier to die rapidly).
  • Include Charm Animal to capture the charmable animal once it reached level 20. (If needed, any of your heroes can also capture and release the desired pet.)
  • Bring as many heroes as the area allows.
  • Equip your heroes with several hard resurrection skills, especially Unyielding Aura.
    • Although mesmers can cast spells faster than other heroes, the primary profession does not matter much.
    • Quickening Zephyr will speed up skill recharging.
  • Ensure that all heroes are set to avoid combat.

Finding the optimal place to level[edit]

The safest place to death level charmable animals is in the menagerie (the animals will not attack you and there are no foes). If the desired animal has not yet been brought to the menagerie, do that first and release it to Emryd. Then visit the menagerie habitat of the charmable animal (any Zaishen Handler can help you find the location).

However, the menagerie only allows parties of four, so you can occasionally death level faster in the wild (since more heroes can usually resurrect you more quickly).

Death leveling process[edit]

Once you are near the desired animal, aggro it by attacking it once. Repeatedly suicide (e.g. using BiP) until you have only 1 maximum health. Then switch to the vampiric weapon; you will now die within half a second whenever you are resurrected. Every time you die, the animal will gain XP according to the level difference between it and you. Now you can go afk or watch as the heroes resurrect you and the animal levels. Once the animal has reached level 20, switch back to a non-vampiric weapon and charm the animal as usual. You now have a level 20 animal ready to be released into the menagerie and the process is finished.

The following table provides an overview of how many deaths are required for each level the animal has to reach, assuming the player is level 20.

Monster level Exp to next level Exp gained per death Player deaths to next level Total deaths since level 5 (charmable animal)
5 4400 560 7.86 0
6 5000 560 8.93 7.86
7 5600 560 10 16.79
8 6200 560 11.07 26.79
9 6800 560 12.14 37.86
10 7400 528 14.02 50
11 8000 496 16.13 64.02
12 8600 464 18.53 80.15
13 9200 432 21.30 98.68
14 9800 400 24.5 119.98
15 10400 368 28.26 144.48
16 11000 336 32.74 172.74
17 11600 304 38.16 205.48
18 12200 272 44.85 243.64
19 12800 240 53.33 288.49
20 0 0 0 341.82

With optimal hero skill bars and party size 8, a charmable animal can level from 3 to 20 in as little as 8 minutes. In the Menagerie and a 4 player party, expect around 13-15 minutes.

Death leveling in Ascalon (pre-Searing)[edit]

Strider, Moss Spider


Exclamation Point - Red Emblem.svg Warning: This section is about a method that is now obsolete. Use the Vanguard Quests instead as farming foes from vanguard quests is significantly faster than death leveling, and there's also a high experience reward from the quest. It also is better if you care about the longevity of your computer, since death leveling requires hours of afk. See Legendary Defender of Ascalon for details on the currently used method.

There are no hard resurrect skills in pre and no heroes, so you have to make use of a Resurrection Shrine. You can either death level the animal before charming or charm the animal first and then death level hostile NPCs, to help raise your pet's level.

The basic approach is to pull the enemy to the nearby resurrection shrine, and take off all armor (including shield and weapon with mods). Make sure the creature does not run away once you are dead; if they do, you may need to aggro a closer enemy or re-enter the area and hope for a better spawn. For Charr, only the roving patrols can be lured (the running patrols and stationary groups will not follow).

Level first

If you choose to level first, there are ideal places for charming various pets:

Check after rezoning to be sure that you can lure just one animal (you could end up with three animals near Ashford or a half dozen near Barradin's estate). Since this can take several attempts, some people prefer the second technique. This method almost always produces an unevolved charmable animal.

Charm first

If you charm first, you can death level the Charr in the Northlands (since they level in groups, this will be faster than other areas). In Wizard's Folly, you can level an ice elemental: run past the bears to the south and follow the river just east of the bears. Follow the river till you find the large aloe seeds: let them kill you. When you pop up at the shrine the ice elemental should be there but no monk. The monk is dead but if you watch them fight the monk wins each time.

Techniques compared
Method Pros Cons
Level the animal
  • Simple to set up
  • Untamed animals have very low damage per second, especially at low levels, and kills are very slow
  • Starts at level 1 (Strider) or level 2 (Moss Spider)
  • Finding a good spawn can be time consuming
  • Typically only one monster can level at a time
Charr leveling
  • Charr start at level 7-8
  • Levels as a group of 3 or 4
  • Can pull up to seven groups
  • High damage per second resulting in faster kills
  • The set up process is more complicated
  • Be careful how many Charr Shamans you pull (they can slow down the process when it comes time to defeat the Charr)

In-depth analysis[edit]

  • Exp to next level: the amount of experience required for the monster to advance from its current level to its next level
  • Exp gained by monster per player death: The amount of experience the monster of a particular level will get when it kills you.
  • Player deaths to next level: Number of times the monster must kill the player to advance from its current level to the next level.
  • Total deaths: Total number of times the monster killed the player since level 1 or level 8 to attain this level.
  • Min/max exp earned per death: The overall efficiency indicating how much experience you earn every time you die on average when you kill the monster of a particular level. The maximum (best case) represents the efficiency when you kill the monster when it just leveled, and the minimum (worst case) represents the efficiency when you kill the monster when it is just about to get to the next level.
  • For Charr groups, the number of deaths to level up and the total number of deaths to reach a particular level, are based on a 1-monster groups. For Groups with multiple Charrs, multiply these numbers by the number of members in that group
    • e.g. a level 18 character wants to death level a three-Charr group to level 19. The tables indicate that for a single Charr, it would take 320 total deaths to reach level 19, and 61 deaths to advance from level 18 to 19. For a 3 Charr group, the numbers will be 960 and 183 respectively.

Your level: 15[edit]

Monster Level Exp To next level Exp gained by monster per player death Player deaths to next level Total deaths since level 1 (Strider) Total deaths since level 8 (Charr) Your exp gain Number to kill to reach level 16 min/max exp earned per death (Strider) min/max exp earned per death (Charr)
1 2,000 560 3.58 0
2 2,600 560 4.65 3.58
3 3,200 560 5.72 8.23
4 3,800 560 6.79 13.95
5 4,400 528 8.34 20.74
6 5,000 496 10.09 29.08
7 5,600 464 12.07 39.17
8 6,200 432 14.36 51.24 0
9 6,800 400 17 65.60 14.36
10 7,400 368 20.11 82.60 31.36 16 650 0.157 0.194 0.317 0.510
11 8,000 336 23.81 102.71 51.47 32 325 0.255 0.312 0.431 0.622
12 8,600 304 28.29 126.52 75.28 48 217 0.312 0.379 0.468 0.638
13 9200 272 33.83 154.81 103.57 64 163 0.341 0.413 0.469 0.618
14 9800 240 40.84 188.64 137.4 80 130 0.350 0.424 0.451 0.582
15 10400 200 52 229.48 178.24 100 104 0.357 0.436 0.436 0.561
16 11000 160 68.75 281.48 230.24 120 87 0.344 0.426 0.403 0.521
17 11600 128 90.63 350.23 298.99 136 77 0.309 0.388 0.350 0.455
18 12200 96 127.09 440.86 389.62 152 69 0.268 0.345 0.295 0.390
19 12800 64 200 567.95 516.71 168 62 0.219 0.296 0.235 0.325
20 n/a 32 n/a 767.95 716.71 184 57 n/a 0.240 n/a 0.257

Your level: 16[edit]

Monster Level Exp To next level Exp gained by monster per player death Player deaths to next level Total deaths since level 1 (Strider) Total deaths since level 8 (Charr) Your exp gain Number to kill to reach level 17 min/max exp earned per death (Strider) min/max exp earned per death (Charr)
1 2,000 560 3.58 0
2 2,600 560 4.65 3.58
3 3,200 560 5.72 8.23
4 3,800 560 6.79 13.95
5 4,400 560 7.86 20.74
6 5,000 528 9.47 28.6
7 5,600 496 11.3 38.07
8 6,200 464 13.37 49.37 0
9 6,800 432 15.75 62.74 13.37
10 7,400 400 18.5 78.49 29.12
11 8,000 368 21.74 96.99 47.62 16 688 0.135904188 0.16496546 0.234055003 0.33599328
12 8,600 336 25.6 118.73 69.36 32 344 0.223261006 0.269519077 0.340570456 0.461361015
13 9200 304 30.27 144.33 94.96 48 230 0.276497696 0.332571191 0.386380101 0.50547599
14 9800 272 36.03 174.6 125.23 64 172 0.305299814 0.366552119 0.399351055 0.51105965
15 10400 240 43.34 210.63 161.26 80 138 0.316243033 0.379812942 0.392927308 0.496093266
16 11000 200 55 253.97 204.6 100 110 0.324706952 0.393747293 0.386697602 0.488758553
17 11600 160 72.5 308.97 259.6 120 92 0.315399374 0.388387222 0.362428269 0.462249615
18 12200 128 95.32 381.47 332.1 136 81 0.285840392 0.356515584 0.318934384 0.409515206
19 12800 96 133.34 476.79 427.42 152 73 0.249536224 0.318798633 0.271544948 0.355622105
20 n/a 64 n/a 610.13 560.76 168 66 n/a 0.275351155 n/a 0.299593409

Your level: 17[edit]

Monster Level Exp To next level Exp gained by monster per player death Player deaths to next level Total deaths since level 1 Total deaths since level 8 Your exp gain Number to kill to reach level 18 min/max exp earned per death (Strider) min/max exp earned per death (Charr)
1 2000 560 3.58 0
2 2600 560 4.65 3.58
3 3200 560 5.72 8.23
4 3800 560 6.79 13.95
5 4400 560 7.86 20.74
6 5000 560 8.93 28.6
7 5600 528 10.61 37.53
8 6200 496 12.5 48.14 0
9 6800 464 14.66 60.64 12.5
10 7400 432 17.13 75.3 27.16
11 8000 400 20 92.43 44.29
12 8600 368 23.37 112.43 64.29 16 725 0.118694362 0.142310771 0.184629587 0.248872297
13 9200 336 27.39 135.8 87.66 32 363 0.197299464 0.235640648 0.280578694 0.365046772
14 9800 304 32.24 163.19 115.05 48 242 0.246875482 0.29413567 0.328115387 0.417209909
15 10400 272 38.24 195.43 147.29 64 182 0.275067692 0.327482986 0.346827074 0.434516939
16 11000 240 45.84 233.67 185.53 80 145 0.287242828 0.342363162 0.347267439 0.431197111
17 11600 200 58 279.51 231.37 100 116 0.297167989 0.357768953 0.34677671 0.432208151
18 12200 160 76.25 337.51 289.37 120 97 0.290725846 0.355545021 0.329109758 0.41469399
19 12800 128 100 413.76 365.62 136 86 0.265231297 0.328692962 0.292712324 0.371970899
20 n/a 96 n/a 513.76 465.62 152 77 n/a 0.295857988 n/a 0.326446458

Your level: 18[edit]

Monster Level Exp To next level Exp gained by monster per player death Player deaths to next level Total deaths since level 1 (Strider) Total deaths since level 8 (Charr) Your exp gain Number to kill to reach level 19 min/max exp earned per death (Strider) min/max exp earned per death (Charr)
1 2000 560 3.58 0
2 2600 560 4.65 3.58
3 3200 560 5.72 8.23
4 3800 560 6.79 13.95
5 4400 560 7.86 20.74
6 5000 560 8.93 28.6
7 5600 560 10 37.53
8 6200 528 11.75 47.53 0
9 6800 496 13.71 59.28 11.75
10 7400 464 15.95 72.99 25.46
11 8000 432 18.52 88.94 41.41
12 8600 400 21.5 107.46 59.93
13 9200 368 25 128.96 81.43 16 763 0.10460251 0.124069479 0.151759461 0.196487781
14 9800 336 29.17 153.96 106.43 32 382 0.175698677 0.207846194 0.237741456 0.300667105
15 10400 304 34.22 183.13 135.6 48 255 0.221862722 0.262108884 0.284326502 0.353982301
16 11000 272 40.45 217.35 169.82 64 191 0.249221184 0.294455947 0.305825011 0.376869627
17 11600 240 48.34 257.8 210.27 80 153 0.262174739 0.310318076 0.310546951 0.380463214
18 12200 200 61 306.14 258.61 100 122 0.273119572 0.326647939 0.313863344 0.38668265
19 12800 160 80 367.14 319.61 120 102 0.268973865 0.326850793 0.301046135 0.375457589
20 n/a 128 n/a 447.14 399.61 136 90 n/a 0.304155298 n/a 0.340331824

Your level: 19[edit]

Monster Level Exp To next level Exp gained by monster per player death Player deaths to next level Total deaths since level 1 (Strider) Total deaths since level 8 (Charr) Your exp gain Number to kill to reach level 20 min/max exp earned per death (Strider) min/max exp earned per death (Charr)
1 2000 560 3.58 0
2 2600 560 4.65 3.58
3 3200 560 5.72 8.23
4 3800 560 6.79 13.95
5 4400 560 7.86 20.74
6 5000 560 8.93 28.6
7 5600 560 10 37.53
8 6200 560 11.08 47.53 0
9 6800 528 12.88 58.61 11.08
10 7400 496 14.92 71.49 23.96
11 8000 464 17.25 86.41 38.88
12 8600 432 19.91 103.66 56.13
13 9200 400 23 123.57 76.04
14 9800 368 26.64 146.57 99.04 16 800 0.093 0.109 0.128 0.162
15 10400 336 30.96 173.21 125.68 32 400 0.158 0.185 0.206 0.255
16 11000 304 36.19 204.17 156.64 48 267 0.201 0.235 0.250 0.306
17 11600 272 42.65 240.36 192.83 64 200 0.227 0.266 0.273 0.332
18 12200 240 50.84 283.01 235.48 80 160 0.240 0.283 0.280 0.340
19 12800 200 64 333.85 286.32 100 128 0.252 0.300 0.286 0.349
20 n/a 160 n/a 397.85 350.32 120 107 n/a 0.302 n/a 0.343

Notes[edit]

  • Charmable animals do not gain experience from the death of heroes. As such, a player character must be used in order to death level.
  • Team chat will reveal the current evolution of a death leveled charmable animal when it is called.
  • The Rainbow Phoenix can only be death leveled by a solo character using Eternal Aura. As such, only rangers and dervishes can death level a rainbow phoenix (since the character also needs Charm Animal).

Trivia[edit]

External links[edit]

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