Do pets take up XP?
 

Yes.

No?

They do unless you do over 50% of the damage yourself, if you do, you get full xp.

Duo with another pet class to eliminate the nerf. Reclaim your pet before mob death to get full xp solo.

I remembered in live classic, as long as u deal any damage (even 1%), u will get full XP despite the pet dealing 99%. It wasnt till a later expansion (not sure if its Kunark or later) that Verant decided to implement the nerf making u needing to deal more than 50% dmg to get full XP.

Didnt know P99 is going the non classic way of needing more than 50% damage to get full XP, i always though it'll be more classic (any damage for full XP)

It was changed according to the timeline to require the 50% damage. On live it was changed back after Luclin was released to only require the 1hp damage for full XP. Sadly, we will not see those days again. In this regard the server is classic.

It really hurts low level pet classes.

Q: does being in a group eliminate the pet taking XP? Even if the pet does 90% of the damage and the group deals the other 10%? Or will the 50% damage rule still apply?

That's a good question, and one I've wondered myself. If anyone has an answer or has done some testing please post and I'll add it to the FAQ.

Do you need to outdamage your pet in a group situation, does your group need to outdamage your pet, or does the pet competition simply disappear when you're grouped?

Solo you have to do 51% of the damage to get 100% XP. If you do less than 51% you only get 25% XP.

It has been my experience that in a group the XP pet penality goes away.

But I have totaly stopped playing my Mage solo since the pet nerf. I know that a Mage can still probably solo a bit faster than most classes, it just sucks compared to what it was. If the Fire pet could hold agro then it might not be too bad. But it doesn't and the Earth pet is a pretty big downgrade to a Fire pet. With the Torch Quest the Fire pet has nearly as much HP as the Earth pet.

And try playing one on Red with the nerf. Good luck with that as slow as XP is on there. Solo you pretty much have to have the Earth pet for root in case you get PKed. So even less XP then the Fire pet could help with. Not good.

The pet nerf really hurt Enchanters also solo along with the Twrill till you Hurl nerf. Even effects their Charmed pets also. It has not been too bad on Necros though. Dots usually outdamge their pets.

I think if you are grouped it does not matter, but I'm not sure. If pet does more than 50% of damage of group, then I don't think pet takes exp. I dunno tho.