My max level zumaik’s hits for 55. As mentioned in this thread, What if I equip it with a cheap item that has more than 28 dmg? Wouldn’t that increase the damage output?

It would. If you used an https://wiki.project1999.com/Argent_Defender , the pet would hit for a new max damage of 66. You take the base damage value of the weapon and multiply it by 2. if that number is higher than the pet's max damage, the pet gets a new max damage. Otherwise it does nothing. I don't remember if the max hit improvement applies to the main hand only, or the main hand and offhand.

The problem with cheap weapons that do 28+ damage is they are typically not efficient to farm. Before Green Server came out, when you had 1500+ players on Blue during peak hours, you could buy a good amount of those cheap weapons in EC simply due to the volume of players randomly getting them via grouping. Now you probably won't find many for sale, and farming them is a slower process compared to more commonly dropped pet weapons like gnoll hide lariat, deadwood staves, etc.

The question is how much extra DPS would you get from the 66 max hit as opposed to the 56 max hit. Some proc weapons like Steel Hilted Flint Dagger would certainly out-DPS an Argent Defender, but you also wouldn't want to give Steel Hilted Flint Dagger to an Animation. You'd save that for charmed mobs.

Don't forget to bedlam your pet also while the mob is slowed... super easy and can kill some pretty strong mobs this way. Dmg buffer for pet is great!

i feel like you could just do things 10x faster charming and just take breaks in safety when needed

works surprisingly well on some enemies that like to summon as well :)