My understanding is that if your pet does 100% damage to the target, you get very little XP (<50%), if you do 1-50% damage, you get 50% XP, and if you do >50% damage, you get more than that (100%? Maybe with some pet penalty?). Regardless, if you're doing traditional charm double-killing, you always want to drop charm before killing so the penalty is moot.
You can probably get away with using a lower-level charm. Each charm has a maximum level of mob it can charm, which is listed on the wiki.
Don't waste mana on DoTs or nukes just to DPS, you should be spending almost all of your mana on snares and charms. The only exceptions are using DoTs to either hold aggro (see below) or finish off a mob, casting the occasional fear when needed, or using Invis vs. Animals to break charm.
Let's take Everfrost mammoths for example. The technique is rather simple on paper:
1) Snare one mammoth and get it to follow you.
2) Snare another mammoth and get it to follow you.
3) Wait for them to meet you in the middle.
4) Run big circles around them so they end up inside one another (or very close).
5) Charm one and have it attack the other, make sure it's taunting.
6) Keep running in circles so they stay in range (mind the orcs wandering around EF, especially the shamans with SoW).
You want the non-charmed mob to attack your pet as soon as possible, so don't DoT or do anything to hold aggro. If the two mobs are attacking each other, their HP should go down roughly the same amount at the same time (for free!). This is important since ideally you want both mobs to be below 15-20% when you break charm.
7) Once the target mob turns around and attacks your pet, laugh like a maniac because your evil plan is working. This is important for maximum XP gain.
7a) If charm drops, get some distance (they'll both still be snared), circle them up again, and re-charm whichever one has the lower HP. Keep Gate memmed if you need to book it.
8) When either your pet or the target (use Tab to quickly check both) is at low HP, break charm (use Invis vs. Animals, or Hide if you're feeling lucky). Finish them off with DoTs or nukes (DoTs are more mana-efficient if the target is rooted, or running away due to low HP).
Tip: If they're both at less than 15% HP, but they're not running away because they're on top of each other, fear one to separate them and the other will start to flee as well. They should both be snared, so they'll move slowly (if at all) and take the full DoT damage per tick.
8a) If one of the two mobs is still above 40% or so when you have to beak charm to kill the other, instead of killing it you can keep it snared and find another mammoth. When you do, circle them up like normal and charm the low-HP one. Turn off taunt and try to hold aggro on the non-charmed mob (Flame Lick is good for this, or just fear it) until it's also around the same HP level, then get them to fight each other and continue as normal.
Always charm the mob with the lower HP of the two, since they'll get a few free hits on the non-charmed mob before taking any damage and you want to keep them at roughly the same HP.
This is just one technique of several (other techniques use Feral Spirit, that pet haste spell, for example). If you have any questions, look me up in-game (Sachant). I had some great mentors for this and would love to pay it forward.
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