Question about Mage experience

[Viszix]

In the guide I've been following, it says to make sure to hit the npc once and not let my pet do 100% of the damage. What's the reason for this?

Also I've heard that if my pet does >50% of the npc's health, I lose 50% of the experience. Is this true?

[yennenhoj]

It used to be you could hit a mob once and you would get full xp when soloing with a pet. There was a change though, so now you need to out damage your pet, when soloing, to get full xp. If your pet outdamages you, you only get half xp.

The guides I've read provide multiple ways of dealing with this. The best, I think, is to group with somebody else; in a group you get full xp no matter how much damage your pet does. That is my plan when I level a mage at least.

[BarackObooma]

Or what most soloing Mages do, use your focus item (or spell) to reclaim your pet right before the mob dies, finish it off and you get 100% experience.

[Ataxio]

find a group of 5 mages, then proceed to disregard all standard laws of game play and excel at all things Everquest.

[Brohl]

Yet another factoid I forgot about classic EQ! Wow!!

[Heavydrop]

Or what most soloing Mages do, use your focus item (or spell) to reclaim your pet right before the mob dies, finish it off and you get 100% experience.

This is a common practice and it does get you 100% of the exp (called pet chaining or chain pet) but to me its never been worth it to do it....

The reason being for me is that the amount of time it takes to summon the next pet over and over and then having that pet be on the wimpy end of levels (and having it suck)
For me, I felt I got just as much exp because I killed faster with a max level pet (I would re-summon until I got one, and I could tell what level it was by how much damage it hit for)
However, this was back in the day when the summoned swords would proc on anything and they were worth giving to the pet.
Another thing is just group. You don't even have to exp with the person or anything.
Pretty sure you don't even have to be in the same zone. Just find someone, even a newb (offer them some plat) and have them group. That negates the penalty.

Guess I'm just lazy but I never liked doing the pet chain