Druid Charming

[SirSmithington]

I have read several threads on Druid Charming strategies and have been attempting to apply them on my new 14 druid in East Karana. I have run into a couple of issues that I was hoping to get some direction on.

First, I have tried charming a dark blue (often a lion of some sort) and sending it against a yellow gorge hound. I find the gorge hound tears apart the lion rather quickly while taking minimal damage itself even if I throw thorns and/or a heal to my pet lion. If this happens, I use flame lick/whirling winds to take agro and kite it while it's snared. Unfortunately, the pet seems to miss a lot and takes forever to kill it while I have to reapply snare several times before it gets low enough to run. Am I doing something wrong or is this just trickier and more mana intensive at lvl 14?

My second question relates to the opposite scenario when I take a dark blue pet and send it on another dark blue target (lion vs lion). I find my pet often destroys the target without taking much damage. I then break charm early to dps down my pet (taking extra mana since my pet is only lightly damaged) before killing the non pet lion.

Lastly, I was wondering does it matter whether I kill the target or my former pet first? Does the exp suction happen only if the pet is currently charmed or if the former pet is still alive regardless?

Any help would be much appreciated as this is all new to me.