Noob questions

[Morrick]

I have been away from the game since 2006 or so and feeling like a total noob. I have a lot of basic questions, if anyone can answer them it would be greatly appreciated.

1. Pet XP soakage. Do I need to do at least 50% xp to get full mob xp? I have been hearing that all that needs to be done is 1 point. I have been noticing that full pet dps = minimal xp, possibly zero. Is this acurate?
2. Pet DW. I remember something like 20ish pets got auto-dw but now its not auto? WHy was it taken out?
3. Is it that big a difference at higher end to equip pet items or do mages now mostly skip it?
4. To get the bonus to hp/mana regen do you need to sit or sit/open spellbook?
5. How are mages atm? I really liked my mage back when, they did decent dps, could solo quite a bit harder stuff than most classes and were fairly independant.
6. Is low pet pull in or out?