ZEM didn't exist until later. It's discussed in bug forum. P99 is running almost 2x experience rates in some classic zones although that is known to not be classic.

legalize kunark

why is lake of ill omen have an xp penalty? cant it just have 75 like other kunark outdoor zones?

Yeah it's really unfortunate. I would love to level there, but there's no way I can justify a zone with such a harsh penalty. Even if they just quickly gave all Kunark outdoor zones the classic treatment (100 baseline) that would go a long way. Feels bad :/

I mean sure we don’t know what every single ZEM was at every point in time so sometimes the ZEMs will be unclassic. However, IMO I think we are currently at a more classic state from a technical perspective because they rotated the ZEMs to try and encourage people to visit other zones, which is exactly what they used to do back in the day.

There’s also technically no way to prove when the first day ZEMs existed was is there? I think people have found patch notes talking about some ZEM related things and so they theorize that’s the first time ZEMs existed, but we also don’t know for sure that they didn’t exist before then (the ZEMs weren’t always disclosed when they were rotated anyway IIRC). But I also haven’t read all the evidence so if I’m wrong I apologize.

Hot zones didn't exist until later. ZEM was basically the same for every zone in classic. There is a complete list of classic zone ZEM in bug forum from mailing lists.

All cities should have their ZEM lowered back to 75 and all Kunark Dungeons should have their ZEM raised to 100.

Thanks. I didn't find the thread but I would be surprised if there is any evidence of a date when ZEMs were officially enacted. I.e. a statement to the effect of "Today we're instituting a new mechanic called ZEMs that we're going to periodically rotate and here they are."

Protip: 20 year old game, go to the zones you like and level / forget about it

See you in thurgadin

What is ZEM? All I do is rare hunt solo.