In my opinion the biggest problem with the penalty isn't the extra time it takes to level, it's the impact it has on group behavior. In 1999-2000 the penalty was not known and/or understood. The penalty was there, but in not knowing about it, the community didn't discriminate nearly as much. You saw a similar phenomenon before parsing as well. Before the hardcore number crunching and parsing, Wizards were presumed to be good all around dps (vs now where it is known that outside of burst they have terrible sustained dps in a fast group).
Once the penalty is lifted, getting group invites won't be as much of a hassle for hybrids.
4 rangers a shaman and a cleric? Sure why not!
3 rangers a bard, a shaman, and a paladin? Sure why not?!
2 knights in the same group? Dps might suffer but you're not eating double xp penalty.
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