[Dolalin]

Good post by Sam Schlansky here, I may be onto something.

02/11/00

>David Schrank <sch...@cisco.com> wrote
>> At level 16 I hated my mage. Lately I have been playing with a
>> few level 49-50
>> mages. Our major problem is the pets take half the exp. We tried
>> out damaging
>> them but wasent worth the down time. Easier to debuff the
>> mobs/buff the pets. Mage will fireshield and do her 800 burn when fom.
>> Almost no down time.
>> Their pet seems compriable to level 50 hybrid thats not casting.
>
>Hence, you just group with a second Mage/Necro. That way you get
>*identical* experience per kill (actually 2.5% more with the
>bonus) and kill twice as fast!
If *either* pet does the majority of the damage, all PC's will get half the
experience plus the grouping bonus.

For example, on a hypothetical level 30 mob with 2000 HP, which normally gives
67500 XP, the grouping bonus is 1350XP for a two person group. (data taken from
a ShowEQ user on casters realm)...

---Case 1---
Pet 1 does 600 damage.
Pet 2 does 400 damage.
Magician nukes for 450 damage.
Magician nukes for 400 damage.
Damage shields do 300 damage.

Both magicians get 17212 XP.

---Case 2---
Pet 1 does 600 damage.
Pet 2 does 400 damage.
Magician 1 nukes for 900 damage.
Magician 2 doesn't nuke.
Damage shields do 100 damage.

Both magicians get 34425 XP.

Group aggregate damage is *not* in, as you can see from the above examples. All
that matters is WITHIN THE GROUP, who does the most damage-- if it's a pet, you
lose half the XP.

Pets *do* suck XP in a group. Pets *do* suck xp when soloing. However in *both*
cases, if you outnuke your pet you (or your group) will get FULL xp. Hence if
played correctly there is zero (ZERO) penalty to using a pet in either grouping
OR soloing.

If you're forced to let your pet do over 50% of the damage while soloing (a
necromancer fear pet kiting, for example) think to yourself-- do you kill mobs
twice as fast using this tactic? It takes much less mana and presents less
risk, but does it take HALF as much mana and present HALF the risk? That's a
question you'll have to answer for yourself.

Luckily both shamen and magicians can easily nuke and outdamage their pets. A
necromancer really doesn't have that option. Until level 44, they have to stack
DoTs.

Sam

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https://groups.google.com/d/msg/alt....I/br41DOg-0WQJ

Looks like there was another factor in play too during classic, there was a hate list limit of 8, which resulted in strange happenings like a lone 36 bard outdamaging an entire group of low 40s and KSing mobs. Would have impacted stuff like this as well. Imagine a full group with 3 or 4 pets. The pets are quite likely to be bumping the PCs off the hate list and stealing xp more often I'd wager.

02/14/00

Sergey Dashevskiy <xi...@tcimet.net> wrote in message
news:MPG.1311ed25372b90c19896d1@news.msu.edu...

>
> I'm not quite sure it's quite about outdamaging the pet (or maybe I'm
> just talking about a totally different thing, and then I'll shut up). It
> somehow also factors in the number of hits.
> As an example: yesterday I decided to max out my piercing skill and I
> didn't have enough time to actually do that while I get experience. So I
> got 2 FS daggers, went to Sol B and asked a group there if I could
> practince on their targets. They pull one GK, I start my haste song (+
> 20% attack speed) and start stabbing the said kobold. Me being a lowly
> level 36 (vs a full group of 35-42 with pets) I was taking about every
> other kill until I figured out what's wrong, apologised and left. They
> were a bit surprised at that as well, as they knew there was no chance
> in hell I could possibly even come close to outdamaging them

That's not the number of hits; that's the hate list overflow bug rearing its
ugly head. Since there were more than 8 damage sources, you kept blowing
each other off the list, so your rapid-fire 10 damage pierces were actually
the biggest damage dealers on it.

Brudo (E'ci)
Loredaeron (E'ci)

https://groups.google.com/d/msg/alt....I/Cpy-TI7wZS8J