How Experience Works

[easy_lee]

A lot of people still don't know how experience works, so I thought I'd share my understanding. I've posted about this before, so this will be a short version. For the long version, go here.

Penalties and Bonuses
Different classes and races need more or less experience to level. "Penalty" and "Bonus" are a bit misleading, since experience numbers are always the same, characters just need bigger/smaller amounts of xp to level. Multiple bonuses/penalties, rather than adding, are multiplied. A halfling(95%) warrior(90%) requires 0.95*0.9=85.5% the experience a standard cleric would require to achieve the same level. On the other end of the spectrum, an iksar(120%) shadowknight(140%) requires 1.2*1.4=168% the experience a standard cleric requires to level.

Full table
By Race:

• Troll -20%
• Iksar -20%
• Ogre -15%
• Barbarian -5%
• Halfling +5%

By Class:

• Paladin / Shadowknight / Ranger / Bard -40%
• Monk -20%
• Wizard / Magician / Enchanter / Necromancer -10%
• Rogue +9%
• Warrior +10%

Some people argue that racial penalties make sense, since an ogre warrior (frontal stun immunity) really is better than a halfling warrior (no immunity), and an iksar monk has less downtime than a human one due to faster regen, etc. Some also argue that class penalties don't make sense, since every class should* be equally viable end game, and there should be no benefit of picking one over the other. However, the penalties were there in classic and so they remain, no matter what anyone thinks of them. They're good to keep in mind when rolling a new character.

How Bonuses and Penalties Affect a Group
Penalties are NOT shared with a group in the same way some people think they are.

Lol so the other day a troll shadowknight, paladin, ranger, iksar monk, and a bard all got in a group together. Then, after camping giants for 6 hours, they all lost a level.

That's just silly. Here's how it actually works. Every character has an experience pool for all of the xp they've ever earned. This pool is bigger for a level 18 troll sk than it is for a level 18 halfling warrior. When you join a group, everyone's pools are added together, and each player gets a multiplier which is their pool's percentage of that total pool. So if I have 1k xp, and group with someone who has 1.5k xp, my multiplier is 0.4 and hers/his is 0.6. When we kill a mob, we each receive that mob's total experience times our multiplier. If the mob gives out 5xp, I get 2xp and she/he gets 3xp. That's before the bonus for grouping.

Higher levels require increasingly more xp to gain, so the effect of any given class or race penalty felt by a group is usually minimal. The penalty you personally get for grouping with someone who's 3-5 levels higher than you is a lot worse than the penalty you feel for grouping with a troll shadowknight who's your level. Don't avoid hybrids just for their penalty, they often bring key skills your group may need.

Group Bonus
Each member of a group beyond the first increases total experience the group receives by 2%. Form a 4 person group and that's a nice 6% bonus for the group's experience.

Zone Experience Modifiers
Some zones give out more experience than others. For each zone, there's a multiplier for every mob killed in that zone, so you get more or less experience depending on the multiplier. The actual numbers aren't shared with the public (nor were they in classic). However, generally speaking, hard zones and dungeons give better experience than easy zones. Gnolls killed in Qeynos Hills are probably giving less experience than gnolls killed in Blackburrow, for example.

What It All Means
A good group will almost always give better experience than soloing. The exceptions are classes which can kite and kill many mobs at once, such as bards who can aoe-kite as many mobs as they feel comfortable picking up, killing a pack in less than 10 minutes. But if you just want to solo all the way to 60, why are you even playing this game? The point of the mechanics is clear: group with other players. It's fun, you make friends, and everyone's happy.

[Safon]

Originally Posted by Reikerz [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

This post paid for in part by the Iksar and Troll Shadow Knight Foundation.

Lmao, win

[formallydickman]

Originally Posted by Reikerz [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

This post paid for in part by the Iksar and Troll Shadow Knight Foundation.

^ Hahaha.

and to the OP, good stuff, thanks.

[Slave]

Bit preachy at the end there.

[maximum]

See topic "How XP Works" by Dumesh, December 2010.

http://www.project1999.org/forums/sh...ad.php?t=24405

[Heavydrop]

Good post. I honestly was wondering about how exp and grouping worked

[Tasslehofp99]

LOL you guys make it so complicated, its rather simple. All you need to know is the racial/class bonuses and penalties that wall of text was a waste of your time, especially considering this post has been murdererd and rezzed multiple times.

[webrunner5]

Best advise I can give is to never, never group with a Iksar or Troll SK 5 levels above you. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[Hailto]

Originally Posted by easy_lee [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

But if you just want to solo all the way to 60, why are you even playing this game?

So to sum up your wall of text, the only valid way to play Everquest is how easy_lee says you should play.

[godbox]

except in a full group i gain exp at about 1/6th the rate of duoing. weird
duo/trio for life

this is partly because full groups is like 80% the dps/puller working with alot of butt surfing and ninja afk. if groups tore down dungeons maybe that would be a different story